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Writing Letters
Writing Letters

How to use gerunds and infinitives

Date: Nov 19 2010

Themes: Friend, Hobbies

Grammar: Gerunds vs. Infinitives

Intro

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These days, when it comes to communication, faster is better. We love email and text messaging because they let us send messages quickly. But they can also feel impersonal.

Getting a text message from a loved one isn’t the same as hearing his or her voice on the phone. And an email just isn’t the same as opening your mailbox to find an envelope filled with a hand-written letter from someone you care about. Can a love-email possibly be as romantic as a love letter? Hear Amy and Jeff discuss the lost art of letter-writing.

Dialog

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Amy

Amy

Jeff

Jeff

Amy:  Do you write a lot of letters, Jeff?

Jeff:  I can’t say the last time I wrote a letter. I wrote a fake love letter to a co-worker one time as a joke. That was probably about a year and a half ago.

Amy:  Did you actually send it, like through the snail mail and everything, address it, put postage on it?

Jeff:  No. I was the mail carrier. I just carried it over and left it on his desk. Yeah, I mean, it seems to be kind of a dying form of communication.

Amy:  I know, it does, and I…I wish that I wrote more letters. I have one friend who, we exchange a letter maybe every other month or something. And I do feel like we say things to each other in letter that we don’t say in any other form. Like somehow there’s something about it that feels more intimate, I think.

Jeff:  Yeah, seeing somebody’s handwriting is much more personal, it’s their…kind of their style of doing things. I really like that. I don’t know, it’s almost like a piece of art.

Amy:  Do you have letters from when you were younger and people wrote letters more?

Jeff:  Oh yeah. I keep all those.

 

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Lesson MP3

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Discussion

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The last time Jeff wrote a letter, it was a fake love letter that he wrote as a joke. He didn’t actually send it through the mail. He just walked it over to his co-worker’s desk and left it there.

Amy exchanges letters occasionally with one friend. She and Jeff agree that letter-writing is becoming a lost-art. But there is something they like about writing real letters, rather than emails. Jeff likes seeing people’s handwriting. He and Amy think that letters are more personal than other forms of communication.

Do you write a lot of letters? Do you like to get real letters in the mail?

 

Comments

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khawlina

United Arab Emirates

I've never written a letter in my life ! o_O Because of today's technology writing letters becomes a lost- art or asoociated with one's diaries .

06:46 PM Mar 02 2011 |

Marcelolic

Marcelolic

Brazil

Hummm It is a really a lost-art…Yeah I forgot which the last time that I did a hand-written…

Today the technology enable us to communicate in a fast way,so I'm in favor of technology,at all! So I prefer to send emails 'cause is faster and guaranteed that people will receve it ;)

11:57 AM Mar 02 2011 |

nusan.spain

Nepal

I have never written any letters to anyone not because I don't know how to write one but because I have a got rubbish hand-writing. So, I prefer emails and they are quicker than sending letters. 

07:16 AM Feb 25 2011 |

lengantam

Viet Nam

I think e-mail is best way to communication. When I was a student, i often sent hand-writing to my frend but now i use e-mail.

03:01 PM Nov 24 2010 |

anandkawasthi

India

I think e mail is best option for communication.letter is time taken process.we never write any type of physical letter.

01:07 PM Nov 24 2010 |

Big baby

Big baby

Russian Federation

I keep some letters from my pen pals since my childhood. that was very exciting to get letters from other countries )))

05:37 PM Nov 23 2010 |

Ange888

Ange888

Brazil

I really like to send snail email, I prefer hand written form, but I have to be sincere and now I am using more texting and not letters. This is a big shame because in the phisycal way is more personal, direct and the right way to tell someone whatever you want to say!

06:24 PM Nov 22 2010 |

paty19

Brazil

Letters are thought to be one of the most romantic resources with which peolpe can communicate by a very personal way.

I don't like writing  letters becouse it takes so much time to be delivered and my handwriting is almost illegible. I also do not have patience to wait a week for a message which I could have received immediately by email.

I am not against the art of writing letter, I believe it is romantic and more personal than email. I do not use this way of communication becouse I am not patient and there is no personal or professional reason for me to use it.

12:41 PM Nov 22 2010 |

blueskun

blueskun

China

I am not used do handwriting letter now. But i like receive handwriting letter . when i was in my college i often send mails to my lover and family . It including a lot of emotion .It is became a lost art now

12:35 AM Nov 22 2010 |

Ivy47

Ivy47

Taiwan

I sent my friends a birthday card by snail mail 8 months ago.  he said he was not surprised to get it, but he surprised to get it by the old-old fashioned way. I like writing something to express my feeling when I am free.I don't know whom I can send to. Most young people don't like handwriting mail really, because they think it's waste time to wirte it and it takes many days to mail it. People are glab to get hadwritten letter, but seldom people write back by the same way. People are used to get email , text message or talking on the phone.

11:36 PM Nov 21 2010 |

tr0yquint0

tr0yquint0

Philippines

In my opinion I like letter in handwriting form, If I can i choose which form of letter I want to receive from my sender. I really like it  to be in handwriting. It is more personal and artistic for me also. I think we can occasionally do the handwriting letter in special occasions like birthdays and anniversaries. To make it feel more intimate to the recipient of the letter that he/she is special.

06:41 PM Nov 21 2010 |

kings4life

kings4life

Ghana

Letters are above all useful as a means of expressing the ideal self; and no other method of communication is quite so good for this purpose.  In letters we can reform without practice, beg without humiliation, snip and shape embarrassing experiences to the measure of our own desires…

03:19 PM Nov 21 2010 |

kings4life

kings4life

Ghana

A letter is an unannounced visit, the postman the agent of rude surprises.  One ought to reserve an hour a week for receiving letters and afterward take a bath.

03:13 PM Nov 21 2010 |

Grazyna Krauze

Poland

I was brought up in the world of the art of a hand-written letter.Letter-writing is becoming a lost -art-I am sorry that hear it.

03:03 PM Nov 21 2010 |

jurmala1

jurmala1

Germany

Yeah… We all live in the world where all must go fastly. Even sentimental things might not  be delayed. Hand-written letters just like as putting photos into photo albums is a lost art. It's really shame…

02:35 PM Nov 21 2010 |

nad_rome

Italy

I think that email are good becouse I write more often, now I write to someone every day  short messages and long letters too, before i was not use to write letters al all.

 

01:58 PM Nov 21 2010 |

amin_s

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

i fond of to write snail-mail due to i think it appears that someone spends more time to write that letters and you could feel the emotion between each other. i recommend that we should not allow to the letters to be lost art in our life .

11:59 AM Nov 21 2010 |

prettyfun

prettyfun

Viet Nam

I prefer to recieve a hand_written than an email, feel more honest from who wants to send and full of passion.

06:36 AM Nov 21 2010 |

renemex

renemex

Mexico

the technology bring us a lot of good things, but it´s forgiving or putting aside others good ones too!

02:52 AM Nov 21 2010 |

lathy

lathy

Viet Nam

I think it would be very interesting now if we suddenly receive a handwritten letter from a friend or our loved ones.Because these days,letter is no popular anymore.

10:44 PM Nov 20 2010 |

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