Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 596, Applying for Unemployment Benefits.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 596.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at www.eslpod.com.
© transcript Emily Beynon.
That gives you the vocabulary definitions, sample sentences, additional definitions, cultural notes, comprehension questions and a complete transcript of everything we say on this episode.
This episode is called applying for unemployment benefits.
In many countries, if you lost your job, you can get money from the government until you find a Hello.
I'd like to apply for unemployment benefits.
Okay.
Give me your address and I'll send you an application.
How much can I get?
That depends.
Your benefits are calculated based on your quarterly earnings.
You were laid off from your job?
Yes, I was.
I qualify, don't I?
People who work part-time jobs or are self-employed aren't eligible.
If you worked in a full-time position, you should qualify.
Fill out the application and we'll let you know.
You have to affirm that you're able to work and that you're actively seeking employment.
I'm definitely doing that.
I've been meaning to ask you, are you hiring?
Our dialogue begins with someone answering the phone, saying hello, state unemployment agency, telling the caller what office he has reached he is talking to.
This is a government office, the state unemployment agency.
Unemployment refers to people who do not have jobs.
The opposite would be employment.
An agency is just a particular group of people in the government who work on the same kind of thing.
So the state unemployment agency would be, for example, the California government organization that is responsible for helping people who do not have jobs, who lose their jobs.
I should say
Unemployment benefits is money that the government gives to people who lose their job, and It's not as much money as they made when they were working, but it tries to cover their basic expenses until they can find a new job.
Unemployment benefits don't last forever.
You only have so many weeks to find a new job.
The government is not going to necessarily continue giving you money until.
If that were true, we would all just quit our jobs and collect unemployment benefits.
We often abbreviate that and say simply, collect unemployment.
George calls and wants to apply for unemployment benefits.
He needs to fill out some paperwork first. as all government actions require.
The agency employee says, okay, give me your address and I'll send you an application.
Give me your mailing address.
George asks the person, how much can I get?
He wants to know how much money he will receive.
The employee says, that depends.
We use this phrase to show that you can't give a definite answer, because there may be many different things that determine the answer.
So the agency employee says well, that depends, meaning it's going to depend on a number of different things.
She says, your benefits, the money you get, are calculated based on your quarterly earnings.
To calculate something means to get a mathematical answer.
To compute add subtract multiply, divide or use some other mathematical formula in order to get an answer.
The benefits are calculated based on, meaning depending on, your quarterly earnings.
Your earnings...
E-A-R-N-I-N-G-S refers to how much money you were paid by your company.
Quarterly means for the last three months or three months out of the year.
There are four quarters in a single year.
Each one is three months.
Usually, we refer to these by number.
The first quarter is January, February, March.
The second quarter is April.
April, June, July, and so forth.
The agency employee asked George, were you laid off from your job?
To be laid, L-A-I-D, off, O-F-F, is an expression that means You were fired.
You lost your job because the company could not keep you on as an employee for whatever reason.
Usually when we say someone was laid off, we mean that the company failed, got rid of the person not because they were a bad employee, but because the company needed to save money, for example.
To lay off is a phrasal verb.
That's what a company would do.
It lays off employees.
George says, yes, I was.
I was laid off.
I qualify, don't I?
To qualify, Q-U-A-L-I-F-Y, means that you meet the basic requirements to do something.
We might also say you are eligible for...
The employee says that people who work part-time jobs or work in part-time jobs or are self-employed are not eligible.
A part-time job is a job that would be less than, in the United States, 40 hours per week.
Anything less than that is usually considered a part-time job.
So you don't work as much as someone who is full-time, which would be someone working typically 40 hours a week or more.
Self-employed means that you work for yourself.
You have your own company.
You have something that gives you money.
You don't work for another company.
The agency employee says if you worked in a full-time position, a full-time job, you should qualify.
Meaning if you do not have another job now and you used to have a full-time job, you should qualify.
You will be eligible.
Fill out the application and we'll let you know.
We'll tell you.
George says, what else does the application ask for?
What other information do I have to provide?
The agency employee says you have to affirm that you're able to work and that you're actively seeking employment.
To affirm A-F-F-I-R-M is a formal term meaning to officially state or declare, to say, usually in front of a government official, that this thing is true.
What you are saying is true is that you are able to work And you are actively seeking employment.
To seek means to look for something, to try to find something.
Actively means with strong participation and involvement, meaning you're actually going out and trying to find a job.
That's actively seeking employment.
You look in the newspaper.
Nowadays, you look online.
You try to find a job.
You're not just sitting at home waiting for someone to call you.
George says, I'm definitely doing that, meaning absolutely I am doing that.
I've been meaning to ask you, are you hiring me?
To be meaning to do something means that you want to do something, that you were intending or planning on doing something.
Usually, it's something that we say when we forget or when we don't have time to do something, but it can mean simply planning to be a polite way of introducing a question as it is here.
I've been meaning to ask you could you give me 10?
Well, here, George is asking for something more than $10 worth.
He wants to know if the unemployment agency is hiring, if they are giving jobs to new employees.
Perhaps george is trying to prove that he is actively seeking employment by asking this agency employee for a job.
I have lost a few jobs in my life but i have never collected unemployment.
I have never received any money from the government because i didn't have a job.
I usually just went out and found another job.
But of course, that isn't always easy to do.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Hello, State Employment Agency.
Hello, I'd like to apply for unemployment benefits.
Okay, give me your address and I'll send you an application.
How much can I get?
That depends.
Your benefits are calculated based on your quarterly earnings.
You were laid off from your job?
Yes, I was.
I qualify, don't I?
People who work part-time jobs or are self-employed aren't eligible.
If you worked in a full-time position, you should qualify.
Fill out the application and we'll let you know.
What else does the application ask for?
You have to affirm that you're able to work and that you're actively seeking employment.
I'm definitely doing that.
I've been meaning to ask you, are you hiring?
Our scriptwriter has a full-time job here at the Center for Educational Development and her name is 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.
