BE 345: Did We Jump the Gun With These Idioms?
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This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 345. Did we jump the gun with these idioms?

Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English. Get the English skills you need to achieve your dreams in global business. For a presentation, a meeting, or your office party, this is Real Business English with your favorite American hosts, Lindsay and Aubrey, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA. Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English.

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Hello, Lindsay. How are you? I'm doing well, Aubrey. I am excited for ski season coming up pretty soon here. But Aubrey, I have a question for you. Are you ready? Yes, I am ready. Okay. So have you ever jumped the gun on anything? Speaking of skiing, yes, when I was in college. So I had grown up skiing, but not much, right? I had gone...

A few times I never became excellent. And then I went in college with a friend who was snowboarding and she wanted to go down a harder run. It might've been black diamond. It was pretty steep and the snow was very deep. And I was like, I should be fine. I've gone skiing a bunch of times. We should be fine. And I tried to go, I probably fell a hundred times going down this ski hill. Like she was fine. She had to keep stopping for me.

Oh, no. Part of it was just the snow was so deep that it kept catching my edges. It kept catching my skis. But also, I had no business. I had no business being on such a difficult run, especially where I was rusty. So I definitely jumped the gun on taking such a tricky hill. You jumped the gun. You were feeling overconfident and you just went for it. You just went for it, right? Exactly. Exactly.

You didn't wait for permission from anyone. You just went for it. And I can picture that. This is a great idiom, jumped the gun. Yeah, when we do something. We're going to talk about this one today and a few idioms that have the word jump. Yeah, just it. It's always funny when you go skiing and you're riding the chairlift. There's always that person, right? Who...

who ended up on the black diamond and it was a bad choice. And it's such a humbling experience. That gives me a little bit of reassurance that I know I'm not alone there. I bet we have listeners out there listening. They were like, Oh, been there. Well, at least you went for it. At least you went for it. It's good. You know, staying on the bunny hill all the time and never getting to the fun slopes. You also never get better. I mean, you know, so, all right, cool. What do we need to know here? So jump the gun. It's a good one. It's a good one.

Yes, we are going to dive into these today. These are fun idioms, but this is part three of a series. So we want to make sure you don't miss part one, which was on Allers English, episode 2309, jump from B2 to C1 with these phrasal verbs. So we talked about jump to and jump from. You want to make sure to get that episode.

And then there was part two, which was on right here on Business English 341. Do phrasal verbs jump out at you? Right? Yeah. These are phrasal verbs we use all the time at work, right? Jump out at a few others. So scroll up if you missed that one, because those phrasal verbs, you definitely are going to use in business.

And again, part three right here on Business English, we're looking at idioms with jump that we can use at work. And we can also, of course, use these in our daily lives too. Exactly. We use them for both for sure. But I do use these at work and you should be using idioms at work. They add so much color and interest to your conversations. So don't feel like, you know, oh, I need to speak more formally, so I should be avoiding idioms. You should be using idioms at work as well.

Yes. So let's thoroughly teach jump the gun. Our listeners got a little taste for it at the top of the show, but let's show them exactly what it means. I mean, it means acting before the proper...

or suitable time. Exactly. It could mean a lot of different things. Maybe you don't have the experience or it's just too early, right? There could be a lot of times that it's just not the right time yet. It's not the right time. You don't have enough information yet. Maybe you don't. Yeah, it's just the wrong time. It's premature, right? Exactly. Let's give some examples. You might say, "We kind of jumped the gun starting this project. We should have planned things out a bit more first."

This can definitely happen. You're excited to get started on something. You don't do all of the work ahead of time to make sure that, and then you could end up wasting time because things need to be redone.

One of the biggest challenges, right, in running a small business is making sure we're doing the right thing at the right time. There's many times, not just with courses, but like little projects that we do, we'll get a few days in and then I'll realize this is the wrong thing to be doing right now. We need to do this. Yeah, and then you have to see it through and then something sits on the shelf for a while. So yeah, this is really useful in business when you're making decisions about what you're going to do next.

And it can especially happen when you're excited about something. All of us have been there where we're really excited to see the end result. And so we jump the gun, get started before we've really done all of the planning phase. We've all been there. Sure. Sure. 100%. Any other sample sentence here for this one?

one yeah you might say i don't mean to jump the gun but we need to get started so this would be kind of fun at the beginning of a meeting um you know if you're like maybe even if the the meeting's supposed to start at 10 but everybody's there be like okay maybe i'm jumping the gun a little bit but let's get started yeah you're acknowledging that typically people have five minutes of small talk

before they get started in American business culture and longer in other cultures, right? So you're saying, I know I'm skirting the norms here, right? But I think we should get started. Yeah. Right. There's a lot of ways you could say that. Like, okay, I realize this is a little earlier, but this is fun to use an idiom to convey that message instead. Yeah, it's really good. And by the way, we just did a great episode over on All Ears English this week or last week on how to ask about where an idiom comes from.

