Click here for more hang out and Q & A videos
Hey, they’re here. Oh good. You can open them later. Later? Yeah. Hey, we’ve got a new set design. Yes. We’ve got things from all over the world. Can you spot what they are and where they come from?
In today’s lesson we’re going to hangout and answer some of your questions again – particularly questions about jobs and job vocabulary. And we have some big news. And we’ve got some boxes to open. Yeah. that’s the… that’s the exciting thing for Jay. I’ve been buying new toys. Toys usually are for children, but in this case it’s the right word. Well, they’re things I want to play with.
But let’s start with some questions. OK, we had a lot of comments on our video about stress timing. I’m so glad that you’ve been writing in and commenting, everyone. I really appreciate it. It’s great to get feedback. OK, we had a comment on Facebook from Maria Ferreira. Mmm. Right. And Maria said “You’re awesome. And… and what about American stress? Is it the same in the USA?”
Ah, so is American stress timed like British English. Yes. And so is Canadian English, and so is Australian English. Um, the only English I can think of that might not be so stress timed is Indian English.
Now, we have Alex’s comment about our Black Socks video. OK. We released that twice, because we released on its own and then it was in the Stress Time video as well. So, Alex wrote “Oh god, I was trying to forget the socks music. I was annoying everybody. Right now, I remembered it and I can’t stop with that. It’s so cool.” Black socks never get dirty. The longer you wear them, the blacker they get. Poor Alex. He said “And, Oh god, it doesn’t go out of my mind.”
I mean, I think that’s something about those jazz chants and it’s actually what makes them so effective for learning. Because they do stick in your mind. And there’s a lot of memorizing that goes on when you’re learning a language. So something like that makes it easy.
But we’ve consulted a doctor, haven’t we… Oh we did… about how to solve this problem. Yeah Alex, we’ve tried to solve your problem. What did the doctors say? The doctors say that you can get some relief Alex, by watching our videos e very day. We prescribe a video a day. So make sure you subscribe to our channel.
Now we have a comment from Lorenc Barjami. And Lorenc says “Hello. Thank you so much for your videos. I want to suggest you to do a video…” Oh, hang on. I want to suggest you do a video, or I want to suggest that you do a video but no I want to suggest you to do. It doesn’t work. This is quite a tricky point with ‘suggest’. But, we’ve made a video about it. So I’ll put a link up here and you can check it out. “I want to suggest you do a video when a person is not anymore working…” He means not working any more. Not working anymore right. “…when a person is not working anymore because his boss has removed him.”
Ha, ha, ha… that’s a good suggestion. Thank you for that Lorenc. Um, now his boss has removed him. That could mean transferred, if your boss moves you from one department to another or to a different place, then you get transferred. But I don’t think that’s what he means. No, I think he meant fired. Fired, fired. Well I hope you meant fired ’cause I’ve got a little video ready for you to watch in which we see someone being fired.
You wanted to see me? Come in, come in. Sit down Ben. How long have you been working for me? Oh, almost 7 years. Do you like your job? Yes, sir.
That’s too bad. You’re through with that job Ben. You’re through driving a truck. You’re fired!
Did you hear the expression “You’re through.” We often use ‘through’ like this to mean finished. And, and you can use it, you know, if you’ve been working hard, Jay, I could say “Did you get everything done?” And you say “Yes, I got through it.” I’m finished. Yeah, that’s right. Now, let’s talk about being fired. Yeah, fired. But that’s what we say in the US. What do you say in the UK? We can say fired too. And we can also say sacked. Do you say sacked in the US. No, we really don’t. Now what about when someone is laid off? This is quite interesting historically, because being laid off used to be a temporary thing. So, for example, you might have people who worked in a car manufacturing plant, and their work was a bit seasonal. And sometimes, if the demand was low, they would be laid off for a few months but then they would be hired again, so taken back again. Was it the same in the US? Well, it’s more… that term in the US is furloughed. We can be laid off when a company downsizes. Yeah. We can get furloughed when our work is temprorarily cut off and then brought back, but what doesn’t happen to us in the US is we don’t get made redundant. Ha, ha. That’s a very British English term. If somebody is made redundant then they’re laid off, they’re let go. They have to go. Now, it’s not because they’ve done anything wrong. That would be being fired or being sacked, usually. But if there just isn’t enough work for them, they might be made redundant or we could say laid off. And these days, it’s not just temporary – being laid off is – that’s it. No more work for you.
So, that was really sad – about that man being fired in that movie. Ahh, but you haven’t watched the end of it yet. Let’s watch the end of it.
You’re through with that job, Ben. You’re through driving a truck. You’re fired. But just a minute Mr. Westlake… Here’s the daily sales report. Don’t give it to me. Don’t give… But Jim, the daily sales report. Give it to our new Sales Manager. New Sales Manager? Mmm Hmmm. What are you talking about? Ben’s through driving a truck. From now on he’s going to head up the sales side of this business. Well, what are you gonna do, Jim? Retire? Oh, no, no Larry. It’s just that I’ve been leaning pretty heavily towards production these past few years. Now, I’ve got a man to supplement me on sales. But if Ben isn’t going to be driving a truck anymore then we’ll have to… hire a new man to take his place. But that means extra salary. Don’t you worry about the extra salary. I’ll take care of that in extra sales. Oh dear, oh dear. I can see right now you’re going to be worse than Jim Westlake. He means you’re going to be better than Jim Westlake. Thank you, Jim. But I’ll have to go a long way to do that. Go on now, beat it.
So he wasn’t fired, he was promoted. Yeah. Promoted means given a higher level – a new job at a higher level. He became Sales Manager. So first he was fired. But then he was hired as the sales manager. Exactly. So there was another word there – retired. What’s that, Jay?
Well that means to stop working too, but because perhaps you’re old – you’re past the age of working. Uh huh. Um, are you going to retire? You’ll never let me retire. That’s true. I’ve got too much for him to do.
I just want to say thank you Lorenc because that was a great suggestion for a – for a topic for us to talk about. And please, everyone, keep giving us more topics. Keep them coming. Give us ideas for future videos.
Can we open the boxes now? Oh, I think it’s about time. Go on, get the boxes. Ok box time. It’s a bit like Christmas morning. Um, so should we tell what’s in these boxes. Well, in this box, I believe, is a new device called a switcher. And the switcher is going to let us do live television broadcasts on YouTube.
And that’s our big news. We are planning to go live. We’re planning to have English lessons once a week which are live where we can communicate more easily with you. We can talk in the chat. Excuse me. Ok, so let’s have a look. Here it is. Here it is. This is it. This is it. This will allow me to take the images from our cameras, from this camera, from that camera, and from your camera and from cameras of people all around the world. So we can have people joining us. That’s right. But is also means we’ll be able to switch around and have different producton sets. So we hope that you’ll come and join us for some live productions very soon.
And I think that’s about it. That’s terrific. Thank you very, very much for joining us today. Thank you, everyone. Bye now. And Jay, what’s that? Cables.
Click here for more hang out and Q & A videos