Hello! Hoje falamos sobre a palavra GIG e como ela praticamente virou sinônimo de trabalho ou emprego de qualquer tipo. Um P.S.: gig também é abreviação de gigabyte, que não é assunto deste episódio.
Transcrição
a musical gig
Hello! This is the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast.
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So an Inglês Online reader asked me about the word gig yesterday. He was reading a business book and came across the expression full time gig. He was surprised to see that, since he thought ‘a gig’ meant a temporary job, or maybe not even temporary – but sort of a side job that you take, in addition to your full time job, to make some extra cash.
As it turns out, though, the word gig has been used in a much broader sense for a while now, to mean a job, or work. It’s a slang word, for sure, so it’s always informal. Before I give you more examples, let’s just go over the original meaning of gig: in the beginning, gig was used by musicians when they were hired to perform somewhere.
The word gig is still very much in use with that meaning – for example, I sometimes go to bars to see live music gigs here in London. They usually have lineups of four or more gigs on the same night. Some gigs are better than others and, in general, they leave the best gigs for last – so if the first performance starts at eight, for example, you’ll probably see the fourth or fifth gig around ten or ten-thirty and these will probably be the most popular ones.
Like I said, though, we can say gig for basically any kind of work in informal language. It doesn’t matter if it’s temporary or full time; if it’s music-related or not. All you have to do is qualify it: a full time gig; a temp gig; a side gig, a great gig, and so on.
You may be telling your friend that you’re starting your new job as an analyst for a big consulting company. You tell her about the hours, the pay, the job description… And your friend thinks it’s an awesome job. She says “Wow… Sweet gig!” And you agree. It is a sweet gig. It’s going to be your full time gig from now on.
You have another friend who’s a carpenter and he’s telling you someone wants to hire him to build custom furniture for a house in the countryside. It’s a bit far from where he lives, so you ask him “Are taking the job?” and he says “Hey, a gig is a gig”. It’s work! Work is work; a gig is a gig.
And yet another friend of yours says “I like my job but I wanted to make some extra cash so I’m driving for Uber now.” So your friend now has a side gig, in addition to his full time job. He’s an Uber driver.
And here’s my story: when I lost my full time corporate job years ago, I started teaching English. It was supposed to be just a temporary gig. It turned out to be more than that as it lasted for a few years, and eventually the Inglês Online website turned out to be my full time gig.
So what’s your gig? Do you work full time and also have a side gig? Let me know in the comments, and talk to you next time!
Key terms
gig
Vocabulário
a side job = um segundo emprego, no geral ‘part time’, para complementar a renda
lineup = programação das bandas para aquele período
Ana criou um blog de dicas de inglês em 2006, e depois de muito pesquisar o que faz alguém ganhar fluência numa segunda língua, criou seu primeiro curso de inglês em 2009.