You're listening to ESLPod.com's A Day in the Life of Jeff.
Part 4. I'm your host, Dr.
Jeff McQuillan, from the Center for Educational Development.
Part 4 of our course is called Getting Dressed and Ready for Work.
Let's start. I go back into my bedroom and open my closet door.
I have about 30 dress shirts, 10 pairs of pants, a half dozen ties, and some sweaters, suit jackets, and t-shirts.
I pull out a clean pair of socks and underwear, and then decide which shirt I'm going to wear today.
I'm terrible at color coordinating, so I usually bring my wife in at this point to help match my shirt and pants.
I put on my belt with the silver buckle and polish my shoes.
I put my cell phone and car keys in my front pocket and my wallet in the back one.
I put on my glasses and check myself in the mirror to make sure I look okay and then go into the home office to get my bag.
I used to carry a more traditional briefcase, but now I just use my computer bag to hold my laptop and my papers.
Now it's back into the kitchen to grab my thermos on the way out the door.
I lock the door and then hurry to my car in the garage.
I'm usually running late and today is no exception.
Part 4 is called Getting Dressed and Ready for Work.
To begin by me going into the bedroom and opening up my closet door.
To open up means here to open the door.
A closet C-L-O-S-E-T is a place usually in your bedroom where you put clothes, you store your clothing, you can also have a closet in other parts of your house and it's usually a place where you keep things, you store things.
Well I open up my closet door and I look at my dress shirts.
My dress D-R-E-S-S shirts, two words, are the nice shirts, the shirts that I can wear to work.
The opposite of a dress shirt would be a casual shirt, C-A-S-U-A-L.
This shirt is a nice shirt, something that usually has a collar on it.
A collar C-O-L-L-A-R is the top of the shirt what goes around the neck.
Well I look at my dress shirts and I look also at my pants, P-A-N-T-S.
Pants are what you put on your legs.
You can have different kinds of pants, jeans is a type of pants.
We might say dress pants for nice pants that you would wear to work.
I also have ties, a tie, T-I-E is a long thin thing that goes around your neck that men usually wear often wear to work and it comes in different colors and that's your tie.
A sweater, SW-E-A-T-E-R, is something that keeps you warm.
It's like a shirt that's very thick.
You usually put a sweater over your shirt so that you can be warm.
Suit jackets, S-U-I-T, J-A-C-K-E-T-S, two words, are jackets that you wear that are for a formal occasion.
So if you are going to work especially if you were going to an interview you would wear a suit jacket.
The word suit S-U-I-T refers to a formal set of clothing for in this case a man.
For a man it would be pants and a probably white shirt and a suit jacket that goes over your shirt.
Usually you would also have a tie that you wear.
That's a suit. Well a suit jacket is part of a suit.
A T-shirt spelled T-H-I-R-T is a plain shirt that you usually wear underneath a dress shirt.
So first you put on a T-shirt, a white T-shirt, then you would put on your shirt and then you would put on your jacket.
T-shirts can also be used by themselves as your main shirt.
It is usually an informal occasion that you would just wear a T-shirt.
You probably wouldn't wear a T-shirt to your office for example.
Though some people do and many people have T-shirts that have things on them that say things on them.
Which usually do not have a collar like a dress shirt does.
I pull out a pair of socks and underwear.
Socks, SOCKS are the things you put on your feet before you put your shoe on.
Socks can be dark or they can be light or white socks.
Normally you don't wear white socks with a formal suit.
You would wear black or dark blue socks.
Underwear is the piece of clothing that you put on and it covers up all of the how should we say things that you want to cover.
So that you can keep your pants and shirt clean.
Underwear is something that goes over your back of your body, your butt or your rear as well as the front of your body, whatever you have there.
There can come for men in two basic styles usually.
There can be boxer, underwear or boxer shorts, B-O-X-E-R.
And that's a kind of short or rather a kind of underwear that is loose on the bottom.
So it's almost like a pair of shorts.
The opposite of that would be briefs, B-R-I-E-F-S.
Briefs would be underwear that is not loose at the bottom, it's tight at the bottom of the underwear.
Usually it's a little smaller as well.
I then decide which shirt I'm going to wear today.
I'm terrible, I say, at color coordinating.
Color coordinating means you wear things that have similar or matching colors.
