Using Courtesy Expression

Task 1:

Listen to the conversation between two friends at a community centre. As you listen, fill in the blanks with the courtesy expressions you hear.

Courtesy expressions are phrases that are commonly used in daily interactions. They are used in a variety of social situations to greet people and respond to greetings, to signal the end of conversations, to say goodbye, and to sympathize, apologize, and express and respond to thanks.

Lynn: Hi, Julie. How's you going ?

Julie:Pretty good. How about you?

Lynn: Not bad .

Julie: Listen, thank so much for referring me to Lorraine Holt. I met with her yesterday and she was very impressed with my resumé!

Lynn: It was my pleasure. I was happy to do it. 

Julie: She was going to pass my resumé on to someone else she knows who is hiring right now.

Lynn: That's wonderful, Julie!

Julie: I’ll let you know what happens.

Lynn: Great. I hope you get the job. By the way, how is your cat doing?

Julie: Oh, poor Tiger. He got to the point where he wasn’t eating or drinking so we had to put him to sleep.


Lynn: Oh, Julie, I'm so sorry. Tiger was a wonderful cat.

Julie: Yes, he was. I miss him so much. Anyway, I should get going. Mark is picking me up and he’s probably in the parking lot. Thanks again for you help.

Lynn: Don't mention it.

Julie:
Have a great weekend.

Lynn: You too.  

Julie: Bye.


Lynn: Bye.  

Task 2:

Think and write other expressions that you are familiar with for the purposes below.

A.   Greetings & Responding to Greetings	Hi there, how are you? Good, how about you. Not bad.
B.   Responding to Bad News	I'm sorry to hear that. I really feel sad about it.
C.   Signaling the End of a Conversation	Wish you have a good day.
D.    Responding to Good News	I'm happy to hear that.
E.  Responding to Bad News	Same to B
F.   Expressing Thanks	Thank so much for that.
G.   Saying Goodbye	Have a nice day, see you next time.
H.   Requesting a favour	Could you do me a favour to do sth

Task 3:

 Let’s practice hypothetical situations. Imagine you are not feeling well and need to call one of your peers at work to cover for you.

Your talk should include the following details:

• Greeting
• Stating the purpose of your call
• Explaining the situation briefly
• Expressing thanks
• Closing the conversation

Once you are ready, click on this link and record your “imagined” phone call conversation; make sure not to exceed 2 to 3 minutes.

A: Hi, B. Hear you here.
B: Hi,A. How's you going?
A: Not bad, how about you?
B: Not good, I felt so frustrated.
A: I'm sorry to hear it. What's happy?
B: I was laid off  yesterday. When I was told this notice, I was totally shocking. It's unbelievable, you know, it was the only resource of my living.
A: I know, I know. I'm sorry to hear it. It sounds terrible. But maybe you'll find better job immidiently.

Listening Excercise

Listen to the radio talk show. As you listen, check to identify whether each caller is for or against the Toronto bylaw.

Record each person’s argument supporting his/her position. Write your opinion.

	Supporting arguments for the new bylaw	Supporting arguments against the new bylaw
Rick For	He is happy  about that and thinking  people will use few plastic bags after that.
Darlene For	She love this idea. She's tired and consumes to be given as much plastic bags as we want without any responsibility. She thinks we should limit to use plastic bags and use recycle bag instead.
Ed Against		Plastic bags can also be used to lay other garbage. We shouldn't pay extra fee to the plastic bags after purchasing the grocery in the store.
Jane Against		The government should ban the plastic bag to use completely. People are smart enough to find other proper methods to take place of them if confirmed.
Your opinion For	The stores should only provide recyclable bags instead of the plastic ones, even the cost is high.

Needs Assessment

NEEDS ASSESSMENT

1.     What is your highest level of education? 

Bachelor's degree from university

2.     Did you study English before you came to Canada? How long?

     Yes. More than nine years.

3.     How you’d like to work on your 4 skills (LSRW)--what tasks you’d like to be able to do in the next 6 months.

    Great,  I'am happy to learn the 4 skills of English and to get the cool feeling of using it accumulative. Keep going and do more practice.

4.     What language skill is the easiest for you? Please order from 1 (easy) to 4 (difficult).

a.     reading   b. writing    c. listening               d. speaking

a,b,c,d

5.     List three goals or/and reasons for you taking this program.

     1) Understanding what do the TV and the radio present and catching the more detail of them.

     2) Communicating more frequently with common people.

     3) Getting more information and experience about local surroundings including working and living in order to the better settlement of my future.

6.     Underline the skill(s) you want to work on in this class:

Speaking - listening - reading - writing

7.     Choose the most important skill/topic from the list below, and put them in order according to their importance.

Skills/Topics
1)    Assessing your long and short term goals 2)    Assessing your skills 3)    Understanding the workplace culture 4)    Resume and cover letter writing 5)    Obtain a LinkedIn account 6)    Pronouncing English clearly
7)    How Canadian society works
8)    How to understand speakers
9)    Starting small talks in English
10)           Improve writing skills
11)           Talking on the telephone
12)           Improve listening skills
13)           Practise job interviews
14)           Practise presentations
15)           Learn how to speak at work
16)           Learn idioms
17)           Learn grammar
18)           Canadian culture
19)           other (specify)

8, 6, 9, 11, 12, 15, 10, 18, 3, 7, 16, 17, 14, 13

8.     What do you think can make our learning environment more effective and easier, for example, being on time in class, or doing your homework on time etc. Write down two to three ideas to improve our learning environment:

11)     long time field trip and get more time to stay with our teacher or other local people for real living.

