Vocabulary

The following list presents main vocabulary and key terms related to professions and occupations. After each occupation or profession, you will find a picture that helps you to understand its meaning.

 

To check out the pronunciation of the words, click on the link below, you can access directly to Cambridge Online Dictionary where you look for the words you need:
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/pronunciation

Teacher: A teacher is a person who works at a high school or at an elementary school teaching different skills to students. For example: listening, speaking, reading, writing or literature. Teachers should also teach values and serve as a role model for students. During my daily life as a teacher, I have to plan lessons, design activities, and  enhance active and cooperative learning.

 
 

Police Officer: I work at a police station and around the community. I keep the community safe by patrolling the streets during day and night, I arrest criminals and I send them directly to jail. You can recognize a police officer by the blue suit, the police badge and the gun. 

Astronaut: An astronaut is a person who studies for exploring the universe. There are planets, stars, galaxies, and satellites that are still unexplored. Thanks to the job of an astronaut, people can be aware of the changes that are happening around the universe. In addition, based on their observations, different studies and researches can be conducted for learning more about the universe.

Industrial Engineer: An Industrial Engineer is a person who designes and evaluates processes. Those processes can be social or production processes. With this evaluation, we can access to good quality products. Related to the social part, an industrial engineer can evaluate the quality of social processes. For example, the evaluation of social interactions between customers and clerks on an institution and if they are offering a quality service. Based on the evaluation, an industrial engineer can create plans for improving the quality of the service offered.

Farmer: I work at a farm wearing comfortable clothes. My day begins early in the morning when I milk out the cows for getting milk, cheese, butter, and yogurt.  There are a lot of animals living in the farm. For example: horses, sheep, pigs, hens, and roosters. I raise those animals in order to get different products or benefits. On the other hand, my job also consists on cultivating crops and taking care of them while they grow by removing weeds.

Electrician: Being an electrician is not easy. An electrician is the right person for fixing electric problems and the installation of your home. When you need to change the shower head or the electric bell of your house, you can call an electrician. Electricians wear yellow or blue suits, helmet and special boots for keeping them safe from electricity. In Costa Rica, some of them work at Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad.

Journalist: A journalist is a person who informs what is happening in our country or around the world. A journalist can work doing one of three different tasks or all of them. First, they can commute around the country to inform about natural disasters, important meetings of the Government or accidents. Then, they can work writing the pieces of news in newspapers, or to write them before being informed to people. Finally, they can be the ones who present the news on the TV or the radio. Journalists commonly need a camera for filming the issues or a notebook and a voice recorder for giving validity to the information. 

 

Firefighter: A firefighter is a person who works saving people from fires. Every time that a house is burned or after an accident, firefighters are the ones who risk their lifes in order to help people from danger. Firefighters usually have a truck with a hose for extinguishing the fire. They wear a yellow suit, a helmet and, a pair of boots.

 

 Pilot: A pilot is a profession which is related to driving planes around the world. The interesting part of being a pilot is the possibility to visit different places. Pilots, most of the time, have extra help from flight attendants. Thanks to pilots, people can visit countries around the world by planes faster than by using cars or busses. Pilots also need to know geographical coordinates and information about tornados or storms, in order to know that, pilots are in constant communication with the headquarters.

 

Cook: A cook is the person who works preparing dishes.  A cook can work at the school’s cafeteria preparing lunch or breakfast. They can also work at a restaurant preparing dishes for different occasions or they can create their own business as the person in charge of their own catering service or cafeteria. They can also serve as judges in contests where people participate presenting their personal and secret dishes or they can have their own TV show where they present their dishes to a specific audience.

 

Gardener: A gardener is the person who works in the garden of people. You can hire a gardener for cultivating your crops and to clean your flowers when they have weeds while they grow. A gardener can also help people in knowing when a harvest is ready and he/she can recommend you a fertilizer that helps your crops to grow healthier.

Actor: An actor is a male or a female figure who works interpreting different characters in movies and TV shows. An actor has the duty to express emotions that they are not feeling and to convince the audience, letting them believe, that what he or she is interpreting is real. Actors also have the possibility to behave in a way that they do not do in real life. One advantage of being an actor is that everybody knows you, but at the same time, it is a disadvantage because of the lack of privacy.

Doctor: A doctor is the responsible of healing people when they are sick. When you go to the hospital, doctors evaluate your symptoms to determine exactly what you have. Doctors can prescribe treatment such as pills or surgery. During the process, they can follow the patient’s progress against the illness. Doctors normally use a scope and a stethoscope. Most of the doctors work at a public or private hospitals and clinics. They can also work at universities teaching medicine major to future doctors

 

Shopkeeper: A shopkeeper is the person who is responsible of selling products at the store. Those stores are usually at the shopping mall or around the community.  Shopkeepers are always alert that people do not steal clothes or shoes from the stores. They are ready to help costumers finding exactly what they need to buy. They can also comment about the qualities of the products and available deals on the store.

Veterinarian: A vet is a person who works healing animals. Veterinarians can work at a pet shop or farms. Every time that an animal is sick or when it suffers an accident, veterinarians are ready to help those animals.