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  • Hi.

  • I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

  • Let's talk about how to pronounce 100 jobs.

  • When you first meet someone, talking about your job is one of the first topics that comes

  • up in conversation.

  • This phrasal verb "come up" means that it easily arises in conversation, so I want to

  • help you learn a simple, clear way to describe your job.

  • It looks like we have a little friend who is here to help us explain these job titles.

  • I don't know how long he's going to stay.

  • We'll see.

  • It's pretty perfect because I'm wearing this cat shirt today.

  • Well, when someone asks me, "Vanessa, what do you do?"

  • I say, "I'm an English teacher.

  • I teach online."

  • Simple and clear.

  • And usually they ask, "How does that work?

  • Can you do that?"

  • I explain, "Yes, people from around the world who want to learn English find my lessons,

  • and I help them."

  • Great.

  • This is a simple, clear way to explain this.

  • So today, we're going to practice pronouncing a lot of job titles, and I hope that yours

  • is one of them.

  • It's great for introducing yourself, but it's also useful to understand other job titles

  • so that when people say that that's what they do, you can have a little conversation about

  • it or at least understand the word that they said.

  • So, I hope this will help to build your vocabulary and also help you to meet other people.

  • There are a couple ways to describe your job.

  • You could say, "I'm a teacher," or you could say the full sentence, "I work in education."

  • This is the field that you work in.

  • I work in management.

  • I work in construction.

  • You're not saying your specific job title, but you're just generally saying, I work in

  • plus that field.

  • Or you could say, "I work for Google.

  • I work for Apple.

  • I work for a local pizza restaurant."

  • Here, you're talking about the company.

  • As long as it's something well known or maybe well known in your area, you can say the company

  • that you work for as well.

  • Now that we've talked about these two helpful sentences for describing your job, I work

  • in management.

  • I work for Google.

  • Let's get onto some specific job descriptions.

  • I've broken these into different categories.

  • Some of these are general, some of these are medical or food or creative type jobs.

  • There's a couple overlapping type jobs, so we're just going to try to stick with those

  • categories to help you remember them.

  • Let's start with some general job descriptors.

  • I'm the director of the marketing team.

  • I'm the director of the design team, to be the director, or you could say, "I'm the manager.

  • I'm the manager of the sales department.

  • I'm the owner of a local restaurant."

  • Or you can make this complete sentence and say, "I run the local restaurant."

  • That means that you're in charge.

  • I run the local restaurant.

  • I run my own business.

  • I run a jewelry business.

  • I run some kind of business because I'm the owner.

  • The next category deals with jobs that include words of some sorts.

  • The first one is teacher.

  • I'm a teacher, or you could say, "I'm a kindergarten teacher.

  • I'm an elementary school teacher.

  • I'm a middle school teacher.

  • I'm a high school teacher."

  • You could be more specific.

  • I'm a math teacher.

  • I'm an English teacher.

  • I'm a piano teacher.

  • I'm a music teacher.

  • Excellent.

  • I'm a professor at the local university.

  • I'm a professor at the local college.

  • This means that you are a teacher at the university or at the college.

  • We don't say teacher for this higher level of education.

  • We say professor.

  • You might also say, "I work in the school system."

  • This means that you generally have a job that deals with education, but you don't really

  • want to say specifically what you do.

  • You could just say, "I work in the school system.

  • I'm a student.

  • I'm a philosophy student.

  • I'm a student of biology.

  • I'm a biology student."

  • I'm a daycare worker.

  • I help little kids have fun all day.

  • I'm a daycare worker.

  • I'm a translator.

  • I'm a translator.

  • Do you notice how I added a D in the middle of this word?

  • That's because in American English, that T often changes to a D. So make sure that you

  • say that correctly, especially if you're a translator and you deal with words, translator.

  • Or you might be an interpreter, interpreter.

  • Do you notice that same thing happening at the end of this word?

  • It sounds like D-E-R, interpreter.

  • I'm a writer.

  • Again, we have that T in the middle of the word changing to a D. I'm a writer, or I'm

  • a journalist.

