Learn how to talk about jobs and occupations
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brandon: Hi everyone. My name is Brandon. |
| Mohammad: Hello and “Salam”! I’m Mohammad. |
| Brandon: Welcome back to PersianPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 7 - What Do You Want to be in Iran? In this lesson you’ll learn about jobs and occupations, and phrases related to them in Persian. |
| Mohammad: Yes, and the conversation takes place in a classroom, where three classmates named Vahid, Majid, and Reza, are talking about their future jobs. |
| Brandon: They’ll be using informal Persian |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Brandon: Mohammad, What does the sentence “what do you want to be?” remind you of? |
| Mohammad: The composition class in school. This was usually the title of the subject for a composition. Most students have had it at least once, during their school years in Iran! |
| Brandon: That’s interesting! And what do they usually write in answer to it? |
| Mohammad: Teacher, Doctor, and Engineer are the most popular occupations, since they're supported by families. But sometimes there are students who write about other jobs too. |
| Brandon: I see. In Iran, when do teenagers start choosing fields related to their future jobs? |
| Mohammad: In high school, they can choose fields closer to their interests, like arts, physics, humanities, and so on. |
| Brandon: Are there any special training schools in Iran? |
| Mohammad: Yes! Recently the number of those kinds of institutes is increasing there. |
| Brandon: And do people finally start doing their dream job? |
| Mohammad: Well, sometimes there are problems like a lack of jobs and employment. But I think that those who really try, get what they want! |
| Brandon: That’s good! |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Brandon: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. What’s our first phrase? |
| Mohammad: “ وقتی “ (vaqti), meaning “When” or “Whenever”. |
| Brandon: Is it used the same way as the English “When”? |
| Mohammad: Yes and No! I mean not completely, only in sentences where we already know the time. Like for example, “When spring comes.” |
| Brandon: Does it mean that you can't ask about an unknown time with this word? |
| Mohammad: Yes. For example, we can say “When or Whenever spring comes”, but we can't ask “When will spring come?” There's another word for asking about time, which is “Kei”. |
| Brandon: Can we say both sentences in Persian? First, “When spring comes.” |
| Mohammad: “ وقتی بهار بیاد “ (vaqti bahaar biaad). |
| Brandon: And “When will spring come?” |
| Mohammad: “ کی بهار میاد؟ “ (Kei bahaar miaad?). |
| Brandon: So the word was …? |
| Mohammad: “vaqti” (Pause) “vaqti”. |
| Brandon: Our next phrase is …? |
| Mohammad: “ بزرگ شدن “ (bozorg shodan), meaning “To grow up” or “To grow old”. |
| Brandon: What’s the important point that we should remember about it? |
| Mohammad: Well, “bozorg shodan” literally means “To become big”, but it’s usually used for aging in sentences. |
| Brandon: Oh, I see. So you can’t use it for physical size? |
| Mohammad: Well, sometimes you may hear it for physically becoming bigger as well. |
| Brandon: Where was this in the dialogue? |
| Mohammad: “وقتی بزرگ بشم “ (vaqti bozorg besham). |
| Brandon: It means “When I become older” right? Once again what’s the word? |
| Mohammad: “bozorg shodan” (Pause) “bozorg shodan”. |
| Brandon: Okay, our last phrase is … |
| Mohammad: “ تو چی؟ “ (to chi?) or “ تو چطور؟ “ (to chetor?). |
| Brandon: It means “What about you?” or “How about you?”, in other words: “And you?”. |
| Mohammad: Yes. to means “You”, chi means “What”, and chetor means “How”. Together they are, “What or How about you?” |
| Brandon: When is it used exactly? |
| Mohammad: When someone says something about themselves, and they want to know the same thing about the other person. |
| Brandon: How would you answer this with “Me too”? |
| Mohammad: That’s “man ham hamintor.” in Persian. |
| Brandon: Everything is so connected to everything else! Okay, let’s move on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk about what occupations, and what you want to be when you grow up! Mohammad, how do you say this in Persian? |
| Mohammad: We say: “ میخواهی چه کاره بشی؟ “ (mikhaahi chekaare beshi?) meaning “What do you want to become?” |
| Brandon: Okay, jumping right into the sentence, which word is “What”? |
| Mohammad: “چه کاره “ (chekaare) means “What”, but it’s only used for jobs and occupations. |
| Brandon: Then judging by what we've learned until now, since the pronoun “You” is usually hidden in the verb, it leaves the two verbs of “To want” and “To become”, which are probably those words before and after “What”. So which is which here? |
| Mohammad: “mikhaahi,” in the beginning, means “You want”. It’s another decided form, or an auxiliary verb, like “Can I”, that's placed at the beginning. However, it can also be at the end, just before the other verb. For example, you may hear this sentence as “chekare mikhaahi beshi?,” which is also right and only depends on how the speaker says it. |
| Brandon: Alright. The only verb that's left now is “to become”. What’s that in Persian? |
| Mohammad: It’s “beshi,” which is the conditional form of “you become” at the end of the sentence. |
| Brandon: So once again, all together this sentence becomes …? |
| Mohammad: “ میخواهی چه کاره بشی؟ “ (mikhaahi chekaare beshi?) or more informally, “mikhaay chikaare beshi?,” meaning “What do you want to become?” |
| Brandon: Now let’s see how we can answer this question. For example, if we want to say, “I want to become a writer”, the right sentence is…? |
| Mohammad: “ میخوام نویسنده بشم “ (mikhaam nevisande besham.) |
| Brandon: “Mikhaam nevisande besham.“ The order of the words is so similar to its question form. I guess, here too, the two verbs are on the two sides of the sentence, and the occupation comes in between. |
| Mohammad: That’s correct. It’s the same rule here, only “mikhaahi” becomes “mikhaam”, and “beshi” becomes “besham” for the first person pronoun “I”. |
| Brandon: So the right formula is, “Mikhaam” or “I want,” plus the occupation, plus “Besham,” or “Become”. |
| Mohammad: Yes. For example “Mikhaam setaareshenaas besham” means “I want to become an astronomer”. |
| Brandon: One more thing—We talked about it earlier, but can we hear the Persian words for some of the well-known occupations in Iran? |
| Mohammad: Of course. For example the other word for “Doctor” is “pezeshk”. Or “Teacher” in Persian is “mo'allem”, and “Engineer” is “mohandes”. |
| Brandon: What about “Office worker or employee”? |
| Mohammad: It’s “kaarmand” or “kaarmande edaare”. “edaare” is “Office”. |
| MARKETING PIECE |
| Brandon: Listeners, looking for a cheat sheet to memorizing Persian vocabulary? |
| Mohammad: Have you checked out our Video Vocab series? |
| Brandon: These themed video lessons combine visual cues with the voices of native speakers. |
| Mohammad: Just another effective method of learning and retaining thousands of vocabulary words. |
| Brandon: Go to PersianPod101.com... |
| Mohammad: ...click on the Video Lessons tab... |
| Brandon: ...and hit play! |
| Mohammad: It’s that easy. |
| Brandon: But don’t take our word for it. |
| Mohammad: Try it for yourself at PersianPod101.com |
Outro |
| Brandon: Well listeners, were you able to say your occupation in Persian? Try telling us in the comments! |
| Mohammad: If you think it’s hard, don’t worry, since it takes time and practice. But with a little more effort, you’re there already! |
| Brandon: Please don’t forget to check the lesson notes to reinforce what you’ve learned here. |
| Mohammad: Thank you everyone, and “Khodaahaafez”! |
| Brandon: See you next time, listeners. Bye! |
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