Welcome to the Listening Time Podcast.
Hey everybody, this is Connor and you're listening to episode 115 of the Listening Time Podcast.
I hope you're all doing really well.
I hope you're enjoying your summer.
Speaking of summer, in this episode I'm going to talk about vacations.
And I'm sure that some of you are currently on vacation right now, or you are gonna take a vacation in the next couple weeks, or maybe you already came back from a vacation this month, because at the time that this episode is released, it will be the middle of August, if I'm not mistaken.
And I know from talking to many students throughout the years that a lot of people take vacations in August.
And I know that there are some countries where the majority of people take their biggest vacation in August.
And so this month is not a very productive month.
There isn't a lot of working going on compared to other months.
So I think this will be a relevant topic for today.
So we'll talk a little bit about paid time off.
This refers to the days that you get paid by your employer that you don't actually work.
So we call this paid time off or just PTO.
So we'll talk about PTO around the world and we'll talk a little bit about school vacations and some things that I did when I had vacation time as a student in the past.
So we'll talk about all of that today.
And before we start, remember that if you need help understanding native speakers, if it's difficult for you to understand fast English because native speakers speak really unclearly and they reduce a lot of their speech, then I encourage you to become a Listening Time member so that you can gain access to my listening practice seminars where I help you understand these different sound patterns and reductions that are difficult to understand when you're listening to native speakers.
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The links to that are also in the episode description as well.
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All right, let's get started.
Are your ears ready?
You know what time it is.
It's listening time.
Okay, let's talk about vacations.
So first, I want to talk about paid time off around the world in different places.
And what I'm talking about here doesn't include public holidays, because there are some holidays that the governments around the world declare are holidays and people don't work on those days and they can get paid on those days usually.
So I'm not referring to public holidays here, but keep that in mind, because there isn't only paid time off in different countries.
You also have to factor in the public holidays in order to come up with the total number of days that people have off in different countries.
By the way, when we use the phrasal verb factor in, we're saying that you have to consider some other thing in your equation, or whatever you're doing.
So you need to factor in the public holidays if you want to get an accurate picture of how many days people have off throughout the year.
So, for example, I lived in Mexico for many years and I think just recently, if I'm not mistaken the Mexican government increased the number of paid vacation days that full-time employees need to have.
So I think that now it is 12 per year.
But if I'm not mistaken, it was less than that before.
I want to say six, but I'm not entirely sure about that.
So don't quote me on that.
But it was fewer days before.
By the way, when we say the phrase don't quote me on that what we're saying is I'm not sure if what I'm saying is true.
So just don't use this.
Don't think of this as a fact, right?
So I think that before there were fewer days of PTO in Mexico and now there are 12, but I'm not entirely sure.
And in Europe, many countries... probably most of them, have somewhere in the 20s.
So somewhere between 20 and 30 days of paid vacation.
And so that's definitely the continent that has a lot of paid time off compared to other places around the world.
So Europe is definitely a place where workers... have a lot of vacation time.
And some other countries from different continents also have a lot of paid vacation time.
I saw places like Panama, for example, that are near the top of the list.
So there are some other countries from other continents that also have somewhere in the 20s.
And then a lot of countries have like exactly 20 days or exactly 10 days.
I saw a lot of countries that have that amount.
And of course, some countries have in between there, maybe 11 or 12 or something like that.
And then there are quite a few countries that have less than that, fewer than 10 days.
And And I think the one that you're all waiting for is the United States.
Where is the U.S. on this list?
Well, in terms of federally mandated PTO, when I say federally mandated, I'm saying that the federal government makes companies do this.
In terms of federally mandated paid time off, The US has zero days.
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So the US does not have any vacation days that companies are forced to give their employees.
That doesn't mean that employees don't have PTO.
This just means that companies don't have to give their employees any paid vacation days.
However, most companies actually do this.
Most companies give their employees paid time off.
And so even though we don't have a law about this, it's still something that occurs naturally.
Because obviously employees want vacation days and employers want to keep their employees happy or attract new employees or better employees.
And they need to compete with other companies to get employees.
So, of course, most companies give paid vacation days, even though they don't have to.
And from what I read, the average American worker has about 10 days of paid vacation per year.
Some people have more, some people have less.
But on average, they have maybe two work weeks, maybe two five-day work weeks off per year.
But that's not something that... employees are forced to give.
This is something that employees negotiate with their employers, and they figure this out privately on their own.
So that's how it works in the US.
And if you're independent, if you don't have an employer, you of course have zero paid vacation days.
So for example, I'm independent.
I don't have an employer.
So that means I have zero days of paid time off.
And I can't negotiate with anyone for that because I'm my own employer, of course.
And that's also the case because nobody can cover you, right?
If I had another partner, let's say, then maybe they could cover my work when I leave.
But I'm completely independent.
I don't have anyone working with me or for me.
So obviously I don't have that.
So then what do I do?
Well, nowadays I don't travel for pleasure that much.
I often have to travel for other reasons, but not necessarily pleasure, because I planned a trip for me and my family and we're gonna go have fun.
We do that sometimes, but not as much as many other people, probably.
So I don't travel as much for pleasure nowadays.
And when I do, I usually work extra before I travel.
So I work harder and get more work done in the weeks before I take my trip.
And then I can just not do anything when I'm traveling.
So sometimes I do that.
And sometimes I work while I'm traveling.
That's very common for me.
So I usually do one of those two things.
I usually either work extra before or I work while I'm traveling.
But don't feel bad for me.
I chose this, right?
I chose this type of career, this type of lifestyle.
So I'm not complaining to anyone about this.
So let's talk a little bit about the pros and cons of having a lot of paid vacation.
So, of course, the pros, the advantages have to do with the workers.
