Практика Shadowing: Work emails: Office English episode 1 - Изучайте разговорный английский с YouTube
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Emails, should they be formal, friendly?
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Emails, should they be formal, friendly?
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It can be difficult to know.
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More formal than informal, although at times you might get a smiley face from me.
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If it's someone that I've never spoken to before, then it's more formal.
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But I'd still probably say hi rather than dear.
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You know, those technicalities of when to write kind regards and when to write best wishes.
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Today on Office English we're learning the best language for emails,
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whoever you're sending them to.
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Hello and welcome to a brand new business podcast series,
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Office English, from BBC Learning English.
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I'm Pippa.
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And I'm Phil.
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And in this series we will be guiding you through the trickier areas of business language
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and discussing some useful words and phrases for you to use in the office or wherever you work.
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Business language can be tricky,
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even for native speakers of English,
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and the workplace is changing all the time with new technology and more people working from home.
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So we're here to talk about some of the techniques and phrases that we use at work.
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At BBC Learning English, we're all fluent English speakers working in a British cultural context.
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So that's the situation we have the most advice for.
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But we'll try to point out where things might be a bit different in different workplaces around the world.
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This first episode is all about emails.
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We've already heard from BBC colleagues that not everyone agrees on how we should write emails.
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But what do you think, Phil?
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Should an email sound like a letter?
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Probably not.
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Everything with email depends on the situation,
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depends on who you're writing to and why,
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but I think an email is usually a lot less formal than a letter.
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Yes, I agree.
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I would say I'm quite informal in most of my emails,
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but as you say, it depends on who I'm emailing.
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So in this episode, we're going to look at how to address emails,
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some useful email phrases and how to sign off,
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depending on who you're sending the email to.
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OK, so first off, the email greeting.
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What phrases are we looking at here, Pippa?
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OK, so the first phrase we could use to start an email would be to say,
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Dear Phil, what do you think about that?
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I do use dear.
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Sometimes.
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It's not the one I use most.
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But I do use it,
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and I'll tell you when I use it.
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I use it when I'm writing an email to someone I've not written to before
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or someone who I'm a little bit scared of
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or maybe someone who's very important or they're just very serious
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or if someone wrote to me
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and they use dear I'd look at what they've said
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and sort of mirror it I'd do the same back
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so I do use dear but it's not the one I use most often because I think in in an email,
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it sounds a bit formal.
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Yes, I agree there's nothing wrong with saying dear Phil nobody would think
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that that was bad English I use it sometimes
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if I had to write an email on behalf of a company
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so you know a more formal email that's not from me
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but from the company that I represent
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and what I might use for a more personal email to a colleague or something is just to say hi or hello.
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Yeah, and actually this is the one that I use the most.
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I think 90% of my emails probably start with hi.
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Definitely with someone I know, I would use hi.
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If I'm not worried about who I'm writing to in any big way,
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then I would use hi.
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It's not formal, but in an email,
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it's not very informal either, I don't think.
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Yes, and certainly in the UK we're more and more informal at work.
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So emails sound more and more like text messages.
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Not completely, but saying hi or hello doesn't feel out of place.
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One thing that I like to say sometimes
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if I'm not sure whether to be formal or informal is to start my email with good morning or good afternoon.
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What do you think about that?
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I think that's a really nice way to do it
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because it can sound kind of friendly
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but it can also sound kind of formal you can sort of see it in two different ways.
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Yes, if you sort of said good morning to someone when you were speaking that would sound quite formal.
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It makes me think of being at school
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and you would say sort of good morning miss or good morning sir to the teacher.
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What about emails where you don't know the name of the person Phil,
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what would you do then?
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Well yes, we've got all these formula for using in letters like to whom it may concern
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or dear sir or madam but they often sound a bit cold
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and a bit unfriendly it does depend on the situation it
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will be different in different countries it might be different in different industries
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if you're a lawyer it might be different but i would probably use
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if
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if you use hi you don't actually need to say who
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you're writing to you can just say hi yeah that's really useful
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because when you say dear at the start of an email you need to put the name of the person
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You can't just say, dear, I'm writing about.