So if you wore a pink shirt, you would probably not wear green pants because they don't go together, we would say.
They don't look very good with each other.
Color coordinating is finding the right colors that you wear with your shirt and your pants and your tie and your jacket and your socks and your shoes.
All of those have to be color coordinated.
The verb to coordinate C-O-O-R-D-I-N-A-T-E means to put two things together so that they work well together in this case.
Well since I'm so terrible, I'm so bad at color coordinating, I usually bring in my wife.
That is, I go and ask my wife to come into the room.
So I bring my wife in to the room at this point to help me, meaning at this time when I've already picked out some things, then I bring my wife in to help me match my shirt and pants.
I want them to color coordinate.
I put on my belt with the silver buckle and polish my shoes.
A belt B-E-L-T is what you use to keep your pants from falling down.
A buckle is the piece of usually metal in the front that connects the belt so that it forms a circle around your body.
I have a silver buckle that I put on with my belt.
I also polish my shoes to polish P-O-L-I-S-H.
Means to clean and to make shiny S-H-I-N-Y.
When we say something is shiny, we mean that it's bright, it reflects light.
So when you polish your shoes, you want them to be clean, but you also want them to look like they are bright, they are reflecting light.
I polish my shoes and my head.
So it's very shiny. I put my cell phone, my cellular or mobile phone, and my car keys in my front pocket.
You have front pockets and you have back pockets in a pair of pants.
So I put my keys in cell phone in the front pocket and my wallet in the back pocket.
My wallet, W-A-L-L-E-T, is where I put my money and my credit cards and my driver's license, all of those things go in my wallet.
I put on my glasses because I cannot see without my glasses very well and I check myself in the mirror to check yourself means to look at yourself, usually in a mirror and you can see how you look, I usually look pretty ugly.
I check myself in the mirror and then I go into my home office or my office in my house and get my bag.
I used to carry a more traditional briefcase.
A briefcase, B-R-I-E-F-C-A-S-E, all one word, is not something that you put your underwear in, your briefs.
A briefcase means the thing that you carry papers in when you are going from your home to your office.
Usually a briefcase is square and it usually has hard sides on it, many times it has a lock on the top.
That's a briefcase. A lot of people nowadays do not use a briefcase, they use a computer bag, a bag that they can put their computer and other information in, including their papers.
Well I put my things into my computer bag, then I go back into the kitchen to grab my thermos to get or take my thermos with my coffee in it, on the way out the door.
The expression on the way out means that you are about to leave or you are leaving your house in this case.
Somebody may call you on the phone and you are getting ready to go to dinner.
You could say, I can't talk right now, I am on my way out the door, means I am just getting ready to leave.
Well before I leave, before I am going out the door, I grab my thermos, I lock the door to my house, and then I hurry to my car in the garage.
The garage, G-A-R-A-G-E, is the place where you keep your car.
I am usually running late and today is no exception.
When you are running late, you are behind your schedule, you are behind the time that you want to be somewhere.
To run late means the same as to be late or to be tardy, T-A-R-D-Y.
Usually that word tardy is only used in school.
We say a student is tardy, we mean that they are late for school or late for class.
To be running late means that you are not on the schedule that you want to be on, that you did not leave at the time you wanted to leave.
I say I am running late and today is no exception.
That expression is no exception, E-X-C-E-P-T-I-O-N, means that today is the same as every other day.
It is not different. An exception is when something is different.
Well today is no different.
That means today is no exception.
It is not different. Now let's listen to the story this time at a normal speed.
I go back into my bedroom and open up my closet door.
I have about 30 dress shirts, 10 pairs of pants, a half dozen ties, and some sweaters, suit jackets and t-shirts.
I pull out a clean pair of socks and underwear, then decide which shirt I am going to wear today.
I am terrible at color coordinating, so I usually bring my wife in at this point to help match my shirt and pants.
I put on my belt with a silver buckle and polish my shoes.
I put my cell phone and car keys in my front pocket and my wallet in the back one.
I put on my glasses and check myself in the mirror to make sure I look okay and then go into the home office to get my bag.
I used to carry a more traditional briefcase, but now I just use my computer bag to hold my laptop and my papers.
Now it's back into the kitchen to grab my thermos on the way out the door.
I lock the door and then hurry to my car in the garage.
I'm usually running late and today is no exception.
