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Real Easy English

Easy level

Talking about the office

Episode 250404 / 04 Apr 2025

(Photo: Getty)

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Introduction

Neil and Beth have a real conversation in easy English about where they like to work. Learn to talk about where you work.

Vocabulary

office
a place with desks and computers where people go to work

working remotely/working from home
doing your job away from your workplace, usually at home

colleagues
people you work with

colleagues
a sharp, sometimes unpleasant taste, like lemons

Grammar Tip:

Use comparative adjectives to compare working in the office and at home.

  • It's louder in the office but sometimes that's better.
  • It's more difficult to work at home and I am lonelier.

Transcript

Neil
Hello and welcome to Real Easy English. In this podcast, we have real conversations in easy English to help you understand. I'm Neil.

Beth
And I'm Beth. You can watch a video of this podcast and find a worksheet to help you learn on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.

Neil
Hi Beth, how are you today?

Beth
I'm very good, Neil. How are you?

Neil
I'm very well. What are we talking about?

Beth
Today we are talking about work and the office. An office is a place with desks and computers where people do their jobs.

Neil
OK. We are in a studio in the office, but we'll go back to the office after this.

Beth
Yes we will. So, Neil, where do you work? Do you work at home or do you work in the office?

Neil
Well, I do both of those things. I work in the office usually three days a week, and I work from home two days a week.

Beth
OK, I'm the same. We have the same schedule. So, yeah, at home twice, where I have, a sort of place that could be considered a home office. Do you like working in the office?

Neil
I do like working in the office. I think it's easy to get work done in the office because it's an office environment. It's a workplace. But I also quite like working from home sometimes because, commuting. London is a big city, you know, coming to work and going back is really tiring if you do it every day.

Beth
Yeah, I know what you mean. I, I like working from home occasionally, but I definitely prefer being in the office. I think being with colleagues around you and I need people, and then I can work better.

Neil
Yeah. So what's wrong with working from home?

Beth
A lot! I think, when you're in the office, yeah, it's louder than at home, but I like having the people around me. I like being able to have conversations. I find it's easier to work in an office environment because everyone else is working. But I feel more lonely at home because it's just me. So, yeah.

Neil
Yeah, I understand what you mean. I also have a bit of a problem with working from home, because the boundary or the line between work and home is not so clear. So when you finish your day, you close your computer and you think, oh, hang on, I'm still at home. This is where I've been working all day. And sometimes you feel like you should be doing things for home when you're actually working.

Beth
Yeah, it's a bit weirder. Like, it's, it's strange being at home because it's harder to know whether you should be working or doing a bit of housework. In the office, it's easier to just sit and be with your laptop, be with your colleagues and just be, be working.

Neil
Have you ever worked somewhere that is not an office?

Beth
Yes. So I used to work at a farm. It was a farm park. So lots of children playing and there was a cafe. There was a play area, go carts, being with animals. So lots of different areas. And it was fun. Lots of variety. So that wasn't an office. What about you?

Neil
I've worked in all kinds of places, especially when I was a student. I worked in factories, farms. I've worked in restaurants, bars, all kinds of places that are not offices.

Beth
You've done it all.

Neil
I've done it all. Let's recap some of the vocabulary we heard in this podcast.

Beth
We had office, a place with desks and computers where people go to work sometimes. At BBC Learning English, we work in the office.

Neil
We had working remotely, which we often also call working from home, and that means working somewhere that isn't the office, for example, your home. But it could also be a cafe or something.

Beth
And we also had colleagues. These are the people that you work with.

Neil
And we compared working from home with working from an office. And we used lots of comparatives. So it's harder to concentrate at home or it's more difficult to get your work done in the office.

Beth
Yes. And it's louder in the office, but sometimes that's better.

Neil
That's it for this episode of Real Easy English. You can test what you've learned with a worksheet, which you can download for free from our website, bbclearningenglish.com.

Beth
And next time we'll be talking all about games. See you then.

Neil
Goodbye.

 

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