Pratica di Shadowing: English for Project Management | Key Words & Phrases - Impara a parlare inglese con i video
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Jack, our weekly status update meeting starts in five minutes.
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Are we on track with the new customer app?
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Well, overall we're on track, but we're a little behind schedule on the login screen design.
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Okay, thanks for telling me.
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Since our last meeting, we finished the main user dashboard, so that is great news
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but I need to flag a problem with the new payment feature the sales team wants to add.
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Oh, no. Is that another feature request?
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That sounds like scope creep to me.
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Exactly.
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If we add it now, it will delay our main deliverable and push back our launch date.
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I see your point, but maybe we can ask the team for sign -off on the original plan first before we change anything?
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That is a very smart idea.
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Let's get the ball rolling on this meeting.
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Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Daily Business English Talk.
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I am Jack.
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And I am Anna.
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We are so happy you are listening to us today.
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That quick chat you just heard was Jack and me getting ready for a project meeting.
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And that brings us right to today's topic.
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Today is a very special day because this is episode one of our 16 -episode series called English for Project Management.
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That's right, Jack.
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In this series, we will follow one main story from start to finish.
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Jack and I work at the same company, and we are building a brand new customer app.
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Through this project, you will learn real business English that you can use at your job every single day.
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If you want to improve your business vocabulary, make sure to subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode.
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Today, we are talking about speaking the language of projects.
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We will look at what a project actually is, the five main phases of a project, and something very important called the triple constraint.
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By the end of this episode, you will know how to give a clear status update, how to raise a problem politely,
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and how to say no professionally when people ask for too many changes.
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You know, Anna, before I learned about formal project management, I used to think a project was just any long task at work.
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I remember my first month here when my manager asked me for a status update and I just said, I am working hard.
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I had no idea what words to use.
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That is so common, Jack.
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Many English learners feel nervous when talking about projects because there are so many special terms.
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But don't worry if this feels new to you we are going to break everything down using very simple words.
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That makes me feel much better.
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So, Anna, to start from the very beginning, how would you explain a project in simple English?
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Think of a project as a temporary piece of work with a clear start and a clear finish.
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It is created to make a specific product, service, or result.
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For example, our new customer app is a project.
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It has a start date, an end date, and a final result.
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Ah, that makes sense.
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A regular daily task like answering emails every morning is not a project because it never ends,
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but building an app is a project because once the app is finished and launched, the project is done.
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Spot on, Jack, and every project moves through five standard steps, which we call the project life cycle.
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The project life cycle.
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That sounds like a big term, but it just means the life story of a project from birth to death, right?
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Exactly.
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Simple as that.
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The first phase in the project life cycle is initiation.
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This is where you get the ball rolling.
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To get the ball rolling is an idiom that simply means to start something or get a process moving.
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In the initiation phase, you define the main idea and identify every stakeholder.
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Let's pause there, Anna.
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Stakeholder is a word I hear in almost every meeting.
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What does it actually mean?
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A stakeholder is any person or group who is interested in the project or affected by its outcome.
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This includes your boss, your team members, your clients, and even the end users of the app.
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Everyone who cares about the result is a stakeholder.
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Got it.
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So if the sales manager cares about our new app, she is a stakeholder.
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Once we identify our stakeholders, what comes next?
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The second phase is planning.
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Here you create a roadmap.
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You define your scope, which is the total work that needs to be done.
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You also set your timeline and budget.
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Scope is another huge word.
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Scope just means all the features, tasks, and deliverables that are included in the project, right?
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Yes, and a deliverable is simply the real result or item you produce.
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For example, a design draft, a software update, or a final report are all deliverables.
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In the planning phase, you also set milestones.
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A milestone is an important.. important event or checkpoint on your timeline, like finishing the first working prototype.
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I love reaching milestones.
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It feels like leveling up in a video game.
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But what happens after planning?
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The third phase is execution.
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This is where the actual work happens.
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The team builds the product, writes the code, or designs the screens.
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The fourth phase happens at the same time, monitoring and controlling.
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This is where you check if you are following your plan, manage risks, and make sure you do not fall behind.
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To fall behind means to move slower than planned and miss your schedule.
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And finally, phase five is closing.
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That is when the project is completely finished, the client signs off, and everyone celebrates.
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Exactly.
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Now, to keep all these phases under control, project managers rely on three main things.
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Scope, time, and cost.
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Together, these three things are called the triple constraint.
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The triple constraint.
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Imagine a triangle.
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One side is scope, which is what you build.
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The second side is time, which is how long it takes.
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The third side is cost, which is how much money you spend.
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If you change one side, the other sides must change too.
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That is the perfect picture, Jack.
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If your manager asks you to add five new features to the app, the scope goes up.
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That means you'll need more time, or more money, or both.
