[Clumsy English Conversation 0 Month ①] What does "What do you do?" mean?

One month has passed since I started online English conversation lessons.

15 minutes a day.
It may only be 15 minutes, but it's still 15 minutes. I do this 6 times a week.

I took the plunge and signed a one-year contract (because it had the highest discount rate, haha), so by the time the contract expires, I plan to be fluent in daily English conversation.

Click here for the reason why I started online English conversation ↓

There are various companies that offer online English conversation, but I use Cambly. I plan to share little by little why I chose Cambly, what I like about it, and so on.

For now, I'll post a link in case anyone wants to know about Cambly's service. You can try it for 10 minutes for free, so I recommend it.
I also joined after trying the free trial. (free is good! haha)

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Well, this time, I want to talk about the time I panicked when I started online English conversation.
(At Cambly, there is a way to have a conversation while looking at text online, but I enjoy free talk.)

It was when I was asked the same question by various teachers.

A literal translation is
What do you do?
.

I thought in my head and panicked. haha

At first, I even talked about my daily routine, like waking up at 4:30, taking care of my children, etc.
It was embarrassing ( 一一)

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I was asked this a few times and realized that it seems to have the nuance of
What do you usually do?
.

Oh, I see. I didn't know that.

(・_・)

So in my case,

When I mention that I've been at the same company for 10 years, people tend to get interested.
After that, the conversation usually expands to things like work, but I thought,I'm on maternity leave right now, so I'm not working~and said it.

But I felt like it didn't quite fit.
'Take a break' has a bit of a vacation-like image.

Then one day, another teacher taught me, 'You should express it like this.'

That's it! That's what I wanted to say! I thought.
I learned the term 'maternity leave' immediately. lol

I learned this expression quickly, too.
(Though it's a word I won't need once I return to work, but oh well.)

When I say that, it sometimes causes laughter.
The way I say it is difficult, so sometimes people are genuinely worried, asking, 'Oh? Are you okay?' lol

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I am being taught by a different teacher every day. That is precisely whyI can learn that there are various ways to express the same thing. From there, I make the ones that feel most natural to me my own. Because it's something I want to talk about, I can remember it right away!

It feels like I'm moving forward step by step like that.

Regarding maternity leave, when I say I intend to take two years off, people are incredibly surprised.
In the UK, the US, and Australia, it seems two to three months is the norm.
But from what I've heard, the benefits are more generous than in Japan.

Being able to learn about such differences in national policy while staying at home is also a real thrill.

From the next article on, I want to write about topics I've become able to talk about, fully in English. It's just clumsy English conversation, but I'd love for you to come visit again if you'd like♪

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Comments received on this article

>Shige-san
So, if you have fewer opportunities to be exposed to English, you lose the ability to speak it...
It's true that you don't really have opportunities to speak unless you are conscious about it.
Let's do our best together♪♪

>Daina-san
Every day. Though it's only for 15 minutes. (lol)
I don't make a schedule. I can't make one.
I do it whenever my child falls asleep.
I hope I can write an article about that someday too.
I'm very happy that you said you were looking forward to it♪
My motivation for posting has gone up!

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Thank you for reading until the end!

If you leave a comment,I will reply to it in the next articleso please be aware of that.

Have a great week!

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