Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 852, Working in a Factory.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 852.
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 between Tony and Amber about working in a factory, a place where things are made or manufactured.
Let's get started.
The plant manager says that you're the new kid.
Yes, it's my first day.
Alright, you'll be a line worker like the rest of us.
Here's your workstation.
What you have to remember is that output and productivity are the most important things around here.
I understand, but... You have to watch where you're going or you'll ruin our safety record.
Sorry, when will I get trained to use this machinery?
I've never worked on an assembly line before to mass produce anything.
I'm going to teach you, so pay attention.
The other thing you have to worry about around here is quality control.
If you don't do things right, you'll hear about it.
Okay, but... Hey, sit down.
As I said before, if you're not careful, you'll get your head taken off in this factory.
Now, try to pay attention.
I'm trying, but it's hard to do when my life is in danger every other minute.
Rookies.
Tony begins our dialogue by saying to Amber...
The plant manager says that you're the new kid.
A plant.
P-L-A-N-T manager M-A-N-A-G-E-R is the most important supervisor in a factory, the most important boss.
Plant here refers to a place where things are made.
Factory, which is in the title of our episode, is also a place where things are made.
The two words mean the same, factory or plant.
When I say things are made, I mean typically physical things, chairs or cars or doors.
We're not talking about computer software, for example.
But the actual computers, the physical machines, would be made in a plant or in a factory.
Tony refers to the plant manager. calling Amber the new kid, meaning the new employee in this case.
It doesn't mean that she's actually a child.
Amber says, yes, it's my first day.
Tony says, all right, you'll be a line worker like the rest of us.
A line, L-I-N-E, worker, is a person who who has a low-level job, we would call it.
Not a very important or complicated job.
Usually working on what's called an assembly line.
An assembly line is when you are making some product, some thing, and everyone does something in order.
Often you're all standing next to each other.
So I may put in the first screw and I give it to you and you put in a bolt and then you give it to another person and they put a cover on and then they give it to someone else.
And you're doing the same thing over and over again all day.
That's being a line worker.
Tony says to Amber, here's your work station.
Your workstation is the place of course where you work.
It's usually a small area maybe a desk but not a complete office not an entire office of your own.
In a factory your workstation might just be a very small table for example.
What you have to remember, Tony says, is that output and productivity are the most important things around here.
Output, O-U-T, P-U-T, is what a person or a machine produces, what they make.
A big factory may make...
Thousands of telephones, cellular telephones, mobile phones, every day or even every hour.
That would be their output.
Productivity refers to how much work you get done in a certain amount of time.
When productivity increases, workers are able to produce more with time, the same amount of time.
So, instead of producing a thousand cell phones a day, the same amount of workers with the same amount of time produce ten thousand new cell phones.
This is an increase in productivity, either because the workers are working harder or because the technology allows them to be more productive, to have a higher output.
Notice I use high or low for output.
For productivity, we talk about it rising or falling.
Amber says, I understand, but Tony interrupts her and says, watch out for that forklift.
Watch out means be careful.
A forklift, F-O-R-K-L-I-F-T, is a machine with a large, strong piece of metal in the front of it.
Typically they're like two bars and they go underneath heavy objects and are able to lift them up and take them from one place to another.
So if you have a heavy box, you might have a forklift come and it puts these two bars flat bars underneath it and it looks kind of like a fork, so that's why it's called a forklift.
Then it is able to lift it up and move it to another location.
Tony says you have to watch where you're going or you'll ruin our safety record.
Safety is the opposite of having accidents.
Safety refers to people not getting hurt, not getting injured, not getting killed.
The safety record of the factory or the plant says, refers to how many people are injured in the factory every year.
And many times there are injuries.
There are people who get hurt in factories or in plants.
Amber says, sorry, when will I get trained to use this machinery?
Machinery M-A-C-H-I-N-E-R-Y are large pieces of equipment typically operated by electricity or some other power source.
Machinery usually refers to a piece of equipment that makes something else, although not always.
Amber says, An assembly A-S-S-E-M-B-L-Y line is, as we referred to earlier, the process where you have many people working to build or create something and each person does the same thing over and over again.
I do one thing, then you do something, then the next person does something else.
An assembly line can also have machines instead of people, and many of them do nowadays.
Assembly comes from the verb to assemble, A-S-S-E-M-B-L-E, which means to put something together.
Amber says that she's never worked on an assembly line before to mass produce anything.
To produce means to make.
To mass M-A-S-S hyphen produce means to make a large amount of things, especially things that are identical.
They're not made for an individual person.
You make the same thing over and over again.
Tony says, I'm going to teach you, so pay attention, meaning focus on what I'm saying.
The other thing you have to worry about around here is quality control.
Quality is how good or bad something is.
Control is making sure something is the way it's supposed to be.
So quality control is testing the products, testing the things that are made to make sure that they were made correctly.
This expression, you'll hear about it, means...
Usually that you've done something wrong and that you are being told about it and probably will be punished for it.
So a child might be told by his parent.
If you cause any problems on the playground today, you'll hear about it, meaning I'm going to talk to you about it, and it's not going to be good news.
Amber says, okay, but Tony again interrupts her and says, hey, sit down.
As I said before, if you're not careful, you'll get your head taken off in this factory.
To be taken off means to be removed or separated.
Tony is telling Amber to be careful, because She apparently started to stand up and perhaps another machine was moving past her.
The factory, of course, is the plant, the building where things are made.
Tony says, now try to pay attention.
Amber says, I'm trying, but it's hard to do when my life is in danger every other minute.
Every other minute means often, very often, very frequently.
Tony is not very happy with Amber.
He sighs.
He goes, rookies.
A rookie R-O-O-K-I-E is someone who is new to a job or new to an organization, and someone who doesn't have very much experience.
We usually use this term in talking about sports somebody who is new to the professional teams or the professional leagues.
A baseball player from college who then starts playing for one of the professional baseball teams, like the Los Angeles Dodgers?
That person would be called a rookie during their first year.
They're new.
The term more generally means anyone who's new to doing something, usually someone with less experience.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
The plant manager says that you're the new kid.
Yes, it's my first day.
All right.
You'll be a line worker like the rest of us.
Here's your workstation.
What you have to remember is that output and productivity are the most important things around here.
I understand, but... Watch out for that forklift.
You have to watch where you're going or you'll ruin our safety record.
Sorry.
When will I get trained to use this machinery?
I've never worked on an assembly line before to mass produce anything.
I'm going to teach you, so pay attention.
The other thing you have to worry about around here is quality control.
If you don't do things right, you'll hear about it.
Okay, but... Hey, sit down.
As I said before, if you're not careful, you'll get your head taken off in this factory.
Now, try to pay attention.
I'm trying, but it's hard to do when my life is in danger every other minute.
Rookies.
Our scriptwriter, Dr. Lucy Say, is no rookie when it comes to writing wonderful scripts.
Thank you, Lucy.
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 2012 by the Center for Educational Development.
