Hi Tim here with another nine-to-five english lesson. In today's

lesson we're going to learn how to talk about your education. Your education is

an important part of your background and there are lots of situations where you

might talk about where you went to school and what you studied. A job

interview is an obvious one but you might also talk about your education in

casual conversation. The first thing you might mention is where you went to

school. More specifically people might be interested in which university you

attended. And there are several ways we can tell them about that. Firstly you

might just use that verb "attend" Similarly you could say you "went to" or

"graduated from" a certain University. Another way to talk about your

university is to say that you're an alum of a certain school. Alum is short for

alumnus which is a word that means a person who attended a school. So for

example I might say I'm an alum of Columbia University. Let's try practicing

some of this language. We're going to give you some examples.

After each example try repeating it yourself. Ready? Let's give it a go!

I graduated from Yale in 2008.

For my undergrad I went to the London School of Economics.

I attended a small Technical College in Colorado.

I'm an alum of Washington University.

Ok we've practiced some different ways of talking about our University.

But another important aspect of your education is what you studied. In English

we call your area of study your major. This word can be used in a few different

ways. So for example if you studied biology you could say that your major

was biology but you can also say that you were a biology major so the noun

means both an area of study and a person who studies that area. We can also use

major as a verb such as I majored in biology after you tell someone your

major you might also mention an area of focus for example within business you

might have focused on finance or you might mention your minor which is like

your secondary area of study and just as we say we majored in a subject we can

say we minored in a subject there's another much simpler way to talk about

your major and that's just to say something like I studied biology of

course that's not the only course you took but people understand that was your

major now there's one more way to tell people what you studied and that's by

saying you have a degree in a certain field your degree might be a master's

degree or a bachelor's degree and you can use the short form of these

such as an MA or a BS which means Bachelors of Science and is used for

degrees in technical fields such as engineering or computers let's practice

some of these expressions for talking about your major

once again you can repeat the examples after you hear them I studied

international business with a focus on finance

I majored in French with a minor in political science

I started out as a science major but switched to education

I have a Bachelor of mechanical engineering

so we've learned some different ways of talking about your University and your

major but how did these expressions sound in a real conversation let's

listen to a short dialogue between Tanja and Jose tanya is asking Jose about his

education so did you go to university around here yeah I graduated from Iowa

State University in 2010 oh yeah great school what did you study

I majored in business with a minor in statistics as you just heard Jose says

he graduated from Iowa State University and when asked about what he studied he

says he majored in business he also adds that he had a minor in statistics now

it's your turn to practice will repeat the dialogue but this time will be bout

the second speakers words you will have to say those parts yourself remember

to start by saying that you graduated from Iowa State University then you can

say that you majored in business and minored in statistics so did you go to

university around here

oh yeah great school what did you study

you

all right we've learned some great ways to talk about your education including

what university you attended and what you studied be sure to tune in next time

when we learn how to talk about your career until then so long and happy

learning