How to Explain your Current WorkStudies in English

hi everybody and welcome back to our

weekly live stream my name is alicia

and in this week’s live lesson we are

going to talk about

how to talk about your current work and

or

your current studies current means

the thing you are doing right now so the

work

you are doing right now the studies you

are doing

right now so we are going to focus on

progressive grammar points progressive

or continuous tense

we are also going to use a little bit of

perfect

tense and then we’re going to practice

some basic

adjective sentences too so let’s get

into it

in just a second while we wait for

people to join us

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lots of people here today so

let’s review today’s topic i’ll speak a

little more slowly now

today’s topic as i said how to talk

about

your current work and or your studies

so what are you doing now okay so

uh before we begin please please please

make sure to like and share

this video so other people can find the

lesson i’ll do that right now

cool done okay now let’s look at

the lesson boards for today’s live

lesson uh so if you want to take a

screenshot you can do that now i will

show this

again later also we are going to talk

about

first the basic grammar pattern

progressive or conditional here so

actions or conditions happening

now then we are going to talk about

how to express duration of time so this

will be with the uh present

progres uh present perfect 10 sorry

with progressive and finally we are

going to talk about how to express

your feelings and your opinions

uh about your current work and about

your current studies cool yeah

so my goal for you is that you will be

able

uh in this lesson live or later to write

about your current work or current

studies

how long you’ve been doing it and how

you feel about it so those are the three

points

for today let’s begin okay

let’s begin let’s begin let’s start with

the basic

grammar for this lesson progressive

tense so we use progressive tense or

continuous tense

to talk about actions or conditions

happening now so something that’s

happening like now in this moment for

example

i am teaching you are listening i hope

so happening now or generally

in your life happening now so how do we

make the progressive tense

subject is or are

verb in subject is

or are verb in we choose

is or are according to the subject

so uh we are going to use this

basic pattern to describe

some example situations okay and of

course when you want to talk about

yourself you should use i

am as in this first example here too so

i am working on

a project i am working on

a project okay so here we have i

plus my verb in this case it’s special

we use instead of is there r we use

am so i am or i’m then working

so here’s my verb in the ing form i am

working

on a project i am working on a project

okay another example she my subject is

she she is building a website

she is building a website so

this is her current project or her

current

work you can send your homework here

uh in the live chat or later what is

happening in your

work or school life now i will check

okay all right so she is building a

website

great okay he is studying

for an exam he is studying for an exam

note this preposition here not two not

studying to an exam

studying for an exam we use four

because four expresses purpose

okay good okay some examples are coming

in great

uh andrew says i’m working on a new

album good

con mlg says i’m studying for my

university entrance test

great okay all right

okay send your questions i will check

next one

with they so here is a plural subject

they more than one person they

are being observed

for an annual evaluation so i wanted to

include

this kind of sentence pattern because it

follows this

verb in yeah here my verb is b

they are being observed so observed

means watched watched so in this case

for an

annual evaluation what is annual

evaluation

annual evaluation is very common it

means so annual means

yearly every year yeah and evaluation

is like a check usually at work yeah

so your boss or your manager wants to

observe you wants to watch you doing

your job maybe

to check kind of your status what’s your

condition so every year

it’s very common for an annual

evaluation

maybe there’s an observation time period

a period to watch

so they are being observed

for an annual evaluation

okay here’s another just i wanted to

include this example

to use an example with b okay

bandar says i’m not working now because

i’m on holiday

nice victor says i am working on

fingerprint identification

interesting okay uh someone oh on

facebook i

can’t read your name i can’t read the

characters but you said i am creating

restaurant kitchens what does that mean

maybe i’m creating restaurants i’m

creating kitchens and restaurants

something like that jorge thanks so much

for the support on youtube that’s

awesome

okay all right let’s continue more

examples

we are not looking for new staff

we are not looking for new staff so how

do we make this pattern negative

we are not though we put not before

our verb in the ing form so this is

positive

we are looking for new stuff this is

negative

we are not looking for new stuff

okay and here’s one

