HUYEN TAY ENGLISH CENTER

TOPIC DISCUSSIONS FOR COMMUNICATION CLASS

Ambition

This is the preparation material for a Business English topic about Ambition. Ambition is
a desire for personal or professional achievement, usually requiring determination and hard
work to achieve success.  For some people, ambition gives them a purpose or a goal to strive
for. Many people think that a life without ambition is an empty life, while others think that inner
happiness can be found without an ambition to achieve a high level career or a high paying job. 
Ambition is not just a desire to achieve, but it also involves the action or method of getting to
that desire.

Audio Discussion
http://www.englishwithjo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Ambition.mp3

AMBITION
Transcript
I have a few main ambitions at the moment. I think the first and foremost ones, seeing
as I'm in Japan at the moment studying Japanese, would to be actually to be able to speak the
language, but I think that's pretty far fetched ambition at the moment at the rate I'm going. I think
to actually learn this language properly you'd have to live here and be studying at least a year to
get to know the language and then another year to get fluent, get the speed up, get the slang in,
so I mean I think that's one of my life ambitions is to learn Japanese. I can't speak any other
languages so just to be able to speak another language would be amazing. I think English,
English speaking people have, well, a sort of bad arrogance that everyone else speaks English
and so why bother to learn another language. It's not like people in other European countries
where, like from a very young age they learn English. They can speak English, maybe French,
Spanish, and Italian. Once you got one language under your belt it seems to be a lot easier to
pick up other languages. So that's one of the things I'd like to do. My other main wish at the
moment, which I hopefully I'm going to turn into a reality when I return home is to actually get a
job in the animation industry. I did my degree in that and it's been something that I've, you know,
I've been waiting to actually get to the job stage, the job stage for so long now. Before I came to
Japan, I was working, but in a graphic design job which is not what I'm actually wanting to do,
so I think my, you know, number one wish at the moment, apart from the Japanese, is to
actually be there in the industry I want to be working in, working the way I want to work, you
know doing what I do for fun, as a job. That's my sort of number one ambition. I mean obviously
making money is nice but I think at the moment the most important thing in a job is, you know
money shouldn't be the first thing, you should really enjoy what you're doing. I've always said I'd
never want to work in an office where you have to wear a suit, where you have to be constricted
HUYEN TAY ENGLISH CENTER
TOPIC DISCUSSIONS FOR COMMUNICATION CLASS

and constrained. You know I want to have my offices, sort of I mean, the
environments I've, the work environments I've seen so far through friends and what
I've worked in myself is pretty similar to how I think it should be: a group of more friends than
colleagues working together on something they're passionate about. I think that has to be my
main aim in life.

Comprehension Questions
 The speaker expresses her view that money is not the most important consideration and
that the enjoyment of a job is more important. To what extent do you agree with this?
 The speaker talks about turning her wish into reality. How do you think she could do
this?

Reading Discussion
The only way to achieve success is to be ambitious, be it in one’s personal life or
profession to aspire to be a good spouse and to save some energy for my personal life. Now I
resolve one.  The desire to be the best at everything seems inherent for some people, while
others are happy to remain indifferent. Not me. I prefer to be driven toward a goal. When I
worked in lower management at a bank, for example, I greatly desired promotion to upper
management. I was eager to complete any task I was given, came up with industrious solutions
to problems, and aggressively motivated my team to strive for excellence. I became known as a
reliable employee and was able to attain a few increases in salary. The monetary incentive sure
did help to elevate my social status. But by the time I returned home each day, I was tired and
incompetent. I was exhausted from the effort I was putting in at work. I had to remind myself to
overachieve in only one area, but to be accomplished and productive in all of them.

Vocabulary
Nouns Adjectives Verbs
Promotion Industrious Overachieve
Success Reliable Desire
Status Motivated Aspire
Inherent Eager Strive
Excellenc Driven Attain
e Ambitious Elevate
Incentive Incompetent
Personal
Monetary
Professional
Productive
 
Phrasal Verbs 
Phrasal Verb Explanation Example
Embark on To begin something I am eager to embark on my new business
venture.
.
Forge ahead To make progress quickly Sally is forging ahead with her plans to expand
her business.
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TOPIC DISCUSSIONS FOR COMMUNICATION CLASS

Get ahead To progress and achieve I am determined to get ahead in my career.

success

Keep at To persist  I am determined to keep at my goals until I have

(something) reached them

Conversation Questions
 What are you currently forging ahead with? 
 What is the last project you embarked on? 
 Do you feel that you are getting ahead in your career?
 Are you the sort of person to keep at something?
 How would you define ambition? Do you think it is important to have ambitions? 
 Do you consider yourself to be an ambitious person? Why/not? 
 What ambitions do you have regarding your career?
 Do you think that ambition can be taught or do you think we are born with it? You’re not
born with it. It will be create bring success?
 Does ambition always bring success? 
 What are the positive results of being ambitious? 
 Are there any negative results of being ambitious? 
 What do you think is the difference between an ambition and a dream of doing
something?
 Who is the most ambitious person you know? How are they ambitious? 
 Name three famous people whom you admire for being ambitious.
 Why are some people determined to succeed at any cost, yet others just about lack any
drive whatsoever? 
 What do you think causes a person to be ambitious - family, genes, or the culture in
which he/she is raised? 
 Where do you see yourself in ten years? 
 Do you think someone can lose their ambition? What do you think could cause this? 
 Do you think younger people are more ambitious than older people? 
 Do you think one's social status as a child, whether rich, poor, or somewhere in the
middle, affects his/her ability to succeed later in life? 
 Who possesses a greater amount of ambition, men or women? Why do you think so? 
 Which nations have the greatest number of ambitious people? Why do you think so? Are
there any countries which lack overachievers?
 Which races are the most ambitious? Why do you think so?
 Imagine that you're a parent. How could you instill a healthy sense of drive in your child?