And I'm curious about this one. I wonder if it goes back to the days of the Wild West, riding in wagons, things like that. I don't know. Maybe. My assumption was always, I thought this was like runners when there's a gun shot to start the race.

And if somebody like starts early, then that's jumping the gun. But it is possible that it's older than that. Who knows? Well, that could be a great source of a conversation, right? Conversation starter right there. Guys, check out that other episode. I believe that was episode 2319 of the All Ears English podcast. So go over there and hit the follow button. Okay. Awesome.

Awesome. Yeah, such a fun way to start a conversation to ask if someone knows where an idiom is from, what's the background? Yes. Now we're going to go into something, another great one, which I actually love these idioms today. Jump through hoops.

Number two, what is this? This means to like go through a complicated procedure or process in order to achieve an objective. So for example, you might say we had to jump through a lot of hoops to make this deal happen. So, you know, whatever you had to do, it became sort of complex and complicated. You could say you were jumping through hoops.

Yeah, and this can be used to describe when you're dealing with a lot of bureaucracy. Like at the moment, I'm jumping through a lot of hoops to try to retitle my uncle's classic car that's sitting in my in-laws house in California. And there's nothing harder than working with the DMV when you don't have a title, you don't have a registration, you don't have access to the car, and you don't have a license plate.

That is a lot of hoops. I cannot even imagine. I feel like every time I go to the DMV, I'm jumping through hoops. Like I never have the right ID or documents that they need. Like government agencies often make us jump through hoops. Yeah. So this is great. Whenever you're talking about, and this honestly is one of the reasons some people believe in smaller government because government tends to put up a lot of bureaucracy, a lot of steps and things become inefficient, right? So you could have a lot of interesting conversations around government

processes, things you have to get done and how hard it could be at times. Right? Yeah. And this could just be an interesting way to start a conversation. If you're, if you say to a coworker, like I'm exhausted, I've had to jump through so many hoops this week and then it opens a conversation for them to be like, Oh no, what happened? Right.

Yeah, it's true. And you know, small businesses tend to have fewer hoops, right? Because you're just directly doing the work. But as you get into larger corporations, there might be a place for this conversation about your daily work, right? Absolutely. You know, if you want to start a new project, you apply here, you submit a proposal, you do this and this and this, whereas in a smaller company, you usually just start doing the work, but you might be jumping the gun, right?

More likely to jump the gun, less likely to jump through hoops. That's right. That's right. Okay. I love that one. How about number three? Also really good. Yes. Number three is jump on the bandwagon. This means to join others in doing something or supporting something that usually is like trendy, fashionable, or likely to succeed. Love it. All right. So for example, everyone has been working late and I felt like I had to jump on the bandwagon.

Yeah. So you can imagine if you see all of your coworkers staying late to work on a project and someone's told you, you know, you don't have to, it's fine. But you're like, I feel like I have to jump on the bandwagon here because I'm the only one that's not putting in the extra effort. Yeah. I know this is interesting. When I was working in Tokyo, I noticed that all this may

have changed by now. It's been a long time since 2005, but I noticed that my Japanese coworkers would stay at the office at our school as late as the manager in some cases and the assistant manager. The manager would at times go home at 11 or 12. And even though the Japanese teachers didn't have more work to do, some of them would stay. And that kind of felt like a cultural thing to me. Interesting. Did you ever jump on the bandwagon and stay late?

no that unfortunately there was a different set of rules kind of for our position it was a little bit different but we all did come together as an office and we would go out for drinks which was just fantastic but that was a cultural norm to jump on that bandwagon i think but i would like to know more from our listeners about that whether that's changed you know yes we'll have to ask that in open conversation club and see if anyone knows that'd be interesting to talk about

What about the AI bandwagon? Are you on it, Aubrey? Yes, actually. So yeah, you might say companies are starting to use AI and we need to jump on the bandwagon. My partner has definitely jumped on the AI bandwagon. He constantly will just go to his phone and be like, tell me about

this, you know, or then they have a conversation back and forth. And it's like he has a little robot in his pocket. That's so cool. Yeah, I haven't really jumped on the bandwagon yet either. But I've seen people do it and it can be incredibly useful, right? It is. It's actually kind of great. I can totally see how we're just sort of one step away from like,

robots who feel very lifelike because when he has, it's like voice control. And when you speak, it's just fascinating how alive. Interesting. Yes. All right.

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And with available features like heated seats and a multimedia touchscreen, you can stay connected in comfort and style. Or check out an affordable and reliable Corolla with a trim for every lifestyle. From the hip and agile sedan to the sporty hatchback, there's a dependable Corolla built just for you.

Plus, both Camrys and Corollas are available in hybrid models. So no matter your style, you can drive efficiently and affordably. So visit your local Toyota dealer and check out amazing national sales event deals on Camrys, Corollas, and more when you visit buyatoyota.com. Toyota, let's go places.