That concludes part four of a day in the life of Jeff.
In part five, we commute to work.
This course has been a production of the Center for Educational Development in Beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at pslpod.com.
This course was produced by Dr.
Jeff McQuillan and Dr. Lucy Saye.
Copyright 2006. Welcome to ESLPod.com's A Day in the Life of Jeff.
Part five, the commute to work.
I'm Dr. Jeff McQuillan, your host.
This part of our course is going to talk about going to work and vocabulary related to commuting.
Let's get started. I open my car door and throw my briefcase in the back seat and get comfortable for my drive.
I put my coffee mug into the cup holder, put the keys in the ignition, find the gas pedal and start the car.
My wife drove the car last night, so I have to readjust the rear view mirror and the side mirrors.
I turn on the radio to listen to the Drive Time Traffic Report.
I take the transmission out of park and into reverse, back out into the driveway, into the street, close the garage door and put the car into drive.
I use to drive a stick shift, but as I get older, I like my automatic transmission more and more.
I usually take the freeway to the office, so I get on the on ramp for the freeway and drive to where I have to get off.
My office is only a few miles from the exit.
I pull into the parking garage, swiping my key card to get in.
I park, grab my briefcase and coffee, and head toward the elevator.
And that only took 40 minutes.
Part five is called the commute to work.
Commute, C-O-M-M-U-T-E can be both a noun and a verb.
It means to go from your house to your work.
Usually, if you live a long distance from your work, you would say I have a long commute.
Or if you live close to where you work, you would have a short commute.
If it's a very long commute with lots of traffic, you might say I have a terrible commute, a very bad commute.
The story begins by me saying that I open my car door and throw my briefcase in the back seat.
So I open my front door. The door that we would call the driver's side, where the driver gets in.
And in an American car that is on the left side, cars in Britain are on the right side, is the driver's side.
So I get into the left side in the front door.
If you have a car that has a back seat, you could have a two-door car or a four-door car.
Four doors means that you have separate doors for the back seat.
The seat SEAT is what you sit in.
So the back seat is where people can sit behind you, behind the driver, and behind the person next to the driver.
We call the seats, the passenger seats, and the driver's seat.
The right side of the car is usually called the passenger side of the car.
I get comfortable for my drive, for my commute.
Notice we use drive there as a noun.
It can be a verb and a noun.
I put my coffee mug into the cup holder.
A mug, MUG, is just a big cup.
We talk about coffee mugs.
They're big cups that you put your coffee into.
In many cars, there is a special place for a cup or a bottle, and that's called the cup holder, H-O-L-D-E-R.
It holds the cup, so you can have your coffee in your car.
I put the keys in the ignition.
The keys are of course what starts your car.
It's the piece of metal that you open your car door with.
You unlock it. Well, you also start the car with your keys, and you put them in to something called the ignition.
The ignition I-G-N-I-T-I-O-N is the part of the car that starts the engine.
Usually it makes a certain sound, a certain noise.
Once the engine starts, then you don't have to put the key forward.
You just leave the key there.
You take your hand off of it.
The word ignition comes from the verb to ignite, I-G-N-I-T-E, which means to start a fire or to start something burning.
And of course, a car burns gasoline.
That's what the engine does in order to make the car move.
After I put the keys into the ignition, I find the gas pedal.
A pedal, P-E-D-A-L, is something you use to control with your feet, usually the speed of something.
So the gas pedal is the pedal that you press down to go faster.
It gives the engine more gas.
That word pedal can also be used as a verb if you are on a bicycle.
In order to make the bicycle move, you have to pedal because the things that your feet are on on a bike or a bicycle are also called pedals.
Well, you don't pedal your car, but you do have a gas pedal.
I start the car, and because my wife drove the car last night, I have to readjust the rear-view mirror.
To readjust means to adjust again.
That prefix RE means again in English, usually.
To adjust means to move them so that I can see properly.
I can see into the mirror.
There are two types of mirrors on your car.
There is the rear REAR view, VIEW mirror, and that is in the front of the car on the front window of the car.
The front window of your car is called your wind shield, W-I-N-D-S-H-I-E-L-D, the wind shield.
So on your wind shield and the top in the middle is your rear-view mirror, and that allows you to see cars behind you.
There are also mirrors on the side of the car, usually on both sides, and those are called the side mirrors.
