I have been hired to do some kind of work that I know nothing about.  I am sitting at some kind of work table like a picnic table, with another employee who is teaching me, when a vehicle like a mail truck drives up, and an Asian guy starts asking me questions about what I am doing.  He is apparently an inspector of some kind, and I am embarrassed that I don't know what to tell him, afraid that I will get fired.  There are a couple of instruments on the table; one is about the size of a pocket calculator, reddish in color, in a kind of slide case; the other is a ruler.  He asked me what they are used for.  I have no idea about the first one; I tell him it is to measure the incline of two people as they lean toward each other in conversation.  I hope he doesn't ask me to demonstrate, but he seems satisfied by my explanation.  I tell him the other is to measure the distance between the two interlocutors.  It seems a pretty simple explanation, but he seems satisfied with that too.