BE 641: Keep an Eye on Your Business English

This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 641. Keep an eye on your business English. Welcome to the Business English Podcast from All Ears English. Get the English skills you need to achieve your dreams in global business.

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That's allearsenglish.com slash business. Hello, Lindsay. How are you doing? I'm doing good, Aubrey. What's going on with you today? I am great. I have a question.

All right. Is there anything at work that you're keeping an eye on? Yeah, I think a lot of things. I think that's a lot of what I do, kind of keep an eye on things, especially our podcast, our podcast downloads, our podcast growth.

It's such a huge part of what we do here at Allers English. Yeah. What about you, Aubrey? Anything specific? Yeah. Yeah, you know, the community. I'm always in there answering questions and welcoming people who are new to the Allers English community.

So that's something I'm always keeping an eye on and checking to make sure that everyone is supported and engaged in there. We love our community. And that's for anyone who's a student in any one of our classes you're invited to the Allers English community. Yeah, including live speaking events up to twice a week, Aubrey.

It's awesome how much speaking our listeners, our students get when they become a student of All Ears English, right? Not just a listener, but a student, a member of the community. Yes, those are amazing opportunities to get to know us and also the other members of the community. Just great opportunities to practice speaking English in a low stakes environment.

It's all about connection and support. So yeah, join, sign up for an All Ears English course, any of our courses so that you can join the community. Yeah, we've got some great stuff coming out this fall. So go to allersenglish.com and check out our courses to see what we have, guys.

Okay, Aubrey, getting into, I heard both of us use this little phrase, keeping an eye on. So what are we talking about here today? We are answering a question that was left on one of our YouTube videos. It was an All Ears English episode about the difference between the verbs see and watch.

And the question, this was from Gerardo A9179 on YouTube who said, and what about observe? And I was like, okay, this is really interesting. And we're going to cover this on business English because that's where we're more likely to use these verbs that related, but a little more professional. Right.

Because in business, there are a lot of dashboards, right? A lot of dashboard, whether it's an informal dashboard, something you put together with a spreadsheet, or whether it's you pay for software. There are so many numbers that we do monitor and keep track of, right? So we're getting into all these really high value verbs today.

Again, thank you again for this question. Guys, we want you to go ahead and hit the follow button on the podcast that will help these episodes to drop right into your listening queue. Aubrey, how many episodes a week do we put out there for our listeners? We have three new episodes every week.

So if you are missing any of those, you want to be sure to follow the podcast. They're also, they're like brief, very digestible. I know a lot of podcasts have like two hour long episodes. It's a lot.

I love, I've heard this a lot from our listeners that like these shorter episodes are so easy to, you know, listen to on the way to work or wherever you are. So yeah, be sure to hit follow. It's also very satisfying when we can bring you through a full lesson to fully learn something in as much depth as possible in just 15 minutes. And then you could walk into work right after that and try these out, right?

How cool. How cool. Absolutely. I agree. Yeah. So where are we starting today, Aubrey, then? Yeah. So let's start with observe. And we're sharing two verbs as well as two phrasal verbs that we use in the same way to talk about, like you said, Lindsay, there may be, you know, tasks and projects that you are monitoring, observing.

And also, if you're a supervisor, there are, you may have people on your team that you're observing. So a lot of these verbs we use at work. Yeah. So for example, observe, right?

So to watch, again, to watch carefully for a period of time, he spent several weeks observing how customers interacted with the new website. So it's kind of this sense of like sitting back and as a project, you are, yeah, you're just...

You're watching people do something in a way. Yeah. But the time is a big part of it, right? In order to observe something, we rarely would use this if it's just a few minutes.

Like, oh, I observed for five minutes. Usually it's like, I'm going to see what this is like over time so that I can really feel like I have a sense of it.

That's a good point, Aubrey. Yeah. Or you could say I observed, this is a little bit different. I observed that employees were more productive when they had flexible working hours.

So when we add that, it becomes more of a conclusion. right? A takeaway. The answer. Yeah. This is interesting because in the first one, we have the verb in present continuous, right?

