بهداشت خوب

Good Hygiene

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 254: Good Hygiene.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 254. I’m your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in the beautiful City of Los Angeles, California.

Remember to visit our website at eslpod.com; we have some new things on our website. Of course, we have the Learning Guide, and eight to ten page guide for this episode that will help you improve your English even faster.

Our dialogue today is called “Good Hygiene,” and it’s about keeping clean so that you don’t get sick. Let’s listen.

[start of story]

Juanita: Hey, where have you been? I was going to invite you to lunch, but you weren’t at your desk.

Bill: I was at a training.

Juanita: What was it on?

Bill: Office hygiene.

Juanita: Hygiene? You’re kidding. Your office is pretty messy but I wouldn’t say you needed hygiene training.

Bill: Very funny. Each department has to go through it. You’ll have your turn next week. Apparently, the management wants to reduce the spread of illnesses around the office. They say that people are taking too many sick days and it’s bad for productivity.

Juanita: So, we all have to sit through a training. What a pain! It’s not like we don’t know how to wash our hands.

Bill: Yeah, I know. The trainer did a pretty good job, though, explaining how germs spread around the office. It’s easy to infect other people when you have a cold or something else that’s contagious. She said that viruses get around pretty easily. She gave us some pointers on how to prevent it, though.

Juanita: Well, I use antibacterial soap all the time, so I don’t worry about it.

Bill: You know, the trainer said that those soaps may not be that effective. People think they’re sterilizing their hands, but they may be doing more harm than good.

Juanita: Really? I’ve never heard that before.

Bill: Then you’d better go to the training. I guess you need it more than I do.

Juanita: Yeah, very funny.

[end of story]

Our dialogue begins with Juanita asking Bill, “where have you been? I was going to invite you to lunch, but you weren’t at your desk.”

And, Bill says where he was. He says he “was at a training.” A training, “training,” is a class, what we might also call a workshop, “workshop,” to learn something. Usually it is something that is sponsored by or presented by your company or some business organization. We talk about trainings at your job; you go for, maybe, an hour, sometimes a whole day or longer to learn something new about your job.

Juanita asks what the training was on. She says, “What was it on?” She’s asking what was the topic of the training - what was the training about.

Bill says, “Office hygiene.” Hygiene, “hygiene,” means being clean, particularly being clean to avoid sickness - being clean for health reasons. You want to be clean, and you want the area where you are eating and cooking to be clean. Good hygiene, in general, refers to making sure that you are washing your hands for example, and brushing your teeth, and combing your hair - if you have hair. I don’t worry about that one! So, good hygiene is related, in general, to being clean, especially being clean so that you don’t get sick.

Juanita says, “You’re kidding.” She doesn’t believe Bill; she thinks Bill is joking or, at least, she thinks that it is a strange topic for a training. She then makes a joke by saying, “Your office is pretty messy but I wouldn’t say you need hygiene training.” Messy, “messy,” means dirty or disorganized. Something that is a mess is something that is not organized - it’s not clean. Juanita is making a joke here, saying that because Bill has a dirty office - a messy office - he needs to have hygiene training - training to learn how to keep himself clean.

Bill says, “Very funny.” That expression, “very funny,” is when someone tells a joke, but you don’t think it’s funny. It’s a weird expression because you are saying the opposite, but in fact, when someone says, “Very funny,” especially like that - that intonation, “very funny” - they mean that’s not funny - I don’t think that’s funny.

Bill says that “Each department has to go through” the training, meaning each department has to have the training. “You’ll have your turn next week,” Bill says. Your turn, “turn,” means the time when you have to do something. It could be in a game or some series of events. So for example, you have to talk to your boss about how you did last year on your job, and everyone in the office has to talk to the boss. So, each person will have a turn to talk to the boss. They’ll have a turn - they’ll have an opportunity to go and speak with him or her.

We use that word, “turn,” in lots of different ways; take a look at the Learning Guide for this episode for more explanations about that.

Bill then says, “Apparently, the management wants to reduce the spread of illnesses around the office.” Apparently, “apparently,” is a common expression that we use to mean it appears - it seems - based on what I have seen or heard, this is my impression - this is what I think, but you’re not sure. You don’t have, perhaps, all of the information so you’re sort of guessing.

“Apparently, the management” - the bosses - “want to reduce,” or lower, “the spread of illnesses.” Spread, “spread,” means something that grows - it’s the growth of something - or, it’s when something moves and becomes larger or greater in number. “The spread of the Internet around the world has been great in the last five years,” meaning the number is getting bigger - more and more people are using it.

In this dialogue, Bill says, “the spread of illnesses,” meaning that illnesses - when people are sick - can increase, and “the management wants to reduce the spread,” they want fewer people getting sick. Spread is another one of those words that has many different meanings; take a look, again, at the Learning Guide for more information.