  • I work for the National Geographic.

  • This is a well-known company, so you might say, "I work for National Geographic," or

  • we could add "the" if you'd like.

  • I work for the National Geographic.

  • Excellent.

  • I'm a lawyer, lawyer.

  • Even though the root of this word is law, the vowel is different when we're talking

  • about the person loy, loy.

  • It sounds like it rhymes with boy, toy.

  • Lawyer, lawyer.

  • Or maybe you're a judge, a judge.

  • Like we mentioned before with the school system, you might say, "I work in the court system."

  • Maybe you're not a lawyer, you're not a judge, but you generally work in the court system.

  • This is excellent.

  • You can say, "I work in the court system."

  • I'm a tour guide, or I work in tourism.

  • You might not be the guide to yourself, but you could say, "I work in tourism."

  • If it's just a simple chit-chat with somebody else, they'll get the general idea that you

  • work with tourism instead of the specific job, giving all these details about what you

  • do.

  • I work in tourism.

  • The next category of jobs have to do with medical related jobs.

  • The first one is doctor.

  • I'm a doctor.

  • You might say, "I'm a heart doctor.

  • I'm an eye doctor.

  • I'm a bone doctor."

  • There are some technical terms related to each of these fields.

  • For example, you might say, "I'm an optician," instead of, "I'm an eye doctor."

  • But in daily conversation, we usually keep it simple and just say, "I'm a bone doctor.

  • I'm an eye doctor," something like this.

  • I'm a surgeon.

  • You might be a neurosurgeon.

  • You could add some more specific related words to this, but make sure that when you say the

  • word surgeon, surgeon, the end of that word is beautifully pronounced.

  • It's kind of swallowed surge.

  • Surgeon, surgeon.

  • Or if you're not a surgeon, but you have to go to the doctor, you might say, "Oh, I have

  • to see the surgeon today.

  • I'm worried about what he's going to say."

  • Make sure that you pronounce it correctly.

  • Surgeon.

  • I'm a nurse, or I'm a pediatrician.

  • This is a doctor who deals with kids.

  • You could combine these words and say, "I'm a pediatric nurse."

  • This is a nurse who works with children.

  • I'm a nurse.

  • I'm a pediatrician, or I'm a pediatric nurse.

  • A lot of these jobs, you can combine them to be more specific for your field so that

  • way you can expand your vocabulary even more.

  • I'm a dentist, dentist, or I'm a dental hygienist.

  • This is the person who checks your teeth and usually aids the dentist.

  • I'm a dentist, or I'm a dental hygienist.

  • Great.

  • I'm a pharmacist.

  • Break down this word with me.

  • I'm a pharmacist.

  • Or maybe I had to talk with the pharmacist today because I think they got my prescription

  • wrong.

  • I talked with the pharmacist.

  • If you help to work in the pharmaceutical field, you might be a pharmaceutical scientist.

  • Let's break down this word.

  • Pharma.

  • That's the first part.

  • Pharmaceutical.

  • Pharmaceutical scientist.

  • I'm a pharmaceutical scientist.

  • I'm a scientist.

  • This is quite general.

  • You couldn't make it more specific.

  • I'm a neuroscientist.

  • This deals with the brain.

  • I'm a neuroscientist, or I'm a biologist.

  • I'm a chemist, or I'm a physicist.

  • There's different syllables here, so say it with me.

  • Physicist.

  • I'm a physicist.

  • I'm a researcher.

  • Makes sure that the vowels in this word are the same.

  • Er, and then, er again.

  • I'm a researcher, researcher.

  • I'm an occupational therapist, or I'm a physical therapist.

  • Sometimes in the field, those are shortened to OT or PT.

  • I'm a PT.

  • But if you're talking to someone just on the street or someone you met who isn't familiar

  • with the field, I recommend saying the full term.

  • I'm an occupational.

  • Make sure that you use "tion" in the middle of that word.

  • Occupational therapist, or I'm a physical therapist.

  • I'm a psychologist.

  • I'm a therapist.

  • If you're feeling a little bit down, you're feeling some depression.

