SECRET EPISODE! How to talk about keeping secrets and giving information at work - Business English vocabulary lesson (Ep.57)

Sometimes you need to keep secrets and work and sometimes it's important to be honest with your customers and clients. In this business English vocabulary lesson we're going to hear some natural and native sounding English vocabulary, both formal and informal, for talking about information at work. We'll hear some examples of native English speakers discussing confidential and open information and we'll even do a little psychology and a little history! 

If you speak English at work and want to sound more native and natural when talking to colleagues, customers, or clients, then I hope that the vocabulary, grammar, and communication tips in today's episode will be useful for you. 

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Also, if you're studying for the IELTS, TOEFL, or Cambridge English tests and exams then you might find some of the vocabulary in this episode really useful.

This podcast is all about helping you to communicate better, in English, at work. I work with international English speakers from around the world who use English, at work, as a second or third language and I hope that I can bring some of the ideas, vocabulary, and grammar, from those sessions, to you in this podcast.

Don’t forget that my full time job is helping international professionals who use English at work to improve their communication skills. So, if you need English to do your job but don’t speak it natively then maybe we can work together to help you to achieve your language goals. 

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Transcript

Welcome back to the breakout business English podcast. My name is Chris. I am a business English and communication coach. And I have personally worked with over 1,000 international professionals just like you to improve the way that they communicate at work in English. Thank you so much for listening and for your time. As always, I know how valuable it is. And our topic today is keeping secrets. And the opposite, giving information. Knowledge is power is an old phrase that has been used by many leaders to talk about the strength that comes from having information. Especially from having more information than other people. And there is some really interesting and useful vocabulary that we can use to talk about information at work. In today's podcast, we're going to take a look at some vocabulary that we can use to talk about keeping secrets. And about giving information freely. We'll look at some formal. And professional vocabulary. But some informal vocabulary that's still common to hear in English language workplaces. Let's get started with some ways Talk about information that you don't want people to know. Here are some natural and native sounding ways to talk about keeping information to yourself. They're not willing to divulge any exact Figures. They're not willing to divulge. Any exact figures. My manager always plays his cards close to his chest. My manager always plays his cards close to his chest. I know they're hiring more staff. But they're being cagey when it comes to the specifics. I know they're hiring more staff. But they're being cagey when it comes to the specifics. I often talk about English vocabulary that comes from the maritime industries, from shipping and working at sea. However, here we're taking a look at something else that has given a lot of vocabulary to the modern English language, and that is gambling. Specifically, we're talking about card games. I don't play much these days, but back in my early 20s, I spent a lot of time playing poker. Actually, I'm guessing I'm not alone in that. Maybe a few of you spent some time playing poker, especially in your early 20s.Well, one piece of information that you never want to give away when you are playing poker, or really any card game, is exactly what cards you have. And one way to make sure that no one sees your cards is... When you pick them up to check them, You hold them very close to your chest. And maybe just look down. Look down at them. On your chest from up here. I always find this phrase very strange because anyone who actually plays card games knows that holding your cards physically close to your chest is a really bad way to check them and to keep them a secret. Usually you leave them on the table and cover them with your hands. However... It's definitely a common idiom that we can use to talk about people who are trying not to reveal specific information. In the first example, We heard, my manager always plays his cards close to his chest. My manager always plays his cards close to his chest.So by this, we of course mean that just like people playing cards, my manager might know information that you are interested in. However, he's being careful not to tell you. I should say that this is the British English form of this idiom. Over in the United States of America, You're far more likely to hear people talk about playing their cards close to their vest That's V-E-S-T, their vest.So that's the idiom, to play your cards close to your vest. I'm not quite sure why the Americans decided to add clothes to this idiom, why chest wasn't okay on its own, but whichever you choose, the meaning stays the same. And you will probably be understood, almost certainly be understood on either side of the Atlantic. Divulge is a great formal and professional word. That means to tell someone exact information that is secret or private That's divulge. D-I-V-U-L-G-E. In the first example, we heard, they're not willing to divulge any exact figures. They're not willing to divulge any exact figures. It originally comes from the Latin words for publish. And the word for people in general, the