I'm spending time observing. And then here we have this chunk where we'll say, I observed that employees did something specific or reacted in a certain way. So yeah, it's interesting how we use these with different verb tenses, but really it's talking about monitoring something, observing something over time. Yeah.

And another one that's similar to the first example is, you know, when we bring new teachers in, for example, to run our conversation clubs, we may observe their teaching. We may sit and attend the open conversation club and take notes and offer feedback, right?

Someone is observing someone's work. Yes, that often happens when if you're training a new employee, right, you're often going to teach them what they need to know. And then there may be a time where you're observing how they're doing, trying to be a little more hands off so that they can try it on their own and then ask if they need help. Exactly.

It's like a step in training, a step within training, right? Okay. So that's observe. How is monitor different? Oh man, these are really pretty close in a way.

This one's very similar, right? So this is kind of a synonym. Monitor is to watch something regularly, check its condition. Often we'll use this. I hear this a lot with hospitals, like monitoring a patient's progress.

And it's interesting how you wouldn't say, I'm observing this patient's progress. Because that feels more like hands on more hands on watching, right? So monitor feels more like checking regularly to see what has changed. Yeah, I think the difference would be, let's take that exact example.

You are a doctor. If you're going to observe your patient, you're going to pull up a chair and sit right next to them and see how they're taking in a medication or see how they're reacting to a medication. If you're going to monitor your patient, you're probably outside the door at the desk that we see on all the hospital dramas and there's a dashboard maybe.

And like every half hour you're getting sent their vitals. That's more like monitoring, don't you think? Yeah, exactly. This is interesting. So for example, you might say the IT team monitors the company's network for unusual activity.

And it's not something they would even maybe be able to observe, right? You can't observe the internet, but you can monitor reports. You can monitor progress of something. Yeah.

It's like a checking in. It's not a constant attention. Exactly. Right. Or we need to monitor sales closely over the next few months to see whether the new strategy is working.

Yes. Okay. Right. So it's more about like checking reports, checking statistics and say, all right, we're monitoring this. You're not necessarily sitting there and like watching someone make a purchase.

Right. right? You're getting repeated chunks of data that then you're going to make a conclusion from, come up with a conclusion. Exactly. Yeah. And then we have this idiom.

Yeah. The one we used at the top of the episode, keep an eye on, which means to observe or monitor, usually a little more informally, like I'm going to keep an eye on that, check in every now and then. It would rarely mean like constant supervision. Right.

Could you keep an eye on the front desk while I grab some lunch? It doesn't necessarily mean you're going to sit at the desk. It means maybe you're going to continue your job, but then you're going to keep one eye on the desk every few minutes. Hey, it's interesting how we'd use different words if we need them to be there the whole time.

We like, can you cover the desk? Can you take over the front desk? Right. Keep an eye on it. It's like, I'm probably at my own desk. And then if I see someone come that needs a package signed for, I'll jump up and go over there.

Right. It's interesting. Exactly. Or I'll keep an eye on the budget to make sure we don't go over our limit. So maybe you're not a finance person, but you are just keeping an eye on that.

Checking in every now and then. Yeah. Yeah, some of these are in the end also interchangeable, right? So that's the caveat here. Yeah, no, these are all synonyms.

It's just sort of a matter of how formal they are, right? Keep an eye on is more casual, right? If I'm going to keep an eye on something. Whereas monitor, observe, these are quite a bit more systematic, more formal, right?

And what about keep track of, Aubrey? Yeah, a little different. So to monitor change or progress, this is very similar to keep an eye on, but more formal, right? If I'm keeping track of something, that's more systematic, like how often I'm going to need to check how closely I'm tracking something.

Love it. Or you could say it's difficult to keep track of all the changes to the company's policies. Yeah. Yes. Or I use a spreadsheet to keep track of our monthly expenses.

Exactly. So this definitely is like, we're assuming spreadsheets, notations when you're tracking something, or we'll use this phrasal verb, keep track of it. Perfect.

