In these times of international business, many movers and shakers find it important to be able to speak English! In today’s episode, we talk about people who have ambition and drive, and can make things happen. Some people are really motivated to innovate, make changes, and work hard, so we’ve got names for them. Check out this episode to learn some terms that describe these kinds of people. Are you a go-getter?
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Expressions included in the Learning Materials:
- An outlet
- A mover and a shaker
- To move (on) up the ladder
- Drive
- A go-getter
- To give your all
- What a/an…
- Quicker or more quickly
- To float around
- To pick up
- A self-starter
- Thanks for having me
Sample transcript:
| Andrew: | Usually we call people who are very successful, who are rich or good businessmen or politicians, these are movers and shakers. These are, like, really big figures in society. |
| Harp: | Yeah. Rich and powerful people. We call them movers and shakers. And with this expression, when I think of a mover and a shaker, I think of someone who’s really energetic and actually physically moving a lot to try to get things done. |
| Andrew: | Yeah. And we should warn you that when you use this expression, you have to use both mover and shaker together. You have to say somebody is a mover and a shaker. If you say they’re just a shaker or just a mover, it doesn’t work. Both together. |
| Harp: | That is a very good point. Andrew, do you know the origin of this expression? |
| Andrew: | I did a little research on this, and I found that it first appeared in a poem by a poet who I had actually never, ever heard of. His name was Arthur O’Shaughnessy, who I’m imagining is Irish. And this poem was written way back in the 1800s, but he was the first person to use the expression mover and shaker. And then eventually, over time, it sort of entered into the common vocabulary. |
| Harp: | Yeah. OK. Very cool. I think we should give an example. |
| Andrew: | Yeah. Let’s do that. |
| Harp: | Hey. Do you know who you’re going to vote for in the election? |
| Andrew: | Yeah. I think I’m going to vote for Paul Smith, because he was a real mover and a shaker in the business world, and I want somebody running the country who has a strong business sense. |
| Harp: | Hmm. That’s a good point. Yeah, maybe I’ll vote for him for president. I need to think about it a little bit more though. |
| Andrew: | Mmhmm. Just don’t forget to vote. |
| Harp: | No, I definitely won’t. |
| Harp: | So in this example, we had two friends talking about the upcoming presidential election and who they were going to vote for and one of them was gonna vote for Paul Smith, because he was a mover and a shaker before, which meant that he was someone who initiated chang |
Podcast/Learning Materials: Culips English Podcast