– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

thank you very

much oh hello I don't think we've met

Sam Erics Victor Tang pleased to meet

you and what company are you from Mr

tank oceanwide I'm the sales

representative for this region ah yes I

know your company uh your business is

expanding very rapidly at the moment yes

we're doing quite well and yourself who

do you work for actually I work for

myself I'm the CEO of a small export and

packaging company we specialize in

Seafood it's a growing Market yes but a

very competitive one Mr Tang please call

me Victor Sam Victor let me introduce

you to someone Lynn this is Victor Tang

he's the regional rep for oceanwide this

is Lyn Chan my sales manager how do you

do Mr Tang I'm very well thank you nice

to meet you Miss Chen and you can I get

you another drink thank

you well it's been good to meet you Sam

and very interesting to hear about your

business look we are having a small

dinner for some of our clients and

friends after this why don't you join us

that's very kind of you I'll just check

with my associate whether they have

other arrangements for us well your

associate is most welcome to join us too

thank you excuse me

Walter this is Sam Eric from Eric's

Imports he has very kindly invited us to

a dinner yes would you like to join us

unfortunately I have another engagement

but thank you for the invitation well

perhaps you could join us after that for

a

drink sounds great I'd be happy to where

shall we meet how about the Lounge Bar

here at about 10 I'll see you then

excuse me Lyn Victor's joining us for

dinner oh wonderful I hope you don't

mind of course not you're most welcome

well um should we make a move would you

mind if I just say goodbye to a few

people no problem we'll see you outside

in a few minutes

okay another drink sir no thank

you excuse me is anyone sitting here no

please have a seat that's better my feet

are killing

me have you been here long no but I just

flew in this morning and I haven't had a

chance to sit down since then oh where

have you come from from

Manila is this your first visit to

Australia no I have been once before but

it was a long time ago and have you been

to Sydney before no it's an amazing

City yes it has its points but you're

lucky to live in Manila it's a

fascinating City what about yourself do

you live in Sydney no I live in

Melbourne I'm just here for the the

conference I'm going to Melbourne later

what's the weather like there not too

good in winter but at the moment it

should be

okay so how's your hotel it's good very

convenient just near the harbor have you

seen the opera house yet yes we flew

right over

it excuse me there's someone I must talk

to it's been very nice to meet you I'm

Walter by the way you too I'm Sue

perhaps we'll meet later I hope

so has everybody got a copy of the

agenda thank you would you mind taking

minutes John oh not at all good well

then let's get

started first of all thank you everyone

for attending at short

notice as you know the objective of this

meeting of the capital Works committee

is to discuss a proposal for some urgent

building work at our Southside plant um

as we've got to reach a decision which

may involve spending we'll run it as a

formal meeting now you've read The

Proposal so without further Ado I'd like

to open it up for discussion or perhaps

if we can start with you T what's your

view well I'm not convinced that the

work is as urgent as this report

suggests so to sum up I think we are all

aware that some urgent work does need to

be done done and we will need to work on

a longer term plan for a major

refit well if there's no more discussion

we'll put it to a vote we are

recommending that tenders be called for

the Urgent work needed all those in

favor all those

against then that's agreed any other

business then we'll close the meeting

thank you everyone the next meeting will

be in 2 weeks at the same time

well I'm not convinced that the work is

as urgent as this report suggests so

perhaps we should come on the building

is practically falling down sorry Lynn I

don't think tan had finished we'll get

to you in a minute sorry as I was saying

perhaps we should get a second opinion

before we spend any money H thank you

tan what's your opinion

Walter well as far as I'm concerned it's

a question of safety so I think we

should go ahead

are you suggesting that someone could

get hurt in my opinion yes if you ask me

there is a serious risk of an accident

and it's not a recent problem are you

implying we should have done something

earlier much earlier it's a real concern

he

here in that case I agree we should do

something now I think so

too thank you Walter well if there's no

excuse me Madam chairperson yes Barbara

what what about the problem with parking

there were no places again this morning

maybe if you got to work on time all

comments through the chair if you don't

mind Walter parking isn't on the agenda

for this meeting perhaps you could

suggest it for our next meeting

Barbara well if there's no more

discussion we'll put it to a vote here

here okay great now we're looking at the

options for handling our online orders

they're going through the roof and

frankly the lead time for delivery is

blowing out we need to improve our

