How to Talk About Your Current WorkProjects in English
and today we are going to talk about
how to talk about your current work your
current projects
and your current studies so uh today’s
focus grammar point
will be present progressive and we’re
also going to talk about
present perfect with progressive i know
that these are very very common
questions
uh that many learners have sorry many
learners have these questions
so we’re going to cover them today okay
great so as you join live please make
sure to send a message
in the chat so i can say hi to you and
of course please make sure to like and
share this lesson so that other people
can find today’s topics while we wait
of course a couple of announcements as
always first
thing first uh this banner at the bottom
of the screen
there’s free stuff for you uh free
vocabulary
pdfs that you can download from the link
below the video if you’re watching on
youtube or above the video if you are
watching
on facebook today’s topic is focused on
work and studies
so a couple of maybe recommended
vocabulary sheets to download this one
is the business english one
uh there’s like office vocabulary here
yes but
on the back there’s like a list of job
titles
and some meeting use phrases so this one
might be a nice one to download
for today there are also some study uh
related school related
uh pdfs that i will show you later got a
bunch of course if you don’t want to
practice with those there are many
different topics here’s one about
pets and here’s one about sports so
there’s all kinds of different things to
check
out so have a look at that if you have
not
before announcement number two is of
course if you have questions for me
if you have questions for me you can
send them to me for this weekly series
the ask alicia series uh on the english
class 101
youtube channel so you can send me your
questions i will definitely
read your question i will maybe choose
it to include in the series
i get a lot of questions and a lot of
questions are the same
too so that’s why i might not choose
yours but
i try to pick questions that are helpful
for everybody
uh so if you have questions for this
series
please send them to me at
englishclass101.com
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today is a different topic
uh kylos welcome everybody good it’s
uh connected everywhere fantastic so
let’s go to today’s lesson flow today’s
lesson flow
is as follows today’s lesson boards look
like this
oh it’s very sunny today it’s hard for
me to see my screen okay
here we go this is today’s uh
information
first we are going to talk about how to
talk about your
current work your current project your
current studies
with present progressive second we’re
going to practice
present perfect progressive and what the
difference is
between these two last we’re going to
talk about some common question patterns
you can use
and that you will also hear you should
know how to respond to these questions
so
with that let’s begin uh let’s begin
with
present progressive today present
progressive today
so a review a very quick review
i’m not going to talk in detail about
uh these grammar points i’m going to
talk about
how we use these grammar points in these
specific
situations so if you have a question
about this situation
or if you have a question about your
example sentence send it in the chat
i will try to check live but there are
many questions on two different streams
so
thanks for your understanding hello
everybody who’s joining okay
let’s start present progressive a quick
reminder
we use present progressive that verb in
the ing
form in this pattern to talk about
temporary actions
so that means something we are doing now
let’s review how we make present
progressive
we need to consider our subject in these
cases yeah so i
could be the subject or he she or it
or you we or they so we need to think
about our subject
for today’s practice we’re going to
focus a lot on i i
because we want to talk about our
current work or our current studies
so when the subject is i
our verb following is am i am
and to make it negative we place not
here
don’t have to of course i am verb
in the ing form so for example i
am teaching english i am teaching
english so this is a temporary situation
happening
now i am teaching english if the subject
changes the subject is you or we or they
we change the verb here to r you
are verb in for example
you are studying a language you are
studying a language this is something
true now you are studying a language
okay
everybody good so far i hope in this
case i think maybe many of you are
studying
english okay i’m trying to check your
questions it’s very sunny today
okay let’s continue in this lesson today
i want to
of course talk about these grammar
points i also want to share
some key tips some key issues i’ve
noticed
with learners with these topics
this is one big point for today a
preposition point
when you want to talk about your work
we use this expression right here i have
it in the progressive form
to work on something in this case to
work
on a new project when you want to
express your current
project the current um like the current
thing
you are doing you can use work on
in the progressive form like this i am
working
on a new project i circled
on here because many learners forget
to include on i am working a new project
is incorrect you have to include this
on here i am working on
a new project i am working on a new
project
so for everybody watching live you can
send me a comment what are you working
on or what are you studying i will check
your answers later
you have some time to think okay let’s
change the subject then if you want to
talk
about a collaboration so something you