public act. From this, we can see that when it first came into use a couple of hundred years ago, This word was used to talk about information that was made public. Information that was published and given to everyone openly. However, Over time, it's come to mean just telling information to one person.So, you might divulge to your friend that you've been thinking about quitting your job, maybe divulge to a colleague that you've been thinking about quitting your job, or a government leader might divulge on live television exactly how much money they make. Both of these would be great ways to use divulge. We can use this in instructions. For instance, before a negotiation, your boss might tell you, whatever you do, Don't divulge to them how much money we're actually willing to spend on this. Whatever you do, don't divulge to them how much money we're actually willing to spend on this. Divulge is actually a very versatile word from a grammar point of view because we can use it without another person in the sentence. In the same way, we might say, don't discuss how much money we're actually willing to spend. Or we can add to them and put the people receiving the information in the sentence.So don't divulge to them. Or just don't divulge. But two is how we would connect divulge to the people receiving the information. And if you want to improve your ability to keep secrets at work, or at least your ability to talk about secrets, then maybe we can work together. My full-time job is helping international professionals who use English at work to improve their communication skills.So, If you need English to do your job, but you don't speak it natively, Then I'd love to meet you. If you'd like to book some time to meet with me through one-to-one video calls, just you and me, then you can go to breakoutbusinessenglish.com That's the title of the podcast, breakoutbusinessenglish.com. And find out more. Starting on our very first call, we can focus on the specific opportunities that you personally have to improve your English and communication skills and the mistakes that you make most often or cause the biggest problems with your communication. And right now you can use the code PODCAST30. That's PODCAST30. At checkout to get a 30% discount off your first booking of 30, 45 or 60 minutes.Sometimes my calendar gets a little busy, so if you have trouble finding a time that works for you, Then you can always send me a message through the contact page on the website and ask if I have any time to fit you in. As I mentioned earlier, I've worked with over 1,000 non-native English speaking professionals, probably well over 1,000 now, from new graduates up to CEOs and government leaders to help them improve their English and to achieve their goals. And I look forward to meeting you. Okay, let's listen now to some natural and native ways to talk about the opposite. Here are some ways that you might discuss being open, and honest and divulging information. Let's just be frank with them. And see what they want to do. Let's just be frank with them. And see what they want to do. We need to be as transparent as possible with our customers. We need to be as transparent as possible with our customers. I think that if we just lay our cards on the table, then everyone will be better off. I think that if we just lay our cards on the table, then everyone will be better off. Okay, I think we need to jump into that third example to begin with. In the third example, We heard... I think that if we just lay our cards on the table, everyone will be better off if we just lay our cards on the table. As you might have guessed, this is another idiom that comes from the world of gambling and card games. And indeed, this idiom pairs nicely with the card game idiom that we heard in the first part of the podcast. If you lay your cards on the table, then everyone can see them. Everyone can see how weak or strong your hand is in a game of poker, for instance, and can therefore make really good decisions for themselves. And that's exactly what this means when we use it as an idiom. It means to tell people exactly what you're thinking. Or to tell people exactly the information that you have, to divulge the information that you have. For instance. If you're negotiating a salary, then you might say something like, I'm just going to lay my cards on the table and tell you that another company has offered me 20% more money than you have. I'm just going to lay my cards on the table and tell you that another company has offered me 20% more. Or maybe in the same interview, your interviewer tells you that the advertised salary is $40,000. But they're allowed to offer you up to 15% more than that. In that case, you might say to them, thanks for being so transparent. I really appreciate you laying your cards on the table. Thanks for being so transparent. I really appreciate you laying your cards on the table. Let's take a closer look at that word transparent. That's the adjective transparent.So in the second example, we heard we need to be as transparent as possible. We need to be as transparent as possible. As you might be able to tell from the sentence structure, transparent, as I mentioned earlier, is an adjective.So, Here's a quick question for you. What things? Physical things in the world might you describe as transparent? When might you use this word in your regular life?Well, one thing that's definitely transparent is a window. In fact, I'd say that being transparent is almost the whole definition of a window. This is because if you say that something is transparent, then you mean that you can see through it. You can see through it. Therefore, in a professional context, We can talk about being transparent when we want to share as much information as possible