Shadowing Practice: 20 Office Expressions to Describe Your Workplace - Visual Vocabulary - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hi, I'm Katie.
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Welcome to Oxford Online English.
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In this visual vocabulary lesson, you can learn words and phrases to talk about offices and describe where you work.
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Before we begin, check out our website, Oxford Online English dot com.
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Do you want to see a range of video and listening lessons to improve your English?
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English, all 100% free.
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We have that.
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Do you want to take online classes with a professional teacher?
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We can do that too.
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Oxford Online English dot com.
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Let's start by looking at different types of offices.
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I work in an open plan office.
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It's light and modern, but it can be quite noisy sometimes and it can be hard to focus on my work.
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My office has cubicles.
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It's okay but sometimes I find it depressing that there are no windows and I can't see the sky.
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Is your office open plan?
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Many modern offices are.
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Open plan means that everything is in one large space and there aren't many separate rooms.
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Many open plan offices have cubicles.
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Large offices with many cubicles can be called cubicle farms.
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This has a negative meaning.
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If you describe your office as a cubicle farm, you're probably suggesting that it's a boring place to work.
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I work for a startup and our office is nice but too small.
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It's very cramped and there aren't enough desks so we have to hot desk.
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Cramped is a useful adjective.
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It means that you don't have enough space.
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You can use it for many things.
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For example, if your kitchen is very small and you can't move around without hitting things, then you could say it's cramped.
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What about hot desk?
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Do you know what it means or can you guess?
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desking is a way to share a workspace.
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If you hot desk you don't have your own desk, you share a desk with other workers and you just take any free desk when you get to work.
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Hot desking might be used in companies where people don't work at the same time.
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If employees work at different hours they can hot desk.
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As one person leaves another person can arrive and use the same workspace.
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After working here for a few years I got a promotion and was given my own personal office.
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In many buildings having a corner office of your own is considered the best location because you have views on two sides.
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On the other hand the words personal office just means that you don't share your office with anyone.
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A personal office could also be a tiny room with no windows.
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Our company is quite casual so people just wear what they want.
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My company has a strict dress code.
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You have to dress smartly at all times.
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Does your office have a dress code?
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Do people in your office dress more casually or more smartly?
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You can say dress smartly or dress formally.
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The meaning is similar.
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What else?
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Some workplaces might have a smart casual dress code.
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Smart casual is in the middle between formal and informal.
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For example, for men it might mean wearing a shirt and smart trousers, but not a tie or a full suit.
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We have a small meeting room in our office.
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Sometimes we have bigger meetings and we need to rent a larger space somewhere else.
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Many offices have a meeting room.
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What other rooms might you find in an office?
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Can you think of three?
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Bigger offices might have a conference room,
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room like a meeting room but larger you might have a copy room for making photocopies
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or printing documents you might have a staff room or a break room for employees to eat and relax
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an office could have an it room or a server room with computer equipment
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We have a copy room with a photocopier and a heavy duty printer.
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The copier tends to break a lot or the paper gets jammed.
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Heavy duty describes something that can do a large amount of work reliably.
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You can use it for other things too.
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For example, if you work in construction, you might need heavy duty boots, tough boots that can protect your feet.
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Do you often have problems with printers or photocopiers at work?
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These machines are notorious for being unreliable.
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A common problem is a paper jam.
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The paper gets stuck inside the machine and you have to open it up and try to get it out.
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Our office still relies on paper records for many things, so everyone has to know how our filing system works.
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If your office still keeps paper records, you might use filing cabinets to keep files and records organised.
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Our company decided to go 100% paperless recently so all our records are digital.
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On the other hand, many companies are trying to use less paper for environmental or budget reasons.
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If your company doesn't use paper for anything, you can say that you work in a paperless office.
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Our office has a lot of security.
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Most internal doors are kept locked and you need a swipe card to open them.
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Cameras monitor all areas of the office.
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Staff don't like it because they feel like they're being watched all the time.
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If your office has a lot of security measures like card locked doors, CCTV cameras or security guards,
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then you can say that your company has tight security.
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Another useful word is surveillance.
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Many security measures like cameras might be used to track employees and see where they go and what they do.
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This is an example of surveillance, devices or rules designed to monitor employees.
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What about your office?
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Can you describe your workplace?
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Put your description in the comments and try to use some of the language you've seen in this lesson.
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That's all.
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Thanks for watching.
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Thank you.

