Learn office slang
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Gabriella: Salut! Je m'appelle Gabriella. Is it So Hard to Work in France? |
| Jeremy: Moi, c'est Jeremy. |
| Gabriella: Let's get started. Quel est le sujet de la leçon d'aujourd'hui ? |
| Jeremy: In this lesson, you’ll learn some office slang. The conversation is between Laure and Vincent.. |
| Gabriella: Ok, donc c'est une conversation familière ? |
| Jeremy: Oui, et Vincent vient de rentrer du travail... |
| DIALOGUE |
| Laure : Comment s’est passée ta journée, mon chéri ? |
| Vincent : Le boulot me crève en ce moment. On a un nouveau manager qui a les dents longues, donc on a charretté toute la journée. |
| Laure : Ne te tue pas à la tâche non plus. |
| Vincent : Malheureusement, si on ne veut pas foirer le projet, il faut bosser à fond. |
| Laure : Quand est la deadline ? |
| Vincent : Lundi prochain. Je vais rentrer tard ces prochains jours… |
| Gabriella: Now let's hear it with the English translation. |
| Laure : Comment s’est passée ta journée, mon chéri ? |
| Laure: How was your day, honey? |
| Vincent : Le boulot me crève en ce moment. On a un nouveau manager qui a les dents longues, donc on a charretté toute la journée. |
| Vincent: Work is wearing me out these days. We have a new manager who's very ambitious, so we've been working flat out the whole day. |
| Laure : Ne te tue pas à la tâche non plus. |
| Laure: Don't work yourself to death. |
| Vincent : Malheureusement, si on ne veut pas foirer le projet, il faut bosser à fond. |
| Vincent: Unfortunately, if we don't want the project to be a complete disaster, we have to totally cram. |
| Laure : Quand est la deadline ? |
| Laure: When is the deadline? |
| Vincent : Lundi prochain. Je vais rentrer tard ces prochains jours… |
| Vincent: Next Monday. I'm gonna be home late these next days. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gabriella: Wow, I didn’t think the French could work that hard! |
| Jeremy: Yes, we're more known for our holidays and strikes! Mais en fait, les Français travaillent beaucoup. |
| Gabriella: Yes, even though they work around only 35 hours a week, they're very efficient. |
| Jeremy: Oui, mais beaucoup de gens travaillent plus de 35 heures par semaine. |
| Gabriella: I guess you have some overtime work too. |
| Jeremy: Yes, and you get paid for that, 25% more than your normal hourly rate. |
| Gabriella: Wow, sounds like France has a nice system. |
| Jeremy: Yes, but the wages are not that high, and you pay a lot of taxes on it. Besides, you have free health insurance, free schools, hospitals, police, and so on. |
| Gabriella: Sounds like it would be good to settle down in France! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gabriella: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Gabriella: The first word we shall see is... |
| Jeremy: boulot [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: work |
| Jeremy: boulot [slowly - broken down by syllable] boulot [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: charretter [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to work flat out |
| Jeremy: charretter [slowly - broken down by syllable] charretter [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: foirer [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to be a complete disaster |
| Jeremy: foirer [slowly - broken down by syllable] foirer [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: avoir les dents longues [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to be ambitious |
| Jeremy: avoir les dents longues [slowly - broken down by syllable] avoir les dents longues [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: se tuer à la tâche [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to work oneself to death |
| Jeremy: se tuer à la tâche [slowly - broken down by syllable] se tuer à la tâche [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: crever [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to die, to be worn out |
| Jeremy: crever [slowly - broken down by syllable] crever [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: And last… |
| Jeremy: bosser à fond [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to totally cram |
| Jeremy: bosser à fond [slowly - broken down by syllable] bosser à fond [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gabriella Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. Okay what’s the first word, Jeremy? |
| Jeremy: “Avoir les dents longues”. It means “to be very ambitious.” |
| Gabriella: It’s good to be ambitious in life! |
| Jeremy: oui, mais c’est une expression péjorative. |
| Gabriella: Vraiment? Pourquoi? |
| Jeremy: It means one is too ambitious! Other expressions are born from this one. |
| Gabriella: Like Rayer le parquet. |
| Jeremy: “To scratch the wooden floor” |
| Gabriella: It’s a risk if you have long teeth… |
| Jeremy: Yes! Let’s see another expression... Charretter. |
| Gabriella: What does it means? Sounds like the noun charrette, a "cart." |
