Business & Success English Idioms #englishconversation #englishlesson #englishvocabulary

hi everybody welcome back to Robert's

English classroom I am Robert

and this lesson is about business and

success idioms

that you will hear often in English

conversation and it's talking about

being successful or doing well in

English or school or Sports so let's

take a look at the first one

in the driver's seat

in the driver's seat

so

remember that an idiom is a

uh a phrase

and it can have a verb a noun

preposition but this phrase has a

special meaning by itself so in the

driver's seat we might say a person is

in the driver's seat now a driver is the

driver of a car look at this picture

and you are a race car driver you are

controlling the car

you are the leader

you are in control you are in charge

you are in the driver's seat because you

can control the car

so we use this when we're talking about

a company

or a group leader

or maybe you makes a decision and your

decision is very powerful in in work or

in school or in a group or on a team you

are in the driver's seat

so take a look at some examples here Dan

is in the driver's seat now that he is

CEO of his company

so he's the CEO the leader he's in the

driver's seat

the customer has more choices and is now

in the driver's seat

that means the company has given more

power or decisions to its customers so

the customers feel

they are in control in the driver's seat

second one

keep your eye on the ball

so here's a picture of the famous tennis

player Rafael Nadal

so think about when you play a sport

with a ball you need to focus on the

ball keep your eye on it now the ball is

not touching your eye but you're

watching it very carefully

so keep your eye on the ball means

focus on finishing a job or doing

something

so Sports athletes can do this uh

students preparing for school maybe or

preparing for a test

you want to keep your eye on the ball

keep focusing on the test

or at work you have a project to finish

you want to keep your eye on the ball do

a good job on that project Focus

the coach the coach told the players to

keep their eyes on the ball and not get

distracted by the crowd

stay focused

the teacher reminded her student to keep

his eye on the ball before the test

so keep your eye on the ball means to

keep focusing don't get distracted do a

good job

one here

on the ropes

on the ropes now

on the ropes think about uh uh take a

look at this picture here think about a

fight when two people are fighting for a

competition

and if one person is losing

he is against the ropes look at the

picture there these are called the ropes

and if you're losing an almost

completely finished almost done

that's called you are on the ropes

so you're almost defeated almost lost

so I wrote here when you are losing

badly

or you are down and weak

maybe you can't get up again

in business when a company is in danger

of failing or completely going out of

business we might say that company is on

the ropes

June was on the ropes after a long

Illness but she's finally starting to

feel better

so this means that June was sick a long

time and maybe really close to being

very very bad but she came back she got

better

the soccer team was on the ropes at the

end of the game

but they played hard and won

so maybe the team was losing and it

didn't look good for the team they were

on the ropes but they kept fighting and

they came back to win

a major player

so major means kind of big important and

player is somebody playing a game or in

business you're competing

so a major player has influence and has

power

it can be a company is a major player

a politician or a leader

is can be a major player so a major

player can be a person it can be a

company it can be an athlete on a team

it could be an artist or musician also

if that artist is creative

or the musician is creative

we might say they are major players in

music or in art

a business person also is a major player

can be a major player

apple is a major player in the

smartphone market

right they are number one or number two

around the world often they are a major

player

Lionel Messi was a major player in world

soccer or football

okay Messi was was the top one of the

top players in the world for a long time

Steve Jobs he was the CEO of Apple he

started Apple

Steve Jobs was a major player in home

computer design

they designed some of nice looking

computers right and then the smartphone

and things like that so they are major

players

ahead of the game

okay take a look at this picture down

here okay one person pushing the red

circle is a head or in front of

everybody else

so if you are ahead of the game

you are doing better than others doing

better than your competition

now there are many ways to use this like

someone may have more knowledge than you

about something so they are ahead of the

game

uh someone may be more prepared or

organized than you in school or a

project they are ahead of the game

someone may have a better fresher ideas

than you

they are ahead of the game they are in

front of everybody else

the company is ahead of the game in

terms of its use of Technology

so the company uses higher technology

than others

when he plans his career and life Bob is

ahead of the game compared to his

friends

okay he's in front he's thinking more

he's preparing more ahead of the game

and the last one is a Level Playing

Field

so a field is where

you you play a sport like a baseball

field a football field

and a level level means flat right flat

so everything is even everything is the

same on the field

so when we talk about a Level Playing

Field

we're saying that the place is fair for

everybody it's fair

nobody has an advantage

so for example okay every person or

company has the same opportunity to

succeed it's a Level Playing Field for a

person or a company in a market it's a

Level Playing Field

everyone is treated fairly so you can

make more money or you can get a higher

job in the company because it's a Level

Playing Field

there are no unfair advantages for

people teams or companies

so this is called a Level Playing Field

and

is there really a Level Playing Field

anywhere

it's hard to say

the new regulations will create a Level

Playing Field for all businesses

so that they can compete fairly

so the businesses can go into the market

or into a country and compete on a Level

Playing Field complete fairly

the company offers its employees a Level

Playing Field

so that everyone can succeed

okay nobody is a favorite at the company

and that's it okay we've got in the

driver's seat that means you are in

control you are making the decisions

keep your eye on the ball Focus

on the ropes means you're almost lost

you've almost lost

a major player is someone who is ahead

of everybody else

and is the almost the number one in in

sports or in business or at work

ahead of the game means that you your

ideas are ahead of everybody's in front

of everybody else's and a Level Playing

Field means fairness it's a fair space

for everybody to work and compete

comment box quiz here

when do you keep your eye on the ball

is there a time where you focus hard

and who do you think is ahead of the

game in something now in the world in

business or in sports who's ahead of the

game do you think

okay think about that and you can write

it in the comment box

okay that's it so these are idioms right

which are phrases that have a special

meaning that we use for a business or

success or competition

I'll see you all in the next lesson have

a great day and keep your eye on the

ball whatever you are doing okay bye-bye

foreign

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