Thursday, May 7, 2009

English with an American Corporate Accent - 003

This is another collection from recent meetings and trips. It works best if you can find a native English speaker with exposure to corporate America to elaborate on the finer points that I cannot cover well here.

* These are low-hanging fruits. Let's do them first. [These are something easy to do and to get credit for. Let's do them first.]
* This might not be so easy. I cross my fingers. [This might not be so easy. I am hoping for the best.]
* Give me a jingle, please, when you get this message. [Give me a call, please, when you get this message.]
* Let's cross that bridge when we get to it. [Let's do what we have to do when we get to that point. Don't worry about it too much now.]
* Eventually, almost everyone accepted that no silver bullet would ever be found. [Eventually, almost everyone accepted the fact that no magic shortcuts or simple solutions would ever be found.]
* He has put a monkey wrench into the schedule by adding another surprise work item to it. [He has created complications to the schedule by adding another surprise work item to it. ]
* It's a tar baby - we would be stuck with working on it until the end of this product life cycle. [It is a complicated mess - we would be stuck with working on it until the end of this product life cycle.]
* With that proposal rejected, he was back to the drawing board. [With that proposal rejected, he was back to the starting point again.]
* That is not a one-size-fits-all kind of solution. [That is not a solution for all possible scenarios.]
* That project was on the radar screen to get open sourced. [That project was on in the process to get open sourced.]