QUESTION: Do You Think That if You Wear your Pyjamas to Work You Will Get Fired?

 Giggles 😄

I know, I know. I have too much free time. But I just wondered what would happen if people wore their PJs to work. Do you think the boss will think you are crazy? 

I think PJs can be very professional looking depending on what you put with it.

Here is a YOUTUBE video I did yesterday where I styled a white silk pyjama set in several different ways. You tell me: Is this not work appropriate? 

Come on!  Take the PJ to work challenge!

I DARE YOU.

Oh, and follow us on youtube. That way you won't miss out on any of our videos

BUSINESS ENGLISH WORD OF THE DAY: EARN MONEY

Today, it is both easier and more difficult to earn money. One has to be both creative and resilient.

French Translation: gagner d'argent

Hello Darlings!

It is Sunday morning at 6:41 and your girl is up, tapping away at her laptop. Blame it on my friend Sam who called me at the ungodly hour of 1:55 this morning from Atlanta. He does not understand that once my sleep has been interrupted, I cannot go back to sleep and if this happens on a weekday, I can't even work because then I fall asleep on the job. What this means is that people who wake me up in the middle of the night could literally impact my ability to earn money and by extension, my earning power.

We live in a digital world nowadays and a lot of people earn money online. Indeed, increasingly, people work for themselves and this means that they need to be creative in the ways they earn money because they do not have the security of a 9-5 to fall back on. They also have to be resilient because being your own boss can be very challenging and the ability to "earn money" can be totally unpredictable. If a person is not resilient and if they do not have stick-to-it-ness, they will not succeed as an entrepreneur.

We also live in a world where the ability to speak English well can have a significant impact on a person's ability to earn money and their earning power.

That is where we come in. We earn money by helping people improve their spoken English.

If you would like to improve your English conversation skills, please do not hesitate to contact us. Send a text message to 0658710767 to set up your first class today.

BUSINESS ENGLISH WORD OF THE DAY: FAILURE

BUSINESS ENGLISH WORD OF THE DAY: FAILURE 

The manager felt like a failure when her team failed to meet the deadline.

French Translation: échec

Everybody fails at one point or another. We have failures both in our professional and personal lives. But which is more painful? To fail in your professional life or to experience failure in your personal life? Or is it a toss-up?

At work, even CEOs fail from time to time. Many have admitted that they were surprised when these failures occurred because they are often hired because they had been "successful" in prior positions, perhaps in other companies and they expected the success streak to continue, and low and behold, it does not. At the new company, the strategies that worked at the old company simply fall flat on their faces.

This could lead the CEO to be ousted, though not necessarily. It depends on the particular circumstances that led to the failure and the impact this has on the company.

It is not only CEOs that fail. Employees can also experience failure at work in so many different ways. 

The failure could be as simple as failing the TOEIC exam, which that employee needed to get a promotion or even get the job. That is, many companies now require their workers to have a certain level of English. They require proof of the employee's level and this often means taking an exam like TOEIC.

The key to overcoming failure is to keep trying. Sometimes it means changing the strategies but other times it means doubling down on the strategies and putting in more time.

Failure is an opportunity to improve and stretch and grow. No one should let "failure" keep them from striving to achieve their goals.

15 Things to know about the TOEIC Exam

 Thinking of taking the TOEIC Exam? Here are 15 things to keep in mind:

1. TOEIC stands for Test of English for International Communication and it tests your ability to communicate in English. 

2. The TOEIC is usually for adults and is designed to measure adult-level English proficiency.

3. The TOEIC tests your VOCABULARY and GRAMMAR but not your WRITING SKILLS.

4. There are two sections to the TOEIC: Listening Comprehension and Reading.

5. The TOEIC is a two-hour exam.

6. The highest score on the TOEIC is 990.

7. The lowest score on the TOEIC is 10.

8. Only correct answers count so guess if you don't know for sure what the answer is because you will not be penalized for wrong answers.

9. You will have to analyze pictures on the TOEIC exam. Usually, you need to look for the main idea in the picture.

10. You are going to need to distinguish between words that sound similar on the TOEIC exam. So sharpen your ears because there are a lot of traps.

11. It is a good idea to brush up on the tenses in English, especially the present continuous tense because a lot of the questions are posed in this tense.

12. You will see the word "main idea" in a lot of the questions - whether it is a text, image or conversation. Look for the "big" picture. Don't focus on too many details.

