Hello everyone and welcome to EnglishPod.
My name is Marco.
My name is Catherine and today we're going to be helping you find someone to help out around the house.
That's right.
So we're looking for someone to help us do some things around the house.
So we're going to talk about this more in depth.
But first let's take a look at one word on vocabulary preview.
Vocabulary Preview So the beginning of today's dialogue has to do with a newspaper ad.
We are writing an ad for the newspaper.
Now what exactly is a newspaper ad Marco?
That's right.
So in the newspapers usually there is a section called the classifieds where people post ads or advertisements or adverts where maybe they're selling their car or they're looking to hire people.
So this is what a newspaper ad is.
You're selling something, you're buying something or maybe you want to hire people etc.
It is basically an advertisement in the newspaper to find help.
Alright so let's listen to our dialogue and when we come back we'll be talking more about the words and phrases you've heard.
Can you help me write a newspaper ad?
Sure.
What are you looking to buy or sell?
Actually I want to hire someone to help me around the house.
Oh, you want to get a maid?
Well I think it's better if you call her a cleaning lady or domestic help.
Okay so what do you want her to do?
Well let's see.
I want her to come in three times a week for a couple of hours to clean the kitchen, bathroom and maybe do some cooking.
Got it.
And how much do you offer per month?
I would pay her hourly.
I don't know what the going rate is though.
I know for sure it's more than minimum wage but maybe you should just negotiate with the person that answers the ad.
Great.
Thanks for your help.
Alright we're back so now let's take a look at language takeaway.
Okay so first of all today Marco the advertisement is about wanting to hire someone.
Now this is an important verb especially when we're trying to find help.
The verb to hire.
That's right.
So to hire means to give someone work to offer a contract to someone.
Okay so my boss hired me three years ago.
That means he gave me a job three years ago.
That's right.
But this is not just for office jobs.
This is for all kinds of jobs.
So what about cutting your grass or doing your lawn?
That's right.
So you can hire a gardener for example and it's basically the same thing.
It means that you're going to pay someone to work for you.
Okay so today we wanted to hire a maid.
M-A-I-D.
A maid.
But this is a little bit old fashioned this word.
What does a maid do or what did a maid do?
Well a maid is basically a woman, a female servant so to say.
A person that basically serves you.
Alright so she cleans the house.
She maybe puts the covers on the beds, washes the dishes, cooks.
Does all of these domestic things so she works around the house.
But because there's a bad association we don't like to think oh we have servants.
Right.
We don't say maid anymore.
We have two other ways of saying this word.
That's right.
So we could say that we want to hire a cleaning lady.
Right?
Or we want to hire domestic help.
Okay now there's an important difference between these two words.
First of all cleaning lady is a woman, a lady.
And she is someone who only cleans.
Right.
She doesn't take care of your children.
She doesn't walk your dog.
She basically just cleans the house.
Washes the dishes, cleans the clothes, washes the floors.
So she's a cleaning lady.
Now domestic help.
This is a little bit more general.
Right.
So domestic help would be a little bit more in depth of what the person is going to do.
So will help with the domestic work.
Domestic meaning the house.
So this person will maybe cook for you, clean the house, take care of the kids.
Do everything that is associated with the house.
So it's important to see that domestic means something that has to do with the house.
So this is help man or woman in the house.
Right.
Alright so that's all we have for language takeaway but we do have another section, Fluency Builder, in which we're going to look at some great words and phrases.
Alright so first on Fluency Builder let's take a look at how we're going to pay the person.
Because obviously we were saying that we want to hire this person, we're going to pay them.
So how are we going to pay them?
The person said I would pay the woman her hourly.
I would pay her hourly.
Okay so this is the rate.
This is how much she will be paid.
And we don't say she will be paid $10,000 per year.
We say she will be paid $10 per hour.
Right.
So we pay per hour.
This is paying her hourly.
Right so if you have an hourly wage that means that you get paid per hour.
In contrast with a salary that means that you would get a fixed amount every month.
Alright so if the monthly salary is $1,000 for example you could break that down and say but every day you earn $100.
Right.
You work 10 days.
But if it's hourly you say you'll get paid $10 per hour.
So if you work 4 hours today you will earn $40.
That's right.
Okay so now we want to pay the cleaning lady hourly but we don't know what the going rate is.
Going rate.
Going.
So this is an interesting phrase and it's important to notice that it's not going rate is an amount of money.
But it's not always the same.
Right.
It depends on the industry.
So the going rate for a teacher is different from the going rate for a cleaning lady.
Which is different from the going rate for a language tutor.
Right.
Or like an English tutor.