performance in this area any suggestions

well as I see it we have three options

the obvious one is to employ more people

to do the job another alternative is to

automate the system more cut down on the

physical handling and the third option

we could

Outsource what are the pros and cons

well looking at increasing staff versus

automation we have to consider the cost

automating has a higher Capital cost

than putting on more staff on the other

hand employing more people is more

expensive over a long term if we keep

growing it'll cost more in the long run

How likely is it that will see continued

growth I'd say it's a

certainty oh I'd say a high probability

nothing certain in business so what

about the third option

Outsourcing it does take the problem off

our hands but but we lose contact with

our customers what about the bottom line

Outsourcing is the cheapest option and

the easiest in the short term but if we

want to keep the operation inhouse the

best option is automating our

system the only downside is we're taking

a risk that our business will keep

growing which we hope it will we

certainly

do today we're looking at our new widget

plant being built at Southside I've

asked Barbara to report on progress

and bring us up to date and up to speed

Barbara thanks Denise I'll just outline

the process we've been through Identify

some problems and give you an estimate

on completion time and the outcome

financially is it good news or bad news

bear with me now if you recall after a

feasibility study we put the project out

to Tender 18 months ago and selected

easy build as our project

manager work commenced about 15 months

ago and it's been progressing to

schedule until recently what's the

problem unfortunately there are

three firstly there's been a delay in

materials specifically steel because of

industrial issues at the

suppliers secondly we've lost days due

to the weather and finally there's been

a resulting cost

blowout so what are we going to do well

they've managed to get another supplier

now I suggested moving the completion

date back that way there's no penalty

and they agreed to redeploy their

workers until building can start

again smart thinking we've been waiting

for the rain to stop but we can't

control the weather and the cost at this

stage just a small overedge but I'll be

watching it very closely over the next

few months with no more delays we're

expecting to complete the project just

one month behind

schedule good work

Barbara now I'd like to refer to the

first graph as you can see this is a bar

graph measuring net sales over the first

10 months of the

year you'll notice that sales Rose

steadily in the first few months then

there was a marked increase in

April they picked in May at around 3.2

million and leveled off then there was a

dramatic drop in the following month

followed by a significant increase in

August and this trend has continued up

until the present what was the reason

for the sudden drop in July this was

mainly due to a drop off in air

conditioner sales so it's a seasonal

effect could it be a consequence of the

negative effect of the interest rate

rise

possibly now if I could draw your

attention to this next

diagram this is a line graph of sales

the the Blue Line represents air

conditioner sales the red line shows

heaters as you'll note air conditioner

sales dropped steadily from January to

July bottoming out then while heater

sales experienced a sharp increase from

March to June then dropped markedly from

June to July then declined through to

September with a pronounced drop in

October does this explain the

fluctuation in total sales large

if we look at this Pi

diagram you can see that air

conditioners and heaters together

represent more than half of our total

sales but they vary seasonally while

other appliances are fairly steady

through the year well we can't sell air

conditioners when it's cold what's the

solution export to Europe and America

easiest said than

done today I'm going to look at the

results of our customer survey first

I'll go through the survey questions

then summarize the results and finally

I'll outline the conclusions after that

there'll be time for questions and

discussion so let's start with the

survey

questions turning to the results as you

can see from the diagram most people

decided what to buy when they saw the

product at the

showroom about 13 made their decision

based on what the salesperson said the

others knew what they wanted to buy

already most of those made their

decision on the recommendation of a

friend only a few said they relied on

Advertising let's move on to the

conclusions the first one is that it's

very important that sales people on the

floor know about our

products another is that after sales

service is critical people who

experience good after sales service are

more likely to recommend a brand and

finally

advertising it's expensive so we need to

make sure we're getting results thank

you so I'd like to end with a summary of

what I've looked at today and some

recommendations the figures show that

sales are strongly seasonal and that

customers depend on good information on

the room

floor so I'd like to recommend we

concentrate on discounting in the off

seasons and spend more time on briefing

our sales

representatives that's all I have for

