English Learning Podcast Conversation Episode 2 | English Podcast For Beginners | Season 2

[Music] hello everyone and welcome to English pod my name is Marco I'm Amir hey Amir how are you today I'm doing great what about you I'm doing pretty good I'm excited about this uh lesson that you have for us today yes it's actually a very very useful lesson it's about someone asking his boss for an assistant oh okay an assistant what's an assistant well it's someone who helps you with your work around the office okay great so let's listen to this uh dialogue and when we come back we'll take a look at all the interesting

and useful vocabulary that you'll find like I told you before we just don't have the resources to hire you an assistant I understand that but the fact is we're under staffed the timing is just not right the economy is bad and it's too risky to take on new staff yeah I guess you're right here's an idea what if we hire an intern she would take some of the weight off my shoulders she yeah you know a recent graduate she could give me a hand with some of these projects and we could keep our cost down

that sounds reasonable let me see what I can do Tony I'd like to introduce you to your new assistant okay great let's meet Peter hi I'm Adam oh hi uh I'm Tony and we're back Tony he's surprised huh yeah he's uh I don't know why though he's surprised I think we should talk about that a little bit later yes for now let's look at some interesting vocabulary and phrases here Marco I know you've chosen one for us yeah the first one that I want to take a look at is resources resources resources resources and that

means in this text basically money right so the office doesn't have enough money okay I've chosen another interesting word for you and that's understaffed understaffed understaffed understaffed now understaffed means that they don't have enough people working there they don't have enough workers right they don't have enough employees perfect okay um the next one is timing is just not right the timing is just not right the timing is just not right the timing is just not right okay let's listen to how we can use this entire phrase in a different situation so then we can understand

what it means let's listen [Music] I was going to sell my house but the timing is just not right honey I think we should have a baby the timing is just not right okay great I guess that makes it uh clear Yes actually it's very obvious that it means that it's just not a good time right perfect I have another interesting phrase for you which is weight off my shoulders weight off my shoulders weight off my shoulders weight off my shoulders so to take weight off my shoulders is another way of saying to help me

with my work or to take some of my work away from me if you have a lot of things to do and I come and help you that means that I took some of the weight off your shoulders yes let's look at the next uh phrase that we have here and it's give me a hand give me a hand give me a hand give me a hand okay now this is not literal it's not that I'm going to give you somebody's hand right let's listen to some examples and then we can come back and explain

what it [Music] means can you give me a hand with these boxes Neil I'll need you to give me a hand with the sales reports here let me give you a hand with your suitcase all right give me a hand is another way of saying help or to help out exactly to help out right perfect now the last phrase we're going to look at here in this dialogue is keep our costs down keep our costs down keep our costs down keep our costs down so to keep our costs down means to try and not spend

so much money exactly many companies for example now uh control how much printing you do yes right to keep the cost down of paper yes so in other words they do not want to have unnecessary spending perfect okay I think it's time for us to listen to this dialogue one more time but I want everyone to listen and see why Tony is surprised at the end when he meets his intern when he meets his assistant like I told you before we just don't have the resources to hire you an assistant I understand that but the

fact is we're under staffed the timing is just not right the economy is bad and it's too risky to take on new staff yeah I guess you're right here's an idea what if we hire an intern she would take some of the weight off my shoulders she yeah you know a recent graduate she could give me a hand with some of these projects and we could keep our cost down that's sounds reasonable let me see what I can do Tony I'd like to introduce you to your new assistant okay great let's meet her hi I'm

Adam oh hi uh I'm Tony well you know Marco I think that Tony was really surprised because he was kind of hoping to have a female intern yeah I think that's exactly what he was expecting maybe this guy is a little bit sexist he thought that an intern should be a girl but instead he was instead he got Adam exactly and it looks like Adam is really big and really tall because he's got that deep voice right and in turn Marco do you want to elaborate on that working at a company uh with a very

low salary or sometimes times no salary at all but what you're gaining is experience and you um learning a lot of things everyone who has um been an intern or had an intern knows that sometimes um they are not treated all that well sometimes they just serve coffee or or they have to do paperwork or like photocopying say exactly but some internships are really really cool and some are really good EXP experiences for uh learning yes definitely um actually I I know a friend of mine she used to work as an intern in one of

those really big companies and she told me that she has gained so much experience doing that yeah I mean even if you don't get paid the experience that you get is really good and um that just opens doors for maybe getting another job or sometimes the interns get hired by the company to stay because they do such a a good job yeah I think that's uh mostly the case huh yeah that happened to me once I started working as an intern and uh after 3 months I was hired by the company so it does happen

believe so you did a good job uh yeah of course all right folks we're out of time today I hope that you enjoyed our lesson and uh we'll be back tomorrow with another really cool and really interesting lesson from englishpod don't forget to come to our website at englishpod do.com where you'll find some really great and interesting resources to help you learn and improve your English even more yes you should definitely do that and Marco and I would love to receive your comments and suggestions that you can leave on our community Forum but for now

it's time for us to say bye bye the English pod audio review listen to the meaning then say the vocabulary word money resources not enough people to do the job understaffed it's not a good time now the timing is just not right remove pressure or stress weight off my shoulders help give me a hand it's okay that sounds reasonable higher recruit working too much overworked not enough people to do the job short staff reduce spending cut costs having too many employees overstaffed let's try that faster working too much overworked remove pressure or stress weight off

my shoulders having too many employees overstaffed reduce spending cut costs higher recruit money resources it's okay that sounds reasonable not enough people to do the job understaffed not enough people to do the job short staffed help give me a hand it's not a good time now the timing is just just not right now say the word and hear it in a sentence resources we would like to use more resources to increase our s resources we don't have enough resources to start a new project resources Intel has a lot of resources for research and development underst

staff hospitals in poor regions of Africa are understaffed understaffed I did overtime last week because the company is underst Staff underst staff the factory is producing less than usual because it's under staffed the timing is just not right the timing is just not right the timing is just not right for us to have a baby the timing is just not right I want to buy a car but the timing is just not right weight off my shoulders could you help me plan the party that would really take some of the weight off my shoulders weight

off my shoulders finishing that project was a big weight off my shoulder weight off my shoulders winning the lottery took a great weight off my shoulders give me a hand can you give me a hand with these boxes give me a hand Neil I'll need you to give me a hand with the sales report give me a hand hand here let me give you a hand with your suitcase paying $30 for new shoes sounds reasonable does that sound reasonable to you your salary request doesn't sound reasonable