The Expression of Satisfaction in a Discussion

Objectives

At the end of the lesson you are expected to be able to identify the expression of satisfaction in a discussion.

Learn about it!

When you go shopping with your friends, do they ask for your opinion about which to buy? Is your friend satisfied with your opinion?

When you give an idea or opinion over something to other people, they will probably react by accepting or just ignoring it. When your opinion is accepted, it means that they are satisfied with the idea you give and agree to do so. Take a look at the following example.

The dialog above is a discussion between you and your friend over what gift she should give to her mother. Pay attention to the expression used in the dialog; you gave some opinion by saying,

I reckon you should buy her a new watch. Currently it will be more useful to your mother than a dress.

Since you gave a good reason, you friend accepted you opinion. She was agreeing with you to give her mother a watch, and she was satisfied with your idea.

That is right. I can’t think of anything better.

The sentence expresses satisfaction. Your friend was satisfied enough that she decided to get a new watch as a gift to her mother.

After all, when people talk about something, they tend to throw their own ideas or opinion to each other. Sometimes they argue over an issue and end up feeling satisfied with their interlocutors’ opinion. There are some expressions to use to show satisfaction, especially in a discussion.

Do you understand?

To ease your understanding, here is provided another situation that contains the expression of satisfaction. Make notes and count how many expressions there are.

A basketball tournament is coming, and you are one of the main players to join. But right before the tournament begins, you wreck your knees. You come to your basketball team captain and the coach to discuss this matter.

You : I got an injury on my knees, and the doctor said that I cannot play for the time being to recover.

Captain: Oh my God. And the tournament is just getting nearer. What should we do?

You : I am sorry, this is also unexpected for me.

Coach : It is okay. I will see what I can do about it.

Captain: Should we change our formation?

Coach : No need. I think we just need someone to replace your position.

Captain: If so, I will propose Bintang as the replacement. He has the body and I am happy enough with his skills.

Coach : Well, he is good enough for me too. So, everything is fine, isn’t it? We still have Bintang, so you do not need to worry about the tournament, just recover as soon as possible and come back to the team.

You : I am very pleased with the decision. Thank you very much.

How many expressions you can identify from the conversation? Yes, there are three of them.

• The first expression is showed by the captain: I am happy enough with his skills.
• The second one is expressed by the coach: Well, he is good enough for me. So, everything is fine, isn’t it?
• The last expression is coming from you: I am very pleased with the decision.

Keypoints

When you receive something you wanted or when the other people give you opinion and you agree and accept that, you will have a pleasant feeling and be willing to do what it is said; it is kind of satisfaction. There are many expressions to use to show how satisfied you are, and all of them have some positive feeling of pleasant.

Advice and Recommendation

Objective
Through this section, you will learn:

• How to give advice and recommendation

Learn about it!

What does your parent usually do when you are going to try something new? Well, they usually give you an advice, right? What is advice? What is it for? How to give an advice wisely? Don’t worry. We’ll learn those things in this section!

Read the following situation.

Nina is going to have an English debate competition tomorrow morning. In your opinion, what will her mother say the night before?

Mom: Nina, have you had all your stuff prepared for tomorrow?
Nina: I have. Everything I need is in the bag.
Mom: Okay, that’s good. What time are you going to go tomorrow?
Nina: Around 6 a.m.
Mom: Well, you’d better go to bed now.

From the conversation, we can find that Nina’s mother is checking Nina’s preparation for the competition by asking, “Nina, have you had all your stuff prepared for tomorrow?”Moreover, we also know that Nina’s mother gives Nina an advice. She gave an advice to Nina to go to bed by saying, “Well, you’d better go to bed now.”

Now, think about this: why does Nina’s mother advice her to go to bed soon?

Now, read the following situation.

Nina will go to watch movie with her friends this afternoon. In your opinion, what will her father say before Nina going to the Cinema? Well, let’s find out what Nina’s father will say through the following conversation.

Father: With whom are you going to watch the movie?
Nina: With Marissa, Minka, and Rangga.
Father: What will you do after watching the movie then?
Nina: I think we’ll just grab some food and go home, Dad.
Father: Okay, it sounds good. But, remember, you’d better not go home late at
night.
Nina: Sure. You can keep my word.