I turn on the radio to listen to the Drive Time Traffic Report.
Drive time is the time of day when most people are going either to work or coming back from work.
So in the morning, the Drive Time in Los Angeles, for example, is 7.30 to 9.30.
Most people are going to work during those hours.
In other cities, it could be different.
In some cities it's earlier than that.
There's also a Drive Time at the end of the day between 5 o'clock and 7 o'clock here in Los Angeles.
That's when people are coming home from work.
So the Drive Time Traffic Report is an announcement on the radio telling you if there are any accidents on the roads, if there is any construction, that is the government is fixing the road and it may be closed.
And it tells you if you are going to take a long time or not a long time.
So traffic reports tell you how fast the cars are moving on different usually freeways in American cities.
I take the transmission out of park and into reverse.
The transmission T-R-A-N-S-M-I-S-S-I-O-N is the part of the car that determines how fast you go.
It also determines if you go forward or backwards, if you're going straight ahead or behind.
That's the transmission.
Sometimes it's called the transmission box B-O-X.
And inside of that box there are little wheels called Gears G-E-A-R-S.
And depending on the gear you are in, we would say, depending on the gear you are using, you will either go very fast or not very fast.
Or you will go in reverse, R-E-V-E-R-S-E.
To go in to reverse means to go backwards.
The car moves backwards.
Well, before I go anywhere, I have to take the transmission out of park, P-A-R-K.
Park is when the car is not going forward or going backwards.
We say you put the transmission into park and you take it out of park.
And when you take it out of park, you either go forward or backwards.
Well, here I'm going in reverse and I back out into the driveway.
To back out means to go backwards.
Usually that verb to back out is used when you are talking about a car or a truck that is leaving a garage and it's going in reverse.
You back out of the garage.
I back out into the driveway onto the street or into the street.
The driveway D-R-I-V-E-W-A-Y is what connects the garage to the street.
It's the space that is in between your street and where your car is parked, your garage.
Some people actually don't have a garage and so they park in their driveway.
They drive off the street and they park their car in the driveway.
That piece of land where you can put your car.
I like to park my car on my neighbor's driveway so I have more room on my driveway.
He doesn't like it though.
So I back out of the garage and then I close the garage door and put the car into drive.
Here's another use of that word drive.
In this case it means I'm putting it in a gear that will take me forward.
So to put a car into drive means that you change the position of the transmission so that your car will go forward and not backwards.
I used to drive a stick shift but as I get older I like my automatic transmission more and more.
There are two kinds of transmissions, two kinds of cars.
One is what we call an automatic transmission where you put your car either into reverse or into drive and that's it.
You don't have to change anything.
Another kind of car is called a stick shift or a manual transmission.
Manual M-A-N-U-A-L is the opposite of automatic.
It means by hand. So if you have a manual transmission or a stick shift you have to move the transmission each time you want to go faster or slower.
The word stick ST-I-C-K shift SH-I-F-T two words is the same as a manual transmission.
Some people say I drive a stick.
They mean I drive a stick shift.
The word shift is also a verb to shift and that means to change.
So if you have a manual transmission or a stick shift you shift from one gear to another.
If you want to go faster you have to shift into a higher gear.
Well if you don't have a manual transmission you don't have to worry about it.
If you have a stick shift you have an extra pedal in the car.
Remember we said that a pedal can be a gas pedal something that makes you go faster.
You also have a brake pedal that will slow or stop your car.
And if you have a stick shift you have a third pedal which we call the clutch CLUTH.
And in order to change from one gear to another to go faster or slower or to go into reverse.
If you have a stick shift you have to press on or put your foot on the clutch so that you can change or shift gears.
I usually take the freeway to the office so I get on the on ramp for the freeway.
The on ramp ONRAMP is what connects the street to the freeway.
So just like a driveway connects the street to your garage and on ramp connects the street to the freeway.
The opposite of an on ramp would be of course an off ramp and that's where you go off of the freeway and back to the street.
Well I get on to the on ramp or I get on the on ramp and I drive to where I have to get off.
My office is only a few miles from the exit.
The exit EXIT is where you leave the freeway.
It can be a noun or it can be a verb to exit means to leave.
And normally in a public building a hotel or other areas they have a sign that says EXIT so you know if case there is an emergency how to leave the room or leave the building.
