WHAT DO YOU DO FOR A LIVING? - English Addict - episode 262 \ LIVE CHAT - 1st Oct 2023

Mm. We are back, everyone...

I hope you've had a good weekend.

And I hope you are dry because we are not dry here.

It's been raining all day, but

has it made me unhappy or gloomy?

No, it hasn't. Because we are back together once more.

English addict is back and yes,

yes, we are back in the studio as well. Now,

it's so good to be back.

We are back with you again.

Isn't it nice?

And yes, we are in the studio.

It's been a while since we've actually done anything from in here.

We have been doing our live streams from outside.

But as I just mentioned, the weather is terrible today.

It's a horrible day to be on it.

Like to be outside today, Mr. Duncan.

Well, though, it's not that cold,

but still wouldn't like to be outside

with my feet in soggy, wet grass.

No, not very. Mr.

Duncan. Hello. Welcome. Hi. From me.

That's Mr. Steve.

It is.

It says on the screen, apparently.

And under here it says Mr.

Duncan. And I am assuming that must be me.

How are you today? Are you okay?

I hope so.

Are you happy?

I hope you are feeling happy today.

We have a new month as well.

October has arrived.

I have to be honest with you.

I know I've said this before, Steve, but I hate

September for many reasons.

I don't know why I always find it one of the worst months of the year.

That month, and also February as well.

I don't know why I don't like those months. February.

I don't like it.

Well, it's my birthday in February, so I don't mind February, but the weather is normally

very bad here in the UK.

Already we are talking about the weather because that's all we ever talk about in the UK.

Well, that's one of the first things you ever talk about when you meet somebody is the weather.

If you want to know how to get on with anybody in the UK when you meet them, ask them, How are you?

Oh, isn't the weather bad or isn't the weather good?

Or something about the weather?

Although I think we'd soon be onside.

I think we do have a good excuse for talking about the weather because it is awful.

And yesterday did you see my live stream?

Yesterday it was literally a stream because there was so much rain falling.

I went over to Shrewsbury yesterday because they were holding

the first ever pride event

and it was a big thing.

The only problem

was that it was raining

all the time and I did a live stream.

Fortunately, the rain eased off

as I started my live stream, but everyone had gone.

Most people had cleared off.

They all went back home because they didn't want to get wet.

So I had to stand there like an idiot in the rain

waiting for 2:00 to arrive and then.

But fortunately the rain did ease off.

But everyone had gone, so there weren't many people around.

However, there was also a procession as well that took place through the town.

So this is what happens quite often.

Places like Manchester, they have their pride event.

Brighton.

Brighton is a big one.

Birmingham, I suppose London must have one as well.

They must show. They certainly do, yes.

It's the biggest.

About about 2 million people descend on London during London Pride, the big Pride event.

So yesterday Shrewsbury had theirs.

Here is here is a quick shot.

So this is what was happening yesterday as people were going through the streets.

It's like Mr. Duncan Wild.

Nobody is going into nationwide building society now

to get a new mortgage, although many of the shops have their lovely rainbows on the front.

And you can see lots of people using their umbrellas and they were really using them.

This was just as the rain was starting.

So the march took place.

He's in a hurry.

He's got green hair.

That lad there on the front or is that girl.

I'm not sure I've got to be careful.

These people, it doesn't take very long for Steve to start saying the wrong things.

Well, will neither, of course, you know.

Okay, binary.

Okay, Steve, that's great.

Anyway, let's talk about what's on the screen.

So there's people marching.

Lots of different organisations

and groups were there yesterday and I was there as well.

But unfortunately, as I said, because the rain fell

and it did come down quite heavily,

sadly a lot of the people disappeared.

They went home.

So some

very interesting images that I'm showing you at the moment.

I know I know what you're going to say.

I even received a little bit of abuse, abuse, abuse.

Someone shouted and swore at me as I was doing my live stream.

You can actually hear it, he says a very rude word.

So safe to say he was not in favour of the pride march.

He did not want the Pride March to take place.

He said something rather derogatory.

It was a good word to teach you a bit of English.

A derogatory term.

Yes. Derogatory just means it's nice putting you down.

It's abusing you in some way to deride something.

If you deride or if you speak in a derogatory way,

you say something harsh or horrible or nasty to someone.

Here's another shot.

So this is where the entertainment took place.

And you can see there's a lot of people there.

However, when the rain started, most of them went, they disappeared.

Look at that awful building on the left, that awful drab 1960s building there.

Yeah, it's that

there's lots of nice old America.

There's some nice old buildings in Shrewsbury because it's an old town.

But then you have those ghastly 1960s buildings

also, which are presumably the shops.

Yes, there is controversy, isn't there, Or certainly debate on

how you pronounce the town of Shrewsbury.

Is that some. Yes. Who's debating this?

It's locals.

Oh, I see.

So you can either say or either say

Shrewsbury or Shrewsbury

and I've never worked out, which one because it's s h e w

so some people pronounce it Shrewsbury

and some people pronounce it Shrewsbury. Yes.

And apparently I've never worked out, which is the correct one,

because even the people in Shrewsbury or Shrewsbury,

depending on which part of the town you come from,

they will pronounce it one of two those two different ways.

And one is some locals will adamantly

say it is Shrewsbury and others will say No, it's Shrewsbury.

Yeah.

So we don't know which is true.

Probably both of them are correct.

But when you think about what's happening in the world at the moment, it doesn't seem that important really,

does it?

When you think about it?

But people do argue over these things, don't they?

Steve The pronunciation of certain words or names

and of course they squeak somebody

chopped down a very famous tree.

I don't know if you've seen this, the the Hadrian's Wall,

which which is an old battlement wall

which used to divide England from Scotland.

But along there there is a beautiful tree.

I think it's a sycamore tree or it was I mean, now it's it's

just a sycamore stump, but somebody chopped it down in the middle of the night.

And apparently it's appeared in lots and lots of photographs and movies, including,

I think it was Robin Hood way back in 1991.

And this particular tree has become very famous.

But now it is no more.

It has been cut down.

It has been felled.

Yes, some some have.

They got the person that did it?

Well, they've they've detained two people.

They've let one of them go.

So one was a young boy and the other one an older man.

But I don't I don't think any charges have been made at the moment.

I still think that they're being questioned or at least one of them

is being questioned to find out

if he was the guy who was waving his chopper

around and slicing down historic trees.

Were people waving choppers around in Shrewsbury yesterday, Mr.

Duncan waving their choppers around.

Euphemism for I won't say what it is, you can guess, Olga says.

Are all the people taking part Homosexual?

We tend to use the word gay these days.

No, you?

Well, you can't use the other one.

It's so we can do, but it's not really.

It's a bit scientia. It's a yeah, it's almost,

almost seen as not abusive but a bit.

Well you wouldn't say to somebody are you homosexual?

You would say, Are you gay?

You can say it.

I think it's more about how you say it.

Oh, he's a homosexual or are you a homosexual?

Yes. So use Sometimes the intonation can make the word seem worse.

The BBC, for example, always use that horrible pronunciation.

I don't know why, but they do. Yeah.

So that word is is is

probably not used, certainly not in this country.

To answer your question, some of them some of the people there

yesterday were I should think most of them were white.

Oh, no. Well, no. Well, I see what I'm about to say.

But of course, there are various groups now that have joined together.

So that's why we have I'm still confused by this, Steve.

