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Find One's Calling

Learn English with this career English lesson

Date: Jul 02 2013

Themes: Food, Soap Opera, Work

Grammar: Gerunds vs. Infinitives

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Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

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2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

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It’s so hard to figure out what career path to follow. Maybe there are several careers that interest you, but you don’t feel as if any of them are perfect. You want to choose the job that you were destined to do. You want to hear the perfect job calling out to you, and you want to answer that call.

So are you just supposed to sit around and wait for that call to come to you? Or do you need to get out there and show some initiative? Maybe if you read books, or take internships, or speak to professionals in various fields, you can find a way to be a bit more proactive and find your calling.

Lily thinks she’s found her calling in the culinary world. Find out if her co-workers agree in this career English lesson.

3. Watch - Watch the video without reading the dialog.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Amanda: Lily, I’m so excited to try your soup. What did you say was in this again?

Lily: I don’t really have a name for it yet. But it uses an oyster broth. It’s inspired by Thai and Peruvian cuisine, with an old fisherman’s spirit. Oh, and there’s beer in it.

Mason: Wow, that’s pretty creative.

Lily: I had so much fun making it. I just loved going to the grocery store, and buying the ingredients, and being in the kitchen. I think I’ve really found my calling.

Greta: I think somebody’s going to need to be calling the doctor if we keep eating this soup. This is delicious!

Lily: Really? I’m so glad!

Mason: Um, is there supposed to be something slimy in it?

Lily: Oysters have a very particular texture.

Jeff: I don’t think those are oysters. It’s stinging my eyes.

Amanda: You guys, we have to tell her. We can’t let her go and apply to culinary school and embarrass herself. Right? Lily, could you come over here a sec?

Lily: Sure.

Amanda: So, on behalf of your friends, we’re really excited that you think you’ve found your calling, and that you’re thrilled about this whole cooking thing.

Greta: Yeah.

Amanda: It’s just that we’re not sure that this is your thing.

Lily: Oh.

Jeff: This soup is awful. I’m sorry.

Mason: Yeah, it tastes like what. Garbage?

Greta: With some wet newspaper thrown in.

Amanda: We’re so sorry to have we be the ones to tell you. We care about you.

Lily: No, it’s OK. I thought that the fact that I don’t have a sense of taste or smell would probably make it difficult for me to be a cook.

Jeff: What? No smell, no taste?

Lily: Yeah. I was born without them. I just really like being in the kitchen.

Greta: I think you really need those two senses to be a chef.

Lily: You’re probably right. It’s OK.

Amanda: And you know what? Maybe you have found your calling. You’re a really good marketing and publicity person.

Lily: Really?

Amanda: Yeah.

Lily: Thanks. I actually really like working here. And thank you all for being so honest. Maybe I’ll go finish making those calls about the promotion before I clean up.

Amanda: Sure, go ahead!

Lily: OK.

Jeff: It’s too bad we don’t have a dog to give this food to.

Amanda: Oh, a dog! I love puppies!

Mason: Me too! I love dogs!

Grammar Point

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Lesson MP3

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Discussion

Go Super to Listen

Lily has made her special oyster stew, and she’s brought in a big pot to share with her co-workers. Everyone tries it, and realizes that it’s completely disgusting. For a little while, they try to be polite. Then they realize that it would be more polite to simply tell her the truth.

Amanda calls Lily over. Everyone admits that the soup is awful. Lily’s actually not very surprised. It turns out that she is actually missing two very important senses for a chef: taste and smell. That means that she had no idea what the soup tasted or smelled like!

Amanda assures Lily that she has found her calling, after all. She does great work in marketing and publicity. She’ll have a great career, just not in the kitchen.

Have you found your calling? How did you decide what career was right for you?

Comments

wolegeca

China

As a matter of a fact,i haven’t maken any decision about my calling.I don’t have any ideas.Finding one’s calling is a fantastic thing for us,i wish all of us can have a idea of which is best for you to do.

bluesky8

China

TO find ones’s calling is a great thing for all of us .Come on, try once more, i ‘m sure finally we’ll find our true calling.

AlexSorokin

Russian Federation

I find my calling, but before I have tryed some different direction! The main isnt fall back from your purpose!

abdelghafour

Morocco

sometimes even if we can’t find our calling, we have to accept any job. That’s better than stay at home , in spite of all my dreams ; i finally work in jail ,because offers become increasingly rare.

dreadslayer

Turkey

i’m new graduated from business adm and at uni i chose accounting major i studied all of accounting lessons in order to enrich my knowlegde when i get to business life because i want to be CPA ( maybe some of you dont know what it is it’s Certified Public Accountant.so nowadays i’m applying for a job for 4 biggest audit firms.if one of them accept my application

i. guess i’ll be finding my calling .i destined maintain a career path at accounting.so wish me luck to get a job from big4