So workers are happy if they have a lot of vacation time.
So people can take many vacations throughout the year.
They can travel to different places, or they can just relax at home and kind of just rest after having worked for many weeks.
And of course, people can maybe spread out their vacation time throughout the year, and So they might take some of their vacation time at the beginning of the year, some in the middle, some at the end, and they can give themselves little breaks throughout the year.
I know a lot of people who do that.
And this is good for the tourist industry in different countries, I assume, because there are always tourists coming to visit these different locations, because people have more vacation time.
And overall a lot of people probably most people like the fact that in their job there is a lot of vacation time, a lot of PTO.
However, there are some cons as well.
And most of these disadvantages are related to the employer.
So, for example, it is hard for employers to pay for so much vacation time.
As you can imagine, it becomes very expensive.
When you have a lot of employees and you have to pay for each employee to have a lot of days off and they don't produce or work during those days.
And so you don't make money during those days.
So that's very expensive for employers.
And so it creates some barriers of entry for new entrepreneurs.
When I say the word barrier and when I use the phrase barrier of entry, I'm saying that there's an obstacle or something that is prohibiting someone from doing something or going somewhere.
So in this case there are some obstacles that prevent someone new entrepreneurs from starting or from hiring people.
So if they hire people, if they want to take on employees, they have to factor in this cost.
By the way, we can use the phrasal verb take on when talking about hiring employees.
So if they want to take on employees, they'll have to factor in this cost.
And it seems like a very big cost for a lot of people.
So some people might choose not to hire employees or not to hire more employees because it's too expensive.
And so this can be a big negative, of course.
This can hurt the economy because businesses have trouble starting or growing.
And that results in fewer jobs and higher unemployment sometimes.
So, of course, there are some pros and cons to having a lot of vacation days.
And how about school vacation?
So when I was growing up in California, I think that most schools had two and a half months of vacation in summer.
So that was what I had for most of my school career until I was in 10th grade.
And then something happened.
Something changed.
The schedule changed so that we switched to a year-round schedule.
That's what it's called.
So with this new year-round schedule...
Suddenly, instead of having two and a half months or almost three months of summer vacation, we only had a month and a half of summer vacation.
So it was a big change and most of us were not happy about this, but there were some other good things about this schedule.
And that's because it added more vacation time throughout the year.
So before we switched to that schedule, I think that our winter break was two weeks and then it changed to three weeks when we changed to this schedule.
And then spring break was just one week.
And then that changed to two weeks.
And then we got an extra break during the fall, which we hadn't had before.
So that was a good thing.
And overall, it ended up being good for most people.
Because, instead of just having one long vacation in the summer, we had a lot of medium-length vacations throughout the year.
So it kind of distributed the vacation time more evenly throughout the year.
And so that ended up being a good thing, for me at least.
I'm sure some people preferred to have a really long summer break.
But for me, it seemed OK.
And so throughout the school year, we had these different breaks, these different vacations, and we always looked forward to the next one.
The phrase look forward to means that you anticipate something in the future with excitement.
You want it to happen.
You're waiting for it to come.
So we always looked forward to the next vacation.
That was always something exciting for us.
And lastly, what did I do when I used to have vacation time as a student, because I've never really had vacation time as an adult, because I've worked independently, basically my whole career.
And so when I used to have vacation time, when I didn't need to work and my parents took care of me and I had those breaks throughout the year, We did many fun things.
I have great memories of my vacation time as a kid and as a teenager.
So we took a lot of family vacations.
I would say that every year we usually took one pretty big family vacation.
It wasn't always a huge vacation.
We didn't go to other countries usually. besides Mexico a couple times.
But we went to different states, different cities, different nature places.
And so we took a lot of family vacations that I have great memories of.
And I'm very thankful that we did that as a family when I was a kid.
I remember going to Hawaii a few times with my family, and I will never forget those vacations.
They're still very clear in my mind.
I remember a lot of the places that we went to, the things that we did.
I really enjoyed that.
And we took quite a few road trips as well.
I remember taking road trips throughout the southwest of the US, for example, driving from California all the way up to Idaho actually, which is not in the southwest.
But we drove through Utah, Arizona, Nevada, those places.
And I have great memories of that time.
So we took road trips.
We also went to Mexico, as I mentioned, but just to the northern part, that's close to the border with San Diego.
But I remember driving down there a couple times with my family and spending some time in Mexico.
And we also went camping every summer.
I really loved this.
It was one of the best traditions that my family had.
And I really want to start this tradition with my family now.
Because I love camping and I love the tradition of camping as a family and kind of spending that time outdoors sleeping in a tent.
I know that's not the most comfortable thing, but it's a fun experience.
You know, being around the fire and...
Kind of helping your children love that environment and appreciate that type of trip.
I really want to give that to my son and my future kids.
So I loved camping.
I loved playing outside throughout the summer during that vacation, going fishing, spending time out in nature, running around with my friends things like that.
And so as you can see, I really appreciated my vacation time as a kid.
And I hope my kids do as well.
I hope that they have some great memories that they can cherish forever about their vacation time.
By the way, the word cherish just means that you really love or appreciate something.
Something is important to you.
So I hope that they can cherish their memories of their vacation time that they had during their childhood.
Alright, why don't we stop there for today?
I hope you enjoyed this episode.
Remember that if you want help understanding native speakers, then make sure to join my membership so you can get my specialized training to help you do that.
And if you're a Spanish or a Portuguese speaker, check out my ebook if you want to read fiction in English.
And remember to share this podcast with anyone else you know who's learning English.
And please give it a five-star rating and write a review.
All right.
Thank you for listening to this episode.
And I'll talk to you in the next episode of Listening Time.