everybody needs to know sometimes

unfortunately

has a sad face here not a good thing but

this sentence is i’m not

making much progress lately

i’m not making much progress lately what

does this mean

it means you have some responsibility

you have a job or

project a plan something you are working

on

but you can’t move forward

so you can say i’m not making

much progress lately so progress means

moving forward in something i can’t i

can’t do anything

so you could say i’m not making much

progress lately

lately means recently these days or in

these recent

days okay i’m not making much progress

lately

okay good some examples are coming in

cesar says i am not looking for

a new job i’m not looking for a new job

don’t forget your articles there yeah

um gloria victoria on

youtube says they are not looking for

new customers new customers

plural yeah or maybe it’s singular a new

customer

okay jermaine says we are not hiring

right now nice

is that did you choose this emoji that’s

interesting

okay um charles says we are not looking

for new staff

we are looking for new customers so

there’s two people

use plural customers new customers

more than one customer right you want

many customers yeah

okay good nice examples uh

image grease on facebook says i’m not

making a lot

of money right now i’m not making a lot

of

money right now okay so lots of people

little points just little fixes your

articles up and in the

your plural forms like customers and uh

your prepositions like to

and up okay all right

let’s go to a break let’s take a quick

break and then we’ll go

to part two expressing duration if

you missed it before i will show you

again

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from the link below the video if you’re

watching on youtube and above the video

if you’re watching on facebook you can

find

these pdfs with questions

and key vocabulary words verbs and so on

for different situations so if you want

to get

all of these oh there are a lot here you

can choose from you can download them

all

you can find the link below or above the

video

okay cool so let’s go to part

two now how to express duration

of your activity uh let’s get to that

also

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okay um let’s see let’s go to

expressing duration of time expressing

duration of time

okay so how do we talk about

our current work and or our current

studies

and when we started it or

how long the project is so how do we do

that

this is a very natural thing to do after

you explain your current project okay

so we can do this first with this

expressing

duration of time this means how long you

do something duration of time means how

long you do something so depending on

our subject

we have two patterns we use i you

we or they plus have

been verbing so i have been

verbing you have been verbal

so i have been teaching

for 16 minutes i have been teaching for

16 minutes

you have been listening for 16 minutes i

hope

okay so if your subject is i you we are

they we use

this top pattern have been verbing

if your subject is he she or it use

has he has been verbing

she has been verbing okay

all right so we have this pattern

then how do we add the length of time or

how do we describe when the action

started

yeah we use four or since to do this

with this pattern

yeah four or six what’s the difference

we use four

with a length of time so i just said i

have been teaching

for 16 minutes 16 minutes 16 minutes is

a

length of time yeah okay

since we use with a past

point in time i have been teaching since

10 pm

eastern standard time that’s new york

city time okay

so use a past point in time here

all right for instance so let’s practice

this

together we’ll put these two things

together so if you sent a comment in

part one

you can add now build on that yeah so

give some more information about that

thing you’re working on or the thing

you’re studying

okay let’s look at this one i have been

working

on this project since the beginning

of the year i have been working

on this project since the beginning of

the year

so here is my uh

present perfect progressive pattern i

have been working

on this project so here’s my object i

have been working on this project

then here’s my duration since

okay so i have to use a past point in

time yeah

the beginning of the year the beginning

of the year

marks my start point okay so you can

send me your example

sentences i will look for your examples

uh bruno santos says i’ve been going to

the driving school for about

two months nice ooh driving school good

luck with that cool

okay other one people are saying can we

use past

tense what do you mean to talk about

your current work and studies

yeah you can say i finished blah blah

blah

yeah that’s fine so the focus here is

current so what are you doing now

okay um i have been studying

english since i was five years old yes

many people probably know

that pattern i have been studying

english for two years i have been

studying english for

eight months whatever how do we use this

grammar to talk about our current work

and our current studies too

okay um other ones juan carlos says i

have been studying english for

two years yes sapphiol st sean says i’ve

been waiting for this moment since 1993.

