This is Jack from tofluency.com, along with me, Kate.

- Yeah, and today,

we are going to give you listening practice,

and we do this by just having

a natural conversation, in English.

And today our topic is going to be jobs.

- Yes.

- Jobs.

So be sure to check out the description

for the words and phrases that we use in this lesson.

And also check out tofluency.com,

because I have some great stuff there for you, too.

Okay, so today we're gonna talk about jobs.

We're gonna talk about the first jobs that we've had.

- Okay.

- Different types of jobs we've had.

And also, we're going to talk about our dream job.

So we can start thinking about that now.

But what was your first-ever job?

- So my first-ever job

was actually working at a sailing school.

So, eventually I became a sailing instructor

but in the beginning, I was just a helper,

so I would help move boats

and help people who wanted to rent the boats,

what to do and where to go.

So we rented kayaks and small sailboats

and small catamarans,

and that was the beginning of my working career.

- Very cool. - Yeah.

- How old were you?

- I was 15.

- Right.

Was that like a summer job?

- It was a summer job.

- And is that common around that age in America?

- I think that most, because we have a longer summer break

than a lot of other countries, I think it's pretty common

for American teenagers to have some kind of a summer job.

- Right.

So yours was working at a sailing school.

- Yes.

- But you didn't teach sailing at first.

- No.

- That came later. - That came later.

I had to work my way up to that.

And, well, of course, my very first job was as a babysitter.

- Yeah.

- Uh-huh, so I actually became certified to babysit,

and I babysat for our neighbor's children for several years.

- Yeah, growing up watching American movies,

that seemed quite a common thing, to babysit.

- Yes.

- And what age were you when you did that?

- I think that I got my certification when I was about 12,

so probably from the time that I was 12 until,

well, much later.

It was not a regular job, but every couple weekends or so,

I would do some babysitting.

- And before, did you know how to sail before

going to the sailing school?

- Yes.

So I actually started out as a student of the sailing school

which is how I learned to sail.

- Very cool, and I've been to that sailing school before.

- Yeah.

- Remember when you took me out on the, is it cata--

- Catamaran.

- Catamaran. - Yup.

- And I got soaked.

- You did. - Yeah.

- Did you like it?

- Oh, I loved it. - Yeah?

- Yeah.

You also took me sailing once in Athens, Georgia.

It was boiling.

- Yes. - That day.

But yeah, that's pretty cool.

And you were in sailing club, right?

- That's right.

- At university. - Uh-huh, yup.

- Or at college.

Very good, and how many summers

did you work at the sailing school?

- That's a great question.

I probably worked for four summers at the sailing school,

three or four.

- Cool.

Did you enjoy it?

- I loved it.

I still kind of miss it.

That's one thing that I think of

when the weather gets summery,

I think, "Oh, when am I gonna get out on the water?

"When am I gonna see my friends?"

(upbeat music)

Let me ask you a little bit about your first job.

- Okay.

- What was it?

- My first job was a paper round.

- [Kate] Okay.

- Do you call it paper route here?

- I think we would call it a paper round,

but it's a pretty uncommon job

for young people to have today.

- Right.

- I think that was something that people

older than our generation had.

- Right, well, yeah, it was very popular when I was younger.

We, my friend and I, we went to the local news agent

and we asked for a paper round job and we got one.

- Okay.

- And I think it paid around...

The first one I had paid nine pounds per week.

- That seems shockingly low.

- Well, yeah, it was a lot of money.

- Yeah, were you-- - When you're 12.

- When you're 12.

- Well, you had to be 13 to do it.

- Oh, were you 13?

- I think I might have been 12, I can't remember.

(Kate gasps) I was probably 13,

but it was, yeah, it was a cool job.

- Yeah? - It was fine,

'cause I started off doing the afternoon round,

and mine was so easy.

- Okay.

- I think, 'cause they start you on the easy route,

to begin with, it might have only been 25 houses,

and you wore this paper bag,

I think that's what they called it,

or paper round bag, you put your newspapers in there,

the Lancashire Evening Post,

and you just deliver them through the mailbox.

- Were they heavy?

