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I’d like to boss people around!
I’ve got one more year at university and soon I will have to start thinking about what to do with my life when I’ve finished that. It’s very difficult to decide exactly what I want to do. I want to use my languages, because I speak French and German, but I don’t exactly know how. I don’t want to become an interpreter or translator as I feel that it would be quite boring. However, I do want to use my languages and travel as much as possible. I’m the type of person who could not stay at home, so, therefore, I have to have a job. At the same time I don’t think that I could stand having a normal 9 to 5 job, as I would be totally bored by it after about half a year. So, therefore, I need to have a job that’ll keep me interested and it will vary, that is, be totally different the whole time.
I think that the best type of job I’d most prefer would be something in business in which I could use my languages, travel around a lot and have quite a lot of responsibility. I don’t think I would enjoy having a menial job when I’m just taking orders from everyone else. I would prefer to have a job with responsibility of my own where I can make decisions for myself and even boss people around.
But I don’t exactly know what I‘m going to do. Maybe I’ll do something in advertizing or in management or in banking. These are my plans, although I don’t exactly know how they’re going to come out.
(from “A Native Speaker’s Recording“)
UNIT 3
Lesson A
Interview
In Britain, people tend to make jokes about some jobs or professions or to hold stereotyped views of them. For example, bank managers are supposed to have a rather stuffy and bourgeois image, university professors are often seen as absent-minded or forgetful. Other jobs may be well-paid or very responsible, but the general public thinks they are funny or rather boring.
Part I
Interviewer: Well, we heard some people just now who seem to feel that other people have a wrong idea about the work they do. Do you think this sort of things is very widespread?
Sociologist: Oh, absolutely. Most jobs or professions seem to have an image or a stereotype to them, often much to the irritation of the job-holders. But there is a serious point to all this, too, that maybe people actually choose their career under the influence of these false images. And certainly, there is evidence that they may even avoid certain careers because they have a negative image. Well, on a large scale, as you can imagine, this could cause problems for whole sectors of the economy.
Interviewer: Er, you say there’s evidence?
Sociologist: Oh, most definitely. There was a survey recently into children’s attitude to different professions.
Interviewer: Well, exactly. What the investigator wanted to get at was their impressions and their prejudices. They used a very simple technique. They gave the children twelve pairs of statements. In each pair one statement was positive, the other was its opposite.
Interviewers: For example?
Sociologist: Well, for example, “such and such a person is likely to be boring or interesting company”.
Interviewer: I see. What professions did they ask about?
Sociologist: Do you want the whole list?
Interviewer: Well, why not?
Sociologist: OK. Here goes. They looked at: physicists, lawyers, economists, accountants, sales representatives, estate agents, biologists, and three types of engineers - mechanical engineers, electrical and civil. The children were asked to say which of the statements was ‘most true’ about each profession.
Part 2
Interviewer: And the results?
Sociologist: Well, they were rather striking concerning one profession in particular, the poor old engineer. Of all the jobs mentioned, he came out really much worse than you might expect. The vast majority of children (90% in the case of the mechanical engineer), thought that engineering was a ‘dirty job’. They also thought the job was of ‘low status’ and ‘subordinate’; that is, the engineer is more likely to take orders than to give them. Oh, and insecure too. The only other person they thought more likely to actually lose his job was the sales representative. But, I must say there were good points too. Engineering was seen to be ‘interesting well paid’ work.
Interviewer: Hmm, not such a rosy picture, really.
Sociologist: No... but it got better when the children were asked about how they imagined the engineer as a person. The majority of the children chose positive comments, except that they thought the engineer was likely to be rather poorly than well dressed.
Part 3
Interviewer: Well, what about the other professions, then? Erm... what came out favourite, for example?
Sociologist: Oh, the lawyer without a doubt. He collected by far the greatest number of positive opinions. The sales representative and then the estate agent were right at the bottom.
Interviewer: Oh, so the engineers weren’t right down there?
Sociologist: Oh, no! The children’s ratings put them just above the poor old sales representatives all bunched together. Probably the children don’t have that much of an idea of their real work. I think they went by the titles, really, since civil engineer came out top, perhaps the suggestion of the name?
Interviewer: Oh, I see.. You mean that he was a more civilised sort of chap than the others?
Sociologist: Yes, right. Reasonable sounding, isn’t it?
Interviewer: Yes, quite sensible, I suppose. And I imagine the mechanical engineer came out bottom?
Sociologist: Absolutely right. In fact, 90% of the children associated him with dirty work, as against 76% for the electrical engineer and 68% for the civil engineer.
Interviewer: And the other professions?
Sociologist: Well, after the lawyer came the accountant; then the scientists, the physicists first. The economist came just above the engineer. Funnily enough, he was the only one that the majority of children felt would be gloomy rather than cheerful.
Interviewer: A real sign of the times, that.
Sociologist: Yes, but I still think the most serious implication of the results of the survey was the children’s apparent ignorance of the importance of the engineer’s role in society.
Interviewer: After all, in most other European countries to be an engineer is to be somebody. And I imagine that this means that many bright children who might really enjoy the profession and do well in it, probably never consider it, which is a great pity for the country as a whole. We do need good engineers after all.
(from Listening. Upper-Intermediate by Sh.Rixton. Part II, Unit 11)
UNIT 3
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