Dialogue about Southeast Asia in English with Quiz

Advance Listening Series 3 Lesson 12- Dialogue about Southeast Asia in English

In this lesson, you listen to an English conversation between two people’ dialogue about Southeast Asia.

Previous Listening Lesson
TBD

English Listening Lesson Audio with Script

Lesson Audio

Coming soon…

Lesson Script

Jim: So now Dan you live in Bali, Indonesia, which is a very beautiful place and you do a lot of business in Southeast Asia. Why do you think Southeast Asia is a good place to do business?

Dan: Well, one of the primary reasons is the lifestyle. If you are generating a reasonable income on western standards, you can—what we do is, you know, perform some global arbitrage. You can take that western level salary and move it to a developing area of the world like here in Southeast Asia, and your purchasing power is much greater.

So if you’re selling products in a higher valued economy like Germany and you’re living in Vietnam, you’re going to be able to experience a much higher lifestyle. And we call that concept arbitrage. You know, currency markets and stock traders have used that kind of concept all the time because they’re dealing with very liquid assets. In our case, you know, our locations weren’t always so liquid. It wasn’t always so easy to change your location. Now with internet style business, it’s getting easier.

So primarily, the lifestyle, I found that that’s a great tool for recruiting because staff, they want to have a great lifestyle too. So if you can set up an office in a place like Bali, Indonesia, it’s like paradise on earth. It’s so beautiful here, people want to join you, and so it’s great for recruiting as well.

Jim: Do you find it’s harder to get work done in a beautiful place. I mean, Bali is basically paradise. Can you still follow the nine-to-five work grind and get things done?

Dan: I find that I get more work done in Bali because the cost of living here is lower on all fronts. Not only is food cheaper, rent cheaper, but it’s easier to get people to help you out to do things. For example, in United States, I can’t afford to pay somebody to do my laundry. It’s too expensive. But here in Bali, I have somebody do my laundry and that saves me two hours a week.

Simple things like that start to add up. It’s a very relaxed and healthy place that helps me focus on work. I have a lot of friends that live in New York city for example and they spend so much time traveling on the train, making money to afford living there, and I see that as a much more stressful, difficult environment to really be productive and creative. Here in Bali, I have no problems focusing on my work.

Jim: So what kind of work schedule do you follow, like do you work every day? Do you work like eight hours straight? Do you work at night? Because you’re dealing with different time zones with people all around the world. You said your market is mainly in the States. Could you talk a little bit about your work routine?

Dan: Sure. It’s actually defined by what I feel like my biorhythms are. To use a really colloquial phrase, car guys in United States use a term called torque band. And that’s when your engine is the strongest—at what time your engine the strongest? And for me that’s 7:00 to 11:00 in the morning, and 7:00 to 11:00 in the evening, and right now it’s sort of 2:33 PM. This is generally a time that I would relax. I would close my computer. I would get in the pool. I’d meet with some friends, maybe take a walk, listen to some podcasts, and relax until dinner time. After dinner time have a coffee and continue working.

So, it’s primarily for me, that just seems to be when I’m most creative and I have no idea why.

Jim: It sounds like a nice life.

English Listening Lesson Quizzes

Answer these questions about the conversation.

1) He likes having more _____ .

1. a) job opportunities
2. b) purchasing power
3. c) access to tech

2) He mentions a country in _____ .

1. a) Europe
2. b) South America
3. c) Asia

3) Working in Bali makes it easy to _____ .

1. a) find people
2. b) lure people
3. c) train people

4) He pays someone to _____ .

1. a) cook for him
2. b) clean his house
3. c) wash his clothes

5) He does not like to work _____ .

1. a) in the morning
2. b) in the afternoon
3. c) in the evening

Answers

• 1=b
• 2=a,c
• 3=b
• 4=c
• 5=b

English Grammar Tips

Coming soon….

English Listening Lesson Phrases

generate

You are generating a reasonable income

To generate means to make or create. Notice the following:

1. We need to generate more revenue.
2. I am not generating enough income to survive.

purchasing power

Your purchasing power is much greater.

Purchasing power is the ability to buy things. Notice the following:

1. Purchasing power is often lower in big cities.
2. When purchasing power is low, inflation is high.

arbitrage

And we call that concept arbitrage.

Arbitrage is buying something you can easily sell at a higher value. Notice the following:

1. He makes a living in currency arbitrage.
2. In arbitrage, one person is always the loser.

liquid assets

They’re dealing with very liquid assets.

A liquid asset is an investment (cash, house, stocks) that you can sell easily. Notice the following:

1. Stocks are good liquid assets.
2. House are liquid assets in a good market.

grind

Can you still follow the 9-5 work grind?

A grind is a difficult schedule or routine. Notice the following:

1. My new job is a grind.
2. Working in a big city is a grind.

all fronts

The cost of living here is lower on all fronts.

Here all fronts means all areas. Notice the following:

1. We are losing money on all fronts.
2. We need to do better on all fronts.

Quizzes for Lesson Phrases

• generate
• purchasing
• arbitrage
• liquid
• grind
• fronts

1. He works in currency……….  .
2. Cash is the most……….  asset.
3. Her work can be a………..  at times.
4. We now have better……….  power.
5. We are trying to improve on all………  .
6. We hope to………….  more sales with this ad.

Next Listening Lesson
TBD

Related Listening Lessons

TBD

All Lessons for Learning English Listening

Visit our Improve English Listening Skills page to see all of HiCafe 300+ lessons for learning and improving your English listening skills.