نگران در مصاحبه قسمت یک

Nervous at an Interview I

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 94: Nervous at an Interview part I.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 94. I’m your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

Today’s podcast is about being nervous at an interview and this is the first of two parts to this podcast. Let’s get started!

[start of dialogue]

I was on my way to an interview and there was a lot of traffic on the road. I got to the office in the nick of time for my appointment. I walked into the lobby of the building and looked at the directory. I saw that Casey Enterprises was on the penthouse floor and headed to the elevator. The door was just closing.

David: Could you hold the elevator, please? Thanks a lot.

Woman: No problem. What floor?

David: I’m headed to the 18th floor, the top floor.

Woman: Oh, so am I.

David: Do you work there? I have an interview today with Dale Mendoza. Do you know her?

Woman: Yeah, I know her pretty well.

David: To tell you the truth, I’m really nervous. I had a dream last night that I was being interviewed by a three-headed monster that kept trying to bite my head off. Oh, wow, my palms are sweaty just thinking about it. I just hope Ms. Mendoza won’t be able to hear my teeth chattering. I just hope I get though this in one piece.

The elevator doors opened just then and we both walked out. I don’t know why I poured my heart out to a perfect stranger, but it actually seemed to help me chill out a bit. I didn’t feel quite as nervous.

We were in the reception area and I headed to the reception desk. The woman started walking in the other direction. She turned and called back, “Good luck,” with a smile.

[end of dialogue]

We hear in this podcast the story of a man going to an interview and is very nervous about the interview – the job interview. The story begins by him saying that, “I was on my way to an interview.” “To be on your way” means that you are traveling towards, you are moving in that direction. “I’m on my way to the store” means I am going perhaps in my car to the store. The man said there was “a lot of traffic on the road,” meaning a lot of cars in the street or on the freeway, and he says he got to the office “in the nick of time” for his appointment. “To get somewhere in the nick (nick) of time” means that you get there just before it’s too late. You get there right at or just before the time you are supposed to be there, so if you’re appointment is at 9’oclock, and you arrive at 8:57, you got there “in the nick of time.” The man walks into a “lobby” (lobby) of the building. The lobby is when you first walk into a building before you get to the offices. There’s usually an area like a welcoming area which we would call “the lobby.” And the man walks over and looks at the “directory.” And the “directory” for the building is a list of all of the offices, who is in what office and what floor they’re on or which company is on which floor if it’s a tall building. And the man finds out that the place he is going is on the “penthouse” floor. The “penthouse” (penthouse), all one word, is the top floor of a building, usually a tall building. The “penthouse” floor is often – for example, if it were an apartment or a condominium building, a building of different living units, then the top floor is often the best floor and it is the most luxurious, but here it just means the top of the building, the very top floor.

The man goes towards the elevator and the door is “just closing,” meaning it’s just starting to close. And he says to the woman inside, “Could you hold the elevator please?” “To hold the elevator” means to keep the door open to stop the door from closing. We use that expression; “Could you hold the door” means could you open the door, could you make sure the door stays open. The man then uses an informal expression, “Thanks a lot!” “Thanks a lot” means thank you very much but it’s more informal. And the woman responds also with an informal expression. She says, “No problem.” “No problem” here means “you’re welcome” but you’ll find it very common in many situations that a native speaker of English will respond to someone thanking them by saying, “No problem” instead of “You’re welcome,” but they mean the same. “No problem” is a little – a bit more informal.

The woman says to the man, “What floor?” meaning what floor do you want to get off on. And the man says he’s going to the “top floor,” which is the same as the “penthouse floor.” The woman says, “Oh, so am I,” meaning I am also. “So am I.” That’s a correct, if you will, formal way of saying it. An informal way of saying it would be “Me too.” Even though it’s grammatically incorrect, it’s still very common to hear people say, “Me too” instead of “So am I.” The man asked the woman if she knows Dale Mendoza, and the woman says yes and then the man begins to say or talk about how nervous he is. He says, “To tell you the truth, I’m really nervous.” The expression “To tell you the truth,” or “To tell the truth” before – as a beginning of a sentence before something else usually is when you are going to say something to a person that you might not tell them in a different situation, that you’re going to be very honest. It’s often something that’s negative that you’re going to tell this person and here the man tells the woman that he’s really nervous. He talks about a dream he had last night where he was interviewed by a “three-headed monster,” which would be – a “monster,” of course, is a fictional animal that is mean, and Frankenstein, for example, is a monster. And a “three-headed monster” would be a monster with three heads, which, of course, is ridiculous but that’s the dream that the man has.