We have the l, g, B, t, Q,

and there's a few more as well.

So I don't really normally

go to those sorts of events, to be honest, but I thought I'd go there. Yes.

Yeah, I thought I'd go there and see, see what was going on.

And it was it was interesting. It was good fun.

It looked tame compared to when we say something looks tame,

you say it is very insubstantial

compared to the big events that I've been to in Birmingham or Brighton.

But then it was their first go round

just to just to answer Olga's comment. Yes.

So I would imagine most people in the march would have been gay

and there would have been family members supporting them.

It was straight, but yeah, it would be a mixture of, I would say mostly actually the word.

The word I hate is straight.

That's the worst one, because if you say straight, it means that that thing is right.

And the opposite to that, of course, is bent, which of course nobody uses anymore

unless it's used a derogatory term, unless it's used in an offensive way.

So yeah, I always, even straight to me

is not not a good word anyway, by my satnav, Mr.

Duncan. Okay. My satnav.

When I put my satnav on my car and it keeps telling me to go straight.

Yeah.

As a direction down the road.

Go straight.

Continue to go straight.

You know I've been trying for years. It's never worked. No.

I mean, you know, a satnav is trying to get me to go straight.

I mean, you know, it's a joke. It's a joke. Yes.

I think we get that, Steve. We get it. It's a joke.

We don't actually think your satnav was doing any conversions, Mary.

Oh, can I just finish my sentence?

Go on. Yes, I'm still talking.

What's

Steve.

Your finish then. Right.

Okay.

In Lithuania says tell me when they have pride events, there are riots in the streets.

Well I presume that there are these are people

that are not in favour or do not approve.

Now surely people you mean there are people who don't like homosexuals saying that?

Mr. Duncan I believe people.

Can you believe they were people that don't like it?

Why? Why?

Why would you not like that?

Well, you know, anyway, we weren't going to that.

But yeah, you had a good time.

I didn't go because I was seeing some friends in Birmingham.

I didn't have a good time, by the way, because I got soaking wet.

Soaking?

Did you really get soaking wet?

I did get slightly down, yeah.

You weren't there. So. So just take what I'm saying.

When you came back last night, you told me you've got a bit wet.

I got soaked, so literally.

So, yeah, my, my, my.

The clothes I was wearing were wet through.

So. Yes, because I had to walk around in the rain for a long time.

It's strange how

Steve is wondering whether or not I'm telling the truth about getting wet,

but I did and I got soaking wet.

It was throwing it down with rain. It's.

Oh, you can use that.

Word is not.

You don't have to apologise, is it.

Because obviously that's the technical term. Okay.

But yeah. Yeah.

Anyway we've expected to be medium.

Yeah.

It's more, it's more about the way you say it.

You see it's very strange and I know I've mentioned this before,

when we talk about English intonation

can be very important.

When you are, you are showing how you feel about something,

so you can even say something positive.

But it can come across negatively because you want it to.

For example, maybe you get some news that you're not happy about,

but the other person is happy about it, but you don't feel happy.

So you might say, Oh, right now,

oh great is a positive sentence,

but your intonation has changed the meaning.

So it is possible to to make something

sound bad or maybe show your disagreement.

Oh, by the way, you say something and it's a very subtle thing

that happens quite often and in English I'm sure it does in other languages as well.

Yes. Beatrice? Yes.

That tree that was literally that was vandalism.

Whoever cut that tree down is a vandal and they should be punished accordingly.

I think you should go to prison for life for that, that sort of thing,

because that was an iconic tree and many people were upset.

People were crying.

Yeah.

Bye bye bye the tree and they were putting flowers down and lots of things.

The irony, by the way, was the fact that people were laying

flowers, that they chopped.

So they were chopping up flowers,

they were chopping flowers and then taking them to the tree because they were sad

about the tree being chopped down, but they had just chopped some flowers.

So there was a little bit of irony there.

Sycamore, by the way, sycamore tree.

I don't know what type of tree that is, but it is apparently a beautiful tree,

but not, you know, a sycamore tree.

But now it is a stump.

It has the seeds of flutter down like that.

Oh, you like little helicopters?

The helicopters?

Yes, the helicopter tree.

See, that's what I know.

The sycamore as I don't know.

It is the sycamore tree.

I know it is the the helicopter tree.

Well, there's little helicopters come flying down. Yes.

But apparently they're on the case, finding out the person who chopped that tree down.

Apparently they've called in Special Branch. Oh,

Mr. Duncan.

And they are going to get to the root of that crime.

Special Branch is I don't know if it still exists,

but they will they will leave police force.

They will leave no clue unturned until either

I bet the person they catch will soil themselves.

Well, thank God to do trees that their roots are in the soil.

Okay.

And soil is you know so as I yeah,

they've already arrested one person but they let him go.

I think they were barking up the wrong tree.

Very good.

This is this is the the great entertainment you get every Sunday.

Now, I could be lying in bed now dreaming of nice things, but instead I'm here, you see.

Well, let's hope the police get to the root of the problem.

I just said that this year. I literally made that joke.

I glad to see that Mr.

Steve is concentrating as much on what I'm saying.

As usual. Very nice. Yes.

Oh, by the way, I suppose we should talk about the thing we are talking about today.

So I'm going to tell you now what we're talking about today.

We're looking at something I think we've looked at in the past

occupations Now, I don't mean

I don't mean when one country is taken over

by another group of people, not that type of occupation.

It's a different one that the thing you do your job.

So today we're looking at jobs, occupation goods, things that we have to do.

We have no choice.

When you think about it, one of the first lessons you learn in life as you get older

certainly when you are a teenager,

you suddenly you realise you want things,

you want computers and iPads

and the latest roller skates and the hula hoop.

Hula hoops are very expensive.

Who who's who's lusting after hula hoops?

They don't grow on trees, but the teenagers still use hula hoops.

And the thing is.

And pogo sticks.

Pogo sticks.

Apparently they're coming back.

Hula hoops and pogo sticks.

Are they other powered by batteries?

They're not.

They're powered by the human body anyway.

Well, that's not going to catch on. I digress.

I've like

I've digressed so much you can't remember what you're talking about.

Yo, yo, your subject of today, which was occupation, your what is your occupation?

Yes, there job. There are many jobs.

So the first lesson you learn when you are a teenager

is that you need money to buy things and to get money.

Quite often your parents will encourage you

to get some sort of job,

maybe just a light job, nothing too heavy, maybe delivering newspapers,

or maybe they get you to do odd jobs.

I know as a teenager I did lots of odd jobs.

I bet.

I bet teenagers don't deliver papers anymore

because nobody

or very few people read newspapers anymore. Hmm.

Being a paper boy or a paper girl. Yes.

Or a paper person.

Paper. Transgender? Yes, a paper person.

I don't think that

that image of, you know, a young lad on his bike

delivering newspapers around the streets, I don't think that exists anymore.

It might do in your country, but the printed word

newspapers and books for that matter, I think are in decline.

Okay.

I mean, we do get somebody delivering the

Wenlock Herald, a sort of a local magazine.

But anyway, it's by a middle aged lady.

This is not really what we're talking about.

Well, occupation is delivering newspapers is an occupation that has died out, I would suggest.

Okay.

But we're talking about the first jobs that you do when you're young.

So maybe delivering newspapers, maybe helping someone else

do a certain task, maybe delivering milk.

So I do remember the the milkman used to come to our house

and he you often have a young lad helping it.

