Học Tiếng Anh qua bài báo 07

Compulsory work experience? It never works out

Keir Starmer wants all schoolchildren to do a two-week stint, preferably with a law firm, but they should learn to be TikTok physios or butlers to robots.

When I was 17 I coveted work experience at the NME more than any other placement. This was early 2005, when the Libertines were responsible for the dominant north London teenage aesthetic. Schoolboys unironically wore crimson Victorian soldiers’ tunics to house parties. We didn’t know any better. For a would-be hack, there was only one magazine worth pursuing. I confidently applied for my slot, assuming I’d be invited in the following Monday, leaving me a decent window to revise for my A-levels after doing smack at Pete Doherty’s flat. They offered me a fortnight’s work experience … in March 2007.

Two years is a long time when you’re 17 and even longer for indie bands. By the time my turn came around, I had practically forgotten about the NME. So had everyone else. The lustre had come off the “scene”. I went along nonetheless, turning up to their tower in Blackfriars wearing a grey accountant’s suit, an undergraduate dressed as a middle-aged man in an office full of the opposite. One evening I was offered 24 cans of Carling to stay late and transcribe an interview with Keith Richards. The next morning I was asked if there were any “news lines”. Not really, I said. Just the usual Keith Richards stuff. A few days later I saw some of the words I’d typed up on the front page of the Sun under the headline: KEITH: I SNORTED MY DAD.

There’s no telling what people will think is interesting. Work experience is meant to give you a flavour of the career, but in some cases it should really be a warning that perhaps it’s not the gig for you. Forget levelling up, how about levelling down? I was reminded of this happy period in my life by Sir Keir Starmer, who used his conference speech to announce he would make two weeks’ work experience compulsory for schoolchildren.

If elected, Labour would “focus on practical life skills,” Starmer said. “We will guarantee that every young person gets to see a careers adviser… We need to ensure that every child emerges from school ready for work.” The Tories have yet to respond, but I imagine they might be wary of work experience after the experiment with Matt Hancock got so badly out of hand.

Besides, Starmer was less clear about what jobs these might be. Like much of Starmer’s vision, his idea of work experience harks back to the 90s and 00s, when it was vital for middle-class parents to secure their little darlings some kind of edge in meaningless office work. If you are working for free, it’s because there’s some other value to the labour: in the case of the NME, “cultural capital”, if that’s the right way to describe waiting two years to write a 60-word review of a Cajun Dance Party single. The idea that the experience was relevant was always an illusion. Industries where they really valued their staff, or where it was important people knew what they were doing, paid their apprentices. For everyone else it was a system of patronage and favour exchange, a line for the CV.

Children today need a different kind of preparation. When I look at my 18-month-old daughter, I don’t imagine being able to wangle her a fortnight with a high street bank or solicitors’ office. In Britain in 15 years, those kinds of jobs will be long gone. As the nation fades from the world stage, the meaningless office work we have treasured for so many decades will be replaced by the kinds of labour the world really demands. But will work experience really be important for her life as a petrol station security guard, bitcoin miner, shitposter, Amazon drone oiler, Wetherspoons hostess, NFT polisher, billionaire blood donor, rapid antigen tester, social credit auditor, butler to robots, TikTok physio, seawater damage consultant or cancel culture enforcer? These are essential tasks. The workforce will be remunerated during their training.

On the other hand, these internships can be valuable in other ways. A couple of years into my first newspaper job I offered a new graduate work experience. Now she’s my wife. What began as a minor abuse of power ended in a wedding. Perhaps Keir’s right. Everyone ought to do work experience. It might not help you in your career, but you never know where else it might lead. And while transcription might have been automated, you still need a keen nose for a story to spot the top line in a Keith Richards interview.

CÁCH ĐỌC HIỂU MỘT BÀI BÁO BẰNG TIẾNG ANH

Gợi ý cho các em:

Bước 1: Xem thì ở trong câu văn người ta sử dụng là thì gì? Là thì hiện tại đơn? hiện tại hoàn thành,…….? => để chúng ta hiểu được ngữ cảnh.

Bước 2: Tìm ra các từ mới, cụm từ mới,…. mà chúng ta chưa biết => sau đó các em viết chúng xuống.

Bước 3: Tra từ mới đó để biết nghĩa và phát âm của các từ, cụm từ,…..mà các em vừa mới có (các em nên sử dụng từ điển Oxford, Longman hoặc Cambridge).

Bước 4: Tập đặt câu và sử dụng chúng cho các ngữ cảnh thực dụng của các em.

Ứng dụng của bài báo:

Compulsory work experience? It never works out

Bước 1: Câu trên là thì hiện tại đơn

Bước 2: Các từ và cụm từ là:

• Compulsory work experience (cụm danh từ): kinh nghiệm làm việc bắt buộc
• To work out (cụm động từ): để giải quyết

Tạm dịch câu như sau:

Kinh nghiệm làm việc bắt buộc? điều đó không bao giờ giải quyết được.

Câu tiếp theo:

Keir Starmer wants all schoolchildren to do a two-week stint, preferably with a law firm, but they should learn to be TikTok physios or butlers to robots.

Bước 1: Câu trên là thì hiện tại đơn và là câu phức hợp

Bước 2: Các từ và cụm từ là:

• To want (v): muốn
• Schoolchildren (v): học sinh học ở trường
• a two-week stint (cụm danh từ): hoạt động hai tuần
• preferably (adv): ở một cách đáng chú ý
• a law firm (cụm danh từ): một công ty luật
• to learn (v): học
• TikTok physio (cụm danh từ): nhà vật lý TikTok
• TikTok butler (cụm danh từ): nhà quản gia TikTok
• Robot (n): rô bốt

Tạm dịch câu như sau:

Keir Starmer muốn tất cả học sinh tham gia tại trường làm hoạt động trong 2 tuần, đáng chú ý với một công ty luật, nhưng chúng nên học để là các nhà vật lý Tiktok hoặc các quản gia TikTok tới các nhà rô bốt.

Các câu tiếp theo tương tự nhé các em.

Nguồn bài báo: The Guardian