Learning a new language for a job can be an excellent career move. With so many companies around the world conducting business in English, it’s a common choice. With that in mind, Babbel launched the podcast Talking on the Job, a series that helps you improve your English listening and speaking skills in the workplace. Now in its second season, the English-only show teaches problem-solving in a wide range of situations, with episodes that are good for people with anywhere from intermediate (B1) to advanced (C1) English.

Listen to Talking on the Job on the Babbel app, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever else you get your podcasts.

What Talking On The Job Is About

In season 1 of Talking on the Job, host Conor helped office-workers Rahim and Sabine face challenges in English. With topics from communicating about scheduling across time zones to figuring out how to bring up changes with a boss, learners get tips on how to deal with a number of different difficult dilemmas. Each bite-sized episode — they’re all around the 10 minute mark — starts with a cold open introducing the challenge, followed by the host intervening with helpful advice.

With season 2, the format is very much the same, but now the scenes are taking place outside the office. We meet Mira, a Syrian refugee and small business owner, who is attempting to open her own cafe and running into a variety of challenges. In conversations with contractors, vendors and more, Mira uses her English skills to communicate effectively. Conor follows up by pointing out exactly which methods Mira is using to be clear and coherent in English.

Tips For Learning

1. Read along. Each episode comes with a handy transcript, so you can follow along and build your reading and listening skills at the same time. The transcripts also include additional resources and handy vocab lists, so you can easily look back on the takeaways of each episode.
2. Reflect on how it applies to you. The problems the characters face in each episode might not always be the problems you have. The tips can apply to many different situations, however. Try to stop and think where the phrases Conor introduces might be useful.
3. Try to think of more ways to solve each problem. There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution. For each episode, try to think about how you might approach things differently. When would your solution work better than Conor’s?

Ready to get going? Start listening to Talking on the Job now!