Shadowing Practice: Asking people "What do you do for a living?" in USA - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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Hey everybody!
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Hey everybody!
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It's Ariannita la Gringa and welcome back to my YouTube channel.
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In today's video, I will ask people around Cincinnati, Ohio what they do for a living and how much they make each year.
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Let's go! Hi, what's your name? -My name's Austin.
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Hi Austin, what do you do for a living? -I work downtown at division's maintenance group and I manage a book of business for various different clients and I help them with their facility maintenance.
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When Americans ask "What do you do for a living?" they want to find out your job and what you do for work.
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What's your favorite part about your job? -Probably my favorite part is just seeing my client's reaction when I solve a problem for them.
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And then what kind of projects do you work on? -Well, right now I won't say the name, but I work for a donut company and I help them out with making sure their donut line's running.
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How many hours do you work each week? -I'm pushing like 70 hours per week right now.
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Just a lot of after-hours.
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Sounds like you work a lot and then how much do you earn each year?
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Right now I'm tracking towards $115,000.
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Hi, what's your name? -Mitch Keiser.
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Hi Mitch, what do you do for a living? -I work for Pro Football Focus.
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I'm a college football analyst for PFF here in Cincinnati.
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What's your favorite part about your job? -Getting to watch every college football game and then write about it later on. I write articles covering college football.
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And what's your favorite article you've written? -I wrote an article last fall about why Michael Penix should have won the Heisman. I was pretty happy about it and then he played really well so that's probably my favorite article.
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How many hours a week do you work? -40. Sometimes more in the season.
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Summertimes you get probably less than 40 'cuz it's off-season and then when fall rolls around probably like 60 hours some weeks.
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In the U.S. a standard work week is 40 hours usually 8 hours a day 5 days a week.
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If you work more than 40 hours that's overtime and you get paid extra.
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For example, if you make $10 an hour overtime is time and a half so for every hour worked over 40 you'd make $15.
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How much do you earn each year? -Not enough. Not enough. I'm going to say that.
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What's the minimum you could earn if you just started out?
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Probably like 30k would be the minimum (like the lowest). I make a little more than that, but not great you know.
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Hi, what's your name? -Hi, my name's Katie.
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Hi Katie, what do you do for a living? -I am a server.
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And what's your favorite part about your job? -I meet so many cool people.
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Especially being downtown I feel like it's such a wide variety of people that I get and it's just really cool to to meet so many different kinds of people.
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What do you do every day for your job? -I go around, I get tables, and I basically just take their food and drink order, chat it up with them, and have a good time, do anything they need, fill up their waters, keep them happy.
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And then what's your least favorite part about your job? -Sometimes it gets really overwhelming.
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I love to multitask, but sometimes it's like I'm not an octopus.
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It's hard to do 20 million things at once, but that's not always all the time that's just really busy days.
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It can be overwhelming for sure.
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How many hours each week do you work? -Right now, I'm doing about 40.
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During the school year I do like 25-30 [hours] so a few days a week.
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Okay, so you're a student as well? -Yeah.
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What do you study? -Um. Speech Pathology.
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I just graduated, yeah. -Oh congrats!
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And then how much do you earn each year? -Each year I think if I was working full-time it would be a lot more, but I think this year it was like $25,000, $22,000-$25,000 um and that's with full-time in the summer and then part-time during the school year.
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If you work full-time that means you work around 30 to 40 hours a week and you often get benefits like health insurance and paid time off.
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Katie works part-time so she works fewer hours usually 20 hours or less a week.
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Hi, what's your name? -Hi, my name is Cameron.
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Hi Cameron, what do you do for a living? -Currently, I work here at Starbucks at 580.
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What do you do for your job? -I'm a barista. I make coffees, do food here, bring out customers, and make sure everybody's met with what they need.
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What's your favorite part about your job? -With the customers for sure, getting to know people as they come in, and just being able to make those connections with everybody.
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And then what's the least favorite part about your job? -I'm gonna hit it with a little comedic joke I would say dishes.
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Dishes? -Yeah.
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How many hours do you work each week? -I work about 30 to 35 hours a week.
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How much do you earn? Right now I'm currently making $16.75 an hour.
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"How much do you earn?" is just a way of asking someone how much money they make.
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Also, Cameron gets paid by the hour so he earns more if he works more hours.
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Another way to get paid is with a salary where you get paid the same amount every pay period no matter how many hours you work.
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Hi, what's your name? -Orlando Smith.
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Hi Orlando, what do you do for a living? -Cincinnati law enforcement.
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And then what's your favorite part about your job? -Favorite part... Lunchtime.
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Lunchtime is good because we do so much.You never know when you're going to get a lunch break.
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Exactly. -So you could be on a run for several hours and you're standing there thinking... Cheeseburger's going to be great when it's time to eat.
