Matt: Morning, Nat.

Nat: Hey, Matt, how’re you doing?

Matt: I'm... I'm alright, thanks. That's a big cup of coffee and or tea.

Nat: I know, don't judge me too much. It’s a big cup of coffee. I'm so tired today.

Matt: Oh, why is that?

Katrina: Hey there! I’m Katrina, English expert here at Babbel, and welcome to Around the Water Cooler, where we bring you authentic conversations from the workplace. Now, as you might know from your own experience, just because these conversations take place at work, doesn’t mean that they’re always about work. They’re the kind of conversations that take place around the water cooler, or anywhere people can meet and socialize while at work.

So, let’s listen to the rest of the conversation, and afterwards, I’ll jump in to talk about what you heard, point out useful phrases, and give you some handy communication tips. If you’d like to read along while you listen, you can find a link to the transcript in the episode description.

Alright. Enough from me, let’s get back to that conversation!

Matt: Oh, why is that?

Nat: I just, ugh, I just couldn't sleep, or like, I woke up and then I couldn't get back to sleep. I’m just… not sleeping at the moment.

Matt: Hmm, okay, okay. Well, like, uh, you can't get off to sleep, or you're waking up, or what is it?

Nat: I don't know. I guess, it depends on the day. Last night, I fell asleep, and then I just, I couldn't, like, stay asleep. I woke up.

Matt: Yeah, have you, have you tried not waking up? That… that, that helps.

Nat: Yeah, Matt. How... How, how would I go about that?

Matt: Um, I don't know. I, I have the… I have the same thing. When I, um… if I go to bed before ten and I wake up before midnight, then that's it, then I'm awake until two o'clock. Um, but what's really been helping me is, everyone says no screens, right? No phones, no tablets, no laptops. But what's really been helping me is using an e-reader with a warm light, and that helps me get off to sleep.

Nat: Ah, that sounds interesting. I feel like I've tried everything at this point. But, um, yeah, I mean, have, have you tried like, uh, the, taking sleepy teas or…?

Matt: Uh, chamomile tea is very good for that…

Nat: Chamomile is really good…

Matt: But what also really, really helps is no caffeine ten hours before bed. So nothing in the afternoon.

Nat: That's hard, I do like my coffee as you can see.

Matt: We've got a few hours until afternoon yet.

Nat: Yeah. So, you’re just suggesting to limit the coffee and have a nice cup of chamomile tea?

Matt: Nice cup of chamomile tea before bed, have a good book, sorted.

Nat: Yeah. I've heard, also, that if I go for a walk, that's really good, and while I'm walking, I can listen to a podcast. Like listening to a podcast, it's almost like reading a book or listening to a book.

Matt: I think the best thing is, uh, to just clear your head from work and everything you've done that day. What also helps me is taking out a notebook and writing down everything that's on my mind.

Nat: That's such a good idea. I’ve heard that too and I just haven't tried it yet, but I will definitely be trying that, for sure. That's a great idea, thank you.

Matt: Yep, no worries. Alright, then, um, see you around.

Nat: Well, have a great day. Talk to you soon.

Katrina: I don’t know about you, but I’ve definitely been in Nat’s situation. Sleepless nights that lead to coffee-filled days that lead to more sleepless nights. It happens to a lot of people. Now, I’m going to summarize their conversation for you, and point out some of the language that you can use when you want to describe a problem or give advice.

In the office kitchen, Nat runs into her coworker, Matt. He makes a comment about the size of her coffee, and she explains to him that she’s “just so tired today”. He’s curious about what’s going on and wants to help, but to do that, he needs to understand the problem better. So, to get more details, he asks her “Oh, why is that?”, a super simple phrase that you can use to ask about the reason why someone is having a problem.

Nat tells him she’s having trouble sleeping lately. She sounds pretty frustrated and says, “I feel like I’ve tried everything at this point.” Matt’s had a lot of experience with sleeplessness himself and has some tips to give her. To do that, he uses a number of different phrases, like “Have you tried…?”, “What’s really been helping me is…”, and “I think the best thing is…”. All of these are useful for giving tips or advice.

After hearing what he has to say, Nat uses the phrase “So, you’re suggesting to just…”. You can say this any time you want to double check that you’ve understood the advice someone has given you.

And finally, you probably noticed that Matt and Nat used a lot of words ending in -ing, like “using an e-reader”, or “listening to a podcast”. Now, these words look like verbs, but the way they’re used here, they’re actually what we call “gerunds”, or the noun form of the verb. They usually refer to an activity in general, rather than a single, specific action. Why don’t you try listening to the conversation again and see if you can find even more examples? And, of course, if you want some extra practice, you can find more explanations and exercises on this topic in the Babbel app!

Well, I hope that Matt’s advice helps Nat to get some much-needed sleep! And that you’ll be able to use some of the things you learned in today’s episode the next time you talk about a problem or give somebody advice! Remember that you can always go back and listen to the whole episode again if you missed anything. You can also slow down the audio directly in your podcast player if that makes it easier for you to understand everything. That’s all for today! Thanks again for listening to Around the Water Cooler! Bye!