From the conversation, we know that Nina’s father asks Nina two questions. The first one is about with whom Nina will watch the movie. The second one is what Nina will do after watching the movie.

Besides that, Nina’s father is giving an advice. Can you find the advice? Well, the advice is about not to go home late at night. The advice can be seen in the following statement, “But, remember, you’d better not go home late at night.”

Now, think about this: why does Nina’s father advice her not to go home late at night?

From the conversation one and two, we can find two different advices.

• First advice: ask Nina to go to bed soon. Why does Nina’s mother ask her to go to bed soon? From the situation, we can infer that Nina’s mother gave advice to her daughter to go to bed soon because Nina should go early in the morning. So, she should go to bed soon. Therefore, she will be fresh and punctual.
• Second advice: ask Nina to not come home late at night. Why does Nina’s father ask her not to come home late at night? Well, because it is dangerous to come home late at night. It is for her safety.

So, from the conversations what can you say about giving advice?

From the two different situations, we can infer that giving advice is one of the ways to prevent bad things to happen.

When you give an advice, sometimes people you gave the advice will ask recommendation for further action, for example:

Nina: If I were you, I would not go to that restaurant?
Marissa: So, what do you recommend?
Nina: I recommend going to Rumah Teduh cafe.

From the conversation, we can infer that Marissa asks Nina’s recommendation on a good restaurant. So, Nina suggests Rumah Teduh cafe by saying, “I recommend going to Rumah Teduh cafe.”

To give recommendation, you can say the following expressions.

• I recommend that you....
• I suggest that you....
• I recommend....

Do you understand?

Now, try to practice it in the following activity. Read the conversation below. The conversation is not complete yet. Complete the conversation by filling the blanks with the expressions given below.

Minka: Rangga, what will you use for the Prom Night?
Rangga: I don’t know. I think I will use my grey shirt.
Minka: What? .... ^1. Ever!
Rangga: Why?
Minka: ....^2.
Rangga: So, what should I wear for the Prom?
Minka: .... ^3.
Rangga: Never. It’s even worse than the grey one.

A. It’s so out- dated.
B. I think you should never use that shirt again forever.
C. I suggest that you wear the red one

Keypoints

From this lesson, you have learnt how to give advice and recommendation. You know that giving advice and recommendation is a mean to prevent bad things to happen. To give an advice, we can simply say you'd better or you'd better not.

How to Make Appointments Formally

Objectives

Responding to meanings in formal and informal transactional (to get things done) and interpersonal (socializing) simple and accurate using oral text fluently and accurately in daily life context involving expressions of: making appointments formally.
Learning Objective(s)
• Identifying the expressions to make formal appointments fluently
• Arranging formal appointments accurately

Have you ever made any appointments? People usually make an appointment before they see somebody. For example, a doctor, a consultant, a lecturer, or any people who work in public service. With friends, you might call them directly and speak casually. But, when you call your teachers or offices to make an appointment, you might need to speak formally.
Why do we have to make an appointment?

Making an appointment is a common courtesy. It means that it’s a polite behavior. We want to make sure that people that we want to meat will be available on the certain time. We cannot just come to someone’s house without making appointment beforehand, unless the host is fine with that.
There are several phases in making an appointment (if you or the people you want to meet are not available). You might want to change the time, day, or place. You might as well need to cancel it when you can make it.

Making an appointment

• I’d like to make an appointment with …
• I want to make an appointment to (see) …
• I’d like to make an appointment to (see) …
• I was wondering if (you) could come and see (me) some time …
• Would you like to come and see me?”
• Would you be available on …?

Accepting an appointment

No problem. I’m free on …”
Yes, Thursday is fine."
Friday suits me."
Tuesday would be perfect."
I’ll wait you there.”
I’ll be there on time”
I’m available on …
I would be available to discuss…. on … at …
Setting a time/day
What day did you have in mind?
Would Friday suit you?
What sort of time would suit you?
Is 8 a.m. a good time for you?
If possible, I'd like to meet in the morning.
How does 2 p.m. sound to you?
Cancelling an appointment
I’m sorry. I’m very busy.
Sorry, I don’t think I can make it.
I’m so sorry I can’t make it.
I’m terribly sorry (that) I have to put off my appointment.
I’m afraid I have to postpone my appointment with …

Changing an appointment

What about … (Sunday at 03: 00 p.m.)?
Is that O.K. if we meet at (9 tomorrow morning)?
Do you have another time (this afternoon)?
Could we change the day (time) of the meeting?
Would you mind if we change the day (time) of the meeting?

