Learn how to talk about your occupation
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| Hi! 大家好，我是李殷如。 |
| (Dà jiā hǎo, wǒ shì Lǐ Yīnrú.) |
| “Hi, everyone! I'm Yinru Li.” |
| Welcome to Chinese Whiteboard Lessons! |
| In this whiteboard lesson, you will learn some basic vocabulary for talking about your occupation. |
| First, we’ll be looking at a list of some of the most common occupations in Chinese. |
| Now, the first word is 学生 (xuésheng). |
| 学生 (xuésheng) [enunciated] |
| 学生 (xuésheng) is someone whose job is to study. |
| So, 学生 (xuésheng) is a student. |
| 学生 (xuésheng) |
| Okay, next is 老师 (lǎoshī). |
| 老师 (lǎoshī) [enunciated] |
| 老师 (lǎoshī) is someone who teaches 学生 (xuésheng), so 老师 (lǎoshī) is a “teacher.” |
| 老师 (lǎoshī) |
| Okay. |
| Next one is 工程师 (gōngchéngshī). |
| 工程师 (gōngchéngshī) [enunciated] |
| So, 工程师 (gōngchéngshī) is someone who designs and works with constructions, machines, things like that. So, 工程师 (gōngchéngshī) is an “engineer.” |
| 工程师 (gōngchéngshī) [enunciated] |
| 工程师 (gōngchéngshī) |
| Now, after 工程师 (gōngchéngshī) is 律师 (lǜshī). |
| 律师 (lǜshī) [enunciated] |
| 律师 (lǜshī) is someone who deals with laws and justice. |
| 律师 (lǜshī) “lawyer.” |
| 律师 (lǜshī) |
| Okay, after 律师 (lǜshī) is 厨师 (chúshī). |
| 厨师 (chúshī) cooks for a restaurant, so 厨师 (chúshī) is a “cook/chef.” |
| 厨师 (chúshī) [enunciated] |
| After 厨师 (chúshī) is 咖啡师 (kāfēi shī). |
| 咖啡师 (kāfēi shī) [enunciated] |
| Can you guess what 咖啡 (kāfēi) means? 咖啡 (kāfēi) means “coffee,” so 咖啡师 (kāfēi shī) is someone who makes coffee. |
| 咖啡师 (kāfēi shī) “barista” |
| Okay, next one is 医生 (yīshēng). |
| 医生 (yīshēng) works in a hospital and 医生 (yīshēng) saves lives. So 医生 (yīshēng) “doctor.” |
| Next, 护士 (hùshi). |
| 护士 (hùshi) also works in the hospital, but 护士 (hùshi) usually assists or helps 医生 (yīshēng) and patients. So 医生 (yīshēng) and 护士 (hùshi) “doctor, nurse.” |
| The next one after 护士 (hùshi) is 会计 (kuàijì). |
| 会计 (kuàijì) uses a calculator to work with numbers, money, budgets. |
| 会计 (kuàijì) “accountant” |
| Okay. But you may have known 会计 (kuàijì), this word, as 会 (huì), 会 (huì). |
| This word, usually, is pronounced as 会 (huì) meaning “be able to” or “can do (something)” such as 我会说中文 (wǒ huì shuō Zhōngwén) “I can speak Chinese.” |
| But when used as a noun to say “accountant,” 会 (huì) is pronounced as kuài, kuài. Same pronunciation as 快 (kuài) “fast.” So maybe you can think of 会计 (kuàijì) as someone who’s really fast with numbers. |
| 会计 (kuàijì) |
| All right. |
| After 会计 (kuàijì) is 警察 (jǐngchá). |
| 警察 (jǐngchá) [enunciated]. |
| 警察 (jǐngchá) catches bad guys. 警察 (jǐngchá) is a police officer. |
| Now, after 警察 (jǐngchá) is 公务员 (gōngwùyuán). |
| 公务员 (gōngwùyuán) is someone who works for the government. |
| 公务员 (gōngwùyuán), is called “civil servant.” |
| 公务员 (gōngwùyuán) |
| I think 警察 (jǐngchá) is also a kind of- a type of 公务员 (gōngwùyuán). |
| Okay, now after 公务员 (gōngwùyuán), last one is 销售员 (xiāoshòuyuán). |
| 销售员 (xiāoshòuyuán) |
| 销售员 (xiāoshòuyuán) whose job is to make people buy things, so 销售员 (xiāoshòuyuán) is a salesperson. |