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That doesn't make sense in English.
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So yeah, hi is really useful.
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Again, good morning, good afternoon work as well because you don't need the name.
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You can also hide the fact that you don't know the name of the person.
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Sometimes people like you to know and have researched who you're messaging.
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Sometimes that's not possible.
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So just saying hi or hi there could work to be really friendly,
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but mask the fact that you don't know their name.
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Right, so we've started our email okay.
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Next, let's look at a couple of popular email phrases and when we might use them.
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OK, yes, so we've got this one here.
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I'm writing to enquire about.
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What do you think of that?
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Well, that's kind of a formal way to state what your email is about.
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It's something you might write in a letter.
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We don't tend to use it in emails as much.
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I might say, if if I was trying to be a bit friendlier.
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I'm wondering if you can help me with,
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instead of I'm writing to inquire about.
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Yes, no, definitely.
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It's something that sounds very normal in a letter but a bit strange in most emails I think.
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Okay, we've got another one here.
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Please find attached.
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Yes, this is one that you see a lot
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and we might use please find attached in an email to say
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that we're sending a file or a link and so that's what it means.
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A more informal way of saying this would just be to say,
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here is the document you asked for,
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here is the report, or here's the link to the podcast that you wanted to listen to.
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That would be probably a more friendly way to write an email to a colleague
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or someone at work that you know well rather than please find attached.
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But I think please find attached has a place in an email occasionally.
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Yeah, again, we were talking about formal ones,
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maybe if you're representing a company or writing to people that you don't know.
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A bit of a guide for emails can be that emails are a lot more like the way we speak to someone,
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whereas letters are often, formal letters are often a bit different to the way that you talk to someone.
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And finally, how should we say goodbye at the end of the email?
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What are the options Pippa?
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Okay so our first option would be to say something like you're sincerely or yours faithfully.
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What do you think of that Phil?
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Now this is the thing you always get taught to put at the end of a formal letter.
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I remember at school being taught this
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and I think it's probably still true for a formal letter but I think it's a bit unusual on an email,
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even quite a formal email I think it's unusual to see this.
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Yes, something
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that people might use instead even in quite a formal email is to say something like kind regards
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because it's quite formal but it still sounds polite.
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Yeah I actually often just use regards a lot at the end of my email
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and it's because it's in that sort of sweet spot of being a bit formal
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but a bit friendly
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and it means I don't have to think too much about what I'm putting at the end of an email
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because I'm never sure.
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I usually will say all the best or best wishes particularly
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if it's to somebody I don't know well
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or it's the first time I've emailed someone and
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because it's quite formal but it's good to switch up the options especially
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if you're emailing back
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and forth a lot with somebody you don't want to keep writing the same thing I just find
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that feels a bit strange to keep saying all the best especially
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when they reply quickly and then you reply and it's just like seems like it has no meaning by that point.
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Now this this might be a very English thing
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because we do this a lot and often look for opportunities to do it
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but if it makes sense to say thanks or many thanks at the end of the email I will often do that.
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Yes or you could say thank you in advance
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if you've asked for a favour in the email you can
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end by saying thanks in advance just to remind them that you are asking for something
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or
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if you're just sending a note round to remind someone of
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something thanks can be useful as well sort of thanks for reading.
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And I guess something similar is this phrase here looking forward to hearing from you
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and it's you're kind of suggesting that something is going to happen in the future,
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but it's not an impolite way of doing it.
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It's kind of a friendly way of saying you're expecting someone's reply and that you genuinely would like to hear from them.
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Yes, I love that.
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It's one of my favourites,
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actually, looking forward to hearing from you.
