Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,200.
Learning a Skilled Trade.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1,200.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is a dialogue about learning a skilled trade, that is, learning to do something with your hands and mind in order to make money.
Let's get started.
What are you going to do now that you've graduated from high school?
I'm going to trade school.
My father was a stone and brick mason.
And my brother is a mechanic.
But I think I'm going to try something different.
Like what?
Maybe I'll study to become an electrician or plumber.
Those are skills that are always in demand.
Don't they have long apprenticeships?
Yes but it's better than training to be a machinist or technician.
It's easier to open your own shop as an electrician or plumber.
With your skills you can always get a job I think carpentry is a dying art.
Most people don't get furniture or other things custom-made anymore.
You know, you could always take a completely different path, learning a completely different skilled trade.
Like what?
Are you serious?
Yes.
Would you want these hands cutting your hair?
Our dialogue begins with Janine saying to Orlando, What are you going to do?
Now that you've graduated from high school.
To graduate means to complete some level of schooling, in this case, high school.
Orlando says, I'm going to a trade school.
A trade, T-R-A-D-E, is...
One of the many different jobs involving the use of your hands to either make something or to fix something.
We'll talk about several different examples of trades in a minute.
A trade school is a school that teaches you the technical skills and gives you the knowledge you need to perform certain kinds of jobs, often jobs that don't require a four-year university or college degree.
Trade schools are sometimes called vocational schools, schools that teach you things that will allow you to get a job right away, but that don't require a four-year education.
Orlando says he's going to a trade school.
My father, he says, was a stone and brick mason, and my brother is a mechanic.
But I think I'm going to try something different.
One of the many trades you can study for and work in is a mason.
A mason is a person who works with stone or brick. and builds things out of those materials.
If you're building a building that is made of stone or brick, you may need a mason.
Many buildings nowadays, most buildings nowadays, are not built out of stone or brick, but some still are.
And if you are going to make a building or say a wall with bricks, you would want a mason to do that for you.
That's a particular trade.
Another example of a trade is a mechanic, M-E-C-H-A-N-I-C.
A mechanic is a person who repairs or fixes machines that are broken, especially cars and trucks and other vehicles.
If you're having problems with your car, you will most likely take it to a mechanic a car mechanic who can fix the engine or whatever is wrong with your car.
It used to be as recently as 20, 30 years ago that many people would fix their own cars.
People would try to fix their own engines.
But nowadays that isn't quite as popular, perhaps because car engines have become more complicated due to the computers in the cars.
I remember, certainly back in the 1980s, people trying to fix their own cars.
My friends, for example.
I never tried to do that because I don't really know much about car engines.
But if you do know a lot about car engines, you could become a mechanic.
Orlando wants to try something different.
Janine says, like what?
Orlando says maybe I'll study to be an electrician or a plumber.
An electrician.
E-L-E-C-T-R-I-C-I-A-N is a person who works installing and maintaining electrical equipment.
If you need to have electricity in a building, you would call an electrician and that person would put the wires and the necessary wires and equipment needed to have electricity.
A plumber, P-L-U-M-B-E-R, notice that we don't pronounce the B in plumber, is a person who installs, that is, who puts in and maintains and repairs pipes and systems that move water in and out of a building.
A plumber would be needed if you wanted a bathroom or a kitchen.
If you want to have a toilet or a shower in your bathroom, you would need to call a plumber who would be able to put one in or fix it if there was a problem with it.
All of my uncles were plumbers.
My grandfather was a plumber.
My great-grandfather was a plumber.
I come from a whole family of plumbers.
In fact, if you go to my home city of St.
Paul Minnesota, and you drive down the street, you might see a car that says McQuillan Plumbing on it.
Those are my cousins.
There's been a McQuillan Plumbing business in St.
Paul, Minnesota since the 19th century.
My father was the only member of his family, the only male member of his family, who did not become a plumber.
He became a teacher, which is probably why I'm a teacher and not a plumber.
I think I would have made more money as a plumber, however.
In any case, Orlando is thinking of becoming an electrician or a plumber.
He says those are skills that are always in demand.
Something that is in demand, D-E-M-A-N-D, is something that people want.
In this case, something people are willing to pay for.
Since we'll probably always need bathrooms, we'll probably always need plumbers.
That's why...
That is a skill that is always in demand.