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What's your least favorite part about your job? -Oh man... I think seeing so many victims.
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I think we see so many victims of crimes it can kind of put you in a no a good space in your head.
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And then how many hours do you work each week? -I do 10 hour-days. We do 10-hour shifts.
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A shift is a set period of time that you work at your job. For example, if you work dayshift you might work from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and if you work night shift you might work from 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.
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We work four on four off for 3 weeks and we work five on three off for 3 weeks.
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If you don't mind me asking, how much do you earn every year? -I make around a lil' six figures.
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Six figures means someone makes more than $100,000 a year. It's a way of saying they make a lot of money.
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And then if someone was just starting out how much would they make as a police officer?
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I think top out's maybe $80,000 with the city of Cincinnati.
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Well, thank you so much, Orlando. Nice to meet you. -It's a pleasure.
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Hi, what's your name? -I'm Jacob.
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Hi Jacob, what do you do for a living? -I am a bartender and I work private dining events.
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What's your favorite part about your job? -My favorite part about my job is the flexible scheduling that it comes with.
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How many hours do you work each week? -Anywhere between 25 and 35.
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What is the least favorite part about your job? -Late nights and the occasional rude customer.
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How much do you earn each year? -On paper around 65k.
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Hi, what's your name? -Hi, my name's Emilio.
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What do you do for a living? -Currently, I'm just employed at Planet Fitness as a front desk employee. The things that I love about working at Planet Fitness is that it gives me a free membership.
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I've always wanted to be more into like the active lifestyle and things like that.
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How many hours do you work each week? -I think the typical work week about 40 hours I think.
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How much do you earn each year? -I actually don't know 'cuz I just started this job about like three months-ish ago, three to four months ago so I I haven't done the calculations, but it is about minimum wage.
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Minimum wage is the lowest amount of money an employer is legally allowed to pay their workers per hour.
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How much is the minimum wage right now? -It's about like $10 something an hour.
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Hi, what's your name? -Brandy.
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Hi Brandy, what do you do for a living? -I'm a venue manager and event planner.
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What's your favorite part about your job? -There are a lot, but getting able to plan people's special day, their wedding, their events, birthday parties, that's probably my favorite thing.
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What's your favorite thing to plan? -I would say weddings.
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And then what's your least favorite part about your job? -I'm on call all the time so I never have a day off really.
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I'm always answering emails, phone calls, text messages, dealing with brides.
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A day off is a day when you do not have to work. It's a day you can spend doing whatever you want.
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How much do you make each year? -It fluctuates 'cuz I have a base salary and commission, but I live comfortably.
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If someone was just starting out with event planning how much would they normally make?
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Probably $50,000 a year yeah.
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Hi, what's your name? -I'm Ava.
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Hi Ava, what do you do for a living? -So I just am about to move to Guatemala in June and I'm going to be working for a medical clinic through University of Cincinnati.
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What will be your favorite part about the job? -I'm really excited to get to work with underprivileged communities in like a medical setting and I hope to go to medical school.
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That's amazing! And do you speak Spanish? -Yes I do.
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And then how many hours will you work each week in Guatemala?
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It depends so when the doctors and meds students are going down there it'll be like more of a full-time job working in the clinic.
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How much will you earn each week? -It's pretty much a volunteer job.
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I make very little money. It's pretty much volunteer, but I have some good stipends for food and I'll stay with the host family.
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Ava is going to get a stipend. A stipend is like a little bit of extra money.
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It will help cover costs if you're studying or working on a project. A stipend might cover basic needs like rent, food, and utilities.
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That's amazing, well thank you so much!
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Hi, what's your name? -Alison.
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What do you do for a living?
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I am currently an intern at the Catalytic Fund in Northern Kentucky.
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What kind of work do you do? -So we're a not-for-profit real estate investment firm so we basically help with like pre-development for things so that people who might not have the money to do so can build pretty buildings.
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What's your favorite part about the job? -I enjoy feeling like I'm making a difference and like working with like saving historical buildings.
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What's the least favorite part about your job? -My office doesn't have a window so I wish my office had a window that I could look out of.
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How many hours do you work each week? -Between 35 and 40 [hours].
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How much do you earn each year? -Currently, I make $17 an hour 'cuz it's just a summer internship while I'm in graduate school.
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An internship is like a temporary job where you learn about a certain field or industry.
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Think of it as a chance to try out a career before you commit to it.
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Hi, what's your name? -Joe Nickel.
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What do you do for a living? -I'm an urban designer and city planner.
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What do you like most about your job? -I love being able to work with people to change and improve their neighborhoods, their cities, their towns, and I like drawing.
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How many hours do you work each week? -I try to keep it under 45 [hours].
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How much do you earn every year? -I'm not going to answer that.
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Hi, what's your name? -Hi, I'm Alex.
