Speaker PART 1

Woman Hello, how may I help you?

Man Well, I’ve been seeing these yellow boxes in front of a lot of houses in my neighbourhood.

Man I just wondered what they were for.

Man I noticed your phone number on all of them, so I called.

Man Could you tell me about your business?

Woman We do do recycling, but we’re not a business.

Woman Gaea’s Guardians is a non-profit group.

Woman We Example encourage recycling as a way of protecting the environment.

Man I don’t know.

Man I mean it is a good idea.

Man But I really don’t read the newspaper every day or anything.

Woman And we don’t come collect newspaper every day!

Woman In fact, we only do pickups every other week.

Man Oh, well then maybe I could help.

Man I mean in my neighbourhood, there’s too much rubbish lying around everywhere.

Man I’d like to help out, I guess.

Woman That’s great, sir.

Woman You’re doing the right thing.

Woman OK, I need to get your contact information.

Woman What is your name, please?

Man Peter Wisrough.

Woman Peter… how do you spell your last name? W-I-S-R-O-W?

Man No, actually it’s W-I-S-R-O-U-G-H.

Woman Oh, I’m sorry.

Woman I’m a terrible speller.

Man You’re a good speller.

Man It’s just that my family are terrible pronouncers!

Woman You’re quite a card, Peter!

Woman OK, now what’s your address?

Man No. 168 Bridge Road.

Man That’s here in London.

Man How about if I have any questions?

Woman I’m sending you a copy of our booklet, too.

Woman The booklet has our phone number and our e-mail address, helpline@blackcat.com, that’s H-E-L-P-L-I-N-E at B-L-A-C-K-C-A-T dot com.

Woman But I nearly forgot to ask, what’s your postcode?

Man BS97PU.

Woman PS97BU?

Man No.

Man That’s B as in “boy”-S-9-7-P as in “Peter”-U.

Man So, I’m guessing those yellow boxes I saw are for recycled newspapers?

Woman Yes, that is correct, and it’s free of charge.

Man Wow, that’s good news!

Man Do you recycle anything besides newspaper?

Woman Oh yes, we recycle most everything. Glass, plastic, paper…

Man Oh, so I can put like glass and plastic bottles in the box?

Woman Sorry again.

Woman Things like that you have to bring to our collection centre.

Man And where is that?

Woman Our main centre isn’t that far from you.

Woman It’s actually right on the East Side of Central Park.

Man That new blue building?

Woman That’s the one!

Man Cool.

Man Hey, what’s with all those different coloured boxes outside that place?

Woman Oh, that’s for the different materials we recycle.

Woman The blue is for metal, the green is for glass and plastics, and the yellow of course is for paper.

Man Hm, okay.

Man I’ll try and manage to keep all that straight.

Woman Oh, no need, they’re each labelled.

Man Great.

Man So which one would I put magazines in?

Woman Actually, they don’t go in any of the bins.

Woman Unfortunately, magazines can’t be recycled because of the material they’re made of.

Woman It’s such a waste.

Woman So would you be interested in volunteering?

Man Um, I’ll think about it.

Man Could you send me some more info?

Woman Absolutely.

Woman Along with the newspaper box, I’ll be sending you our booklet, “Savvy”, that is S-A-double V-Y.

Woman It tells you about what you can do to protect the environment in your daily life.

Woman Plus it lists things you can do as a volunteer with our group.

Man Hey, that’s cool, thanks!

Woman My pleasure.

Woman Do you have any other questions or concerns?

Man Nope, that’s it!

Man PART 2 Welcome everyone to today’s seminar on “CV and Interview Skills”.

Man Remember, your CV is probably the most important document you will ever write.

Man It opens the door to your career!

Man And that job interview is probably the most important meeting you will ever attend.

Man It’s like stepping through that open door.

Man So let’s roll up our sleeves and get down to work, shall we?

Man First of all, I cannot possibly tell you everything you need to know about writing a résumé in the time we have.

Man But let me tell you that there are dozens of great websites on the Internet.

Man These will give you all the suggestions you need.

Man If you look at the paper I gave you, you will see a list of the dozen most popular sites.

Man I can mention a couple of important points, however.

Man One is that your CV or résumé should not be too long.

Man A page is about right. Why?

Man HR departments do not have time to read long documents.

Man Too many people are sending too many CVs!

Man After all, the economic crisis of 2008 is still very much alive.

Man Everyone needs a job now.

Man No matter how short you make that résumé, though, you do not want to forget to tell HR how to contact your references.

Man References are people who will give you a recommendation for a job.

Man That’s usually an ex-boss or a professor who knows you well.

