📘 Part 3: Volunteering

This episode's vocabulary

Self-development (noun) - the process in which a person grows or changes and becomes more advanced through their own efforts.

Win-win (adj.) - a win-win situation or result is one that is good for everyone who is involved.

The latter - the second of two people, things, or groups previously mentioned.

The former - the first of two people, things, or groups previously mentioned.

To skew (verb) - to cause something to be not straight or exact; to twist or distort.

Warm, fuzzy feeling - feelings of happiness.

Trait (noun) - a particular characteristic that can produce a particular type of behaviour.

Workforce (noun) - all the people who work for a company or organization.

Committed (adj.) - having promised to be involved in a plan of action.

To vet (verb) - to study something, or to examine a person’s record to see that it is acceptable or accurate.

One-off (adj.) - happening only once.

Publicity stunt (noun) - something unusual that is done to attract people's attention to a particular person, product, or organization.

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Questions and Answers

M: Rory, let's talk about volunteering. Should more people take part in volunteering?

R: Well, is there such thing as too many volunteers? I think we could all do well, to help each other out more. I don't think it has to be anything overly formal, like working for a specific organization. But just giving our spare time to do good works where we can would be nice. And well, doing it more often would be nice.

M: Why is it necessary to do volunteer services?

R: Well, everyone benefits, don't they? The volunteer gets the self-development and maybe some sort of qualification out of it all. And the organization gets someone to work for them. And the people being supported get what they need too. So all of this is like a win-win situation.

M: What can schools do to develop students' awareness of volunteering?

R: I suppose telling them about it seems like a good first step. But that's more necessary than sufficient. They can also supply them with the tools and the opportunities to take part and demonstrate how they can contribute to their community and the well-being of others. I suppose that's easier said than done, though, now I think about it.

M: Who benefits more from the volunteer services, the volunteers, or the people who got help?

R: I imagine, probably the latter more than the former. I mean, they get direct support to achieve what they need. And the volunteer loses their free time for themselves. Unless they were getting something out of it. I don't think that's to say there's no benefit to the volunteer though. And in some cases, it might go the other way. But that's how the balance is usually skewed.

M: How do volunteers benefit?

R: Well, they get the warm, fuzzy feeling of helping others, don't they? And they can further develop as people, even if that's just a trait like patience. And it's, like I say it's possible they get some sort of qualification out of it. For example, I think doing good works as part of the Duke of Edinburgh Award in Scotland.

M: What are the benefits of having volunteer unpaid workers?

R: I suppose the most obvious seems to be not having to pay the workforce. And you know, they're committed to the cause, since that's what they chose to do with their time. Outside of that, I imagine that it's possible there's some tax breaks involved for employing volunteers, but that depends on the country.

M: Should professionals be hired instead of volunteer unpaid workers?

R: That's an interesting question, actually. And it probably depends on the field and question. If we think about the army, clearly, it would be better to have trained professionals rather than just randoms off the street. However, for less crucial jobs, especially those intended to supply people with experience, I think volunteers might be just as capable. They might even be the only choice since professional people will usually only work for a wage.

M: How can companies engage in volunteering and help society?

R: Well, the same way everyone else does. By researching opportunities that are relevant and open to them and going through the vetting process to get there. For example, I think our local McDonald's does a lot of work in community cleanup. But they got to do that by proving this would be a long-term investment in their local area rather than just a one-off publicity stunt.

M: Thank you for your answers!

R: No problem!

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Discussion

M: You did go to do some voluntary work somewhere, right? No?

R: I got into voluntary work everywhere. I think the last time was in Haiti. I went there for a working holiday.

M: Yeah, Haiti. Ah, right. Okay, so working holiday.

R: But then there were riots and 27 people died. I would point out that was not part of the plan. But it didn't exactly pan out how I thought it would. I'd still like to go back though, with fewer riots.

M: Yeah. Is that the place where you ate dog?

R: No, that was Ghana. In Haiti, it'd be just regular food.

M: Right, dear listener, so you now already know the difference between volunteering and charity. Okay? So to be a volunteer or volunteer to do something. And why is it necessary to do volunteer services? And Rory said that the volunteer gets the self-development and some sort of qualification out of it. Right? So volunteers get something out of it. So self-development. Also Rory told us about this warm, fuzzy feeling of helping others. So what does it mean a fuzzy feeling?

R: That's the collocation. Like warm fuzzy feeling is just a nice way of talking about you feel good after you do a nice thing.

M: Can you imagine you just saved a turtle? This big sea turtle? And kind of you feel great, right? Oh, you've saved the turtle. Or helping others, like helping people. Right? And it is nice, right, to help somebody. And then see how happy they are.

R: I thought you're gonna say can you imagine feeling great? How an unrealistic feeling that would be? How dare you feel great?

