Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 580, Retiring from a Job.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 580.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
You can improve your English even faster by getting the learning guide for this episode on our website.
And this is going to be a dialogue between Meredith and Oscar that will include a lot of vocabulary we associate with retirement.
Let's get started.
Are you going to Stanley's retirement party?
Sure.
I want a glimpse of the future.
I can't wait to retire.
It'll be a long time before you get the golden handshake.
Me?
I may be ready for early retirement.
Are you seriously thinking about taking the early retirement package the company is offering?
I'm thinking about it.
My health isn't getting any better, and I don't want to spend the rest of my days in this office.
But can you afford it?
The early retirement package is pretty generous and I've saved up a nice little nest egg over the years.
Then what are you waiting for?
If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't hem and haw about it.
I'd make the decision to retire now, today.
Why are you getting all worked up?
Are you after my job?
No way.
I just can't stand to see someone who can retire stay at this job.
I'd trade places with you in a minute.
I doubt that.
Not if it meant being a card-carrying member of ARP.
You're too young to be thinking about retirement.
I didn't say I was ready for retirement.
I'm just thinking about it all the time.
Our dialogue begins with Meredith asking Oscar, are you going to Stanley's retirement party?
A retirement party is, of course, for someone who is retiring, meaning they are leaving their job.
They're no longer going to work anymore, not just at that job, but typically at any job when you retire, as you get older.
Oscar says sure, I want a glimpse of the future.
A glimpse, G-L-I-M-P-S-E, is a very quick look at something.
We might say a brief glance, G-L-A-N-C-E, which is another word for a very rapid or quick look.
Oscar wants a glimpse of the future, to know what his life will be like, perhaps, when he retires.
He says, I can't wait to retire.
Meredith says it'll be a long time before you get the golden handshake.
A handshake is when two people put their hands together and move them up and down.
To shake someone's hand is what we would say as a verb.
Golden refers, in this case, to a lot of money.
And a golden handshake is when a company pays one of its employees extra money to encourage them to retire.
Because older employees are usually being paid a lot more.
It is often cheaper for a company to encourage them to retire, to leave their job, than it is to have them continue working for them.
So a golden handshake is an incentive, something that is given to you to make you want to do something else.
Meredith says, me?
I may be ready for early retirement.
Early retirement is when you retire before the normal age.
Typically in the U.S., it's 65 years old.
Oscar says are you seriously thinking about taking the early retirement package the company is offering?
A package here means a collection of things, a set, S-E-T, of things.
A retirement package may include money.
It may include other things that will get the person to retire early.
Again, early retirement is sometimes encouraged by companies in order to get older employees, more expensive employees, to leave the company early.
Meredith is thinking about the early retirement package.
Package, I should say, also has other meanings in English, and those meanings are found in your learning guide.
Meredith says my health isn't getting any better, meaning I continue to get sicker and sicker, or at least I'm not getting more healthy.
I don't want to spend the rest of my days in this office.
The rest of my days would mean here the rest of my life.
Oscar asks, but can you afford it?
Meaning, will you have enough money?
Can you afford it?
Meredith says the early retirement package is pretty generous.
It's very generous.
Someone who is generous G-E-N-E-R-O-U-S is someone who is willing to share things with you.
It can also refer to more than expected amounts of money.
If everyone in the office donates 10 to some charity and you decide to donate 1000, they would say wow, that's a very generous donation.
Meredith says that the early retirement package is pretty generous.
And she says, I've saved up a nice little nest egg over the years.
To save up is a two-word phrasal verb.
That means usually to save money for a particular purpose or for a particular thing that you want to buy.
I'm saving up my money to buy the iPad.
Or I'm saving up my money to take a trip to Fiji.
That would be an example of to save up.
Well, you should also, I hope, save up for your retirement, at least if you live in the United States and do not work for the government.
You usually have to take care of yourself mostly, and that's why you need to save up.
The up is just a word of emphasis, as it is often in these two-word phrasal verbs.
Meredith says that she saved up a nice little nest egg.