Man Do not use relatives!

Man I don’t care how much your mum loves you.

Man Also, when you send that CV, be sure to include a typed cover letter.

Man A cover letter is a letter where you, basically, are asking for a job.

Man It’s like introducing yourself. Make it brief.

Man The real information about you is on that CV of yours.

Man And, please make sure the letter is typed!

Man It doesn’t matter if your handwriting is beautiful or not.

Man Companies only read typed letters.

Man Another point about CVs is you should try to have an attractive layout.

Man Maybe use different typefonts or colours to highlight information.

Man Some people include a photo.

Man You can find dozens of examples on the Internet.

Man Whatever layout you decide to use, however, avoid all spelling and grammar errors.

Man I used to be an HR manager.

Man If I saw a mistake, that CV went into the garbage.

Man Something you write in a CV is a description of your skills and experiences in an interesting way. Mention training, too.

Man I mean these are what get you hired!

Man Do not just say, “I have lots of experience.” or “I have many skills.” Tell that boss what you did, for what company, and when.

Man Better, tell him how well you did it!

Man Don’t just say, “I sold houses.” Say, “I sold two million pounds worth of houses in my first year.” That is, say something to make the person reading excited and curious.

Man Finally, speaking of CVs, it’s sad.

Man But some people actually forget to provide a contact number. That’s pretty silly.

Man You wrote a great CV, you have HR dying to meet you… and they don’t know how.

Man You forgot your phone number!

Man Oh sure, if you apply online, they have your e-mail address.

Man But you just showed them you’re forgetful.

Man Why are they going to want to talk to you after that?

Man Alright, moving on to the actual interview, I’ll go over what you need to know by the end of it, and Q18–20 what you can discuss and negotiate on later once it looks like you’ll be offered the job.

Man First, there’s working hours.

Man It’s not that necessary to hammer out the hours off the bat, especially since it’s easy to come off as lazy when the first thing you bring up is how much you’re going to have to work.

Man You can also find out more about possible promotions later on.

Man It is important, however, to get a feel for how much you’ll be paid.

Man You should make sure the salary range is commensurate with what you’re worth, and if you’re not, you can move on to better opportunities.

Man Being sure you’re going to make what you want to live on is much more important than issues like your pension – you’re all so young that your pension is not going to matter for quite a long time.

Man You should find out about what skills you must know for the job and what they’ll teach you.

Man In Q18–20 addition, if the company will provide training, you should find out how long the training period is and whether it is paid.

Man Beware of any jobs that want you to train for a long time without appropriate compensation.

Man Speaking of compensation, find out about holidays as well.

Man Do you get paid vacation time?

Man Are you Q18–20 allowed to take personal days?

Man Do you have to work on national holidays?

Man Once you work out these main issues, you can move on later to details like the location and expected attire and whatnot.

Man Wow, that’s a lot of information!

Man Let’s take a break so you can think everything over and ask any questions you may have.

Man Don’t hesitate to come and see me if you need any clarification on all this stuff! PART 3

Frank Hello, are you Dr Lindsey?

Frank The Returning Students Advisor?

Dr Lindsey Yes, that’s right. Are you Frank?

Dr Lindsey Your appointment wasn’t till 2:00, but that’s OK.

Dr Lindsey Please come in and have a seat.

Frank Thanks, I like to arrive early whenever I have anything to do.

Dr Lindsey That’s certainly a praiseworthy habit.

Dr Lindsey Let me see, it looks like you’ve taken a long break from school, and I understand you wanted to have a chat about what you should study if and when you return for further classes.

Frank It’s such a big challenge.

Frank I don’t know if I’m crazy for doing this or not!

Dr Lindsey Believe it or not, I know exactly what you mean.

Dr Lindsey Before I began working here at the university, I taught primary school for nearly ten years.

Dr Lindsey It takes a lot of courage to go back to school!

Frank I feel more shy and scared than the primary students I teach!

Frank In the schools I taught, I found today’s youngsters are very sure of themselves.

Frank In terms of intelligence, I have a lot to teach them.

Frank And the maturity level of much of my class leaves something to be desired.

Frank But in terms of confidence, wow!

Frank A lot more confident than I am now, that’s for sure!

Dr Lindsey Stop fretting.

Dr Lindsey “A brave man is a coward who refuses to run.” Let’s talk about your strong points.

Dr Lindsey You seem an intelligent man.

Dr Lindsey What is it you would like to study?

Frank You see, I’ve been teaching children for a few years, but I think I’d be happier teaching adults.

