Ziņojumi: 1861
Pilsēta: Рига, Пурвциемс

Good evening!

Nowadays the problem of unempoyment and redundancies eveywhere is topical. However the reasons for dismissal can be different. Let's discuss the possibe situations connected with it, share your experience and read the article about a curious case from New Zealand connected with misuse of “netiquette”.

As always the plan for the lesson is following:
1. to read the article
2. to check all unknown words
3. to write the replies on suggested topics and questions
4. to increase vocabulary. Work with dictionary, if necessary.

I am looking forward to your replies till next Wednesday!
Good luck and have a good time studing English!

Tasks

1. What do you think of this situation? Who is right- employer or employee?
2. Describe your e-mail writing habits? Do you know any “rules” when writing e-mails? What do you think of e-mails full of emoticons and shortened English?
3. Find the meanings of these ‘red’ idioms.
see red / catch the red-eye / catch someone red-handed / paint the town red / red-carpet treatment / red herring / roll out the red carpet / red tape / in the red

source

Ziņojumi: 1315

1. Well, it is hard to tell who is right and who is wrong. We live in another kind of society where caps does not have such meaning as in New Zeland, I think. Did the company have any rules or examples how to write letters? Did Ms Walker know those rules? She was an accounter, so she had to know and had to write emails exactly the same as in the rules.

2. Rules of writing emails are the same as rules of writing letters (covering letters, accomodation letters, ..) - use dates, names, welcomes; write shortly and clearly, do not forget about why you are writing your email - your aim.
In my emails I don`t use emoticons and shortened English and I prefer to recieve "clear" emails. But capital letters, bold and red text will not make me angry, anyway.

3. see red - to become very angry; become enraged;

catch someone red-handed - witness or find someone doing something improper (Used when speaking about a person who knows he / she is doing something wrong);

paint the town red - to celebrate boisterously, esp. by making a round of stops at bars and nightclubs;

red-carpet treatment - very special treatment; royal treatment;

red herring - a piece of information or suggestion introduced to draw attention away from the real facts of a situation. (A red herring is a type of strong-smelling smoked fish that was once drawn across the trail of a scent to mislead hunting dogs and put them off the scent.);

roll out the red carpet - to give someone treatment befitting royalty. The citizens of the small community enjoyed rolling out the red carpet for important visitors;

red tape - over-strict attention to the wording and details of rules and regulations, especially by government workers;

in the red - operating at a loss or being in debt (The newspaper strike put many businesses in the red.)

Ziņojumi: 1861
Pilsēta: Рига, Пурвциемс

Auuu!! Where are your answers?

I thought that this theme is interesting and actual. At least the theme of netiquette.
As even here, on forum, it is forbidden to use capital letters, as it means that you are screaming. And the title of the theme can not be written in capital letters, otherwise the theme will be closed. So, for those who use Internet a lot, it is important to know a little bit of netiquette, isn't it?

Looking forward to your replies!

Ziņojumi: 1315

Helen, girls are preparing for Cristmas

Ziņojumi: 173
Pilsēta: Imanta

In my opinion, as it always happens in conflicts, both are wrong and both are right. the employer should have talked to the lady before the dismissal, he should have looked for a compromise so to say. Although I agree that writing with a colourful font and capital letters could be annoying.
As to me, I do not have strict e-mail writing habits - when writing to friends I may use shortened English like pls, smth, u, r, 4..., ignore capital letters - everything depends on my mood, but when communicating with business patners - of course, all forms of netiquitte should be present, i.e. - greetings, smart linguistic forms, clear text, signature.
These "red" idioms reminded me of the time spent at the uni - the subject "Modern English" or so. Here I have nothing to add to the nicely explained above.

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Diana's Language Coaching
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Ziņojumi: 1861
Pilsēta: Рига, Пурвциемс

Good evening!

Well, let's summarize the results of Lesson 6.
The main idea of participants is that there are 2 different approaches to writing e-mails: formal and informal. In informal when we correspond with our friends we can use any letters we want, including capital or italic or bald. It is up to us!
However if there is formal correspondence we should follow some rules, just to make the work process easier for everybody.
To my opinion it makes sense.

Ok. Thank you very much for nice discussions and see you in Lesson 7.
Stay tuned!