Speak Better English with Harry | Episode 333

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• 00:09

  Hi there, this is Harry, and welcome to another podcast where I try to help you to get a better understanding of the english language so that you will be able to have better, more constructive conversations.

• 00:19

  You'll be better able to understand your colleagues if you're involved in Zoom conference calls, whatever it may be.

• 00:26

  We help you with your grammar, your pronunciation, look at phrasal verbs, idiomatic expressions, everything connected with the English language.

• 00:33

  And of course, if you want to contact me, and I'd be happy to hear from you, I'll give you the contact details at the end of this particular podcast.

• 00:40

  And if you have a friend or colleague you think might benefit from it, well, why don't you invite them along?

• 00:46

  So what are we going to talk about today?

• 00:48

  Well, we're going to focus on negotiation, and negotiation idioms.

• 00:53

  So as the name suggests, they're probably more specific and related to business, but not entirely.

• 01:00

  I'll go down through them and I'll give you examples, and hopefully you'll get a better understanding and perhaps you'll be able to practice or to use some of them in your next conversation.

• 01:09

  So here goes.

• 01:11

  Bend over backwards, play somebody at their own game to give ground, to drive or strike a bargain or a deal, either with somebody or something, to agree to disagree, to be a party to something, come to terms with something or somebody, mend your fences, give way to somebody, meet somebody halfway, and then finally sign on the dotted line.

• 01:47

  Sign on the dotted line.

• 01:48

  Okay, let's go through them and give you a couple of examples.

• 01:52

  To bend over backwards, well, as you can imagine, that can be quite difficult, unless you're big into your yoga.

• 01:57

  And bending over backwards, particularly at my age, not so easy to do.

• 02:01

  Okay, so when you bend over backwards for somebody, it's difficult, but you do it.

• 02:07

  And what it literally means is that you're trying to do as much as possible for the person whom you're negotiating.

• 02:15

  So you could say, oh, I've bent over backwards for that client or that customer, and he still won't agree.

• 02:22

  So you get a little bit frustrated.

• 02:24

  Or you might say to the kids, I've bent over backwards to make you happy.

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