CEFR A2 · 5 min
In twelve years in Sydney I had many titles: waiter, barista, bartender, sommelier, floor manager, restaurant manager. Each title came with its own English vocabulary. In Australia, ‘What do you do?’ is often the third question a stranger asks — right after your name and where you’re from.
Today's focus: Job titles, workplace nouns, and ‘What do you do?’
Two natural ways to answer:
- I’m a [job] — casual and common. ‘I’m a barista.’
- I work as a [job] — slightly more formal. ‘I work as a floor manager.’
Key workplace vocabulary: restaurant / hotel / bar / kitchen / the floor (= the dining area, not the ground) / cellar / front of house / back of house
Note: The floor means the dining or customer-facing area in hospitality — not the surface you walk on.
Examples in context
Try it — click to reveal the answer
▶ What does ‘the floor’ mean in a restaurant? (a) the ground (b) the dining area (c) the kitchen
‘Working the floor’ means serving guests in the dining room. ‘Back of house’ is the kitchen.
▶ Which is more formal? (a) ‘I’m a chef.’ (b) ‘I work as a chef.’
Both are grammatically correct. Choose based on context.
▶ Fill the blank: ‘She ___ the kitchen for twelve years before opening her own restaurant.’
‘Ran’ is the past of ‘run’ — in hospitality, to ‘run’ a kitchen means to be in charge of it.
Use ‘I’m a…’ in conversation and ‘I work as a…’ in writing. Learn the specialist vocabulary of your workplace — it shows you belong.
Independent project; not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Confers no qualification. Cambridge CELTA course completed — 120 supervised teaching hours and four written assignments validated to the required standard.