Learn how to tell someone what your occupation is
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Betsey:Hello everyone and welcome to PolishPod101.com. This is Beginner series, season 1, lesson 9, Another Day in Poland, Another Dollar. I’m Betsey. |
| Joanna:And I’m Joanna. |
| Betsey:In this lesson you’ll learn how to talk about your occupation. |
| Joanna:This conversation takes place at a cafe. |
| Betsey:The conversation is between Ewa and Jan. |
| Joanna:They are around the same age, so they’ll be using informal Polish. |
| Betsey:Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Jan:Cześć, Ewa. Co słychać? |
| Ewa:Jakoś leci. |
| Jan:Coś się stało? |
| Ewa:Od miesiąca szukam pracy i ciągle nic. |
| Jan:Kim jesteś z zawodu? |
| Ewa:Jestem muzykiem. Wszyscy w mojej rodzinie są muzykami. |
| Alisha: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Jan:Cześć, Ewa. Co słychać? |
| Ewa:Jakoś leci. |
| Jan:Coś się stało? |
| Ewa:Od miesiąca szukam pracy i ciągle nic. |
| Jan:Kim jesteś z zawodu? |
| Ewa:Jestem muzykiem. Wszyscy w mojej rodzinie są muzykami. |
| Alisha: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Jan:Cześć, Ewa. Co słychać? |
| :Hello, Ewa. What's up? |
| Ewa:Jakoś leci. |
| :I'm getting by. |
| Jan:Coś się stało? |
| :Did something happen? |
| Ewa:Od miesiąca szukam pracy i ciągle nic. |
| :I have been looking for a job for a month and still nothing. |
| Jan:Kim jesteś z zawodu? |
| :What's your profession? |
| Ewa:Jestem muzykiem. Wszyscy w mojej rodzinie są muzykami. |
| :I am a musician. We are all musicians in my family. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Betsey:So Joanna, is Poland a superstitious nation? |
| Joanna:I’m sure that if you ask this question everyone will say no, but there are some superstitions that we just can’t stop ourselves from believing. |
| Betsey:Like what? |
| Joanna:For example, whenever Poles see a chimney sweep, they will grab a button instantly and make a wish. |
| Betsey:A chimney sweep?! |
| Joanna:Sounds weird, doesn’t it? But this is what happens every time we see one. It’s not a matter of believing or not, it’s just what we do. Grab the button, make a wish and hope not to see next a woman wearing glasses or a nun, because then the wish will not come true! |
| Betsey:Sounds funny. Are there any other superstitions that people still kind of believe? |
| Joanna:There are quite a few among students. |
| Betsey:Ok students out there, listen carefully now! |
| Joanna:If you have an exam, it’s very good to bring something borrowed. It can be anything - earrings, a bracelet, a pencil, a shirt. Doesn’t matter what, just borrow something and it will bring you luck. Wearing something red, especially underwear, is supposed to help too. |
| Betsey:There’s more information about superstitions in the lesson notes. But, now we know how to avoid bad luck and welcome good luck in Poland! So it’s time to get to know some more vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| :Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| :The first word we shall see is:stać się [natural native speed] |
| :to happen |
| :stać się [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :stać się [natural native speed] |
| :Next:od [natural native speed] |
| :from |
| :od [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :od [natural native speed] |
| :Next:miesiąc [natural native speed] |
| :month |
| :miesiąc [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :miesiąc [natural native speed] |
| :Next:szukać [natural native speed] |
| :search, to look for |
| :szukać [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :szukać [natural native speed] |
| :Next:praca [natural native speed] |
| :work, job |
| :praca [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :praca [natural native speed] |
| :Next:ciągle [natural native speed] |
| :still |
| :ciągle [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :ciągle [natural native speed] |
| :Next:nic [natural native speed] |
| :nothing |
| :nic [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :nic [natural native speed] |
| :Next:w [natural native speed] |
| :in |
| :w [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :w [natural native speed] |
| :Next:mój [natural native speed] |
| :my, mine |
| :mój [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :mój [natural native speed] |
| :And last:rodzina [natural native speed] |
| :family |
| :rodzina [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :rodzina [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Betsey:Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. Joanna, what’s the first word? |
| Joanna:‘praca’ |
| Betsey:“work” |
| Joanna:This feminine noun is used the same way as in English. No surprises here. |
| Betsey:That’s definitely good news! |
| Joanna:But in Polish we have one more word to talk about work. |