A nest egg.
Two words is money that you save for your retirement, money that you will use when you are no longer working.
Why do we say nest egg?
An egg contains a bird that is not yet born, not yet developed.
A nest is the place where the bird keeps his or her eggs.
Well, her eggs.
He doesn't have eggs.
Only the female has eggs, I think.
So a nest egg then refers to eggs that you would have saved and guarded and protected like a bird would protect her eggs.
Oscar says, then what are you waiting for?
He's asking Meredith why she doesn't just retire now.
If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't hem and haw about it.
When you say if I were in your shoes, you mean if I were you, if I had your position or your situation.
If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't hem and haw.
To hem, H-E-M, and haw, H-A-W. is a single verb in this sentence.
The two words are used together typically to mean to hesitate, to spend a lot of time deciding whether you want to or not.
To spend a lot of time going oh, maybe I should retire.
Well, maybe not.
I'm not sure.
Someone who is not very decisive, who doesn't make decisions quickly or easily, could be said to be hemming and hawing.
Oscar says, I'd make the decision to retire now, today.
Meredith says, why are you getting all worked up?
To get worked up is a phrasal verb meaning to become worried, to become anxious, to not be able to stop thinking about something, perhaps to become angry or upset.
Someone may say to you don't get all worked up about it, meaning don't get so anxious, so worried, so excited about this particular issue.
Meredith says are you after my job?
In this case, after means in pursuit of wanting to get or to have something, trying to do something.
Here in Los Angeles it's very common to see older men 50 60 years old marrying younger women, often 20 or 30 years old.
Some people say the woman is after his money.
Of course, it's possible for a younger man to marry an older woman and to be after her money.
Could be either way.
I'm not after anyone's money.
I don't think anyone is after my money, although my wife did ask me about going skydiving, where you jump out of a plane down to the ground.
Maybe I should be careful.
Oscar says, no way, I'm not after your job.
By the way, after has other meanings in English as well, and you know where to find those in the learning guide.
Oscar says, no way, not at all, I'm not after your job.
I just can't stand to see someone who can retire stay at this job.
I'd trade places with you in a minute.
To trade places with someone means to exchange your situation for another situation.
So you're working in job A, I'm working in job B.
If we trade places now, I'm working in your job and you're working in my job.
Oscar says that he would trade places with Meredith in a minute meaning without even thinking about it quickly.
Meredith says, To be a card-carrying member means to be an official member of an organization, usually an organization that you believe in very strongly.
Organizations typically issue small pieces of paper called cards that say that you are a member.
That's where this expression comes from.
AARP, sometimes pronounced like a word, ARP, is the American Association of Retired Persons.
It's an organization for people over the age of 50 which tries to influence regulations and laws related to older people.
It's a very powerful organization in the United States as our population gets older and older.
You may not have noticed, but everyone seems to be getting older every year.
I'm not sure what's going on.
Oscar says, I didn't say I was ready for retirement.
I'm just thinking about it all the time, meaning always.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Are you going to Stanley's retirement party?
Sure.
I want a glimpse of the future.
I can't wait to retire.
It'll be a long time before you get the golden handshake.
Me?
I may be ready for early retirement.
Are you seriously thinking about taking the early retirement package the company is offering?
I'm thinking about it.
My health isn't getting any better, and I don't want to spend the rest of my days in this office.
But can you afford it?
The early retirement package is pretty generous and I've saved up a nice little nest egg over the years.
Then what are you waiting for?
If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't ham and haw about it.
I'd make the decision to retire now, today.
Why are you getting all worked up?
Are you after my job?
No way.
I just can't stand to see someone who can retire stay at this job.
I'd trade places with you in a minute.
I doubt that.
Not if it meant being a card-carrying member of ARP.
You're too young to be thinking about retirement.
I didn't say I was ready for retirement.
I'm just thinking about it.
All the time.
We hope that our scriptwriter doesn't take early retirement or accept any golden handshakes.
That's because we love Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2010 by the Center for Educational Development.