And of course that that's quite good.

That's quite good.

So he was doing a little bit of work and earning some money.

But of course as you get older you realise that

delivering newspapers will not pay very well.

So you have to then

go into the big world and find a proper job, a real job.

Well, I read a report the other day, Mr. Duncan, that

because there are so

few of those jobs around and because teenagers

spend a lot of time in their rooms or on their devices,

that quite often

their first job, particularly they've been to university or college,

their first experience of a working environment

is the first job they get when they're in their early twenties.

And so they are finding it difficult to cope with a workplace,

you know how people talk to each other and communicate.

It's it's quite a different experience. So

because youngsters aren't getting jobs early now,

then they haven't really got the experience of what works about.

Yes, they're struggling to cope with it in a lot of cases.

So it's it's quite unusual now for a younger person, a teenager, to actually take on a job.

It's very interesting.

We've we've had one or two messages come through as well.

My teenage son earned some money

by cleaning the streets. Yes.

Maybe you can do some work for your neighbour.

Maybe you have an elderly neighbour and they can't do their garden anymore.

You might go round and and do

some work in your neighbours gardens and they pay you a small amount of money.

So yes, there were many ways when you were young, many ways of making money,

some of them legal and some of them not very legal.

Oh asks is bribe you buy same same as by bee?

Why? No.

If you buy something, you're going to the shops.

You're using money to get something.

That buy is b y is the same as is buy, buy, buy, isn't it? No.

What is it then?

Not going to buy.

Yes. No it's not.

No that is b y yes.

So if you leave the E off and just go B why that is.

I am going by the C.

Yeah.

It's, it's an indication of you're going somewhere isn't it.

I'm going.

Then you explain it.

But they're not the same.

B y often refers to something

in proximity to things that are by each other.

They are near to each other.

Then we have B, which is a shortened version of good bye, bye

bye bye.

And then we have the one you said b u y

to purchase something or buy it.

Excuse me.

Mr. Duncan is going to have to clearly throughout today

what we can hear you kids coughing. So.

Yes. So what was I going to look at then?

Somebody said something about

when I was a teenager, says Palmira.

I actually sold ice cream.

So to correct you there

s around D I sold ice creams.

It was fine. Yes,

people used to I mean, I had a job.

I used to pick fruit when I was younger.

Strawberries in the fields, peas.

My sister used to work in a local art shop.

And that gives you experience of dealing with people,

connecting with people as if you never do that, then you don't.

You don't have those skills when you start in the workplace.

It is true.

It is true.

But that's another thing, actually.

That's a very good point, Mr.

Steve, because we also talk about things that you do

when you are younger that give you some sort of experience,

and I might talk about this later on, but now we have some words coming up on the screen

because we only have half an hour left, just one hour today.

So it's shorter.

But there is some good news because during October,

of course, this month is a special month

because I celebrate my You Tube anniversary.

It is my two, the first sorry, my YouTube of the story.

It is the anniversary of the formation of this channel

way back in 2006.

So at the end of this month, I will be celebrating

17 years on YouTube.

I'm probably one of the longest

teaching, the longest

educating person on YouTube, especially with the English language.

So that's nice.

So there will be some special things coming up during October,

but now we will look at some words connected to

having a job, being in employment,

jobs and occupations.

And there is. Mr. Steve Can you see Steve?

So Steve looks like he might be working on a building site

or maybe in a warehouse.

So he has his special overalls and also is his safety hat.

And what am I?

Well, it looks like I'm working in the kitchen.

Ironically, I am a chef in the kitchen.

So jobs and occupations, we are talking about today.

We might ask a person

and I'm not sure if this is a rude question, would you think it was a rude question?

Well, it can be fast.

I was discussing that with some friends yesterday.

Ironically, that's a bit of a coincidence.

Yes. If you.

Well, I think if you said to somebody, are you working,

that probably is a rude question, because if they're not,

you're going to make them feel bad about themselves.

Another question is

a particular of his friends or people you don't know that?

Well, if you go to a party and you meet people, people often want to find out what you're doing.

So the other question they might ask is what's your job?

What job do you do?

And that's that's okay to ask that. But,

you know, if that person

it turns out you've got a better job than them,

then you're going to make them feel inferior.

And so I think sometimes asking people

what they do for a living, it depends on,

I think, how well you know them.

Yeah, it's a tricky question to ask

because it can make them feel good or it could make you feel good, make them feel bad,

or it could make you feel bad if you think you've got a good job

and then you ask somebody and they're doing something, you know, higher up than you.

So I would say, and I think I agree with Steve,

this might not be a good question to ask someone.

So not only do we teach you what to say, sometimes we teach you what not to say.

So it's probably not a good way

of asking a person if they are working or if they have a job.

You might, of course, ask,

What do you do for a living?

Which is a little more neutral?

So if the person isn't working at the moment, it doesn't matter.

What do you do for a living?

And they might say, I'm not working at the moment.

It's a little more subtle and and less intrusive.

What is what do you do for a living?

Yeah, it's the same it's the same question.

Really just worded slightly differently.

And it depends.

I mean, people the thing is, if you want to get to know somebody

in a party or something like that, then obviously

you probably will end up asking them that at some point.

But yeah, it can be

it can go the wrong way sometimes.

And yeah, you may think about

whether you want to do that or not, but you might.

But people are very judgemental of each other, aren't they.

Human beings, where we judging each other,

you know.

Has that person got more money than me?

I think I have better clothes now.

You a better car.

Your life, your job, your life is fraught with.

I'm not saying me, I'm just saying in general, Mr.

Duncan, we tend to judge each other,

which is because,

you know, hundreds of years ago,

everyone when my mother grew up, she said everyone was the same.

Everyone was poor.

When she was growing up, there were a few people who lived,

you know, other parts of the town who might have had a car or might have been.

But she said when she grew up, everyone was the same.

Everybody was relatively poor.

But now, of course, there are many, many layers.

Yes. And

we've been we've been sort

of programmed to want to keep buying things and get a better car

from the neighbour and a bigger house and a new drive and, you know,

you know, so it's there's a lot of envy out there and a lot of people are judging everybody

on what they do from a materialistic point of view.

Okay.

So anyway, if if you're at a party or maybe some small talk,

quite often a person will ask, what do you do for a living?

What do you or maybe they might ask, what is what is your job?

So this one is a little bit more direct.

So what do you do for a living?

It's a little less

interrogated.

What is what is your job?

Sounds a little bit more direct.

So this probably is something you wouldn't say.

I don't know what's going on with my throat tonight.

That's because you were talking about yesterday, Mr.

Duncan. And of course, it could be the weather.

I've got pneumonia.

That's what it is.

It's the weather.

Anyway, What is your job?

Another one.

Ah, So this one is quite good.

Quite often we will ask this question in a very formal situation.

So maybe if a person is enquiring,

maybe you are changing your job and maybe the person interviewing

you might ask what is your occupation?

Or they might ask, what is your current

occupation?

That's often the word put on a form.

If you're applying for a job. Hmm.

You might see that it would in that way.

It's quite a formal way, very formal of asking about

what you do for a living.

So that is something we often use

when we are asking a person to tell us what their job actually is.

Normally in a very formal situation,

there are different types of work.

Of course, Steve, when you think about it, there are many different types of work.

Some people only work for a few hours each week.

They work part time, some people work for many hours a week.

