节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-07-24
难易度:High
关键字:by leaps and bounds, freelancer, induce, stationery, payroll tax
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And I'm Carolyn.
And you're joining us for a lesson in our BUSINESS START-UP series.
And our lesson today is called "New Employees?" Now I know that many of you are
interested in business.
Maybe you even have your own business.
And sometimes you might have to ask the question: Should I hire?
Maybe you need to hire some new people to work at your company or to work for
you.
Do you think it would be easier to hire people to work for you or just to work
by or for yourself?
Tell me about it. Carolyn?
Well, I really think it depends on what kind of business you have.
If it's something like a handicraft business where you're making things, then it
might be easier to just work by yourself.
Although you might want someone to help you with selling the things that you
make, so you might want to hire a couple of employees.
Uh, I really think it depends on your business.
That's true.
You know, I am not very good at math or working with numbers or...
You know, I think if I had a business, I would probably need to hire an
accountant, someone who could help me with that side of things.
But what about you?
Would you hire somebody or just work by yourself?
Well, let's get into our lesson: New Employees?
(Music).
New Employees?
Hiring new employees isn't as easy as it seems.
With his company growing, Ben thinks it might be time to hire some employees.
But hiring employees is a big step, and Uncle Bob has some important words of
warning for him.
Hi, Ben!
How are you today?
I'm great! Thanks for asking.
How's the business coming along?
Well, it's growing by leaps and bounds.
In fact, I'm having a hard time getting all the work done, and I need help.
I thought you had some help.
Don't you have a few people working for you?
Yes and no.
We have a few freelancers we use on projects, but I need some full-time help.
Wow. Hiring full-time employees is a big step for a young company.
Are you ready for it?
(Music).
That is a big step, and you want to make sure that you are ready for it.
We're, of course, talking about hiring new employees.
And hiring new employees isn't as easy as it seems.
There are a lot of challenges that come along when you are hiring employees.
Now Gabe, we have a few sentences here that kind of set the scene for our
conversation.
Would you like to read those?
Yes, of course.
This is a little bit of background.
With his company growing, Ben thinks it might be time to hire some employees.
But hiring employees is a big step, and Uncle Bob has some important words of
warning for him.
Of course hiring employees, getting new workers is a big step.
That's a very important step in your business.
And this person - Uncle Bob - has words of warning for him.
That's right.
And this is a very fun phrase that you can use: words of warning.
I like it because it has the two W's.
And if you have words of warning, that means that you want to caution someone.
You want to tell them to really stop and think, and maybe even warn them of
potential problems.
It's true.
So those are words of warning to warn other people.
You could use this word "words of..." or these two words in other ways.
You could talk about having words of encouragement for somebody, or maybe words
of advice for somebody.
Or maybe someone really wise is giving you words of wisdom.
That's right.
But here we are talking about words of warning, and Uncle Bob has some of these
for his nephew Ben.
Well, let's start our conversation.
Gabe, who would you like to be today?
Oh, today I'll be Uncle Bob.
I love Uncle Bob.
So Uncle Bob begins.
Hi, Ben!
How are you today?
I'm great!
Thanks for asking.
How's the business coming along?
Well, it's growing by leaps and bounds.
Hold on there a second, Ben.
Let me interrupt you.
We need to talk about this word from our Word Bank.
Actually, it's a phrase: to do something by leaps and bounds.
That means it gets larger very quickly when it does by leaps and bounds.
That's right.
So perhaps you are studying English and you are learning it so quickly.
You are just learning new words every day, and you are enjoying it so much
learning by leaps and bounds.
You just take in all of that information and remember it.
That's right.
You could improve leaps and bounds in something.
Or maybe you were really, really sick... and now you're getting better really
quickly.
You're getting better by leaps and bounds, or improving by leaps and bounds.
And of course it's great news that Ben's business is growing by leaps and
bounds.
Ben, do continue.
Oh, well. Thank you, Gabe... Uncle Bob.
In fact, I'm having a hard time getting all the work done, and I need help.
I thought you had some help.
Don't you have a few people working for you?
Uh, yes and no.
Yes and no?
Wait a minute. That sounds really, really familiar.
If it sounds familiar to you, too, that's because we talked about this kind of
phrase in an Information Cloud earlier this month.
Yes and no.
And if you hear this phrase, of course it means you need to explain.
Or if you use this phrase "yes and no," you need to explain why yes and why no.
Do continue, Ben.
Well, thank you. Yes. So Ben explains:
We have a few freelancers we use on projects, but I need some full-time help.
Great. Great!
It was great that you used one of our key words here, Ben.
The word is "freelancer." And a freelancer is someone who's not hired full-time
at a company, probably not even part-time at a company.
They just use this person, freelancer, for their special talents every once in a
while or when they need them.
How might you see this word, Carolyn?
Well, I know some people who are freelancers.
And that means that they have a special skill or service that they provide to
many different companies.
The people I know are writers.
So they write articles as freelancers, and then they can sell them to different
magazines or businesses that want to use them.
It's true.
These are freelancers.
And the job that they have you could describe it as being freelance.
F-R-E-E-L-A-N-C-E.
OK.
I think it would be very interesting to try my hand at doing some freelancing,
to be a freelancer.
Now some common jobs that uh, that freelancers do maybe are acting or something
that has to do with music or event management.
Maybe if you're a translator or a writer of some kind.
Maybe you write songs, or you're a singer.
These can all be different kinds of freelancing or freelancer jobs.
That's right.
So you can use this word in many different ways.
And Ben has hired some freelancers, but now he's thinking about full-time
employees.
Uncle Bob, you have the next line.
Yes. Let me begin.
Wow. Hiring full-time employees is a big step for a young company.
Are you ready for it?
Well, that is a good question.
You do want to make sure that you are ready when there is a big change coming.
And right now we are ready to spend some time with Michelle in the Language Lab.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.