| Betsey:And what’s that? |
| Joanna:‘robota’ |
| Betsey:So what’s the difference between them? |
| Joanna:‘Robota’ is much more casual than ‘praca’. Sometimes while talking about your work with your friends or family members ‘praca’ may sound a little bit too stiff, so in that case many Poles choose to use ‘robota’. For example,Id |
| Betsey:both mean “I’m going to work tomorrow.” |
| Joanna:So please remember - ‘praca’ can be used with anyone, but ‘robota’ only among friends and family. |
| Betsey:Okay, what’s the next word? |
| Joanna:‘ciągle’ |
| Betsey:“still” |
| Joanna:This adverb is very interesting, because Poles usually use it when they don’t like something or they’re irritated by something. |
| Betsey:Like in our dialogue, Ewa was complaining about difficulties with finding a job. |
| Joanna:A different example would be - ‘Chcę wyjść, ale ciągle pada deszcz.’ |
| Betsey:“I want to go out but it’s STILL raining” |
| Joanna:or ‘Zjadłem duży obiad i ciągle jestem głodny’ |
| Betsey:“I ate a big dinner and I’m STILL hungry” |
| Joanna:‘ciągle’ is a little bit casual, so if you find yourself in a formal situation or you’re writing an essay for school, avoid using it. It’s better to replace it with another word ‘nadal’, which has exactly the same meaning. |
| Betsey:I think we learned some useful words in this lesson! Now let’s go to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Betsey:In this lesson, we’re going to learn how to talk about occupations. |
| Joanna:Whenever you want to find out what someone’s occupation is, just use the question you heard in the dialogue ‘Kim jesteś z zawodu?’ |
| Betsey:This literally means “who are you from your profession?” but of course we will use the English equivalent “What’s your profession?” |
| Joanna:First start with ‘kim jesteś’ |
| Betsey:which translates into “who are you” |
| Joanna:then add the phrase ‘z zawodu’ |
| Betsey:which means “from your profession” |
| Joanna:And the question is ready - ‘Kim jesteś z zawodu?’ |
| Betsey:“What’s your profession?” |
| Joanna:Now imagine you’re meeting a Polish friend and you want to know what his or her profession is. How would you ask? Repeat after me. ‘Kim jesteś z zawodu?’ [pause] |
| Betsey:Now that we know how to ask the question, let’s find out how to answer. |
| Joanna:Answering is very easy, because it requires using only two words. |
| Betsey:In the dialogue Ewa said “I’m a musician” |
| Joanna:In Polish ‘Jestem muzykiem’ |
| Betsey:What are the components of the sentence? |
| Joanna:The first word is the well-known verb “to be” conjugated for the first-person - ‘jestem’, and then there’s the name of a profession, in this case ‘muzyk’. The form we have to use in this sentence is instrumental case, that’s why we get ‘muzykiem’. |
| Betsey:Let’s hear it one more time. |
| Joanna:‘Jestem muzykiem’ |
| Betsey:But Ewa said something more, didn’t she? |
| Joanna:Yes, she said that all her family members are musicians. Let’s make this sentence simpler - ‘jesteśmy muzykami’ |
| Betsey:“we are musicians” |
| Joanna:As you can see the word for the occupation, changed form. It’s still in instrumental case, but this time it’s plural. |
| Betsey:For the table showing declension of plural nouns, please refer to the lesson notes. |
| Joanna:The noun ‘muzyk’ is a very interesting one. |
| Betsey:Why’s that? |
| Joanna:Because it is masculine but it can be used for both females and males. So I’m a girl and if this is my profession I’d say ‘Jestem muzykiem’. If my brother was a musician, he would also say ‘Jestem muzykiem.’ |
| Betsey:Oh, that’s interesting. Both sentences mean “I’m a musician”, but in this case there’s no difference between the situation no matter whether it’s a man or a woman speaking. |
| Joanna:This is very unusual for the Polish language. |
| Betsey:Are there any other words like that? |
| Joanna:There are a few more occupations, like ‘prezydent’ |
| Betsey:“president” |
| Joanna:‘architekt’ |
| Betsey:“architect” |
| Joanna:or ‘muzyk’ |
| Betsey:“musician”. |
| Marketing Piece 9 |
| Betsey:Listeners, looking for a cheat sheet to memorizing Polish vocabulary? |
| Joanna:Have you checked out our Video Vocab series? Betsey:These themed video lessons combine visual cues with the voices of native speakers. |
| Joanna:Just another effective method of learning and retaining thousands of vocabulary words. |
| Betsey:Go to PolishPod101.com... |
| Joanna:...click on the Video Lessons tab... |
| Betsey:...and hit play! |
| Joanna:It's that easy. |
| Betsey:But don't take our word for it. |
| Joanna:Try it for yourself at PolishPod101.com |
| Betsey:Ok, that’s all for this lesson. Be sure to check the lesson notes for more information about the cases. Thanks everyone, see you next time! |
| Joanna:Do widzenia. |
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