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If you don't adjust time or money, the quality will drop.
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When extra features get added slowly without extra time or money, we call that scope creep.
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It creeps up on you silently, like a ghost, until your project is in trouble.
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It really does to prevent scope creep, you need a solid baseline.
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A baseline is your original approved plan for scope, time, and cost.
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You compare your daily progress against this baseline to see if you're on track or falling behind.
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That makes so much sense.
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Now, let's practice how these concepts sound in real workplace conversations.
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We have prepared three practical dialogues.
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Listen closely to how we talk about progress, raise problems, and say no politely.
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Let's jump into Scenario 1.
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In this scene, Jack is updating me on his progress during our weekly stand -up meeting.
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Hi, Anna.
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Do you have two minutes for a status update on the app design?
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Sure, Jack.
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How are things going with the user interface?
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Overall, we're on track.
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Since our last meeting, we've finished the homepage layout and the login screens.
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That is fantastic news.
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Are we ready to move to the payment system?
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We are a little behind schedule on the payment system because we had to wait for the security approval,
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but we set a new milestone for Friday, and we expect to hit it easily.
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Great work.
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Thanks for keeping me updated.
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Let's analyze that exchange.
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Notice how I started with a summary sentence.
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Overall, we're on track.
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That gives Anna immediate peace of mind.
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Then I use the phrase, since our last meeting, we've finished.
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This shows clear progress.
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And when Jack had a delay, he used a polite phrase, we're a little behind schedule.
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He didn't panic.
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He just explained the delay and shared the new milestone.
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That is how professional project managers communicate.
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Now let's listen to scenario two.
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Here, I'm facing a technical blocker, and I need to raise a problem to Anna before it damages our timeline.
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Anna, do you have a quick moment?
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I need to flag a problem with our database integration.
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Of course, Jack.
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What's going on?
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We ran into a severe bottleneck with the external server.
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It is slowing down our entire critical path.
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If we don't solve this by tomorrow, it will push back our launch date by two weeks.
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I see.
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Do we have anything in our risk register for this or a contingency plan we can use?
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Yes, our contingency plan was to switch to a temporary cloud server.
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What I need from you is your sign -off to spend the extra budget for that cloud service.
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You have my approval.
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Let's make that switch immediately so we don't fall behind any further.
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In that scenario, I used the key phrase, I need to flag a problem.
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To flag a problem means to bring attention to an issue before it becomes a disaster.
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You also heard two very important technical terms, bottleneck and critical path.
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A bottleneck is a point where workflow gets clogged or slowed down, like the narrow neck of a glass bottle.
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And the critical path is the sequence of essential tasks that determines the total length of the project.
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If a task on the critical path is delayed, the whole project is delayed.
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That's why I asked for Anna's sign -off on our contingency plan.
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A contingency plan is your backup plan B in case a risk becomes reality.
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And sign -off means official written or spoken approval.
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Finally, let's listen to Scenario 3.
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Here, Jack comes to me with a new feature request from another department, and I have to push back politely.
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Hey Anna, the marketing team just called.
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They want to add a live video chat into the customer app before next month's launch.
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I see your point, but adding video chat right now will cause major scope creep.
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It will completely ruin our timeline.
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They are a key stakeholder, though.
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They say it is urgent for their campaign.
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I understand, but we cannot move the goalposts at this late stage.
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If we add video chat, we will miss our launch baseline what I need from you is to tell them
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we can put it in phase two after the initial launch
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we need buy -in from the project sponsor before we change the scope
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that sounds fair I will explain the situation to them
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and ask them to sign off on holding that feature for phase two in this third scene
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Jack asked for a major change
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and I had to push back to push back is a phrasal verb
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that means to oppose or disagree with a plan or change politely.
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For example, the engineering team had to push back when management requested three new features in one week.
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Anna used the phrase, I see your point, but...
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This is a brilliant phrase for English learners.
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It shows respect for the other person's opinion
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while allowing you to disagree without sounding rude
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or aggressive i also used another great key phrase what i
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need from you is this phrase gives clear direct instructions
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so the other person knows exactly what action to take next
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now let's take a closer look at the vocabulary phrasal verbs
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and idioms we use today
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so you can lock them into your memory let's start with
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our four phrasal verbs the first one is push back as we just
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First mentioned, to push back means to oppose or disagree with a plan or change politely.
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For example, the engineering team had to push back when management requested three new features in one week.
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The second phrasal verb is bring forward.
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To bring forward means to move an event, task, or meeting to an earlier time or date than originally planned.
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For example, because the client is traveling next week, we need to bring forward our final presentation to Thursday.
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The third phrasal verb is fall behind.
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To fall behind means to fail to keep up with a schedule or pace.