and another person are doing together
that’s a collaboration
yeah so my friend and i
are setting up a company
my friend and i are so my friend and i
this means we we right two people
in this case my friend and i are setting
up here’s my progressive form yeah so
again
preposition point set is different from
set
up so to set up means like to
create something new for the first time
like to set up furniture for example
or to set up for an event so my friend
and i are setting up a company so we’re
creating a company
you could use that word too if you want
so please please please
don’t forget these prepositions they are
very very important
to your sentence okay uh on youtube
aj gabriel says can we say i am working
on
a new job it depends on the type of work
when we say i’m working on a new job
it sounds at least to an american
english speaker
that sounds like a construction related
work or construction
construction related project when we say
i’m working on
on a new job using on that preposition
there
before job it sounds like a construction
project why that’s just the way it is
unfortunately
if you want to express that you started
in a new company
or a new position use the preposition at
i am working at a new job
or i am working in a new company
i hope that that helps you okay
i’m looking for your examples um my
teacher
sarah tula says my teacher teaching now
it’s right
no my teacher is is teaching now my
teacher
is teaching now do not forget these
helping verbs
moira on facebook says i’m working on
my report so no uh no article there i’m
working on
my report okay continue
next one he is building a website
he is building a website this is another
verb
i thought would be very helpful for
today’s topic
building it means making yes but
building has this feeling of like
putting pieces together it sounds a
little bit more
complex than just making
he is building a website
my subject is he so my helping verb
is i have to use is here not he am or he
are he is building a website
okay um sai says i am working on a new
company perfect great
great silva daniel says i’m working on a
new project about
applications good good good um
let’s see i am watching an excellent
video lesson
if you want to use your this article do
i have an example you are studying
a language don’t forget an an
if your following word starts with a
vowel sound
and something don’t forget that article
rule uh
he is designing a website says armando
great
uh abdallah hashem says how can i talk
about my previous work in an interview i
have some lessons about that on the
channel
if you have a question about that search
how to talk about your past
work or just search past work on the
youtube channel i have some lessons
about that
okay let’s go on uh one more she is
learning how to play a musical
instrument
she is learning how to play a musical
instrument
i wanted to include this pattern right
here she is learning
and then i have this this embedded part
how to play a musical instrument so not
she is learning a musical instrument you
might hear that
we often use patterns like this she is
learning how to
do something so you can use this pattern
how to
change this verb to match the needs of
your sentence
also a small point well not a small
point big point study versus learn
study versus learn in this case we
cannot say
she is studying how to play a new
instrument
when we talk about something um
something we do with our hands like an
activity
like playing a musical instrument or
using a computer or something like that
we typically use the verb learn when we
talk about gaining information
from books and reading and papers we
tend to use
study you can say you’re learning about
something from a book that’s great but
if we use study
in this case it sounds very very
unnatural
okay
all right shahana says she is learning
how to cook pasta good
okay good uh great so the last point
here yes is just to send the comment
what
are you working or what are you studying
on nahora says i’m learning how to drive
great okay uh a b c d says is it present
continuous to or not yes so
present progressive same thing as
present continuous
there are two different names for it
same grammar point yes
oh my gosh there are so many comments
now okay
um chris says i am studying an english
is this
correct no i am studying english i
am studying english english does not
need
an article you could say i am studying
an english
book you need a countable noun in that
sentence
ali says she is learning how to
programming close
she is learning how to program so see
this part right here
this part you need to use the verb in
the infinitive form yeah
right here this verb she is studying
how to program she is studying how to
cook whatever she is studying how to
infinitive so you cannot use the
progressive there
please use the infinitive the basic
dictionary form
cool okay sounds good great
all right let’s finish part one there
that was awesome fantastic
let’s go to part two i have loads to
talk about in part
two uh so we’ll take a quick break and
then we’ll come back
uh if you missed it earlier there is
free stuff
for you from the link below the video if
you’re watching on youtube or above the
video if you’re watching on
facebook uh stuff that you can download
pdfs vocabulary pdfs you can check out
uh you can download all of them did you
know that you can just go you don’t have
to choose just
one you can choose all of them here’s
the school one i mentioned
before there is a back to school one but
on the back are some expressions you can
use in class
you can use these in this live stream
actually
some of these points so you can check
this list
of expressions to use and there are some