  • You might go see a therapist, or you might say a psychologist.

  • I feel like it's a little more common to say therapist for these types of people.

  • I'm a veterinarian.

  • Veterinarian, veterinarian.

  • But you can also say, "I'm a vet."

  • Just to let you know, if you say, "I'm a vet, someone might think that you used to be in

  • the military," because the word vet can be short for veterinarian, or it can be short

  • for veteran, which is someone who has served in the military.

  • So sometimes people who used to be in the military might say, "Oh, I'm a vet."

  • This means that you used to be in the military.

  • But if you're a veterinarian, you could also say, "I'm a vet."

  • If that person generally has an idea that you're some kind of doctor, you could just

  • say, "I'm a vet," but you can specify and say, "I'm a veterinarian."

  • Great word.

  • And finally in our medical category is Dietitian.

  • Diet is the root word here.

  • Dietitian, dietitian, dietitian.

  • This is someone who helps to create healthy meals maybe for a nursing home, maybe for

  • a school system.

  • They are a dietitian.

  • The next category are jobs that deal with offices or stores.

  • The first job is secretary.

  • I'm a secretary.

  • Let's break down this word.

  • Secretary, secretary, secretary.

  • I'm an office worker.

  • This is quite general, but you might want to be general and just say, "I'm an office

  • worker."

  • I'm an engineer.

  • You might be more specific and say, "I'm a mechanical engineer."

  • That's what my dad is.

  • Or you might say, "I'm a civil engineer.

  • I'm a software engineer."

  • Notice that the T in the middle of software is cut out.

  • Software.

  • The F and the W are right beside each other when we pronounce it, software engineer, or

  • you might say, "I'm an environmental engineer."

  • This great word, environmental.

  • Let's break it down.

  • Environmental, environmental.

  • Environmental engineer.

  • I'm an insurance broker.

  • I work in insurance.

  • I'm an insurance broker.

  • I work in insurance.

  • I'm an accountant, or you could be more specific and say, "I'm a tax accountant," or sometimes

  • this job is referred to as a tax adviser.

  • Make sure that when you say the word adviser, there's a Z sound there where the S is.

  • Adviser.

  • I'm a tax adviser.

  • I'm an account manager, account manager.

  • What if you work in marketing?

  • Would you say I'm a marketer?

  • Not really.

  • It's okay, but it's not that common.

  • I feel like it's more natural to just say, "I work in marketing."

  • I work in marketing.

  • I'm a human resources manager, or I work in human resources.

  • What if you have a technical job maybe like this, human resources manager, and you don't

  • really want to explain it to someone when you talk to them?

  • You could say simply with a smile, maybe with a little laugh, "Oh, you know, I work in an

  • office."

  • This means that you don't really want to explain your job in detail.

  • It's not rude.

  • It's kind of funny.

  • "Oh, you know, I work in an office."

  • It just covers all those bases.

  • All of those categories, office jobs.

  • "Oh, you know, I work in an office."

  • I'm a technician, or I'm an electronic technician.

  • I'm a sales representative.

  • I work in sales.

  • Maybe you don't want to say, "I'm a sales representative," every time.

  • You could just say, "I work in sales."

  • Great, that's clear and simple, but how can you pronounce the word representative?

  • You might notice that the T, the first T in this word I'm cutting out.

  • You can pronounce it.

  • You can say, "I'm a sales representative," tative in the middle of that word, but you

  • can just cut it out too.

  • That's what a lot of native speakers do when we're speaking quickly.

  • So let's say it slowly, and I want you to try to repeat it with me.

  • I'm a sales representative.

  • It sounds like zen.

  • Peace, zen, in the middle of this word.

  • I'm a representative.

  • I'm a sales representative.

  • You can do it.

  • All right, let's go to the next one.

  • I'm a customer service representative.

  • Same pronunciation for that word representative, but instead of you're saying customer service.

  • Typically, these are jobs on the phone compared to a sales representative, which is most likely

  • in a store talking directly with a customer.

  • But you could be a customer service representative.