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For example, if we lose two developers this month, we will fall behind on our software testing.
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The fourth phrasal verb is sign off on.
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To sign off on something means to give official approval to a document, decision, or deliverable.
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For example, the The department director needs to sign off on the new budget before we hire any contractors.
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Excellent.
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Now let's examine our three idioms.
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The first idiom is on track.
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To be on track means that everything is happening according to plan and schedule.
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For example, despite the bad weather, the construction team is completely on track.
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The second idiom is get the ball rolling.
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As we said earlier, this means to start an activity or start a project moving.
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For example, let's set up a kickoff meeting tomorrow to get the ball rolling on the redesign.
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The third idiom is move the goalposts.
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To move the goalposts means to unfairly change the rules, expectations, or targets of a project while it is already in progress.
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For example, every time we finish a draft, the client changes the requirements and moves the goalposts.
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That is such a frustrating feeling.
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Now, let's review the rest of our professional key terms in simple English exchanges.
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Jack, how would you define risk register?
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A risk register is simply a document or table where you list all possible problems that could happen during a project,
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how serious they are, and how you will deal with them.
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For example, we added server downtime to our risk register during the planning phase.
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Perfect.
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And what about buy -in?
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Buy -in means getting agreement and enthusiastic support from key stakeholders for an idea or plan.
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For example, we cannot start the project until we get buy -in from the finance department.
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That's right.
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And let's not forget baseline.
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A baseline is your fixed reference point, your original approved schedule, cost, and scope that you measure future progress against.
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For example, we are comparing our current spending against our financial baseline.
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We also talked about bottleneck, which is any delay point that slows down the whole flow of work.
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For example, the legal department's slow review process created a major bottleneck for our team.
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And contingency means a plan or financial fund set aside to handle unexpected events or emergencies.
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For example, we kept 10 % of our budget as a contingency for sudden price increases.
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Finally, we had status update, which is a brief report on the current condition and progress of a project.
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For example, I send a written status update to my manager every Friday afternoon.
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Every single one of these words will help you sound confident, clear, and competent in any business environment.
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That brings us to our question of the day.
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Participating in this section is one of the best ways to practice your output.
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Today's question is, think about a project you are working on right now at work, at school, or in your personal life.
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Is your project on track, or are you a little behind schedule?
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Answering this question helps your English
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because it forces you to use today's key phrases in a real context about your own life.
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When you connect vocabulary to your personal experience, you remember it much faster.
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Here is a natural example answer you can copy or adapt.
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Currently, I'm managing a website update for my company.
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Overall, we're on track, but we're a little behind schedule on writing the new content.
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What I need for my team is to finish the text by Friday.
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Or you could say, I am planning a family trip for next summer.
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Since our last meeting, we've finished booking the flight tickets.
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I need to flag a problem with our hotel budget, but we have a contingency plan ready.
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We would love to read your answers.
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Please write your answer in the comments section or send us a message.
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We try to read every response.
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Remember, learning business English is a step -by -step process.
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Don't worry about speaking perfectly right away.
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The key is consistent practice and repetition.
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Re -listening to this episode while walking or driving is a great way to let these patterns sink in naturally.
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Absolutely.
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In our next episode, episode two, we will dive into the topic of selling the idea.
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We will learn how to present a new project proposal to your boss, get executive buy -in, and convince stakeholders to say yes to your plans.
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You won't want to miss it.
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Thank you so much for spending your time with us today.
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Keep practicing, stay positive, and build your confidence every day.
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Goodbye everyone and happy learning.
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See you next time on Daily Business English Talk.
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Vocabolario e note di pronuncia per questa lezione
Questa lezione di conversazione si basa sul video “English for Project Management”. Le parole che ritornano più spesso: project, example, Jack, scope, phase. Questo video contiene 255 frasi e 2866 parole da ripetere con lo shadowing. Il parlato dura 17:56. Chi parla ha un ritmo naturale di circa 160 parole al minuto, vicino a una conversazione quotidiana. Il 85% delle parole rientra nelle 3.000 più comuni dell’inglese; conviene studiare le altre prima di iniziare.
