📙 Part 2: Describe a time when you worked with other people in a group

This episode's vocabulary

Frankly (adverb) - in an honest and direct way.

Decidedly (adverb) - certainly and obviously.

Silt (noun) - sand or soil that is carried along by flowing water and then dropped, especially at a bend in a river or at a river's opening.

Close-knit - if a group of people are close-knit, they all help and support each other.

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Questions and Answers

M: Rory, darling, are you all ready?

R: Mm hmm.

M: He was born ready. OK, tell us your story.

R: Well, I'm not a great fan of teamwork, frankly, but one time when it was particularly important was when I worked in Fiji on this Marine research project. It was based on a small island, I think it was in the south of the archipelago, when I went there in 2010. I think they've actually moved to a different place now. Regardless, we were essentially counting fish as part of the project, and that sounds decidedly less romantic, but that's life. And in order to be able to do that, we had to learn how to navigate underwater together. And we did this using maps for underwater orienteering courses and on live dives, which were supervised by, well, trained diving instructors. We didn't get to do that by ourselves. And we were reasonably successful in terms of the live and open dives because, like I said, there was always an expert there to help out. But the more independent orienteering courses were way more difficult. We would frequently wind up, of course, due to things like adverse weather conditions or too much silt in the water. And then when you're underwater, your sense of direction kind of goes as well. So that's not very helpful. So while we weren't the best at navigating, we did make some progress and I liked most of the people I was with. We made quite a close-knit group at the end of the day and no wonder our lives depended on each other. If no one had been able to do their job properly, then things could have gone horribly wrong. So I think this sort of, even though I'm not the biggest fan of teamwork, like I said, it does sort of highlight how teamwork can be useful in certain situations. Especially when you have to not just take your life into your own hands, but when other people have their lives and yours and you have yours and theirs.

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