Vocabulary for STARTING and CONTINUING at work | Business English lesson (Ep.61)

In the new year we're often talking about starting new project and continuing existing projects. If you need to do this in English and you're not a native speaker then you might hear your colleagues using words and phrases that you don't know. In this business English vocabulary lesson we look at some vocabulary that you'll hear native English speakers using at work to talk about these ideas. 

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'm a business English and communication coach and I've personally worked with over 1,000 international professionals, likely just like you, to improve the way that they communicate at work in English. Thank you so much for listening and for your time. I know how valuable it is. And our topic today. Is starting. And continuing. I wanted to find a topic for today's podcast that was appropriate for the new year. And I think that in a lot of companies and teams, people are coming back from a break. And either getting started with new projects or getting back down to work and pressing on with things they started previously.So today we're going to look at some vocabulary for these situations. We'll look at words and phrases that we can use to talk about starting new things at work and vocabulary that we can use to talk about things continuing. One thing that people often talk about at work in the new year are New Year's resolutions. New Year's resolutions. This is something that has been interesting to discuss with the people I coach over the past few days.Some people have heard the phrase New Year's resolution before, but many people haven't. So maybe this one is new for you. Resolution is the noun form of the verb 'to resolve'. And it's used in a couple of more formal situations. However, when we're talking about a resolution that a person has made, we essentially mean that it's a promise to yourself. It's a strong and firm intention of something you're going to do. Dumb. A New Year's resolution? Is a promise to yourself that you make at the beginning of the year. I think a lot of people make New Year's resolutions to work out more, maybe go to the gym and get a little bit fitter. Maybe you make a resolution to read more books? Or to study English three times a week, for instance. This is definitely a common topic of discussion in English language workplaces.So, if you have a meeting, In the first few days of January with any English-speaking colleagues, don't be surprised if people ask you what your New Year's resolution is. Let's get into today's vocabulary by listening to some natural and native sounding examples of people starting new things at work. I'm really excited to get the ball rolling on some new products this year. I'm really excited to get the ball rolling. On some new products this year. As the new year gets underway, I just want to wish everyone all the best for the coming months. As the new year gets underway, I just want to wish everyone all the best for the coming months. This is going to be an important year for us, so let's start as we mean to go on. This is going to be an important year for us.So let's start as we mean to go on. Okay, let's get the ball rolling today with the idiom. To get the ball rolling. If you get the ball rolling, then you do something that starts an activity. You take the initial steps that begin a process. For instance, if you're in a meeting and your goal is to get your colleagues to come up with some new ideas, then you might get the ball rolling. By providing the first idea yourself. You might say, "I'll get the ball rolling." How about this idea? I'll get the ball rolling. How about this idea? The idea here is that often starting a process is the hardest part. And if someone can get an activity started, then it might be easier for other people to help to continue the activity. I've worked with managers and facilitators around the world who've often told me of the challenges, the experience, getting the ball rolling with specific meeting types. In the first example, we heard: I'm really excited to get the ball rolling on some new products this year. I'm really excited to get the ball rolling on some new products this year. The other way that we sometimes use this is to talk about doing the minimum possible first step Let's imagine, for instance, that a complex task needs doing and you're the only person who knows how to do it. Perhaps there are easy parts that someone else can do. In order to get the ball rolling. Those are basic initial stages, setting up for a more complex task. If someone does those, then they are getting the ball rolling for a colleague to come in later and do the difficult work. If you've ever been to a concert, maybe you've been waiting for the big main band to play the band that you bought the ticket for but there's often another band on first another musical artist who will begin the concert they play for maybe 30 minutes maybe 45 minutes and their job is to get the ball rolling to get the crowd in the mood for music to prepare for the main band to come onto the stage and just like this Maybe you can get the ball rolling at work on some new projects this year. In the second example, we heard start as you mean to go on. As in, this is going to be an important year for us.So let's start as we mean to go on. This is going to be an important year for us, so let's start as we mean to go on. Let's start by taking that phrasal verb at the end of the sentence. Go on. To go on. If I tell you to go on... What do I mean?Well, quite simply, I mean that you should continue. We often use this if someone gets interrupted when they're speaking. Or maybe you interrupt someone and want to say that you finished what you wanted to say and that they should continue. You might say something like, sorry to interrupt. Please go on.Sorry to interrupt. Please go on. Or maybe if someone was speaking, stopped but you would like them to say more on the topic to elaborate on their ideas you might just say on its own. Go on. Just like that. Just those two words. Go on. Which encourages people to speak more on a topic.So the phrase to start as you mean to go on or sometimes to start as you intend to go on. Means that you put the same level of effort into the start of something as you intend to put into every part of that task or project. It means that you shouldn't start in a low-effort way. Or set a lower quality target for your first quarter or period maybe. Maybe if a company starts by being very transparent in its first year about all of its figures and numbers and statistics, a journalist might ask them, why did you choose to do this in your first year when your profits were quite low? And the company's CEO might reply that "we think it's important to start as we mean to go on." We intend to always be transparent. We think it's important to start as we mean to go on. And if you want to start 2026 as you mean to go on when it comes to your English communication skills, 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.