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English as a Second Language What do you want to talk about?
81

Hi, Ralf and Torsten,
today’s update
-morning conversation, warm-up exercises, brushing up old topics, e.g. telephone vocabulary; irregular verbs, present perfect vs. simple/progressive past; construction of useful sentences (verb wheel);

  • Discussion: Money and business: idioms (sell like hot cakes, rags- to-riches, have money to burn, be skint/broke; crosswords: earn, income, salary, wages, loan, lend, borrow, owe, credit, creditor, debitor, debts, cash, account etc…
  • Adjectives with prefixes such as un-, im-, dis-, irr-, ill-.
  • Building new words: e.g. educate- education, suffixes- ion, ation, ment and ing.
  • Writing, analysing covering letters: different examples. Translation into German. Main parts of a covering letter: salutation, heading, body, closing; personal details, enclosures; formal versus informal style; useful phrases;
    -Job interviews: frequent questions; vocab: work experience, personal skills, character/personality; suit for, be a fit, recruit, etc…

Have a nice Wednesday,
Roberto

82

Hi Roberto,

Many thanks for keeping me up to date. Can you use the following schedule for the remaining two weeks – please confirm:

Monday: Ralf
Tuesday: Ralf
Wednesday: Roberto
Thursday: Roberto
Friday: Ralf

Please let me know what you think,
Regards
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC short conversations: A cable TV customer calls technical support[YSaerTTEW443543]

83

dear torsten,

schedule confirmed.

dear roberto,

today we were writing covering letters and some people came up with peculiar phrases. i think the university of bournemouth source should be handled with care.

we discussed how to answer job ads, and particularly focussed on perceiving the gist of an ad and presenting oneself in a favourable way.

except for writing covering letters we concentrated on improving our style resp. using the gerund.

in the end we did exercises with useful verbs.

good luck tomorrow!

ralf

84

Hi, Torsten,
scheduled confirmed.
Hi, Ralf,
could I get informed about the peculiar phrases brought up in the class regarding covering letters? I still have a couple of them, not only from Bournemouth.
Thanks, Roberto.

85

Hi, Torsten, hi, Ralf,
This is Friday’s update:
-review of some topics: vocab about money and finances;
-introduction of vocabulary regarding work; common interview questions

  • Verb tenses quiz: present perfect, past (simple and continuous), present (simple and continuous), past perfect, gerund, past participles).
  • a short introduction of other grammar aspects: phrasal verbs, collocations, adverbs, adjectives and nouns.
    -Dictation (someone read the contents of a covering letter and a chosen participant wrote it on the board). Review of the essentials of a covering letter
    -Doing a presentation: Basic rules; introduction of some useful phrases, signposts.
  • interesting false friends from the etymological point of view: harvest (Ernte) vs Herbst (fall, autumn); earn (verdienen) vs. Ernte (crop, harvest); etc.

Have a nice weekend and enjoy football!
Roberto.

86

here’s just a short reminder for the topics ahead of us this week:

mo basic telephone conversation

tue basics of commercial correspondence

wed writing an inquiry, offer, order

thu payment methods + terminology

fri writing a complaint, register of politeness

87

Dear Ralf and Roberto,

Many thanks for sharing your experiences and keeping us up to date.
Could you please tell me if you are available for a new course in Leipzig, commencing July 3 and ending August 21, 8 hours (? 45 minutes) per day from 7.45 am to 3.45 pm, Friday through Monday, 120 hours in total. At this point there are 7 participants (number might rise a little) and the purpose is to teach basic English. Current rate.

Let me know what you think,
Thanks,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC short conversations: A conversation at a store checkout[YSaerTTEW443543]

88

hi torsten,

if i got you right, it is a weekend course, isn’t it? anyway, i’ll be available.

leipzig class today:

  • collected words for a glossary describing a job

  • did mock interviews and discussed performances

  • introduced conditionals, did exercises

enjoy the sun :oops:

ralf

89

Hi, Torsten,
it sounds good. I’ll be available too.
As for next week, I’d like to change Wednesday 21th due to an urgent appointment in the afternoon. I was asked to interpret for a divorce at a county court in Leipzig (German-Spanish and viceversa). I could do e.g. Monday or Tuesday instead of Wednesday.
Thanks in advance.
Roberto

90

Hi Roberto, many thanks for confirming the new course – as for next Wednesday, please coordinate the change with Ralf.

