ESLPod.com presents Using English at Work, a special 10-episode course to teach you the English that people use in a typical day at work.
I'm Dr. Jeff McQuillan from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles California.
I'll be your host for this series.
In this course, each lesson has three parts.
First, we will hear a story read slowly talking about a part of my day at work.
Second, I will explain the vocabulary we used in the story providing examples of how the new words should be used.
Third, we will hear another version of the story this time at a normal pace, a normal speed.
To give you a chance to hear different voices speaking English, the voice used in the stories is not my voice, although it is a story about me and my day at work.
Are you ready? Let's begin with lesson one.
Arriving at work. I woke up this morning and thought, T-G-I-F.
I have been looking forward to the weekend, and all I need to do is to get through one more day of work.
I drive to work and pull into the parking lot next to my office building.
I stop at the security gate.
I put my key card into the card reader and the security arm goes up.
I drive into the parking structure and find a parking spot.
I make sure that my parking permit is showing in the windshield and I lock up.
I get my briefcase out of the back seat and walk toward the building.
It's a short walk and I'm there in no time.
When I get there, I take out my badge and put it around my neck before I go through the main entrance of the building.
Employees are supposed to wear their badges at all times at work so that the security guards know that we belong there.
One day last week, I forgot my badge at home and I had to get a visitor's pass for the day.
My coworker made fun of me all day.
He kept asking me if he could get me some coffee and when I was leaving.
What a joker. I began by saying that when I woke up, I thought TGIF.
TGIF is an acronym meaning that each letter is the first letter of another word.
TGIF, all capital letters, means thank goodness it's Friday.
Some people also say thank God it's Friday.
People say TGIF on Fridays show that they are happy that the weekend is coming.
I said that I have been looking forward to the weekend and that all I need to do is to get through or to be able to finish one more day of work.
So the day I am talking about must be Friday.
Then I drive to work and pull into or enter a parking lot.
A parking lot is a flat area where cars can be parked.
Usually if the driver pays a little bit of money.
In the United States, many businesses have parking lots in front of or behind their buildings.
In this case, the parking lot is next to my office building.
I stop my car at the security gate.
A security gate is a metal bar or a door that goes across a road and stops cars and people from entering an area unless they have permission to do so.
There are security gates in front of most military buildings, for example, so that only soldiers or members of the military can go in.
Most areas that charge for parking where you have to pay for the parking have some sort of security gate to stop you from going in without paying or without permission.
When my car is stopped in front of the security gate, I put my key card into the card reader.
A key card is a rectangular piece of plastic like a driver's license or a credit card which is used for identification and electronically tells a machine when someone should be allowed to do something.
Many businesses have key cards instead of the normal metal key to get into rooms or buildings.
In this case, the key card lets me pass through the security gates.
A card reader is a machine that electronically reads the key card and decides whether a person should be allowed to do something.
The card reader is able to look at the electronic information on the card and determine if I should be let in, if I can go in or not.
We use card readers for many things.
When you buy food or groceries with a credit card, in many American supermarkets, you have to put your credit card into or through a card reader at the store.
When I put my key card into the card reader at work, the security arm goes up.
A security arm is a long heavy metal or wood bar that blocks a road.
But it can be moved up to let people drive by if they have permission.
So it's a kind of security gate.
In the movies, bad people sometimes drive very quickly so that their cars will break through the security arms.
But in usual life, we usually wait for the guard or the machine to lift the security arm and let us drive into the parking lot.
Next, I drive into the parking structure.
A parking structure is a large concrete building with many floors or levels for cars to park on.
Large cities have many parking structures because there are many cars that need to park on a small piece of land.
Many people don't like parking structures because it's difficult to find your car if you forget which floor or level you are parked on.
I do this all the time. I drive into the parking structure and I find a parking spot.
A parking spot is a place for one car to be parked.
It's usually marked with white or yellow painted lines.
Sometimes it is very difficult to find a parking spot in the city and people have to drive for a long time until you find one.
But I don't have that problem so I pull in or drive into the parking spot.
I make sure that my parking permit is showing in the windshield.
A parking permit is a piece of paper or plastic that gives a person permission to park his or her car in a specific area.
A permit allows you to do something.
The verb is to permit. Notice when we use it as a noun, the accent is on the first syllable, permit.
When we use it as a verb, the accent is on the second syllable, permit.
So this is a parking permit that permits me to park in a certain area.
Many universities have one color of parking permit for professors and another color for students.
This way, the universities can let the professors park closer to the buildings and the students have to park farther away.
I hated this when I was a student, but of course I loved it when I worked as a professor.
I said that my parking permit is showing in the windshield.
This means you can see it in or through the windshield.
A wind shield is a large glass window in the front of a car that a driver looks through to see where he or she is going.