On an airplane we have something called the emergency exits and those are doors that you use if the plane is having problems.
I hope you never have to use the emergency exits.
Well this is an exit from the freeway and my office is only a few miles after I get off of the freeway.
I pull into the parking garage the place at my work where you park or keep your car and I swipe my key card to get in.
A key card K-E-Y-C-A-R-D two words is like a credit card.
It's an electronic card that the company gives you that allows you to get in and out of a garage in and out of the building maybe even in and out of your office.
And it's an electronic card like a credit card.
To swipe is the verb we use when we talk about credit cards or key cards.
To swipe SW-I-P-E means to take the card and put it into what we would call a reader very quickly.
So for a credit card the clerk will swipe the card.
We'll put it through the machine very quickly.
For a key card you put it through the machine so you can get into somewhere.
It's a key an electronic key.
I park my car. I grab my briefcase and my coffee.
Very important my coffee.
And I head toward the elevator.
To head toward something means to walk in that direction or move in that direction.
So I walk toward the elevator and my whole trip only took 40 minutes.
Americans love to complain about how terrible their commutes are.
In some cities 30 or 40 minutes is considered a long commute.
And in some cities like Los Angeles it's considered an average commute.
In other countries some people commute an hour or hour and a half in order to get to their work.
Now let's listen to the story this time at a regular speed.
I open my car door and throw my briefcase in the back seat and get comfortable from my drive.
I put my coffee mug into the cup holder, put the keys in the ignition, find the gas pedal and start the car.
My wife drove the car last night so I have to readjust the rear view mirror and the side mirrors.
I turn on the radio to listen to the drive time traffic report.
I take the transmission out of park and into reverse, back out into the driveway into the street, close the garage door and put the car into drive.
I used to drive a stick shift but as I get older I like my automatic transmission more and more.
I usually take the freeway to the office so I get on the on ramp for the freeway and drive to where I have to get off.
My office is only a few miles from the exit.
I pull into the parking garage, swiping my key card to get in.
I park, grab my briefcase and coffee and head toward the elevator.
And that only took 40 minutes.
That concludes part five of a day in the life of Jeff, the commute to work.
In part six we actually get to work and go to lunch.
This course has been a production of the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at pslpod.com.
This course was produced by Dr.
Jeff McQuillin and Dr. Lucy Saye.
Copyright 2006. Welcome to ESLpod.com's a day in the life of Jeff.
Part six at my desk on break and at lunch.
I'm your host Dr. Jeff McQuillin from the Center for Educational Development.
In episode five of our course we commuted to work.
We drove to work. Now we are at work and we're going to go on break and go to lunch.
Let's get started. On the way to the office I was thinking about what I have on my agenda today.
When I get to my desk there is a stack of new memos and papers in my inbox.
When I turn on my computer I see at least two dozen emails I need to go through.
Just as I start in on the email my phone rings.
It's my project manager Julie asking me to come in for a conference call with our head office.
I don't get back to my desk for nearly two hours.
By that time I was ready for a break.
At 10.30 I head down to the break room and get some hot water at the water cooler to make some tea.
There were a couple of other people on break having snacks out of the vending machine and reading the new notices on the bulletin board.
I run into Sam, one of my friends at work and we chat a little before going back to work.
Before long it's time for lunch.
I usually bring my lunch with me to work and eat it at my desk.
If I don't have time to pack a lunch I sometimes go across the street for some takeout.
The only trouble is it's always so busy during the lunch hour and I always have to stand in line.
That's usually a pain. On Fridays I usually go out to lunch with a few friends from work.
On casual Fridays we can kick back a little and take it easy.
Part 6 is called at my desk.
On break and at lunch. Notice the use of those prepositions.
Prepositions are very difficult to translate and many people get confused when you start learning another language trying to figure out what those little words which word should you use.
There's a difference between at my desk and on my desk and in my desk those all mean different things.
On your desk means something is on top of your desk like your computer.
In your desk means something is inside one of the drawers of your desks.
At your desk means that you are sitting next to your desk.
You are we hope working like you're supposed to be working right now instead of listening to this episode.
On break is the expression we use when you are stopping work for a short time.
Usually 10, 15, maybe 20 minutes.
At lunch means you are going to lunch.