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Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección

Esta lección de conversación de nivel B2 se basa en el vídeo “20 Office Expressions to Describe Your Workplace - Visual Vocabulary”. Las palabras que más se repiten: desk, dress, paper, cubicle, hot. Este vídeo tiene 88 frases y 976 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 8:38. El hablante mantiene un ritmo constante de unas 113 palabras por minuto, cómodo para el shadowing. El 84 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés; conviene repasar el resto antes de empezar.

Vocabulario clave de este vídeo

Las 15 palabras más avanzadas del vídeo, con su pronunciación y significado:

PalabraPronunciaciónSignificado
cramp sustantivo/kɹæmp/calambre, rampa
paperless adjetivosin papeles
photocopier sustantivofotocopiadora, copiadora
printer sustantivo/ˈpɹɪntɚ/impresor
workplace sustantivo/ˈwɝkˌpleɪs/lugar de trabajo, curro
surveillance sustantivo/sɚˈveɪ.ləns/vigilancia
boot sustantivo/but/bota
adjective sustantivo/ˈæd͡ʒ.ɪk.tɪv/adjetivo
photocopy sustantivo/ˈfəʊtəˌkɒpi/fotocopia
unreliable adjetivo/ˌʌn.ɹəˈlaɪ.ə.bəl/no/poco/nada fiable/confiable, no ser de fiar
swipe verbo/swaɪp/deslizar, pasar
casually adverbio/ˈkæʒuəli/ligeramente, de pasada
noisy adjetivo/ˈnɔɪzi/ruidoso
vocabulary sustantivo/vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/vocabulario
startup sustantivo/ˈstɑɹtˌʌp/arranque

Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar

PalabraSignificado
check out verboinvestigar, chequear
move around verbomovilizarse

Frases que vale la pena repetir

Frases cortas y completas del vídeo que puedes reutilizar en la conversación diaria:

  • Is your office open plan?
  • Does your office have a dress code?
  • What other rooms might you find in an office?
  • Can you think of three?
  • Can you describe your workplace?

Pronunciación a tener en cuenta

El hablante usa 14 contracciones y formas reducidas, como don't, aren't, can't. Dilas en su forma corta, tal como las oyes.

  • Palabras largas — cuida el acento: photocopy /ˈfəʊtəˌkɒpi/, unreliable /ˌʌn.ɹəˈlaɪ.ə.bəl/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, notorious /nə(ʊ)ˈtɔː.ɹɪ.əs/

Sonidos difíciles para hispanohablantes:

  • s + consonante al inicio — sin añadir una “e” delante: smartly /ˈsmɑː(ɹ)tli/, swipe /swaɪp/, startup /ˈstɑɹtˌʌp/
  • /v/ — no es /b/: los dientes tocan el labio inferior: surveillance /sɚˈveɪ.ləns/, adjective /ˈæd͡ʒ.ɪk.tɪv/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/
  • /z/ — sonora, no /s/: noisy /ˈnɔɪzi/, trousers /ˈtɹaʊzɚz/

Cómo practicar con este vídeo

  1. Escucha el vídeo entero una vez sin hablar y anota las palabras que no conoces.
  2. Haz shadowing frase por frase a velocidad normal, repitiendo cada una hasta que tu ritmo coincida con el del hablante.
  3. Grábate y compara con el original, prestando atención a palabras como cramp, paperless, photocopier.

¿Qué es la Técnica de Shadowing?

Shadowing es una técnica de aprendizaje de idiomas respaldada por la ciencia, desarrollada originalmente para la formación de intérpretes profesionales y popularizada por el políglota Dr. Alexander Arguelles. El método es simple pero poderoso: escuchas audio en inglés nativo y lo repites en voz alta de inmediato, como una sombra que sigue al hablante con solo 1-2 segundos de retraso. A diferencia de la escucha pasiva o los ejercicios de gramática, el shadowing obliga a tu cerebro y músculos de la boca a procesar y reproducir simultáneamente patrones de habla reales. Las investigaciones muestran que mejora significativamente la precisión de la pronunciación, la entonación, el ritmo, el habla conectada, la comprensión auditiva y la fluidez al hablar, convirtiéndola en una de las metodologías más efectivas para la preparación del IELTS Speaking y la comunicación en inglés en el mundo real.

Técnica de shadowing: lee la guía completa paso a paso →