How NOT to Complain?

How I wish I was a better complainer! It's not that I wish to complain more, no. It's all about being confident enough to stand my rights (oh, yes, we DO have consumer protection laws and a good deal of other preservative laws we have no idea about), to complain without filling my speech of displeasure with a good deal of inapropreate "Ums" and "Errs", without losing my temper or forgetting completely how to speak proper language! I realise clearly enough that on learning how to complain properly I will probably make my life more diverse and less stressful.

Picture taken from: http//:hoarbrief.com

Since it may seem obnoxious of me to post real complaint letters aimed at real people here in this blog I have decided to change the names and addresses mentioned in the letter, so that to avoid causing troubles but provide you with some knowledge on how NOT to complain instead.
To tell you the truth, I have never sent any letter of complaint to the company or organisation I was displeased with, yet if I have, it would be a splendid opportunity to bring some positive alterations to my despleased well-being.

Here's my story put into a badly worded complaint letter. Shall we discuss it later on?

A Good-Enough-for-a-Shredder Letter of Complaint

NB: For better quality the letter can be downloaded at floomby.ru

Before you start discussing the letter proposed to you I recommend you get to know the basic tips on writing complaint letters, as in the sample at TheConsumerist.com.

To encourage a discussion I proppose you answer these questions:

• What is the general atmosphere of the letter?
• Does it describe the problem clearly enough?
• Are all the advised structural parts of the letter presented in it?
• How is it possible to be rewritten? What would you change?
• Is there anything you woud leave as it is?
• What cliches of polite addressing/complaing could be found? 

Yours,
the Bad Complainer

P.S. For more reference go to  businessballs.com to read well explained tips on complaint letter writing! Good luck!

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If I Ran a Mall...

Starlite Shopping Mall

If I ran a mall, I would definitely try to make it the best mall one could ever imagine! Not as huge as Harrods (London), perhaps, or West Edmonton Mall (Japan), for I would prefer it to be a shopping centre not a sight for tourists with that avalanche of ridiculous attractions to entertain the visitors!

And have YOU ever thought of an ideal precinct or a shopping centre? If not, then it's high time for you to do your best and think of a perfect mall! Use your imagination, think of your experience!

My Perfect Mall

To work out a project try and answer these easy questions:

• What would the name of your mall be? (Remember: that name is not the least when it comes to dealing with customers)
• Where would it be located? What would it look like? 
• What would it be specialised on? What would be on offer? (goods on stock and department stores)
• Who would  your clients be? (people it is designed for)
• What services and facilities would it have?
• What kind of staff would you hire?
• Will your prices be to-the-level? 
• What ways of payment would it offer?
• What would the working hours be?, etc.

West Edmonton Mall

The project is either a Power Point presentation or a Photo Story (use Movie Maker or PhotoStory 3).

What you need to think of is that you are to interest the others with your project of a mall!

5 Things to Keep in Mind:

1. Grammar (correctness, variety of structures)
2. Vocabulary (correctness, richness and adequacy to the topic)
3. Length (5-7 minutes long to prevent the audience from falling asleep!)
4. Logic, coherency in structure (which means it better have an introductary part as well as a climax and a closing!)
5. Phonetics (intonation, pauses, emphatic stresses when presenting the project orally or on a record to a photostory)

Do not hesitate to ask as many questions as needed to clarify the requirements to the projects of yours! 

Wee Teacher in M1, Poznan (Poland), 2008

Looking forward to your ideas and post! Feel free to post an individual article on the blog or a comment to this post with videos, presentations or links attached!

Best regards, 

Wee Teacher

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Blogs, Diaries and Time Machines

When I started my first blog on LiveJournal.ru I should never have thought that it would turn into something huge (and I don't mean huge mammoths or large pandas on junk food). Well, It actually hasn't turned into anything out-of-the-way, yet it HAS provided me with a good deal of new experience and knowledge that eventually turned to be helpful in both taking up a new hobby and teaching.

But let's start from the very beginning!

Some people (let's take my grandmother, for instance! Oh, what lovely honey cakes she bakes!) might well be unaware of what on Earth the word "blog" means. Believe it or not, but blogs are everywhere! I'll try and prove it now.

Just imagine that your good neighbour has recently created a time machine! "Woohoo", you think, "now that it's been created, I can go to the future to check if I get wrinkled in 30 years without applying to plastic surgery". But take it easy, my friend, we are to travel to the past, not the future, because it was long, long ago that "forefathers of blogs" were run by people. These blogs were known as "diaries".

Yes, that's exactly what a blog is in general understanding of the term. The only thing that differs a blog from a diary is that the latter one is made for others read it on the Web, whilst the first one is written to be never revealed out of the locked drawer in your bed table.

But how does blogging correlate with teaching a language? Oh, there's a great connection in between.

First of all, blogs are being run all over the Globe by people of all races and nationalities, of various views and interests. So, there's always a possibility you can once pop into a wonderful blog of some English-Speaking person on the topic you (or your students) are extremely interested in!

Secondy, blogging or at least reading blogs is much fun for both the reader and the writer, since some (not all..) bloggers appear to be talented writers, gifted interactors or, at least, nice people to say an akwardly cute "Hey there!" to.

And the third reason is that when a teacher starts blogging for whatever reasons or purposes one follows, he or she reveals his/her personality which is always good for a teacher (we love revealing... I mean.. "boasting" of our knowledge to pupils, right?)

I am not to dwell on the subject of blogging right now, for am planning to post an article of major pros and cons of blogging for teaching purposes a bit later.

What I like in blogging is communication, feedback and self-development (you always have to check your articles more or less properly before posting them on the blog you're running (the same could be said about students, for your blog could be run by them, too) - you don't want your students to find more mistakes in your posts than are made by them in their essays, do you?).

If this post left you even more puzzled than you were beforehand, do not hesistate to ask any question disturbing you! I'd be eager to answer any of them!

Yours,

The Wee Teacher

Picture taken from: tommykovac.blogspot.com

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