| Jeremy: That is precisely the origin of this verb. It stands for “flat out”. Charrette can be used as an adjective too, as in... Les étudiants sont charrette pour finir leurs projets. |
| Gabriella: "The students are working flat out to get their projects finished." It’s used only for architecture, design, and art studies, right? |
| Jeremy: Yes, mainly, but sometimes it’s used to talk about a huge amount of work. |
| Gabriella: Ok, je vois.Et notre dernière expression est? |
| Jeremy: se tuer à la tâche |
| Gabriella: “to work oneself to death”. It means one is working too much. |
| Jeremy: Exactly! It can be used at work, but also for any situation where someone can get really busy. But be careful, these expressions are colloquial expressions, so don’t use them with your boss or people you should talk formally to! |
| Gabriella: I think I get it. Ok, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Gabriella: In this lesson, you’ll learn some office and work related slang. |
| Jeremy: Yes, the French tend to talk informally at work quite easily. |
| Gabriella: J’ai déjà entendu le mot “boulot” |
| Jeremy: This is probably the most common. You can also say taf, meaning “job”. They both stand for travail |
| Gabriella: “work” or “tasks”. |
| Jeremy: The verbs are taffer and bosser. If you’re still a student, you can use potasser and bûcher. They mean you will work or study a lot. |
| Gabriella: Ok, je vois. Est-ce qu’il y a beaucoup d’expressions? |
| Jeremy: Oui, par exemple “abattre une tonne de travail”. |
| Gabriella: "to kill a ton of work?" It’s meaningful! |
| Jeremy: Haha, oui, très parlant ! It means to go through a lot of work. |
| Gabriella: Another word? |
| Jeremy: Gratter, which is literally “to scratch”. It reminds us of the sound of a pen on paper. |
| Gabriella: Donc ça veut dire ‘écrire beaucoup”. |
| Jeremy: Oui, c’est ça ! For example- Au boulot, j’ai gratté toute la journée et j’ai du faire des extras. |
| Gabriella: "I had to write a lot today at work and even had to work overtime." |
| Jermey: Faire des extras means “to work overtime.” You’re ready to work in France! |
| Gabriella: (laughs) I would love to! |
| Jeremy: Another one is apprendre sur le tas. Literally, it means “to learn on the mass.” |
| Gabriella: So it would mean you’re learning your job while doing it. |
| Jeremy: C’est ça, tu as tout compris! Imagine que tu commences à travailler dans un restaurant pour tes études… Tu dirais quoi? |
| Gabriella: J’ai appris le métier de serveuse sur le tas. |
| Jeremy: “I learn the job of waitress on the job.” |
| Gabriella: Je crois que j’ai compris, mais c’est assez familier, non? |
| Jeremy: Oui, il faut faire attention. You can use it only with family and friends. |
| Gabriella: Ok, compris! |
| Jeremy: By practising, you will get it very quickly. |
| Gabriella: Donc, n’hésitez pas à pratiquer dans les commentaires! |
| Jeremy: Bonne chance, et à la prochaine! |
| MARKETING PIECE |
| Jeremy: Listeners, looking for a cheat sheet to memorizing French vocabulary? |
| have you checked out our Video Vocab series? |
| Gabriella: These themed video lessons combine visual cues with the voices of native speakers. |
| Jeremy: Just another effective method of learning and retaining thousands of vocabulary words. |
| Gabriella: Go to FrenchPod101.com... |
| Jeremy: ...click on the Video Lessons tab... |
| Gabriella: ...and hit play! |
| Jeremy: It’s that easy. |
| Gabriella: But don’t take our word for it. |
| Jeremy: Try it for yourself at FrenchPod101.com |
Outro |
|---|
| Jeremy: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. |
| Gabriella: Thank you for listening everyone, and we’ll see you next time. |
| Jeremy: Salut! |
| INTRODUCTION |
| Gabriella: Salut! Je m'appelle Gabriella. Bienvenue à Lower Intermediate French, Season 2, Lesson 8 - Is it So Hard to Work in France? |
| Jeremy: Moi, c'est Jeremy. |
| Gabriella: Let's get started. Quel est le sujet de la leçon d'aujourd'hui ? |
| Jeremy: In this lesson, you’ll learn some office slang. The conversation is between Laure and Vincent.. |
| Gabriella: Ok, donc c'est une conversation familière ? |
| Jeremy: Oui, et Vincent vient de rentrer du travail... |
| DIALOGUE |
| Laure : Comment s’est passée ta journée, mon chéri ? |
| Vincent : Le boulot me crève en ce moment. On a un nouveau manager qui a les dents longues, donc on a charretté toute la journée. |
| Laure : Ne te tue pas à la tâche non plus. |
| Vincent : Malheureusement, si on ne veut pas foirer le projet, il faut bosser à fond. |
| Laure : Quand est la deadline ? |
| Vincent : Lundi prochain. Je vais rentrer tard ces prochains jours… |
| Gabriella: Now let's hear it with the English translation. |
| Laure : Comment s’est passée ta journée, mon chéri ? |
| Laure: How was your day, honey? |
| Vincent : Le boulot me crève en ce moment. On a un nouveau manager qui a les dents longues, donc on a charretté toute la journée. |
| Vincent: Work is wearing me out these days. We have a new manager who's very ambitious, so we've been working flat out the whole day. |
| Laure : Ne te tue pas à la tâche non plus. |
| Laure: Don't work yourself to death. |