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go to allearsenglish.com slash business. That's allearsenglish.com slash B-U-S-I-N-E-S-S. Okay, Aubrey, role play time. So we're at the workplace and we are checking in here.

I'm asking you for an update because you've been assigned to a project, okay? Yeah, let's do it. Hey, Aubrey, how's the project going? Pretty well. I've been monitoring our progress every week.

Wonderful. Have you observed any problems so far? Yes, actually. I've noticed that we're spending more time on the design phase than expected. We should keep an eye on that.

We don't want it to delay the launch. Agreed. I'm also keeping track of our expenses so we don't go over budget. Perfect. Let's continue to monitor everything closely for the next couple of weeks.

Okay, good. This sounds very normal, right? We use this so often in conversations at work. Yeah, for sure. And again, like I said at the top of the episode, now that we have dashboards for everything, right?

We really do do that more so than maybe 20 years ago at work. Maybe 20 years ago, it was just like monthly P&L and that's it. But now it's real-time dashboards in all our software solutions, right? Yeah, it's a big change.

And so I said, how's it going? You said it's going pretty well. I've been monitoring our progress every week. So like we said, you're probably receiving data points on a daily basis, right?

Exactly. Right. Checking in on something, definitely checking like the data. And that's, I would say, monitoring it very similar to keeping an eye on something, but it just sounds more professional, more systematic.

And then have you observed any problems so far? So here it feels very different between monitor and observe. I couldn't say, have you monitored any problems so far? Right?

Right. It's more like this is more like notice, right? Have you observed something? Have you noticed something? Have you seen? It's a more of a synonym to seen here.

Exactly. Have you picked up on anything? Right? Yeah. Oh, that's another great phrasal verb for that. Right. Have you picked up on a problem? What else?

And then you said, well, we should keep an eye on that. We don't want it to delay the launch. So this is often a great idiom for that. When we notice something that could potentially be a problem, be like, let's keep an eye on that.

And it means all of these, like we need to be monitoring everything to make sure it doesn't get worse. Perfect. And then I said, agreed. I'm also keeping track of our expenses so we don't go over budget, right?

Yes. And this is a little more formal, right? Keeping track of something you're going to be needing to check all the expenses, make sure that there aren't anything that's being overlooked because that could cause a big problem.

And depending on the context, sometimes keeping track of, like if someone asks you, you know, can you keep track of X? They're asking you to write it down, right? So maybe in a game, you love games, Aubrey, you're keeping track of points. You're the scorekeeper.

So if they're asking you, can you keep track of the score? They're actually saying, can you get out a pen and paper and like, write down people's scores. That's a good point.

There are a lot of things that we can't count on ourselves to remember. So we're like, I'm going to write that down so I can keep track of it. So it's sort of another way to say, remember it or note it down so that it doesn't get lost or forgotten. Exactly.

And then I said, perfect. Let's continue to monitor everything closely for the next couple. We've come full circle back to the verb monitor. Right. Exactly.

So that's when we've got this sort of plan. We know the things we need to keep track of. We're like, okay, let's monitor everything closely. This is sort of an umbrella term that's like, we just need to like keep an eye on all of this.

Exactly. Guys, going over to Saturday, July 25th episode, did you see it or watch it? It's another one of those episodes where in that moment, you want the right word at the right time. Exactly.

Yes. That is the episode that inspired this question. Thank you to this listener for leaving that comment in YouTube. I love this when often on Allers English, we'll dive into how something's used in daily conversation.

And then the questions about it often, it's like, ooh, that's more vocabulary we use at work that's related. Mm-hmm. For sure. Really good stuff. All right.

Great episode today. Guys, let us know if any questions come out of today's episode. Send them over to support at allersenglish.com or even better, leave them on YouTube or in your comments.

That's the better place to do it. Yes. That's a great place to leave questions. Awesome. This is really fun, Lindsay. Thank you for joining me today. All right.

Take care, Aubrey. Bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional. Want more from All Ears English?

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