Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 944, Working as an Intern.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 944.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles California, even though that wasn't very beautiful.
Our website is beautiful.
Go to ESLPOD.com, become a member of ESL Podcast, and download a learning guide for this episode.
This episode is a dialogue between Jonas and Crystal about working as an intern in a company.
Let's get started.
How's your new job?
It's not a job exactly.
It's an internship.
Oh, so you're working as somebody's lackey and getting paid a pittance.
No, not exactly.
I'm doing a lot of scut work and I'm not getting paid a lot.
But I'm getting very valuable on-the-job experience.
Sure you are.
You're learning how to fetch coffee and run errands.
Yippee!
You don't have to tell me anymore.
I know all about it.
It's slave labor.
No, it's not.
I'm shadowing one of the managers part of the day, and I sit in on important meetings all the time.
My mentor shows me how things are done in the business world and gives me great career advice.
Well, then you're lucky.
Most interns who work for our company learn diddly-squat and spend their time doing menial work.
Some of them are even unpaid.
What a racket!
In that case, I'm glad I don't work for your company.
Our dialogue begins with Jonas asking Crystal, How's your new job?
Crystal says, It's not a job exactly.
It's an internship.
When we say something isn't exactly this or exactly that, We're saying that it doesn't quite meet the full definition of whatever it is that we are trying to describe it as.
Sometimes we even use it with a little bit of sarcasm, trying to make a joke.
Exercise isn't exactly fun, but it's good for your body.
Here it's being used more, in the sense that the word that Jonas uses is not precisely or completely correct.
Jonas asks Crystal how her new job is, and Crystal says it's not a job exactly.
That means it doesn't meet the definition of a job.
Instead, she says it's an internship job.
An internship, I-N-T-E-R-N-S-H-I-P, is a temporary position typically in a business or an organization, usually one that you don't get paid for.
The purpose of internships is to give people who don't have a lot of experience, especially students in college, a way of learning more about the area that interests them, the kind of business that interests them.
Internships are very popular for college students and for those who recently graduated from college.
Jonas says, oh, so you're working as somebody's lackey and getting paid a pittance.
A lackey.
L-A-C-K-E-Y is an older term for a servant, someone who performs tasks for another person, usually things that aren't very difficult or that don't require a lot of intelligence.
A lackey is always someone who works for another person.
It's definitely an insulting term.
To get paid a pittance, P-I-T-T-A-N-C-E, is to receive a very small amount of money.
A pittance is a very small amount of something, almost nothing.
We often use that when talking about how much someone gets paid or how much money they got from a certain activity.
If it's a very small amount, we might call it a pittance.
Crystal says Once again she's not exactly a lackey and getting paid a pittance, although there might be some truth to that description.
She says I'm doing a lot of scut work and I'm not getting paid a lot but I'm getting very valuable on the job experience.
The expression scut S-C-U-T work is used to describe work that is boring, work that is repetitive, that doesn't change.
It's the same every day, every hour even.
Scut work is definitely the kind of work that you don't want to do, but someone has to do.
On the job experience is professional experience you get working at a job, not studying in school.
On the job simply means while you are working.
Jonas says, sure you are.
Jonas is joking here.
He's being sarcastic.
Crystal is saying that she's getting valuable on-the-job experience, even though she's doing a lot of scut work and not getting paid very much.
Jonas doesn't really believe what Crystal says when she says she's getting this on-the-job experience.
Jonah says you're learning how to fetch coffee and run errands.
To fetch F E T C H means to go get something for someone and bring it back to them.
To fetch means to obtain something.
It's often used when talking about a dog going and fetching something, some object and bringing it back to his owner.
The classic example of this would be having the dog fetch your newspaper.
When your newspaper is delivered to your house in the morning, you could send your dog out to fetch it.
I don't have a dog, so I fetch my own newspaper.
Jonas is talking about fetching coffee, meaning getting coffee for the bosses.
And he also mentions the task of running errands.