Hi Ralf, it should read Monday through Friday and it starts at 7.30 am.

Also, for futher coursed you will need a professional profile page similar to ESL Professional: Linda Arlia

Please, think about the structure and contents of your page so we can put it online within the next two weeks.
Regards,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC short conversations: A new hire gets briefed on the company’s sick and vacation policy[YSaerTTEW443543]

91

dear roberto,

today we started with commercial correspondence. we wrote enquiries for a company called INTERSYSTEMS. the company provides solutions for language training programmes and other ‘training measures’. the enquiry concerned hardware from a supplier in England. students should be familiar with a lot of useful phrases now.

what you could do tomorrow is create a company profile, define an image (i.e. reliable, modern, fast, efficient, unique etc), think of the organisational structure (like in CENTI), assign tasks and departments, and ask groups to take active measures.

on thursday you might want to introduce telephone situations and repeat the conditional types.

have a good one!

ralf

p.s.: i can do the 21st no bother. maybe i should do monday 19th, wednesday 21st and thursday 22nd next week. keep in touch :wink: r.

p.p.s.: you should be on time on thursday since fr. folta will be there too 8) :shock: 8)

92

Hi Ralf and Roberto,

Please make sure you are on time every morning, you know how much emphasis the organizers of government funded courses place on punctuality as this is something they can measure exactly.

Thanks,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC short conversations: Two business people meet at a conference[YSaerTTEW443543]

93

Hi, Ralf and Torsten,
thank you very much for your updates.
And Ralf, thanks for your suggestion.
Today’s class in Leipzig (Wednesday):
-Review of the vocab about doing a presentation; some useful phrases for presenters; writing, designing business letters: a review of the guidelines; exercises.
-introduction of some computer terms regarding letter format: indentation, font, alignment, margin, save, paragrapgh, style, line spacing.
-Adjectives describing a person or a team/a company: reliable, efficient…
-Text: first impressions; importance of creating a good impression at the first meeting; importance of this matter for all companies.

  • Analysing an enquiry/an offer; use of important prepositions in a business text: we saw your advertisement for…in this month’s issue of…etc.
    -Introducing your business: we are a young a rapidly growing company specialising in a wide range of…

At all events, I’ll be on time (not only) tomorrow. :wink: :o
Have a nice evening!
Roberto

94

Hi, Ralf, hi, Torsten,
This is my update for today’s class:
-Review of vocab/phrases regarding business letters, inquiries; offers, orders; creating a company
-Organization chart of a company, words related to this topic: CEO, chairman, sole trader, plc, accounts department, finance, purchasing, marketing, production departments etc; functions; book, funding, to head, manage, organize a department, etc…
-Prepositions; their correct use in business letters (inquiries, offers): collocations with certain nouns: information on, details of, be equipped with etc…
-Word chains: inquire, inquiry and other words that are etymologically related such as: inquisitive, inquisition, question, query, request, require, requisites, requirement; acquire, acquisition, acquisitive etc…; submit, submission (other mit-/mis-/miss- words: admit, admission, etc…).
-Use of conditional sentences, specially in business letters: useful phrases: could you please…, I would be grateful for…etc…
-Dictation of ten sentences that were previously translated from German into English: Vocab regarding inquiries; grammar: use of prepositions, conditional, present perfect, simple past, present participles; new vocabulary
-Synonyms and occasionally some opposite words.
Have a nice Thursday and good luck tomorrow, Ralf.
Best regards,
P.S On the table there is an assessment form you or I should fill in and hand in next week to Frau Folta.
Bye,
Roberto

95

dear roberto, dear torsten,

we had a great class on friday.