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And I will say that often when I've sent an email to somebody to ask for something,
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I've not emailed them before and I would like them to reply,
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but I'm not sure that they will reply.
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So saying looking forward to hearing from you is a really friendly way to kind of encourage them to reply.
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And it just kind of creates a strange expectation that they're going to come back to you on what you've asked for.
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So deciding how formal to be in an email is tricky.
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Let's listen again to what people at BBC Learning English had to say.
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If it's someone that I've never spoken to before,
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then it's more formal, but I'd still probably say hi rather than dear.
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More formal than informal, although at times you might get a smiley face from me.
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Smiley faces in emails.
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What do you think, Phil?
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If I'm not scared of the other person,
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I'll often use a smiley face because it's friendly and you can communicate a lot with them.
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But if it's a situation where you need to be a bit serious
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or you need to show a lot of respect to the other person,
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then it's probably not appropriate.
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Yes, definitely.
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I think smiley faces could be useful
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if lots of people in your office use them because sometimes when you just write something down,
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people don't quite understand the tone of what you're saying.
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So they don't know if you're being friendly or serious or you're really annoyed.
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So a smiley face can sometimes help with that.
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but I would not use it frequently with or at all with people I don't know,
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with people who are senior in a company.
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Usually it's kind of about what the other person does.
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So a good rule is when you're replying to somebody to try and match the way that they've written their email.
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So if they're sending lots of smiley faces,
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you're probably safe to send them back.
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But if they're being really formal,
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saying dear and kind regards,
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it's useful to kind of match that in your reply.
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Yes, so do look out for those things.
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Look at how other people start their emails.
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Look at whether they use smiley faces or not.
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Also think, does it sound like someone talking?
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If it does, it's probably quite informal and you're not going to have any problems doing the same thing back.
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Yeah, unless their email is really rude,
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then you might not want to be rude back to them.
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That's all we've got time for on this episode of Office English.
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Remember, you can find courses and activities to help with your English at work at bbclearningenglish.com.
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Next time we'll be talking about meetings and how to get your ideas heard at work.
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Bye for now, or should I say, all the best.
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Kind regards.
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Bye.
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Thank you.
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Контекст и фон
В первом эпизоде подкаста "Office English" обсуждаются особенности написания рабочих писем на английском языке. Ведущие подчеркивают, что правильный тон и стиль письма зависят от ситуации и адресата. Несмотря на то, что многие письма требуют более формального подхода, в некоторых случаях допустима неформальность. Это очень важно, особенно в условиях гибридной работы и увеличения числа работников, работающих из дома. В этом контексте знание языковых конструкций и фраз, подходящих для разных ситуаций, становится ключевым навыком для успешной коммуникации.
Топ-5 фраз для повседневной коммуникации
- Dear [Имя] — используйте это обращение для формальных писем или если вы написали человеку в первый раз.
- Hi [Имя] — вариант для менее формальной переписки с коллегами, с которыми вы уже знакомы.
- Kind regards — подходящее завершение для большинства деловых писем.
- Best wishes — можно использовать в менее формальных контекстах, когда вы хотите выразить дружелюбие.
- I hope this email finds you well — хорошее начало для создания дружественной атмосферы в переписке.
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Shadowing — это научно обоснованная техника изучения языка, изначально разработанная для подготовки профессиональных переводчиков и популяризированная полиглотом доктором Александром Аргуэльесом. Метод прост, но эффективен: вы слушаете аудио на английском от носителей языка и немедленно повторяете вслух — как тень, следующая за говорящим с задержкой в 1–2 секунды. В отличие от пассивного прослушивания или грамматических упражнений, Shadowing заставляет мозг и мышцы рта одновременно обрабатывать и воспроизводить реальные речевые паттерны. Исследования показывают, что это значительно улучшает точность произношения, интонацию, ритм, связную речь, понимание на слух и беглость речи — что делает его одним из самых эффективных методов для подготовки к IELTS Speaking и реального общения на английском.
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