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 are 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, whichever is best for you.Sometimes my calendar gets a little busy, so if you have trouble finding a time that works for 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. I've worked with over 1,000 non-native international English-speaking professionals, from new graduates up to CEOs and government leaders, to help them achieve their goals, and I look forward to meeting you. Okay, let's move on to a couple of phrases that we can use to talk about continuing work that was started previously. I hope that everyone had a great end to the year. But now, let's press on with the project. I hope that everyone had a great end to the year. But now let's press on with the project. Nothing much has changed since last year.So we can just pick up where we left off. Nothing much has changed since last year, so we can just pick up where we left off. Let's take a closer look at that second example. There were two phrasal verbs there. These were to pick up. To pick up and the other was to leave off. To leave off.So. Which of these do you think means to continue work? And which do you think means to stop working? I don't think it's completely obvious from the verbs here, but I definitely think that if you Give it a couple of seconds and think carefully about those verbs, then... You will be able to get this one right. Which of these means to stop doing something and which means to continue doing something?So one more time, our phrase was, we can pick up where we left off. We can just pick up where we left off. To leave off is a phrasal verb. That means to stop doing something. Especially with the intention of coming back to it and continuing later. To pick up means to continue doing something at the exact same place or maybe at the exact same point where it was stopped previously. Maybe you're reading a long and complicated contract and making sure that every individual word is correct. You might have left off halfway through the document on December 24th. Now you're coming back, you can pick up halfway through the document and continue. You haven't missed anything out or skipped any of the document. Equally, you haven't repeated any work. You've simply continued in the exact place you stopped, as if no time had passed at all. A great way to imagine this is with someone who works with tools. If you pick up where you left off, then you can walk back to your workstation and find your tools exactly where you put them earlier. One more example of where this is common. If you've ever been in a meeting that was interrupted by a fire alarm, You're likely in the middle of an agenda item, in the middle of a discussion, a conversation, and suddenly everyone needs to stand up and leave the building. When the fire department tell you that it's safe to re-enter the building and get back to work, you might sit down at the conference table and hear the person in charge of the meeting say: Right, let's pick up where we left off. Let's pick up where we left off. To press on is a phrasal verb that has a similar meaning to carry on. But gives a little added feeling of determination. And not allowing anything to slow you down. In the first example, we heard "I hope everyone had a great end to the year." But now, let's press on with the project. I hope that everyone had a great end to the year. But now, let's press on with the project. We might use press on. If you need to finish a task before you leave the office for the night. However, It's already 9pm, you're getting tired and you really would quite like to sleep. You might say to your colleague, I'm going to make a coffee and press on with this. I'm going to make a coffee and press on with this. Or perhaps a member of the team you manage is having difficulty completing a task at work. Maybe they're not completely sure that they're doing the right thing. They're not particularly confident in their approach. However, if you would like them to keep working anyway and aim to just complete the task, then you might tell them to Press on and do your best. Press on and do your thing. Best. If we take this out of the context of work for a moment, you might often see this in adventure movies. If someone's walking a long distance, maybe the weather is really bad. They're thinking, wow, we should stop for the night. It's getting dark. There's a thunderstorm here. Should we stop?Someone might say no let's press on. Let's press on, which means even though it's difficult, even though it's challenging, they're going to continue moving forward and making progress. Don't forget that if you would like to discuss any of the ideas, vocabulary or grammar, etc. In today's episode, or work on your communication skills for work more generally, then you can book a session with me to work on your English communication skills by going to www.breakoutbusinessenglish.com. That's breakoutbusinessenglish.com. Or clicking the link in the show notes. And use the code PODCAST30, that's PODCAST30 at checkout to get a 30% discount off your first booking. I've worked with over 1,000 non-native English-speaking professionals, from new graduates up to CEOs and government leaders, to help them to achieve their goals, and I look forward to meeting you. Between episodes of the podcast, you can get videos every couple of days on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Just search for Breakout Business English. If there's a topic that you'd like to hear me talk about on the podcast, then I'd 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. I've recently uploaded another video. What did I put out this week? It was a vocabulary lesson.So this week I analysed a BBC News story, a BBC News video about the sale of the US product. Component, the US part of TikTok, the popular social media app TikTok. They had to sell it by, I think, a deadline in January. And there's been some really interesting business news about it.So this week's YouTube video was me taking that BBC News story and analysing some of the English they were using, breaking down some of the vocabulary for you, and giving you a couple of vocabulary and grammar challenges as we worked through that video. I mentioned earlier New Year's resolutions, and I think I'm going to aim to be more consistent on YouTube this year. I've been terrible at YouTube for the past couple of years. I've been pretty consistent with the podcast. This usually goes out every week pretty reliably, but YouTube not so much.So I think that's my New Year's resolution. We can try to hit do we say 50 videos for the year, one a week, and then two weeks of maybe missing one? Or should I just aim for 52 weeks, one video each week? We'll see how we do, but that's definitely my New Year's resolution, to be more consistent with YouTube video output. 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. If you found this podcast useful, and you think that there are some valuable things in here, then feel free to write a couple of kind words, or just leave a review of three or four or five stars, whatever you think is appropriate. That's another great place to request a topic for a future podcast. That is it for today. Thank you so much for listening and for your time. I know how valuable it is and I really do appreciate and respect your choice to spend some of your time with this podcast. I hope you have a great week ahead. Indeed, I hope you have a great end to 2025. When is this podcast coming out? New Year's Eve.So you might, if you're early, you might be listening to this in the last hours of 2025. But... Whatever time you're listening to this, have a great year ahead and I will talk to you next time. Thanks a lot, everyone. Talk to you soon.

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