  • I'm a receptionist.

  • I'm a receptionist.

  • You might be a hotel receptionist.

  • What about a clerk?

  • Sometimes I hear English learners say, "I'm the hotel clerk," or, "I'm a clerk in an office."

  • This word clerk kind of makes me think of 1800s, England, people in a dark office scribbling

  • down notes.

  • "I'm a clerk."

  • We don't really use this term in the US anymore.

  • So if you are a receptionist; you're helping someone at the front desk, you are a receptionist.

  • You're not a clerk.

  • I'm a consultant.

  • You might say that full word like I just did, consultant, or you can kind of swallow that

  • last syllable and say, "I'm a consultant."

  • Consultant.

  • Here, we have the root word, consultant.

  • I'm a consultant.

  • I'm a consultant.

  • I'm a consultant.

  • I'm a buyer.

  • Usually, if you use the word buyer, you're going to want to be a little more specific

  • like, "I'm a buyer for mechanical parts on airplanes," like one of you on YouTube told

  • me, "I'm a buyer for mechanical parts for airplanes."

  • Great.

  • I'm a bank teller, or you could just generally say, "I work at the bank."

  • I used to work at the bank, and I often just said, "I work at the bank."

  • I could have said, "I'm a bank teller," and that would have been more specific, but maybe

  • you have a different job at the bank, and you don't want to explain in detail.

  • You could just say, "I work at the bank," and most people can get the idea of what you

  • do.

  • I'm an intern.

  • This isn't a specific job field.

  • It could be in any job field, but maybe at the moment you are a student, and you're trying

  • to get a job in a specific job field, maybe at an engineering firm.

  • But you don't have the skills yet, so you are an intern.

  • You're learning those skills with the hopes that someday I'll get a job here.

  • I'm an intern.

  • The last one in this category is, I'm a realtor.

  • Realtor.

  • It sounds like just real plus T-E-R.

  • But it's not spelled like that.

  • I'm a realtor, or I'm a real estate agent.

  • This is someone who helps you to sell or buy houses.

  • I'm a real estate agent.

  • Real estate.

  • Usually, we link those words together.

  • I'm a real estate agent, or I'm a realtor.

  • The next category of jobs are creative jobs.

  • Of course, if your job is another category, you also probably need to use creativity.

  • Everyone needs to use creativity, but this is the best I could do for a category, so

  • we're going to talk about creative type jobs.

  • I'm a designer.

  • Maybe I'm a web designer.

  • I'm a fashion designer.

  • I'm a developer.

  • I'm a web developer.

  • Make sure that when you pronounce this, that V has some vibration here.

  • Developer.

  • If you have any problems with the sound ... or any other sound, I made a video called How

  • to Pronounce All 44 Sounds in English.

  • You can watch it up here, and it will help you to pronounce developer.

  • I'm a computer programmer.

  • Make sure that when you pronounce the word computer, you say D-E-R at the end.

  • I'm a computer programmer.

  • I'm an advertiser, or more likely you could say, "I'm in advertising."

  • That's the most common.

  • I'm a photographer.

  • Make sure the emphasis is correct here.

  • Photographer.

  • That T-O-G, photographer, is emphasized.

  • Photographer.

  • When you're talking about the physical thing, a photograph, we're going to emphasize a different

  • part of the word.

  • Photograph.

  • Do you notice that the first syllable is emphasized here?

  • Photograph, compared to I'm a photographer.

  • Pho, that first part is small.

  • Photographer.

  • I'm a photographer.

  • I'm an animator.

  • Make sure that the T changes to a D in American English, animator.

  • I'm an actor.

  • I'm an actress.

  • Sometimes women will also say, "I'm an actor."

  • It's not so specific that if you're a woman you have to say, "I'm an actress."

  • But if you're a man, you won't say, "I'm an actress."

  • Actor could work for both.

  • Or if you're a woman, you're welcome to say, "I'm an actress.

  • I'm an artist.

  • I'm a tattoo artist."

  • Here, that middle T is also changing to a D. Artist, artist.

  • I'm an artist.