13. TOEIC tests your ability to make logical assumptions and draw logical conclusions that are not necessarily spelled out in the text.

14. If you don't have good listening skills, you will not succeed with TOEIC because a lot of the questions are based on pre-recorded audios and you have to answer questions based on what you heard in the audio

15. You have to know how and when to use modal verbs such as may, must, might, can, will, would and should. 

BUSINESS ENGLISH Word of the Day: Statesmanship

 The CEO showed great statesmanship when he pledged to spend 30% of company profits on philantropy and environmental causes

Yesterday I made a video for my other Youtube channel about "Statesmanship" and so I thought I would keep it consistent and make it the word of the day for Business English Paris.

French Translation: sens politique

I was reading this article From Words To Action: The Next Phase Of CEO Statesmanship (forbes.com) and took the liberty of lifting this quote: "Not long ago, the public sector — our elected leaders in Washington and in our states — were expected to be the defenders of our common rights and values. But as political partisanship has intensified, some of this role has increasingly shifted to private sector leaders — a trend that I have called the “Age of the CEO Statesman.” Today, corporate executives have the opportunity to leverage their impact to push for social change, and the American people are increasingly looking to executives, rather than politicians, as change agents."

I wondered if your CEO at your own place of work is someone you would describe as a statesman or stateswoman or whether you yourself are a statesman or stateswoman?

Usually, this word is used in the context of politics, obviously but increasingly, corporate CEOs are being tapped as role models and corporations are expected to implement policies that are in the common good - especially with things like the environment.

Do you think it is fair to hold corporate executives to this high a standard while we increasingly let politicians off the hook for bad behavior? After all, it is we who elect the politicians. So what does it say about us when we keep electing politicians who are not statesmanlike and instead place the burden on coporate CEOs who never made us any promises?

THE BUSINESS ENGLISH WORD OF THE DAY IS: REBOOT

Oh my gosh, I have to reboot. I have been out of commission for over a year! Oye!

French translatiobn: démarrer 

Hello Darlings! It is November 2, 2021

You must be wondering if I survived the coronavirus.

Yes, so far, I have survived the coronavirus but I am not bragging. I am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best. And you? How did you fare? Did you get it? Did anyone you know contract it? How awful it is, and has been, eh?

Well, obviously, it has been a minute since I came on here. Don't tell anybody but I forgot I was doing this blog and I forgot I had a youtube channel connected to it, and I forgot I had an IG page. I have very short-term memory and so much has happened in the last year that I just forgot.

Now I have to reboot. I have to rédemarrer as they say in French. Don't hold your collective breaths because I am not promising that I will be even remotely consistent. I know myself. There will be many reboots.

I haven't been a total slacker, though. I have been working on three books, a new blog, a new youtube channel and IG channel about one of the books, and other stuff. So my batteries are still active but I just need to reboot

What about you? 

BUSINESS ENGLISH WORD OF THE DAY: DELEGATE

BUSINESS ENGLISH WORD OF THE DAY: DELEGATE

Is your manager a micro manager type or does he or she delegate duties and tasks to subordinates?

French translation: déléguer

Darlings! How are you all??? I have missed you. 😇

It is Monday May 11, 2020 and I felt slightly motivated to write a post. I say slightly because compared to the last few weeks, I actually felt like updating for a change. I am not promising anything as far as how frequently I will be updating, however, because my schedule is a bit complicated these days. But for today, I give you the word DELEGATE.

Do you know who I think was a very clever delegator of duties? President Donald Trump. In 2020. During the coronavirus pandemic that rocked the United States to its core, he basically just delegated all the responsibilities and duties to the 50 governors and let them deal with the whole mess. He was definitely not a micromanager. It made me wonder about how he was as a boss in his company, The Trump Organization. Chances are, he also delegated down to the underlings and let them handle the mess and get back to him when they had cleaned it up. He is not the type of CEO who goes in there and gets his hands dirty. Like, for example, on his construction sites. He was a builder in his day and he had a lot of buildings put up and you can just imagine that he was not the type of guy to ever get his hands soiled with that plaster and wet concrete. 

Similarly, I wonder about you and your own situation. Are you a manager type who delegates or are you the type who micromanages? If you are not in a managerial position, do you have a boss who is a delegator? Or is your boss a micromanager? And which type of management style do you think is most effective and why?

Would love to chat with you about this. If you would like to take a Business English course with us please do not hesitate to contact us at businessenglishparisELG@gmail.com.

Thanks and have a great day!