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English as a Second Language Podcast

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 79

TOPICS

Ask an American: Working

quote vs. offer, something’s gotta give

_____________

GLOSSARY

role – what one does in a job, department, or organization; one’s responsibilities

in a company or an organization

* Henrietta’s role in the accounting department is to pay all of the company’s bills

each month.

global – related to the entire world; related to all countries; all over the world

* We usually know how well the economy is doing in a single country, but it’s

more difficult to understand how well the global economy is doing.

market – the demand for a product or service; the sales for a certain type of

product or service

* The market for computers grew a lot in the mid-1990s.

FDA – U.S. Food and Drug Administration; a U.S. government agency that is

responsible for protecting the health of Americans

* The FDA must approve all new medicines before they can be sold to the public.

clinical research – research done by testing something on real people

* The new drug did well in all of the laboratory tests, so now it’s time to begin the

clinical research and see how people react to it.

to negotiate – to find ways around something that is difficult

* If you want to apply for a job with the government, you’ll need to negotiate the

many rules and regulations to submit an application.

obstacle – something that makes it difficult for one to do something; something

that is between you and something you want

* For many people, the biggest obstacle to losing weight is that they don’t like to

exercise.

patient – a person who is receiving medical care

* The doctor told her patient to take the medicine twice a day for a week.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 79

jargon – technical words that are used by one group of people and are difficult

for other people outside of the group to understand

* Engineers use a lot of jargon, so it’s sometimes difficult for them to explain their

projects to people who are not engineers.

multiple – many; more than one

* This building has multiple emergency exits, so that people can leave quickly if

there’s a fire.

geography – the study of the surface of the planet, its physical characteristics,

and how it is divided into different countries and populations

* In today’s geography class, the students are taking a test on the capital cities in

African.

quote – an estimate; a guess about how much something will cost

* The first quote we got for fixing the roof was too high, so we’re going to look for

better prices from other companies.

offer – the amount of money that someone is willing to pay for something

* Shawna got three offers from people who wanted to buy her car: $6,700,

$6,350, and $5,800.

gotta – informal version of “got to”; have to; has to; must do something

* I’d like to go to the movies with you, but I gotta study tonight.

to give – to relax; to stop putting pressure on something or someone; to stop

doing something

* There were too many people standing on the bridge and when the wood gave,

the people fell into the water.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 79

WHAT INSIDERS KNOW

A Classic Song about Work: “Working 9 to 5”

Dolly Parton is a famous American singer and actress. One of her famous

movies is a “comedy” (funny movie) called “Nine to Five,” which was made in

1980. The phrase “working nine to five” refers to a normal work schedule. Many

people arrive to the office at 9:00 a.m. and leave at 5:00 p.m., or “from nine to

five.”

In the movie, Dolly Parton sings a song called “9 to 5.” Here are the “lyrics” (the

words in a song) to the “chorus” (the part of a song that repeats many times).

Working nine to five, what a way to make a living.

Barely getting by, it's all taking and no giving.

They just use your mind, and they never give you credit.

It's enough to drive you crazy, if you let it.

The first line means that working all day, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., is a difficult

way “to make a living,” or to make enough money to live a daily life. She is

“barely” (hardly) “getting by.” “To get by” means to have enough money to pay

for what one needs. In other words, she doesn’t get enough money from her job

to pay for everything she needs. “It’s all taking and no giving,” meaning that her

job is taking a lot of her time and energy, but it isn’t giving her very much money.

There is a popular expression, “give and take,” which means that two people (or

organizations) share the work and the rewards. When one side “takes” too much

and the other side doesn’t “give” enough, then that’s not a good relationship.

She sings, “They just use your mind, and they never give you credit.” This

means that the employer is using her ideas to help the business, but it never

thanks her for her hard work. “To give (someone) credit” means to give them

recognition, thanks, or reward for their work or accomplishment. The last line

says, “It’s enough to drive you crazy, if you let it.” This means that her job is very

frustrating and it could make her feel crazy, if she allows it to.

This is a well-known song that many Americans who work nine to five can relate

to. They feel that the lyrics show their own feelings about working hard and not

getting the reward they deserve.

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these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 79

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT

You're listening to ESL Podcast's English Café number 79.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast English Café number 79. I'm

your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational

Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

Remember to visit our website at eslpod.com and take a look at the Learning

Guide for this episode, as well as some of our new premium courses.

In this episode, we're going to listen to and talk about an interview with Steve,

who is going to talk about his job in our "Ask an American" series, and as always,

we'll answer a few questions. Let's get started!

We're going to begin today by doing another one of our "Ask an American"

episodes, where we interview someone else and ask them to talk about

something related to their life or their job. We will then explain what they are

saying. These are English speakers who are talking at a normal rate of speech,

so it's a little difficult to understand them, but we will listen and then go back and

listen again to different sections - different parts - and explain in slower, clearer

vocabulary what they are saying.

We've had a good reaction to this series - the "Ask an American" series - that we

do occasionally. And so, if you like it or don't like it, please email us and let us

know.

Today we're going to listen to a short interview with Steve, and Steve is going to

talk about his job - what he does for a living and what he likes about his job.

Now, Steve speaks a little fast, but to get you ready to listen I can tell you that he

works for a company that makes medical devices. A device, "device," is sort of

like a small mechanical or electronic thing that's used for a specific purpose. In

this case, these are devices used for people who have a bad heart. He's going

to talk about what he does at this company. He's going to use a lot of business

technical vocabulary, so we'll explain all of that after we listened to him. This is

about a minute long, so try to listen and understand what you can. Don't worry

about understanding everything; we'll go back and explain it after we listen.

I recorded this interview a room where there was a little bit of noise, so you can

hear some noise of people talking in the background. But again, I think that's

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 79

good for us to get used to - understanding voices even when the audio isn't

perfect. Let's take a listen to Steve then, talking about his job.

[recording]

I am executive director at Boston Scientific; I'm director of research. My role is to

run global research in pre-market and post-market for products that are coming

to market through the FDA in the United States. I work on clinical research and

negotiate them through the FDA to - for new products, and bringing new

products. And, I'm also director of post-market research, so that's research on

products that are already approved in the United States, and also approved

globally. Most of our studies are done in the United States and in multiple

geographies in Europe, Australia and Canada.

[end of recording]

Okay, he did speak quickly and used a lot of different types of vocabulary, so we

want to stop here and talk a little bit about what he said.

Steve begins by telling us that he is a director of research at a company. The

name of the company is called Boston Scientific, which is a large company that

produces medical devices here in the United States. Steve then tells us what his

role, "role," is. The word role is just another word for what particular position you

have in a company. He says:

[recording] "My role is to run global research in pre-market and post-market..."

Steve says his role is to run, or to take care of - to be in charge of - research that

is global research. Global, "global," means for the entire world - for all the

different countries where his company works. He says specifically he is in

charge of pre-market and post-market studies.

Pre-market, "pre-" market, "market," is just another way of saying before the

product that the company makes is sold to the general public - before they

release it - before they put it on sale. So, pre-market research is when you are

looking at your product or your service - what you are going to sell - and you are

making sure that it's - everything is correct about it.

The word market here normally means a store, when we use the term market,

but market can also refer to people who buy something. Someone who is buying

drugs would be part of the drug market - the group of people who buy that

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these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

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