  • I'm a painter.

  • I'm a painter.

  • I'm a sculptor.

  • I'm an interior designer.

  • Interior, interior.

  • Say that with me.

  • Interior designer, someone who designs the inside of places, usually someone's house,

  • maybe a hotel, maybe some special building, is an interior designer.

  • I'm a musician.

  • This word is kind of tricky.

  • Musician, musician, “musish” “zish.”

  • Practice that with me.

  • Musician, musician.

  • I'm a musician.

  • I'm a tailor.

  • Or if you're a woman, you might say, "I'm a seamstress."

  • Women can use the word tailor as well, but men probably won't use the word seamstress.

  • This is someone how fixes your clothes and sews them.

  • I'm a tailor.

  • I'm a seamstress.

  • The final job in this creative category is I'm a gardener.

  • I'm a landscaper.

  • Both of these mean the same thing.

  • You deal with plants and flowers and that kind of natural world.

  • I'm a gardener.

  • I'm a landscaper.

  • Notice the D here is cut out.

  • Landscaper.

  • I'm a landscaper.

  • The next job category are jobs that deal with food.

  • I'm a chef, or more specifically, I'm a pastry chef.

  • Pastry chef.

  • I'm a fry cook.

  • Usually, this means that you work at a fast-food restaurant.

  • Maybe in the back, you're frying things.

  • I'm a fry cook, or you could just say, generally, "I work in the kitchen at this local restaurant."

  • I work in the kitchen.

  • I'm a server, or I'm a waiter.

  • I'm a waitress.

  • It's so little bit more common to say, "I'm a server," because this covers men and women.

  • It means that you bring food to the tables.

  • I'm a server.

  • I'm a host.

  • I'm a hostess at the local restaurant.

  • This means that you greet the customers when they come in, and you help them to find a

  • table.

  • I'm the host.

  • I'm the hostess.

  • I'm a Barista.

  • Barista.

  • This is someone who makes coffee drinks.

  • I'm a Barista, or I'm a bartender.

  • You make alcoholic drinks.

  • I'm a bartender.

  • I'm a dishwasher.

  • Yes, this is the name for the machine, but maybe you are the person who washes the dishes

  • at the restaurant.

  • So you might say, "I am the dishwasher at that restaurant."

  • I'm the dishwasher.

  • I'm a taste tester.

  • I'm a taste tester.

  • I'm a farmer.

  • Of course you could say the type of thing that you farm.

  • I'm a cow farmer.

  • I'm a corn farmer.

  • I'm a rice farmer.

  • Or you might just generally say, "I work in agriculture."

  • Agriculture.

  • I work in agriculture.

  • The final category of jobs is societal type jobs, jobs that deal with our social framework.

  • The first job is I'm a police officer.

  • I'm a police officer.

  • You could say, "I'm a policeman.

  • That's totally fine," but it's a little more gender neutral to say, "I'm a police officer,"

  • and that's becoming more common to just say, "I'm a police officer."

  • I'm a fireman.

  • You don't really say, "I'm a firewoman."

  • So if you're a woman who's a fireman, it's okay.

  • You're a fireman.

  • I'm a social worker.

  • Makes sure that you say so, "cial," social.

  • Social worker.

  • Try to say that word 10 times.

  • Social, social, social, social.

  • It's tough.

  • You can say it.

  • I'm a social worker.

  • What about if you generally work in the government?

  • Can you say, "I'm a civil servant"?

  • A lot of my English students say this, and it's okay, but we don't really use this.

  • Instead, it's more common to just say, "I work in the public sector.

  • I work in the public sector," or maybe, "I work for the health department."

  • Something that's a little more general like this.

  • We don't really use the term civil servant that much anymore.

  • I'm in the military.

  • You could be more specific and say, "I'm a pilot in the Navy," or I'm a private in the

  • Army.

  • That's fine.

  • Or You could just say, "I'm in the military."

  • Make sure that in American English, you pronounce those final three letters military, same with

  • the word secretary.

  • In British English, they link those all together.

  • But in American English, we say each one.

