VIDEO CHALLENGE What do you do Make a video
Rachel’s English community! It’s time
for another Rachel’s English video challenge!
Several months ago, you all sent in 50 videos
introducing yourself for the Rachel’s English
Introduce Yourself video challenge! It was
absolutely amazing to meet all of you! And,
it’s time for your next challenge.
A very common question that you’ll get asked
in the US after you introduce yourself is,
“What do you do?” Let’s see some people
answering this question.
Hey. I’m Steve, and I’m a carpenter.
Hi. I’m Tom, and I’m a Rachel’s English
teacher.
What do you do, Krista?
I’m a music teacher. I teach pre-K through
6th grade music.
Oh cool!
Other kinds of answers you may hear: I’m
retired. I’m a student at the University
of Florida studying Chemical Engineering.
I just finished school and I’m looking for
work.
So, my challenge to you is, make a video saying
what you do in English. Learn to introduce
your occupation or field of study. Go ahead
and say your name too: I’m Rachel, and I
teach English as a second language and make
YouTube videos.
Last time there were a lot of ways to get
the video to me: Twitter, Facebook. This time
it’s different! There’s only one way to
turn in your videos. Upload your video to
YouTube, and send the link to this email address:
[email protected]. Put “Video Challenge”
in the subject. In a couple of weeks, I’ll
compile everyone’s videos for the results
video. So get your camera ready! I can’t
wait to learn more about you.
So practice your English and make me this
video!
And, it’s a different day now. Obviously
I’m at home. And, I’ve been thinking about
this. I’ve been thinking about how the first
question an American will ask when you introduce
yourself is “What do you do?” Um, our
culture seems very focused on people’s occupation.
And I wonder what it’s like in your culture.
Um, I, I don’t think that this only happens
in America, but maybe it does. In your culture,
what is the first question that someone asks
you when they’ve just met you? Or maybe
there isn’t one. I should also say that
I don’t think that this question is the
first question asked all the time, period,
in American culture, um, but it’s definitely
one of the main questions. Um, so I’m curious:
what do you think of that? Is it off-putting
to you that people feel like they need to
know what you do for work in order to start
to understand you? And what’s it like in
your culture?
Anyway, for better or for worse, that’s
how it is in America. So let’s do go ahead
and practice these sentences and make a video.
That’s it, and thanks so much
for using Rachel’s English.