excuses at the bottom here as well so i
wanted to share the business and the
school ones for sure today
but as i said there are many different
topics you can just go get them all
so check it out you need your name and
your email address
to make a free account and then you can
download everything
for free if you have trouble finding the
link to this stuff
after you make your account like it you
click the link in your email and go to
the bottom of the page scroll to the
bottom of the page and there’s a link to
get your free stuff some people told me
they had trouble with that okay let’s go
um let’s go to part two um
if you’re just joining also please make
sure to like and share this video so
other people can find today’s lesson
quick reminder if you’re just joining
today we are talking about
how to talk about your current work your
current projects your current
studies current means the stuff
you’re doing now what is true for you
now
okay so let’s look at our lesson boards
you can take a screenshot
if you like here we go first we talked
about present progressive
now we are going to talk about present
perfect with progressive and we’re going
to compare
these two grammar points because many of
you have questions about this
so let’s continue all right
a quick reminder about present
perfect progressive we’re going to cover
this later
we use present perfect progressive
to talk about an action that started
in the past and that continues
to the present so started before
could be a few minutes before it could
be hours years whatever
and that action continued until the
conversation
yeah for example i have been teaching
this lesson
for about 15 minutes 15 minutes
now 19 minutes okay i have been
teaching so this part right here is my
present perfect progressive part
to make present perfect progressive
again
we need to consider our subject i
you we or they plus have
plus bin and verb in the ing
form so this part this verb part this is
the same
yeah as part one of today’s lesson
but we need to use have been have been
to make it negative
not have not been if our subject is he
she or it we use has been has been
verbing okay very quick grammar review
if you have questions about this
i have many other videos about this
topic
that you can check out i’ll try to
include some links after the lesson so
you can review this grammar point
so let’s look at another example
you if my subject is you you
have been studying english
for a few months for a few months
so maybe you can already see we tend to
use
this pattern have been verbing yeah
with a time period for a few months
for about 15 minutes you’ll also see
since used this is because
we need to express the point when that
action started
so we understand how long the action has
continued
yeah okay some examples are coming in
salmazaki says i have been working in
the office for three years
good let’s see
uh other ones i have been watching
alicia’s lesson for 20 minutes perfect
perfect okay good i saw one on facebook
iman says
i have been teaching music for 30 years
careful not
i’m have been not i’m because that’s i
am i have been teaching music
music music is an uncountable noun
in this case okay uh all right
let’s go to the next one with a
we subject we have not
so here’s how you express a negative
this negative pattern is helpful
if you um have a change in your project
schedule or you have a change in your
study schedule
you can say we have not been working
on that project recently so recently
means like lately or these days
we have not been working on that project
recently
at native speed this gets reduced have
not been becomes very short we
haven’t been is like the next step down
we haven’t been working on that project
recently it’s how a native speaker would
say
an american english native speaker would
say we haven’t been working on that
project recently
okay uh there’s one example from jesus i
has been drinking for two hours careful
very close when your subject is i make
sure your helping verb is half
i have been drinking for two hours
he she and it these three take the
has helping verb okay uh i’m
on on facebook very close i have been
teaching music
no uh i have been teaching topic so for
teachers oh that’s a great actually
thanks for your example i’m on
for teachers i have been teaching topic
for 20 years i have been teaching
english
for 11 years i have been doing this job
for 11 years so you don’t need to use an
article
before like your profession like the the
topic that you teach
okay onward uh one more example
my friend has been working on a business
for a few months my friend has been
working so i have this has been pattern
here
because my subject is my friend yeah
so i don’t have he she or it
like directly in the subject place but
when i want to talk about one person
outside me it takes this same pattern
my friend has been my friend has been
working on
a business again we see this little
preposition here too again yeah
has been working on has been working on
a business for a few months okay
and some examples
let’s see yolanda i haven’t going
shopping since
march very very close i haven’t been
shopping or i haven’t been going
shopping since march i guess i would
probably say i haven’t been shopping
since march that’s probably what i would
say
many of you are writing i have been
studying english for two years
very cool i have been learning
uh computers for a month maybe umu
jamal on facebook i have been studying
english since
uh when i was a kid good okay fantastic
everybody has some good ones
especially about your english studies
that’s super cool
um let’s see i’m looking for progressive
tense examples so
but time’s going quick i want to make
sure we talk about
