Job Interview

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Transcript

• Interviewee: An office with a view, vegetarian options, an even 72 degrees.
• Interviewer: I said “references.”

Vocabulary

1. vegetarian (adj.) /ˌvedʒ.ɪˈteə.ri.ən/ not including meat (A vegetarian (n.) is a person who does not eat meat for health or religious reasons or because they want to avoid being cruel to animals)
2. even (adj.) /ˈiː.vən/ here, it means that the temperature would not change, that it would be continuous or regular
3. reference (n.)  /ˈref.ər.əns/ in a business letter or job interview, this refers to contact information that tells the interviewer who to speak to so that  he/she can know more about the interviewee
4. preference (n.) /ˈpref.ər.əns/ the fact that you like something or someone more than another thing or person

Context

• Do you think the interviewee is answering correctly? Do you know what the interviewee had probably understood as the question? Given the conversation, we can guess that the interviewer had asked: “Do you have references?” but that the interviewee understood “Do you have preferences?”
• Notice that one of the first things that the interviewee says is that he wants an office with a view. There are many offices in the United-States which do not have windows. Offices with a window are at times considered as a luxury.
• 72 degrees: 72 degrees Fahrenheit is the same as 22 degrees Celsius. To convert units, you can type X degrees Fahrenheit in Celsius in Google. Note that to have an “even 72 degrees”, the constant use of air conditioners in the summer and heaters in the winter would be needed, which is also common in the United-States.