Office party planning

Listen to the conversation with an event planner to practise and improve your listening skills.

Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.

Preparation

Transcript

Ayako: Hello, sales department. This is Ayako speaking. How can I help you?

Sam: Hi, Ayako, this is Sam from Events-4-U. I'm calling about the piano you want at your Christmas party next month.

Ayako: Oh, good. It would be a great surprise to have one there for our boss for the night. He can play and it would be a great addition for the party. Have you been able to source one?

Sam: Well, yes, I have, but …

Ayako: But what?

Sam: Well, we're going to either have an issue with the logistics or the budget, or possibly both.

Ayako: Oh dear.

Sam: Well, we've found a baby grand piano, as you requested, and it's available for the date you want.

Ayako: OK, great. So what's the issue? Is it too expensive?

Sam: No, it's within the budget you gave me, so everything there is OK. But it's too wide for the entrance doorway into the building.

Ayako: Oh, I see. So what are our options? Could we dismantle it outside and reassemble it inside?

Sam: Er, no. Unfortunately, you can't really do that with pianos. But don't worry, I'm sure we can find some inventive solution.

Ayako: Do you have any ideas?

Sam: Well, we could hoist it up to the first-floor balcony. The door there would be large enough to fit it through.

Ayako: Great. That sounds like a good plan.

Sam: That would work, though it would increase the cost considerably as we'd need a crane, an extension on the insurance policy and probably two to three additional people to manage getting it successfully into the building.

Ayako: Oh, I see. Well, we can definitely stretch the budget by about ten per cent, but we shouldn't go over that. If we exceed the budget by more than ten per cent, then other areas of the party budget will have to be cut. And we don't really want that.

Sam: OK, so this idea won't work then. Sorry if I wasn't being clear. The considerable budget increase I was referring to would add a further fifty per cent. You know, cranes are expensive.

Ayako: Oh … um … OK. So what other options do we have?

Sam: Well, how fixed are you on the piano being a baby grand? Would an upright piano be an option?

Ayako: Hmm. I don't know.

Sam: It would fit through the door on the ground floor and cause fewer problems. I've also got the option on a really nice white vintage upright piano, with black design work.

Ayako: OK. That sounds like it might work. Could you send me over some photos of it?

Sam: I'll do it now, together with the rental and delivery information and costs.

Ayako: Great. Thanks, Sam. Let me think about it and I'll call you back later today.

Sam: Sure, no problem. I'll wait for your call.

Task 1

Exercise

Task 2

Exercise

Discussion

When was the last time you had to discuss a problem on the phone?

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Language level

B2 Upper intermediate

Hello kbravoz,

'That sounds like' + a clause is a very common structure. As you have noticed, it doesn't refer to sounds -- it refers to an idea. 'That sounds like it might work' means something like 'I think it might work'.

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Last problem I discussed on phone was about my new earbuds I complained to customer service that as I can’t hear clearly with stuff, the Staff was really helpful and respectful so much and they solved my problem by promising to change it as soon as possible.

I realized one argue over telephone speaking. My project team mate was not working as good as me and we had to catch up our schedule. I called him. And I said that if you didnt have any time, you had to quit this project.

Just of recent. I had to made discussion about a problem on phone.

It was a few weeks ago. A friend of mine wanted to study German again, since she started working full-time, as a matter of fact, she didn't have time and the enough money to continue her classes. Unfortunately my sister kept on her virtual classes from university because of the current pandemic and the quarantine as a preventive fact. My friend started practising German with me from 9 o'clock to 11, however, my sister must attend to virtual classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at the same time, and the Internet connection is quite slower than usual at that time. I explained her that issue and she proposed me to practise earlier, at 5 o'clock. I agree with her and fron that instant on we practise in the afternoon. Hopefully my sister thanked my gesture!

Today morning I got a call from my parents and I helped them with modifying a scanned document. It was quite hard since they don't have any IT knowledge so I had to give them instructions via video call. Not to mention the bad quality of the video because of the overloading of the internet... You know everybody stays home and on the internet nowadays.

The last time was two weeks ago when i had to talk to the delivery man on the phone on how he could get to my house. It was a problem to me since iam not the best at describing roads to people

The last time I had to discuss problem was with my friends. The night before we we made a deal about time for going out. But before that I needed to go to hairdresser, and it lasts logner than I thought, in the same time my friend called me to say that she couldn t make it, so both of us couldn t come on time,so someone have to call third friend to say about exchanged plan. But there was misunderstanding and guess what, neither I nor my friend do that! So she has stayed there and wonder where we were.

Hello, how can I download the podcasts?

Hello Sajedeh

It's a little tricky to do on phones or tablets, but on a computer, you can right-click on the audio player and then choose the 'Save As' option. The mp3 should then download to your computer.

Happy listening!

All the best