Bespoke English Madrid

Valentine told me who’s to go
Feelings he treasured most of all
The teachers and the football stars
It’s in his tiny face
It’s in his scrawny hands
Valentine sold his soul
He’s got something to say
It’s Valentine’s day
The rhythm of the crowd
Benny and Judy down
Valentine sees it all
He’s got something to say
It’s Valentine’s day

Valentine told me how he feels
If all the world were under his heels
Or stumbling through the mall
It’s in his tiny face
It’s in his scrawny hands
Valentine Knows it all
He’s got something to say
It’s Valentine’s day

Valentine, Valentine
Valentine, Valentine
It’s in his scrawny hands
It’s in his icy heart
It’s happening today
Valentine, Valentine
It’s in his scrawny hands
It’s in his icy heart
It’s happening today
Valentine, Valentine

Directors: Indrani and Markus Klinko
Executive Producers: Indrani, Markus Klinko, GK Reid 
Production Designer: GK Reid
Post Production: Double Exposure Studios and the Mill
All photos: Jimmy King


Music video by David Bowie performing Valentine's Day. (c) 2013 ISO Records, under exclusive license to Columbia Records, a Division of Sony Music Entertainment

Cursos de mejora en conversación y pronunciación.

Cursos intensivos de preparación para exámenes.

 

ESSENTIAL JOB VOCABULARY

In conversational English, the question “Where do you work?” is commonly phrased as “What do you do?” or “What do you do for a living?”

How do you answer this question if you don’t have a job?

You can say “I’m unemployed” - or, more indirectly, “I’m between jobs at the moment.”

If you work for yourself, you can say “I’m self-employed.” If you have your own company, you can say, “I own a small business,” or more specifically, “I own a restaurant” or “I own a graphic design company.”

When you are officially accepted into a new job at a company, you are hired by the company. For example, “I was hired by an insurance company just two weeks after graduating from college.” When you’re hired, you become an employee of the company. The company becomes your employer. The other employees in the company are your colleagues or coworkers. The person above you who is responsible for your work is your boss or supervisor.

As an employee of the company, you earn a salary - money you receive regularly for your work. Don’t make the mistake of saying “win a salary” or “get a salary”  – the correct verb is “earn.” If you’re good at your job, you might get a pay raise (or a raise) – an increase in your salary. You could also get a promotion - an increase in importance and authority. At the end of the year, some companies give their employees a bonus - extra money for work well done.

The opposite of “hire” is fire - when your company forces you to leave your job. For example, “Peter was fired because he never came to work on time.” Usually if someone is fired, it’s because they did something bad. If an employee loses his or her job because of a neutral reason, like the company reducing its size, then we say the employee was laid off. For example, “Donna was laid off when her company started having financial problems.”

If you decide to leave your job, there are three verbs you can use:

“Quit” is informal, “resign” is formal, and “leave” can be formal or informal.

When an old person decides to stop working, the verb for this is retire. In most countries, people retire around age 65.