Speak with me about Work - English Speaking Practice

When it comes to English exams, and learning  a language in general, the one thing that many  

students largely neglect is the speaking practise. “Nobody loves me”

So you and I are gonna have a little chat, and you  will get the chance to answer questions about jobs  

and professions. The questions are intended  for students preparing for the IELTS exam,  

however, it will also be useful for  anyone who needs to speak English.

Before we start chatting,  let’s have a look at some  

topic-related vocabulary and phrases that  you could use to impress the examiner  

and your friends. There is a very useful PDF that you can  

down so that you have all the important phrases  to hand in future. Simply click on the link below,  

sign up to my ESL mailing list and I will send  the download link to you. The great thing is,  

once you’re on the ESL mailing list, you will  get all future notes sent to you too. Happy days!

Now where's that vocabulary? For  this I need my vocabulary horn.

An “employee” is someone who works for someone  else in return for payment. An “employer”,  

on the other hand, is the person or organisation  that hires and pays employees to work for them. 

A: “I am a hardworking employee at  

this firm. I deserve a pay rise!” B: “Walmart is one of the largest  

employers in the world with a staggering  2.2 million employees. A pay rise for you  

would mean we have to offer a pay rise to  all our employees and that isn’t possible.”

If your workdays and hours are  irregular, you could say that you work  

“shifts” or that you “do shift work”.  If your hours are more regular,  

you might say that you have a “nine-to-five”  job or that you work “office hours”.

B: We are all getting together  for a bite to eat tonight,  

will you be able to join us? A: Ahh, I can’t I’m stuck doing  

night shifts this week. B: That’s a shame. 

A: I love being a nurse, but doing shift work can  be exhausting and the hours are really antisocial. 

B: You should think about getting a nine-to-five  job like me. It makes socialising so much easier.

When talking about the conditions of your job,  you might say that it’s a “customer-facing”  

role, meaning you deal directly with customers. 

“It’s important to be polite and  approachable in customer-facing roles.” 

If you are working “remotely” or you have a  “remote” job, you work from home. For example, 

“Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many  office workers are now working remotely.” 

If you don’t work remotely and  you travel to your place of work,  

you have a “commute”. A “commute” is the journey  between your home and place of work. In London,  

for example, it’s normal for people  to have a one-hour commute every day.

If you want to talk about the benefits of a job,  you could use the word, “perks”. For example,

“I don’t love the commute but my  role includes some amazing perks.  

They pay for my health insurance, I have a  gym pass and I get lunch for free every day!”

Lastly, here are three phrases  to get you those top marks! 

“I hate working here but I  do it to make ends meet.” 

“To make ends meet” means that you have enough  money to cover the essentials, such as rent  

or bills. “Connecting with people on LinkedIn  is a great way to get your foot in the door.” 

“To get your foot in the door” refers to making  a small start at entering the job market with the  

intention of getting a better role in the future. And lastly, “to call the shots”. If you  

“call the shots” in your company, you  make all the big decisions. For example, 

“(On the phone) I’ll have to pass you onto  my boss. She’s the one who calls the shots.”

Let’s put this new language into practice. We’re  going to start the conversation in, 5, 4, 3,  

are you ready? 2, 1......

Hello, how are you today?

Great! Today, we’re going to talk about the  world of work. What do you do for a living?

What are your hours like?

That’s great. What would be  a typical day at your work?

Oh, how interesting. Which jobs would you  say are the most respected in your country?

OK, and how do you think jobs  will change in the future?

That’s really interesting. Thank you for sharing.

Great work! If you found this difficult,  why not write down some notes for each  

question and try again with your notes as a  prompt. You could also pause after each question  

to give yourself a little bit more time. Would you like to chat some more? I  

have a playlist full of fun conversation  practise. Link is in the description below.