Peter Lohmann and a colleague discuss how corporate buzzwords, sports analogies, and pop-culture references dominate American business talk. A non-American colleague was confused when coworkers referenced a U.S. movie in a meeting. This language isn't taught in standard English courses, making it hard for outsiders to follow.
Something I didn't even realize is all of the catchphrases and like sports analogies and all of these American phrases that if you just like took a course on English, it wouldn't necessarily come up, but very common use in business culture, even like the stuff that we Americans make fun of, like the corporate talk, like, well, let's circle back on that. Let me double-click on this, can really trip up people who aren't familiar with. So how did you navigate that?
It's still something I'm navigating. The other day on a call, they were like just riffing talking about this movie that they watched, and apparently it's this super popular movie in the US, and like everyone has watched it and everyone understands the references. And I'm just sitting and staring there, and I'm like, okay, I have no clue what's happening.
