Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,276.
Using an on-site daycare.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1,276.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Go to ESLPOD.com for more information about our podcast.
This episode is a dialogue between Francesca and Jorge about using a place where you work to take care of your young children.
Let's get started.
Hey, don't we have a meeting at 1.30pm?
We do.
Sorry I'm late.
I popped over to see how my kids are doing in the new on-site daycare.
It's something new the company is offering to working parents.
It's a big perk and it's great not having to drop off and pick up my kids from a separate daycare every day.
That's nice.
It's really helped with the transition back to work from maternity and paternity leave.
Finding the right child care was turning out to be a big problem.
We really missed you when you were away.
Thanks.
I'm also less distracted.
I have peace of mind, knowing that the kids are here in the same building as and I can check on them anytime.
It's better for productivity.
That's good.
Now, should we get started with our meeting?
Okay, but let's keep it short.
I want to check on the kids again in about ten minutes.
Four times.
Just today?
Just in the past hour.
Francesca begins our dialogue by asking Jorge...
Hey, which is just a way of getting Jorge's attention, don't we have a meeting at 1.30?
Jorge says, we do.
Sorry I'm late.
I popped over to see how my kids are doing in the new on-site daycare.
The phrasal verb to pop P-O-P over means to go or visit someone quickly and unexpectedly without an appointment.
I'm going to pop over and see my mom on the way to work.
I'm going to go and see her, not for a long meeting, probably certainly not for anything formal, but more as an informal visit.
We could also use the phrasal verb to pop in.
When someone stops to talk to you with whom you didn't have an appointment or or whom simply you didn't expect to see.
We might use the two-word phrasal verb pop in.
He popped in to see me.
That means he came to see me for a short time and I probably wasn't expecting him to see me or to visit me.
Jorge says he popped over to see how his kids were doing in the new on-site daycare.
On-site, O-N hyphen S-I-T-E, is an adjective used to describe something that is in the same place as something else.
So, for example, if you work in a building that also has a coffee shop in it or a place where you can buy coffee, we might say that you have a coffee shop on site where you work.
In this case, we're talking about an on-site daycare, D-A-Y-C-A-R-E.
The word daycare is used to describe a place that takes care of young children, usually children who are not old enough to go to school yet.
In this case, we're talking about an on-site daycare, a place where parents can leave their children that is located in the same place where they work or in the same building.
Jorge went to see his kids in the new on-site daycare.
Francesca says, I didn't even know we had an on-site daycare.
Jorge says, it's something new the company is offering to working parents.
Working parents just means a mother or a father. also works outside of the home.
In the last few decades or so, when someone uses the verb to work, they'll often add the phrase outside of the home to indicate that the person has a job that requires them to go somewhere other than their own house.
The idea behind the expression really is to recognize that People who stay home with their children mostly mothers also are working.
They're just not working outside of the home or working for extra pay.
Jorge says this new on-site daycare is a big perk.
P-E-R-K.
A perk is a special benefit that you get here. usually at your job, in addition to being paid.
Your company, for example, might have a gym in the building that you can use after work or before work.
That would be a perk, a special or additional benefit that you get besides getting paid.
Jorge says The phrasal verb to drop D-R-O-P off means to leave a person or a thing at a particular place.
Parents use this phrasal verb when talking about their children in situations where they are taking or transporting their child to one place and then later going back and getting the child from that same place.
When they go back and get the child, we would use the phrasal verb to pick, P-I-C-K, up.
These two phrasal verbs can also be used more generally to refer to taking someone from one place to another.
I'm going to drop off my brother at the airport.
That means I'm going to leave him there.
And then he will go on his plane and go somewhere else.
When my brother comes back or when my brother arrives at the airport.
I would then go and pick him up.
So when someone says, can you pick me up at the airport?
He means, can you go to the airport and take me from the airport to another place?
If someone asks you to drop him off at the airport, he means that he wants you to take him from a certain place his hotel or your house to the airport.
Jorge thinks it's great to be able to drop his child off at the daycare there where he works, rather than having to drive somewhere else and drop him off and then go to work.
He continues by saying A transition T-R-A-N-S-I-T-I-O-N is a period of change from one situation to another.
Maternity, M-A-T-E-R-N-I-T-Y, comes from the Latin word mater, meaning mother.
Maternity refers to something related to being a mother.
Paternity.
P-A-T-E-R-N-I-T-Y comes, of course, from the Latin for father pater, and that refers to something related to being a father.
The word leave, L-E-A-V-E, refers to time away from your work when you don't have to work.
You may be getting paid That would be called paid, P-A-I-D, leave, or it might be unpaid leave.
You are away from your work for a week or a month or two months, and you're not being paid.
But at the end of that time, you can come back to your job.
A leave is when you are not working, but you haven't left your job.
You still are able to come back to your job when you are done with your leave.
A paternity leave is time that a company or an organization would give a father right after a child has been born, so that the father could stay home and help take care of the child.
More common is a maternity leave, where a mother leaves her work for a certain amount of time after a child is born to take care of the child.
Jorge is obviously talking here about paternity leave.
Since he wasn't the mother of the child, I'm pretty sure.
He says finding the right child care was turning out to be a big problem.
Child care, C-H-I-L-D, C-A-R-E, is when you arrange or you get someone else to take care of your child. either by having that person come to your house or by taking your child to someone else's place or house.
Francesca says we really missed you when you were away.
Jorge says thanks.
I'm also less distracted.
To be distracted means D-I-S-T-R-A-C-T-E-D means not focused, not able to think clearly about something because other things are bothering you.
Jorge continues.
I have peace of mind knowing the kids are here in the same building and I can check on them anytime.
Peace, P-E-A-C-E, of mind means you are relaxed, calm.
You don't feel anxious or worried.
Jorge says he's not worried because he knows his kids are there in the same building as he is and he can check C-H-E-C-K on them.
To check on someone means to quickly see how someone is doing, to take a short amount of time to make sure someone is okay.
You may call your daughter or son if they go away to college every day or every week to check on them to make sure they're okay.
And they, of course, will call you when they need money.
Jorge says that having the child care there in the building is better for productivity.
Productivity refers to the amount of work that a person or a group of people are able to complete in a certain amount of time.
Companies will often talk about the productivity of their employees, how much the people that they pay to work for them get done in a certain amount of time.
Francesca then says, that's good.
Now should we get started with our meeting?
Jorge says, okay, but let's keep it short.
The expression to keep it short means to do it quickly so it doesn't last very long.
He says, I want to check on the kids again in about 10 minutes.
Francesca then asks him, how many times have you checked on them already?
Jorge says, four times.
Francesca then asks, just today?
And Jorge responds just in the past hour, meaning in the last 60 minutes, he's checked on his children four times.
Perhaps the on-site daycare isn't as good for productivity as Jorge thinks it is.
Or at least his company might think that.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Hey, don't we have a meeting at 1.30?
We do.
Sorry I'm late.
I popped over to see how my kids are doing in the new on-site daycare.
It's something new the company is offering to working parents.
It's a big perk and it's great not having to drop off and pick up my kids from a separate daycare every day.
It's really helped with the transition back to work from maternity and paternity leave.
Finding the right child care was turning out to be a big problem.
We really missed you when you were away.
Thanks.
I'm also less distracted.
I have peace of mind knowing the kids are here in the same building and I can check on them anytime.
It's better for productivity.
That's good.
Now, should we get started with our meetings?
Okay, but let's keep it short.
I want to check on the kids again in about ten minutes.
How many times have you checked on them already?
Four times.
Just today?
Just in the past hour.
There's no one more productive than our scriptwriter, Dr. Lucy Say.
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.
