Your team is waiting on another one: how to report a blocker in English — factually, without blame, with a clear escalation.
B2 · Dialogue · 4 Min. · free
Tip: listen to the episode twice before you start the test.
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Transcript
Key phrases
Language notes
In this episode a team lead reports in the project sync that another team is blocking his progress — and learns the formula for a clean blocker update: blocker, impact, need. You also learn why "bekommen" never means "become" and how to escalate factually (level B2).
Markus’s update works because it consists of verifiable facts: how long the dependency has been open, how often he has chased, what every further day costs. No sentence judges the other team. Sandra’s closing formula sums up the pattern: "We are blocked, here is the impact, here is what we need." Attributing motives instead ("They obviously don’t care") turns a solvable resource problem into a conflict.
The classic German mistake in this episode: "We haven’t become the test data." "To become" means "werden" — so the sentence claims the team is failing to turn into test data. Correct is "to receive" or, more informally, "to get". Remember the pair via the restaurant classic: "I become a steak" does not order a steak; it announces a worrying transformation.
In many German companies, escalation is seen as a last, almost hostile step. In international projects it is a normal tool: after two documented weeks of chasing, you escalate not against people but for the date. The English form is neutral and brief — "what we need, since when, and the impact" — ideally in writing, so the next level can decide in a minute.
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Frequently asked questions
Level B2 (CEFR). The dialogue uses nuanced project English; the vocabulary list explains all eight key phrases bilingually.
With the three-part formula: "We are blocked" (name the blocker), "here is the impact" (effect on the date), "here is what we need" (concrete need). Facts instead of blame — dates, reminders, consequences.
"To receive" or "to get" — never "to become", which means "werden". "Wir haben die Daten bekommen" = "We received the data."
Yes, the full transcript with German support notes is on this page — listen first, then take the test, then read along.
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