Okay, we are back for number four, Aubrey, which is jump to conclusions. Good one, too. Really good one. Yes, this is great too, right? It means to make a hasty judgment before maybe you have all the facts or before you've taken the time to gather all of the information you need. So, for example, I think I jumped to conclusions when I assumed we wouldn't need a project manager. Yes.

Yeah, it's sort of similar to jumping the gun, right? Often we jump the gun because we jumped to conclusions about something. Yeah, it just means that we, I like the word hasty, right? We made a hasty judgment. It just means we decided something before we should have. Yeah, this also reminds me of the idiom that we've taught on the show before, don't judge a book by its cover. Mm-hmm.

And the human brain is wired to do this, right? The human brain is wired to quickly make decisions. Is this person safe or not safe? Or am I safe? Am I okay? Right? That's how the... But we have to constantly fight through those judgments in a way.

That's such a good point. And we'll often just use this phrase and just say, you know, let's not jump to conclusions or don't jump to conclusions to sort of remind each other, remind ourselves to not make those hasty judgments. When we don't know information. So this one's a little different from judge a book by its cover because it's like you

you're jumping to information, assuming that something's going to happen, less about judging appearance of something. Very similar, but... Yes, very similar. Because you could say that, like if you make an assumption about someone or something, you could be like, let's not jump to conclusions. It is similar. Yeah, let's not assume that that is true. We don't know. Exactly. Okay, let's mix these all up into a role play, Aubrey. What are we doing here?

Awesome. So you and I are meeting here before interviewing a prospective candidate. So we're like, we're working for the same company for HR. Okay. Okay, here we go. I'll start us. I'm glad we're meeting about this last time we kind of jumped the gun and didn't have clear goals for the interview. I agree. We had to bring them back for another round of interviews and they may have felt like they were having to jump through hoops.

I've heard a lot of companies are adding some outside-of-the-box questions and I kind of want to jump on the bandwagon. I think it'd give interesting insight about a person. Yeah, that sounds good. What kind of questions? Maybe something like, if you could be any animal, what would you be?

these are like the questions that apparently they ask at all the tech companies right for the cliche question we've heard that one yes I didn't have the brain space to come out with something really unique yeah yeah yeah it's so silly um all right so we've seen a couple of these here so first I said you said last time we kind of jumped the gun and didn't have clear goal so meaning we went right into the interview interviewing this person without knowing what we were trying to learn about

them. Right? Right. So here we're meeting before and like, let's make sure we're on the same page, make sure we have clear goals of what we need to find out. And we said last time we kind of jumped the gun. We didn't have all of the information before we just went right ahead and started the interview. Exactly. And then I said, I agree. We had to bring them back for another round and they may have felt like they were having to jump through hoops. This is where we talked about bureaucracy, steps and steps and steps, things we have to do. Right.

I have a feeling you guys out there listening, we've all been in that situation where you are applying for a job and at some point it feels like you're having to jump through hoops. If there are a lot of steps, especially if... Imagine if you show up for an interview and it's...

It'd be one thing if it were a second or third interview and they've narrowed it down. If it's still a huge room full of people and there's still all of these steps, then you feel like, okay, I feel like I'm jumping to the hook. - They're not doing any work, right, right. Yes, completely. Oh my gosh, these days though, a lot of companies require multiple rounds of interviewing.

uh you know what i mean interviewing five six times yeah right that's not unheard of and yeah and it's not even just jumping through hoops right that's just their standard process their standard process tough okay all right what else aubry we have a bandwagon yeah lastly i said i kind of want to jump on the bandwagon i've heard this idea of like these out-of-the-box questions this is a great way to use it to be like i kind of want to steal that idea kind of want to jump on the bandwagon

It's like you're explicitly saying, I wanna be, yeah, I'm gonna steal the idea. And you're gonna say this to kind of lighten that. You know what I mean? You just wanna be part of this. - Totally, 'cause it's funny, you could say I'm gonna steal that idea, but that sounds a little more like, not unethical, but yeah, nefarious maybe. So this is a much lighter way to say that. I'm gonna jump on the bandwagon. - Yeah, these are great expressions and they legitimately do come up in business a lot. - Oh yes. - Right, all of these do. Yeah, what's the takeaway for our listeners today?

Yeah, these, you know, idioms really do add interest to what you're saying, whether you're at work or just in your daily life, right? You want to avoid just kind of like the most straightforward way of saying something. Sometimes you want to make it a little more friendly, a little more nuanced, and idioms are a great way to do that.

Yes. Throw those idioms in there, show your personality and speak more naturally, right? That's how we connect. That's how we get to that point of connection at work. Exactly. So use one of these today, this week. Today. I am out. You got it, Aubrey. All right. Good stuff. I'll see you on the show next time. All right. Awesome. See you next time. Bye. Bye.

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