Keys to enter the labour environment

Contrats, salaires, congés payés, etc. Those words are frequent in the French labour environment. To understand these words, TV5 Monde Website offers a few exercises.

Give meaning to your work

Travail (work) comes from the Latin word "tripalium", which was... torture equipment! The word thus implies pain and suffering. Hopefully, the meaning has evolved. When we talk about travail today, it implies salaires (wages), congés payés (paid holidays), etc. You'll find a memo on this specific vocabulary, and fun exercises about the differences of working conditions throughout the world. That will give you enough to put meaning in your work while learning!

Welcome to the monde du travail!

That's what we want to wish to students who just completed their studies and who are looking for a first job. They would thus enter the "population active" (workforce), which means people already working or looking for an emploi (job).

This is the case of Louise Le Tallec, who's looking for a saleswoman job: she created a new way to prepare for her first entretiens d'embauche (job interviews) while practicing with her family. So be ready to face the trial of recruiters: check your glossary with the video showing Louise facing her family.

"Au boulot !" 

This expression means "Let's get to work!". To complete your language immersion, TV5 Monde offers audio exercises which recap useful expressions at work: a good way to improve communication with your colleagues. Maybe you will need help when you'll be confronted to the hostility of machines, mandatory in the working environment: if you want to get mad properly against the printer or copier, you'll find this glossary very useful!