Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 648, Working on Commission.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 648.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
The Learning Guide will help you improve your English even faster.
And if you eat it, save money on food.
This episode is called Working on Commission.
Dennis and Irene are having a conversation.
Dennis is a salesman.
His job is to sell things to other people.
Let's get started.
What kind of job is it?
The more I sell, the more I earn.
It's a great opportunity for someone with my talents in sales.
I know you're great at sales and I'm sure you'll do well, but you can't coast in a job based on commissions.
You'll have to work really, really hard.
I'm not worried.
For me, selling is second nature.
I'll barely have to lift a finger and the profits will come rolling in.
But isn't your paycheck going to be in flux all the time?
You'll never know what your take-home pay will be.
There's no cap on how much I can earn, so the sky's the limit.
That's not exactly what I meant.
Some weeks it may be hard to live on what you earn, don't you think?
What?
Do I hear a hint of uncertainty in your voice?
No, it's just that... Put your mind at ease.
I could sell ice to Alaskans.
Dennis begins by saying, I just got a new sales job and I'm going to be making a bundle.
I just got, I was just given in this case, a new sales job.
Sales is the profession of persuading people to buy something from you.
Dennis says he's going to be making a bundle.
The expression to make a bundle B-U-N-D-L-E means to earn a lot of money, to get a lot of money for your job.
Doctors and attorneys can often make a bundle, But not all of them are making a lot of money, of course.
Irene asks what kind of job is it?
Dennis doesn't answer exactly.
He says, I'll be working strictly on commission.
To be working strictly or only on commission means that you will only get money if you sell something.
Many sales positions give you a certain amount of money and then you can make more money what's called a commission on the things that you sell, typically a percentage of the thing you are selling.
So if you are selling cars, you may get a salary that is a regular amount of money, a regular paycheck.
But if you sell a lot of cars, you can make even more money by getting a commission, a percentage of each car that you sell.
Dennis says, the more I sell, the more I earn.
It's a great opportunity for someone with my talents in sales.
That is, someone who is good at sales like he thinks he is.
Irene says, I know you're great at sales and I'm sure you'll do well.
But you can't coast in a job based on commissions.
You have to work really, really hard.
To coast, C-O-A-S-T, as a verb, means to relax and become a little lazy, not working very hard.
Irene is saying that you cannot coast.
You can't get lazy.
You have to work hard.
Coast has a number of meanings in English.
Some of them are found in our learning guide.
Dennis says, I'm not worried.
I'm not concerned.
For me, selling is second nature.
Something that is second nature is something that you know how to do and you do very well.
We might say it comes naturally to you.
It's easy for you because you know how to do it, or because perhaps you have some talent, some ability that allows you to do it easily.
Dennis says I'll barely have to lift a finger and the prophets will come rolling in.
To barely have to do something means that you have to do it, but you almost don't.
You don't have a very strong need to do it.
However, you do actually have to do this thing.
Well, Dennis says he will barely have to lift a finger.
In this case, to lift a finger means to perform a job or a task, to do something, to work.
The expression I barely have to lift a finger means I'm not going to have to work very hard.
And, Dennis says, even though he's not going to work very hard, the profits will come rolling in.
Profit, P-R-O-F-I-T, is money that you make... in your job or your business.
It's the difference between the money that you spend what we would call your expenses, and the money that you get your income.
That's profit.
Dennis says the profits will come rolling in, meaning they will be very large.
They will come in in large amounts.
There's going to be a lot of money that he's going to make and he's not going to have to work very hard.
Hmm, I'd like a job like that.
Irene says, but isn't your paycheck going to be in flux all the time?
Your paycheck, one word is the money you get for working, often received once a week, sometimes once every other week, every two weeks that is, or in some jobs, once a month.
The paycheck is the money that your employer, the person who owns the company or the person you work for, gives you for the work you do for them.
Now, Irene says, or really asks, Dennis, isn't your paycheck going to be in flux all the time?
Something that is in flux, F-L-U-X, is something that is changing a lot.
It is not constant.
There's a lot of variation.
You're not really sure if it's going to be a lot or not very much.
That's when something is in flux.
It's not certain.
Irene thinks that because Dennis is working strictly or only on commission...
His paycheck will be in flux.
Some weeks he'll sell a lot, some weeks he won't sell very much.
She says, you'll never know what your take-home pay will be.
Your take-home pay is the actual amount that you get from your company, paid after the taxes that you have to pay after the other.
What we call deductions things that the company takes out of your paycheck that it's required to do.
It may be for health insurance.
It may be for taxes.
It may be for your retirement savings.
Your take-home pay is what you actually can put in your bank from your paycheck.
Irene says that the take-home pay will be in flux.
You won't know what it is.
Dennis says, there's no cap on how much I can earn.
So the sky's the limit.
Notice Dennis doesn't even really listen to what Irene is saying.
Perhaps they're married.
Dennis says there's no cap.
That is, there's no maximum amount.
A cap, C-A-P, is the highest or largest that something can be.
You might live in a city that puts a cap on the height of buildings.
They can only be so tall and no taller.
Cap has several meanings in English, and those are in the learning guide.
Dennis says, the sky's the limit.
That's an expression that means anything is possible.
It has no limitations.
There's no cap.
It can be as big or as high as you want.
The sky's the limit.
Irene says, Dennis says, what?
Do I hear a hint of uncertainty in your voice?
A hint, H-I-N-T, of something is a little bit of something, a small amount of something.
Dennis thinks that Irene is doubting his abilities as a salesman.
She is asking these questions and he thinks that there is uncertainty in her voice meaning, even though that's not what she is saying directly to him.
That's what she really means.
Irene says, no, it's just that Dennis interrupts her and says, put your mind at ease.
I could sell ice to Alaskans.
To put your mind at ease, E-A-S-E, means to relax, to stop worrying about something.
The expression to sell ice, which is frozen water, to Alaskans, people who live in the state of Alaska in the northern part of North America.
Alaska is in between Canada and Russia and is, of course, very cold because it is close to the North Pole.
The expression to sell ice to Alaskans means to be able to sell anything to anyone.
Because the idea is that Alaskans don't need ice because it's already very cold.
But if you could sell ice to them, then you could sell anything.
The original expression was to sell ice to Eskimos.
The term Eskimo refers to those people who were living in that area before the Europeans arrived there, what we would call in other contexts Native Americans.
However, the term Eskimo is considered, especially in Canada, to be one that is not complementary.
That is.
It's a term, like the word Negro, to refer to black or African Americans that is no longer used that much.
Eskimo is in fact still used in Alaska, but because it is a term that our Canadian listeners would not like, we've changed the expression a little bit.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
What kind of job is it?
I know you're great at sales and I'm sure you'll do well, but you can't coast in a job based on commissions.
You'll have to work really, really hard.
I'm not worried.
For me, selling is second nature.
I'll barely have to lift a finger and the profits will come rolling in.
But isn't your paycheck going to be in flux all the time?
You'll never know what your take-home pay will be.
There's no cap on how much I can earn, so the sky's the limit.
That's not exactly what I meant.
Some weeks it may be hard to live on what you earn, don't you think?
What?
Do I hear a hint of uncertainty in your voice?
No, it's just that... Put your mind at ease.
I could sell ice to Alaskans.
Writing scripts is second nature to our wonderful script writer, 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 2011 by the Center for Educational Development.