M: Yeah. And to be honest with you, I think many people help other people just to feel this feeling. They get kind of hooked on feeling this feeling like. Oh, I'm great. You know, I helped other people. Do you remember this episode of "Friends", when Phoebe and Joey were kind of arguing about this... Helping people and being selfish or something like that. And then Phoebe girls like, oh, oh, I just let the bee sting me. And Joe goes, yeah, yeah, well done. You but then the bee dies.

R: Oh, my God. I've never seen this, but that's really funny.

M: Oh, that's amazing. That's amazing. So the whole episode they're arguing about like, Phoebe goes like, oh, no-no, you can help people and you're not selfish. And you help people not because you're selfish, and just to feel this nice feeling that oh, I'm so nice, I'm so cool. But just you help people just because you know, and Joe said, no, never you do this. But then in the end of the episode, again, Phoebe helps Joey. And then she goes like, yeah, yeah, I helped him, I helped him. And she goes like, oh my God. No, I'm being selfish now. I'm happy because I did it. I helped Joey. So... Anyway, dear listener, go and watch this episode. Yeah, you can just Google when Phoebe says, I let the beat sting me. Not Sting like the singer, Sting. But sting like, I let the bee bite me. Yeah? The episode is about help and being selfish. So a really nice, funny episode. If you like friends. If you don't just listen to our podcast. We'll tell you.

R: Our podcast is like "Friends". It's more fun.

M: Yeah, so the volunteer, the person who volunteers gets this warm, fuzzy feeling of helping others. Or they may what? So they may get something out of it. Right? And then the people who get help obviously get direct support from a volunteer, right? And here the question was like, the volunteers or the people and Rory goes, it's probably the latter more than the former. So the former, the latter. And Rory, you should explain the difference.

R: Well, the former more than the latter just means that one more than the other. And if it's the former, then it's the first thing and then the latter is the second thing that gets mentioned. I would like to point out that that is much more common in writing than it is in speaking. But that's like, if you're aiming for a band nine, then that would be a good idea.

M: Yeah, yeah. So the former, the letter. The former is always the first, the letter is always the second. And then when we talk about companies, so what are the benefits for having unpaid workers? So we can paraphrase volunteers, unpaid workers. Well, so pretty much not having to pay for the workforce. The workforce - employees, workers. Right? And then people might be committed to the cause. So volunteers, they do it because they want to themselves, so they are committed to the cause. Cause is the thing that they are doing. So their, I don't know, work or whatever they're doing, and they are committed. So they devote their soul to this cause. Rory, could you give us another example with this nice collocation?

R: Well, I guess you could talk about soldiers being committed to a cause or campaigners for whatever, well, whatever cause. They might be campaigning for or committed to the cause. And you have commitment to a cause as well.

M: Yeah. Also, for example, teachers are committed to a cause. Like doctors.

R: You can also be committed to a mental asylum. But that's a different kind of commitment. I've just made up a new word.

M: And it's great to give examples. So the question was, should professionals be hired instead of volunteer unpaid workers? And Rory goes, for example, in the army, clearly, it would be better to have trained professionals rather than random people off the street. Right? Yeah. Or for example. Where else? But yeah, in hospitals, they have volunteer people. Right?

R: They do, yeah. I was just thinking about that as well. Like, that's just one example. You don't have to agree with it, though. Like some of the best armies in history have been volunteer armies. If you think about, well, the Vietnamese army. That was mostly volunteers.

M: Yeah. But also in hospitals, you don't have these volunteer surgeons, right, who make operations on the heart. Okay. Okay. Do you have any volunteers who would like to be a surgeon today? Yes. So, like, professional people usually perform difficult operations, rather than just people who do it for free. Right? So...

R: Are there any people like that?

M: What? Who perform operations for free? I don't think so.

R: Yeah, like random people coming in off the street to operate on you?

M: Oh, yeah. I'm just, I'm volunteering. Hey. No, it would be very strange, because for example, neurosurgeons and plastic surgery, I don't know some difficult operations on the heart. Yeah. There are no volunteers. Well, maybe they are looking for volunteers to be in the roles of patients. Oh, we have this new, you know, technology and who volunteers to have this operation? Hey. Yep. And then usually people work for a wage. So people work for a wage, or for a salary, for money.

R: Corporations might work for publicity. In particular, they might work for a publicity stunt. And that just means that they're doing something to get attention, as opposed to making an actual change. So if it's just one time, it's one-off. So a one-off publicity stunt is doing something nice. One time so that you get attention. It's not good. Please don't do it, corporations. Actually make a change in your community.

M: Yeah, that's a nice one. Yeah. A one-off publicity stunt. Kind of, oh, yeah. We're kind of helping the society. But actually, it's a publicity stunt. Stunt like when James Bond jumps out of a helicopter and then jumps into a train. And he's fine. So that's a stunt. Thank you very much for listening, dear listener! Hugs and kisses!

R: Bye!

M: Bye!

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