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What do you do for a living? -So I'm a shift supervisor at Starbucks.
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What do you do for your job? -So my job is running anything on the floor.
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I'm just making sure everyone's making drinks, I'm just making sure everything runs smoothly, and making sure the day-to-day stuff works well.
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What do you like about your job? -I love being able to see different people.
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What's the least favorite part about your job? -I would say dealing with the downside of dealing with so many people. You get like random people that think they can do whatever.
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How many hours do you work each week? -So I work around 40 hours each week.
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How much do you earn each week or each year? -Each year is probably around $60,000 to $70,000.
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Hi, what's your name? -My name's Kyle.
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What do you do for a living? -I just started a new job in sales in Tampa so I start in about two weeks.
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And what kind of job do you have? -So I work in the elevator industry so I'm working as a sales trade.
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What's your favorite part about your job? -I just like the environment, the job flexibility.
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How many hours will you work each week? -So I'll typically work full time so I'll be in the office 5 days a week 8 hours a day.
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How much will you earn? -So i'll be around $95,000 my first year hopefully.
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It's commission-based so it could be above that/below that.
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A commission-based job means your pay is directly tied to how much you sell or how well you perform.
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The more you sell, the more you earn.
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Hi, what's your name? -My name's Calvin Johnson.
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What do you do for a living? -Well, I'm a retired Cincinnati Police Sergeant, but now I'm a supervisor for Cincinnati Metro Transit.
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Calvin retired from his job so he's not working full-time anymore.
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Most people retire around 65, but people can retire earlier or later for different reasons.
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What do you normally do for work? Like what does your day-to-day look like?
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I supervise the coaches that drive around the city, make sure they're safe getting there on time, making sure we have a positive experience riding the Metro.
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What's your favorite part about your job? -The people. Interacting with people and being able to assist them to get to A and B.
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And least favorite part about your job? -Probably the hours right now I work eight at night till four in the morning.
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How many hours do you work each week in total? -Uh 40 hours a week.
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How much do you earn each year? -Possibly about $80,000.
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Hi, what's your name? -My name's Evan Hunter.
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What do you do for a living? -I'm a data scientist at Fifth Third Bank.
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What's your favorite part about your job? -I honestly really love my co-workers.
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We have a lot of great people I work with.
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What kind of projects do you work on? -I'm primarily working on our digital messaging chatbot genie right now and so working a lot with our operations partners, working a lot with our developers who work on the chatbot, [and] figuring out what the chatbot's gonna say in various circumstances.
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How many hours do you work each week? -40-50 [hours] somewhere in there. Not too many.
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I don't work as much as many people do.
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Okay everybody I hope you guys enjoyed this video.
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And I hope this video gives you a glimpse of what people do for a living and how much they earn each year.
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Go ahead and give me a like, subscribe, and I'll see you guys next week.
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Bye!
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Why practice speaking with this video?
Practicing speaking English with real-life examples is crucial for language learners. In the video "Asking people 'What do you do for a living?' in the USA," you’ll encounter a natural conversational setting as the host talks to various individuals about their professions. Engaging with this content not only helps learners understand job-related vocabulary but also allows them to hear authentic American accents and expressions. By mimicking the dialogues, you can improve both your fluency and confidence in speaking. This is the essence of shadow speech—a method where you repeat what you hear, enhancing your speaking skills while truly connecting with the language. Utilizing resources like a shadowing site can provide additional support in your practice.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
Throughout the video, several key expressions and grammatical structures are used that can enhance your speaking skills:
- What do you do for a living? - This is a common way to ask someone about their job. It’s a simple structure you can use when meeting new people.
- How many hours do you work each week? - This question helps gather information about work schedules. Notice the use of "do" for simple present structure, indicating routine actions.
- I work about 30 to 35 hours a week. - This response illustrates the use of approximate figures, which can be useful when discussing quantities that may vary.
- My favorite part is... / My least favorite part is... - These phrases allow you to express likes and dislikes regarding your job, a key aspect of sharing personal experiences.
Practicing these structures through a method like shadow speech can help reinforce them in your memory.
Common Pronunciation Traps
When interacting with native speakers, certain pronunciation challenges may arise:
- Difficult consonant clusters: Words like "maintenance" and "facilities" may be tricky due to the combination of sounds. Be mindful of breaking them down into syllables to better pronounce them.
- Vowel sounds: Understanding the different vowel sounds used in American English, such as in "forty" and "thirty," can be challenging and may affect comprehension.
- Conversational speed: American speakers often speak quickly, especially in casual settings. Shadowing segments of the video can help you train your ear to catch every word.
By focusing on these pronunciation traps while watching and repeating phrases from the video, learners can sharpen their accent and improve overall communication skills. Incorporating resources that emphasize shadow speech techniques will greatly enhance your ability to learn English with YouTube.
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.
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