My parking permit has to be seen through the wind shield so that if a guard walks by, he or she will know that I have permission to park my car there.
If I don't have permission, my car may be towed, T-O-W-E-D.
If your car is towed, the company brings a truck and they take it away.
And then you have to pay extra money to get it back so you don't want to do that.
Next, I take my briefcase out of the back seat.
The second row of seats in the car is called the back seat.
A briefcase is a small container or bag that people use to carry their work papers in.
Then I lock up the car. To lock up means to use a key to close the locks on the door of one's car or home so that other people cannot get in without a key.
You probably lock up your house before you go to sleep at night.
Well, I am locking up my car before I go into the office so no one steals it.
Here I could also just say lock.
I lock my car. But we often say lock up two words to add more emphasis to the sentence.
After I lock up my car, I walk toward the building.
It's a short walk and I'm there in no time.
The phrase in no time means very quickly right away or with very little delay.
If you listen to ESL podcasts, premium courses like this, you'll learn new vocabulary in no time or very quickly.
When I get to the office building, I take out my badge and put it around my neck to take out means to remove from something such as remove it from my briefcase.
A badge B-A-D-G-E is a piece of identification, usually or often with a photograph that shows that a person works for a specific organization or business.
A badge is something that you wear so people can see it.
In this case, I put it around my neck.
It is hanging from my neck.
Usually there's a piece of string or some other fabric that holds the badge.
Police officers always have badges that they keep in their pocket.
If someone knocks on your door and they say that they are police officers, you may ask them to show their badge before you allow them into your house.
I put my badge around my neck so that people can see it.
Then I go through the main entrance of the building.
A main entrance is the front door of a building or the primary place where people enter a building that has more than one entrance.
A main entrance is usually bigger and perhaps nicer or more beautiful than the other entrances.
Where I work, the employees or the people who work at the company are supposed to show their badges at all times.
The phrase at all times means always or all the time.
For example, parents want to know where their children are at all times.
At my office, people are supposed to wear their badges at all times so that the security guards know that we belong there.
A security guard is a person who decides who can and cannot enter a building for safety reasons.
Security guards are popular at many U.S.
companies to protect the employees.
They usually wear uniforms.
They look a little like police officers but they are not.
They are private guards.
Sometimes in American businesses, security guards will have guns.
I said that one day last week, I forgot my badge at home, meaning that I forgot to bring it to work.
That day, I had to get a visitor's pass.
A visitor's pass is a piece of paper that lets a visitor enter a building where he or she does not work.
Usually because he or she has a meeting there, a pass is similar to a permit.
It allows you to do something to enter somewhere.
To get a visitor's pass, you usually walk into the building and tell the security guard that you have a meeting with someone.
The security guard calls that person to confirm that you do in fact have a meeting and then gives you a visitor's pass which might be a sticker that you put on your clothes or a badge to wear on your shirt.
When I had to get a visitor's pass, my coworker made fun of me all day.
To make fun of someone means to laugh at someone or to make other people laugh at someone in a way that isn't very nice.
If I use the wrong word in Spanish, French or Italian and someone laughs at me and begins to copy my mistake, he is making fun of me.
It's not a very nice thing to do.
My coworker made fun of me by asking whether he could get me some coffee and asking when I was leaving.
Because those are the types of things that you would ask a regular visitor to be nice you may offer to get them some coffee.
I wasn't angry though. I said, what a joker, meaning that my coworker is always making funny jokes like that.
He's a joker. Now that we've talked about the new vocabulary, let's listen as I describe the first part of my day again.
This time, I'm going to speak more quickly at the speed that a native speaker would use.
I woke up this morning and thought, TGIF.
I have been looking forward to the weekend and all I need to do is get through one more day of work.
I drive to work and pull into the parking lot next to my office building.
I stop at the security gate.
I put my key card into the card reader and the security arm goes up.
I drive into the parking structure and find a parking spot.
I make sure that my parking permit is showing in the windshield and I lock up.
I get my briefcase out of the back seat and walk toward the building.
It's a short walk and I'm there in no time.
When I get there, I take out my badge and put it around my neck before I go through the main entrance of the building.
Employees are supposed to wear their badges at all times at work so that the security guards know that we belong there.
One day last week, I forgot my badge at home and I had to get a visitor's pass for the day.
My coworker made fun of me all day.
He kept asking me if he could get me some coffee and when I was leaving.
What a joker. I hope that listening to me talk about arriving at work has taught you some new vocabulary that you can use in your own workplace.
Our first lesson has ended and in the next lesson, I'm going to talk about checking my mail, email and voicemail.
This course has been a production of the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at pslpod.com.
This course was produced by Dr.
Jeff McQuillan and Dr. Lucy Say.
Copyright 2008.
