Welcome to American English Conversation: Lesson 38. In this lesson you have 1 discussion topic to encourage conversation beyond this activity as well as a dialogue to practice, read, translate, pronounce in English, and read along with the video. Please focus and do your best so that you can learn and improve your listening, reading, pronunciation, and communication skills in English. Don’t forget to use the comments section below to share your thoughts and what you’ve learned today.
Part 1: Directions: Watch the video, read the text below, then translate the text in your primary language and read it again.
Many people prefer to send e-mails or texts instead of letters. Yet, sometimes writing and sending a letter is important. Today’s conversation topic for English learners is “Mailing Letters”. Imagine you’re in the United States of America and you’re having conversations in English about mailing letters. What would you do and say? What would others say? Here are a few suggestions:
— You’re at a post office, waiting in line to send your letters because you don’t have any postage stamps available. What would you say? What would the postal employee say?
— You’ve just had an interview and your room mate suggests you send the employer a formal thank you letter. What would you tell your room mate? What would your room mate tell you?
— You’re talking with your family about Uncle Joe, who lives far away and has no e-mail or phone. You want to invite him to come for Thanksgiving. Your family suggests you write him a letter. What would you tell your family? What would your family tell you?
Writing letters is much more formal and personal than writing an e-mail or a text. People really appreciate when you put the effort of writing a letter.
PART 2 — DIRECTIONS: Read the dialogue below in English, then translate it and read it in your primary language.
Dialog 16: At the Post Office
- Postal Clerk: What can I do for you today?
- Carol: I need to mail this package to New York, please.
- Postal Clerk: OK, let’s see how much it weighs … it’s about five pounds. If you send it express, it will get there tomorrow. Or you can send it priority and it will get there by Saturday.
- Carol: Saturday is fine. How much will that be?
- Postal Clerk: $11.35 [eleven thirty-five]. Do you need anything else?
- Carol: Oh, yeah! I almost forgot. I need a book of stamps, too.
- Postal Clerk: OK, your total comes to $20.35 [twenty dollars and thirty-five cents].
PART 3 — DIRECTIONS: Watch, read-along, and pronounce with the video below a minimum of 2-3 times. After you finish, let us know what you learned via the comments section below.