this point this is a huge point a huge
question point for many learners present
progressive
or present perfect progressive which one
should i use
first let’s refresh i use this a lot in
my lessons you’ve probably seen this
before if you’ve watched my lessons
before
this is a timeline this black line yeah
so here is the past this star is now
you watching this video and into the
future yeah
this blue line here squiggly blue line
this is present perfect progressive so
here’s some action that started in the
past
and that continues to the present so for
example i have been teaching this lesson
for 20 minutes this red line
squiggly red line is present progressive
something happening now so
to help you choose you can think do i
want to express an action that started
before
and continues to now or do i just want
to talk about an action
happening now sometimes it’s true you
can use
both and that’s totally correct so
sometimes people ask me
should i use this or should i use that
you can use both of them they’re both
fine
also you can sorry you can you can use
these
together here’s an example of this
i’ve been working on a big research
project i’ve been working on a big
research project
right now i’m doing interviews
right now i’m doing interviews so in
these two sentences
we communicate one the big thing that
started in the past
and continues to now i’ve been working
on
a big research project so my research
project is the big topic
yeah then inside that topic
is my current action right now
i’m doing interviews so i’m using
just this basic progressive form here to
do that
so if you have a big project or like a
big
i don’t know something big you’re
studying something like that
you want to talk about the big project
you can use this the present perfect
progressive
to talk about that and then you can talk
about the progress or sorry you can use
simple progressive to talk about the
individual
the one action you’re doing now the
present action
now okay all right that’s a lot
i’m looking for your examples
on facebook says my brother has been
traveling for two days
to makkah i hope i said that right good
okay
uh abdallah says i have been staying
home for five months yeah many people
have been staying home uh this year for
sure
um okay other examples
ananda says i have been volunteering for
three months so instead of
doing a volunteer sounds a little
unnatural but i
understand your point volunteer is a
verb
i have been volunteering for three
months
okay um juan says how long have you been
teaching english
i’ve been following your courses for
three years
so four comes before a length of time
yeah
since comes before a point in time i
have lessons about this
on the channel okay i have to finish
there
so we’ll finish there and go to the last
point for today some of you are making
questions which is fantastic
um so we’ll take one super super super
short break and then we’ll get some
questions that you can use
in your conversations and online as well
too that use this grammar
if you missed it quickly there are free
pdfs for you to download
from the link below the video if you’re
watching on youtube or above the video
if you are watching on facebook as i
said before you can download all of
these you don’t have to choose just one
i’ll show you some more i haven’t shown
you a lot of these i think
maybe we don’t need that one right now
family and relatives if you need to
brush up refresh your family and
relatives expressions
here’s a travel one maybe difficult for
many people
at this time uh but you never know
this one’s good for now maybe leisure
time activities
so you can refresh your vocabulary on
these points so check this all out you
can download
everything even if you don’t need it
right now
check it out okay uh also if you have
not already please please please make
sure to like this video and share it so
that other people
can find today’s lesson okay fantastic
i’ll show you today’s lesson boards
again so you can take a screenshot if
you like
but um okay we talked about part one and
part two
now we’re going to talk about part three
the last part
we’re going to practice some common
question patterns
i’ve chosen some questions that use
today’s
focus grammar so of course there are
other questions you can use in these
situations
with different grammar but today i’m
focusing
on present progressive and uh present
perfect
progressive so f y i
let’s continue to the last part common
question patterns common question
patterns
first one what are you working on
what are you working on you can use this
with your friends you can use this with
your co-workers your colleagues to ask
about their current status what are you
working on
again key point for today it says little
preposition
not what are you working what are you
working is incorrect
do not use what are you working what are
you working on
what are you working at native speed
this sounds like what are you working on
what are you working on so you can use
this to check in with your friends or
your co-workers
this one is very helpful in many
situations this next one
what have you been doing what have you
been doing
you can use this at work and at school
of course you can also use this at home
so what have you been doing means at
some
some point in the past up until now like
you were doing something
but what was it so we use this question
sometimes when we’re when we don’t know
or when we’re a little suspicious of the
other person
what are people doing like for example
we expect
like someone will have finished
something and they didn’t finish it
so you can ask like what have you been
doing
so this is a good one to use when you’re
like
unsure or kind of suspicious of someone
okay oh uh someone sorry i can’t read
