Things to do today - Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015

Things to Do Today:

1) Finish up any assignments from Monday to Wednesday!

2) Read and listen to all the conversations in the link below:

http://www.eslfast.com/robot/topics/shop/1shop13.htm . After you read the conversations, answer the following questions in your blog **Make sure to copy and paste the questions with your answers in your blog!

Questions:

a.       Write 6 new words that you found and write their definitions

b.      What does misleading advertisement (ad) mean?

c.       Have you ever read an advertisement (ad) at a store that was misleading? Write about your experience (or your partner’s/classmate’s experience) in 1-3 sentences

d.      Do you think advertisements are easy to read and follow based on the 3 conversations you read? Why or why not?

e.       Can you think of any examples of misleading ads that you have seen in a store? Write 1-2 examples.

3) Read and edit the following paragraphs / sentences about customer service. Make sure to follow the instructions to know what to look for in each paragraph! **Copy & Paste the questions with your answers in your blog!

Questions:

a.       Look for missing and/or misplaced  PERIODS/COMMAS/CAPS/SPACES/ETC and edit if necessary:

Im sure , theres nothing    wrong with the cars antenna .The CUSTOMER said, (Bla bla bla .. it doesnt work on a hot day.i want a refund!) In Short she thinks shes the boss

b.      Correct/Edit the NUMBER—SINGULAR/PLURAL forms in these sentences:

One of the bottle is broken, and most bottles don’t break by themselves. I hope your store has a good exchange policies. Most store will give a refund.

c.       Correct the SPELLING in the following paragraph:

Theres n o lojical resion two retern they produck an nossing ridiculos aboat they prise, witch hasnot dabled ina dekaid. You’re behavior be longs inthe theater an dis cowsing unbarable discomefort inn hour quite inviroment.

4) Write a comment on Sonia’s blog (below) wishing her the best as this is her last day practice-teaching at MicroSkills! 

Things to do today - Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015

What kinds of restaurants have you been to?

Things to Do Today:

1) Finish up any assignments from Monday and Tuesday

2) Watch this video about common expressions used at a restaurant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNeH3nmdUqU 

After, answer the following questions in your blog! **Make sure to copy and paste the questions with your answers in your blog!**

QUESTIONS:

1. Why do people like to eat at restaurants?
2. How do you ask for a table when…
1. you don’t have a reservation
2. you do have a reservation
3. What is more formal when you want to order food?
1. I would like to have…
2. I will have…
4. What can you say when you would like the special?
5. What are some of the wrong ways to call a server to your table?
6. What is a polite way of calling the server?
7. What can you say when the server asks, ‘how is everything?’
1. When the food is good…
2. When the food is not good…
8. How do you ask for the check or bill?
9. What can you ask if you would like to take the rest of your food home?
10. List new 4-5 words or expressions that you learned from the video.

3) Now it is your turn to practice ordering at a restaurant:

    1. Listen to all three restaurant scenarios on http://www.eslfast.com/robot/topics/restaurant/restaurant04.htm

    2. Next, practice reading the conversations to yourself

    3. Pick 1 of the conversations and role play with a partner. Record your dialog on   

        www.chirbit.com

 

   

4) Write about your favourite restaurant in Canada or in your home country in your blog! 

Things to do today- Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2015

Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day? If you are planning to go to a restaurant, make sure to make a reservation because it gets very busy! :)

Things to do today:

-Finish signing up / registering for seminars if you have not already!

-Listen to all three conversations about how to make restaurant reservations, click on the link below to listen:

http://www.eslfast.com/robot/topics/restaurant/restaurant02.htm

Have you ever made a restaurant reservation over the phone? Think about some reasons why it is important to reserve a table at a restaurant! (for example, should you reserve a table for a special occasion or holiday? Is it always busy at that restaurant? Should I reserve if I have invited a lot of people for dinner? etc)

-With a partner, practice speaking one of the Making Reservations Conversations that you just listened to! --> http://www.eslfast.com/robot/topics/restaurant/restaurant02.htm

-Don’t forget to sign up on www.chirbit.com because we will be using it to record our voices for now on! We are now using this site to record because it keeps your recordings (and all your hard work) for years! **We are not using Vocaroo.com anymore because it only keeps your recordings for 3 months L **

-Imagine you want to make a dinner reservation for a special occasion:

1. Read Sonia's Reservation Experience and identify 3 difficulties and 3 steps to solve them. Make sentences from 5 new vocab words.

2. Role play the dialogue with a partner. Then record on Chirbit. 

(Make sure to include important information such as number of people, the time, the date and your name!)

3. Study the comment slip (on my reservations experience post) with your partner, and then write one for yourselves. Publish everything you do on your blog.

