Le Professioni

Vieste, Puglia, Italy:
https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2016/02/22/10/52/italy-1215212_960_720.jpg

Like it or not, most of us end up talking about our jobs sooner or later while engaged in small talk.  To make sure you can participate...and understand if your dinnermate is an archaeologist, a banker or a circus clown... here is some vocabulary that you might find useful.

First, the verb "to work" is a regular -ARE verb. So here is the conjugation:

LAVORARE (to work)

• Io lavorO (I work)
• Tu lavorI (You work- singular, informal)
• Lui/Lei lavorA (He/she works); you work- singular, formal)
• Noi lavorIAMO (We work)
• Voi lavorATE (You work- plural)
• Loro lavorANO (They work)

We can use this verb to tell someone where or where we work:

• (Io) lavoro oggi.
• (Lei) lavora al' ufficio postale.
• (Noi) lavoriamo a Roma.

When stating our profession or occupation, we could use use the verb to be (essere, see earlier blog post for conjugation) or to do (fare- we'll conjugate that one in a later post).

• Sono professoressa d'italiano.
• Siamo studenti.
• Lei è una dentista.

Here are three good lists of occupations from Quizlet with every job from receptionist to firefighters to, yes, clowns. (I love this site because they provide audio to help with pronunciation AND games you can play to quiz yourself)

• http://quizlet.com/9768736/le-professioni-flash-cards/
• http://quizlet.com/1793726/le-professioni-1-20-flash-cards/
• http://quizlet.com/1793777/le-professioni-21-40-flash-cards/

And here is a short profession matching game to play:

• http://parliamoitaliano.altervista.org/mestieri/

For a challenge (get your Google translate ready to read the clues!), here is a crossword to try (you have to click on the little numbers to read the clues)

• http://parliamoitaliano.altervista.org/cruciverba-le-professioni/

If you prefer a video lesson, check out this one on YouTube.  Very straight-forward with pictures, time to repeat, etc. It has a good immersion-type feel to it. And a jazzy little background sound (and check out the grinning office dude with the ear-spacer things...!)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGqBK6hpOxY&feature=related

And this YouTube video is of a young Italian lady teaching some job vocabulary. She speaks English with a lovely accent!

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chjc3Fzt3W4&feature=related

And, of course, we have to have a few work-related songs:

Here's one called Professore by Renato Zero: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF7pZT7E1Zk
lyrics: http://www.lyricsmania.com/professore_lyrics_renato_zero.html

And the most important job ever, here's Mamma by Claudio Villa:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrRIAWpIza8
lyrics: http://www.lyricsreg.com/lyrics/claudio+villa/Mamma/

Same song, performed by Andrea Boccelli a Roma in the Colloseum: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyKrPR7oneo&feature=related

This one's catchy- L'operaio della Fiat (la 1100) by Rino Gaetano:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oH9obEgDyT0&feature=related
lyrics:  http://www.lyricsmania.com/loperaio_della_fiat_la_1100_lyrics_rino_gaetano.html


Buon lavoro!