Janine says, don't they have long apprenticeships?
An apprenticeship A-P-P-R-E-N-T-I-C-E-S-H-I-P is a period of time when someone in a trade, such as electricians and plumbers, works for another person in order to learn how to do his specific job.
If you want to become a plumber or an electrician, you will study for a certain amount of time, but then you will work for a few years for someone else who will teach you what you really need to know.
The trades, such as electrician and plumber, require more than just time in a classroom learning from a teacher.
You have to go out there and actually do it in order to learn it.
And that's why we have apprenticeships.
These are periods of time when the People who want to become electricians and plumbers work for other electricians and plumbers who teach them all the things, or many of the things, they need to know.
Orlando says yes, meaning yes.
These trades do have long apprenticeships, but it's better than training to be a machinist or technician.
To train, T-R-A-I-N, is to get the skills in order to do something.
The verb train is a very general one used in many different situations.
Usually it's used when you are talking about a specific kind of task or job.
So you can train to be a teacher.
That's a specific job, a specific job, skill or set of skills you need to learn.
You can train to be a plumber.
You can train to be a Secretary.
You could train to be a computer Programmer.
All of these would be possible uses of the verb to train.
To train then, is to study and or practice in order to learn how to do a specific thing.
We also use the verb to train when you're preparing for an athletic event.
If you are going to run a marathon, you might train for the marathon.
Spend time preparing for it.
Orlando refers to training to be a machinist or technician.
A machinist M-A-C-H-I-N-I-S-T is a person who operates a machine in a factory.
The term technician T-E-C-H-N-I-C-I-A-N refers to anyone who has technical skills for doing a particular kind of job, usually a job that doesn't require a lot of extra training.
For example, there are lab or laboratory technicians.
Hospitals, for example, have laboratory technicians who work to determine what's in your blood.
Those people aren't doctors.
They are, however, working with special machinery that requires technical skills.
Orlando says it's easier to open your own shop as an electrician or plumber.
The word shop here means business.
Janine says with your skills you can always get a job as a carpenter.
A carpenter, C-A-R-P-E-N-T-E-R, is a person who makes things out of wood.
Orlando says.
However, A dying D-Y-I-N-G art A-R-T is something that is becoming less and less common today, that fewer people are interested in nowadays than say, in the past.
Most people don't get furniture or other things custom-made anymore.
If something is custom, C-U-S-T-O-M, hyphen made, M-A-D-E, it is produced or made just for you.
There's only one of those.
In British English there's a wonderful word bespoke B-E-S-P-O-K-E.
That describes basically the same idea.
Janine says you know, you could always take a completely different path, learning a completely different skilled trade.
A path, P-A-T-H, is a way that... you get from one place to another.
In this case Janine is talking about how Orlando could do something completely different.
Not be a carpenter or a plumber or an electrician.
He could learn a different skilled trade.
That is, a different job similar to the jobs we've been talking about.
Orlando says, like what?
Janine says, you could become a medical or dental technician or even get a cosmetology degree.
A dental D-E-N-T-A-L technician is a person who makes teeth artificial teeth, of course, and other things that are used by a dentist.
Janine suggests that Orlando could also get a cosmetology, C-O-M-S-E-T-O-L-O-G-Y degree.
Cosmetology refers to the business of making people's hair, skin, and or nails more attractive.
Orlando says, are you serious?
Would you want these hands cutting your hair?
I'm not sure why, but Orlando apparently feels he wouldn't do a very good job cutting anyone's hair.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I'm going to trade school.
My father was a stone and brick mason, and my brother is a mechanic.
But I think I'm going to try something different.
Like what?
Maybe I'll study to become an electrician or plumber.
Those are skills that are always in demand.
Don't they have long apprenticeships?
Yes, but it's better than training to be a machinist or technician.
It's easier to open your own shop as an electrician or plumber.
With your skills, you can always get a job as a carpenter.
I think carpentry is a dying art.
Most people don't get furniture or other things custom-made anymore.
You know, you could always take a completely different path, learning a completely different skilled trade.
Like what?
You could become a medical or dental technician or even get a cosmetology degree.
Are you serious?
Would you want these hands cutting your hair?
Each and every script our scriptwriter writes is custom-made just for you, our ESL podcast listener.
Thanks to Dr. Lucy Say.
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 2016 by the Center for Educational Development.