He said that the monster “kept trying to bite my head off.” The expression “to bite your head off” here literally means that the monster puts his head in his mouth and bites it off, but we also use that expression in another situation to mean when you yell at someone, when you are angry with someone and you say very mean or very strong – with a very strong emotion. You may say, “Don’t bite my head off” – means don’t get very angry with me. But here, it actually means the monster biting his head off. Now, the man is nervous and he says his “palms are sweaty.” Your “palm” (palm) is the inside of your hand. It’s the central part, not the fingers or the thumb, but that rest of that inside of your hand is your “palm,” and if your palms are “sweaty,” meaning they’re wet, that’s often a sign that you are nervous.

The man also says that he hopes the woman who’s interviewing him won’t hear his teeth “chattering.” “To chatter,” here, means to bite down – up and down very quickly. I’m not sure I can imitate that very well but when you’re teeth are “chattering,” you’re either very cold or you’re very nervous about something, and here the man is clearly nervous. The man finally says, “I hope I get through this in one piece,” meaning I hope I survive this interview without any problems, without any damage. The expression, “I want to get through this in one piece,” means without any injury, without any problems taking place. The elevator doors then opened and the man says, “I don’t know why I poured out or poured my heart out to a perfect stranger.” “To pour your heart out” – “pour” (pour), like you would pour water into a glass – “to pour your heart out” means to tell something to someone else that’s very personal, that’s very – often emotional and it’s usually a sad thing or not a positive thing, a negative thing. The expression, a “perfect stranger,” is the same as a “complete stranger,” and the words “perfect” and “complete” here are just giving the idea of it being a “stranger,” someone you don’t know, more emphasis. You could just say, “A stranger,” and when you say “a perfect stranger” you’re just giving that fact more emphasis. It doesn’t really change the meaning of the word.

The man says that by telling this perfect stranger his story about being nervous, it helped him to “chill out a bit.” “To chill out” (chill) and then (out), two words, means to relax, to be calm. It’s an informal expression, probably more common among younger people. Someone tells you to “chill out,” they’re telling to relax, to calm down, don’t get excited. Sometimes we use the verb just “to chill.” “What are you doing?” “I’m chilling,” meaning I’m relaxing, I’m taking it easy, I’m not working. Again, that’s a very informal use of the word. “To chill” also means to make cold but here it has nothing to do with that. Finally, the man and woman go their separate ways. She walks into the office and he goes to the “reception desk,” or the desk in the front of the office where people first come. Usually, there is someone behind the desk that we would call the “receptionist.” She or he is the person working at that desk.

Now let’s listen to the dialogue this time at native rate of speech.

[start of dialogue]

I was on my way to an interview and there was a lot of traffic on the road. I got to the office in the nick of time for my appointment. I walked into the lobby of the building and looked at the directory. I saw that Casey Enterprises was on the penthouse floor and headed to the elevator. The door was just closing.

David: Could you hold the elevator, please? Thanks a lot.

Woman: No problem. What floor?

David: I’m headed to the 18th floor, the top floor.

Woman: Oh, so am I.

David: Do you work there? I have an interview today with Dale Mendoza. Do you know her?

Woman: Yeah, I know her pretty well.

David: To tell you the truth, I’m really nervous. I had a dream last night that I was being interviewed by a three-headed monster that kept trying to bite my head off. Oh, wow, my palms are sweaty just thinking about it. I just hope Ms. Mendoza won’t be able to hear my teeth chattering. I just hope I get though this in one piece.

The elevator doors opened just then and we both walked out. I don’t know why I poured my heart out to a perfect stranger, but it actually seemed to help me chill out a bit. I didn’t feel quite as nervous.

We were in the reception area and I headed to the reception desk. The woman started walking in the other direction. She turned and called back, “Good luck,” with a smile.

[end of dialogue]

That’s all for today. Thank you for listening. From Los Angeles, California, we’ll see you next time on ESL Podcast.

ESL Podcast is produced by the Center for Educational Development in Los Angeles, California. This podcast is copyright 2005. No part of this podcast may be sold or redistributed without the expressed written permission of the Center for Educational Development.