Bill says that “people are taking too many sick days and it’s bad for productivity.” A sick, “sick,” day (two words) is a day when an employee does not go to work because she does not, or he does not, feel well - they’re sick, but the company still pays them. Most companies give you a certain number of sick days every year. So for example, if you have five sick days each year, that means that you can call and say you’re sick and stay home and still be paid for that day five times. After that, you may not be paid for the days you are sick.

Juanita says that the training is not going to be something she wants to do. She says, “What a pain!’ What a pain, “pain,” is an expression to mean how annoying or how frustrating - that’s very frustrating or that’s very inconvenient - that’s something that I don’t want to do. You can also use that expression, “a pain,” in talking about a person. You can say, “He’s such a pain,” meaning he’s such an annoyance - he’s someone who bothers me.

Juanita says that we already “know how to wash our hands,” so why do we need to go to this training - that’s what she’s trying to say. Bill says, however, that “The trainer” - the person who gives the training is called a trainer - “did a pretty good job explaining how germs spread around the office.” Germs, “germs,” are very small things in the air or in the water that you can’t see, but that make people’s sick. The germs are how the disease - how the illness - spreads - how more people get it.

He says that “It’s easy to infect other people when you have a cold or something else that’s contagious.” The verb, to infect, “infect,” means to make someone sick - to give your disease or illness to someone else. There are different ways of infecting people. One way is when people breathe the air or they put their hands that have germs on them in their eye, for example, and that can give you that illness. This is especially true with something like a cold. A cold, of course, is a kind of illness you have where your nose may hurt, you may have a headache, your throat may hurt.

Diseases that spread - that you can get from other people - are called contagious diseases, “contagious.” Something that is contagious is something that can be passed from one person to another, and there are many diseases like that.

Bill says that the trainer gave the people at the training “some pointers on how to prevent” being infected. Pointers, “pointers,” is another way of saying tips or advice or suggestions. You may say to someone, “Can you give me some pointers on how to use my new computer” - can you give me some advice - can you give me some tips? To prevent, “prevent,” means to stop something from happening - to stop it before it happens.

Juanita says that she uses “antibacterial soap all the time,” so she doesn’t worry about getting sick. Antibacterial, “antibacterial,” soap is a kind of soap that is used to wash your hands, and it’s supposed to kill the germs - kill the things that will make you sick. There’s been a lot of controversy about antibacterial soap at hospitals in the United States. Some people think that it may help create new types of bacteria that we don’t have drugs to treat or to help.

Juanita says that she uses antibacterial soap; Bill says that “the trainer said that those soaps may not be that effective.” He says that “People think they’re sterilizing their hands, but they may be doing more harm than good.” To sterilize, “sterilize,” in this case means to kill all of the germs on something - to use some sort of chemical or soap that you kill the germs. Notice we use that expression, “to kill germs,” mean to get rid of them.

Bill says that using these antibacterial soaps “may be doing more harm than good.” To do more harm, “harm,” than good means that something is more negative than it is positive - something has more disadvantages than advantages. Harm means something bad - something that hurts you, and is the opposite of good. So, you’re saying that you are hurting yourself more than you’re helping yourself.

The dialogue ends with Bill saying that Juanita needs the training more than he does, so he tells a joke back, and Juanita uses the same expression. She says, “Yeah, very funny,” meaning I don’t think that’s funny.

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

[start of story]

Juanita: Hey, where have you been? I was going to invite you to lunch, but you weren’t at your desk.

Bill: I was at a training.

Juanita: What was it on?

Bill: Office hygiene.

Juanita: Hygiene? You’re kidding. Your office is pretty messy but I wouldn’t say you needed hygiene training.

Bill: Very funny. Each department has to go through it. You’ll have your turn next week. Apparently, the management wants to reduce the spread of illnesses around the office. They say that people are taking too many sick days and it’s bad for productivity.

Juanita: So, we all have to sit through a training. What a pain! It’s not like we don’t know how to wash our hands.

Bill: Yeah, I know. The trainer did a pretty good job, though, explaining how germs spread around the office. It’s easy to infect other people when you have a cold or something else that’s contagious. She said that viruses get around pretty easily. She gave us some pointers on how to prevent it, though.

Juanita: Well, I use antibacterial soap all the time, so I don’t worry about it.

Bill: You know, the trainer said that those soaps may not be that effective. People think they’re sterilizing their hands, but they may be doing more harm than good.

Juanita: Really? I’ve never heard that before.

Bill: Then you’d better go to the training. I guess you need it more than I do.

Juanita: Yeah, very funny.

[end of story]

The script for today’s podcast was written by Dr. Lucy Tse.

From Los Angeles, California, I’m Jeff McQuillan. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next time on ESL Podcast.

English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr. Lucy Tse, hosted by Dr. Jeff McQuillan. This podcast is copyright 2007.