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Getting Dressed & Ready for Work

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 5: Getting Dress and Ready for Work

This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode number five. I’m your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

In this episode, I’ll talk about getting dressed and ready for work.

Let’s get started!

[Start of story]

I go back into my bedroom and open up closet door. I have about 30 dress shirts, 1 O pairs of pants, a half-dozen ties, and some sweaters, suit jackets, and t-shirts. I pull out a clean pair of socks and underwear, and then decide which shirt I’m going to wear today. I’m terrible at color coordinating, so I usually bring my wife in at this point to help match my shirt and pants. I put on my belt with the silver buckle and polish my shoes. I put my cell phone and car keys in my front pocket, and my wallet in the back one.

I put on my glasses and check myself in the mirror to make sure I look okay, and then go into the home office to get my bag. I used to carry a more traditional briefcase, but now I just use my computer bag to hold my laptop and my papers.

Now it’s back into the kitchen to grab my Thermos on the way out the door. I lock the door and then hurry to my car in the garage. I’m usually running late and today is no exception!

[End of story]

Part four is called “Getting Dressed and Ready for Work.” We began by me going into the bedroom and opening up my closet door. “To open up” means here to open the door. A “closet” (closet) is a place, usually in your bedroom, where you put clothes-you store your clothing. You can also have a closet in other parts of your house, and it’s usually a place where you keep things-you store things.

Well, I “open up my closet door” and I look at my dress shirts. My “dress (dress) shirts” - two words. are the nice shirts, the shirts that I can wear to work. The opposite of a dress shirt would be a “casual shirt” (casual). A dress shirt is a nice shirt; something that usually has a collar on it. A “collar” (collar) is the top of the shirt, what goes around the neck.

Well, I look at my dress shirts and I look, also, at my “pants” (pants). Pants are what you put on your legs. You can have different kinds of pants. Jeans is a type of pants. We might say dress pants for nice pants that you would wear to work. I also have “ties”. A “tie” (tie) is a long, thin thing that goes around your neck that men usually wear-often wear to work, and it comes in different colors, and that’s your tie.

A “sweater” (sweater) is something that keeps you warm. It’s like a shirt that’s very thick. You usually put a sweater over your shirt so that you can be warm.

“Suit jackets” (suit jackets) - two words - are jackets that you wear that are for a formal occasion. So, if you are going to work, especially if you were going to an interview, you would wear a suit jacket. The word “suit” (suit) refers to a formal set of clothing for, in this case, a man. For a man it would be pants and a, probably, white shirt and a suit jacket that goes over your shirt. Usually, you would also have a tie that you wear. That’s a suit. Well, a suit jacket is part of a suit.

A “t-shirt,” spelled (t-shirt)is a plain shirt that you usually wear underneath a dress shirt. So first, you put on a t-shirt-a white t-shirt-then you would put on your shirt, and then you would put on you jacket. T-shirts can also be used by themselves as your main shirt. It is usually an informal occasion that you would just wear a t-shirt. You probably wouldn’t wear a t-shirt to your office, for example, though some people do. And, many people have t-shirts that have things on them-that say things on them. T-shirts usually do not have a collar like a dress shirt does.

“I pull out a pair of socks and underwear.” “Socks” (socks) are the things you put on your feet before you put your shoe on. Socks can be dark, or they can be light or white socks. Normally you don’t wear white socks with a formal suit; you would wear black or dark blue socks.

“Underwear” is the piece of clothing that you put on and it covers up all of thehow should we say-things that you want to cover so that you can keep your pants and shirt clean. Underwear is something that goes over your back of your body, your butt or your rear, as well as the front of the body, whatever you have there. Underwear can come for men in two basics styles usually. There can be boxer underwear, or “boxer” shorts (boxer) and that’s a kind of short-or rather, a kind of underwear that it is loose on the bottom. So, it’s almost like a pair of shorts. The opposite of that would be “briefs” (briefs). Briefs would be underwear that is not loose at the bottom; it’s tight at the bottom of the underwear. Usually it’s a little smaller as well.

I “then decide which shirt I’m going to wear today. “I’m terrible,” I say, “at color coordinating.” “Color coordinating” means you wear things that have similar or matching colors. So, if you wore a pink shirt you would probably not wear green pants because they don’t do together, we would say; they don’t look very good with each other. Color coordinating is finding the right colors that you wear on your-with your shirt, and your pants, and your tie, and your jacket, and your socks, and your shoes. All of those have to be color coordinated. The verb “to coordinate,” (coordinate) means to put two things together so that they work well together, in this case.