So at the moment, what would you say the average working hours

are each week for a person who is working full time,

full between 35 and 40 hours per week,

I would say is the average.

If you're working more than 40 hours a week, it's probably

you're going to be suffering a lot of tiredness probably.

I mean, don't this is the average of most people work in the UK between nine and five

I would say there's much more flexible hours of working these days.

But most people, the 9 to 5 job same in America.

So that's about depending on whether you count lunch breaks or not.

That's 8 hours a day, isn't it?

40 hours a week I think is probably the average with you're

not working of course, all that time because you might get an hour off for lunch.

So probably 35 hours.

But yeah, I mean, some people are working much.

I mean, doctors probably working maybe a lot more than that, maybe 50, 60 hours a week.

And if you own your own business,

you probably work even more than that because you have to work

all the hours to get enough money into to to keep your business going.

So around 40 hours is the average, if you are lucky enough to work from Monday to Friday.

Of course, there some people who have to work many more days

or many more hours than 40.

Some people have to work six days a week.

Some people have to work seven days a week.

My my brother in law, he works for the railway

and he is he has a very job

and he does very long shifts over a long period

and then has a rest break for maybe two or three days.

So he does a very long period of time

where he works and then he has some time off.

So the nature of some people's jobs is

they might have to work a lot, but then they have a short time off,

which is nice.

Yes. And of course, people work.

Some people work during the day.

Other people work what they call the night shift. Yeah.

So some people are working during the night, so they might come home

at sort of four or 5:00 in the morning and then sleep until midday.

And other people, there are lots of Night-Time working in factories.

I would imagine Amazon do a lot of Night-Time work.

Yeah, lots of people work night shift, but of course you can have quite

an impact on your health in the long term and also your social life,

because you're normally working when everybody else

is socialising.

But yeah, the graveyard shift is a good phrase.

Yes, the graveyard shift maybe,

maybe you are involved in security or something like that.

So you have to be working all night.

Quite a, quite a dull job.

I understand the graveyard shift.

What's that, Mr. Duncan? That is.

That's a late shift normally, isn't it?

Oh yes, I would, I would say it's through the whole night

from maybe maybe ten until five or 6 a.m..

So 10 p.m.

to five or 6 a.m.

would be the graveyard shift

or of course, from midnight onwards,

a lot of people in supermarkets are stacking the shelves, aren't they, through the night

so that the shelves are full and ready for the people

to come in and and shop during the day.

I've never done night work, but I have done work

where I've had to go to go to work and arrive at work very early.

We might talk about that later on.

When we talk about terrible jobs, the shift work, there's another phrase.

What's that shift?

I said, s h i s t.

I wonder what you said.

That shift work.

So, yeah, that's your your hours.

Can be irregular.

You can work three days during one time.

Then three days is another time that other people can work

like two days on three days on two days off.

Yes, that is going to have many different working

times this sort of practises.

So some people might work sort of 12 hour days, but they do that for two or three days,

then they have two days off and and they do it in that way.

So we have permanent, permanent and temporary.

So a permanent job is a job that has no end.

I'm sure a lot of people are involved in jobs

where their their work seems to have no end.

There is there is no future where they won't be doing that particular job.

It is a permanent job. Also.

Maybe there is no contract involved, so there are some jobs that have no contract.

You've got to work permanently.

Yeah, if you've got to pay, if you got a permanent position,

it means that you, you know, unless you do something stupid like punch the boss,

then you're not going to be.

It means that your employer can't just get rid of you for no reason,

at least not in this country and in America.

From what we understand that there is

they can just sack you with what you've got.

No come back at all.

Whereas in this country and in many parts of Europe,

certainly France,

you've got unions protecting you and things like that.

So if you've got a permanent position so you might start a job.

For example, I've just started a new job and for the first six months I'm on probation.

Oh, okay.

Probation.

Which means if I do something wrong in that six months or if they decide

they don't me for whatever reason, they can legally just say to me

goodbye.

We don't think you you know, we don't want to carry on with you working here.

But after six months, you get more rights as a as a as an employee

than what the law determines is what rights you have at various points.

So the first six months, you've got no rights, and then

six months to two years in the UK you've got a few more rights

and after two years they've got to give you a proper redundancy payment and that sort of thing.

So yeah, people want permanent employment,

the 0 hours in employment as well.

Okay. In the UK anyway, quite controversial.

We have a few more to look at that might be in there, you see.

All right.

Okay.

Now we have something called seasonal contract.

Now this is an interesting one, especially this time of year, because quite often

there are many people who will take on a certain job or a type of job or type of work

just for a short time.

Maybe they need some extra money because, of course, October normally means that people

will be preparing for the arrival of Christmas, even though I don't want to mention it yet.

So a seasonal contract is a contract or a job

that you might only do at certain times of the year,

maybe in a shop.

Maybe they need more staff, maybe the post office,

because everyone's sending their Christmas cards and their gifts.

So they need more people to sort through the mail.

Fruit pickers, fruit pickers, farm workers

during the summer when the crops are ripening and you need extra labour

to to harvest the crop, you'll bring in seasonal workers

and just pay them for maybe two or three months or something.

So I think the most common type of seasonal work in this country is around Christmas

with more people demanding their gifts or sending things through the post.

So you often find that seasonal contracts

often occur during,

I would say during summer and normally

the two months or three months leading up to Christmas

of we all

have to start somewhere, even when we're working in a job

that might be very demanding, we have to start at the bottom.

Not everyone wants to do that.

Mr. Steve Can you believe once in the past Mr.

Steve started at the bottom and he slowly worked his way up and then he got a job.

Okay, so trainee a person who is following another person

or learning a certain profession or trade, trade.

So there is an interesting word.

I saw a lot of trade yesterday in Shrewsbury,

a lot of trades, people on the market stall selling things.

I say you thought I meant something else,

didn't you?

So a person who is a trainee

is learning how to do that job.

And then of course we have the person who is fully qualified, like Mr.

Steve. Mr.

Steve has so many qualifications

and we have a room in the house and all of Mr.

Steve's certificates and diplomas cover all of the walls.

The entire room has all of Mr.

Steve's awards standing to sign a certificate like that.

It's all Mr.

Duncan is, is is fully qualified.

Me Strange thing to say.

This isn't.

I don't have any certificates, Steve. It's just a joke.

Okay, well, we need to explain that. Yeah.

Most people think I'm an egotist.

I would imagine most people watching at the moment wouldn't believe that.

Anyway, I think.

I think it's safe to say

fully qualified.

A person who has some proof that they know how to do the job that they're doing.

Are you fully qualified?

Would apply to jobs like, you know, doctors,

solicitors, that sort of thing, where you need a qualification

and just to be able to add give credibility

to the job that you're performing.

They need to they need to know that you can do it.

Yeah, that's right.

Whereas if, for example, you're stacking shelves in a

in a supermarket, you probably don't

need to use the term fully qualified

because you don't need many qualifications for that sort of job. Yes.

Whereas, you know, you could say, are you a fully qualified solicitor?

Because of course there are lots of different levels there.

So yeah, I think so skilled and unskilled.

So this might be similar to what we just talked about.

However, it also goes into other areas.

So there are certain jobs that you might describe as skills,

build a skilled job, and then we have jobs that are unskilled.

And I think you just gave a good example there.

If you work at a supermarket and you you're putting the cans

of beans on the shelf, you might describe that as unskilled work

because you don't really need to learn how to pick up things and put them on a shelf.