*Suggesting a different date## *

I'm afraid I can't on the 23rd. What about the 26th?
I'm sorry. I won't be able to make it on Sunday. Could we meet on Saturday instead?
Ah, Thursday is going to be a little difficult. I'd much prefer Friday, if that's alright with you.
I really don't think I can on the 11th. Can we meet up on the 12th?

Do you understand?

Read the following dialogue.

Keypoints

So, basically making an appointment is like a negotiation. Sometimes you get a deal, sometimes you don’t. The above phrases are examples so you can figure out what to say in making a formal appointment.

How to Make Appointments Informally

Objectives

• Knowing how to make appointments informally by using the right expressions to make and respond to appointments.

Learn about it!

Read the following illustration:
It has been a long time since the last time you meet with your high school best friends. You miss them and you want to meet them. So, you make a plan to meet them. However, unlike when you were in high school, each of you has different schedules now. It is a bit difficult to meet because you are busy and your friends are busy as well. In this case, you have to ensure that you and your friends are available to meet on a certain day at a certain time.

So, what do you have to do to ensure that? You have to make appointment with your friends. How do you make appointments with your friends or with other people in English? In this lesson you will find out about it. This lesson will tell you about how to make appointments informally (in an informal situation, usually with your friends, family, or with someone close to you)

In the dialogue above, Zara and Hannah make an appointment to meet up. They plan to meet on Saturday at 5 p.m. Now, read the dialogue one more time and find out how they make their appointment.

Hannah asks Zara to meet up this weekend. She says “Let’s meet up this weekend.” Then, she asks Zara if she is available this weekend by saying “Are you available on Saturday or Sunday?” These are some of the expressions that you can use when you want to make appointment with someone informally. So, how does Zara respond to the question? She says “Yeah, sure. I’m free this weekend. What day should we go?” This is a way to respond to an appointment.

In the dialogue above, you will also find these expressions:

1. .… how about Saturday noon at 5?
2. .… Should we meet at the usual place?
3. Sounds good for me….
4. That’s a great idea
5. Perfect!

The first and the second expressions are another way to make an appointment. The expressions number three to five are the examples of how you respond to an appointment. More expressions can be found in the following table.

Keypoints

• Making appointment is a skill that you need to arrange a meeting with other people.
• In informal settings, you can use casual expressions.
• In reponding to invitation to meet up, you can agree or decline.

How to Show Attention to Others

Objectives

Students are able to show attention to others by stating the expressions correctly and appropriately.

Learn about it!

What do you say when your friend told you about his experience on the last holiday?
What do you say when someone told you about his problem?
Can you respond to that in English?

When someone is telling you about something, the proper thing to do is to listen to them talking and then to respond to what they say. This manner shows that you are paying attention to what others say and that you show respects to them. However, how do you show them that you listen to what they say? How do they know that you pay attention to what they say? What should you do in that situation? In this lesson, you will learn about how to show attention to others. Look at the following dialogue.

Example 1

Beni : Hi, Roy. What a nice jacket!
Roy : Oh, hi Beni. Thank you.
Beni: Is that new?
Roy : No, my grandfather gave me this last birthday.
Beni : I see. That’s a really nice jacket.
Roy : You’re right. It’s comfortable as well.
Beni : Cool. Your grandfather has a good taste in fashion.
Roy : I guess so.

In the dialogue above, Roy tells Beni about his jacket. In order to show Beni that he pays attention to what Beni says, Roy says “I see”. You can say this as a way to show others that you listen to what they say. Take a look at another example below.
 

