Beginning 43: Do You Like Your Job?

MP3 Audio (Lesson) | MP3 Audio (Dialog)

You love your job, but it’s your boss who makes things difficult, right? Hey, we feel your pain, and after this lesson, we’ll be able to feel your pain, and talk about it, in Portuguese.

Lesson audio

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Dialog audio

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Dialog
Discussion
 A: Ô pai, você gosta de seu trabalho?
Dad, do you like your job?
  B: Adoro, é do meu chefe que eu não gosto.
I love it, it’s my boss that I don’t like.
  A: Sério, pensei que ele fosse bem legal.
Really, I thought it was a really cool.
  B: Não, ele fica chateado a toa.
No, he gets upset easily.

5 comments

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  1. Otto

    Hi Orlando & Daniela,

    Was that a Chico Buarque song you two were singing?

    1. Orlando Kelm

      Hi Otto, Indeed! We were singing a line from Chico Buarque’s song entitled “a banda”, right? It is one of his most well-known, and one of the original that made him famous. Here’s a youtube link to A Banda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMI3KYXJSaY

  2. Otto

    Thanks for the link to the song. I was familiar with the tune and always thought it was a happy, carnavalesque, but now I’m starting to understand some portuguese, I realize there’s a serious undertone to it, ie criticism of the (then) oppressive government.
    Kind of remind me of a innocent looking sculpture Oscar Niemeyer once designed, that would show a hammer and sickle from a certain point of view.

  3. Shengyu Wang

    Hi Orlando & Daniela,

    In the dialogue Daniela asks her father whether he like his job. The word she uses is “trabalho.” Do Brazilians distinguish job, profession, and career? Can “trabalho” be used to refer to a temporary work, like a shot-term job? Thanks!

    1. Orlando Kelm

      Wow Shengyu, how perceptive you are! Excellent observation, the word “trabalho” does have a wide range of meaning that includes work, job, profession, paper, study, etc. Well done Shengyu!

  4. Saule

    Hello Orlando & Daniela,
    Thank you both for the lesson, it is great!
    Anyways I still have a question. We need to use de, do, da after gostar, but I don’t get where we use de where do and where da. Is it about gender? because it was -de- with trabalho, but -do- with chefe. how do I know when to use different prepositions?
    Thank you,
    Saule

  5. Saule

    Hello Orlando & Daniela
    Thank you both for the lesson. It is great!!
    Anyways I still have a question. Verb gostar requires de, do, da after it. How do I know when to use de when do and when da? is it about gender? because in dialoge it was de trabalho, but do chefe.
    Thank you,
    Saule

    1. Orlando Kelm

      Always tricky. OK, remember that in Portuguese do is the combination of de + o = do, as in “do livro” (from the book). Da is a combination of de + a = da, as in “da casa” (from the house). So, when a person says, I like the book it becomes Eu gosto do livro. Why, because gostar requires “de” and of the book becomes “do”. I like the house becomes Eu gosto da casa. Why, because gostar requires “de” and of the house becomes “da”. Hope that helps.

      1. Saule

        Thank you, that helped. And when it is e.g. “your book”, that would be “de seu livro”, and “de” doesn’t change, right?

        1. Orlando Kelm

          You’ve got it! So, “I’m talking about your house” could be “estou falando de sua casa”
          Extra: Truth told, one can say “estou falando da sua casa” but that’s an issue about when Brazilians use the definite article, and not an issue of possessive pronouns… save that for another day.

  6. Susan Buskin

    I think the third line has an error: “it” –shouldn’t it be “he”?