  • Military, secretary.

  • I'm a plumber.

  • Makes sure that the B is silent.

  • Plumber.

  • I'm a plumber.

  • I'm an electrician.

  • Electrician.

  • I'm an electrician.

  • I'm a house cleaner.

  • I've heard some students say, "I'm a maid," and this is something that we don't really

  • use anymore.

  • It's quite old fashioned.

  • It does mean that you probably take care of the house, but nowadays, it's more common

  • to say, "I'm a house cleaner.

  • I'm a truck driver," or more commonly you might say, "I'm an over-the-road truck driver."

  • This means that you drive long distances.

  • Maybe you're taking important shipments of food to different places, or you're taking

  • some kind of packages to another location, and it's usually far away, maybe overnight.

  • I'm an over-the-road truck driver.

  • I'm a construction worker.

  • Construction.

  • Again, thatshsound here.

  • I'm a construction worker.

  • I'm a personal trainer.

  • I help people to get fit, get strong.

  • I'm a personal trainer.

  • I'm a hairdresser.

  • I'm a hair stylist or for men, I'm a barber.

  • If you cut men's hair, you could say, or maybe their beards, you could say, "I'm a barber."

  • But if you also help women, you wouldn't really say, "I'm a barber," because that deals with

  • just men's hair.

  • You could say, "I'm a hairstylist.

  • I'm a hairdresser."

  • Any of those words work.

  • I'm a beautician.

  • A beautician is typically someone who fixes your nails and makes them look nice.

  • I'm a beautician, beautician.

  • I'm a librarian, librarian.

  • Lots of syllables here.

  • Say it with me.

  • I'm a librarian or maybe you're not a librarian.

  • You could say, "I need to ask the librarian the name of that book because I forgot."

  • Librarian.

  • I'm a commercial pilot, commercial pilot, or maybe you also work on an airplane.

  • You are a steward or a stewardess or a flight attendant.

  • Typically, the term flight attendant is a little more common, kind of like server compared

  • to waiter or waitress.

  • This word, flight attendant, is a little more gender neutral, so it's kind of professional

  • sounding.

  • I'm a flight attendant.

  • I'm a handyman.

  • This means that you fix stuff.

  • I'm a handyman.

  • I'm a stay-at-home mom or stay-at-home dad.

  • Both of these mean that it is your main job, 100% to take care of the kids.

  • If you are a stay-at-home mom, of course it means that when your husband comes home, he

  • is going to help participate in taking care of the kids.

  • But during the day, usually, those working hours, it is your job to take care of the

  • kids, not an easy job for sure.

  • What about if you don't have any kids or maybe your kids are 20 or 30 or 40 years old, so

  • you don't need to take care of them anymore, but you don't have a job outside of the home?

  • You could say, "I'm a homemaker.

  • I'm a homemaker."

  • This implies that you're not taking care of children.

  • You're taking care of the house.

  • So if you have children, make sure that you say, "I'm a stay-at-home mom or stay-at-home

  • dad."

  • You don't say, "I'm a homemaker."

  • And our final job here (Congratulations.

  • You made it through!) is I'm retired.

  • That means that you finished working.

  • I'm retired, but you might say, "I'm retired," but I used to be a teacher.

  • I'm retired, but I used to be an engineer."

  • Great.

  • Or you might say, "I'm retired, but I still work part-time."

  • This is pretty typical for a lot of people.

  • I'm retired, but I just can't stop working.

  • That was a lot of jobs.

  • I hope that one of these was yours.

  • Let me know in the comments.

  • What's your job?

  • Can you explain it?

  • Can you pronounce it naturally?

  • Try to read it out loud?

  • And also, it will be interesting to see what other people's jobs are.

  • Thanks so much for learning English with me, and I'll see you again next Friday for a new

  • lesson here on my YouTube channel bye.

  • The next step is to download my free ebook, 5 Steps to Becoming a Confident English Speaker.

  • You'll learn what you need to do to speak confidently and fluently.

  • Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more free lessons.

  • Thanks so much.

  • Bye.

Hi.

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