This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 206.
What's your line of work? English vocabulary for your career.
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Hey, Michelle, how's it going? Hey, Lindsay, I'm good.
How are you? Fantastic. Fantastic. Do you have a question for me to start off the day?
I do. I'm really curious. Did you always know you wanted to do something with international relations?
Like, how did you get into this field? I was always curious about the world.
I grew up in a small town and we used to take trips to New York as a family.
And I just felt like I didn't want to stay.
I wanted my mindset to be bigger. There was so much more out there.
So yeah, I guess I was always kind of headed in that direction based on curiosity. yeah intercultural communication you just got in yeah i mean i love i love the field as well as you know so that's what we're going to talk about today before we do that guys if you haven't hit follow in the business english podcast please take a second to do that now yeah so today we're going to talk about words to share what your job is i love this idea when could this be useful sharing what your job is Oh, I mean, tons of times, right?
Sure. It could be at social events. It could be when you're marketing yourself, networking.
It could be even at a job interview, you might say it.
Yeah, I'm thinking networking events, as you said, social events.
Yeah, so this spans across words you might use in the business world directly at your work or just in your social life when you talk about your work, which is important too.
Right, right. Absolutely. So we're going to talk about how to share what your job is.
So head on over to episode 177 of the Business English podcast.
That was how to brag in the business world.
Sometimes you might need to brag about your job too.
Yeah, super important to be able to do that or to understand how to do that without, in a way that's palatable, right?
And we get into that over there. So let's get started today, Michelle, with our new vocab.
All right. Yes. Vocab one is line of work.
So you should know that in this line of work, there is not a lot of time off.
Okay, yeah, this feels like an old phrase.
It feels like it's been around for a long time and it spans across all different economies, all different types of jobs.
Yeah. Yeah. For sure. I mean, Lindsay, if you weren't a podcaster, what line of work would you be in, do you think?
I don't know. Actually, maybe just a straight up teacher.
But I also really like business building and entrepreneurship.
So I actually don't know what I would be doing.
All right. Well, I guess you're in the perfect place.
Yeah. Feels good. Feels right. So we'll go with it.
All right. What else? So line of work. And again, I think this one works great for... well all of these kind of work i'm just kind of getting at you know any kind of job like hands-on jobs right jobs that traditionally we've called them blue-collar jobs i don't know if that term is even pc anymore but i'm just trying to think like which of these expressions apply do they apply across white-collar jobs and blue-collar jobs you know interesting yeah yeah um yeah i mean well but another word you could use is just profession yeah that one definitely is very objective could be anything anything right right his profession requires him to travel a lot Lindsay is there a profession that you respect the most like when you hear somebody has this job you're like oh my gosh I would say after spending 12 hours in the ER with my mom in December in October ER nurses Because it was just incredible watching.
I sat there because we were there all night.
It took 12 hours to get a bed. And I watched the triage nurse.
It was a male nurse. I watched him take in, do the intake for like 50 patients.
Oh my gosh. And just watched. It's three in the morning.
And he's asking key questions, triaging, who's most important to treat right away.
I mean, yes. Nurses, anyone, especially nurses.
Because doctors, I think, get all the, I don't know glory and respect but I think nurses end up doing a lot of the hard work nurses and PAs physicians assistants yeah yeah yeah I was I was also gonna I was I also was thinking of the medical field um but which actually field is our next word um but I was thinking of people who work in medicine also I'd say um like fire firemen like fire men and women um that, you know, these people, you know, anybody, anybody who is saving lives.
Yeah. And then if we're going to mention that we can't forget teachers of kids.
I mean, it's a hard time to be a teacher right now.
Um, but I have a lot of respect, especially for kids, teachers who, people who stay in, in education, early education.
It's tough. But it is tough. And you always see that, you know, they are asking, you know, now they actually have to use a lot of their own money to buy supplies for their kids.
And it's it's it's tough. Yeah. So teachers, nurses and firefighters, we like them.
Yes, exactly. Exactly. So I did use the word field.
So that's another way to say, you know, a certain category of work.
So it's a really competitive field. Yeah, this one we used all the time in my graduate program.
We talk about in the field, the field, meaning the field, if you're talking to people in your own graduate program, in our case, it meant, yeah, I actually went to school.
Most of the people I did my graduate program with ended up going into international student support or study abroad advising.
That was the path. I ended up going a different route.
But most people did that. So they're talking about the field of study abroad is actually what they meant when they said the field.
Actually, it's interesting you say that because when I was deciding what to get my master's in, I was considering doing international education, I guess.
Yeah, that's the field that I was talking about.
Yeah, exactly. International ed. And that was my – what I was considering doing was –
Wow, I haven't thought about it since so long.
I was considering, I wanted to work for a university doing like helping to build study abroad programs because my dream was then that, oh, I would be able to travel to the place.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here I am. Here we might have gone to the same grad program if you had done that.
Yeah. No, really. I was very much considering that, but life took me to a different place and here I am with you and I'm very happy.
But teaching is great because you're interacting with students and it's just different, different plans.
Careers can take different turns and that could be another episode.
Why our listeners should hit follow is because we're going to come up with these awesome episodes in 2024, things that just come to our minds, Michelle, as we speak on the show.
That's right. That's right. And then the last one we're going to teach is industry.
So does that feel at all different or similar to these other ones?
Yeah. I use this a lot nowadays to talk about the podcasting industry.
Right. So whereas in graduate school, for some reason, the key word among my friends was the field.
Now, when I read, I read every morning about the podcasting industry, like I subscribe to newsletters about it.
