Low-Hanging Fruit

If you are the first person to arrive at an apple tree during harvest time, you can easily find some low-hanging fruit. These are the apples that     1     (be) on the branches closest to the ground. Low-hanging fruit describes the most obvious or     2     (easy) things to do to help you reach a goal. Anyone or anything     3     can be won over or gained very easily is low-hanging fruit. Here is an example: “Changing the company logo is low-hanging fruit. It won’t cost much, and I can do it in an hour.”

6 . Hello, everyone! Welcome to another episode of our show Tease Your Brain. Today we will talk about brand language. When you walk into Starbucks, the world’s biggest coffee chain, you may hear a customer speaking a rapid-fire series of descriptions when asking for a drink — half-caf, black, and for the sizes — tall, grande, venti and trenta.

It is a special language, so this morning we have invited Scott, the Starbucks Regional Manager to talk about it. Welcome Scott!

First of all, can you say something about Starbucks language?

Scott: Thanks for inviting me. OK, sure. Our company invented these rules in the booklet, “Make It Your Drink”. It only belongs to Starbucks. We have also trained our baristas (咖啡师) to reply to customers using Starbucks vocabulary.

That is so fascinating, Scott! Is Starbucks the only company that uses brand language?

Scott: No. Many companies use this technique. When hungry Californians order a meal at In-N-Out, a burger chain, they need to specify the proportion of cheese slices to patties: a “triple double” means two patties sandwiched between three slices of cheese.

Thank you so much for your insight, Scott.

This past week, Tease Your Brain left the studio to ask people’s opinion about brand language. Let’s find out what they said：

A marketing professor: In my book The Language of Branding, I mention that brand language is a brilliant way of enhancing customer loyalty (忠诚). Companies that persuade people to use their own terms create “a sense of belonging and improved loyalty to the brand”. It also enables employees to work more efficiently.

A sociologist: People become part of a “speech community” when they use specialized vocabulary, which creates a feeling of shared values. Every time a company gets a consumer to refer to its products using a branded term rather than a general description — whoppers, say, rather than burgers — it is drawing them into its own community. In so doing, it makes them more likely to buy its products in the future.

OK. Now let’s listen to what a customer in Starbucks said.

I heard you order your coffee with the brand language, “no-whip”. So, what do you think of this kind of language?

A customer: I think it helps to create a “tribe” that members identify with. Take CrossFit, a fitness firm as an example. It has come up with a set of extensive vocabulary —“wod” means “workout of the day”. Using this kind of description, I feel like I am in the CrossFit group.

8 . If you are currently learning English, 1 highly recommend you check out the apps below.

Quizlet

When learning English, you probably have to memorize a lot of words. If you want to grow your vocabulary as fast as possible, a flashcard app like Quizlet is a great shortcut. With Quizlet, you can create a set of flashcards with new English words you are trying to learn, and practice typing them out until you know them by heart. It's a simple concept, but it's highly effective.

Spotify

Spotify is not a language learning app. But chances are that you already use it or a similar app for listening to music or podcasts（播客）, and one of the effective ways to study is combining something you already use into your existing habits. If Spotify is already on your phone, you can subscribe to some podcasts for English learners or download playlists of songs for learning English, or make your own.

Beelinguapp

Beelinguapp makes reading in English as convenient as possible. It shows you a text in your own language with the English translation side-by-side. Texts are short enough so that you can really dig into every word. They cover topics from fairytales, to science, to current news articles. There's even a "karaoke" feature where you can read along to audio, which helps you match up the English pronunciation with the English spellings.

Tandem

Tandem is a language exchange app which connects learners from all over the world. It can help you find a native English speaker who is trying to learn your native language, so you can swap language skills. If you only have five minutes to spare, you can simply exchange messages with a native English speaker. If you have more time, you can have a longer, digital language exchange" by sharing voice notes, or using video chat. It's a great way to test your English skills out with real people.