now are there any

questions you mentioned that the sales

figures may also reflect economic

Trends can you expand on that well we

are always going to depend on the

economy as I understand it we can look

forward to an improvement this year does

that answer your question are you saying

we're in for a period of growth well I'm

afraid that's a bit outside my area of

expertise but that's what the papers are

suggesting if you believe it h you

suggested that we might be spending too

much on Advertising can you clarify that

it's hard to quantify without better

data sorry could you repeat that we

don't have the figures to really know

how effective our advert in is in my

experience you can't do without

advertising time for one last

question I have one yes John is it time

for

coffee okay we'll wrap up now thank you

for your input everyone thank

you Wilson Wilson can I help you yes

this is Lyn Chan from Acme appliances

I'd like to speak to Mr Wilson if he's

available please would that be Mr Wilson

senior or Mr Wilson Jr Mr Wilson senior

I'll just see if he's available hold the

line

please it's a Lynch Chan from

mme I'm sorry Mr Wilson's in a meeting

at the moment may I take a message yes

could you ask him to phone me please my

number is

231

5654 I'm sorry I didn't catch your name

linchan Acme appliances let me check the

number

23156 54 that's right I'll pass that

message on thank you thanks

bye Acme appliances Lyn Chan speaking

this is Tom Wilson returning your call

ah yes Mr Wilson thanks for calling back

I wanted to set up a meeting with you to

discuss your requirements for next year

yes certainly how about uh Thursday at

2:30 that would be fine okay I look

forward to seeing you then Thursday 2:30

see you then goodbye

goodbye hello Lin Chan sales manager for

National sugar and my associate John

Martin very pleased to meet you I'm

Victor tang and this is my legal advisor

pen I hope you had a pleasant flight

over yes we did thanks are you staying

for a few days unfortunately we need to

get back to Manila tomorrow well we

better get down to

business Mr Tang to start off with I

just want to say we believe we can offer

you a very good deal and come up with a

win-win result well from our point of

view we see it as an exploratory tour

testing the water you might say we don't

intend to reach any agreements at this

meeting in any case we would need to run

it past our board first you haven't

heard our terms yet you may find them

hard to

resist of course we understand you need

time to consider any offer my first

priority is to keep the negotiations

open what's your proposal Miss Chan

we're prepared to offer a very

attractive price for a minimum sale in

exchange for a 2-year contract John will

clarify the terms

so that's our offer we believe it's a

fair one with advantages for both sides

yes well we're prepared to consider your

offer Miss chant if you can accept some

conditions and subject to consideration

by the board what are the

conditions well firstly the price you're

proposing would that be variable

depending on currency

fluctuations the issue is that we're in

an unstable environment at the moment

the exchange rate could affect us

negatively

us too true but the problem is that

we're tied to the US dollar we could

consider hedging against currency in

both directions that would be

acceptable another problem we may have

is that of Supply our customers often

need Supply at short notice if we do get

large orders we need to guaranteed

delivery so we need the stockpile the

difficulty there is the capital outlay

how would you feel about a partial

offset against our sales you mean a loan

I suppose so would you be agreeable to a

deferred payment we can provide security

of course I think that would be

acceptable unfortunately I would need to

get board approval for it of course then

I think we might have a deal in

principle time to

celebrate our keynote speaker is a man

who I'm sure is very well known to all

of you he's professor of fruty

at dubo University and has written many

books on the subject of tropical fruit

so without further Ado I'd like to

introduce our keynote speaker Dr Sam

Erics thank you

Denise The Honorable Judith Bryant

Minister for trade Professor Eric Vogel

professor of Economics at wager

University distinguished guests ladies

and gentlemen to today's topic why

bananas are bent is a very significant

one in terms both of international trade

and culture in thinking about the topic

I felt it would be appropriate to

address briefly the history of bananas

and banana farming the many qualities of

bananas both positive and negative and

of course examine the uses of the banana

but first let me tell you a story about

a

banana ladies and gentlemen

I hope I've been able to clear up a few

misconceptions and leave you with some

new ideas about how we might view

bananas in the

future we've seen in looking at their

history that bananas have a significant

role in many cultures I've also noted

their positive nutritional qualities and

in addressing the main question why

bananas are bent we've learned that the

reasons are many and

complex Madam chair

thank you for the opportunity to address

the conference today and thank you

ladies and gentlemen for your kind

[Applause]

