M: Hello English learners and welcome back to another great lesson with EnglishPod! My name is Marco. E: And I’m Erica. M: And today we’re bringing you a great intermediate lesson with some really useful vocabulary. E: Some vocabulary you can use to describe your job. M: Yes, this is a really common situation when you… someone asks you what you do and you have to tell them. E: Exactly, so, today’s lesson is all about that. M: So, before we jump into our dialogue, let’s start with our “vocabulary preview”. Voice: Vocabulary preview. E: We have two simple phrases today that you’ll hear in our dialogue for our vocabulary preview. The first one is VP. M: VP. E: VP. M: So, the VP of a company is… E: The Vice-President. M: The Vice-President, exactly. E: Yeah, simple little acronym. M: Right. E: And the next word is Fortune 500 (five hundred) company. M: Fortune Five 500 company. E: Fortune Five 500 company. M: So, a Fortune 500 company is… E: I’ll let you explain. M: Hehe. Well, Fortune Magazine ranks the five hundred biggest companies in the U.S. E: So, a Fortune 500 company basically is… M: One of the five hundred biggest companies in the U.S. E: Okay, that’s simple. M: Yep. E: Alright, well, with those words it sounds like we’re going to be talking to some important people today. M: Yes, we are gonna be talking to some important people, so, let’s listen to our dialogue for the first time. Now, it’s gonna be a little bit fast, but you don’t have to worry about it. E: Cause we’ll come back and explain all of the important vocabulary. A: Oh, look, there’s Veronica and her boyfriend. She’s always going on about him at the office. Oh, great, they saw us. They’re coming this way. B: Oh, man... C: Jessica! Arthur! Hi! I’d like you to meet my boyfriend Greg, he’s the V. P. of quality and safety for a top Fortune 500 food company. A: Nice to meet you. This is my husband, Arthur. B: Hey, how’s it going? D: Hello. A: Veronica talks about you all the time. I guess you must be pretty busy at work. D: Well, yeah, a V. P. position is not easy, you know! I implement policies and procedures nationwide. of various departments, as well as train junior man- agers in FDA and EPA regulations. I also have to oversee daily ope B: Wow, yeah... that sounds exciting. D: And what about you, Arthur? What do you do for a living? B: Oh, I’m a Top Gun pilot! M: Alright, great music for our dialogue again, ha? E: Chosen by… M: By moi. Hehe. E: Of course. M: Yeah, Top Gun is one of my old time favorite movies and Top Gun pilot, what a cool profession? E: An excellent profession, much cooler than being like a VP. M: A VP. E: Yeah. M: How boring is it? E: Yeah, anyway, this guy was a bit of a jerk, don’t you think? M: Yeah, you can tell a little bit of, uh, the sarcastic tone he had in his voice. E: Definitely, but he did use some interesting phrases and we can talk about those now. M: Right, so, let’s take a look at “language takeaway”. Voice: Language takeaway. E: Our first word for language takeaway is implement. M: Implement. E: Implement. M: Implement. E: Let’s listen to some examples of this word to help us understand its meaning. Voice: Example one. A: Our company has to implement this sales strategy. Voice: Example two. B: Sarah will be responsible for implementing the plan. Voice: Example three. C: I implemented several new policies. M: Okay, great examples, and just in case to implement means to… E: Put into action M: To put into action, great. E: Exactly. M: Our second word for language takeaway – policies. E: Policies. M: Policies. E: Policies. M: So, policies are basically rules and regulations. E: Exactly, formal rules. M: For a company or an organization. E: Exactly. M: Policies, great. E: Third word… M: Oversee. E: Oversee. M: Oversee. E: Oversee. M: So, when you oversee operations, it means… E: Like you watch it to make sure it’s okay. M: You supervise it. E: This is an excellent word to use when you wanna talk about your job responsibilities. M: Right. E: Oversee. M: Uhu, great. And our last word for language takeaway. It’s kind of tricky, so, let’s listen to how it was used in our dialogue. Example: That alone means I have fifteen hundred employees under me. Hehe. That alone means I have fifteen hundred employees under me. Hehe. E: So, this guy has fifteen hundred (1500) employees under him meaning he supervises fifteen hundred employees. M: Right, he manages fifteen hundred employees. E: He must be a busy man. M: Yes! For fifteen hundred employees… How many employees do you have under you, Erica? E: Uh, two. M: Yeah, not quite as much as fifteen hundred. E: Yeah, because I’m not a VP ???