Whereas if you're working

in engineering

or if you're a plumber, an electrician,

you would describe yourself as a skilled worker.

You've had to learn your trade, you've had to learn your

what you do, you've had to go to college, you have to do some studying

and you're good at it.

If you say somebody is skilled at something, normally you

that you're indicating that they're very good at what they do.

That's more informally, that's more informal. Yes.

But in this case,

yeah, if you're a skilled worker that normally refers to somebody that has had to undergo some training,

like like an electrician, plumbing the shop into that sort of thing,

the one thing I find amazing

doctors or anyone who wants

to become a medical professional,

I think the average is seven years, seven years.

That's increased that for

a doctor. Yes.

So you wouldn't describe a doctor as skilled work.

You would call that professional that there is a distinction.

So you've got the unskilled.

Well, we're going to talk about that in a few minutes as well.

Okay. That's okay.

That's all right, Steve.

So but it just does amaze me.

Can you can you imagine having and that's just training

that's just years and years of learning and training and maybe practice

and eventually you will become a doctor

or a GP, as we call them here.

So I always admire anyone who puts

a large part of their life into into training for the job

that they eventually do professionally.

I to say I do admire that.

So a skilled person often has some ability and they can prove that they have it.

An unskilled person is doing a job that doesn't really need

much expertise.

That's putting it mildly.

Well, something they've said since Brexit, of course,

is that we've lost a lot of our skilled workers who used to come from the European Union to come

in, do jobs that that we hadn't enough

people qualified in the UK to do, like electricians, builders,

carpenters, people like that.

And there is a shortage of skilled workers.

We know that because if you try to get an electrician or a plumber to come out and see you,

it's very, very difficult.

And they charge lots of money because they know that there's not many people around,

certainly in the UK that can do those jobs. Now.

So moving

on, we've had skilled jobs and jobs maybe that you have to train for.

And there is another type of job and this is the type of job I've done in my life.

So I'm not criticising any particular type of job

because I can say now that I've done some awful, terrible,

literally in some cases

stinky jobs in my time, menial jobs.

And this once again is is a term

that is often used when we are criticising

the type of job or the work that is involved.

Menial often means simple or, basic,

a job that is easy to do that

most people can do, but they would rather not do it.

And that is the important part.

And the important part of describing menial jobs

quite often is it is a job that you can do.

But most people would rather not do it.

And it's relatively unskilled.

Yes, it's a bit of a derogatory term, really is. Yes.

You wouldn't want to say to somebody, oh,

they do just a menial job.

So, yes, it's a simple job.

Like I probably would describe a cleaner as a mean job.

This is what I'm going to talk about now.

My my work that I've done in my past when I was a young person,

work was not always available for for people in this country.

During the 1980s, there were many periods of time

where we had an incredibly poor economy

and there was high unemployment and there were very few jobs around.

So I had to do some really awful jobs

because I couldn't find work during a certain period of time.

So I had no choice.

Sometimes beggars can't be choosers,

and I was one of those beggars,

not literally, but I had very little choice.

So I had to work for a famous

shopping outlet

and I had to get up at around about 430 in the morning.

And I went to this one particular shop

and I had to clean the floors with a big machine.

And I used to do that a clean I used to clean floors and

the toilets, the toilets,

I had to get a big brush and put it down the toilet.

And sometimes,

let's just say sometimes people were not very careful

when they went for a number two and I had the wonderful job.

So that gives you an idea of the sort of work that I had to do.

I mean, that's I think that's below menial, to be honest,

as a garbage collector and menial jobs says to me, yes,

you would probably put it in that category.

Yes, I think so. You know, we're not judging here.

We're just saying using the terms that are used to describe these types of jobs.

But I've done lots of crappy jobs, literally and literally.

Yes, it's a main, you know, job is a job that anyone could do.

But as Mr.

Duncan says, you wouldn't probably choose to do it. No.

If you didn't need the money. Yeah, exactly.

And of course, there are some people who do menial jobs and they do maybe two or three different jobs.

They have to go from one place then to another place.

And they're doing similar work.

Now. Again, I'm not judging people for doing that because it is necessary.

They do it because they have to.

They have no choice.

Just like when I was sweeping the floors and getting the

the poop out of the toilet, factory workers at the assembly line, well,

some of them might be menial jobs if they're doing simple tasks,

but then there would be skilled

workers and we'd be working on assembly lines as well.

Maybe people working in car factories, things like that.

You might describe some work

as certainly more skilled than others.

But but generally, you would probably think if someone is

putting their heads on dolls or just doing the same repetitive work. Yes.

All the time. Well, that's a good word.

Repetitive.

So quite often we think of menial jobs or menial work as being repetitive,

something you you only do two or three things and that's it.

That's your whole job.

So maybe as you so maybe you're putting two things together

and that's all you do for the whole day.

But then you might be doing something

repetitive, but in, say, electronic, where it requires

some skill to do it, you might be soldiering items

or you might be, yeah, something that requires some level of training

could move into more of the skills area.

What about a postman?

Oh, that's an interesting one. Yes.

Interesting.

I'm not sure how that would fit because I think there is a certain

element of skill all involved.

Now, I know

you wouldn't call that a menial job.

No, I think there is a certain amount of skill involved because you do have to deliver

letters to the right houses in the right letterboxes.

I'm not sure about the postman around here.

Sometimes he gets it right,

but I think he just drives down the road and he just throws everything out of the window.

It is Japan.

Probably most of us could do that,

but you would need a certain level of training.

Yeah, I mean, you've got to be out of drive for a start.

You've got to have a sense, you know, you've got to be able to know where all the house is.

You got to have a good memory.

There must be some level of training involved in being a postman.

So yeah,

and, and in any rate, you would not class that as a menial job?

No, it's a job that because it's the postman

is a job that a lot of people actually aspire to do.

So one of my friends is a postman. Yes.

So just because of that reason alone

that a menial I think would be classified as a job that you wouldn't do

if you didn't have to do it,

if you needed the money and you haven't got any qualifications.

And whereas a postman

in particularly in this country, a lot of people say, Oh, I'd love to be a postman.

Well, I'd love to be a lorry driver here, a man.

So no, you wouldn't put that under me, Neil, you've got to.

Yes, anyone could do it.

But people want to do that job a lot of people actually want to do it.

They find it quite an attractive thing to do.

So for that reason alone, you wouldn't describe it as menial a profession.

I used to do as well.

Another job I used to have.

I used to work in retail in a shop.

And strangely enough,

even though it was a little bit of a job

that had no future, it was what we call a dead end job.

I actually enjoyed it, and one of the reasons was

I could always perform and put on a show.

So sales is a good job if you if you like, doing that sort of thing,

because you can put your own personal flair into doing the particular job.

So I did actually enjoy working in sales and also retail because you can have lots of fun,

but that's not me, you know, because need a certain amount of skill

to be able to sell to somebody.

So when you first start off,

it might be, but yes, yeah, it's generally, as Mr.

Dunford said, jobs that

you don't really want to do,

but you have to do it because you need

you need the money and it doesn't require very much skill.

So next we have a professional person.

So this might be the opposite.

I suppose it might be the opposite.

And you did kind of mentioned that earlier

with certain types of job professional person, quite often

a person who has to gain some sort of qualification, would you say?

Yes, a higher qualification.