Dr Lindsey I think teaching students in middle school is much more satisfying because they end up being much more grateful for your work.

Dr Lindsey If I may ask, what got you interested in teaching adults?

Frank A lot of things, I guess.

Frank I met my future wife back in my first year of college.

Frank She always complains that I was more interesting then.

Frank She says that now I talk like I’m seven years old!

Frank That’s probably from being with children all day.

Dr Lindsey Ha ha ha!

Dr Lindsey Again I know just what you mean.

Dr Lindsey My husband used to say the same thing about me when I taught kindergarten. Anything else?

Frank Well, yes.

Frank Fairly often now I run into former students and we talk.

Frank Some of them are getting close to being grown up.

Frank I guess I think more and more about how people develop over time.

Frank So, I’m interested in the results of education, you know, the final stages.

Dr Lindsey I see.

Dr Lindsey Well, coming back to the university can be both difficult and very rewarding.

Dr Lindsey There are some problems unique to returning students, you know, older students like yourself.

Dr Lindsey What do you think is your greatest weakness?

Frank Well, I actually think my confidence is getting better.

Frank I’m definitely overcoming my introversion and starting to be much more comfortable in front of a class.

Frank To tell the truth, I’m afraid I’m rather behind the times about many things.

Frank It’s more difficult for me to chase after the popular things youngsters are fond of – such as Iphone, Twitter, if you name it!

Dr Lindsey I think I understand.

Dr Lindsey How old are you, 35?

Dr Lindsey People at your age still go back to school for further education.

Dr Lindsey I was a bit the same way.

Dr Lindsey I mean I didn’t study at the university till after I had a family: a husband and one child.

Dr Lindsey My point of view was a lot different from your average eighteen-year-old girl’s, I can tell you!

Frank Gee, that sounds pretty rough.

Frank A family and college?

Frank Clearly you weren’t unsuccessful though!

Dr Lindsey It was, Frank. It truly was.

Dr Lindsey My first term at school was extremely stressful. But excuse me!

Dr Lindsey You’re not here to listen to my life story.

Dr Lindsey We’re talking about your plans.

Dr Lindsey Is there anything unique I should know about you or your past experience or plans?

Frank I’m afraid not.

Frank There is nothing interesting about my career or plans.

Frank It’s really not too impressive.

Dr Lindsey Now, I forbid you to talk like that.

Dr Lindsey This is your one life, and if you’re not interested, why bother living it?

Dr Lindsey Don’t be so humble, Frank.

Frank OK, OK.

Frank My wife says I’m a wimp.

Dr Lindsey Let’s talk about your dreams a bit.

Dr Lindsey You want to teach adults, you said.

Dr Lindsey What would you like to teach them?

Frank Well, when I first came to college, I really liked Languages and Literature.

Frank A lot of people have told me that for practical reasons, it would be more rewarding to choose Business Management as my major, but I made up my mind to study Liberal Arts once I got the idea of going back to school.

Dr Lindsey I must say it’s refreshing to meet someone who knows there’s more to an education than computers and finance.

Dr Lindsey Let’s have a look at the university course catalogue…

Frank Excuse me, Dr Lindsey.

Frank Before we do that, could I maybe ask you some questions about changes in university life?

Frank I think I need to discuss that so I know what to expect.

Dr Lindsey Of course.

Dr Lindsey I’m here to help you.

Dr Lindsey The biggest thing to get used to is the change in technology.

Dr Lindsey Professors present things on huge screens, many of which are interactive computerised whiteboards.

Dr Lindsey You can write on them still and use them like a touch screen. They’re really handy!

Dr Lindsey No more sloppy scribbled notes on the projector.

Dr Lindsey Let’s see, I doubt you’ll be living in student housing, so I won’t go into all the improvements there.

Dr Lindsey Another major change that you’ll enjoy is the plethora of resources available for students.

Dr Lindsey As a student, you have 24-hour access to the gym, and library privileges that include the use of school computers to scan, copy, and print, and of course the Media Library, which contains movies from all genres and most of the movies listed on AFI’s Top 100 Movies of All Time.

Dr Lindsey The dining facilities are also not what they used to be.

Dr Lindsey They offer choices for all diets, and you can expect a hot meal any time of day.

Frank Wow, things really have changed!

Frank I’ll be sure to utilise all those great facilities in my time here.

Frank Thanks for all your help, Dr Lindsey.

Frank I think that’s all the questions I have for now.

Frank PART 4 OK and welcome back.

Frank During the short break we just took, several of you approached me with questions.

Frank So, before going on with the orientation talk, I’d like to address those queries.