You are eating. We don't say in lunch or on lunch we say at lunch.
The best way to learn those little prepositions is just to read and to listen more and more and eventually you will know them without even having to study them.
Our story begins by me saying that on the way to the office I was thinking about what I have on my agenda today.
Your agenda, A-G-E-N-D-A means your plan for today.
What are the things that you have to do today?
This could include meetings.
It could include phone calls.
You could have many different things on your agenda.
There's another expression to have an agenda.
To have an agenda means that you have a plan, sometimes a secret plan that you don't tell anyone about, that makes you want to do a certain thing.
It's like having an opinion and trying to get other people to do what you want them to do.
That's to have an agenda.
But here, agenda just means a list of things that you're going to do.
When I get to my desk, there is a stack of new memos and papers in my inbox.
Stack, you'll remember, is when you have thin things on top of each other.
You can have a stack of pancakes.
Here we have a stack of papers and memos.
A memo, M-E-M-O, is short for Memorandum.
It is usually like a letter that you send to someone in your company in your office.
Your inbox, IN-B-O-X, can be a little box on your desk where people put things for you to do your boss, for example.
When you are done with them, you can put them in your outbox.
Those terms inbox and outbox are also used for email programs now.
When I turn on my computer, I have at least two dozen emails I need to go through.
The expression to go through here means I have to read them and maybe respond to them.
Someone may say, I have to go through my email.
They mean I have to read my email and I have to respond sometimes to my email.
I have to do that every day just like you do, but most of my emails come from you.
Just as I started in on the email, my phone rings.
The expression to start in on something means to begin to do something.
So I start in on my phone calls.
That means I have many phone calls and I start making them.
I begin making them. There's a different expression to start in on someone on a person.
And if you start in on a person on your brother, on your wife, that means that you are criticizing them.
You're saying something bad, something negative about them.
When I was younger, if I didn't do my homework, which was often, my mother would start in on me, meaning she would criticize me.
Jeffrey, do your homework.
The only person who calls me Jeffrey is my mother.
Back to our story. I said that my phone rang and it was my project manager, Julie.
The manager is the person that is in charge of a certain group of people, someone who is the boss and a project is just a set of things for you to do, usually related to each other.
Well, my project manager, who is like my boss, asked me to come in for a conference call with our head office.
A conference, C-O-N-F-E-R-E-N-C-E call, is a telephone call with three or more people.
And that's very common in American business and in international business to have a conference call.
So more than one person can talk on the telephone.
The head office, H-E-A-D, is the same as the main office.
And this is where the company has most of its important people who are working, it's sometimes called its headquarters.
The head office is the main office.
The opposite of head office would be a branch office.
B-R-A-N-C-H, a branch office, is a smaller office.
We're having a conference call with someone in our head office.
And I didn't get back to my desk, I didn't return to my desk for almost or nearly two hours.
By that time, I was ready for a break.
At 1030, I head down to the break room.
The break room, B-R-E-A-K, room, two words, is a place in a building in your office where people can go and read and relax, perhaps eat their lunch or eat some food.
It's a place for you to stop work and to relax a little or to talk to other people.
I use the verb to head down.
That simply means to go to somewhere.
We sometimes use that expression when we are talking about going to a different place.
I'm going to head down to the boss's office.
I'm going to go over to the boss's office.
Well, I head down to the break room.
I go to the break room and get some hot water from the water cooler.
The water cooler, COOLER, is a little machine that has water and you can get hot water or you can get cold water.
That expression, the water cooler is very common when people say I heard it at the water cooler or around the water cooler.
That usually refers to people who are gossiping, who are talking about things they probably shouldn't.
Well, I went to the water cooler and I made myself some tea because I love drinking tea.
There are a couple of other people on break.
Notice that we use that expression on break, people who have stopped working.
Having snacks out of the vending machine, a snack, SNAC, is a piece of food that you eat between breakfast and lunch or between lunch and dinner or between dinner and going to bed.
A vending machine, V-E-N-D-I-N-G, is a big machine where you can buy usually food.
The verb to vend, V-E-N-D, means to sell.
So it's a place where you can sell food and you put your money in and you can press a button and you get things like cookies and potato chips.
All the things that are not good for you in the vending machine.
Some people are also reading the new notices on the bulletin board.