that’s very specific okay uh

prince larmus sorry i hope i said your

name right says can we use since

plus can you give me an example

of what you mean my first reaction is

no not in this sentence i’ve been

studying english since

i was a kid if you you couldn’t use when

there since when i was a kid

that’s the first kind of example that

comes to mind but that’s not correct

if there’s a different example please

let me know okay

all right let’s go to the next example

sentence

she has been working for 10 hours

she has been working for 10 hours this

one

keep in mind we often reduce this she

has gets reduced

in speech to she’s she’s been working

for 10 hours that’s how a native speaker

would say this she’s been working for 10

hours

okay and here’s a they they

have been talking for ages what does

ages mean i wanted to include this

because it’s very common

and age so one age means a very long

time

many many many many years super long

time

there’s not an exact number of years it

just means a super

long time so when we use ages it sounds

like a very very very long time

so we use this and the length of time

position to show in this case two people

have been talking for a very very

very very very long time yeah so like a

meeting that never

ends you can say they have been talking

for ages

okay cool all right uh other ones

monachan on youtube hi

i had been studying for five hours that

would be a past perfect

uh example i have been studying

for five hours yeah i have been studying

for five hours

okay garin garcia says i have been

drinking my tea for 10 minutes

very nice is your tea still hot is it

cool

okay um

thanks for following up on your question

like i got to know you since

when you started teaching ah uh no that

would not be quite correct

like i learned about you uh because i

found your video maybe

so we use uh that when in kind of

different

patterns like when we interrupt

something or change

something so we wouldn’t use when

uh with since in in this way though but

thank you for that question yeah

like i got to know you uh maybe when

i found your videos that would be okay

but since then when together we wouldn’t

use them in that way so thanks for the

question i hope that helps you

okay let’s go to our next example oh my

gosh there’s so many

i can’t keep up um coco hello has

said i have been working as a safety

officer

uh careful since previous five years

since

five years ago since five years ago

so thank you for sending that example

sentence i don’t have it here

um but when you want to talk about like

uh five years before or in your case

five years prior or previous

use this pattern since five years ago

you can use it here so it’s kind of a

combination

of this and this plus a go so i don’t

have it here

but very close so five years ago

okay uh oh my gosh there are so many

i’ve been studying for two days says

rosie okay

lots of people are writing studying okay

okay i think everybody most people are

getting this

i’m looking for errors to fix now okay

uh andrew can i say we have been known

each other for ages is it correct

that is not correct no we have known

each other we have known each other

okay let’s get back on track so

uh one more a negative now

i haven’t been working on that plan

recently i haven’t been working

on that plan recently so

this haven’t is have not so

this is a pattern you can use if for a

while

you were working on something but

recently recently these days you are not

working on that plan

so you can say i haven’t been working

on that plan recently i haven’t

been working on that plan recently

okay so that was a lot you have great

examples and great questions many of you

are writing i have been studying for

three years or i have been studying for

two months that is awesome

try to use the same grammar point to

talk about some other

continuing actions in your life yeah

challenge yourself

to make some new sentences with your

grammar skills

okay others

okay oh my gosh time’s going quick let’s

finish up with part two there

and then we’ll go to part three

expressing your feelings

yeah expressing your feelings super

great right okay

let’s uh take a super super super short

break

and then go to part three if you missed

it there is free stuff for you to

download

from the link below the video if you’re

watching on youtube

above the video if you’re watching on

facebook there are now

conversation practice uh conversation

practice

cheat sheets so these have this is the

business english one

for example these have phrases for

meetings

and like job titles some uh expressions

like idioms

to practice here if you want to practice

a dialogue or a sample conversation

there are new pdfs you can check

to do that so have a look check the link

below the video

uh in the youtube description if you’re

watching on youtube

if you’re watching on facebook click the

link above the video

okay let’s go to the last part for

today’s lesson

if you haven’t please please please make

sure to hit the like button

yeah it will help other people to find

the lesson

let’s go to the last part

so we talked about how to express the

thing you’re working on or the thing you

are studying now

we talked about the length of time how

long

you’ve been doing it now how do you

express your

feelings or how do you express your

opinions about that project or about

your studies

so let’s look at this okay

so we can use a very basic adjective

sentence

subject is adjective so i

am happy he is sad very very basic

sentence right

you can include about topic

about topic i am excited

about this project for example i am

excited about this