So I would say yep.

When you say a professional job, you're talking

about doctors, solicitors,

architects. It's

a job that probably probably

requires a degree, level or above qualification.

I would say yes, you would count as a professional, a professional job.

I think teaching would would go in there as well.

Definitely, Definitely.

So teaching would go in there some sort of ability

and quite often you would have to probably gain

some sort of level of proficiency to see if you're going to put them in order.

Have you got another one to do?

We have we have a few more things to do.

So we're going to overrun slightly.

Of course we are.

So the final one, Steve, before we move on to specific trades,

which is what we're looking at in a minute, of course, this is the one that people hate.

This is the one that drives people

to despair.

And I've been through periods of time where I had no job,

as I said, the 1980s, trying to find work in the 1980s.

I can still remember the pressure not only myself, but also many young people,

that there were many young people

unemployed during the early 1980s.

And unfortunately

I was one of those young people

and it was a very grim time indeed.

So to be unemployed is not good.

I know how it feels and sometimes you have to do jobs that other people don't want to do.

And that's exactly what I did.

I rolled my sleeves up and I did those jobs because I had no choice.

Unfortunately, yes, you can be unemployed for a period of time.

You know, maybe you're going from one job to another.

You might be unemployed for a short period of time,

or you could be permanently unemployed.

So unemployed can be from,

you know, maybe a week, a month, six months, or it could be that you

you you're never going back to work because you might have you might have an injury

or an illness.

That means that you can't work.

And there are in this country and in many parts of

the Western world, people who are drawing benefits.

Yes. And

have have decided that their benefits

are sufficiently large that they can't be bothered to go back to work.

This is something I was about to mention as well.

So in this country we do have a system

that is in place that stops people from falling

too low on the social ladder, as it were.

So we do have benefits that are given to people who are unemployed

and even people who are unemployed for a long period of time

and sometimes years in fact.

But for many people,

being unemployed is not the best choice to make,

especially if you want to, to aspire or to to better your life.

So I think, yes, we do.

We do have quite a good Social Security system

here in the UK, but there are people who abuse it.

Yes, that's so you want in

in a sort of civilised, reasonably reasonable society.

You want to be looking after people If no fault of their own, they become unemployed.

The business goes bankrupt. Yes.

And all the workers are laid off.

It's not the fault of the workers.

It's, you know, we don't know what the default could be anything.

But I mean, it can be your own fault that you made unemployed.

You can be very bad at your job.

But if you want to be able to protect people and give them some money

to pay off their bills for a period of time, give them out to allow them to look for another job.

And of course, we do that in this country as they do in America and Europe.

So in the United States, they have a similar thing that I say.

I think actually here in this country we have a much better benefit system

than they do in the United States and also a better health service as well.

Despite what people often say about it, the NHS, the National Health Service in

this country is the envy of many, many countries around the world.

Have you ever been sacked, Steve?

I haven't ever been sacked, No.

To be sacked from your job is to be dismissed.

They don't want you anymore.

For various reasons. I.

I know you're not going to believe this.

You will find it hard to believe.

You will.

You'll your head will spin when you find out

that I was once sacked from a job.

It's true.

I was called into the office.

The boss was there and he said.

Duncan said, Look, it's not working out.

See that's a nice. It's nice isn't it.

When they say that what they really saying is

you are absolutely rubbish at this job.

What were you doing at the time?

I was working for Tesco in the warehouse.

I hated the job so much.

I despised being there.

The staff were not very friendly.

The manager was horrible

and I just hated all of it.

I just hated it.

I can't tell you how much I hated that job.

It is definitely the worst job that I've ever done.

Even worse than.

Than just getting the poop out of the toilet.

Isn't that amazing, sir?

I was sacked from that job.

The only job that I've ever been sacked from.

But I have to say he did it. Mr. Watson.

His name.

He did a very nice job of sacking me.

It was the nicest sacking that I imagine anyone could have, he said.

It's not working out, which I think, isn't that lovely?

It's not working and we're going to have to let you go.

It's still the same result.

Basically, they are telling you we don't want you working for us anymore.

Please go away here.

Here is your salary and there is the door.

Please leave.

So I have been sacked.

But here I am today.

Look on YouTube and international.

Nobody can sack you from this, Mr. Noack.

Well, I'm just saying yes, but what I'm saying is being sacked from a job doesn't

necessarily mean that you can't continue you with your, your life in some way.

So some people might find being sacked quite embarrassing.

Get the push that's in the synonym but these days.

Yes that's a good one.

These days being sacked

is almost a mark of, of

respect.

So some people who are sacked from their jobs, they are,

they are often looked for or sought after,

especially in things like entertainment or broadcasting.

Many people who were sacked maybe from their radio show,

quite often they will they will be taken in by someone else.

I quote quite quickly. Well, that's what I mean.

So they do something disastrous and they are sacked and then someone else takes them back.

What about politicians?

How many politicians over the years

have been sacked from their jobs

and and they just seem to go into another job

very quickly without any questions asked. So.

So being sacked is not necessarily the end of the world.

That's what I mean.

Dimitrios says.

I am about to sack three people over the next three weeks.

Yes, I can't be good.

So. So I think it's a pleasant job.

And what field are you working in?

Demetrius? Do I need to worry?

Who who do I need to inform?

As if we didn't know. I'm sorry.

Yes, fine.

Carry on, Mr.

Duncan.

Yes. It can't be very nice to. To.

But I used to have a job, Mr. Duncan.

I was a manager in sales. Sales manager?

Oh, I see.

And many, many years ago, and I had

a number of representatives working under me,

so to speak, as a phrase you used.

And I was asked by my boss to

that I had to because they were cutting back costs

I had to get rid of, as he described it,

or I had to sack two employees.

That and, you know, I've got, I think, eight representatives

that I was responsible for working in different of the country.

And I found this very, very difficult to do.

In fact, I refused to do it and I was demoted

because I said I'm not going to

get rid of people who were very good workers.

And in the end, he said, what if you won't do it?

I will.

And then two weeks later I got demoted back to being a representative. Yes.

So Steve's level in the company was reduced because he said, I'm not going to sack these lovely people.

I did sack one actually.

I can't imagine anything nicer than being sacked by Mr.

Steve. It must be lovely.

That's why I've never been a manager ever again.

Because doing those tasks for me is too stressful.

But the company I was working for at the time,

I mean, you can't do this anymore because people are protected.

But he basically said, Oh, you've got to catch them out doing something and then we can sack them.

Yeah.

So he said, For example, I want you to sit outside their house and see what time they leave.

And if they haven't left the house by 830 was sack them.

So he got me to do that. It was horrible. And I had to,

you know, meet up with these people in the end.

One of them said, you know,

if are you basically saying, you know,

no matter what I do, they want to get rid of me, you know, And I had to say, well, yes, they do.

So he just he did the decent thing.

And Just resigned.

Yes. Well well, that's I've got to move on, Steve.

Fine. Okay.

A lot of things still to look at. Yes.

I didn't like doing it, but

I left that company soon afterwards.

Okay. Sacking someone, a new job. They were horrible.

Yeah. Okay.

So sacking someone is an unpleasant thing to do and

being sacked, being told to go.

And that's happened to me.

It's not nice at the time.

Can I say thank you very much to

Ariel Castella, who is sent

a very happy and very pleasant soup chapped sticker.

Thank you very much, Ariel.

