Houskeeper

This week, Margaret tells us what it's like to be a housekeeper and look after a family and their guests. She explains what made her stop working as a 'professional' and become a 'Mrs Mop.' 

As you listen, try to answer these questions: 

1: What did Margaret do before she became a housekeeper? 
2: Why did she decide to change her job? 
3: Why was she once embarrassed when people asked her what she did? 

Vocabulary from the programme 

a housekeeper 
someone who looks after a house, makes sure it's clean and the people in it have what they need 

the most enjoyable aspect 
the thing you like the most 

it gives me a buzz 
it makes me feel good or excited 

to be made redundant 
to lose your job because you aren't needed any more 

to give it a go 
to try it 

your soocial status 
your social position e.g. whether others see you as important or educated 

to give it a go 
to try it 

to be insecure 
to feel unsure about yourself and lack confidence 

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Extras 
Programme script (pdf - 22 k) 
Download this programme (mp3 - 2.9 mb)
Original BBC page here

Script
Jackie: Hello, welcome to the programme, I’m Jackie Dalton.
Margaret
Hello, my name is Margaret McMullen…
Jackie: Today we’re going to explore some work-related language and find out
about a certain job. Any ideas what?
Margaret
I’m the Head Housekeeper at this incredibly beautiful Tudor house, which has had a
variety of inhabitants throughout its long history, but now has been restored and
brought back into a full-time family house.
Jackie: Margaret is a housekeeper in a big house – a housekeeper is someone
who looks after a house, makes sure it's clean and looks after the
people who live in it. Margaret is going to tell us now about the most
enjoyable aspect of her job. The ‘most enjoyable aspect’ - the thing she
likes most. What does she like most? Listen to find out:
Margaret
The most enjoyable aspects of the job are definitely the buzz of giving very good
service to guests when they come. Even just making their beds, you know. I mean,
making beds is making beds, but there’s a way of doing it well and you get ‘Yes, that
really does look good.’
Jackie: Did you get the answer? The most enjoyable aspect for Margaret is
giving very good service to guests - she used the word “buzz”.
Margaret
…the buzz of giving very good service to guests when they come.
Jackie: If you get a buzz from something, you enjoy it, it makes you feel
excited. Listen to more examples of that expression being used.
Voice: I get a real buzz from taking part in a big race.
Voice: I love the buzz of knowing hundreds of people are watching me
perform on stage.
Jackie: Now it’s time for the next listening comprehension question. When did
Margaret decide to become a housekeeper? And what did she do
before?
Margaret
Well, I decided to enter into the service world when I became redundant from my
public service job. I worked in a school.
Jackie: Margaret made the decision when she was made redundant from her
previous job, which was being a teacher. To be made redundant is to
lose your job because you are no longer needed.
STING
Jackie: Why was Margaret a bit worried about the decision she made?
Margaret
When I decided that I would do this, I thought myself ‘Are you being completely mad
here? Here you are, you are a university graduate, you’re a qualified teacher, you’ve
had a professional career - why on earth do you want to go and be a professional Mrs
Mop?
Jackie: Margaret was worried because she was well qualified and had a
professional career and was going to do something which she saw as
not a professional career – as she puts it, being ‘Mrs Mop’ - a kind of
joking way of describing a simple person who spends her time
cleaning the floor. But Margaret decided to make the change anyway.
Why did she finally make that decision?
Margaret
And I thought well, I don’t particularly want to carry on doing what I’m doing
because it is stressful, I want to do something different so I’m going to give it a go.
Jackie: Margaret decided she wanted to do something different and teaching
was too stressful. What expression did she use to say that she was
going to try being a housekeeper? Listen again.
Margaret
I want to do something different so I’m going to give it a go.
Jackie: To ‘give it a go’ – to try something to see what it's like. Listen to more
examples of that expression in use:
Voice: I’m worried about riding horses because they look scary, but I’ll give it
a go!
Voice: Go on, give it a go! You might actually enjoy it!
Jackie: Once Margaret had become a housekeeper, she was uncomfortable at
first when other people asked her what she did. Why was that?
Margaret
Now, when it came to actually working as a professional Mrs Mop, when people ask
me in a social situation, ‘What to do you do?’ that hit me across the head personally,
that I could no longer say that I was a professional bursar or I was a teacher –
something that had status. I was saying, ‘Well actually I’m a housekeeper. And I had
difficulty with that myself because I’d always perceived myself as being a
professional person in a professional job. I never associated housekeeping with being
a profession.
Jackie: Margaret was worried about her status – whether other people would
see her as being not very educated or important. She said she didn't see
housekeeping as a professional job. But what does she think now?
Margaret
…and it wasn’t until I was in it for about six months that I realised it was. And I was
being particularly insecure by holding back from saying what I did. Now, I say it
very happily.
Jackie: Well now Margaret is comfortable with being a housekeeper. She used
to be ‘insecure’ about it – uncertain, embarrassed, but now she is quite
happy to say what she does!