Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 52, Preparing for a Business Trip.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 52.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
In this episode, we're going to discuss taking a business trip.
Let's get started.
I'm going to a conference this weekend back in my home state of Minnesota.
I am going there to address a convention full of librarians, believe it or not.
For me, the worst part of going on the road for business is not traveling.
It's all the preparation you have to do.
I created a whole checklist of things that I have to do when I travel.
First, I confirm that my flight will be on time departing from LAX.
Next, I call to double-check on my reservation for the hotel and The rent-a-car.
After that, I pull out my suitcase and start packing.
I'm a light packer, so I bring only the pants, shirts, socks, and underwear I'm going to need.
Nothing more.
I throw in my toiletries bag with the usual stuff, shaver, shaving cream, toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss, and then I'm just about done.
Finally, I go through my briefcase to make sure I have the things I'll need for the conference my badge, my laptop, my overhead transparencies, a notepad and some pens.
Now I'm ready.
Off I go to my old home.
I talked about preparing for a business trip I have to take.
I said I am going to a conference this weekend back in my home state of Minnesota.
A conference is a large meeting of people interested in the same subject or topic.
You can have a conference for automobile makers or a conference of teachers or a conference of doctors.
Anything that you can talk about and have presentations about, you can have a conference.
I said that I was going this weekend to this conference back in my home state.
To say back in is just to say in my home state.
But it sort of implies that you have moved to another place and now you are going back to that place.
So I lived in Minnesota.
I now live in California.
I can go back to Minnesota to visit.
And of course, since I was born and raised or grew up in Minnesota...
It is my home state.
It is the state where I was born.
I'm going there to address a convention.
To address means to talk to, to give a presentation to.
I am now going to address the students means I'm going to give them a presentation or talk to them all as one big group.
This convention, and convention is here really just another word for a conference.
This convention is a librarian convention.
Librarians, of course, are the people who take care of books and other things in a library.
And I said, I'm going there, believe it or not.
Believe it or not is an expression we use when we are telling someone something that they may not believe or that is very unusual.
Believe it or not, it actually snowed in Los Angeles once.
I just made that up.
I don't know if that's true.
But that would be certainly a good place to say believe it or not.
I said the worst part of going on the road for business is not the traveling.
On the road is an expression that we use to say traveling.
I'm on the road this week means I am traveling this week, usually for some business purpose.
I said that I created a whole checklist.
A checklist is a list of things that you have to do or that you need to make sure are done.
To check something.
You probably know.
It means to investigate, but here it means to put a little X or a little what we call a check mark, which is sort of like a V, but with one very short side and one very long side.
A checklist is a list of things that we check off, which is to say, if I have a checklist of things to do, after I do it I can check it off, meaning I can put a little x indicating that I'm done.
The use of the word whole here, w-h-o-l-e, I created a whole checklist.
This is a common, informal way that we talk about something that is bigger or more work than you expected, or is something more than you thought.
For example...
My sister called me the other day and she gave me this whole story about how her friend and so on and so forth.
The whole gave me this whole story, meaning it was a long story.
So anything that seems to be greater than or more than we expect.
We can sometimes use that expression.
It's an informal expression for the most part.
I said that I confirm my flight will be on time departing from LAX.
Lots of things there.
To confirm your flight means to call up the airline and make sure that your plane is going to leave on time, the time that it's supposed to leave.
Your flight is the plane that you are going to go in.
And departing just means to leave.
There are departing flights and arriving flights.
The noun would be departures.
Those are the flights that are leaving the airport.
And arrivals are the flights or planes that are arriving or coming to the airport.
I said I call to double check on my reservation for the hotel and the rent-a-car.
To double check means that I'm checking again.
I want to be very sure that they have my reservation.
So I'm going to double check it.
I already checked it last week.
I'm going to check or investigate it this week.
That's double checking.
A rent-a-car is the same as a rental car.
Rent-a-car, rental car, it's the same.
I said I pull out my suitcase and start packing.
To pull out implies that it was stored somewhere in my closet and I have to take it out or pull it out, remove it.
My suitcase, of course, is where you put your clothes and other things when you go on a trip, so that they all stay in one place, especially if you are going on an airplane.
To pack means to put things in your suitcase in order to leave. we also use this verb to pack.
If you are moving from one house or one apartment to another, you have to pack your things.
You have to put them all in boxes or in something that you can move them easily with.
I said I'm a light packer, which means I don't like to pack or put very many things in my suitcase.
I said that I was going to throw in my toiletries bag.
To throw in means literally to take something up, pick something up, and throw it.
But here, to throw in means to put in my suitcase.
Toiletries is a general term that refers to all the sort of things you might find in a bathroom that you would need and you can take with you.
Shaving cream, toothbrush, shampoo, toothpaste, all of these could be called toiletries.
One of the toiletries I'm bringing is floss, F-L-O-S-S.
Floss is like a little piece of string that you use in between your teeth to get the food out.
I said that I go through my briefcase to make sure I have all the things I need.
My briefcase is a place where a business person carries their papers and their computer, perhaps.
This little bag is called a briefcase if it's used in a business setting or business situation.
If you're going to a convention or a conference, usually they give you a badge.
B-A-D-G-E.
A badge is a little piece of paper usually inside a plastic holder.
And it has your name on it.
And it's like a ticket for you to get in to the conference.
And conferences and conventions almost always have badges that people wear.
So you can also see what their name is.
And see, oh, you're the guy that called me last week and wasted my time.
That's what a badge is for. overhead transparencies is a piece of plastic that is clear.
In other words, you can see through it and you write on it and you put it on a overhead projector, which is basically a big lamp with a mirror that projects or shows what's on the transparency up on a big screen.
Now let's listen to the dialogue at a normal speed.
I'm going to a conference this weekend back in my home state of Minnesota.
I'm going there to address a convention full of librarians, believe it or not.
For me, the worst part of going on the road for business is not the traveling.
It's all the preparation you have to do.
I created a whole checklist of things I have to do when I travel.
First, I confirm that my flight will be on time, departing from LAX.
Next, I call to double-check on my reservation for the hotel and the rent-a-car.
After that, I pull out my suitcase and start packing.
I'm a light packer, so I only bring the pants, shirts, socks, and underwear I'm going to need.
Nothing more.
I throw in my toiletries bag with the usual stuff.
Shaver, shaving cream, toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss.
And then I'm just about done.
Finally, I go through my briefcase to make sure I have all the things I'll need for the conference.
My badge, my laptop, my overhead transparencies, a notepad, and some pens.
Now I'm ready.
Off I go to my old home.
Thanks to our fantastic scriptwriter, Dr. Lucy Say, for her hard work.
And thanks to you for listening.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
This podcast is copyright 2006.
