Learn what expressions to use in a job interview
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Matt: Hello and welcome back to BulgarianPod101.com. This is Beginner, season 1, lesson 13 - At a Bulgarian Job Interview. My name is Matt. |
| Tina: And I’m Tina! |
| Matt: In this lesson you'll learn how to communicate in a formal situation like a job interview. |
| Tina: The following conversation takes place at an office. It’s between a female company employee and Kiril. Kiril is being interviewed by the company employee. |
| Matt: The speakers are in a formal situation, so they will be using formal Bulgarian. Okay, Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Служителка: И така, какво ще кажете за себе си? |
| Кирил: В какъв смисъл? |
| Служителка: Какви са Вашите способности и лични характеристики? |
| Кирил: Ами-и, аз съм спокоен и трудолюбив. Обичам семейството си и... |
| Служителка: А какъв опит имате? |
| Кирил: Ами... нямам много опит. |
| Matt: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Служителка: И така, какво ще кажете за себе си? |
| Кирил: В какъв смисъл? |
| Служителка: Какви са Вашите способности и лични характеристики? |
| Кирил: Ами-и, аз съм спокоен и трудолюбив. Обичам семейството си и... |
| Служителка: А какъв опит имате? |
| Кирил: Ами... нямам много опит. |
| Matt: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Служителка: И така, какво ще кажете за себе си? |
| Matt: So what can you tell me about yourself? |
| Кирил: В какъв смисъл? |
| Matt: In what sense? |
| Служителка: Какви са Вашите способности и лични характеристики? |
| Matt: What are your skills and personal characteristics? |
| Кирил: Ами-и, аз съм спокоен и трудолюбив. Обичам семейството си и... |
| Matt: Well, I am calm and hardworking. I love my family and... |
| Служителка: А какъв опит имате? |
| Matt: And what experience do you have? |
| Кирил: Ами... нямам много опит. |
| Matt: Well... I don't have much experience. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Tina: Let’s take a look at how interviews are usually held in Bulgaria. |
| Matt: First of all, an interviewee has to prepare a CV and a letter of intent. Tina, how would you say these in Bulgarian? |
| Tina: A CV is “автобиография,” and a letter of intent is “мотивационно писмо.” |
| Matt: Recently, it has been common to just say “CV” in Bulgarian too, so you could easily use that word as well. |
| Tina: That’s right. In fact, nowadays if you say “автобиография”, it sounds a little bit outdated. |
| Matt: You also need to know details about the company and the position you’re applying for. |
| Tina: Bulgarian companies usually have their own website, so checking them online in advance is really helpful. |
| Matt: Finally, being able to communicate in more than one language is always a plus. |
| Tina: Assuming that you already know English, you can polish your Bulgarian with these lessons to be fully ready for a Bulgarian interview! |
| Matt: Okay, now let’s move on to the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Matt: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is: |
| Tina: смисъл [natural native speed] |
| Matt: sense, point |
| Tina: смисъл [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: смисъл [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Tina: способност [natural native speed] |
| Matt: ability, skill |
| Tina: способност [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: способност [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Tina: личен [natural native speed] |
| Matt: personal |
| Tina: личен [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: личен [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Tina: спокоен [natural native speed] |
| Matt: calm |
| Tina: спокоен [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: спокоен [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Tina: трудолюбив [natural native speed] |
| Matt: hardworking |
| Tina: трудолюбив [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: трудолюбив [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Tina: обичам [natural native speed] |
| Matt: to love |
| Tina: обичам [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: обичам [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Tina: семейство [natural native speed] |
| Matt: family |
| Tina: семейство [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: семейство [natural native speed] |
| And Last: |
| Tina: опит [natural native speed] |