Example 2

Ranti gets a scholarship to college. He told his mother about it.
Ranti : Mum, mum….!
Mother : I'm up here. What’s wrong, honey?
Ranti : Mum, you know what?
Mother : What is it? You look so happy and excited.
Ranti : The announcement from the university I applied to was released this morning. My name was there and I got a scholarship for the whole semester.
Mother : Really? That's excellent. Congratulations honey! I'm so proud of you.
Ranti : Thanks Mum. I'm really happy right now.
Mother : I’m happy for you too. Let’s have dinner to celebrate it.
Ranti : That’s a good idea, mum. Thanks.

In the dialogue above, Ranti tells her mother that she just got the announcement that she is accepted into the university that she applied to with full scholarships. What does Ranti’s mother say to show Ranti that she listens to her? The last sentence said by Ranti’s mother suggests that she pays attention to what Ranti says. Her mother says “Really? That's excellent. Congratulations honey! I'm so proud of you” in order to show attention to what Ranti says. The bold phrases are another way to show attention to others.

In the following table are the expressions you can say to show attention to others. You can use these expressions to show them that you listen to what they say.

Do you understand?

The following dialogue is another example of how to use the expressions in a conversation.
Example 3
Dera : Hi, Sylvia.
Sylvia: Oh… hi, Dera.
Dera : Hey, you were absent for three days. Where were you?
Sylvia: My family and I went to Banyuwangi for my cousin’s wedding.
Dera : Nice. So, how was the party?
Sylvia: It was great, but something bad happened.
Dera : Really? What was that?
Sylvia: The bride’s father, who is my uncle, fainted during the wedding.
Dera : Oh my god. I’m sorry to hear that. Is he okay?
Sylvia: He is okay now. Thanks, Dera.
Dera : That’s a relief.

Keypoints

• By showing attention, you are also showing respect to the person you are speaking to.
• If you don't really get what people talking about, you can always say something like "really?", "that's great!", or just "wow!"
• The simplest way to show your attention is by nodding your head. It shows people that you are listening and paying attention.

Expressions of Sympathy

Objectives

Through this section, you will learn:
• How to express sympathy

Learn about it!

Bad things could happen to our life suddenly without warning in advance. It just happens and takes away the happiness. However, it is life, isn’t it?

Life is full of surprise. When bad things come into your life, what do you want to hear from others? Expressions of congratulation? Jokes? Or sympathy? Well, sympathy is what we need the most during tough times. That’s also what other people need to hear from us in their bad time. So, how to express sympathy? Let’s learn through this section!

Look at the picture. They are Dika and Rani. Does Dika look okay for you?

Look at his face. No, he is not okay. Let’s find out what happened to him from his conversation with Rani.
    Rani: Dika, are you sick or something?
    Dika: No, I’m not. Why did you ask?
    Rani: You look terrible, really terrible.
   &nbspDika: Well, I’m not okay anyway. Last night, bad thing happened.
    Rani: What is it?
    Dika: Raya sent a message to me. She wanted to break up with me.
    Rani: What! Oh, that’s awful! How come?
    Dika: She told me that she wanted to focus on learning.
    Rani: It’s reasonable. But, really, I’m sorry to hear that.
    Dika: Thanks.
    Rani: Anytime. Now, let’s grab some chocolates to cheer you up.
From the conversation, we know that Dika is not okay that day. He broke up with Raya, his girlfriend, the night before. We can see it from this utterance, “Raya sent a message to me. She wanted to break up with me.”
Rani knows that ‘broke up’ is a bad thing. It could make anyone sad. So, she shows her sympathy to Dika. From the conversation, she gives the sympathy twice. The sympathies are “Oh, that’s awful!” and “I’m sorry to hear that.”
Rani’s sympathy may not sweep away Dika’s sadness. But sympathy could make Dika knows that Rani does not ignore what happened to him. It shows that she cares. In case you need to express sympathy to your friend, the following expressions can be useful.
Formal

• What a terrible situation for you!
• You have my deepest sympathy.
• I do express my sympathies.

Less Formal

• I’m so sorry to hear that.
• I know how it feels.
• Oh, that’s awful/terrible.

