Daniel: Hey Chelsea, how's it going?

Chelsea: Hey Daniel, good morning. I'm doing good. How are you?

Daniel: Well, thank you. Doesn't seem so busy around here.

Chelsea: It doesn't, you're right. I feel like we've had less customers recently. I wonder why.

Daniel: Hmm.

Ted: Hello and welcome back to Around the Water Cooler. I’m Ted, English expert here at Babbel, filling in for Katrina for the last couple episodes of this season. Today, we’re listening in on Chelsea and Daniel, two friends who have just opened a bookstore together, and, as you heard, they’re having a little problem getting customers into their store. After we hear the rest of their conversation, I’ll help you break it down and explain some important phrases that you can use to talk about different solutions to a problem, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each one. If you’d like to read along while you listen, you can find a link to the transcript in the episode description.

Ok. Let’s get back to Chelsea and Daniel!

Daniel: The main issue is that we have really low foot traffic in this area.

Chelsea: Yeah, I think you might be right. The store is located on a tiny alleyway, and there's not much foot traffic around this part of the city. I think we should increase our visibility.

Daniel: The signs we put up around the neighborhood must have fallen down.

Chelsea: Well, maybe we could focus on advertising. On one hand, it will attract a lot of customers, but on the other hand, it can be quite expensive. It raises the question of whether the benefit outweighs the cost.

Daniel: True, but getting more customers will increase our sales.

Chelsea: Yes, that's true. I wonder if we can get greater reach on social media.

Daniel: It's possible, of course.

Chelsea: We can also interview local authors and post them online, and we can also make deals with them to sell their books.

Daniel: That's a great idea.

Chelsea: Last but not least, we need to work on our visual appeal.
This could be a great opportunity to revamp our brand.

Daniel: What were you thinking? Furniture? Shelves? Store sign?

Chelsea: Everything! We can also hire a graphic designer to work on our online content for us.

Daniel: Hmm. To some extent, a graphic designer would support us. But maybe we can work on this organically without that type of help.

Ted: Ok. Let’s take a closer look at some parts of the conversation. So, we know that Chelsea and Daniel’s shop doesn’t have enough customers, but why? Well, Daniel uses the phrase, “The main issue is that…” to clearly state their biggest concern. And what is the main issue? Yes, that they have really low foot traffic in their area.

The friends then go on to discuss some different possible solutions to the problem. The first one they mention is advertising. They did have some signs up around the neighborhood pointing people towards the store, but Daniel thinks that they “must have fallen down”. We use the verb form “must have” plus the “past participle” when we aren’t sure if something has happened and we need to make a guess. Daniel doesn’t know for sure that the signs have fallen down, but it’s a possibility. Next, Chelsea mentions another possible solution using the phrase, “Maybe we could…”. She introduces her next idea with “I wonder if we can…”. It’s almost like she’s thinking out loud, and it’s a nice way to suggest a solution, while also giving others a chance to say what they think. There’s one more phrase that Chelsea uses to mention a possible solution: “last but not least”. You can use this phrase to clearly signal that this is the last item in a list, but that it isn’t any less important than the others!

Now, what about talking about the advantages and disadvantages of different solutions? Well, when talking about whether or not they should invest in advertising, Chelsea says, “On one hand…” followed by an advantage of the solution, and then, “but on the other hand” followed by a disadvantage. Do you remember what the advantage and disadvantage were? If not, you “must have missed” them, but no worries, just try to catch them on your second listen! And… last but not least, there’s the phrase, “It raises the question of whether…”. Chelsea uses this one to bring up a concern about the proposed solution that she wants Daniel to consider.

Now that they’ve come up with some possible ways to get some customers into their bookstore, the only thing left for them to do is to give these potential solutions a try! I wonder which one will work! And as for you, the next time you find yourself in a situation where you need to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches, try to use some of the phrases we talked about today!

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We’ve reached the end of today’s episode. I hope you enjoyed the conversation and, of course, also learned something new. We’ll see you again next week for another episode of Around the Water Cooler. Bye!