Frank As I’ve found, if one person asks a question, probably a dozen others are wondering about the same thing!

Frank The first question is whether Wassamatta U. employs modules technology as an instruction method.

Frank The answer is yes, we do.

Frank At least that’s what the university catalogue says.

Frank If some of you don’t understand what “modules technology” is, don’t worry.

Frank I googled the word but couldn’t find it.

Frank Apparently, though, it’s a method of broadband, wireless access.

Frank At least that’s what an American company’s website told me.

Frank But again, don’t worry.

Frank If you need to know something more, your professor can tell you.

Frank Another question someone asked me was what tomorrow’s workshop on “Research Methods and Skills” was about.

Frank Well, research skills include any method you can imagine for finding and presenting any information you need.

Frank That’s not just schoolwork, either.

Frank Writing English – the native language for most of you – and finding a job are also research skills.

Frank And, yes, those will be addressed in tomorrow’s workshop.

Frank As you know, Wassamatta U. is one of this country’s premier universities for the study of “the dismal science”, economics.

Frank Some of you, it seems, want to get a jump on their classmates.

Frank During the break, half a dozen of you came up and asked me where to find economics tomes.

Frank I know it’s odd, but this school’s library holdings are divided up between two libraries.

Frank Economics books are in the old library.

Frank If you look out of the window behind me, you can see it.

Frank It’s the red brick building.

Frank Oh, before I forget, you economics types also need a lot of maths, am I right?

Frank Well, those Maths books are neither in the old library nor in the new one.

Frank They can be found in the Maths Department Building.

Frank Why am I telling you this?

Frank Doesn’t “the Invisible Hand” guide economists?

Frank Maybe it’s good you asked: in 2008, that Hand shoved most of the world economy off a cliff, didn’t it?

Frank Now I realise that most of you couldn’t bring a computer printer or a photocopier from home.

Frank So I’m sure you’re already wondering where you can copy things like term papers, Internet articles, and things like that.

Frank I have some good news and some bad news.

Frank The good news is that there are a number of places you can make copies.

Frank These include both libraries and the Student Union Building.

Frank Now the bad news.

Frank I am sorry to say, most classroom buildings and academic departments do not have copiers students can use.

Frank So most of the large buildings you see around campus do not have copiers for students.

Frank The copiers there are reserved for professors and office staff. Oh, yes!

Frank I nearly forget to tell you.

Frank If you need to have printing done, all the copiers available to students are laser printers.

Frank Plus, for your convenience, you can pay using prepaid cards.

Frank You can get those in the Student Union Building.

Frank That just covers the questions put to me.

Frank If you have more, please see me during the next break at 2:15.

Frank Right now, though, I’d like to start to give you a rundown on the various facilities here on campus.

Frank That way, you won’t get lost so easily in the weeks to come.

Frank I have been told that this year’s incoming class features a large number of married students and parents.

Frank So, you must be wondering where to put the baby while you’re in class.

Frank OK, right now, we are in the Student Union Building, right?

Frank Remember the big doors in front where you all came in?

Frank If you go out of the building, you can see the Nursery is just on the other side of this building.

Frank It’s only about twenty metres away! Convenient, eh?

Frank Next, we’re all from different places around the country.

Frank Some of you are from other countries.

Frank That means we’re pretty likely to get sick during the first months of school as we expose each other to many new viruses.

Frank So, where’s the doctor?

Frank Of course, you need to find the Medical Services Centre which is on the right as you leave the building.

Frank Remember, that’s the second building on the right.

Frank And if you look out of that window, you can see a lot of antennae and satellite dishes on the roof.

Frank So that’s what we call the Media Centre.

Frank Yeah, I know, I think it’s confusing, too.

Frank The Media Centre is next to the Medical Centre.

Frank The chairwoman of the Journalism School on the first floor doesn’t like it when people who wander in there mistake her for a nurse!

Frank Chances are you’ll have at least one Maths class while you’re here.

Frank That red building there just outside to the left is the Maths Department Building.

Frank I know, it looks about as old as the subject as Maths, but I assure you that the inside is equipped with state-of-the-art classroom equipment including interactive chalkboards and surround sound in every room.

Frank Oh, can you see the back building there?

Frank Yes, behind the Media Centre.

Frank Quite new, isn’t it?

Frank That’s the new library, just decorated.

Frank They’re back-to-back, you might say.

Frank If you look just to the left of it at the lower, older-looking building, you’ll find the old library.

Frank It’s nice and quiet – perfect for those marathon study sessions during exam week.

Frank Since the weather is so nice, why don’t we stop looking at our maps but go for a walk around the campus?