WRITTEN TRANSCRIPTION OF THE PODCAST:

Hello and welcome to a new episode of my podcastMy Life and Other Funny Stories. My name is Dagmar Tomášková and I am an English tutor. Who created this podcast for intermediate and upper intermediate students of English, I am talking in slower English, so it is easy for students to understand, and you can always find the whole transcription vocabulary list and comprehension quiz in the notes of the podcast. Now you can also find an interactive transcription, so definitely check it out. Today I will talk about the time I was working in Scotland. And I know you have places to be, and things to do, so there is no time to waste time. So let’s go and talk about it.

 It was the year of 2019 when me and my boyfriend decided to work abroad. Abroad means in another country. Why? The answer is easy. We knew that we could make more money somewhere else than in the Czech Republic during the summer, but where should we go? That was the question we were asking. So we did what everyone does.

We took a seat and started searching on the Internet. It took us some time. It wasn’t easy to find jobs, because we had no experience with working abroad, but. It’s not impossible. We joined different Facebook groups. We joined websites that offered jobs, and we were sending our CVs everywhere. CV is the paper that, shows all your experience, all your previous jobs, your education, and so on, and you usually need to send it in order to get an interview after a few weeks of searching someone reached back to us, reach back means that they responded to our message.

And just like that, we had the first interview. We talked with the manager of one Scottish hotel near Glasgow. It was a hotel that was usually for older people who came in, groups, came for breakfast, then left somewhere, by bus, and they came back in the evening for dinner. The manager needed new waiters, waitresses and housekeepers.

 The interview went well. He just needed to see or hear that we could understand English and that we could speak English, and we agreed that we will work there in a week. We had our suitcase packed, and we were ready to leave to Scotland. We were a little scared, but we were also excited because we were afraid that we will come there and there will be no hotel and that it would be a scam.

 A scam is a dishonest or illegal plan or activity, usually with the purpose of getting money from people. Yeah. So we were a little afraid, but, it was okay. We came there and Ian, that was the name of the manager, Ian showed us everything. This is the kitchen and this is the dining room. And this is your staff house.

The staff house is the house where employees live. They do not live in a hotel with the guests. And the next day our job started. Fun fact about me: I never come late anywhere. I had never overslept until our first workday in Scotland. Yes, the first day and we were already late. Great start. But what was our usual day in Scotland?

 But before I start describing our usual routine in Scotland, I want to explain the grammar I will be using, I will be using the word WOULD. You maybe know would for: I would like to do this and I would like to do that, but we can also use the word WOULD for describing habits and repeated actions in the past.

So when I am talking about our routine, and I say we WOULD wake up very early. It means that we used to do it every day. Alright. Grammar window is closed and we continue. We would wake up very early, around 5:30 or 6:00 sometimes even earlier. And we would work for four hours in the morning taking care of the guests.

During breakfast, we would prepare the buffet with food and we would bring the guests everything they need. And after four hours, we would be finished for the morning. Then sometimes. During the day, we had also housekeeping shifts. We, would get rooms to clean. We had to change the sheets, clean the mirrors, clean the bathrooms, and vacuum the carpets.

From time to time, we also got a shift where we had to vacuum the whole hotel. I liked it because I could listen to music while vacuuming and cleaning, but we didn’t have this cleaning shift every day, only sometimes, and then, In the evening, we went for our second shift in the kitchen where we were taking care of the dinner.

We would take orders from the guests and bring them to them when they were ready, while the guests were eating. We were preparing everything for the next day. For example, folding the napkins and polishing the silverware.

Silverware is a word for forks. Knives and spoons, and after all the guests were finished eating and they left, we prepared the dining room for the next day and cleaned the kitchen. We would finish around 10 or 11:00 PM and then we would go to sleep. And the next morning again,

 After a while, it became a routine and it wasn’t difficult, but sometimes it got a little crazy. In the beginning, I had to learn how to carry four plates at once, and I have small hands and remember the numbers of all the tables and all the orders. In the kitchen, they would give me four plates into my hands and they would say, for example, 47, 48, 51, 60.

And I had to remember what , what plate goes where. I know it doesn’t sound difficult, but in the beginning where. Or when I was stressed, it was hard to remember

As it was in Scotland, Ssmetimes it was difficult to understand the guests. They would call me to their table and ask me, excuse me, can you bring me some uhoh?

And I didn’t know what they said. I asked them, but the response was the same. Did they say butter or water? Hmm. So I went to the kitchen and I took either butter or water. And brought it back to the table and based on their look on their face, I evaluated if I was correct or not. If they smiled, I was like, okay, I was correct. If they looked confused, I just turned around and went for the second thing to the kitchen. Trust me, it is not easy with the Scottish accent.

 So that is how we spent the days there. Working and working and folding napkins, polishing the silverware, placing spoons and forks and knives on every table. And again, spoon, spoon, spoon, fork, fork, fork. Knife, knife, knife, spoon, spoon, spoon, fork, fork, fork, and every day. But of course, we also had days off, which means we had days where when we were not working, which were quite fun.

If there was a space on the bus with the guests, we could go on a trip with them. So of course when we had the opportunity, we went, we visited Edinborough. That’s how you pronounce the name of the capital of Scotland. We visited Glasgow many times, Botanic Gardens, and a lot, a lot of other places in Scotland

The hotel was also next to a lake. The Scottish people call it LOCH . So we sat by the lake talked, and I even went kayaking once. Sometimes we also had barbecues and parties with the staff and we also visited the church. That was a pub that I was talking about in my episode six. Overall, it was a very, very nice experience.

I worked hard, but. It was great. I left at the end of August because I was starting a new semester at my university in September, but now I still look back at this experience with a smile on my face.

 Okay. That is all for today. Thank you so much for listening to this episode, and as always, find the full transcription with the vocabulary list and comprehension quiz in the notes of the episode. If you tell about this podcast to one person, you know, And who would like it? I would be very, very grateful.

Give it five stars if you like it on the platform. You are listening to this podcast and I will see you very soon. Bye-bye.