Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 728.
Describing one's skill level.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 728.
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I'm your host, Dr.
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This episode is a dialogue between Elaine and Tony, using vocabulary to describe how good you are at doing something.
Let's get started.
Welcome to your first day as an intern in our company office.
Let me show you around.
This is the main office area with a cubicle for each employee.
Are you pretty good with computers?
Actually, my computer knowledge is pretty basic.
The only thing I'm adept at is video games.
I'm not up to snuff on actually doing work on one.
Okay.
Well, you should be proficient by the end of your internship.
Over there is where we keep the photocopier and fax machine.
Have you used them before?
I'm an expert on the copier.
I can use it with one hand tied behind my back.
I'm particularly good at photocopying body parts.
Ah, great.
But the facts, I've only used one once, and I never quite mastered it.
I'm sure you'll get the hang of it pretty quickly.
And this is the break room.
You have your standard refrigerator and vending machines.
Hey, I'm really good with vending machines.
That's one machine I know inside and out.
How could I have guessed that the one thing you really excel at is working the vending machine?
Elaine says to Tony, Welcome to your first day as an intern in our company office.
An intern.
I-N-T-E-R-N is a person, usually a student, who works in an organization for a short period of time a month, two months, maybe a year to learn how to do something and to prepare for their future doing that kind of job.
Lots of organizations have interns.
They are young students, either still in college or just graduated from college, that perform different jobs.
Sometimes they are paid.
Sometimes they are volunteer.
You don't get paid, but you do get experience.
I think I need an intern here at the Center for Educational Development.
You know, someone to bring my coffee in the morning or my tea, as the case may be.
Well, Elaine is welcoming, is saying hello to Tony, who is an intern.
She says, let me show you around.
Let me give you a tour.
Let me tell you where everything is.
She then says, this is the main office area with a cubicle for each employee.
A cubicle, C-U-B-I-C-L-E. is a small work area within a larger office space.
Typically, it has a desk, a computer, a telephone.
There are walls around it, but the walls don't go all the way up to the ceiling.
That's a cubicle.
Elaine then asks Tony, Are you pretty good with computers?
Tony says, actually, my computer knowledge is pretty basic.
When we say our knowledge about something is basic, we mean that it isn't very much.
It's the minimum that you need to know.
You could be much, much better.
It's very low, very beginning level.
Basic has a number of different meanings in English, however.
Take a look at our learning guide for some more of those.
Tony says, The only thing I'm adept at is video games.
To be adept at something means to be able to do something very well, to be very good at doing or using something.
He's adept at... certain programming languages, Java and PHP.
I don't know.
Something you're good at.
Tony says he's adept at video games, but I'm not up to snuff on actually doing work on one.
To be up to snuff.
S-N-U-F-F means to perform at a satisfactory level to meet someone's expectations, to be good enough to do something.
I am up to snuff on recording podcasts.
I'm able to do it.
I can't do a lot of other things, but I am up to snuff on the recording part anyway.
Elaine says, okay, well, you should be proficient by the end of your internship.
Your internship is the time that you are an intern.
To be proficient...
P-R-O-F-I-C-I-E-N-T means to be good at something, to be very good at it.
You might be an expert, or you might just have a lot of knowledge, but you are very good at what you do.
We often talk about proficiency in languages, being able to speak them and understand them, and so forth.
Elaine says over there is where we keep where we have proficiency.
The photocopier and the fax machine.
A photocopier, more commonly called a copying machine or just a copier, is a machine that produces an image on a piece of paper from what you give it.
So it sort of takes the image and reproduces it onto a piece of paper.
That's a copying machine.
A fax machine is a machine that uses phone lines to send images of paper to another machine, another fax or fax machine.
Fax machines are becoming less and less common now with the Internet and e-mail.
Tony says I'm an expert on the copier.
To be an expert means to be someone who knows almost everything about something.
You could be an expert on ancient Greek art or an expert on how to fix your car.
Tony is an expert on copying machines.
He says I can use it with one hand tied behind my back.
The expression to have one hand tied behind your back means you can do something very easily, without any difficulty.
To tie your hand would be to take a piece of rope or string so that you couldn't move your hand.
If you tied it behind your back, you could only do something with one hand, with one arm.
The idea is that you're so good you don't need both arms, both hands to do it.
Tony again is making a little bit of a joke here.
He says, I'm particularly good at, I'm very good at photocopying body parts.
A body part is a part of your body, your arm, your leg, your hand, and so forth.
Sometimes in offices as a joke.
People will take pictures of their head or other parts of their body and give them to someone as a joke.
So Tony is an intern who's making a joke.
Elaine is not really happy with this joke.
She says, great.
She doesn't really mean great.
She says it in a way that makes us understand that she doesn't really think the joke is very funny.
Tony says, but the facts, I've only used one once, and I never quite mastered it.
To master something is to become very good at something.
It's to become an expert.
Elaine says, I'm sure you'll get the hang of it pretty quickly.
To get the hang H-A-N-G of something means to learn how to do something, to learn how to do something correctly.
She says this is the break room.
A break room is a room in an office where you can go to eat, to relax.
Many employees get a break, a 15-minute break, every morning and every afternoon, in addition to their say, 30-minute lunch break.
And this is where you can go in the building.
It usually has chairs and tables, sometimes machines that sell things, candy and soda, coffee, etc.
Elaine says you have your standard refrigerator, your normal refrigerator here, and vending machines.
We just explained a vending machine.
It's a machine that you put money into and it gives you food or drink or other things.
Tony says, hey, I'm really good with vending machines.
I know how to use them very well.
Again, another joke.
He says that's one machine I know inside and out.
To know something inside and out means to know it very well, to have knowledge of all the different parts of something.
Elaine says, The first part of this question how could I have guessed?
Means it should have been obvious.
It's a kind of a strange expression, but what she's saying is it is obvious, knowing you or knowing what I do about you, that in this case you really excel at working with the vending machines.
To excel E-X-C-E-L as a verb means to do something very well, to become a master at doing something.
We have the adjective excellent, which is related.
Elaine says that Tony really excels at working the vending machine, meaning using the vending machine.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Welcome to your first day as an intern in our company office.
Let me show you around.
This is the main office area, with a cubicle for each employee.
Are you pretty good with computers?
Actually, my computer knowledge is pretty basic.
The only thing I'm adept at is video games.
I'm not up to snuff on actually doing work on one.
Okay, well, you should be proficient by the end of your internship.
Over there is where we keep the photocopier and fax machine.
Have you used them before?
I'm an expert on the copier.
I can use it with one hand tied behind my back.
I'm particularly good at photocopying body parts.
Oh, great.
But the facts, I've only used one once and I never quite mastered it.
I'm sure you'll get the hang of it pretty quickly.
And this is the break room.
We have your standard refrigerator and vending machines.
Hey, I'm really good with vending machines.
That's one machine I know inside and out.
How could I have guessed that the one thing you really excel at is working the vending machine?
We want to thank our master script writer, a true expert, Dr. Lucy Say, for this script.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
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.
Copyright 2011 by the Center for Educational Development.