| Matt: experience |
| Tina: опит [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: опит [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Matt: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. What’s our first word Tina? |
| Tina: First up is “Себе си”. |
| Matt: This means “yourself," “himself,” and “herself.” Tina, can you tell us about the usage? |
| Tina: You often use it with the preposition “за,” which could be translated as “for,” “to,” or “of,” as well as a few other prepositions in English. |
| Matt: And how about in the conversation? |
| Tina: In this lesson we used the expression “за себе си” which means “about yourself.” when used with someone in the 2nd person. |
| Matt: I see. Alright, what's next? |
| Tina: The next word is “Така”. |
| Matt: This is a Bulgarian adverb that means “so” and “thus,” but is can also mean “such.” |
| Tina: When you combine it with the conjunction “и” in the phrase “и така”, it means “now then”. You can use it at the beginning of a sentence, just like in our dialogue. |
| Matt: Good to know. Now then, what’s next? |
| Tina: The next word is “Нямам” |
| Matt: This is a verb meaning “to not have” or “don't have”. It’s the opposite of “to have”, which in Bulgarian is… |
| Tina: “имам,” |
| Matt: Can you tell us the forms of this verb Tina? |
| Tina: The conjugation forms are “нямам,” |
| Matt: : “I don't have," |
| Tina: “нямаш,” |
| Matt: “you don't have," |
| Tina: “няма,” |
| Matt: “he/she/it doesn't have," |
| Tina: “нямаме,” |
| Matt: “we don't have," |
| Tina: “нямате,” |
| Matt: “you don't have," |
| Tina: “нямат;” |
| Matt: “they don't have." That’s a lot, but they are all very important, so be sure to memorize these forms! Alright, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Matt: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to communicate in a formal situation like an interview. |
| Tina: Specifically, you’ll learn how to ask and answer typical interview questions in Bulgarian |
| Matt: The types of questions asked in interviews are similar across all languages. |
| Tina: That’s right, and practicing how to ask and answer questions like this, can be very helpful in learning the type of Bulgarian used in interviews, as well as other business scenarios. |
| Matt: First, let’s take a look at a simple way to ask someone to introduce themselves in Bulgarian. |
| Tina: Sure, an important question to know here is... - “Какво ще кажете за себе си?" In English, this means “What can you tell me about yourself?" |
| Matt: Can you break down this question, Tina? |
| Tina: Sure! It’s made up of the pronoun “какво” meaning “what;” then the verb form “ще кажетe," which is the second person plural form of the verb “казвам” in the future tense, indicating a formal conversation; Какво ще кажете (slow) Какво ще кажете |
| Matt: Okay… what about the rest? |
| Tina: Next is the preposition “за”, which in this case means “about," and “себе си” which we introduced in the vocabulary and phrases section. |
| Matt: Although interviews are usually formal situations, some interviewers might choose to be more forward with interviewees, and intentionally use informal language. |
| Tina: In those cases, the question may be asked like this: “Какво ще кажеш за себе си?” |
| Matt: How can you tell if the question is formal or informal? |
| Tina: Typically, second person singular verb forms end in “-ш," compared to the plural forms, which end in “-те." The plural is always more formal. |
| Matt: I see, that’s quite helpful! Can you give us an example? |
| Tina: Okay, for example you could say “Какво ще ми разкажеш за себе си?” |
| Matt: And now our original example… |
| Tina: Какво ще ми кажете за себе си? Both mean “What can you tell us about yourself”, but the first one is informal, and the second one is formal. In our new example, the verb changes from “разкажеш” to “кажете”. |
| Matt: So not only the verb form but the verb itself changes according to the usage context. |
| Tina: Yes, “разкажеш” sounds more friendly than “кажете,” but the meaning is essentially the same. It’s almost like asking someone to tell a story, not just answer a question… |
| Matt: That’s really interesting! |
Outro |
| Matt: Well, listeners, that’s all we have for this lesson |
| Tina: But we have even more examples in the lesson notes. |
| Matt: So be sure to check them out! |
| Tina: Until next time, see you, “Чао-чао!” |
| Matt: Bye! |
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