What Do You Do — Why Americans Ask About Your Job First | Learn American English Podcast скачать в хорошем качестве

What Do You Do — Why Americans Ask About Your Job First | Learn American English Podcast

You're at a backyard BBQ. A stranger walks up. You exchange names. And then — immediately — they ask: "So what do you do?" If you're not American, this moment can feel aggressive, intrusive, even rude. But in the US, this question isn't small talk — it's the operating system of American introductions. In this episode, we decode why Americans are obsessed with this question, what's really happening in their brain when they ask it, and we give you a simple 3-part formula so you never freeze up again. 🔑 What you'll learn: Why "What do you do?" is the #1 question Americans ask strangers The 3 hidden functions behind the question (conversation fuel, social calibration, and connection) The 3-part answer formula: Title + Context + Translation Line 3 common mistakes that kill the conversation (The Resume, The Vague, and The Apology) How to answer if you're unemployed, a student, or retired Why this question is considered rude in Europe but rude NOT to ask in America Follow-up etiquette: what to say back — and 2 questions you should NEVER ask 📌 Key Moments: 0:00 The Red Cup Scenario 0:47 Why does this question feel so aggressive? 1:05 The operating system of American introductions 2:06 Identity = Occupation: The cultural "why" 2:57 Americans work 1,800 hours a year — more than almost any country 3:36 The Social Sorting Machine: 3 things happening in their brain 5:32 Why answering this is a skill (that nobody teaches you) 5:46 Bad Answer #1: The Resume 🚫 6:33 Bad Answer #2: The Vague 🚫 7:06 Bad Answer #3: The Apology ("I'm just a...") 🚫 7:50 The 3-Part Formula (Title + Context + Translation Line) ✅ 8:27 Example: How a UX designer answers like a pro 8:58 Example: How an accountant becomes the most interesting person at the party 9:23 What if you're NOT working? (The minefield) 9:32 The ghost of the Protestant Work Ethic 👻 10:03 The magic word: "Transition" 10:32 How students and retirees should answer 11:03 Is this question rude in other countries? 11:43 In America, it's rude NOT to ask 11:54 When you should NEVER ask this question (even in America) 12:22 The Follow-Up Dance: What happens after you answer 13:04 The best follow-up question Americans love 13:31 🚩 2 questions you should NEVER ask an American 14:08 The big takeaway: They're handing you a microphone 14:52 Your homework: Prep your translation line 🌐 Visit us: https://learnamericanenglishpodcast.com #AmericanEnglish #WhatDoYouDo #LearnEnglish #ESL #AmericanCulture #EnglishPodcast #SmallTalk #CulturalDifferences #EnglishConversation #SpeakEnglish ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎧 THE LEARN AMERICAN ENGLISH PODCAST Real English. Real Culture. Real Conversation. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🌐 Website: https://learnamericanenglishpodcast.com 📚 MORE EPISODES YOU'LL LOVE: ▸ Southern English Explained → [link] ▸ "Put Up With" vs "Deal With" → [link] ▸ Full Playlist → [link] 💬 NEW HERE? Maya and James break down the unwritten rules of American English—the phrases textbooks skip, the cultural context you actually need, and the conversations that help you sound natural (not like a robot). #AmericanEnglish #LearnEnglish #ESL #EnglishPodcast #PhrasalVerbs #EnglishListening #SpeakEnglish