Episode 0021
Summary
The audio captures a social interaction where Caroline introduces her boyfriend, Greg, to Jessica and Arthur. Greg boasts extensively about his high-level corporate position and responsibilities. Jessica and Arthur respond with polite but subtly sarcastic remarks, with Arthur humorously concluding the conversation by declaring himself a 'top gun pilot' to counter Greg's grandstanding.
Transcript (Click timestamp to jump)
Oh, look, this Caroline and her boyfriend. She's always going on about him at the office.
Great, they saw us. They're coming this way.
Oh man.
Jessica, Arthur, hi!
I'd like you to meet my boyfriend, Greg.
He's the VP of Quality and Safety for a top Fortune 500 food company.
Nice to meet you.
This is my husband Arthur.
Hey, how's it going?
Hello.
Caroline talks about you all the time.
I guess you must be pretty busy at work.
Well, yeah, VP position is not easy, you know.
I implement policies and procedures nationwide, various departments, as well as train junior managers on FDA and EPA regulations.
I also have to oversee daily operations of our quality control for the entire East Coast.
That alone means I have 1500 employees under me.
Wow, yeah, that sounds exciting.
And what about you, Arthur? What do you do for a living?
Oh, I'm a top gun pilot!
Summary
The audio is an English learning podcast by hosts Marco and Erica. They introduce an intermediate lesson focused on describing one's job, presenting key vocabulary such as 'VP', 'Fortune 500 company', 'implement', 'policies', 'oversee', and 'under me'. A dialogue features Jessica, Caroline, Caroline's boyfriend Greg (a VP at a Fortune 500 food company), and Caroline's husband Arthur. Greg boasts extensively about his high-level job responsibilities, while Arthur responds with sarcastic dry humor, claiming to be a 'Top Gun pilot'. The hosts then review the dialogue's vocabulary and discuss natural ways to ask 'What do you do for a living?'. Finally, they challenge listeners with two questions about the audio content and encourage them to share their own professions.
Transcript (Click timestamp to jump)
Hello English learners and welcome back to another great lesson with English Pod. My name is Marco.
And I'm Erica.
And today we're bringing you a great intermediate lesson with some really useful vocabulary.
Some vocabulary you can use to describe your job.
Yes. This is a really common situation when you someone asks you what you do and you have to tell them.
Exactly. So today's lesson is all about that.
So before we jump into our dialogue, let's start with our vocabulary preview.
Vocabulary preview.
We have two simple phrases today that you'll hear in our dialogue for our vocabulary preview.
The first one is VP.
VP.
VP.
So the VP of a company is
The Vice President.
The Vice President.
Exactly.
Yeah. Simple little acronym.
And the next word is Fortune 500 company.
Fortune 500 company.
Fortune 500 company.
So a Fortune 500 company is
I'll let you explain.
Well, Fortune Magazine ranks the 500 biggest companies in the US.
So a Fortune 500 company basically is one of the 500 biggest companies in the US.
Okay, that's simple.
Yep.
All right, well, with those words, it sounds like we're going to be talking to some important people today.
Yes, we are going to be talking to some important people.
So let's listen to our dialogue for the first time.
Now, it's gonna be a little bit fast, but you don't have to worry about it.
Cuz we'll come back and explain all of the important vocabulary.
Oh, look. There's Caroline and her boyfriend. She's always going on about him at the office.
Oh, great. They saw us. They're coming this way.
Oh, man.
Jessica, Arthur, hi!
I'd like you to meet my boyfriend, Greg. He's the VP of Quality and Safety for a top Fortune 500 food company.
Nice to meet you.
This is my husband, Arthur.
Hey, how's it going?
Hello.
Caroline talks about you all the time. I guess you must be pretty busy at work.
Well, yeah, VP position is not easy, you know.
Huh!
I implement policies and procedures nationwide, various departments, as well as train junior managers in FDA and EPA regulations.
I also have to oversee daily operations of our quality control for the entire East Coast. That alone means I have 1500 employees under me. Hahaha.
Wow, yeah, that sounds exciting.
And what about you, Arthur? What do you do for a living?
Oh, I'm a Top Gun pilot.
All right, great music for our dialogue again, huh?
Chosen by
By moi. Of course.
Yeah, Top Gun is one of my all-time favorite movies.
And Top Gun pilot, what a cool profession.
An excellent profession, much cooler than being like the VP.
Yeah. How boring is that?
Anyway, this guy was a bit of a jerk, don't you think?
