Teacher Discussion Forums

[catty s]

Hi all - there's a lovely Japanese lady at the office where I'm working and her English is fine but she's having slight difficulties over the phone - particularly taking phone messages. I really want to help her and am interested in what I can find out to help her. Does anyone have any ideas to help her or addresses for good websites for teaching English to office personnel? Anything would be a great help .... thanks terribly.

[RolandTrego]

You might be interested in these picture dictionaries:

The English You Need for the Office, a Picture Process Vocabulary, ISBN 962-328-019-X
and
The English You Need for Business, a Picture Process Vocabulary, ISBN 962-328-021-1

They both come with a CD and are published by Asia-Pacific Press Holdings, Ltd.

Authentic-sounding phone messages are hard to come by. If you find some, let me know, too! I've been recording them myself (and having colleagues record them for a variety of voice types) using Audacity software. I e-mail them to my students. They have to type out the messages. Then I e-mail them the text. Audacity has the best sound quality I've come across so far, it's simple to use, and it's free online. All you need is a microphone.