Vocaboli chiave di questo video
15 parole del video che vale la pena imparare, con pronuncia e significato:
| Parola | Pronuncia | Significato |
|---|---|---|
| scope sostantivo | /skəʊp/ | ambito, scopo |
| phrase sostantivo | /ˈfɹeɪ̯z/ | espressione, polirematica |
| baseline sostantivo | /ˈbeɪslaɪn/ | riferimento |
| delay sostantivo | /dɪˈleɪ̯/ | ritardo |
| verb sostantivo | /vɝb/ | verbo |
| creep verbo | /kɹiːp/ | abbarbicarsi |
| milestone sostantivo | /ˈmaɪlˌstoʊn/ | pietra miliare |
| scenario sostantivo | /sɪˈnɛəɹioʊ/ | scenario, panorama |
| timeline sostantivo | /ˈtaɪmˌlaɪn/ | linea temporale, linea del tempo |
| server sostantivo | /ˈsɝvɚ/ | server |
| define verbo | /dɪˈfaɪn/ | definire, determinare |
| triple aggettivo | /ˈtɹɪp.əl/ | triplo |
| disagree verbo | /dɪsəˈɡɹi/ | non concordare, non combaciare |
| vocabulary sostantivo | /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/ | vocabolario |
| topic sostantivo | /ˈtɑpɪk/ | tema, categoria |
I phrasal verb che sentirai
| Parola | Pronuncia | Significato |
|---|---|---|
| bring forward verbo | anticipare | |
| slow down verbo | rallentare, decelerare | |
| sign off verbo | disconnettersi, autorizzare | |
| go up verbo | salire | |
| keep up with verbo | tenere dietro a | |
| set up verbo | /ˌsɛt ˈʌp/ | preparare, installare |
| stand up verbo | alzarsi in piedi |
Frasi da ripetere
Frasi brevi e complete del video che puoi riutilizzare nella conversazione di tutti i giorni:
- Are we on track with the new customer app?
- Once we identify our stakeholders, what comes next?
- Are we ready to move to the payment system?
- Anna, do you have a quick moment?
- Jack, how would you define risk register?
La grammatica di questo video
Le strutture che chi parla usa di più, con le parole esatte del video:
| Struttura | Nel video |
|---|---|
| Frasi condizionali if + frase, will/would + verbo — una condizione e il suo risultato | If we add it now, it will delay · If we add video chat, we will miss |
| Frasi relative who / which + frase — un’informazione in più su una persona o una cosa | Everyone who cares · scope, which is · time, which is |
| Forma passiva be + participio passato — conta ciò che accade, non chi lo fa | is created · be done · are included |
| Present perfect have/has + participio passato — un’azione passata che conta ancora adesso | have prepared · we've finished |
Pronuncia a cui fare attenzione
Chi parla usa 21 contrazioni e forme ridotte, come we're, don't, we've. Pronunciale nella forma breve, così come le senti.
- I suoni “sh” e “zh”: initiation /ɪˌnɪʃ.iˈeɪ.ʃən/, presentation /ˌpɹɛzn̩ˈteɪʃn̩/, execution /ˌɛk.sɪˈkjuː.ʃən/, integration /ˌɪn.tɪˈɡɹeɪ.ʃən/, instruction /ɪnˈstɹʌkʃən/
- Parole lunghe — attenzione all’accento: vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, temporary /ˈtɛmp(əˌɹ)ɛɹi/, initiation /ɪˌnɪʃ.iˈeɪ.ʃən/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, participate /pɑːˈtɪs.ɪ.peɪt/
I suoni difficili per chi parla italiano:
- /h/ — va soffiata, non è muta: hire /ˈhaɪɹ/, stakeholder /ˈsteɪkˌhəʊl.də/
- Consonante finale — senza aggiungere una vocale dopo: scope /skəʊp/, phrase /ˈfɹeɪ̯z/, verb /vɝb/, creep /kɹiːp/, topic /ˈtɑpɪk/
- /æ/ — più aperta della “e”: vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, practical /ˈpɹæk.tɪ.kəl/, narrow /ˈnæɹəʊ/, panic /ˈpænɪk/
Come esercitarsi con questo video
- Ascolta tutto il video una volta senza parlare e annota le parole che non conosci.
- Inizia a velocità 0,75×, fai shadowing frase per frase e torna alla velocità normale quando diventa facile.
- Registrati e confronta con l’originale, facendo attenzione a parole come scope, phrase, baseline.
Cos'è la tecnica dello Shadowing?
Shadowing è una tecnica di apprendimento delle lingue supportata da studi scientifici, originariamente sviluppata per la formazione dei traduttori professionisti e resa popolare dal poliglotta Dr. Alexander Arguelles. Il metodo è semplice ma potente: ascolti un audio in inglese di madrelingua e lo ripeti immediatamente ad alta voce — come un'ombra che segue il parlante con un ritardo di solo 1–2 secondi. A differenza dell'ascolto passivo o degli esercizi di grammatica, lo shadowing costringe il tuo cervello e i muscoli della bocca a elaborare e riprodurre simultaneamente i modelli di discorso reale. La ricerca dimostra che migliora significativamente la precisione della pronuncia, l'intonazione, il ritmo, il discorso connesso, la comprensione dell'ascolto e la fluidità del parlato — rendendolo uno dei metodi più efficaci per la preparazione alla prova di speaking dell'IELTS e per la comunicazione reale in inglese.