General Education

Office
BUSINESS ENGLISH
LA.231/LA.331/LA.3501

Unit 2: Work and Leisure

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Objectives
By the end of this class you should be able to
1. Introduce yourself and others
2. List basic work and leisure activities.
3. Use days, months, and dates vocabulary effectively.
4. Identify with time management vocabulary.
5. List work or career and lifestyle expectations.
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Nationalities
Where are you from?
Brazilian Polish Germany Kuwaiti French Oman
Italian Spain Russia Turkey Japanese Swedish
China Greece British American
A) Complete the chart of countries and nationalities.
Country Nationality Country Nationality
-an -ish
Brazil Brazilian Poland
Germany German Spanish
Italy Sweden
Russian Turkish
-ese Others
Japan France
Chinese Greek
-i the UK
Kuwait the USA
Omani
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Nationalities
We often use the verb to be to describe people.
Jeffery Immelt is Chairman of GE. He is American. He is married.
I am Im
You Youre Complete Ex A on P10 with SHORT FORMS
We are Were of the verb to be and listen and check.
They Theyre Spanish.
He Hes
She is Shes
It Its

I am not Im not Complete Ex E on P10 with NEGATIVE

You You arent SHORT FORMS and listen and check.
We are not We arent
They They arent Italian.
He He isnt
Match the questions and answers on Ex F
She isnt She isnt
on P11
It It isnt
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Jobs / Professions
We also use the verb to be with peoples jobs.
Jeffery Immelt is Chairman of GE.
I am a teacher.
We use a before words beginning with a consonant sound (e.g., b, c, etc.):
a receptionist

We use an before words beginning with a vowel sounds (a, e, i, o, u):\

an astronaut

We do not use a or an with plural nouns: They are doctors.

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Jobs / Professions
Write the correct article (a/an) for each job

trainee accountant executive optician lawyer

analyst director architect manager consultant
engineer doctor pilot office worker cashier
receptionist technician telephone operator
sales assistant personal assistant
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Skills Introducing yourself and

Useful languageothers
Introducing people Greetings
Im Please to meet you.
My names Nice to meet you.
This is Good to see you again.
Hes /Shes in sales. You, too.
Hes / Shes with Nokia.

Asking about business Replying

Hows business? Not bad, thanks.
Fine. / OK. Not too good.
Offering a drink
Would you like a drink? Thanks very much. Id love one.
How about a drink? Yes, please. / No, thanks.
Another drink?

Saying goodbye
See you later. Goodbye. See you soon.
Nice talking to you.

a) Listen to three conversations (on Page 21). Decide whether these

statements are TRUE or FALSE
b) Listen again and complete the conversations using the phrases above.
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Unit 2. Balancing Working and

Living
In the past, getting one job for your whole life was the dream.
But nowadays the idea of keeping only one job is not realistic.

These days it is more popular to work for short-term contracts instead of

yearly contract renewals.

In the past, knowing your schedule all the time allowed for people to plan
leisure activities easily.

In the modern world these activities are more difficult to plan for, so knowing
how to do this effectively is important for a long career.
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Technology
Technology makes our jobs faster and easier to do, but this also means
we now have more work to do.

E-mail, laptops, and mobile phones have doubled our work and give our
employers the chance to contact us anywhere and anytime.

Most workers using these technologies in their jobs will work their normal
hours, and take their equipment home to do more work. This saves the
company time and money, and makes you work harder .
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Flexibility
Nowadays more and more people are trying to balance their worklife and
their homelife more efficiently.

Working part-time jobs or negotiating more flexible working hours is

becoming increasingly more popular.

What are some other forms of flexibility and jobs?

Teleworking, or homeworking, is becoming popular, as are people who

choose to downshift take less demanding, and less paying jobs in
order to avoid a negative lifestyle.
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Aspects of a good job

A) Work in pairs. Discuss the things people might want from work,
For example, a large office, nice colleagues
B) Work in pairs. Make three word partnerships in each box to find
out what four people want from their work.

1 high colleagues 2 friendly security

long salary travel opportunities
helpful holidays job boss

3 company phone 4 fast facilities

mobile facilities flexible promotion
parking car sports hours

C) Now listen and check the word partnership they use. (16)
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Aspects of a good job

A) Match some word partnerships from Exercise B to their meaning 1 to 6

1) A lot of money high salary

2) A lot of time away from work
3) Good people to work with
4) The chance to go to different places on business
5) Move quickly to a higher position at work
6) You can change the times when you start and finish work
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Prepositions of Time
We use:
at for a PRECISE TIME
in for MONTHS, YEARS, CENTURIES and LONG PERIODS
on for DAYS and DATES
at in on

MONTHS, YEARS, CENTURIES and

PRECISE TIME DAYS and DATES
LONG PERIODS

at 3 o'clock in May on Sunday

at 10.30am in summer on Tuesdays

at noon in the summer on 6 March

at dinnertime in 1990 on 25 Dec. 2010

at bedtime in the 1990s on Christmas Day

at sunrise in the next century on Independence Day

at sunset in the Ice Age on my birthday

at the moment in the past/future on New Year's Eve

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Leisure Activities
B) Use words from the box to complete the leisure activities below.

going to playing watching clistening to

1 playing golf 5 __________ tennis

2 _______ TV 6 __________ the cinema
3 _______ restaurants 7 __________ football
4 _______ CDs 8 __________ the gym

C) Talk about leisure activities. Use the verbs in the box 1 and the time
phrases in box 2. e.g., I love running at the weekend.
1 love 2 at the weekend
like on Friday night
quite like in the summer / winter
dont like in August / December
in the morning / afternoon / evening
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Leisure Activities
Language Focus Adverbs and expressions of Frequency
We use adverbs of frequency and expressions of frequency
with the present simple to say how often we do things.c

He often
He sometimes finishes at 11pm.
How often does he get up early?
He always gets up early.

Adverbs of frequency often go:

- before the main verb: Karla sometimes works from home.
- after the verb to be: I am always at work before 9.00am.
never sometimes often usually always
0% 100%

Expressions of frequency go at the beginning or the end of a

sentence.
Two nights a week, he works late at the office.
He works from home once a month.
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Adverbs of Frequency
a) Write the words in brackets in the correct places in these sentences.
usually
1) She gets up early. (usually)
2) They start their meeting at 9 oclock. (always)
3) We are late for meetings. (never)
4) I am busy in the afternoon. (often)
5) The office closes at 3pm. (sometimes)
b) Complete the expressions of frequency below. Use words from the box.
three then twice Sunday week time

1 from time to time 3 once a _______ 5 every _________

2 now and _______ 4 ________ a month 6 _____ times a week

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Adverbs of Frequency
d) An interviewer asks people from different countries about their typical
day. Listen and complete this chart. (17)
Rodolfo Isabel Sigrid
(Mexican) (Swiss) (Austrian)
1 What do you do when check email
you get to work?
2 Where do you have
lunch?
3 How often do you travel
on business?

f) Work in pairs. Ask and answer these questions. Add similar ones of your
own.
How often do you.
1 play sports? 5
entertain at home?
2 use a mobile phone? 6 go
on business trips?
3 drive to work / college? 7 go abroad on holiday?
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Summary
Now you can:
1. Introduce yourself and others
2. List basic work and leisure activities.
3. Use days, months, and dates vocabulary effectively.
4. Identify with time management vocabulary.
5. List work or career and lifestyle expectations.