Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 992, Loan Forgiveness Programs.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 992.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, that I think you might enjoy.
This episode is a dialogue between Martin and Georgina about trying to pay your loans by doing certain kinds of work instead of by giving money back to the bank.
Let's get started.
Are you counting down to something?
I only took this job because it qualifies for the loan forgiveness program.
But you've worked here for over two years already.
You mean you've been working to pay off your student loans all this time?
That's right.
I took out loans to subsidize my college education.
Three years is a long commitment.
But I had no choice.
Now I get it.
Get what?
I've noticed you've been happier lately, and I thought you were finally enjoying your work here.
But now I know it's because you're getting closer to getting out from under your loans.
That's right.
In less than four months, I'll be free at last, free at last.
Martin begins our dialogue by saying The expression and counting is used to show that you are talking about a number that is continuing to change, often in a direction that you want it to change.
So, for example, if your company sells 100000 worth of goods, you might say well, we've sold 100000 and counting, which means I expect we will sell even more.
We are continuing to sell, and that number will get higher.
Martin says 111 days and counting means, But here he means it in the opposite way of the number is going down every day.
That's why Georgina says, are you counting down to something?
To count down is a phrasal verb meaning to count backwards until an event happens.
So we might say there are 264 days left until Christmas, and tomorrow there will be 263 days left until Christmas, and so on.
You are counting down.
Martin says, I'm counting down to the day when my student loans will be discharged.
Student loans are loans that you get from a bank.
Money that you get from a bank typically that you use to pay for your university or college expenses.
When a loan is discharged D-I-S-C-H-A-R-G-E-D, we mean that you no longer have to pay it Because you have done something that the government or the bank accepts in lieu of or in place of money.
To have a loan discharged is to do something other than pay money back, typically that The government says okay, you don't have to pay any more money back because you did this.
This has become quite popular for certain kinds of student loans in the United States.
The government or the bank gives you money, but then you have to do something.
Typically, you have to work at a certain level. or in a certain area.
And if you do that, then the government will forgive your loan.
It will discharge your loan and not make you pay it back.
Martin says, I only took this job because it qualifies for the loan forgiveness program.
To qualify for something is to meet the requirements for something.
A loan forgiveness program is what I was just talking about a program where, instead of paying the bank or the government back money you loaned from them, you do something and the government says okay, you don't have to pay it back now.
Typically these programs are for teachers or sometimes doctors or nurses who agree to work in certain places that need teachers or doctors or nurses, and It's usually not a place where a lot of people want to go or a place where people want to work.
That's why the government says well, if you work here for two years or three years or however many years it takes, according to the loan forgiveness program, then you will not have to pay the loan back.
You will not have to give the bank or the government back money.
I actually had one of these loans when I became a teacher, a high school teacher.
I received a loan from the federal government and if I worked for a certain number of years as a teacher, I would not have to pay the loan back.
That's a loan forgiveness program.
Georgina says.
Georgina was not aware, did not know that Martin was working at this job whatever this job is for the past two years so that he could pay off his student loans.
To pay off is a phrasal verb meaning to Make all of the payments on a debt that you have.
So if you borrow a thousand dollars from the bank and you pay it off, you pay the bank back the thousand dollars.
Plus, of course, what is called interest, which is the money the bank charges to loan you money.
Martin here isn't technically giving the bank or the government money.
He's working in this job as a way of paying off his student loan, of getting rid of the student loan, if you will.
Martin says, that's right.
That's correct.
I took out loans to subsidize my college education.
I got loans to pay for my college education.
That's what Martin means here.
To subsidize is to provide financial support for something that you would not otherwise be able to afford.
Martin says after I graduated, I had a choice to either start repaying the loans.
Or Martin says when he finished his college education, when he got his college degree.
He had a choice of one of two things.
He could either take a regular job and start paying the loans back with money, or he could work in a public service job for three years.
Public service refers to jobs that help the public, usually government jobs that help the public.
Georgina says three years is a long commitment.
A commitment, C-O-M-M-I-T, M-E-N-T, is a promise to do something, an obligation to do something.
Georgina thinks three years is a long commitment, a long time to say you're going to work at this job.
That really depends, of course.
It depends on how much money you are going to save by not having to pay it back to the government.
Martin, however, agrees with Georgina.
That expression you're telling me is an informal way of showing your agreement with what the other person said.
So someone may say to you, this examination is really hard.
This test is really hard.
And you agree with that person.
You may say, you're telling me, meaning, yes, I agree with you.
Martin says, I had no choice.
Well, actually, Martin did have a choice.
He had a choice of not going to college and taking out the loan.
But we continue.
It was either that or be indebted for the next 10 to 15 years.
Martin says either he worked at this job for three years, this public service job as part of the loan forgiveness program, or he would be indebted I-N-D-E-B-T-E-D for the next 10 to 15 years.
To be indebted is to owe money to someone.
Sometimes we use that expression I'm indebted to you when a person does something very nice for you or something perhaps that cost a lot of money, even.
You may say to them, I'm indebted to you.
I really appreciate what you've done for me and I hope someday to be able to do something good for you.
That's the general idea.
Here however, Martin is talking about actually being indebted, actually having to pay money to the bank or the government or whomever he got the loan from.
Georgina says, now I get it, meaning now I understand.
Martin says, get what?
What do you understand?
Georgina says, I've noticed you've been happier lately.
And I thought you were finally enjoying your work here.
But now I know it's because you're getting closer to getting out from under your loans.
Georgina has noticed that Martin has become happier recently.
And now she understands why because he is getting closer to the point when he no longer has to work at this job.
He's getting closer to getting out from under his loans, to get out from under his means to be freed of some burden, to be relieved of some burden or obligation.
You no longer have to do something that you had to do but didn't want to do.
Martin says that's right.
In less than four months, I'll be free at last, free at last.
This expression, free at last, means that you will be finally freed of this obligation.
You will finally no longer have to do this thing that you don't want to do.
This expression free at last, free at last is actually one that became famous in the early 1960s, when the late Reverend Martin Luther King gave a famous speech in Washington.
And at the end, or towards the end of the speech, he used the phrase free at last.
Free at last to talk about the liberation, or the potential liberation freeing, of African Americans from the discrimination and the racism that existed in American society at that time.
Martin, of course, is not talking about being free of discrimination.
He's talking about being free of having to pay his loans.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Are you counting down to something?
But you've worked here for over two years already.
You mean you've been working to pay off your student loans all this time?
That's right.
I took out loans to subsidize my college education.
After I graduated, I had a choice to either start repaying the loans or work in a public service job for three years.
Three years is a long commitment.
You're telling me.
But I had no choice.
It was either that or be indebted for the next 10 to 15 years.
I couldn't take that.
Now I get it.
Get what?
That's right.
In less than four months, I'll be free at last, free at last.
We are all indebted to our scriptwriter, Dr. Lucy Say, for her 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 2014 by the Center for Educational Development.
