Idioms

Yesterday I had forty winks in the train. I wake up15 minutes later and smelt a rat. I looked around and found that my bag fell off the back of a lorry! At that moment, I got butterflies in my stomach and lost my tongue. I believe that I must tighten my belt for the rest of the month.

Idioms Story

John and Mary got on like a house on fire last year. However, Peter always liked playing gooseberry. Therefore, John was down in mouth and asked Mary to marry him. Mary was very happy about that and promised to marry him. John arranged a stag party and Peter was a gate-crasher in the party. At that night, everybody was giving him the cold shoulder.

AT400

Dear John

Thank you for your email regarding your order of new model computers : the AT-400.

I am pleased to tell you that our standard minimum order is 5000 computers and the price per unit is $8,000. The more computers you order, the greater the discount we will give.

I would like to inform you that the shipping costs will be paid by your company. If not, another 5% transportation cost will be added. Furthermore, both European and Asian languages manual are available.

Exclusivity is possible only if you agree to order 100,000 units each year for the next three years. The guarantee period is 12 months.

After your order is confirmed, computers will be shipped in about 30 days. As you are our first time customer, 50% pre-payment is required, and payment on delivery and 30 days after delivery are 25% respectively. If you make an order in the future, the payment will be more flexible.

Should you have any queries, please feel free to contact me at 1234-5678. I am looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours sincerely

Mary
DEF Co. Ltd.

AT 500

Dear sir / madam

I am the purchasing manager of ABC Co, a large chain of computer stores in Hong Kong & China.

We would like to order 4000 units of new model computers AT500. I found the price in the website is HK$8000, are shipping costs included in the price? We would be appreciated if a 20% discount is offered.

For a better marketing strategy, we request an exclusive agreement for this model in the first year. We are sure our extensive branches are able to boost the sales volume.

Moreover, is there a Cantonese version manual included? What is the guarantee period? We expect a minimum guarantee of 12 months.

Regarding the terms of payment, we would like to pay 30% pre-payment, 30% on delivery & 40% 3 months after delivery. If all the above terms are acceptable, please confirm the best available delivery time. We are sure we can do business with you in the future.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours faithfully

John Chan
ABC Co.

Conference in London

Thank you for your help. The conference was really interesting. Please give my best regards to your UK sales team. There are plans to bring some UK staff over to Dubai at the end of the year. I look forward to seeing you.

Baltic States Market developments

Thanks for your information. I’ve forwarded your mail to Krista Kilvet who is taken over from Doris Kareva. Would you please give a presentation at our Head office on the whole political and economic background in the region? The Board should be interested as we may be making some large investment in the near future.

Confirmation of the next meeting on 4 Jan

Re our conversation, let’s meet in lobby of the Intercontinental Hotel TST at 2pm.
Be my guest for dinner. See you there.

Outlining the problem area and the areas of potential

Based on the Hong Kong Tourism Board information, many tourists have complained about the tourist guide always leading them to buy consumer products but spending little time on sightseeing. Moreover, tourists feel that the tourist guides don’t have good presentation skill to introduce spotting point in Hong Kong.

Besides, tourists also stated that air pollution is very serious everywhere especially Mongkok & Causeway Bay.

For the solutions of the above, route should be re-arranged by travel agency to spend more time for sightseeing. And training should be provided to the tourist guides for improving their presentation skill. For air pollution, Hong Kong government had already set up a rule in order to improve current situation.

Tourism on the island of Bozburun

During the trip on Bozburun, it seems that sun and sand was always found on the island. To be honest, it is not clear if tourist spend much.

Actually, the quality of construction might not be good since not much money was given. That might not be safe of unspoilt areas being destroyed.

Perhaps product such as water-bike should be improved to attract tourists from other areas. Moreover, would it be possible to provide training about customer service and cultural tourism to the staff on island?

Task 2 - reply letter - Kalai & Amanda

Dear Mary

I want to change our conference to a meeting on 10 December 2006 since your business trip sounded interesting. I want to know more about the details.

How about the Siemens contract? Is it successful? What kind of problem do you have? I am sure that the problem must be solved at last. I would like to know if there are interesting things during the interviews. The whole trip seems very important, I am glad that if I am there with you.

Best, Ann

Task 1 - Kalai & Amanda

Dear Ann

I am sorry that I can’t go to the conference with you since my boss & I have to go to Shanghai on a business trip on the same weekend. The purpose of the trip is for promoting our new product. So I must go to this trip. Can you re-arrange the date of our conference?

I am now busy preparing the things for the business trip such as sales report, hotel reservation & flight booking.

Please tell me the date of our conference if you can re-arrange.

Best, Mary

Email 1 - Kalai & Amanda

Dear Ann

I would like to introduce the activity details to you.

The name of the activity is “Count Down Party for Christmas” The aim of this activity is to give a chance for people to celebrate Christmas. We have booked a hotel’s ballroom on 24 December 2006. Food & drinks will be served between 19:00 to 21:00 and lucky draw will be held at 21:30.

The budget of the activity is around HK$20,000. It will be spent on venue, presents, decoration and invitation cards.

The problem we are facing now is the total number of participates since we have to make the decision for booking the size of the ballroom. We are going to set a deadline of next Monday, by which the total number of participates should be fixed.

Should you have any queries, please contact me at 1234 5678.

Yours sincerely

Mary Chan