your name on facebook says what’s your
youtube channel if you have an account
with youtube yes
uh if you’re watching on facebook we
have a youtube channel english class
101 101 you can check uh
all of our videos there it’s very easy
to search
so if you’re watching on facebook please
check that out also i put links
in the descriptions of those videos
after the lesson too
okay um nohorah has another good example
on youtube what are you talking about
what are you talking about is another
great one
a little aggressive so please be careful
that one’s a kind of direct
question uh let’s go to this one
so someone uh in section two asked me
how long question
how long have you been working on this
or how long have you been working on
that so depending on the situation you
can choose
this or that and of course you can
change this verb
how long have you been studying english
how long have you been
teaching english and so on how long have
you been working on that
you can use this again don’t forget this
preposition please
don’t forget this guy okay uh
time’s going quick on so i just
mentioned this
how long have you been studying topic so
in this
blank space right here put your topic
how long have you been studying english
how long have you been studying japanese
how long have you been studying
programming
so put the topic of study right here
yeah
how long have you been studying blah
blah blah okay
all right next one where
are you going where are you going no
this one
is a simple progressive question yeah
not where have you been going
that’s a different that’s correct but it
makes a different
uh question where are you going means
now
someone is about to leave or they’re
traveling now
you want to know their destination now
their destination now okay where are you
going
where are you going okay
good and good examples are coming in
my mom has been cooking my dinner for
almost five years oh
okay it’s very specific okay
uh how long have you been studying math
says utahi great
good job felipe says how long have you
been studying this good how long have
you been studying this
fantastic everybody okay another good
one
is why a why question why
are you studying english why are you
studying programming
why are you studying economics this is a
good one for conversation
yeah a why question oh why are you
studying economics
so make it light if you’ve just met this
person
like if you’re like why are you studying
spanish
it’s gonna sound kind of aggressive and
like you you don’t seem interested
so make sure your tone of voice is
really like
interested and kind when you ask this
like oh why are you studying spanish
so keep in mind your tone is important
with questions like this
in a first meeting lastly today is this
one i wanted to include this one because
this is a very common question
at least among uh american english
speakers
it might not be clear the meaning how is
everything going how is everything going
you might be like what does this mean it
means how is your life
now everything in your life it’s like
how’s it going how’s it going but how is
everything going sounds a little bit
more like polite it’s still
kind of um familiar like we know the
person we have a relationship but i use
this for example
with some people at work that
maybe we don’t work together every day
but we just want to have like a check-in
say hello
ask about the other person’s life you
can say how
is everything going at native speed this
sounds like
how’s everything going how’s everything
going
okay um good yes
um other examples why are you studying
musical instruments okay that’s a good
question
you can ask somebody why why are they
doing that okay
uh oh good question uh fanny herrera
says why are you studying an
mba or why are you studying mba great
question
let’s talk quickly about it because i’m
out of time uh
studying comes before a topic of study
mba is the result yeah so you
should say in that case why are you work
or like
maybe why do you want to get an mba
so you study before the topic mba is
your result
yeah okay i have to finish because i’m
late
as always uh so uh we’ll finish there
for today if you missed it oh i’ll show
you the lesson boards one more time you
can take a screenshot here they are
we talked about present progressive
present perfect with progressive and
some common question
patterns you can use with today’s
grammar i hope that it was helpful for
you
you have excellent excellent questions
and excellent example sentences today
i’ll be back next week of course next
week uh
here it is next week the date october
28th
oh my gosh this year is going by so fast
can you believe it
uh i’m going to talk next week about
making a steady schedule
so uh if you are having trouble like
making progress
or if you’re not really sure like how to
fit your studies into your life you can
join next week
and we’ll talk about some ideas for
making schedule
making a schedule for your studies so
please join me next week of course
all right i’ll say goodbye for this week
of course again make sure if you want
to check the links below the video on
youtube and above the video
on facebook for free stuff hooray uh
also i will
after this lesson uh i’ll put some links
in the youtube uh part
of in the youtube description of this
video so if you have
questions about today’s grammar points
uh please check that
a little bit after the live session ends
i’ll put some information there for you
to check out so
thanks very much for joining me live
this week it was super fun as always i
hope that you have a great week a great
day
uh oh thanks for liking and sharing too
i always forget to say that
okay uh i’ll say goodbye there for now
enjoy your
week bye