Yeah, you can tell a little bit of the sarcastic tone he had in his voice.
Definitely.
But he did use some interesting phrases and we can talk about those now.
Right, so let's take a look at language takeaway.
Language takeaway.
Our first word for language takeaways is implement.
Implement.
Implement. Implement.
Let's listen to some examples of this word to help us understand its meaning.
Example one.
Our company has to implement the sales strategy.
Example two.
Sarah will be responsible for implementing the plan.
Example three.
I implemented several new policies.
Okay, great examples, and just in case,
to implement means to
Put into action.
Put into action, great.
Exactly.
Our second word for language takeaway, policies.
Policies.
Policies.
Policies.
So policies are basically rules and regulations.
Exactly. Formal rules.
For a company or an organization.
Exactly.
Policies, great.
Third word?
Oversee.
Oversee.
Oversee.
Oversee.
So when you oversee operations, it means
Like you watch it to make sure it's okay.
You supervise it.
This is an excellent word to use when you want to talk about your job responsibilities.
Oversee.
Mhm. Great.
And our last word for language takeaway, it's kind of tricky, so let's listen to how it was used in our dialogue.
That alone means I have 1500 employees under me.
Haha.
That alone means I have 1500 employees under me.
Haha.
So this guy has 1500 employees under him,
meaning he supervises 1500 employees.
Right, he manages 1500 employees.
He must be a busy man.
Yes, for 1500 employees.
How many employees do you have under you, Erica?
Uh, two.
Yeah, not quite as much as 1500.
Yeah, guess I'm not a VP right yet.
Not yet, but you will.
Okay.
All right, so with this in mind, we are ready to listen to our dialogue for a second time and this time it's gonna be slower.
Oh, look. There's Caroline and her boyfriend. She's always going on about him at the office.
Oh, great. They saw us. They're coming this way.
Oh, man.
Jessica, Arthur, hi!
I'd like you to meet my boyfriend, Greg. He's the VP of Quality and Safety for a top Fortune 500 food company.
Nice to meet you.
This is my husband, Arthur.
Hey, how's it going?
Hello.
Caroline talks about you all the time. I guess you must be pretty busy at work.
Well, yeah, VP position is not easy, you know.
I implement policies and procedures nationwide of various departments, as well as train junior managers in FDA and EPA regulations.
I also have to oversee daily operations of our quality control for the entire East Coast.
That alone means I have 1500 employees under me.
Wow, yeah, that sounds exciting.
And what about you, Arthur? What do you do for a living?
Oh, I'm a Top Gun pilot.
Okay, great stuff.
With this, now we can start with our fluency builder for today.
Fluency builder.
We heard some excellent phrases in this dialogue, some phrases that sound really natural, huh?
Yes.
especially the first one that we have today is whenever someone talks and talks and talks and just and continuously talks without stopping, you would say,
She's always going on about him at the office.
She's always going on about him at the office.
This is a really natural way of saying keeps talking about.
Right. Keeps talking about him.
So we have a few examples of how this phrase works.
Let's listen.
Example one.
My boss is always going on about how we need to save money. It's all he talks about.
Example two.
Gary is always going on about his kids. He's always talking about how smart they are.
Example three.
My mom is always going on about how I should get married.
Okay, excellent. It's clear now.
Yes.
Okay, so let's move on to our second phrase for today.
And this is a great one to use whenever you meet someone for the first time.
Or when you start to talk to someone for the first time.
Great.
Hey, how's it going?
Hey, how's it going?
So this is a really relaxed and natural way of saying how are you.
How are you?
So yeah, you can just say, hey, how's it going?
Yep.
Really natural sounding.
Now, our third phrase is the most important one of our dialogue.
Yes.
And it's a really common situation.
When someone asks you about your job, they might say this.
Arthur, what do you do for a living?
Arthur, what do you do for a living?
So this is a really great way of asking what work do you do or what is your job?
Yes, and I know a lot of students sometimes say what is your job?
Yeah, and that is, it's kind of correct, but not really.
It doesn't sound very natural.
Right, so you want to use what do you do or
What do you do for a living?
Sounds great.
That's the way you ask someone what is their job.
And that's how you sound super natural.
Okay, so we're ready now to listen to our dialogue a last time, and now you are ready to understand everything.
Oh, look. There's Caroline and her boyfriend. She's always going on about him at the office.
Oh, great. They saw us. They're coming this way.
Oh, man.
Jessica, Arthur, hi!