project or she is nervous

about the presentation she is nervous

about the presentation

okay you might also hear people use

feeling before an emotion adjective here

you can choose

if you want to include it you could say

i’m feeling happy about this

that’s also very natural that’s up to

you feeling adding

feeling just kind of in increases the

emotional feel

a little bit okay so you can use this

to share your feeling or your opinion

about your current work or your current

studies

okay another example

he is worried about

tomorrow’s meeting he is worried about

tomorrow’s meeting okay so all of these

sentences

use this about topic pattern yeah

he’s worried about tomorrow’s meeting

one more we are happy about

the good news we are happy about

the good news all right

now how do we express negative

feelings yeah this one simple

i’m exhausted so exhausted means very

tired so very tired is okay

but put them together make one word

exhausted i’m exhausted

i’m super super tired or this one we can

use a negative pattern here too

i’m not optimistic i’m not optimistic

what does optimistic mean

optimistic means feeling positive

about something i feel positive about

the outcome i feel positive about the

result

of something so i imagine something

positive in the future

so if you say i’m not optimistic

it means i don’t feel positive

about the future i don’t feel positive

about something in the future

okay i’m not optimistic so you can use

this

if you don’t have a great feeling about

what’s going to happen

next i’m not optimistic okay all right

some of your examples are coming in

amalzade says i’m excited about this

live video very nice

uh victor says i feel so excited about

your class great okay

um let’s see charles says i love this

job

great anientara

sorry i hope i said that right says i’m

worried about my future

yeah for sure that’s very common okay

let’s see uh cesar says my sister is

nervous about the vaccine ah yes many

people

feel a bit nervous about it yeah i hope

everyone is still

staying safe out there uh oh

someone on facebook i can’t read your

name i’m very sorry you wrote the

comment i’m tired about

my homework thank you for this when you

use tired

in this pattern when you use tired we

use

tired of something tired of something

i’ll include this on the board

this is kind of a special one uh when

you use

tired tired of something something

this i know it’s kind of strange but we

always use of

in this one we don’t use about in this

pattern it’s just

it’s a different uh a different pattern

to use i’m tired

of homework i’m tired of this thing okay

oh all right i’m nervous about my

interview says nazareth do you have an

interview

everybody who has an interview good luck

okay

all right good um other ones oh my gosh

there are so many

uh i’m excited about my tomorrow

presentation says sun messi uh

i’m excited about my uh presentation

or i’m excited about my presentation

tomorrow

or i’m excited about uh tomorrow’s

presentation one of those two tomorrow’s

presentation or my presentation tomorrow

okey dokey um

emilie says i’m tired of the small board

yes i know but i cannot fit

a giant white board in my house so small

board it is

okay uh a wheel says i’m exhausted about

maybe the language

about studying language i know it’s

forever

right i still learn new english words

all the time we have to always be

learning something yeah

okay oh my gosh i’m late i have to

finish there

so let’s be done there uh yeah don’t

forget to use

tired of something and also yeah

it’s good it helps to connect with

people to express

your feelings and your thoughts about

what you’re working

on now so let’s finish there for today

i’ll show you today’s lesson board so

you can take

a picture ready go okay so

actions and conditions happening now we

talked about with progressive

and continuous tense and or continuous

tense

uh then we talked about duration of time

with perfect uh present perfect

continuous

and then we practice some basic

adjective sentences

over here to express your feelings and

emotions about your current work very

nice thanks for all of your awesome

questions

uh one more came in can we use very

before adjectives

yes i am very tired i’m very excited i

am very nervous

yes 100 yes okay whew that was a lot

so let’s uh finish up i’ll give you the

next lesson information

actually next lesson we will have a

break we have a little tiny little

summer break

next week so i will see you again in two

weeks

two weeks next lesson will be wednesday

july

29th at 10 p.m eastern standard time

that is new york city time

if you do not know your local time

please use your google skills

or you can set a notification on youtube

or on facebook

or if you follow me on instagram i

always share

a link and a topic reminder in my

stories so you can get the information

somewhere in the next lesson we are

going to talk about

how to practice pronunciation alone

your pronunciation i get this question a

lot

so this will be the focus topic for uh

the next live lesson

in two weeks okay so

i’ll say goodbye for this week i’ll say

goodbye there

uh if you want to make sure you get all

of the free stuff

i showed you earlier don’t forget to

check the links

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if you want to find me on social media

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alicia you can find those links on

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too all right so i will say goodbye for

this week and wish you a nice

week next week and then i’ll see you

again

very soon so have a good week have a

good week