We do appreciate the donations because I don't charge anything

for this 17 years for the past 17 years,

I have never charged anyone for any.

I think you should know.

I shouldn't,

and then I could stop working. Mr..

Q Well, no, I don't think I would be that that wealthy, to be honest.

So thank you, Ariel, for your lovely super.

Isn't that nice? Thank you very much.

It's not very nice losing your job.

I think it is.

In fact, I think it's horrible to be honest here.

Are some trades would you like to see some trades?

Go on then. Here are some jobs types of jobs.

They might be seen as being trades.

So a person who does that job.

By the way, I've been asked why are the Conservatives,

the Conservative Party, called the Tories?

That was their original name.

The Tories is actually the oldest political party in this country.

They were the original political movement and they were called the Tories.

So that is actually their their original name.

So that's the reason why modern day conservatism

originated with the Tory Party.

And they were the the people who wanted

reforms in a conservative way.

And they are the oldest political group in this country.

So I hope that answers your question.

Here we go then. Oh,

there was a song, was it? No.

If I was a carpenter and carpenter

in the morning, I would carpenter in the evening.

Never heard of that song.

Mr. Duncan, is it by the Carpenters?

If I had a hammer I would hammer in the morning.

Oh, right. Yeah.

All over the world.

Carpenter or joiner.

What do they work with normally?

Oh, you asking me?

Yes. Wood Yes.

So often the trade concerns.

Wood Measuring wood, slicing

wood or maybe going into the middle

of a picturesque place and

cutting down a tree.

Ariel says,

I am the guy you randomly met in Paris.

Now, I remember. Of course, I'm sorry about that. Yeah.

Live near the Louvre with your lovely wife.

And we we thought.

We thought that you were coming to the rendezvous, but you weren't.

You just happened to be in Paris at the same time as us.

That was an amazing moment.

What a strange coincidence. Meeting each other.

We were walking to meet Beatrice,

and we were going to meet Beatrice,

one of our gang, the Paris gang.

And on the way there, we were stopped by somebody.

Well, I heard.

I heard someone shout Mr. Duncan.

They said Mr. Duncan.

And I thought, Oh, they must be meeting us on the Paris rendezvous.

But it was just a coincidence.

We were in Paris at the same time as as Arielle.

And Arielle is from Argentina.

We know that because I specifically remember

saying that we were just about to meet

somebody from Argentina, which was,

you know. Yeah. So.

Yeah.

Beatrice so well, wonderful to see you here.

And we know you're having all sorts of problems with, your currency in Argentina at the moment.

So we very much appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Thanks. Very kind of you. Thank you.

Yes. And say hi to your wife who she's watching.

And yeah, hopefully we'll bump into you again one day.

Demetrius says, Jesus.

Oh Well, there's more.

Jesus was a carpenter, hence he.

Oh, dear, Dimitrios, that's not very nice.

Neither Tomek does.

I mean, Demetrius does come out with some, some some comment sometimes, yes.

So a carpenter or joiner works with wood?

Sometimes I do as well. Plumber.

Oh, he's an interesting job, Steve. Yes, Plumber.

We all need a plumber.

You never see.

You never see a plumber, Paul

Because they charge so much money.

We used to have a guy that came to us when we lived in Wolverhampton and.

He used to charge

ridiculous amounts of money for the smallest jobs.

Do you remember?

He used to come in, repair the tap and and stop it from dripping

and he would charge some stupid amount of money.

I can't remember his name there, but yes, well,

these are, these are skilled jobs plumbers, electricians

that there's a shortage of. Yes.

And thus they can charge a lot of money to do that to do it.

Supply and demand.

You know, it's a difficult job being a plumber.

Plumbers. Plumbers get bad knees. Yeah.

Because they're always on their knees in cramped places. Yes.

And I know know one or two plumbers that have had to give up work because

they've got, you know, bad knee damage.

So plumbers normally work with pipes, so it's not necessary to connect to water

because plumbers, of course, can also connect

gas as well, gas pipes.

So it's not just about water.

And did you know whether. Steve.

Yes, I know, but you would know me.

Yeah. Yes. I'm just

the word plumber has nothing to do with pipes.

Did you know that?

In fact, it originates from a Latin word that means to

to have a flow of water from a roof.

So it has nothing to do.

So it's just the control of water.

So a plumber is magically controlled

in the motion of water, so it has nothing to do with pipes.

It might have something connected with water or, of course, gas.

What were you going to say, Steve?

Nothing. Now, I wasn't going to say anything.

Oh, yeah, I thought you were going to say a plumber.

Does it work with gas?

Well, you would probably say a gas engineer.

That's it. Yeah, something like that. Yes.

I mean that connecting pipes, but Yeah, yeah, that's it.

Yeah.

But yeah.

So in this country if you want a trade to be trying to be a plumber, electrician

or something along those lines, you, you, if you want to do it because it's a job that

you'd need to want to do,

I wouldn't want to be a plumber, I wouldn't want to be an electrician.

But some people do see I think it was Massey earlier on.

Massey you touched on a very good point earlier on

about occupations and the fact that, you know, no job,

no job should be seen as as as inferior to another job.

No, I agree.

And yeah, that's my thing.

One thing clear by not judging the job, we're just talking about how jobs are classified.

But, you know, if we didn't have people

that could do all the jobs that we need, society wouldn't.

So if you didn't have people doing menial jobs,

then collecting the rubbish,

cleaning toilets, then we just couldn't carry on.

So every job is important enough.

I've often found it strange that there's always somebody available to do a particular job.

There's always whatever whatever job there is,

there is always somebody that's willing to do it.

Not no one wants to do.

Not necessarily by choice, by the way. Yes.

So you you might not want to clean toilets every day,

but you might have no choice because maybe there are very few jobs around.

Here's another.

Yes We don't pronounce the B, the B in plumber.

You're right.

Plumber It is if it's a silent B.

Yeah, that's a very good point.

Our car.

Our car, right?

Yeah.

So, yes, You don't say plumber.

You say plumber. Hmm.

Just something you've got to know.

And here's another one.

So here's a generic term.

This is a general term that we use for a person who is involved.

Maybe in construction.

They work in the construction field or maybe they're skilled.

They have many different skills.

Quite often a person who is in the building trade

might have more than one skill.

Isn't that strange? Yes.

So they might not only just do one type of job they might be knowledgeable

about different things because they might go somewhere

and they have to carry out more than one task.

So they have to know more than just one thing.

Maybe they have to put bricks on top of each other to build a house.

Maybe they have to put in a new door frame, or maybe they have to know how

to put the tiles or shingles on a roof.

See building work.

If you say you're a builder, it's looked down upon

in certainly in this country, if you say you're a builder.

Well, certainly when I grew up, I don't know whether it is in other countries it's not.

See, I think people admire builders nowadays, but I do now.

I'm just saying that, you know, the perception, if you say you're

a builder, you are seen as a sort of a a labourer.

There's another there's another classification of a labourer that that tends to be more unskilled.

But yes, a labourer is somebody that does man lots of manual work,

could work in a factory,

a builder could be described as manual work, but it's because it's very skilled.

I mean, I have not a clue about building.

I admire builders, but when I was growing up, if you were a builder, it was seen as an almost

not a particularly good thing to be in.

But builders can charge you a fortune and you do.

You never see any skills.

You never see a pool builder, no plumbers,

carpenters or a general,

a general builder, a person who repairs roofs.

