This is a special announcement from the BusinessEnglishPod.com team explaining the changes we are making and some of the new features we are adding to the podcast.

From Friday 22nd December 2006 our feed will be redirected to our new site at: www.BusinessEnglishPod.com. All new episodes will only be available at the our new site. If your iTunes subscription does not update to the new feed, please follow the instructions below.

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Business English Pod has moved to a new site. To download our most recent episode on business travel and making polite requests (BEP 25 Airport Check In), please go to our new website or change your iTunes subscription by clicking one of the links below.

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In this Business English Podcast we’re going to listen to a teleconference between the head office management of a US manufacturer and the manager of their new Latin American plant.

Key language structures explained are: diplomatic language and using probing questions. We also introduce some useful English phrases for starting a teleconference meeting, interrupting and clarifying.

To ensure that you can get our latest podcasts, please click on the link below to update your subscription (opens iTunes in a new window):

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Visit our new site at: www.BusinessEnglishPod.com

Go to our new site for new Business English Podcast episodes: www.BusinessEnglishPod.com

In a recent Business English Podcast (BEP 22), we looked at how to handle technical problems when speaking on the telephone in English. Today, we’re going to talk about how to deal with problems with the caller, which are of course much harder to handle! But, with the proper language and phrases, you can show the caller that you want to help, and reassure them that you can help solve the problem.

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Here is the transcript for Business English News 05 - Virtual Meetings.

Listen to the podcast again and note down any words that are not clear. Then look for them in the transcript and see if you can guess their meaning by looking to see how the word is used in the sentence (the context). Once you’ve made your guess, look at the glossary to confirm the meaning.

Visit our new site at: www.BusinessEnglishPod.com

This Business English podcast features a news article on how IBM is experimenting with new ways to conduct meetings.

Listen to how IBM is using the virtual world of a website called Second Life as the next best thing to in person corporate meetings. After listening to the article, we'll highlight some of the new vocabulary and provide definitions and further examples.

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This is a preview of our new English vocabulary podcast: Video Vocab.

Video Vocab will be available in January 2007 on our new website -
www.BusinessEnglishPod.com

Each week we will feature 7 new words on a particular topic.

Project (Noun)

|ˈpräjˌekt; -ikt|

Definition:
An important and carefully planned piece of work that will create something new or improve a situation.

Examples:
1. British Aerospace expected the project to be completed by early 2006.
2. I’m the project manager for our new database.

Collocations:
- project management: the organizing and managing of resources in order to complete a project within a defined scope, time, and cost.
- project manager: the person in charge of a project
- pilot project: a test or trial project

Please go to our new website for new podcasts:
www.BusinessEnglishPod.com

Contractor (Noun) [C]
|ˈkänˌtraktər|

Definition:
A person or company that makes an agreement to do work or provide goods for another company.

Examples:
The company has no plans to expand its use of contractors.
EADS is the main contractor on the new defense project.

Derivatives:
– to make a contract (noun) [C]

Please go to our new website for new podcasts:
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Estimate (Verb) [I,T]
|ˈestəˌmāt|

Definition:
To calculate or guess what you think the value, size, amount, etc. of something will probably be.

Examples:
We estimate the project will take 6 months to complete.
The value of the deal is estimated at £12m.

Derivatives:
– to make an estimate (noun) [C]
– to give an estimation (noun)

Please go to our new website for new podcasts:
www.BusinessEnglishPod.com

Subcontractor (Noun)
|səbˈkänˌtraktər|

Definition:
A business or person who is paid to do part of the work of another person or company.

Examples:
We had a problem with one of our subcontractors on a project last month and this led to serious delays.
Always check whether a contractor is using subcontractors, and who is liable if things go wrong.

Please go to our new website for new podcasts:
www.BusinessEnglishPod.com

Allocate (Verb) [T]
|ˈaləˌkāt|

Definition:
To decide officially that a particular amount of money, time, etc. should be used for a particular purpose.

Examples:
DuPont has allocated funds to build four new plants in Asia.
We need to allocate more resources to this project to meet the deadline.

Derivatives:
– our budget allocation has been cut (noun)

Please go to our new website for new podcasts:
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Schedule (Noun)
|ˈske jül | - USA
| she-dyül | - UK

Definition:
A plan of what someone is going to do and by when they are going to do it.

Examples:
We are running several weeks behind schedule.
We could face penalties if we don’t keep on schedule.

For today's Business English Podcast we continue our series on making telephone calls in English by looking at how to deal with technical problems and clarify information using alternative choice questions. This questioning technique is useful when you need to clarify important information or reach a decision.

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Thanks for listening!

This is an intermediate level Business English Podcast on making telephone calls in English and leaving messages.

If you want to get a copy complete telephone alphabet, follow this link:
http://www.dynamoo.com/technical/nato-phonetic-alphabet.pdf

Please go to our new website for new podcasts:
www.BusinessEnglishPod.com

Please update your iTunes subscription by clicking this link (opens iTunes in a new window):
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=206603090

Business News 04 (Transcript) - Management Style

Get the transcript for our news article on the changes in management style taking place around the world.

Have an idea for a podcast episode or a comment on an existing show? Email us your thoughts at: BusinessEnglishPod@mac.com