We read about what's going on with Spotify, the stock price, all these things that are going on that are affecting this industry yeah um or you could also the esl industry for some reason i hear that one a little less maybe because podcasting is more technical yeah yeah i mean you could say something like there were a lot of layoffs in our industry yesterday so but a lot of times like lindsay has already said it's used with a job before it so the tech industry the medical industry the podcasting industry right right right right yes and michelle if you could be involved with the film or tv or music industry which one would you choose film meaning hollywood i guess tv meaning like sitcoms or netflix tv series or music which industry would you choose um yeah i i i would say music or tv Because I feel like TV... No, Hollywood too.
I mean, I'd take any of them. I think those would all be fun places to work.
I have done stuff in the music industry before.
But I just feel that TV is more fun than film.
TV is really innovative these days. I mean, we were just talking on another episode on All Ears English podcast about this show we're following.
I mean, it's really strong. Yeah. Yeah.
Almost better than movies in a way. I haven't found any great movies, although I do want to see that Napoleon movie.
Have you seen it? My parents saw it and they thought it was very good.
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Exclusions apply. See details online. Okay, Michelle, what else?
Where should we go from here? Yeah, so these are all really useful in business conversations as well.
So they're professional sounding. So you can use them in meetings, interviews, lots of different places.
But let's put it all together with a role play.
All right, here we go. So here I am on my first day at a new job at your office.
So I've joined the company. Here we go. Oh, this office is beautiful.
Thanks. In the design industry, it's important to have a beautiful space.
Totally agree. That's why it's my favorite field.
Me too. I always wanted a profession where I could work on designing the most beautiful spaces for people to spend their days.
That is amazing. That's why I love this line of work as well.
Nice. I'm a fan girl on my first day of work, right?
That's right. That's right. Oh, okay. Um, I said in the design industry, it's important to have a beautiful space. yeah the design so that's a a whole industry in itself maybe interior design is what you mean right um and then i said totally agree instead of you know guys bonus here take note of this i didn't say i totally agree i just said totally agree and that is totally legit all right we'll go back to that another day um that's why it's my favorite field again here we're throwing in this other word field And then I said, I always wanted a profession where I could work on designing the most beautiful spaces for people to spend their days.
Lindsay, interior design, that's like the job I wanted when I was little.
I thought, oh, it'd be so cool to be an interior designer, but then I don't have any natural talent for that.
But it's kind of like my, you know how in Seinfeld, George always says, oh, he wants to be an architect and he pretends he's an architect.
That's like my, I think interior design is so great.
It's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. I mean, I think some of that stuff could be learned, right?
Maybe you would need some natural talent, but a lot of it's like color theory and things you can learn about spaces and lines and things.
So you could have maybe another career, maybe a second career someday, Michelle.
Who knows? Who knows? Yeah. So, and then what was the last thing you said?
That's amazing. That's why I love this line of work as well. know michelle one thing that comes to mind when we talk about this topic we have a couple of minutes here is you know i i think we should ask our listeners in a poll today you know are you doing what your parents wanted you to do or what you want to do this is a country because i think especially internationally globally a lot of our listeners families might have wanted to push them into doctor or lawyer or i don't know scientist or something and and because those are respected and you know our parents generation they come from another perspective make money support your family whereas our generation maybe has different priorities in a way what are your thoughts there oh that's a that's a big question yeah that is i mean that's good um yeah i i think My parents have talked about how they got into their industries.
They both worked for the government. My brother works for the government.
So I'm the only one who doesn't work for the government.
So I was always a little bit on the different end and did things in entertainment and things like that.
So I did break away a little bit, but...
There's a lot of like my husband and his family, they're more in the medical professions.
But it's funny because when we first started dating, he's like, oh, my family is more like all of our conversations are about medicine and all of the conversations in my family are about politics. um yeah so i don't know if that answered your question but basically it's interesting how things can you know careers can stick to families for generations or especially if maybe there's a family business right Right.
That's a whole other thing, right? Taking over the family business.
Sometimes there's expectations to stay in that industry and inherit the family business.
For my family, that wasn't a thing at all.
My dad was an optometrist, private practice.
There was never any expectation that my brother or I would become an optometrist and inherit the business.
I don't think we ever even... Maybe my dad thought of it once or twice, but it was never a thing.
But yeah, I just think culturally there might be a difference in terms of pressure that parents put on their kids to be in certain careers as opposed to finding their own path.
And I'm curious, I'm wondering how we're going to form this poll question for our listeners today.
Check out the poll today for today's episode and we'll see what we come up with.
And Michelle, any takeaway broadly about industry, field, anything today?
Yeah, well, I mean, these are useful words and expressions.
I mean, there's something special about all of these.
They can be used to talk about so many things.
Also a career change. It's just even though they seem like just your basic vocab words, they can be used in a way that share so much about who you are.
And it can be used for lots of different conversation topics to connect.
Oh, speaking of career change, that might be our question, right?
So I think that in the US it's common to do career changes, right?
It's quite common for adults, even 30, 40, 50 to change fields.
Wouldn't you agree? I think now more so than it used to be.
It used to be that gold watch, right? The gold watch, the golden parachute, right?
Yes. But now it is, especially with the internet, people do jump careers.
It's not easy and it may require getting up-skilled or re-skilled, but it is common.
But I don't know if worldwide, if that's common.
So that is going to be our question in the poll.
We found it. Go to the poll, check it out.
And I want to hear what you guys have to say.
All right, Michelle, take care. Have a good one.
All right. Bye. Bye, guys. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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