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.
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.
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 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 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 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, that “sh” sound 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.