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Julia	Todd

Views #1248 | Intermediate (B2)

Work on the Go

Todd continues talking about his daily life as a web creator living on the road.

Script
Vocab
Quiz

Julia: So talking of working overseas, how does that work? How do set that kind of lifestyle up?

Todd: You mean like the nomadic lifestyle?

Julia: Yeah, yeah, when you want to travel and just be free and how do you go about that?

Todd: Well, it's interesting. Like I think people get the wrong idea about working that type of life, being like a nomad. First of all you're actually not a tourist and in a lot of ways you're not a traveler. Like I actually worked and oddly enough, you know when I was just traveling and just living from city to city and working digitally from my computer, I put in more than forty hours a week. I actually probably put in maybe fifty or sixty because I had so much time. I had nothing to do usually so I would work usually five to six days a week and usually ten hours a day. So the first thing is that you work a lot and because you work a lot, you have to look for places that are conductive, conducive I'm sorry, that are conducive for working. So the first thing you need is you need a hotel or like usually a short term apartment because it's usually best to stay in one place for about a month and you need a place that has a good desk and a good chair. I cannot emphasize the importance of a good chair. A good chair is actually so much more important than cable TV or a nice bed or a pool or whatever because you're going to sit in the chair all the time. So when I would travel, I would go to a hotel and the first thing I would ask is can I see...

Julia: The chair?

Todd: Can I see the chairs in the room and if I didn't like the chair, I'd say like look I'm going to be here for two weeks I'll stay but you gotta get me like a nice chair. So that was one thing. So usually you want to get like a short-term housing. You look on the internet, you know, two weeks at a time and usually you can find something cheap. You usually want to be in a major city because you need to have internet and that is the most important thing. You'd be surprised at what countries have fast internet. Like Vietnam really fast and you can work wireless from the beach. I used to sit on the beach with my laptop and have high speed wireless in some of the cities in Vietnam.

Julia: Wow.

Todd: Yeah, it's amazing. You know, Thailand, Bangkok, it's surprisingly not that fast. So Bangkok wasn't that fast but if you went to a smaller city like Chiang Mai, the internet was really fast.

Learn Vocabulary from the Lesson

oddly enough/ put in

Oddly enough, when I was traveling, I usually put in more than 40 hours a week.

You can use the phrase 'oddly enough' to introduce something that is strange or unexpected. Here, 'put in' hours means to work. Notice the following:

Oddly enough, I was just going to send you an email when you called me.
How many hours did you put in this week?

conducive

You have to look for places that are conducive to working.

A situation that is 'conducive' to working is helpful or makes working easier, like a quiet place where you could concentrate. Notice the following:

Having all this junk food around the house isn't conducive to dieting.
My house isn't very conducive to studying, because it is so loud.

emphasize

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of a good chair.

When you 'emphasize' something, you stress or discuss its significance. Notice the following:

Today, in class, she emphasized the important things to study for the exam.
I need to emphasize that it is very important to stay quiet.

short-term housing

Usually you want to get short-term housing.

'Short-term housing' would be an apartment, room or house where you stay for a short time but longer than a normal hotel stay. Notice the following:

We prefer to stay in short-term housing instead of a hotel.
Most people stay here for short-term housing, but he has lived here for years.

wireless

In Vietnam, you can work wireless from the beach.

You are working 'wireless' on your computer when you are using the internet, and you don't have to be connected to anything with cables. Notice the following: