This week the ‘Thinking in English’ Community is talking about work and “bullshit jobs”!
Most of us spend a large part of our lives working, but does all work feel useful or meaningful? I recently made an episode inspired by the book Bullshit Jobs by the anthropologist David Graeber. In his book, he argued that some jobs are so unnecessary or meaningless that even the people doing them struggle to explain why they exist.
In this conversation club, we’ll talk about what makes a job feel useful, whether money or meaningful work is more important, and what we would do if we didn’t need to work for money. We’ll also discuss the idea of a “bullshit job” and whether people would still choose to work in a world without financial pressure.
Here are 10 conversation questions to get you talking about work, meaningful jobs, money, and “bullshit jobs”!
The Thinking in English Conversation Club takes place every TUESDAY and THURSDAY at 12pm, 6pm, and 24pm UK time!
You can find more details on how to participate here!
Conversation Questions:
- Do you enjoy your job? Why or why not?
- Have you ever had a day at work when you felt you did nothing useful?
- What is more important to you: a good salary or an interesting job?
- What makes a job feel useful?
- Would you rather be busy all day or have lots of free time at work?
- If nobody needed money, would people still want to work?
- What do you think a “bullshit job” means?
- Would you rather have a pointless job that pays well or a meaningful job that pays less?
- If you finish all your work early, should you be allowed to leave work early? Or should you have to find more work to do?
- Make your own questions!
Vocabulary
- Salary (Noun): The money someone regularly receives for doing their job.
- Useful (Adjective): Helping to achieve a purpose or produce a valuable result.
- Meaningful (Adjective): Having an important purpose or value.
- Pointless (Adjective): Having no useful purpose or result.
- Productive (Adjective): Producing useful results or achieving a lot.
- Workload (Noun): The amount of work that someone has to do.
- Free time (Noun Phrase): Time when you are not working or doing other necessary activities.
- Job satisfaction (Noun): The feeling of enjoyment or happiness that someone gets from their job.
- Motivated (Adjective): Having a strong reason or desire to do something.
- Purpose (Noun): The reason why something exists or is done.
- Bullshit job (Noun Phrase): A job that a person believes is unnecessary, meaningless, or has little real value.
- Fulfilment (Noun): A feeling of satisfaction from doing something meaningful or worthwhile.
- Work-life balance (Noun): The ability to give enough time and attention to both work and your personal life.
- Worthwhile (Adjective): Valuable or useful enough to justify the time, effort, or money spent.
- Leave early (Phrase): To finish work and go home before the usual time.
Conversation Club Times
12pm Conversation Club Around The World
- London, United Kingdom Tue/Thur at 12:00 BST
- Mexico City, Mexico Tue/Thur at 05:00 CST
- Bogota, Colombia Tue/Thur at 06:00 COT
- Santiago, Chile Tue/Thur at 08:00 CLST
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Tue/Thur at 08:00 BRT
- Rome, Italy Tue/Thur at 13:00 CEST
- Warsaw, Poland Tue/Thur at 13:00 CEST
- Istanbul, Turkey Tue/Thur at 14:00 TRT
- Taipei, Taiwan Tue/Thur at 19:00 CST
- Tokyo, Japan Tue/Thur at 20:00 JST
18pm Conversation Club Around The World
- London, United Kingdom Tue/Thur at 18:00 BST
- Mexico City, Mexico Tue/Thur at 11:00 CST
- Bogota, Colombia Tue/Thur at 12:00 COT
- Santiago, Chile Tue/Thur at 14:00 CLST
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Tue/Thur at 14:00 BRT
- Rome, Italy Tue/Thur at 19:00 CEST
- Warsaw, Poland Tue/Thur at 19:00 CEST
- Istanbul, Turkey Tue/Thur at 20:00 TRT
- Taipei, Taiwan Wed/Fri at 01:00 CST
- Tokyo, Japan Wed/Fri at 02:00 JST
24:00pm Conversation Club Around The World
- London, United Kingdom Wed/Fri at 00:00 BST
- Mexico City, Mexico Tue/Thur at 17:00 CST
- Bogota, Colombia Tue/Thur at 18:00 COT
- Santiago, Chile Tue/Thur at 20:00 CLST
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Tue/Thur at 20:00 BRT
- Rome, Italy Wed/Fri at 01:00 CEST
- Warsaw, Poland Wed, Wed/Fri at 01:00 CEST
- Istanbul, Turkey Wed/Fri at 02:00 EEST
- Taipei, Taiwan Wed/Fri at 07:00 CST
- Tokyo, Japan Wed/Fri at 08:00 JST
Model Answers & Vocabulary
To help you prepare for the Thinking in English conversation club this week, I have created vocabulary lists and some model answers.
The model answers are split into intermediate, upper-intermediate, and advanced level responses. Hopefully this will give you an idea on the differences in quality between intermediate and advanced responses, and perhaps inspire your own answers to these questions!
B1 (Intermediate)
Model Answers
Vocabulary
B2 (Upper Intermediate)
Model Answers
Vocabulary
C1 (Advanced Level)
Model Answers
Vocabulary
See you all at this week’s conversation club!
How to Become a Patron?
Becoming a patron is a simple process. To join our community and access exclusive content and benefits, follow these easy steps
- Click on the “Become a Patron” button on our Patreon page.
- Select the tier that aligns with your language learning goals.
- Complete the registration process, which includes setting up your payment method.
- Once you’re a patron, you’ll gain immediate access to the benefits of your chosen tier.
Further Questions?