The bulletin board, B-U-L-L-E-T-I-N, board, two words, is a big piece of usually wood or plastic where people put important messages for other people to read.
You can have a bulletin board at your work, you can have a bulletin board in a school and usually it's a place where different people can come and read the news or new things or new announcements.
I run into Sam, one of my friends at work, the verb to run into, means I meet him although I was not expecting to meet him.
So I run into Sam and we chat a little before going back to work.
To chat, C-H-A-T, means to talk usually about something not very important.
Before long, it's time for lunch, meaning after a short time, it's time for lunch.
Before long means a short time or after a short time.
I usually bring my lunch with me to work and eat it at my desk.
Notice that use of at my desk means I'm sitting by my desk and I'm eating my lunch.
Sounds kind of lonely. If I don't have time to pack a lunch, I sometimes go across the street for some takeout.
To pack P-A-C-K a lunch means to make your lunch at home, a sandwich for example, and put that into a bag or a box that you take with you to work.
That is to pack a lunch. If I don't pack a lunch, I usually eat takeout, T-A-K-E-Hyphen-O-U-T.
Takeout is when you go to a restaurant, but you don't eat at the restaurant.
You don't dine in, we would say, D-I-N-E-N.
You don't dine in. You do takeout.
You can also have the restaurant deliver the food, bring the food to your house or bring the food to your office.
We would call that delivery.
You can dine in. You can do takeout, meaning you go to the restaurant or you can have delivery.
Someone brings the food to you.
The only trouble is, I say, it's always so busy during the lunch hour.
The lunch hour in most American companies is from noon to 1 or 1.30 or 11.30 in the morning to maybe 1 o'clock in the afternoon.
It's usually longer than an hour, though in some companies, you only get one hour.
Some companies, you only get 30 minutes to eat.
I always have to stand in line because it's so busy.
To stand in line means to wait behind other people.
In England, they would say to queue in the US, we say to stand in line.
I say that's usually a pain.
When we say something is a pain, P-A-I-N, we mean that it's very inconvenient or uncomfortable, something you do not like.
People will also say a pain in the neck or a pain in the butt, B-U-T-T.
Those are the same basic meanings, something that's a pain in the neck or a pain in the butt means it's not something that you like.
It's very inconvenient.
On Fridays, I usually go out to lunch.
I go to eat somewhere else with a few friends from work.
On casual Fridays, we can kick back a little and take it easy.
Casual, C-A-S-U-A-L is the same as informal.
In many companies in the United States, they have casual Friday.
That's a day where you do not have to wear as nice of clothing.
Maybe you'll wear a t-shirt and not a suit jacket or you don't have to wear a tie.
It's also a day where people feel a little more relaxed.
Usually, it has to do with what you can wear to work.
In the story, I say that on casual Fridays, we can kick back a little and take it easy.
To kick back, C-I-C-K, B-A-C-K, two words, means to relax.
It's an informal expression.
That means that you are relaxing.
And take it easy also means relax.
Kick back is a little more informal.
It's something that you might do, for example, with your friends.
If you drink alcohol, you might have some alcohol and relax.
That's to kick back. Now let's listen to the story this time at a normal speed.
On the way to the office, I was thinking about what I have on my agenda today.
When I get to my desk, there's a stack of new memos and papers in my inbox.
When I turn on my computer, I see at least two dozen emails I need to go through.
Just as I started on the email, my phone rings.
It's my project manager, Julie, asking me to come in for a conference call with our head office.
I don't get back to my desk for nearly two hours.
By that time, I was ready for a break.
At 10.30, I head down to the break room and get some hot water at the water cooler to make some tea.
There were a couple of other people on break, having snacks out of the vending machine and reading the new notices on the bulletin board.
I run into Sam, one of my friends at work, and we chat a little before going back to work.
Before long, it's time for lunch.
I usually bring my lunch with me to work and eat it at my desk.
If I don't have time to pack a lunch, I sometimes go across the street for some takeout.
The only trouble is it's always so busy during the lunch hour, and I always have to stand in line.
That's usually a pain. On Fridays, I usually go out to lunch with a few friends from work.
On casual Fridays, we can kick back a little and take it easy.
That concludes part six of a day in the life of Jeff at my desk on break and at lunch.
In part seven, we're going to go back home and run some errands.
This course has been a production of the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This course was produced by Dr.