attention well it has been a great

pleasure to meet you Sam and Lynn yes

we've enjoyed meeting you too Victor yes

it's been great what a pity you have to

go home well all good things must come

to an end but I'm sure we'll meet again

yes I hope so and good luck with your

business I'm sure it will go well and I

wish you every success too well I think

we should drink a toast to the end of

the conference and to ourselves Here's

to Us Cheers Cheers

Cheers we should keep in touch yes have

I given you my card ah

no thanks very much here's

mine do you have a card ly yes

thank

you I'll send you an email and if you're

ever in Singapore you must look me up we

certainly will and you have my number

when you're next in Sydney give me a

call we'll have a drink may I take

these well I'd better get going or miss

my flight have a good flight home bon

voyage goodbye until next time

goodbye let's compare a and a to

together uh some of my students they

find it's quite tricky to distinguish

between the cell now and now okay let's

sty this is air to make the air cell

very easy uh like this your your lips

are slightly

open like this and at the same time put

your jaw and your tongue down okay e e

okay e um some people spread their lips

into both sides like this e no sorry

it's not correct okay just put your draw

and your tongue down e e so this is Wet

Wet This one

pen

pen this lead lead

some of my students they pronounce like

wet or that or what this is pan or p uh

uh Le or lead or uh L sorry they are not

correct okay put your CH and your tongue

down e e very

quick wet wet pen pen this

one e let let

now this one a e uh they are somehow the

same because they have the same vowel a

right but this is the Deep thong deep

thong two single vowels together so they

come from a and then end in e okay begin

with e e and and with e e

a a okay e e okay now match them

together

a

a okay somehow the same with a a very

soft okay a now again a e a this one e

just your and then tongue down e

e and this one a little bit open e and

then close

a a understand

so e e

a

a this is

wait

wait this one

pain pain this is a a a and then a we

have n so

a a so we have

pain pain this

one

L

light now compare them

together red

wet

wait wait

pen

pen

pain

pain

let

let light light okay or can you hear the

differences between them yes right now

one more time

quicker wet wet wait wait wet wait

pen pen pain pain pen

pain let let light light let

light now let's come to a and air

somehow the same too right

now e just move your tongue in your JW

down e e this one

come from a to uh remember uh rounded

uh uh air air again huh this is e e stop

here e and this one

e

e quicker air air so again e air air can

you see the difference yes right now e

we have shet

shet

very

very

fairy

fairy for E air

air

shared

shared m very

very

fairy fairy

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
meet /miːt/ A1	verb - to come together with someone
company /ˈkʌmpəni/ A1	noun - a business organization
represent /ˌrɛprɪˈzɛnt/ A2	verb - to speak or act for someone or something
business /ˈbɪznɪs/ A1	noun - commercial activity
work /wɜːrk/ A1	verb - to do a job or activity noun - activity requiring effort
sales /seɪlz/ A2	noun - the activity of selling goods
meeting /ˈmiːtɪŋ/ A1	noun - an assembly of people for discussion
discuss /dɪˈskʌs/ A2	verb - to talk about something in detail
proposal /prəˈpoʊzl/ B1	noun - a plan or suggestion
urgent /ˈɜːrdʒənt/ B1	adjective - requiring immediate action
decide /dɪˈsaɪd/ A1	verb - to make a choice
suggest /səˈdʒɛst/ A2	verb - to propose an idea
problem /ˈprɑːbləm/ A1	noun - a difficulty or situation
agree /əˈɡriː/ A1	verb - to have the same opinion
offer /ˈɔːfər/ A2	verb - to present something for acceptance noun - a proposal made
consider /kənˈsɪdər/ A2	verb - to think about carefully
negotiate /nɪˈɡoʊʃieɪt/ B1	verb - to discuss terms to reach an agreement
conference /ˈkɑːnfərəns/ B2	noun - a formal meeting for discussion
significant /sɪɡˈnɪfɪkənt/ B2	adjective - important or meaningful