Now study the following dialogue.
    Dika: Rani, I got two free tickets to the workshop. I’ll give one ticket for you.
    Rani: That’s very kind of you.
    Dika: Rani, did I say something wrong? You look unhappy.
    Rani: No, you didn’t. It is just something bad happened this morning.
    Dika: What is it?
    Rani: Well, I fell of the stairs. I hurt my ankle.
    Dika: Ow, that’s awful! Let’s go to the doctor.
    Rani: I have seen the doctor anyway. He said that it would take a week to heal.
    Dika: I’m so sorry to hear that. But don’t worry. The workshop will be held next week. You can still attend the workshop and have fun.
    Rani: Yes, sure I will.
From the conversation, we know that Rani fell of the stairs and hurt her ankle. Dika shows his sympathy by saying “Ow, that’s awful!” and “I’m so sorry to hear that.”

Do you understand?

Well, how is everything going? Have you understood the ways to express sympathy? It’s quite easy, right? Now, let’s try to challenge your understanding.
See the conversation below. The conversation is not completed yet. Fill the blanks with the provided utterances.
Minka: Marsha, there’s something different with you today.
Marsha: It must be the glasses.
Minka: Yes, it is. ....1. Why?
Marsha: Well, ....2. Yeah, you could guess what happened next.
Minka: You broke the glasses. ....3.
Marsha: Sure, ....4.
a. It’s terrible.
b. You wear your old glasses.
c. Oh, I know how it feels.
d. Last night I fell asleep with my glasses on.

Keypoints

From this lesson, you know that when someone experiences bad things, we need to express our sympathy. There are many expressions to show sympathy. However, you can simply say "I'm sorry to hear that" to express your sympathy.

Holiday Experience: How to Use Past Tense (3)

Objectives

1. Differentiate simple past tense from past continuous tense by identifying each tense in a sentence.
2. Use simple past tense and past continuous tense correctly to tell about holiday experience.

Learn about it!

You went to a really good place last holiday and your friend asked you about your experience having a holiday in that place. What will your reaction be? How do you tell them about your experience? In this lesson, you will learn about how to use past tense in order to tell your holiday experience.

Experience can be defined as something that happens to you. Generally, it happened to you in the past. It can be childhood experience, events that happened last year, or even your holiday experience. Holiday experience happened to you in the past. Logically an experience is something that you face, something that happened to you in the past. Experience is life events that already happened before. It is something that you have been through before. So, when we want to tell others about our experience in the past, how do we tell them in English?

In English, there are several ‘tenses’ we can use that show the time at which an action happened. For example when we talk about something that will happen in the future we use future tense; when we talk about something that we are doing now we use present continuous tense; when we want to tell about something that happened in the past we use past tense.

Holiday experience is something that happened in the past, thus we use past tense to tell others about what happened. Read the text about holiday experience below.

Do you understand?

Pay attention to the first sentence. How do you know that the experience happened in the past?

Last weekend, my family and I wentto the beach.

There are two ways to analyze the tense:

• First, you can find the time that indicates it happened in the past, as in the example above you can find “Last weekend”. This phrase tells you that the event happened last week, which means it happened in the past.
• Second, you can see it from the verb that is used in the sentence. In the example above, you can read that ‘my family and I went to the beach’. ‘Went’ is past form of ‘go’, it indicates the use of simple past tense.

The next sentences in the text above are also written in past tense:

1. First, my father checked* the car. ‘Checked’ is past form of ‘check’.
2. It was in a good condition, so we were ready to go. ‘Was’ and ‘were’ are past form of ‘be’.
3. Before we went, my mother cooked the meal while my father and I were packing our things.

In this sentence, there are two clauses joined by ‘while’:

a. Before we went, my mother cooked the meal; and
b. My father and I were packing our things.

The first clause uses simple past tense just like the other sentences. It is indicated by the word ‘cooked’. This is the past form of ‘cook’. However, there is something different with the second clause. It uses past continuous tense instead of past tense. Past continuous tense indicates an event that was happening at a particular time in the past. So, the event ‘my father and I were packing our things’ was happening while ‘my mother cooked the meal’.

Keypoints

Past Tense
In past tense, the verb that you use is in the past form. For example:

• I did my homework.
• She studied math after class. The above structure is examples of simple past tense.

Past Continuous Tense
In past continuous tense, you use was/were + the –ing form of a verb. ‘Was’ is used for singular (I, she, he). ‘Were’ is used for plural (they, we).
Example:

• I was taking a bath when you called.
• We were going to the mountain, but the storm came.