22)  invite different local people to communicate with us 

     

33)   take part in real workplaces like bank, shop and business company to do anything we can improving our communication skills.

9.     Write a short paragraph to describe yourself and your goals in Canada.

Firstly, I hope I can totally catch the meaning of any other people's present. Secondly, my goal is I can speak English frequently without any hesitation. Finally, I wish I can make a few friends living in Canada and find a proper job like any common people.

How we often misunderstanding

IT’S A WONDER WE UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER AT ALL!

By Mark Benner 

Do you hear me? Think how many times you’ve heard someone use that phrase out of anger or frustration. Maybe it was a parent upset at their child. Perhaps it was a boss at work, trying to emphasize or re-emphasize a certain point. Now try to think of just one time when that phrase actually improved understanding of the issue at hand. Chances are you can’t do it. Chances are it only made things worse. That’s because in everyday conversation, the actual words that come out of someone’s mouth often have very little to do with the message that is received. Communication breakdowns happen constantly, and for a wide variety of reasons. We misinterpret intentions because words can only do so much to promote understanding. If words aren't accompanied by a shared understanding of other areas such as culture, life experience, and personal style – or, at an absolute minimum, awareness on both sides that these differences can exist and will themselves have an impact – then the result can be a communication catastrophe. In some cultures, silence means disapproval; depending on the social position of the speakers, it would be far too rude to disagree or turn down a request in public. Yet in other cultures silence can be taken as assent. It’s assumed that if someone didn't like what was happening, they’d let you know. When these two cultures clash, it’s no wonder there are misunderstandings! Each culture has its own communication conventions or rules: about how often we make eye contact, how we express politeness, how loudly we speak, how we interpret silence, how directly or indirectly we make a request or let someone know what we want, how close we stand when speaking to one another, how much information we share, how we motivate others, how we argue or how we complain. Some cultures may perceive indirectness as dishonest; others may perceive it as polite. As a result, someone who makes requests directly (Please write this report today) may be annoyed by someone who uses indirect requests (This report needs to be written today). Paying attention to body language and seeking clarification can help overcome some of these misunderstandings. Gender can also influence how we communicate. Author John Gray suggests men and women think differently, have different emotional needs and express these needs differently … so much that they can seem like they are from different planets (hence one of his book titles, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.) Gray claims that when talking about problems or frustrations, women will listen and empathize while men will offer solutions. Similarly, author Deborah Tannen claims that the language between women is mostly “rapport talk,” used to build bonds of friendship, trust and understanding. Language between men is “report talk” – used to provide information to get something accomplished. While these generalizations about gender and cultural influences are helpful, they are only generalizations. In other words, when it comes down to a particular phone conversation, a chance encounter on the street or an office meeting, making assumptions can be risky. Putting too much stock in generalizations can lead to stereotyping … and at that point the roadblocks to understanding start piling on top of each other. But awareness of differences is only a precondition for understanding, not a guarantee it will happen. When that awareness of differences is accompanied by a commitment to explain and clarify your intentions, and to request the same of others, you’re getting somewhere. Arriving at a shared understanding is not an easy process, but well worth the effort!!

Task 1:

Below are words from the article. Write the correct letter on each line to match the words with their meanings.

1. intention	l. the purpose behind an action or statement
2. assume	g. accepted to be true without proof
3. empathize	e. to understand another’s feelings or motives
4. disapproval	d. lack of approval
5. misinterpret	b. to give a wrong meaning to; misunderstand
6. emphasize	c. to call attention to; make important
7. clarify	a. to explain, make clear
8. rapport	j. a harmonious relationship with someone
9. stereotype	h. an oversimplified mental picture of a group of people
10. claim	k. to maintain; say as a fact
11. promote	i. to help something happen
12. generalization	f. a general rule or idea that is inferred from particular facts or examples




Task 2:

Write a noun for each of the verbs below. Use either the noun or the verb form in sentences.

VERB	NOUN and SENTENCE
perceive	perception Sorry, I can not entirely get your word's perception.
assume	assumption As an funny assumption of this event, it looks so unbelievable.
empathize	empathy I have the similar empathy with you on this affair.
disapprove	disapproval I can't get married with you because of my parents' disapproval .
misinterpret	misinterpretation Some misinterpretation get happened as a result of impatience.
emphasize	emphasis The emphasis of this article is to tell us how to deal with the misunderstanding.
clarify	clarification  I think the first importance of communication is the clarification of yourself.
generalize	generalization People often make their decisions by generalization.

Task 3: 

Click on this link to record your answer for the following questions. Then, copy the link once you are satisfied with your recording, and paste it on your blog, together with your previous answers.

Talk about an experience you once had when you misunderstood or were misunderstood by another person and that created an argument. What was your reaction and what did you do to resolve the problem?