Learn how to describe your job simply
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Sydney: Describing Your Profession in French. Sydney Here. |
| Laurent: Bonjour, I'm Laurent. |
| Sydney: In this lesson, you’ll learn about describing a job. The conversation takes place at a canteen. |
| Laurent: It's between Thomas and Naïma. |
| Sydney: The speakers are co-workers, therefore, they will speak both formal and informal French. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Thomas: Bonjour, cela vous dérange si je m'assois ici ? |
| Naïma: Mais bien sûr ! Aucun souci. Tu es nouveau il me semble ? |
| Thomas: Merci, c'est très gentil. Effectivement, je viens d'arriver. Je suis le nouveau stagiaire de Laurène, dans le service après vente. |
| Naïma: Très bien ! Je m'appelle Naïma et je suis responsable du service informatique. |
| Thomas: Intéressant ! En quoi consiste votre travail au quotidien ? |
| Naïma: Je dois m'occuper de 50 employés du service informatique. |
| Thomas: Grosse responsabilité ! Vous aimez donc l'informatique. |
| Naïma: Oh oui ! Je suis une geek dans l'âme ! |
| Sydney: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Thomas: Bonjour, cela vous dérange si je m'assois ici ? |
| Naïma: Mais bien sûr ! Aucun souci. Tu es nouveau il me semble ? |
| Thomas: Merci, c'est très gentil. Effectivement, je viens d'arriver. Je suis le nouveau stagiaire de Laurène, dans le service après vente. |
| Naïma: Très bien ! Je m'appelle Naïma et je suis responsable du service informatique. |
| Thomas: Intéressant ! En quoi consiste votre travail au quotidien ? |
| Naïma: Je dois m'occuper de 50 employés du service informatique. |
| Thomas: Grosse responsabilité ! Vous aimez donc l'informatique. |
| Naïma: Oh oui ! Je suis une geek dans l'âme ! |
| Sydney: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Thomas: Hello, do you mind if I sit here? |
| Naïma: Sure! No problem. You are new, it seems to me? |
| Thomas: Thank you, it's very kind of you. Indeed, I just came here. I'm Laurène's new trainee, after-sales service. |
| Naïma: Good! My name is Naïma and I'm in charge of the IT department. |
| Thomas: Interesting! What is your daily job? |
| Naïma: I have to take care of 50 employees from the IT department. |
| Thomas: It's a big responsibility! So you must like IT. |
| Naïma: Totally! I'm a computer nerd! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Sydney: Laurent, what is the school system like in France? |
| Laurent: School education is mandatory for children between six and sixteen. |
| Sydney: How are the different schools divided? |
| Laurent: There is école élementaire, "elementary education", and the first four years of secondary education is collège. |
| Sydney: What happens after those first four years of secondary education? |
| Laurent: There is more secondary education, enseignement secondaire, and enseignement supérieur. |
| Sydney: "Higher education." What type of education do you need in order to get a job? |
| Laurent: It depends on the job. There is university, private schools, and professional schools. |
| Sydney: The private schools and professional schools are more career-oriented. |
| Laurent: The main advantage of French universities are that they are cheaper than those schools. |
| Sydney: How much does it cost? |
| Laurent: University is about 500 euros a year, and private schools are 5,000 euros. |
| Sydney: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Sydney: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Laurent: souci [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: "problem" |
| Laurent: souci [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laurent: souci [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: Next we have... |
| Laurent: consister [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: "to comprise" |
| Laurent: consister [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laurent: consister [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: Next we have... |
| Laurent: quotidien [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: "daily" |
| Laurent: quotidien [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laurent: quotidien [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: Next we have... |
| Laurent: service [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: "department" |
| Laurent: service [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laurent: service [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: Next we have... |
| Laurent: intéressant [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: "interesting (at a good price), raise interest" |
| Laurent: intéressant [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laurent: intéressant [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: Next we have... |
| Laurent: responsabilité [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: "responsibility" |
| Laurent: responsabilité [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laurent: responsabilité [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: Next we have... |
| Laurent: informatique [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: "IT" |
| Laurent: informatique [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laurent: informatique [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: And last... |
| Laurent: geek [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: "nerd" |
| Laurent: geek [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laurent: geek [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Sydney: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Laurent: Est-ce que cela vous dérange ? |
| Sydney: meaning "Does it bother you?" Let’s take a closer look at this phrase. |
| Laurent: Est-ce que is an expression. |
| Sydney: It’s a convenient way to begin an informal question in French. It changes every sentence into a question. |
| Laurent: Also, in the example sentence, dérange comes from the verb déranger. |
| Sydney: That verb means "to bother." |
| Laurent: Also, cela means "this," and vous means "you." |
| Sydney: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Laurent: Sure. For example, you can say... Est-ce que cela vous dérange si j'emprunte cette chaise ? |
| Sydney: ...which means "Do you mind if I borrow this chair?" |
| Sydney: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Laurent: effectivement |
| Sydney: meaning "indeed." This is an adverb. |
| Laurent: It can also mean "actually" or "effectively." |
| Sydney: When in a sentence would we use it? |
| Laurent: Either at the beginning of a sentence, or after a verb. |
| Sydney: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Laurent: Sure. For example, you can say... Effectivement, il fait beau aujourd'hui. |
| Sydney: ... which means "Indeed, the weather is nice today." |
| Sydney: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Sydney: In this lesson, you'll learn about describing a job. Sometimes, there might not be a single word that can describe your position. |
| Laurent: Or if there is, the person you’re talking to might not fully understand what it is. |
| Sydney: They might ask you for more information. |
| Laurent: Yes, an example is En quoi consiste votre travail ? |
| Sydney: "What is your job exactly?" Let’s hear some examples of how to answer this. |
| Laurent: Je suis assistant, dans l’administratif. |
| Sydney: "I’m an administrative assistant." |
| Laurent: Je suis responsable d’un salon de coiffure. |
| Sydney: "I’m in charge of a hairdressing salon." |
| Laurent: Je dois prendre des rendez-vous pour les patients. |
| Sydney: "I have to make appointments for patients." |
| Laurent: Mon travail consiste en ... |
| Sydney: "My job involves…" |
| Laurent: Mon projet de travail est de... |
| Sydney: "My work plan is..." If somebody does tell you something that you’re not sure of, you might have to ask for clarification. |
| Laurent: An easy phrase to remember is ...il me semble ? |
| Sydney: This means "...it seems to me?" |
| Laurent: You use this phrase to confirm what you think. |
| Sydney: It goes at the end of the sentence. Let’s hear some examples. |
| Laurent: La réunion est à 11 heures il me semble? |
| Sydney: "The meeting is at 11PM, it seems to me?" |
| Laurent: Tu es nouveau il me semble ? |
| Sydney: "You are new, it seems to me?" |
| Laurent: You can also use c’est bien cela ? |
| Sydney: "That’s right…?" or "...isn’t it?" |
| Laurent: La réunion est à 11 heures, c’est bien cela ? |
| Sydney: "The meeting is at 11PM, isn’t it?" |
Outro |
| Sydney: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Laurent: A la prochaine! |
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