TASK 1 Read the dialogues below and decide which form of introducing would be appropriate for small talk in formal (F) or informal (I) situations. 1) A: Oh, Doctor Fischer, have you met my colleague, Ms Carraro? Doctor Fisher is the Head of our Department. Ms Carraro is the Director of the Office of International Studies in Padova. B: Hello, Ms Carraro, pleased to meet you. C: Hello, Doctor Fischer, very nice to meet you too. 2) A: Professor Colwell, there’s someone I’d like you to meet, it’s Mr Sanz. Mr Sanz is our National Contact Point in Spain. Professor Colwell is responsible for the UK section. B: Hello, Mr Sanz, it’s a pleasure to meet you. C: The pleasure is mine. 3) A: Hi, this is Garry. Garry, it´s Eva. Garry is the crazy guy I met in Morocco last year. Eva studies Law and is Mark’s best friend. B: Hi. How’re you? C: Hi. 4) A: Anybody going to introduce me? B: Sure. This is Andrea, my room mate. And here’s Clara, Steve and Johann, we all met at Eramsus in Barcelona. A: Hi guys! C,S,J: Hi! 5) A: Hello, excuse me … I’m sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt … I just wanted to introduce myself, I’m Bob Font from the University Press. B: Oh, hello, nice to meet you. I don’t believe we’ve met before. A: No, no we haven’t. I saw your presentation this morning and I think it is great what you are doing and I just wanted to know if I could ask some questions. 6) A: Good evening, Mr Siddall, isn’t it? B: That’s right, yes, hello. A: Hi, it’s a very nice party you have put on here. B: Oh, well, glad you’re enjoying it! A: I don’t think we’ve actually met formally yet. B: No, no I don’t think we have. A: My name’s Linda Osborne and I work in our Research and Development Office. 7) A: Sally, I think you´ve met Mr Lomell. B: No, I haven´t actually. A: OK, Mr Lomell is the colleague from Birmingham I told you about. They´ve been doing more or less the same as us, you know the OPAL Project. Sally is my colleague, Sally is responsible for the quality assurance management. L: Hi, nice to meet you. And, call me Mark. S: Hi, Mark. Nice to meet you. TASK 2 Choose which phrases are very formal (VF), which formal (F), which informal (I) and which very informal (VI). A) a) Dear Mr Cottrell g) Dear Mark b) Hi Mark h) Hello all c) Dear Professor Cottrell i) Dear Mark (if I may) d) Hello Mark j) Mark, e) Hey there k) Hey Mark f) Dear Sir / Madam l) To Whom It May Concern B) a) Kind regards, i) Regards, b) C ya, j) Bye for now, c) Yours sincerely, k) Best regards, d) All the best, l) All the very best, e) Love, m) Looking forward to hearing from you, f) Best wishes, n) Speak soon, g) Cheers, o) Yours, h) See you, p) Best to the family, C) a) I am actually thinking of organizing two events, one to coincide with Library Week (13-19 April) and another to be held in our new library facilities, which open in July. If Masaryk University (MU) is not open during July then that event can be held when MU resumes. b) If u r ok with this, consider it done. c) I find this response utterly inadequate and I will be making a formal complaint to the conference committee. d) I hope you´ll be able to provide this information in good time for the conference. May I suggest the end of March, to ensure that the information is ready in good time? e) The committee has now responded to your submission for the conference and although submission has been approved, it was felt some revision is needed. f) We would like to inform you that the invoice in connection with your participation at the OEB conference is still marked as unpaid in our books. We kindly ask you to settle payment before September 18th, 2011. Should payment for your participation be covered by an institution we will take this into consideration, but we kindly ask you to check whether the payment process has been initiated. g) Great. Thanks for the bookings. We´re still working on the enormous dilemma of whether to spend a weekend in Prague, Vienna or in and around Brno. If only such decisions were easy! h) I want to thank you again for a truly memorable experience. If you want to write back, I would like that though I can´t promise I will write on a regular basis. i) Oi u cheeky git ... TASK Make a scale of the following emails from the most formal to the least formal one – show which words or structures show the level of formality. a) Dear Peter, (if I may) Thanks for your message and for putting me in touch with Eva Kodi, who has already contacted me. I have spoken with my head of department and he is keen to explore possibilities for cooperation. I have proposed a visit to your university sometime this summer, where I will be able to get a sense of the place and we will be able to discuss various ideas with Eva, should she be available to visit. Perhaps you might keep in touch with her so that we can coordinate a potential visit with a view to gaining as much as possible from a face-to-face meeting. Kind regards, Elizabeth Dawar b) Hey there, Great about this, Eva, she´s already contacted me. Our head said we should give it a try. Are you around in July or August? I´d prefer to come in summer so let´s see what we can do together. BTW, we can all meet with Eva if you like, what do you think? Cheers, E. c) Dear Professor Andres, Thank you for your kind message and for introducing me to Dr. Kodi, who has already contacted me. According to the opinion of the Head of Department, Dr. Heyworth, there seems to be clear potential in the offer and it would seem reasonable to explore possibilities for cooperation. Dr. Kodi has been informed that I should be able to visit Masaryk University in July this year (I am afraid I am unable to specify the exact dates at the moment), where areas of mutual interest could be discussed. If it were at all possible, would you be able to arrange the visit with Dr. Kodi in order to enlarge future potential cooperation of the two Departments? I would indeed be indebted. Very best wishes, Elizabeth Dawar TASK Read the letter and identify all phrases expressing politeness. Dear Mr. Stola, Thank you for your interest in the Department of International Politics. I am terribly sorry that I was unable to meet with you when you visited the Department: I´m afraid that I was not in the office that day. However, I am very keen to explore possibilities of collaboration and cooperation between our departments. I was hoping that you might be able to tell me a little more about what you had in mind. For our part, we are especially keen on seeing the traffic of students between our two countries increase in a number of ways, including perhaps a joint Masters Programme. We have found that such programmes, whereby students end up with degrees from both institutions after two years of study, are especially attractive to both students and employers. Of course, there are other possibilities as well that we might discuss. I shall very much look forward to hearing from you with a view to pushing this process forward and perhaps to scheduling a meeting at some point in the future (there is a possibility that I could travel to the Czech Republic) in the event that we are able to work out a mutually beneficial arrangement. I do look forward to hearing from you. With very best wishes, Richard Jordan