Welcome to EFpodenglish.com brought to you by EF. To learn about our language centers, go to www.ef.

com, to learn about our online language school, visit www.englishtown.com. Pod English, pre-intermediate 35, Job interview. - Can you send in the next applicant please? - Hello, sir. - Hello. - Vivian, nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you. So, lets see. Have you ever had to interview someone for a job? Well, todays podcast is all about asking questions in a polite way to find out the information you want to know. Were going to learn how to use phrases like: What do you consider, May I ask and Could you tell me? So, you're interested in the position as running the volunteer program for the Olympics. Yes, thats right. Ok so, this is uh, your resume? Yes, please. Thank you. Lets see. Vivian, good, good.

Now, youre going to watch a movie. - Well, were interested in your application for the position of project manager. - Well, Im very excited about the position. - What I can see in your from your resume is that you have a lot of work experience. - Yes, Ive had many jobs responsibilities. -What do you consider your greatest strength? - Im very reliable. And I always try to do my work on time. - I see, very good. May I ask you what your greatest weakness is? - I have difficulty saying no. So I often work overtime. Sometimes I even forget what my companys normal working hours are. - Very impressive. May I ask you why youd like to work for this company? - Your organization is very successful and known throughout the world. - So you hope youd have an international career.

- Yes, I studied abroad before, but havent worked for an international company yet. - Well, we may be able to give you that chance. As soon as we review all our candidates, we will let you know our decision. - Thank you, I look forward to hearing from you. - Um, could you tell me a bit about yourself ___________? - Yes, Ive actually been volunteering for 15 years. I started volunteering when I was 13 years old. Ive volunteered in the art camp, vent camp, sports camp, science camp Well, it sounds like Sam is done quite well. Can you remember Allisons first question? Lets watch it again. - What do you consider your greatest strength? What do you consider your greatest strength? Allison uses the words What do you consider to make the question more polite. This is more polite than What is your greatest strength? Lets see some more examples. - Sports camp, science camp, everything you name it volunteering, Ive done it. - Oh, are you sure you like to work for free? - Yes. - Umm, so - I aim to please. I like to help. - Good. What do you consider most important in your career? What do you consider your greatest achievement? Lets look at another polite question for. Heres Allison again. - I see, very good. May I ask you what your greatest weakness is? May I ask you what your greatest weakness is? Allison uses the words May I ask you to make the question more polite. In a long question like this, the word order changes, is comes at the end. May I ask you what your greatest weakness is? This is a polite way of saying: What is your greatest weakness? Look at these examples: May I ask you what your sales average is? May I ask you what your greatest achievement is?

Another polite forms similar to May I ask you? is could you tell me? Could you tell me what job you are doing? Could you tell me what salary would you like?

- Can I ask you a few questions? So um, may I ask you what you consider to be your greatest strength? - Well, I think that, you know, Im really good at working with people like I said, Ive been volunteering for 15 years and really dedicated to my job, I like to help. Im always there to volunteer my services, organize things, you name it Ill do it. - Thats great. OK. Um, may I also ask what you consider to be your greatest weakness? - Um, it might be that Ive volunteered too much. Good work. Now lets try a quiz. Use the words on the screen to make a polite question. May I ask if you are married? Now lets try another question with the words on the screen. What do you consider to be the best thing about your job? Try making a polite question here. Could you tell me about your last job? Try this one. Remember, with a long sentence, the word order changes, and is comes at the end. May I ask what your greatest achievement is? - Um, may I ask you why youre interested in this position? - Because this is the grand slam of all volunteering events and I wanna be part of it. - I understand. Well done. That was great. Now you know how to ask polite questions. We talked about how to use What do you consider? What do you consider to be your greatest achievement? May I ask? May I ask what your sales average is? and Could you tell me? Could you tell me what salary you expect? Bye for now and see you again soon. - May I ask you one more thing? Could you tell me what you consider to be your greatest achievement? - Though youre never gonna ask. Well, my greatest achievement I think is back when I was 18 years old and I got the entire art camp to create clay pots. - Clay pots? - Yes. - Thats becoming handy in this job. - Yes. - OK. Thank you, Vivian, for coming in, um... - Thank you, sir. - Yeah?