- Those weren't, but then my next one was

I had to do it on a bike,

so you put your bag on your back, fill it with newspapers.

It was really heavy, and I went on a bike,

and the Saturday morning edition, especially,

was very heavy,

'cause they have those extra magazines in them,

and that was the morning one.

And I think that paid 14 pound a week.

It was more than any other paper round

because it was the hardest one, but I enjoyed it.

- So you got paid about two pounds a day?

- Yeah. - How long--

- No, well, six days a week,

I don't think I did the Sunday one.

- Okay. - But yeah, I was 14 and 15.

- How long did it take you?

- 45 minutes.

- Okay. - Yeah.

About 45 minutes, and then, yeah, after the paper round,

I know you want me to talk about this.

I had the milk round.

- I know!

You had a milk round.

- Yeah.

- Okay, I think that there is no one in our generation

in the United States who had a milk round.

- I wonder if they still do it in the UK?

- I don't know.

- It's not as...

I did read that they're trying to bring it back,

and if you're a little bit confused,

a milk round is when there's a milkman,

and he has a milk van (laughs)

and he fills the milk van with milk.

- With milk. (laugh)

- But bottles of milk,

and instead of going to the store to buy milk,

every morning, you have milk delivered to your doorstep

in these little glass bottles,

and they had different colored tops,

silver, red, and blue, I think,

and silver was whole milk, I think red was skimmed,

and blue might have been half and half

or something like that,

and we used to stand on the back of the milk van,

I think it's a milk van. - This is crazy to me.

This seems so dangerous.

- Well, it was, and at five a.m., we get picked up.

It took us two hours. - Wow.

- And yeah, so he'd shout out, "Two silver!"

So you grab two silvers, you run to the,

run, you can't walk, run to the door, put the silvers down,

take the empty bottles, and then put them back in the crate.

- Wow. - The milk crate.

And I did it, I only lasted a few weeks,

because it was the middle of winter.

(Kate shivers)

And my friend was small, so he could duck under the van.

My head was sticking out.

- Oh!

- And your hands were frozen,

because you're collecting those empty milk bottles

that were freezing.

- I cannot imagine that.

- Yeah.

- I can't imagine it.

- But that wasn't my dangerous job.

- What was your most dangerous job?

- At the driving rage.

- (gasps) Oh.

- Did I ever tell you about that job?

- I think you might have told me a little bit,

but clearly there's more to talk about.

- Well, so, at the golf driving range, I think I was 15,

and then I was doing the milk round

and then we realized that we could get paid

five pounds an hour, so two pounds fifty an hour,

to work at the driving range,

but they started all the new people in the wrong way.

- Uh-oh, what did they do?

- Well, they gave you one of those tubes to collect,

which you had to stab on the ball and go up.

I think it held probably 20 balls, this little tube,

and they'd say, "Okay, go to the 150 yard line,"

which is the most popular range to hit

when you're practicing golf, and go collect the golf balls.

And they did it, they put us out there at peak hours,

and they gave us a helmet, so like a motorcycle helmet,

and if you go to the driving range

and you see some kid with a helmet on collecting golf balls,

that's an immediate target.

- Oh no.

- So everyone would just aim for you,

(Kate gasps) and it was dark,

and you just didn't see these balls coming,

and they'd just hit you in the back, hit you in the leg.

- Was it really painful?

- Yeah, I mean, getting hit by a golf ball.

- Yeah.

- It's incredible that they did it.

- (laughs) Yeah.

- Before health and safety went crazy.

- Oh no.

- You could ban those kinds of jobs.

So yeah, that was a job I did for a little while,

but it got a lot better,

because I only worked Sundays after a while,

and the Sunday job was easy,

because nobody went to the driving range on a Sunday,

because they were playing golf.

- Right.

- But then you get in one of those carts.

What do you call that, the quad?

- We call them golf carts.

- Well, it wasn't just a golf cart.

It was more like a buggy.

- Like a dune buggy?

- Yes. - Okay.

- And then it had this thing on the front

where it would collect the golf balls,

so we'd collect the golf balls, no one would come,

and I would hit the golf balls.

- Yeah. - So it was a fun thing to do.