So first of all the going rate is how much these people, these cleaning ladies normally earn.
It's an average.
Right so you would usually calculate it say the approximate going rate is between maybe $8 to $10 per hour.
So it's not like an exact amount.
You would say the going rate is more or less a certain amount.
It's not exact.
So you might ask your friends what do you pay your cleaning lady?
And one friend says oh I pay $12 per hour.
And my other friend says oh I pay about $8 per hour.
So to me it sounds like the going rate is about $10 per hour.
Right exactly.
So we're not really sure what the going rate is.
So our friend says well you know what I'm sure it's more than minimum wage.
Now minimum wage is actually something that the government decides on or either the federal government in America or the state.
And each state will have a number that they say that is the least you can pay a person per hour.
Right.
So it is the law.
If you pay less.
It's illegal.
It's illegal.
And this is because we expect everyone to be treated fairly.
Right.
Right.
So you don't want to take advantage of people.
No.
And so for example in America in my state Illinois I think the minimum wage is $7.25 per hour.
Oh really.
Wow.
It's pretty high.
And this is because people need to pay for health care and cars and houses and children.
So we say the least you can pay someone is $7.25.
Now this is different as you said it could be different from state to state.
Right.
Because I know in some states if I'm not mistaken it's like $5.50 or something.
Yeah some states it's $5.
It depends on the cost of living.
If it's cheap to rent an apartment or to find transportation then obviously the minimum wage is going to be lower.
Obviously there's no maximum wage.
There's no number that is the most you can pay someone.
But all states have a minimum wage.
It's the least that you can pay someone per hour.
Okay.
And now for our last phrase we don't know what the minimum wage is.
We're not really sure what the going rate is.
So we should just negotiate with the person that answers the ad.
Alright now to negotiate is a great verb.
It is something that all of us do all the time.
So to negotiate means to try and compromise or to reach an agreement.
And so maybe I say the most I will pay is $11.
So I say okay I'll pay you $9.
And I say no I'll take $12.
Yeah sorry $12 is too much I'll pay you $10.
Okay $11.
$11 okay agreed.
So it's a way of reaching an agreement like you say where both sides have their goals and they try to find a price that is the best for both parties.
That's right so it's basically a verb to negotiate and this is what you do as you said in many circumstances especially when you're getting a job.
Alright so let's listen to the dialogue one last time and we'll be back in a bit.
Can you help me write a newspaper ad?
Sure what are you looking to buy or sell?
Actually I want to hire someone to help me around the house.
Oh you want to get a maid?
Well I think it's better if you call her a cleaning lady or domestic help.
Okay so what do you want her to do?
Well let's see I want her to come in three times a week for a couple of hours to clean the kitchen bathroom and maybe do some cooking.
Got it and how much do you offer per month?
I would pay her hourly I don't know what the going rate is though.
I know for sure it's more than minimum wage but maybe you should just negotiate with the person that answers the ad.
Great thanks for your help.
Alright so talking about minimum wage is there any exception to why a person would earn less than minimum wage?
I don't believe so well if they're not legally employed right so if you're talking about people who we say are under the table working under the table that means that they're not working legally they're not paying taxes then maybe those people will be paid less.
What about waiters and waitresses I've heard that they earn less than minimum wage but because they earn tips.
This is true so most restaurants say okay we will pay you as a waiter three dollars an hour but because you will earn tips you will earn more than the minimum wage.
So this is a good exception unfortunately there's no promise if you have no customers you earn no tips so you're still earning less than minimum wage.
But it's possible that you also have many many customers and you earn lots of tips and you make fifteen dollars an hour or something much higher than the minimum wage.
That's right and actually being a waiter or a waitress is a very common job that a lot of people have when they're still in school or over the summer and I've heard that it could be quite good because you know Americans are pretty good tippers.
That's right Americans generally tip between fifteen and twenty percent.
Wow.
And you know that you have to tip because your waiter does not earn a minimum wage.
Right.
And so I think there is this expectation.
So if your bill comes out to like a hundred bucks then you are most definitely going to leave at least a twenty dollar tip.
Usually fifteen to twenty dollars.
Twenty dollars if it's that much money.
Wow.
Wow that's very very interesting especially considering that in many countries tipping is not really considered it's not expected or it's not really something that people do.
Exactly and in America it is something that you have to do so I think a lot of times when people come to America they don't expect to pay this.
There's tax there's tip so when you see a menu remember that the cost is a lot higher than what you see.
Exactly.
Alright very very interesting topic.
Let us know if you have any questions any doubts or comments.
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We'll see you guys there.
Bye.
Bye.