BE 642: Care to Learn Some Business English?

This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 642. Care to learn some 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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One more time, go to allearsenglish.com slash f-l-u-e-n-c-y-s-c-o-r-e. Hello, Aubrey. How's your day going today? Great. What about you, Lindsay? Good.

I'm excited to be recording. It's always the highlight of my work week. So glad to be here. But Aubrey, I'm curious, what is a cause that you would say you really care about?

I think breast cancer awareness. I've had a few family members pass because of breast cancer. And so it always makes me really happy when I see like the pink ribbons that sort of there was a lot more awareness for that. We don't see them as much anymore these days.

I've thought about that. I'm like, I should look into like, what I can do to continue to build awareness for that. Yeah. It's interesting. I think breast cancer is one of those research areas.

I also care a lot about that. My mom had breast cancer, but it's an area where they did get a lot of money and they know a lot, but I wonder if they're plateauing. I have no idea. I don't either.

This is based on nothing, but if we're not seeing the ribbons as much, I wonder if the research, like we know enough, we feel like we know enough that we can look at other diseases more or like what's going on there. It's a good question. Yeah. It's interesting to think about because, and I've definitely talked to

So not that long ago, someone was telling me they believe that no one should get a mammogram because they're dangerous. They make it worse. And I'm like, oh, I need to look into this. I'm like, if that's true or if that knowledge starts spreading, that assumption starts spreading, I could see us going in the wrong direction with the checks that we need to be doing.

Yeah. Yeah, no. Well, I mean, you know, with the way things are with social media, everyone has their own news channel. So, you know, we have to be careful what we're saying out there.

Tricky. I think for me, the cause that I care about a lot is animals, animal rights, and also like shelter animals, adopting shelter animals, you know, instead of buying a pet at the pet store. I think about my dog and what would have happened to him if he hadn't been rescued. Yeah.

Yes, I agree. Whenever I find out someone rescues a pet, I have so much respect for that. And then there's a pet store, we'll go and like play with the puppies and there's like a $5,000 price tag for each of them. I'm like, who is?

No judgment for all of you out there that I just can't imagine. That's a lot for sure. Oh my gosh. So what are we getting into today? I asked you about a cause you really care about.

So how does this tie into this episode? Yeah. So there's a common error in English where language learners will say care to when they mean care about. For example, I recently heard the sentence, they care to build strong relationships with clients.

And what they meant was they care about this. They care about building relationships. So we're going to dive into today when we use these, especially care to is a little more as a specific meaning and is used in sort of some specific chunks. And we use these a lot at work.

So I'm excited to get into this. Yeah, really important to know. These are subtle little differences that could happen at the B2C1 level, little mistakes we're still making, but we can correct this today and get you guys right on track here. So go ahead and hit that follow button right here on this podcast if you love our show.

Our overall philosophy as a company is what, Aubrey, what do we believe in across all our podcasts? Not perfection. Even at work, right? You want to connect with coworkers, with colleagues, with clients, that network you are building is so important.

So yes, you need the vocabulary, the grammar, but we're teaching you how to use that to connect with people at work. Exactly. Exactly. So if you agree with that, if you like the way that sounds and want to know more, then go ahead and hit follow so that we'll drop right into your listening queue three days a week on this show.

All right. Good. So let's get deeper into care about. So what exactly does it mean and why should we have used it in that top of the show question? Yeah.

So this means that something is important to someone. They're concerned about it. So when you say this, right, we care about building strong relationships. That means it's important to you.

You want to invest time in it. And we just don't use it with that preposition too. It doesn't mean the same thing. So care about. So we have the grammar here is we'll say care about, and that'll be followed by a noun or a pronoun.

We can care about a thing or a person. Right. So for example, we care about customer satisfaction. Here at Allers English, we care about connection, right?

That's our biggest care. Our clients care about quality, right? Or another grammar construction is we might say care about and then verb ing, like they care about providing excellent service.

Or he cares about reducing costs, right? Yeah. So we use this care about most often when we're talking about something we value, customers, employees, quality, level of service, company values, right? Then we'll say we care about that.

Yeah. So this can be really helpful when you're discussing customers, employees, quality, again, like you said, all those things, like you said. Yes. Now what's interesting here, care to.

You will hear this. We do use it. It means want to or be willing to. But what's really interesting is we almost never use it in the positive. We rarely say like, I care to do this to say I want to do it.

We'll more likely say it in the negative. He doesn't care to do something. It means he doesn't want to do it. That's interesting. Yes. So for example, you could say, it seems like she doesn't care to get here on time.

It seems like she doesn't care to get here on time. Yes. Yeah. And someone wouldn't say, I care to get here on time. No, we would say, I want to get here.

It means a lot to me to try to get here on time, right? But we might use this in the negative. If we're wanting to point out what someone doesn't seem to care about, what they don't seem to value, we might say, Doesn't seem like she cares to try to do this.

Doesn't seem like she cares to get here on time. Right. Interesting. Okay. What else do we need to know? It's a little rare, right? It sounds kind of formal.

We are more likely to say care about or isn't prioritizing, right? Oh, she's not prioritizing getting here on time. So this is a rare chunk to say care to. We will hear it.

We use it sometimes, but it does sound quite formal. Yeah. And be careful that we don't get confused with care for, right? Sometimes people will say in a formal way, do you care?

Would you care for a piece of shrimp or something when you're being offered food? So that's different, right? So just don't get confused. That might be something that people might also be hearing.

Yeah, that's interesting. That's another phrasal verb with care, right? Care for. And it all is about, because you could say, just like you'd say, would you care to eat some shrimp?

