词汇大师-- English Teaching Is Music

AA: I'm Avi Arditti and this week on WORDMASTER: we meet a newly trained English language teacher from Los Angeles. Curt¹ Burich [BYUR-ick] was at the recent Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages convention in Boston to interview for jobs. But he also came by the VOA booth.

　　CURT BURICH: "Right now I am looking for a job as an English professor. I've just completed my master's in TESOL. It's a second career for me. I'm segueing out of the entertainment industry and into teaching."
AA: "Now, you have a very interesting story that you were starting to tell me. Tell me a little bit about how you ended up in English teaching."
CURT BURICH: "Well, I started out in the recording² industry. And as you know, from iTunes and from distribution, physical records are not selling, so therefore they don't need people to promote them. And the retail³ channels have changed, i.e. the death of the American record store -- we no longer have Tower Records. So jobs are on a decline, and you can read about that in the Wall Street Journal."
AA: "What did you do in the record industry?"
CURT BURICH: "I started out as an assistant and worked myself up to a publicist where I was speaking with print medium about covering our recording artists, also trying to procure⁴ exposure on television."
AA: "OK, so who were some of the recording stars you promoted."
CURT BURICH: "When I was there, we were working with Nelly Furtado, Rufus Wainwright, Lifehouse, people who are contemporary, yes."
AA: "Then what did you do?"
CURT BURICH: "Well, I actually segued over to television before the industry sort of collapsed⁵ and was able to get work in music specials on television. It was very similar to the work that I had been doing. From there, though, with reality television coming up, I was getting a lot of projects that were ... reality television projects. And at one point I decided⁶ that teaching was really my calling.
"The reason that I went into teaching is because teaching is not an entertainment trend. It's a longstanding profession, and I wanted something a little bit more secure that allowed me to travel and have interaction with students, people learning English."
AA: "And you got your master's where?"
CURT BURICH: "California State University, Sacramento."
AA: "And where do you hope to teach?"
CURT BURICH: "I'm looking at a variety of different places. I spent some time studying in Turkey, and that is an interest. Eastern Europe is also a fascinating place that I've traveled extensively and could see myself ending up."
AA: "What is the job market like right now for Americans with similar interests in English teaching -- what are you finding?"
CURT BURICH: "I really believe that it's still a very healthy economy, I was able to get ten interviews here over the course of two days. So it was well worth the money that I spent flying myself from California all the way out to Boston."
AA: "So these ten interviews you had, who were the employers -- just in general, who were the employers, what kind of employers were doing the interviews?"
CURT BURICH: "International universities. Large universities. I just finished an interview with a new university in Saudi Arabia, forty thousand students. I would work in the English training program there."
AA: "Speaking of the economy, are you running into people here who maybe because they lost their jobs or they're looking for a new line of work -- is there more competition from other people who came from other careers to teach English for some of these jobs out there?
CURT BURICH: "I don't have statistics on that, but I can tell you that the people here who are working and interviewing are a variety of ages. Also, in my graduating class -- I just completed my master's December -- I'm thirty-nine years old and I was the second youngest graduate. So, yeah, I think it's a career that you can consider at any age, certainly."
AA: Curt Burich lives in Los Angeles. He was interviewing for jobs last month at the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages convention in Boston. And that's WORDMASTER for this week. You can find transcripts⁷ and MP3s of all our segments at voanews.com/wordmaster. You can also follow us by podcast and on Twitter and Facebook. Look us up at VOA Learning English, and share your own experiences as a teacher or a learner. I'm Avi Arditti.

1 curt   

adj.简短的，草率的

参考例句：

• He gave me an extremely curt answer.他对我作了极为草率的答复。
• He rapped out a series of curt commands.他大声发出了一连串简短的命令。

2 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

3 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

4 procure   

vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条

参考例句：

• Can you procure some specimens for me?你能替我弄到一些标本吗？
• I'll try my best to procure you that original French novel.我将尽全力给你搞到那本原版法国小说。

5 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句