Welcome back to Business English Pod. With the World Cup about to kick off, we’re taking a fresh look at one of our lessons on business English idioms related to football.

What do you call an activity where groups of people compete strategically against each other as they strive to be the winner? I mean an activity with a clear goal where success requires strong teamwork and a commitment to excellent performance? Some of you might be thinking about sports. Some of you might be thinking about business. Well, you’re both right.

There are so many obvious similarities between sports and business, it’s no wonder that we see the language of sport come into play in the corporate world. And there’s a particular type of language that we’re going to focus on in this lesson, called idioms. Just like the expression “come into play,” which means to be involved or to be a factor in something.

Now when I say “football,” I’m referring to the game with the round ball that players kick into a net past a goalkeeper. It’s what North Americans tend to call “soccer,” to differentiate it from their own game of football, which is a whole different ball game altogether! Internationally, football – or soccer – is the most popular sport in the world. So it’s no wonder it has inspired so many idioms commonly used in business.

In the dialog, we’ll hear Karl and Marilyn, two friends who work at a publishing company. Karl is thinking about applying for a job at the company’s Sydney office. He has some doubts though, so he asks Marilyn what she thinks.

Listening Questions

1. How does Karl describe his approach to his career?
2. Why is Karl worried about the other candidates for the job he’s interested in?
3. What does Marilyn say happens at the Sidney office?

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