Business English News 55 – 2024 Global Economic Outlook

BEN 55 LESSON - 2024 Global Economic Outlook

In this Business English News lesson on the economic outlook for 2024, we look at business English vocabulary related to the global economy and finance.

At the start of every year, economists love to make predictions. But in such a volatile world, predictions are tough to make accurately. For 2023, many economists forecasted rising inflation and a “hard landing” for the global economy. But that didn’t happen. So, what’s in store for 2024? Will the challenges of 2023 snowball into a recession? Not according to MSN.com:

Although growth is estimated to be even slower in 2024, the worst is perhaps over and headwinds are expected to ease, analysts say. For next year, the IMF expects global gross domestic product to expand by 2.9 per cent, while the World Bank forecasts 2.4 per cent growth. “Looking at 2024, we anticipate uncertainty to persist, with sub-trend growth projected across the world’s economies,” State Street Global Advisor said in its 2024 Outlook report.

All of this amounts to what many people are anticipating as a “soft landing” for the U.S. economy. The fight against inflation isn’t over, and consumers are still taking it on the chin. But turning the inflationary tide didn’t require high unemployment, as is often the case.

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Business English News 54 – Tech Takeovers

Business English News 54 - Tech Takeovers

In this Business English News lesson we look at business English vocabulary related to tech takeovers or mergers and acquisitions.

Takeovers are a huge part of the tech business, and they’re not always hostile. In fact, many young entrepreneurs build niche companies hoping to be acquired. And for the giants of tech, mergers and acquisitions are a critical growth strategy. With the personalities and egos involved, takeovers keep the news cycle buzzing, as the drama at Twitter has shown. According to the Guardian:

Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in 2022 promised the biggest shake-up since the company was founded. The former world’s richest man was keen to take on the project after becoming disillusioned by the site’s perceived biases and content moderation policy. But Twitter’s revolution became a bloodbath in the process, cutting staff by 80% to hone in on the new direction. Then they lost users and advertisers as a lean team struggled to manage disinformation, trolling and impersonation online.

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BEP 398 – English for Sales: Financial Services (2)

BEP 398 LESSON - Sales: Financial Services 2

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson, the second in a three-part series on selling financial services.

When many people think of making money, they think of having a job and earning a salary. But if you’ve ever saved money or made an investment, you know there are other ways to make money. I mean, the money itself can do the work, if you make smart decisions with it. And just as there are lots of ways to invest money, there are lots of words we use to talk about money and investments.

In our last lesson, we were introduced to the world of “wealth management.” And we met a character in the dialog who was “planning for retirement.” These expressions, “wealth management” and “to plan for retirement,” are what we call collocations.

A collocation is a natural combination of words. Proficient English speakers know to use the verb “to plan for” with the noun “retirement.” The words combine to create a collocation, or a set expression. Learning collocations can help you sound more natural, and it can be easier to remember words together, rather than separately.

In today’s dialog, we’ll rejoin Jessica, the person who’s planning for retirement, and Robert, a wealth manager. Jessica is visiting Robert’s office to learn more about his services. And Robert is trying to gently persuade Jessica to become his client. During their conversation, they use many English collocations, which we’ll explain later in the debrief.

Listening Questions

1. What kind of approach does Robert say his firm takes to wealth management?
2. Besides managing investments, what is another service that Robert’s firm offers to people like Jessica?
3. What type of investing does Jessica say she is particularly interested in?

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Business English News 53 – TikTok

Business English News 53 - TikTok

In this Business English News lesson we look at business English vocabulary related to technology and TikTok.

It seems like every week there’s news of another attempt to ban TikTok. Indeed, the federal government and half the states in the U.S. have outlawed use of the app on government-owned devices. Never before has there been such a reaction to an app’s sudden popularity. So just how did the app reach one billion downloads and 150 million active users in the U.S.? According to the Guardian:

TikTok owes its phenomenal success to a host of canny choices. They feature easy-to-use video, with creation tools that blur the line between creator and consumer. Their vast library of licensed music allows teens to soundtrack their clips without fear of copyright strikes. And a billion-dollar advertising campaign on Facebook brought in new users as quickly as Zuckerberg’s company could send them over.

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Business English News 52 – ChatGPT

Business English News 52 - ChatGPT

In this Business English News lesson we look at business English vocabulary related to artificial intelligence and ChatGPT.

For a while, it seemed like the hype around artificial intelligence had died down. But a recent development in AI has taken the world by storm. It’s called ChatGPT, and unless you live in a cave, you’ve surely heard about it. But what exactly is it? As the Guardian explains:

Trained by AI and machine learning, ChatGPT is designed to provide information and answer questions through a conversational interface. OpenAI said the new AI was created with a focus on ease of use. “The dialog format makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer follow-up questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests.”

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