I'd like you to meet my boyfriend, Greg. He's the VP of Quality and Safety for a top Fortune 500 food company.
Nice to meet you.
This is my husband, Arthur.
Hey, how's it going?
Hello.
Caroline talks about you all the time. I guess you must be pretty busy at work.
Well, yeah, VP position is not easy, you know.
I implement policies and procedures nationwide, various departments, as well as train junior managers in FDA and EPA regulations.
I also have to oversee daily operations of our quality control for the entire East Coast. That alone means I have 1500 employees under me.
Haha.
Wow, yeah, that sounds exciting.
And what about you, Arthur? What do you do for a living?
Oh, I'm a Top Gun pilot.
Okay, so I have a little challenge for our listeners today.
What is it?
Two challenges, actually.
The first one, who performs the song that you heard and what is the song called?
Okay, I don't know the answer, so I'm looking forward to seeing what users do.
And the second one is, what is the number one company in the Fortune 500?
Oh, I also don't know this answer.
Two great questions, so I expect to see your answers on the comments page.
but also we want to know about your profession.
Yes.
Tell us about your job. Tell us what you do, and use some of the great phrases you learned today to describe your answer.
Great.
So we hope to see you there, but we're out of time now.
So we'll see everyone at EnglishPod.com. Leave all your questions and of course, all the comments.
And Marco and I are always around to answer your questions.
Well, until then, it's goodbye.
Bye.
Summary
The audio is an English vocabulary learning session. It presents definitions spoken by a female voice, followed by the corresponding vocabulary word spoken by a male voice. The session also includes example sentences for some words, further demonstrating their usage. The content covers terms such as 'go on about', 'implement', 'responsible', 'nationwide', 'look after', 'oversee', 'quality control', 'under me', 'develop relationships', 'handle complaints', 'coordinate', 'monitor', 'supervise', and 'ensure'. The session also includes a faster repetition section.
Transcript (Click timestamp to jump)
The English pod audio review.
Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.
Talk about something a lot.
Go on about.
Top 500 companies rated by revenue.
Fortune 500.
Begin to do something, put into action.
Implement.
Have the duty or job of taking care of something.
Responsible.
In the whole country.
Nationwide.
Take care of.
Look after.
Watch and direct to make sure a job is done correctly.
Oversee.
Checking goods to make sure that they are good enough to sell.
Quality control.
Working for me.
Under me.
Develop relationships.
Look after or take care of complaints.
Handle complaints.
Make arrangements or plans with a group of people.
Coordinate.
Watch and check.
Monitor.
Be in charge of something, watch and direct.
Supervise.
Make sure.
Ensure.
Let's try that faster.
In the whole country.
Nationwide.
Make arrangements or plans with a group of people.
Coordinate.
Watch and direct to make sure a job is done correctly.
Oversee.
Top 500 companies rated by revenue.
Fortune 500.
Take care of.
Look after.
Working for me.
Under me.
Checking goods to make sure that they are good enough to sell.
Quality control.
Be in charge of something, watch and direct.
Supervise.
Watch and check.
Monitor.
Have the duty or job of taking care of something.
Responsible.
Make sure.
Ensure.
Begin to do something, put into action.
Implement.
Develop relationships.
Look after or take care of complaints.
Handle complaints.
Talk about something a lot.
Go on about.
Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.
Go on about.
My boss is always going on about how we need to save money. It's all he talks about.
Go on about.
Gary is always going on about his kids. He's always talking about how smart they are.
Go on about.
My mom is always going on about how I should get married.
Implement.
Our company has to implement this sales strategy.
Implement.
Sarah will be responsible for implementing the plan.
Implement.
I implemented several new policies.
According to company regulations, we have to fly economy class.
You need to make sure that you follow the rules and regulations.
Government regulations do not allow us to import raw meat.
Oversee.
In my last job, I oversaw recruitment.
Oversee.
Jason, can you oversee this project?
Oversee.
I'm overseeing the budget in my department.
Nationwide.
Nationwide, we have 500 stores.
Nationwide.
The government will be starting nationwide testing of grade four students.
Nationwide.
There is a nationwide shortage of doctors.
Under me.
In your new job, you'll have 18 employees under you.
Under me.
I don't have any employees under me.
Under me.
Frank has 12 managers working under him.
Quality control.
Our quality control measures help make sure that there are no mistakes in our product.
Quality control.
I'm responsible for quality control in our factory.
Quality control.
We have poor quality control and so there are a lot of problems with our product.