Perhaps we have someone living here locally who

who's fixed our roof a couple of times when the water was coming there.

So. So, yes, you never see a poor

tradesman, especially in the building trade.

They're never poor because they charge a lot for their work.

Yeah, I it's one of those subjects that I think

a lot of people think you've got to have a certain

your mind has got to work in a certain way to be a builder.

You've got to be able to visualise something that there's going to be built.

I think it takes a very special set of skills to be able to do that

and I wish I could do it.

Construction See, you haven't got a clue about that.

It's a mystery to me.

Building construction, but never to start. Anyway.

Next one. Oh Oh, this is the one I mentioned earlier.

This might be seen as a job that is unskilled

or an area that doesn't need many qualifications.

However, working in retail is one of the hardest jobs that you can do because you have to sell.

You have to maintain the shop, you have to work maybe in the stockroom,

you have to handle the customers.

That's the hardest part.

I to have my life threatened

by people in the shop that I used to work in.

So this is when I worked in retail and customers would come in and they would complain

or they would try to get their money back on something

they had used and worn out.

And they still wanted their money back.

And then of course, we would refuse

and they would then start to threaten us. So.

So it was quite often I would I would have my life

threatened by people because I wouldn't give them a refund.

But I was I was in my legal rights to do that

because they were just abusing

the refund system, Palmeiras says.

What about chimney workers?

What do we call them?

We call about chimney sweeps.

We them a chimney sweep.

You can pleased to hear, by the way, you'll be pleased to hear that

we don't send children up the chimneys anymore.

We used to, but then our chimneys got very small.

And now you can't fit a child up there.

Unfortunately, yes.

Yes. It is a rare occupation these days because,

but it's it's increasing again now in the UK because so

everybody stopped having coal fires and wood

fires in their houses

from the 1960s onwards and they started hitting central heating

gas boilers typically would be the common way of heating a house.

But of course now because

everyone's splitting log burners into their houses

because it's like a fashion statement

to have a log burner in your house, we have one.

We've got one.

But our house originally had a chimney, a proper chimney.

So we can you know, we can put one in,

but a lot of houses are facing them where there was never

originally a chimney in the house.

And It's really just

a fashion statement.

Really. Yes.

Anyway, and so now the point I'm making is that for where

there is a shortage of chimney sweeps now, because there have been so many people

fitting log burners and they need to have them swept.

So, yeah, that's something you can do in the UK and earn some money, I'm sure.

So there aren't many, but it might be seen also as an unusual job,

which maybe we could talk about that for a moment.

It's like a very old fashioned job, isn't it?

Yes, I'm moving on now.

Yes, we're going to move on because we're about to go unusual jobs.

And there are many professions, Steve, that are odd, but people have to do it.

One of them I'm sorry to mention

this, a person has to handle

dead people

of all the jobs.

And you said earlier, Steve, there are certain jobs.

You can't believe that they want to do that job.

And that's the one that always makes me go,

Why, why, why would you want to do that job?

You woke up one morning and you thought, you know what,

I would like to spend all of my working hours

handling and touching dead people,

but I'm sure.

I'm sure that's not the motivation.

No. Well, I'm. I'm joking there a bit. Yes.

An undertaker, as we call it. Yeah. Yeah.

In the in the UK.

An undertaker or funeral director.

Funeral director. So so they have there.

That's a type of job that that is maybe unusual

because it's an unusual situation that you are you are constantly in I suppose another one

I'm trying to think of another unusual job, but chimney sweep is quite unusual these days.

Yeah, but not, not really to the to the point

of being something you you really wouldn't want to do.

Another one is a person who stuffs

animals because some people like to preserve their animals.

Apparently a lot of people.

Now this is something becoming popular, Steve.

People whose dog has died,

they're actually having them stuffed.

So it looks as if they're still alive, but they're not alive.

They're just stuffed.

And that particular profession is called taxidermy.

So a taxidermist is a person who stuffs

dead things.

It sounds like something else.

I know, but it isn't just me.

So that's an unusual job, isn't it? Definitely, yes.

So you take dead animals and you use you put things

inside them and stuff them and you preserve them.

And then you you give it back to the person.

And that dog is always going to be sitting in front of the fireplace

forever.

I wonder if you can stuff a human being

then think you can.

You can preserve a human like chairman Mao.

So Chairman Mao is preserved in a big fish tank.

I'm not joking either.

And every couple of years they have to take him out and clean him and then put him back in.

And I'm not joking about any of that because that came straight

from someone who lived or lives in China.

So the right.

But we finished another unusual job,

by the way, is being here on YouTube.

I think this is an unusual choice.

I think this is a very unusual job.

Is it even a job?

And I'm not sure if it is a job.

Is this a job?

Well, I suppose it is a job if you are well paid.

But of course, I'm not well paid, so

I'm not sure it's more of a I would describe this

as a vocation vocation.

So that is a type of job, but quite often a job that you enjoy doing.

So almost your hobby, something you enjoy doing

as a hobby becomes your your job.

So we say it is a vocation.

Often teaching or being a nurse is seen as a vocation.

You're doing the job from a sort of altruistic, wise,

altruistic,

Yeah.

You take it is a form of a type of generosity.

Francesc, a psychiatrist for dogs. Yes.

That would be an unusual job.

Is that real, though?

I think, yeah. That.

That is a real job.

You have

psychologists who treat dogs.

That is an actual occupation.

I I've heard of the Dog Whisperer.

He was a famous guy that was on TV for many years.

I don't know what happened to him. Maybe.

Maybe the dogs got annoyed and carried him away and buried him like a bone.

But yes, yes, there are.

There are psychologists for humans.

But I didn't know there were

for for domestic pets, apparently.

Interesting.

Anyway, on that note, I think Steve, I think we will leave it there.

We've been on for one and a half hours.

I'm back with you.

Well, I will be with you, of course, next Sunday with Steve

as we continue on our journey through October.

Can I say thank you once again to.

I can't

I still can't quite believe I've had such a wonderful donation from Arielle.

Isn't that lovely? Thank you very much.

That's just absolutely fantastic.

Thank you very much for your lovely donation.

I do appreciate that very much.

And we will see you next Sunday as we make our way through this special moment.

October is a special lots of unusual, interesting things coming up during this month.

That's all I'm saying.

So don't forget to listen out and look out and hopefully you will get

the notifications from YouTube, although it is quite unlikely to be honest.

See you very soon.

Thanks, Steve.

I never say thank you to Steve.

I never do.

But today I'm going to say thank you, Mr.

Steve, for being here for, sharing your wisdom with the world

right away.

It's lovely to be here. I've enjoyed it. Mr.

Duncan and I look forward to seeing you all, hopefully again next week.

Catch you later.

And of course, until the next time we meet here.

Whatever your occupation

is, whether you are working, whether you are not working,

whether you enjoy your job, or whether you've just been sacked,

see if I see you very soon.

Take care.

And of course, you know what's coming next.

Yes, you do.

You know what's coming next.

Here it comes.

Mr. Steve, are you ready?

Yes, there is smoke outside the window.

I think it's one of our neighbours with their log burn.

That's it.

You say that we're obsessed with burning wood around here? Yes.

See you soon.

And of course, until the next time we meet.

Where's your ring?

I haven’t got it on mr Duncan

Mr Steve is not wearing his ring.

I can't believe it.

ta ta for now...

ta ta for now.