4. When you finish, go and comment on 3 other classmates' blogs and tell them you have done so.   

 -Look at Monday’s (yesterday) task: If you didn’t get a chance to yesterday, try writing 5 or more sentences using the present perfect progressive tense in your blog. Look down below for the rules & examples to help you write your own sentences! If you have time, share your sentences with your classmates by reading them out loud to each other.

Examples from last class:

I have been living in Canada for my whole life.

I have been learning English for 2 years.

She / He has been living in Canada for 2 months.

It has been snowing since this morning!

I have been standing in the rain for 1 hour!

RULES:

(I, They, We) HAVE BEEN verb+ING

(She, He, It, Name of person, Object) HAS BEEN verb+ING

Restaurant Reservations: My Experience

             Have you heard of the restaurant, The Mandarin? It is a very popular Chinese/Canadian buffet in Ontario and I used to work there for almost 3 years!

             When I worked at the Mandarin, I was a hostess but I had many other duties and responsibilities such as being a cashier, bar tending, placing take-out orders over the phone, helping people to their tables, and taking reservations over the phone! The Mandarin is a very big and BUSY restaurant so it is very important to make reservations because at any moment, we could expect parties of 20+ people! Also, it is important to make a reservation for holidays or special occasions such as Valentine's Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas and so on. On Valentine's Day, we would usually get a lot of tables for two because Canadian couples love to go out for romantic dinners. If you make a reservation over the phone, it helps the employees to plan where to seat you and to make sure no one else takes your table! 

               When I would speak to customers over the phone, I would follow a dialogue but after I followed it a few times, I was able to memorize it. It helped me form better conversations over the phone and later I developed better conversational skills! 

                When I would take reservations over the phone, I would follow certain rules to make sure I wrote down every detail the customer said to me. It is important to repeat the information to make sure you heard the customer correctly and it is ALSO important for THE CUSTOMER to be CLEAR and as detailed as possible when they make a reservation (because sometimes it can be hard to understand or hear someone over the phone!)

Down below is a real example of how I would take reservations: 

Making a Dinner Reservation Over The Phone:

Good Customer Service

A: Good Evening, thank you for calling The Mandarin , my name is _____, how   

can I help you? 

B: Hi, I would like to make a dinner reservation please.

A: And what day and time would you like to reserve for?

B: I would like to reserve for Valentine’s Day at around 7:00pm.

A: And for how many people?

B: Two people

A: Ok great, and what name would you like to place your reservation under?

B: My last name, Jovanich.

A: How do you spell that?

B: J-O-V-A-N-I-C-H

A: Great! Do you have any other requests?

B: Yes, is it possible to get us a table by a window?

A: Let me check…you’re in luck! It looks like I have an open table by a

window on that day!

B: Wonderful.

A: Ok to confirm, I have placed your reservation at 7:00pm for Valentine’s Day, which is on Feb. 14, for a party of two by a window, is that correct?

B: Yes, that is correct.

A: Great, is there anything else I can help you with today?

B: No, that will be all.

A: Ok we will see you soon, thank you for calling!

B: Thanks very much for your help and have a good evening!

I hope that helped! 

If you give good customer service, a customer might remember to write about you on the back of the restaurant's comment card :)
(This was my first comment card EVER) 

Having a good weekend!

          I have been learning that the most common questions and phrases that Canadians use are to do with the weekend. For example they may ask, "What are you doing on the weekend?" or say, "Have a good weekend!"

          It is a nice gesture to wish someone a good weekend because you might not see them for awhile or in general, it is just nice to wish someone a good weekend!

What did you do this weekend?

         My weekend has been very good but I was very tired from the busy week! I was happy to go home after class and relax!

         On Friday, I woke up very early to visit my cousin and we went shopping all the way in Scarborough! It was a long trip but very worth it :) We visited a Bath and Body Works outlet store and bought some nice candles. Then we went to Winners clothing store and tried on some dresses in the change room. It was silly but a lot of fun! On Friday night, I spent the night with my cat, Kiki, and played a game called, "Just Dance" on the Wii while my boyfriend was out at a bachelor party!

          On Saturday, we went to a friend's wedding at city hall and later celebrated their marriage at a beautiful Portuguese restaurant. We were served a lot of food, I was very FULL and I felt like I was going to explode! There was a musical band and they sang Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian music. There was some people dancing as well.

Today, I was very busy catching up on school work. It was not too fun but I'm glad I finished it ahead of time! Now my boyfriend and I just finished watching the halftime show of the Superbowl. I don't really like football but I was excited to see Katy Perry, Missy Elliot and Lenny Kravitz perform during the halftime. Did anyone else watch the Superbowl ?

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend and I will see you all tomorrow!!