with people. One place you'll often hear this is in the phrase operational transparency. Operational transparency. That's the noun form, by the way. Transparency. Operational transparency. Is when you show your customers or your clients exactly how something works. This could be how a restaurant like Subway shows you all of the ingredients as they're making your sandwich. Or how Uber shows you exactly on a map where your taxi is. An interesting little piece of psychology here is that people are usually happier to wait if they know exactly what is going on behind the scenes. If you're waiting for a taxi, for instance, then you might get annoyed. Wonder where it is and call the taxi company to ask for an update. However, Uber found that by showing their customers exactly where the taxi was on a map, People were happier to wait. It took the same amount of time for the taxi to get to them. But the operational transparency made them more patient, made their customers happier to wait. I think that this is something that a lot of different people in a lot of different industries can use to build better relationships with their clients and customers. I should say as well that piece of information is something that was released by Uber Labs, which is the part of Uber, the part of that company, which does research into customer behavior.So feel free to do a quick search for Uber Labs and read some of the information that they divulge about their work. Some of the information that they are not so cagey about and that they're willing to lay their cards on the table regarding. Okay, we're going to do a little bit of history now. Because I think that the adjective frank as in to be frank, is really interesting. In the first example, we heard, let's be frank with them and see what they want to do. Let's be frank with them and see what they want to do. Now, some of you might work with people called Frank, with men called Frank, that's F-R-A-N-K, because this is in fact a common man's name in English.Well, it used to be common. I'm 36, and I don't think I know many Franks my age. I do know a dog called Frank. However, I've definitely worked with some men older than me called Frank. But as an adjective, if you are frank with someone or frank about something, then it means that you are open and honest with them. As is the theme of this half of the podcast. You tell them everything that they want to know, and you volunteer information. The word comes from the name of a group of people known as the Franks, or the Frankish people. These were the people who conquered a part of the Roman Empire known as Gaul around 500 years ago. Today we know that part of Europe as Belgium. Some parts of Switzerland and France. And if you've noticed that France sounds a little bit like Frank, then well done. You are right. The Frankish people, the Franks, are why we call that country France.So after the Franks conquered Gaul in the 5th century, full political freedom was given only to ethnic Franks. So Frankish people were the only people who were truly free in that part of the world at that time. The word frank eventually came to mean that you can freely say whatever you want. If you can be frank, then you can freely say whatever you want. But it has this really interesting history in the fall of the Roman Empire and the start of modern Europe as we know it today. Don't forget that if you want to discuss any of the ideas, vocabulary or grammar, etc. In today's episode or work on your English communication skills in general, then you can book a session with me to work on your English by going to www.breakoutbusinessenglish.com. That's the title of the podcast, breakoutbusinessenglish.com or clicking the link in the show notes. I think that these days you can just search Breakout Business English as well. I think I've got that figured out.So you can just search Breakout Business English and you'll probably find the website too. And you can use the code PODCAST30, that's PODCAST30, at checkout to get a 30% discount off your first booking. I've worked with well over 1,000 non-native English-speaking professionals, from new graduates up to CEOs and government leaders, maybe from some governments that you've heard of, to help them to achieve their goals. And I look forward to meeting you, definitely from some governments you've heard of, and definitely some companies that you've heard of. Between episodes of the podcast, you can get videos every couple of days on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Just search for Breakout Business English. YouTube is where I'm most frequently posting these days, where I post most often. If there's a topic that you'd like to hear me talk more about on the podcast or build a whole episode around, then I would be excited to hear your ideas. Leave me a message or a comment on one of my YouTube videos and I look forward to hearing from you. If you're listening on Apple Podcasts, then I invite you to leave a review. Every review really helps me out and helps to push the podcast to new listeners and to grow the show.So if you found this podcast useful and you think there are some valuable things in here, then feel free to write a couple of kind words or even just leave a review of three or four or five stars, whatever you think is appropriate. And I would really appreciate that. A review is another great place to request a topic for a future podcast. That is everything for today. Thank you again so much for listening and for your time. I truly appreciate it and I respect your choice to spend some of your valuable time with me and with this podcast. I hope you have a great week and I'll talk to you again next time, next Wednesday on the Breakout Business English podcast. Thanks a lot, everyone. Talk to you soon.