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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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “20 Office Expressions to Describe Your Workplace - Visual Vocabulary”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: desk, dress, paper, cubicle, hot. This video has 88 sentences and 976 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:38. The speaker talks at a steady 113 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| cubicle noun | /ˈkjuːbɪkəl/ | A small separate part or one of the compartments of a room, especially in a work environment. |
| cramp noun | /kɹæmp/ | A painful contraction of a muscle which cannot be controlled; (sometimes) a similar pain even without noticeable contraction. |
| smartly adverb | /ˈsmɑː(ɹ)tli/ | With a fine or fashionable appearance. |
| paperless adjective | Without paper. | |
| photocopier noun | A machine which reproduces documents by photographing the original over a glass plate and printing duplicates. | |
| workspace noun | /ˈwɝkˌspeɪs/ | An area allocated for someone to work in, especially in an office. |
| printer noun | /ˈpɹɪntɚ/ | One who makes prints. |
| workplace noun | /ˈwɝkˌpleɪs/ | The place where someone works. |
| surveillance noun | /sɚˈveɪ.ləns/ | Close observation of an individual or group; person or persons under suspicion. |
| boot noun | /but/ | A heavy shoe that covers part of the leg. |
| adjective noun | /ˈæd͡ʒ.ɪk.tɪv/ | A word that modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes a noun’s referent. |
| copier noun | /ˈkɑpiɚ/ | A machine that copies graphical material; a duplicator. |
| photocopy noun | /ˈfəʊtəˌkɒpi/ | A copy made using a photocopier. |
| reliably adverb | In a reliable manner. | |
| unreliable adjective | /ˌʌn.ɹəˈlaɪ.ə.bəl/ | Not reliable. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). |
| move around verb | To relocate to new homes repeatedly; to not live in any one place for long. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- 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?
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 14 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, aren't, can't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: photocopy /ˈfəʊtəˌkɒpi/, unreliable /ˌʌn.ɹəˈlaɪ.ə.bəl/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, notorious /nə(ʊ)ˈtɔː.ɹɪ.əs/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like cubicle, cramp, smartly.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.