Hi Teachers,
Could you help me with the dialogue below?
- Is “called about it” correct? (the hotel called you about the case)
- Is “a list of the stolen goods” better?
- Is “a certificate” better?
Many thanks.
I’m dealing with the dialogue as written, but for all these passages I agree with Mister Micawber. The dialogue is cumbersome and long-winded. I appreciate that you want to provide sentence structures for your students, but this would not be how the conversation progressed in real life.
Dialogue 2 At the police station
Saito: My name is Saito. I’m the conductor of a Japanese tour group. A member of the group had her bag stolen in the hotel lobby. I think they had called you about it before we came a short time ago. This is Ms. Suzuki, the owner of the bag, and here is the list of stolen goods a list of the bag’s contents.
Police officer: That’s really too bad. But I’m afraid you have to understand the stolen money and minicam would have little chance to come back we have very little chance of recovering the money and the minicam.
Saito: Yeah, we understand that.
Police officer: (Seems quite experienced at dealing with such a case) You’re lucky that your passport is safe. Now, please fill in this form with the necessary information. That is, each of the stolen items, the time and place of the theft, the owner’s name, the address and telephone number back in Japan, the contact information here (hotel and local tour operator), and so on. Finally, put your signature here.
Saito: Could you give us a certificate to prove we filed a police report? She’ll need it to make insurance claims.
Police officer: Of course. We can give you a copy of this report with our signature on it as the certificate.
- Is “called about it” correct? (the hotel called you about the case)
See the dialogue. - Is “a list of the stolen goods” better?
That’s not the best option - see the dialogue. - Is “a certificate” better?
Probably, yes… though in the UK they would give you a crime number - a reference number, but no certificate.
For comparison, this is more likely to be the scenario:
Saito: This lady had her bag stolen from our hotel lobby a short time ago. I believe the hotel called you about the incident. Here is a list of the bag’s contents.
Police officer: The hotel informed us you would be calling. We’ll do what we can but I’m afraid we have very little chance of recovering it.
Saito: Yes, we understand.
Police officer: (Seems quite experienced at dealing with such a case) You’re lucky that your passport is safe. Now, please fill in this form and put your signature here.
Saito: Could you give us a certificate for an insurance claim?
Police officer: We’ll give you a copy of this signed report.
A really nice re-written dialogue, Bee!
Thank you.
Thank you very much Beeesneees for your corrections and valuable advice. I now see those dialogues are not suitable for real-life conversations and better to have a revision. I would talk to my boss again (they seem to be not quite understanding) about it to prepare a better and modern-time-like textbook for our students and for our students’ benefit. Thank you very much indeed again.
Hi Beeesneees,
Could you please check the following part of the dialogue for me? I have taken your previous example into this part as much as possible against my boss’s “loving uncuttable” but there is still some of the “uncuttable” left… sorry… :).
Many thanks!
That’s fine.
Oh I feel so relieved and happy! 
Thank you so much Beeesneees.