An errand, E-R-R-A-N-D, is something you have to do away from your house or where you are working.
To run an errand means to go to, for example, somewhere like the post office or a grocery store or the pharmacy, when you have usually small things that you need to do at some place away from where you are working or living.
Errands are usually things that aren't very important and don't take that much time to complete.
We use the verb to run with the noun errands.
We talk about running errands.
That means going and doing different things outside of your house.
Yippee, says Jonas.
You don't have to tell me anymore.
I know all about it.
It's slave labor.
Jonas uses the word yippee, Y-I-P-P-E-E.
This is a word that is used to show excitement, to show joy, to show happiness.
However, nowadays it's used mostly by people who are joking, who are being sarcastic.
I went to Las Vegas and gambled and I won $10.
Yippee!
I'm being sarcastic there, since winning 10 isn't something you would normally celebrate or be really happy about, although I guess it's better than losing 10.
Most people lose a lot more when they go to places like Las Vegas to gamble.
But in our story, there's no gambling.
There's just what Jonas calls slave labor.
A slave.
S-L-A-V-E is a person who is owned by another person, who is treated as property, as a thing that you would own.
Slave labor would be work done by slaves.
Once again, Jonas isn't saying that Crystal is literally actually a slave, but she is working under conditions like a slave.
She is working basically for little or no pay.
Crystal disagrees.
She says, no, it's not.
It's not slave labor.
I'm shadowing one of the managers part of the day, and I sit in on important meetings all the time.
To shadow, S-H-A-D-O-W, here means to follow a person around to see what they do during the day.
This is popular in some companies with some internships.
Young college students are allowed to come into the building and follow a boss, follow an executive around during the day to see what he or she does.
They probably don't shadow them to the bathroom, I don't think.
Crystal says she sits in on important meetings.
To sit in on means to go to a meeting but not actually be a participant.
To go to a meeting or an event but not actually participate in the event.
You're just observing.
Crystal says that her mentor shows her how things are done in the business world and gives her great career advice.
Her mentor gives her suggestions about how what to do in her future life as an employee or as a worker.
Jonah says, well, then you're lucky.
Most interns who work for our company learn diddly squat.
Diddly, D-I-D-D-L-Y, squat, S-Q-U-A-T, is an old, somewhat funny term meaning little or nothing.
I didn't do diddly squat today.
That means I didn't do hardly anything.
Don't tell my boss.
Jonas says that the interns at his company learn diddly squat that is nothing and spend their time doing menial work.
Menial, M-E-N-I-A-L, is something that is not very important, that doesn't require very much skill.
Jonah says some of them, some of the interns, are even unpaid, meaning they don't receive any money for working at the company.
Finally, he says, what a racket.
The expression what a racket R-A-C-K-E-T is used to talk about something that is either illegal or unethical, something that involves cheating another person typically.
Jonas is saying that his company is cheating the employees, or by making them work and do things that aren't very important and not paying them.
Crystal says, in that case, I'm glad I don't work for your company.
Crystal says if what Jonas says is true about his company, she's glad she doesn't work for his company.
She's glad that she's an intern at a different company.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
No, not exactly.
I'm doing a lot of scut work and I'm not getting paid a lot, but I'm getting very valuable on-the-job experience.
Sure you are.
You're learning how to fetch coffee and run errands.
Yippee!
You don't have to tell me anymore.
I know all about it.
It's slave labor.
No, it's not.
I'm shadowing one of the managers part of the day, and I sit in on important meetings all the time.
My mentor shows me how things are done in the business world and gives me great career advice.
Well, then you're lucky.
Most interns who work for our company learn diddly squat and spend their time doing menial work.
Some of them are even unpaid.
What a racket.
In that case, I'm glad I don't work for your company.
Our scriptwriter doesn't sit around doing diddly squat.
She's working.
She's writing scripts.
Thank you, Dr. Lucy Say, for your wonderful scripts.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2013 by the Center for Educational Development.