| 销售员 (xiāoshòuyuán) |
| Okay, here are our common occupation words in Chinese. What you may have noticed that some of the occupation words share the same last character like a suffix, as in 师 (shī), 老师 (lǎoshī); 师 (shī), 工程师 (gōngchéngshī); 律师 (lǜshī); 厨师 (chúshī); 咖啡师 (kāfēi shī), they all end with a 师 (shī). So 师 (shī) originally means “master.” So, occupations with 师 (shī) are usually a skilled occupation. |
| So, you might want to memorize these words that end with the same suffix together like 公务员 (gōngwùyuán), 销售员 (xiāoshòuyuán). 员 (yuán) means “personnel.” Another one with 员 (yuán) is 服务员 (fúwùyuán) “waiter/waitress.” |
| So now, let’s go over these occupations one more time. Feel free to read after me. |
| 学生 (xuésheng) |
| 学生 (xuésheng) |
| 老师 (lǎoshī) |
| 老师 (lǎoshī) |
| 工程师 (gōngchéngshī) |
| 工程师 (gōngchéngshī) |
| 律师 (lǜshī) |
| 律师 (lǜshī) |
| 厨师 (chúshī) |
| 厨师 (chúshī) |
| 咖啡师 (kāfēi shī) |
| 咖啡师 (kāfēi shī) |
| 医生 (yīshēng) |
| 医生 (yīshēng) |
| 护士 (hùshi) |
| 护士 (hùshi) |
| 会计 (kuàijì) |
| 会计 (kuàijì) |
| 警察 (jǐngchá) |
| 警察 (jǐngchá) |
| 公务员 (gōngwùyuán) |
| 公务员 (gōngwùyuán) |
| 销售员 (xiāoshòuyuán) |
| 销售员 (xiāoshòuyuán) |
| Well, next, you will hear a dialogue. I’m gonna read the dialogue. When I’m reading, I want you to focus on which occupation words from here are used in the dialogue. Okay, are you ready? |
| A: 你是老师吗？ |
| (Nǐ shì lǎoshī ma?) |
| B: 我不是老师。我是学生。 |
| (Wǒ bú shì lǎoshī. Wǒ shì xuésheng.) |
| Okay, one more time, a bit slower. |
| A: 你是老师吗？ |
| (Nǐ shì lǎoshī ma?) |
| B: 我不是老师。我是学生。 |
| (Wǒ bú shì lǎoshī. Wǒ shì xuésheng.) |
| Okay, now, let’s look at this short dialogue together. |
| First is the question: |
| 你是老师吗？ |
| (Nǐ shì lǎoshī ma?) |
| So, our occupation word here is 老师 (lǎoshī) “teacher.” And this is asking, “Are you a teacher?” |
| 你是老师吗？ |
| (Nǐ shì lǎoshī ma?) |
| “Are you a teacher?” |
| And the response is, first: |
| 我不是老师。 |
| (Wǒ bú shì lǎoshī.) |
| The occupation word is here, 老师 (lǎoshī). But am I a teacher? Mm-mm, no. So this is your negative word here, 不是 (bú shì) “not, am not.” |
| “I am not a teacher.” |
| 我不是老师。 |
| (Wǒ bú shì lǎoshī.) |
| 我是 (Wǒ shì) “I am” 学生 (xuésheng). |
| “I am a student.” |
| 我不是老师。我是学生。 |
| (Wǒ bú shì lǎoshī. Wǒ shì xuésheng.) |
| Okay, now, if you want to tell someone that I’m not a student, I’m a doctor, how do you say that? |
| 我不是学生。我是医生。 |
| (Wǒ bú shì xuésheng . Wǒ shì yīshēng.) |
| 我不是学生。我是医生。 |
| (Wǒ bú shì xuésheng . Wǒ shì yīshēng.) |
| Okay. Now, if you are not a cook or chef, but you’re a lawyer, you can say: |
| 我不是 厨师。我是 律师。 |
| (Wǒ bú shì chúshī. Wǒ shì lǜshī.) |
| Different kind of 师 (shī). |
| 厨师 (chúshī) |
| 律师 (lǜshī) |
| 我不是 厨师。我是 律师。 |
| (Wǒ bú shì chúshī. Wǒ shì lǜshī.) |
| Okay, now here’s a simple sentence pattern that you can use to tell someone I’m not this occupation, I’m this occupation. |
| 我不是 (Wǒ bú shì) [occupation]。 |
| And 我是 (wǒ shì) [your actual occupation]. |
| And you have the 12 occupational words we’ve learned in this lesson to practice sentence patterns with. |
Comments
Hide