Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[yoshi-pooh]

Hi, everyone!

Does B's responses 1-3 to A's question sound natural?

A: What do you do?(Or what's your occupation?)
B: 1. I'm a student. /2. I study medicine at ABC Medical school. /3. I go to ABC University.

・What do you do (for a living)?
・What's your occupation?

I'd like to know if it's okay to ask these Qs when you're not sure if the person you are talking to has a job or is still a student.

Back in high school, I learned that these questions are used to ask someone's job. So, when I met a young man who looked in his early twenties, I wasn't sure if I should have asked "What do you do?", or "Are you a student, or do you have a job?" beforehand.

Thank you!

yoshi-pooh

[CP]

I think "What do you do?" is fine to ask anyone. Some students work full- or part-time; some employed people (like me) also go to school long after their education is finished (trying to learn German at the moment). So I wouldn't ordinarily ask, "Are you a student, or do you have a job?"

If you say, "So, what it your occupation?", the other person will say how he or she is occupied, whether it be as student, employee, captain of industry, lieabout-slacker, pop star-train wreck, or what have you. That (to me) is just a question about how one spends one's time.
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[yoshi-pooh]

Hi, CP

Thank you for your reply.

Arigato!

yoshi-pooh