… for yet, hey? M: Hehe. Not yet, but you will. E: Okay. M: Alright, so, with this in mind, we are ready to listen to our dialogue for a second time and this time it’s gonna be slower. A: Oh, look, there’s Veronica and her boyfriend. She’s always going on about him at the office. Oh, great, they saw us. They’re coming this way. B: Oh, man... C: Jessica! Arthur! Hi! I’d like you to meet my boyfriend Greg, he’s the V. P. of quality and safety for a top Fortune 500 food company. A: Nice to meet you. This is my husband, Arthur. B: Hey, how’s it going? D: Hello. A: Veronica talks about you all the time. I guess you must be pretty busy at work. D: Well, yeah, a V. P. position is not easy, you know! I implement policies and procedures nationwide. of various departments, as well as train junior man- agers in FDA and EPA regulations. I also have to oversee daily ope B: Wow, yeah... that sounds exciting. D: And what about you, Arthur? What do you do for a living? B: Oh, I’m a Top Gun pilot! M: Okay, great stuff! With this, now we can start with our “fluency builder” for today. Voice: Fluency builder. E: We heard some excellent phrases in this dialogue, some phrases that sound really natural, hey? M: Yes! Especially the first one that we have today is… Whenever someone talks and talks and talks and just… and continuously talks without stopping, you would say… Phrase 1: She’s always going on about him at the office. She’s always going on about him at the office. E: This is a really natural way of saying “keeps talking about”. M: Right, keeps talking about him. E: Yep, so, we have a few examples of how this phrase works. Let’s listen. Voice: Example one. A: My boss is always going on about how we need to save money; it’s all he talks about. Voice: Example two. B: Gary is always going on about his kids; he’s always talking about how smart they are. Voice: Example three. C: My mom is always going on about how I should get married. M: Okay, excellent! It’s clear now. E: Yes. M: Okay, so, let’s move on to our second phrase for today and this is a great one to use whenever you meet someone for the first time. E: Or when you start to talk to someone for the first time. M: Great. Phrase 2: Hey, how’s it going? Hello. Hey, how’s it going? Hello. E: So, this is a really relaxed and natural way of saying “How are you”. M: How are you? E: Yeah. M: So, yeah, you can just say “Hey, how’s it going?” E: Yep! M: Great. E: Really natural sounding. M: Now, our third phrase is the most important one of our dialogue. E: Yes! M: And it’s a really common situation. E: When someone asks you about your job, they might say this. Phrase 3: Arthur, what do you do for a living? Arthur, what do you do for a living? M: So, this is a really great way of asking “What work do you do?” or “What is your job?” E: Yes, and now… I know a lot of students sometimes say “What is your job?” M: Yeah, and that is… well, it’s kind of correct, but not really. E: It doesn’t sound very natural. M: Right. E: So, you wanna use “What do you do?” or… M: “What do you do for a living?” E: Sounds great. M: That’s the way you ask someone what is their job. E: And that’s how you sound supper natural. M: Hehe. Okay, so, we’re ready now to listen to our dialogue a last time and now you are ready to understand everything. A: Oh, look, there’s Veronica and her boyfriend. She’s always going on about him at the office. Oh, great, they saw us. They’re coming this way. B: Oh, man... C: Jessica! Arthur! Hi! I’d like you to meet my boyfriend Greg, he’s the V. P. of quality and safety for a top Fortune 500 food company. A: Nice to meet you. This is my husband, Arthur. B: Hey, how’s it going? D: Hello. A: Veronica talks about you all the time. I guess you must be pretty busy at work. D: Well, yeah, a V. P. position is not easy, you know! I implement policies and procedures nationwide. of various departments, as well as train junior man- agers in FDA and EPA regulations. I also have to oversee daily ope B: Wow, yeah... that sounds exciting. D: And what about you, Arthur? What do you do for a living? B: Oh, I’m a Top Gun pilot! M: Okay, so, I have a little challenge for our listeners today. I have… E: What is it? M: Two challenges, actually. E: Okay. M: The first one – who performs the song that you heard and what is the song called? E: Okay, I don’t know the answer, so, I’m looking forward to seeing what users do. M: And the second one is what is the number one company in the Fortune 500? E: Oh, I also don’t know this answer. M: Hehe. Two great questions, so, I expect to see your answers on the comments page, but also we want to know about your profession. E: Yes! Tell us about your job, tell us what you do and use some of the great phrases you learned today to describe your answer. M: Great! So, we hope to see you there, but we’re out of time now. So, we’ll see everyone at englishpod.com, leave all your questions and, of course, all the comments. E: And Marco and I are always around to answer your questions. M: Well, until then it’s… E: Good bye! M: Bye!