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Duration: 9:20

Hey … WHAT’S UP???

Today is Thursday, February 16th and welcome to our third episode of English Teacher John’s ‘What’s Up?’ Podcast. My name is Bartholomew Schmageggy and I’m from Ougadougou, Burkinafaso … no no no, I’m just kidding. My name is John Koons and I am your host.Hey, what’s up??? Well, here’s what’s up on my end …

EMAIL. EMAIL. EMAIL!!! Isn’t it something that’s really changed our way to stay in touch, our way to communicate with each other?

When I think about email, I think back to my days of wandering the globe. I think about all the time I spent traveling, and how hard it was to meet up with people; how hard it was to keep in touch with people. I remember being in Bangkok, Thailand – probably around 1993 or 94 – and I was so excited to receive a letter at the post office there. It was such an exciting moment to go into the ‘poste restante’ area of a city post office and … ‘WOW … a letter for ME!!’ At that time, it was pretty rare to get something from friends, whether they were newly made travel friends or longtime friends from back home. Of course I kept in touch with my parents by calling a couple of times a month, but that was about it.

I remember all those days, weeks and months on the backpacker trail, meeting people at every stop, and making so many friends. But, once you parted ways, it was very difficult to maintain contact, and often, only fate could determine if you’d meet again.

Well, that’s all changed with email. Now, you can make friends and keep in good contact, organize meeting dates and times with friends in your area, or, if you’re traveling, with friends in far away places.

So, today’s theme is email and I want us to look at an email exchange between a couple of friends, Matt and Maria. You’ll see that the language is very casual, often containing a lot of slang or idioms. Personally, I like to write my casual emails as if I’m speaking to the person. So, I think that’s important to understand. The language used in casual, friendly emails is almost always different from the language you’d use in most kinds of writing.

Okay, here’s our short email exchange between Matt and Maria.

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Hi Maria,

What’s up? Here in Chicago, everything’s going well. I just started a new job and it’s okay. I’m working as a sales assistant for a software company. It’s boring at times but I’ll stick with it for a while.

Sometimes I feel like it’s difficult to adjust to a new city. You know I just moved here in the middle of December and … well, I’m lonely!! Anyway, I’ve made a couple of friends and we go out sometimes, but I still miss my friends back home.

Have you heard from Tashi? I got an email from him a few weeks ago and he sounded good. I think he’s in Vietnam now and headed home at the end of April. He said he likes Vietnam and may want to return their in the future.

What have you been up to? How’s your last year of university going?

It would be great to see you sometime. Do you have any plans to come to Chicago? Let me know if you’re anywhere in the area.

Take care,
Matt

———————————————————

Hi Matt,

Thanks for the email. It’s always great to hear from you. Yeah, I know what you mean about the job. I think it’s hard to start a new job, especially when it’s boring! Good luck with it.

I’ve been doing okay. It’s exam time here so I’ve really had my nose to the grindstone. After February I’ll be able to take a break. I’m thinking of visiting some friends in California in March. You interested? Can you get some time off? (Probably not, as you just started your new job!!)

Hey, what was that website you told me about that has all the funny videos on it? I told a friend about it but I couldn’t remember the name.

I wanted to tell you that I have some great photos of you from when we went hiking. They’re really excellent! You look so cold in those pictures! Anyway, I’ll send you a few of them and I’ll also put them on my website. Here’s the link to my photo page: http://www.myphotopage.org

Sorry but I gotta run. I’ve got a big test tomorrow and I’ve been hanging out all day doing nothing! Ah yes, the life of a student! (I better get my act together or I’m going to fail!).

I don’t have any travel plans yet, but I’ll definitely let you know. Hey don’t forget … you’re always welcome here too!

See you later,
Maria

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Well that’s our ‘What’s Up?’ Podcast for today. You know that you can always find the transcripts on the MY ENGLISH BLOG at englishteacherjohn.com.

Thanks for listening. I am outta here! Bye bye.

Today’s music is from podsafeaudio.com and it’s called the ”Red Hot Boogie” by Mofessor.