Well, since I’m so terrible-I’m so bad-at color coordinating I usually bring in my wife, that is I go and ask my wife to come into the room. So, I “bring my wife in”-to the room- “at this point to help me,” meaning at this time, when I’ve already picked out some things, then I bring my wife to help me “match my shirt and pants.” I want them color coordinate.

“I put on my belt with the silver buckle and polish my shoes.” A “belt” (belt) is what you use to keep your pants from falling down. A buckle is the piece of, usually, metal in the front that connects the belt so it forms a circle around your body. I have a silver buckle that I put on with my belt.

I also “polish my shoes.” “To polish” (polish) means to clean and to make “shiny”

(shiny). When we say something is shiny, we mean that it’s bright-it reflects light. So, when you polish your shoes, you want them to be clean but you also want them to look like they are bright-they are reflecting light. I polish my shoes and my head, so it’s very shiny!

“I put my cell phone,” my cellular or mobile phone, “and car keys in my front pocket.” You have front pockets and you have back pockets in a pair of pants.

So, I put my keys and cell phone in the front pocket “and my wallet in the back”

pocket. My “wallet” (wallet) is where I put my money and my credit cards and my driver’s license; all of those things go in my wallet.

“I put on my glasses,” because I cannot see without my glasses very well, and I “check myself in the mirror.” “To check yourself” means to look at yourself, usually in a mirror, and you can see how you look. I usually look pretty ugly. I check myself in the mirror, and then I go into my “home office,” or my office in my house and get my bag. I used to carry a more traditional briefcase.” A “briefcase” (briefcase) - all one word - is not something that you put your underwear in-your briefs. A briefcase means the thing that you carry papers in when you are going from your home to your office. Usually a briefcase is square and it usually has hard sides on it, many times it has a lock on the top; that’s a briefcase. A lot of people nowadays do not use a briefcase; they use a computer bag-a bag that they can put their computer and other information in, including their papers.

Well, I put my things into my computer bag, then I go “back into the kitchen to grab my Thermos,” to get or take my Thermos with my coffee in it “on the way out the door.” The expression, “on the way out,” means that you are about to leave or you are leaving your house, in this case. Somebody may call you on the phone and you are getting ready to go to dinner, you could say, “I can’t talk right now, I’m on my way out the door,” means I’m just getting ready to leave.

Well, before I leave-before I’m going out the door-I “grab my Thermos. I lock the door,” to my house, “and then I hurry to my car in the garage.” The “garage”

(garage) is the place where you keep your car.

“I’m usually running late and today is no exception!” When you are running late, you are behind your schedule; you’re behind time that you want to be somewhere. “To run late” means the same as to be late or to be tardy (tardy).

Usually that word, “tardy,” is only used in school. We say a student is tardy, we mean that they are late for school or late for class. To be running late means that you are not on the schedule that you want to be on-that you did not leave at the time you wanted to leave.

I say “I’m running late and today is no exception!” That expression, “is no exception” (exception) means that today is the same as every other day-it is not different. An exception is when something is different. Well, today is no different, that means today is no exception-it is not different.

Now let’s listen to the story, this time at a normal speed.

[Start of story]

I go back into my bedroom and open up my closet door. I have about 30 dress shirts, 1 O pairs of pants, a half-dozen ties, and some sweaters, suit jackets, and t-shirts. I pull out a clean pair of socks and underwear, then decide which shirt I’m going to wear today. I’m terrible at color coordinating, so I usually bring my wife in at this point to help match my shirt and pants. I put on my belt with the silver buckle and polish my shoes. I put my cell phone and car keys in my front pocket, and my wallet in the back one.

I put on my glasses and check myself in the mirror to make sure I look okay, and then go into the home office to get my bag. I used to carry a more traditional briefcase, but now I just use my computer bag to hold my laptop and my papers.

Now it’s back into the kitchen to grab my Thermos on the way out the door. I lock the door and then hurry to my car in the garage. I’m usually running late and today is no exception!

[End of story]

Her scripts are always great, and this one is no exception. I speak of our wonderful scriptwriter, Dr. Lucy Tse.

From Los Angeles, California, I’m Jeff McQuillan, thank you for listening. Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.