You might say, would you care for some shrimp? So interesting. Can be related. Yes. And this is when we use this the most often is in that chunk, would you care to, which means do you want to?

And we use this quite a lot at work. You might hear, would you care to comment? Which just means, would you like to comment? Definitely a little bit more formal, wouldn't you say?

Yeah, I definitely think so. But in that question with would you is when we'll hear it the most or would you care to join us? It is a little more formal, but that's when I hear this the most.

Yeah. So would you care to comment? Definitely being more formal than the alternative where we could say, do you want to comment? Right? Yes. Okay. Have you ever walked out of a meeting thinking, I could have said that better?

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All right. So do we have any warnings for our listeners, Aubrey? Something we have to be careful of, keep track of? This is the most important part of the episode, I think.

There's an important warning here that care to can sound challenging. So for example, if you say, would you care to explain? This can sound very confrontational, maybe even sarcastic, depending on the intonation, the context. It sounds like a blunt, explain yourself.

Right. Like you're putting the person on the spot and you're saying, yeah, it is a little bit aggressive in a polite way. So we're being aggressive by using polite language. Yeah.

And it's a little more neutral if you say like, would you care to explain your reasoning depending on the tone? But it could sound confrontational if you say, for example, would you care to explain why you ignored the client's instructions? Oh my gosh. There are definitely ways to phrase this that aren't so confrontational.

Yeah. So be careful. If you hear that from a manager coming at you, there could be something very wrong. You've probably made a big mistake at work. Right.

And if you're going to use that, you are implying that something is very wrong. A big mistake was made. So be careful. Even with more neutral tone, the wording here is quite confrontational.

Yeah. Let's do a little role play. But this first role play, Aubrey, is a what not to do role play. Okay. Yes. All right. So you're a manager here meeting with me about a project that has gone over budget.

And this is where you might sound more confrontational than you want in the like, if you, you know, this is maybe how not to do it. Okay. Maybe if we don't want to be confrontational. Here we go.

Thanks for meeting with me. I want to talk about the project budget. Sure. I know we've gone over the original estimate. You mentioned last week that there were some unexpected expenses.

Would you care to elaborate? Of course. We had to bring in an outside consultant because we didn't have the necessary expertise internally. I see. And would you care to explain why the additional expertise wasn't included in the revised budget?

So clearly I'm... You're real mad. You're really unhappy. I'm probably about to explode in my head, but I'm... It would feel that way to me, for sure.

So it's interesting. It's just because of that. Would you care to explain this that has gone really wrong, right? So these conversations we may need to have at work.

Sometimes things go wrong. Someone made a poor choice. Someone made a big mistake. You may need to address it. This would be a dangerous phrase to do that with because it does feel confrontational.

Yes. So you're going to add to the stress level of your employee or whoever you're talking to if you do decide to use this. So just know what you're doing. If you want to do it, hey, whatever you're going for at work, but just be aware.

Well, it's interesting. If we replace this with just could you, it's so much less confrontational. Could you explain this, right? Or could you give us some details about this is just less cut.

That would you care to is packing some confrontation in this when it's about something that went wrong. All right. So for our second role play, is this a what to do role play, Aubrey? Yeah, this is where we do use this phrase, right?

So I'll start us with this. We're just you and I are in a meeting for this role play. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. Would you care to start, Lindsay?

Sure. Thanks. I'd like to begin by reviewing our goals for the quarter. I know we all care about keeping the project on schedule. Absolutely. That is a great idea.

Actually, though, we just received an update from the client. Marjorie, would you care to share the email that just came in? So here there's no confrontation for these, right? We're not having to correct or point out someone's mistake by saying, would you care to explain this mistake?

That's where it's confrontational. Much more benign use here, right? Of care. Yeah, exactly. So just to go through it again, you said, good morning, everyone.

Thanks for joining us today. Would you care to start, Lindsay? So you're basically inviting me to... Start speaking. Yeah, it means the same as would you like to start, right?

I'm just Lindsay's scheduled to start the meeting. And this is just the way that I invite her to do that. Exactly. And then what else? And then you said, I know we all care about keeping the project on schedule.

And this is where we would not say we care to keep it on schedule. This because we're sharing a value. This is where I would say we care about this. care about plus i verb plus ing right yes yes and then i said would and then i kind of interrupt because an email came in from this client and that's because i'm trying to think of another way to have this in here right so then i brought up someone else and asked said would you care to share that email

So yeah, this is rare, right? More often, we're just going to say, can you please do this, right? Would you? Could you? There's other episodes we could do and have done in the past, guys, about other things you can say.

But today, we've shown you something that's a little bit more rare. And we've shown you the sharper side of it and the softer side of it. Right. A good warning here.

Yeah. But yeah, that's a very common mistake because you can see they are related. They are similar, caring about something and caring to do something. So I can see why this mistake is common.

Just it's more important to understand like, what are we saying? And really interesting note that care too is used so much more often in the negative. I don't care to do that.

Interesting. Really interesting. Oh my gosh, guys, go on over to business English 641. Keep an eye on your business English. Check that out. Hit the follow button.

And Aubrey, any final takeaway around care to? Yeah, this is interesting. I think the most important thing is that warning that we gave that this can be really confrontational. And you could definitely see how someone could use these without even realizing that tone is sort of implied.

Yes, it's so true. Really good. Love that we got into some real nuance today. I mean, the same phrase could really be taken in completely different directions.

So be careful. Be careful. Definitely. Awesome. Thank you for joining me today, Lindsay. All right, Aubrey, you have a good day. I'll talk to you soon.

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