| Vincent : Malheureusement, si on ne veut pas foirer le projet, il faut bosser à fond. |
| Vincent: Unfortunately, if we don't want the project to be a complete disaster, we have to totally cram. |
| Laure : Quand est la deadline ? |
| Laure: When is the deadline? |
| Vincent : Lundi prochain. Je vais rentrer tard ces prochains jours… |
| Vincent: Next Monday. I'm gonna be home late these next days. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gabriella: Wow, I didn’t think the French could work that hard! |
| Jeremy: Yes, we're more known for our holidays and strikes! Mais en fait, les Français travaillent beaucoup. |
| Gabriella: Yes, even though they work around only 35 hours a week, they're very efficient. |
| Jeremy: Oui, mais beaucoup de gens travaillent plus de 35 heures par semaine. |
| Gabriella: I guess you have some overtime work too. |
| Jeremy: Yes, and you get paid for that, 25% more than your normal hourly rate. |
| Gabriella: Wow, sounds like France has a nice system. |
| Jeremy: Yes, but the wages are not that high, and you pay a lot of taxes on it. Besides, you have free health insurance, free schools, hospitals, police, and so on. |
| Gabriella: Sounds like it would be good to settle down in France! |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gabriella Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. Okay what’s the first word, Jeremy? |
| Jeremy: “Avoir les dents longues”. It means “to be very ambitious.” |
| Gabriella: It’s good to be ambitious in life! |
| Jeremy: oui, mais c’est une expression péjorative. |
| Gabriella: Vraiment? Pourquoi? |
| Jeremy: It means one is too ambitious! Other expressions are born from this one. |
| Gabriella: Like Rayer le parquet. |
| Jeremy: “To scratch the wooden floor” |
| Gabriella: It’s a risk if you have long teeth… |
| Jeremy: Yes! Let’s see another expression... Charretter. |
| Gabriella: What does it means? Sounds like the noun charrette, a "cart." |
| Jeremy: That is precisely the origin of this verb. It stands for “flat out”. Charrette can be used as an adjective too, as in... Les étudiants sont charrette pour finir leurs projets. |
| Gabriella: "The students are working flat out to get their projects finished." It’s used only for architecture, design, and art studies, right? |
| Jeremy: Yes, mainly, but sometimes it’s used to talk about a huge amount of work. |
| Gabriella: Ok, je vois.Et notre dernière expression est? |
| Jeremy: se tuer à la tâche |
| Gabriella: “to work oneself to death”. It means one is working too much. |
| Jeremy: Exactly! It can be used at work, but also for any situation where someone can get really busy. But be careful, these expressions are colloquial expressions, so don’t use them with your boss or people you should talk formally to! |
| Gabriella: I think I get it. Ok, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Gabriella: In this lesson, you’ll learn some office and work related slang. |
| Jeremy: Yes, the French tend to talk informally at work quite easily. |
| Gabriella: J’ai déjà entendu le mot “boulot” |
| Jeremy: This is probably the most common. You can also say taf, meaning “job”. They both stand for travail |
| Gabriella: “work” or “tasks”. |
| Jeremy: The verbs are taffer and bosser. If you’re still a student, you can use potasser and bûcher. They mean you will work or study a lot. |
| Gabriella: Ok, je vois. Est-ce qu’il y a beaucoup d’expressions? |
| Jeremy: Oui, par exemple “abattre une tonne de travail”. |
| Gabriella: "to kill a ton of work?" It’s meaningful! |
| Jeremy: Haha, oui, très parlant ! It means to go through a lot of work. |
| Gabriella: Another word? |
| Jeremy: Gratter, which is literally “to scratch”. It reminds us of the sound of a pen on paper. |
| Gabriella: Donc ça veut dire ‘écrire beaucoup”. |
| Jeremy: Oui, c’est ça ! For example- Au boulot, j’ai gratté toute la journée et j’ai du faire des extras. |
| Gabriella: "I had to write a lot today at work and even had to work overtime." |
| Jermey: Faire des extras means “to work overtime.” You’re ready to work in France! |
| Gabriella: (laughs) I would love to! |
| Jeremy: Another one is apprendre sur le tas. Literally, it means “to learn on the mass.” |
| Gabriella: So it would mean you’re learning your job while doing it. |
| Jeremy: C’est ça, tu as tout compris! Imagine que tu commences à travailler dans un restaurant pour tes études… Tu dirais quoi? |
| Gabriella: J’ai appris le métier de serveuse sur le tas. |
| Jeremy: “I learn the job of waitress on the job.” |
| Gabriella: Je crois que j’ai compris, mais c’est assez familier, non? |
| Jeremy: Oui, il faut faire attention. You can use it only with family and friends. |
| Gabriella: Ok, compris! |
| Jeremy: By practising, you will get it very quickly. |
| Gabriella: Donc, n’hésitez pas à pratiquer dans les commentaires! |
| Jeremy: Bonne chance, et à la prochaine! |
Outro |
| Jeremy: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. |
| Gabriella: Thank you for listening everyone, and we’ll see you next time. |
| Jeremy: Salut! |
Comments
Hide