Learn how to ask and answer "What are you doing in this city?"
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| Welcome to EnglishClass101.com’s British English in Three Minutes. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn English. |
| Hey everyone, I’m Gina! |
| In this series, we’re going to learn some easy ways to ask and answer common questions in English. It’s really useful, and it only takes three minutes! |
| In this lesson, you’re going to learn how to ask and answer the question “What are you doing in this city?” |
| This lesson will be particularly useful for those of you who live in a foreign country, but it’s also a common topic of conversation between people of the same nationality. |
| Remember in a previous lesson, we learned how to ask someone what they do for a living by saying “What do you do?” Well, in this lesson we’ll be asking the question: “What are you doing in...” then the name of the city. Note that this question is in the present progressive tense, with “doing” instead of “do”. This is very important, as the meaning of the question changes slightly. |
| This question “What are you doing in ~?” is often asked by one expatriate to another. It can mean “what is your job?” but it can also include the meaning of “how did you get here?” or “What circumstances brought you here?” |
| Let’s try it out! |
| “What are you doing in Tokyo?” |
| “What are you doing in Germany?” |
| As you can imagine, this question is quite open-ended, so there are a number of possible ways to answer it. |
| You could just say what you do for a living: |
| “I’m a software developer at” [then your company name].” |
| “I’m a software developer at Google.” |
| Or you could say why you came to the city or to this country in the first place. |
| For example: |
| “I studied English at college, so I wanted to try living in an English-speaking country.” |
| “My husband [or wife] got transferred here by his [or her] company.” |
| “I got transferred here from” and then previous place you lived in. |
| “I got transferred here from Manila.” |
| As with many other English conversation questions, you can ask the other person the same question by saying: |
| “How about you?” |
| However, if the other person is a native of the country, this can sound a little strange. In this situation, you can ask instead: |
| “Did you grow up here?” |
| Or: |
| “Were you born here?” |
| This is a really great opportunity to find out more information about the other person. Be creative! |
| Now it’s time for Gina’s Tips! |
| You don’t just have to practice English with native speakers – all practice is good practice! English is the global language of communication, and is often the only language that a group of people from lots of different places have in common. So if you find yourself in a foreign community, go ahead and try out your new English phrases! |
| In the next English in Three Minutes lesson we’ll be talking about films and how to give your opinions on them. See you next time! |
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