Hello and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 42, Day 1 of Your English Five a Day. With this series, we are dedicated to improving your English listening, as well as expanding your active vocabulary. We do this by deep-diving into five items of vocabulary every day of the working week. We explore, we pull it apart, and then we put it all together in a story at the end. So stick with me for the next 15 minutes or so, and let's improve our English. We start with an idiom and it is to have a few or several irons in the fire. So to have a few irons in the fire or to have several irons in the fire. This is irons, we spell it I R O N S, but we don't pronounce the R/ˈaɪənz/. In the fire, F I R E, so to have several irons in the fire. This means that you are involved with many activities or jobs at the same time. So in my line of work, I have several irons in the fire. I have many things going on. I run a podcast. I run several YouTube channels. I have an online community for English learners, which involves courses. I have a fluency programme. I do some one-to-one coaching. There are also other things that I do besides teaching. So I have several irons in the fire. This of course can lead to burnout. Interesting that we use fire for activity and burnout when we are doing too much. Do you have many irons in the fire? Here's an example of using this idiom in a sentence,"She was feeling exhausted because she had too many irons in the fire." Next on the list is a noun, and it is portfolio career, portfolio career. Portfolio, we spell this P O R T F O L I O portfolio, though when you say it fast, the T is often dropped/pɔːˈfəʊliəʊ/. Career, C A R E E R career, career. Portfolio career. A portfolio career is when you have multiple part-time jobs that you do at the same time. So you don't have one full-time job, you have many part-time jobs. And it's quite a modern thing. It's very hard actually to, especially live in London, with just one substantial full-time job that can support you. So many people living here will have a number of jobs, especially creatives like myself, we all have many irons in the fire, we'll have many smaller jobs that make up our income. Some people have a full-time job and then a small part-time job on the side. Leading to burnout, of course, in order to make ends meet, in order to be able to survive. But some people thrive off a portfolio career. What do you have? A portfolio career, or do you have a full-time job?"Lots of freelancers have portfolio careers." Moving on, we have another noun, and it is rebel, rebel. Now before you say it, because I can hear it, I can hear you thinking,"Anna, we had this word last week." That's true, but we had the verb last week. The verb and the noun are very different. They also have a different pronunciation. So last week we had the verb, which is to rebel, rebel. Now we have the noun, which is rebel, rebel. Can you guess what a rebel is? Let's first spell it. We have R E B E L rebel, rebel. So a rebel is a person who opposes or fights against an established system or the authority. And they often are showing that they are defiant, that they don't like the rules. They don't like the teacher telling them what to do. So they will oppose it in a very public way, in a very defiant way. They are rebels. I'm not a rebel. I have done a few rebellious things. So I guess you could say at times in my life I have been a teeny weeny little bit rebellious. I've been a small rebel. But generally, I'm a golden girl. Generally, I follow the rules, I do as I'm told, I'm quite compliant. Alright, here's an example sentence, The young rebel led a group of students in a protest against the unfair school policies." Next on the list is the noun freelancer. We had that a few minutes ago. Freelancer, let's spell it F R E E L A N C E R. Freelancer. Freelancer. A freelancer is a person who makes money by selling their work or services to several different organisations, rather than being employed by one particular company or organisation. For example, if I am very good at design work, I can make logos and I can create beautiful flyers and marketing materials. I don't want to work for one company, so I will just advertise myself online as a freelancer, and then different clients will come to me and say,"Can I hire you please to do a job?""Of course, you can." Someone else,"Can I hire you as well?""Of course, you can." And then several more people,"Can we hire you please?""Of course you can." That's the work of a freelancer. Here's another example,"James decided to quit his stable job and look for work as a freelancer instead." Now remember freelancers mostly have a portfolio career. So, do you work as a freelancer or have you ever worked with a freelancer within your company? Last on the list today is the phrase set a boundary, set a boundary. Set, S E T. A. Boundary, B O U N D A R Y. Boundary. To set a boundary means to put in place limits or rules in a relationship, whether that be a personal or working relationship, and these rules and limits regard what people can and can't do. So for example, we are in a working relationship and I've said,"You can relax in front of me, you don't need to feel tense around me. You can be yourself. We can have lots of informal chit-chat. That's fine. But you mustn't call me Anne or Annie or any kind of nickname. You just call me Anna. That's my boundary. Call me Anna and get the work done. Those are the rules, but otherwise, we can have a very friendly and easygoing working relationship." What boundaries do you have in place? Within your personal life and within your working life? Have you even set a boundary? Here's another example,"If you don't set boundaries for your children, they won't know what's acceptable behaviour and what's not." Okay, that's our five, so let's do a quick recap. We started with the idiom to have a few or several irons in the fire, which means you have many activities or jobs going on at the same time. Then we talked about the noun portfolio career when you have multiple part-time jobs rather than one full-time job. We discussed the noun rebel. Rebel, which is the person who opposes or fights against the system or authority. We talked about the noun freelancer, which is the person who sells their work or services to many different people or organisations. And we finished with the phrase set a boundary, which is to put limits or rules in place to say what a person can or can't do. So let's do this now for pronunciation purposes. Please repeat after me. Have several irons in the fire. Have several irons in the fire. Portfolio career. Portfolio career. Rebel. Rebel. Freelancer. Freelancer. Set a boundary. Set a boundary. Fantastic. OK, let me test your memory now. Don't worry, this is not a real test. Just for fun. What do you call it when you're involved with many activities and jobs all at the same time? You have several irons in the fire, yes. Very dangerous activity. You could end up burning out if you're not careful. But what if this is your life? You are a person who sells your work and services to many different clients. What are you? A freelancer. Absolutely. And as a freelancer, you have multiple part-time jobs that you do all at the same time. What noun could we use to describe having all these different jobs? Portfolio career. Absolutely. Now, if you want to put in place limits and rules in your working relationships with your clients, what are you doing? What's the phrase that we use? You're setting a boundary or many boundaries. But if a client opposes them, fights against them, in a very defiant way, because they just don't like being told what to do, what noun could you use to describe this defiant person? A rebel. Yes, what a rebel, not someone you want to work with. Okay, very good. Let's listen out for these items once again in today's storytime. Emma had a portfolio career, juggling multiple projects and clients. As a freelancer, she enjoyed the freedom of working from her cosy home office, wearing pyjamas if she felt like it. As her own boss, she got up when she wanted and took breaks when she wanted. Sometimes, though, she dreamed of going back to a more traditional job. One day, while sipping her coffee and scrolling through LinkedIn, she noticed a job advert. It was for a full-time job at a prestigious company, perfectly matching her skills and experience. Maybe it's time for a change, she thought, imagining a regular salary and benefits. But as she continued reading, she wasn't so sure. If she took the job, she'd have to commute to an office, wear a suit and deal with office politics. Emma felt less enthusiastic as she remembered why she had chosen to become a freelancer in the first place. She closed the job advert and looked around her comfortable home office. Sure, freelancing had its challenges unpredictable income, struggles with motivation, and the occasional difficult client. But it also offered the freedom to choose her projects, set her own schedule, and work in an environment that suited her best. Emma smiled, realising she had already made the right choice long ago. Instead of applying for the job, she decided to focus on improving her freelance career. She made a plan to set boundaries with clients no more emailing at the weekend or late-night phone calls. She also decided to diversify her portfolio even more and save money for months with fewer projects. As she began her day's work, Emma felt motivated once again. She may have several irons in the fire, but that's exactly how this rebel liked it. Well, I do hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please take a moment to leave a like, a rating or review. And don't forget to tell your friends about The English Like a Native Podcast. Until tomorrow, take very good care and goodbye.