…though we were writing orders all day. class was quite motivated so it worked a treat. now i’m sure everyone should be familiar with a fair chunk of vocab.

the last unit we used for repeating characteristics. since i don’t know roberto, i asked them to describe him. roberto, now i’m rather curious to meet you :twisted: :wink:

roberto is a latino-like man in his early thirties, of medium height, rather slim with long dark curly hair tied up in a pony-tail. he mostly wears a blue shirt, dark woollen trousers and black leather shoes. roberto is a very placid and positive nice guy, a lovely bloke. he likes etymologic plays on words and onomatopoeic inventions. he works for a living, but doesn’t live for his work (that’s a phrase someone came up with, which is rather impressing).

on thursday this week people want to meet up for a drink in substanz beergarden at 7 pm. hope you can make it!

more tomorrow, have a good one!

ralf

p.s.: i won’t have time to submit my personal profile this week, coz i’ve got visitors over from dublin for a week. i’ll do it by the 26th, pomise :roll: . r.

96

dear roberto,

today we created a concept for the CENTI supermarket. everybody was quite active, and everybody should be able to explain their activities. i left the departments and participants on the board so you can quiz them. there was quite a bit of disagreement between the groups so you may also ask for differences in opinion. andreas and sigrun of the finance department and sabine and krassimira of the management board should be involved to solve those problems. ralf and stefan of the innovation dep. need to rethink their strategies, and tanja and susanne of the personnal dep. need to fine-tune their staff strategy, whereas achim and lothar of the purchasing dep. just need to come up with more detailed ideas for recources and products. it might be a good idea to start with jana/liz whose dep. i forgot :oops:

have a good one!

ralf

97

Hi, Ralf,
thank you very much for calling and for your update.
Tomorrow I will continue what you started today Monday. And then I’ll move on to a review of the most important grammar aspects (verb tenses, etc…). As I suggested by phone (sorry, but there was some trouble understanding you over the phone due to the noise in the background…), I would deal with payment methods.

  • review of the basic vocab regarding the last business topics: orders, offers; telephone skills.
  • It is very kind of you if you can replace me on Wednesday. Thanks a lot.

Have a nice evening and more details tomorrow evening,
bye,
Roberto
P.S Hi, Torsten, I would like you to wait a bit longer for my profile too.
I have already prepared some lines but it is not finished yet.
I hope you can agree on a short postponement of the deadline.
Best regards,
Roberto

98

Hi, Ralf, hi Torsten
today’s update:

  • review of some business vocab: money, finance, order, offer, etc…
    -organizational structure of a company: the different departments; opinions;
  • Text: types of companies in UK, USA and Germany: sole traders, (general…) parterships, Plc., Private limited company, holding company, subsidiaries, limited liability…Exercises. Vocab. Grammar: either…or; neither…nor; both …and; relative clauses vs. present participle (-ing);
  • Review of all main tenses: a test; synoptic table of the tenses and its signal words.
    -character traits: outspoken, outgoing, honest (we chose a sign of the Zodiac: Leo), dignified, natural leader, arrogant, inspiring loyalty in others etc…

Have a nice Tuesday,
Roberto
Good luck tomorrow, Ralf.

99

apart from analysing a newspaper article about leipzig (washington post) i did commercial correspondence today. we wrote orders and further enquiries.

tomorrow i will start writing complaints. roberto, on friday (the last day of the program), i suggest you could do a sum-up discussion, evaluation of the course and something fun.

more tomorrow, have a good night!

viva argentina, ralf :lol:

100

Ho, Ralf, hi Tosten,
as suggested we didi a sum-up discussion on the last day off the program.

  • Review of the basics og grammar, specially all verb tenses;this/that; these/those;
  • Review and enhancement of computer vocab.; the structure of business letters; effec tive business correspondence
  • Joachim celebrated his birthday; lyrics of tow beautiful songs: Stevie Wonder: Happy Birthday; Armstrong: What a Beautiful World!
  • Some grammar jokes (specially referring to verb tenses: word puns; blend words (Chunnel, bannoffee, netizen, indutainment etc…)
  • every one seems to be satisfied with the course (at the end of the course every participant got his/her certificate; the participants want to meet up once a month in the next future and continue learning English;

Have a nice weekend,
Roberto

P.S Sorry, Ralf, that i could not come yesterday; I didn’t feel
well due to my hay fever.

Bye, and i hope to meet you too in the next future.