Entry #7: Practice makes perfect

These are two examples of dialogues during my internship:

Formal dialogue

Between My host (Emilie) and Adam (teacher)

Emilie: Hi Adam, how are you today?

Adam: I’m fine thank you, what about you?

Emilie: I’m fine too. Today there’s a new intern who’s going to be with us for a few weeks, her name is Gretha.Gretha, this is Adam, he’s the teacher of the 4 to 5 years old group, if you have any questions, you can ask him.

Adam: Hi Gretha, welcome!

Informal dialogue

Between Judy and Adam (workmates)

Judy: Here you are! How’s it going? How was your weekend?

Adam: well, I was too busy babysitter my nephew and I didn’t have time to watch the match.  Did you go to see the play?

Judy: Nope, I was a little bit sick. Anyways, I have to go to see Emilie.

Adam: Judy before you go, this is Gretha, she’s goanna work with us.

Judy: Hi!

People having a formal conversation are very polite and they don’t talk about personal things, they are going to use words in a different way, for example, Emilie said: Today there’s a new intern who’s going to be with us for a few weeks, but Adam said: this is Gretha, she’s goanna work with us. Emilie could say the same thing as Adam, but it was more professional say it the way she said it.  In an informal conversation, people talk about personal things and they use “everyday phrases” like “anyway... “ “how's it going“ or they say words for giving their selves time like ”well” and some words are used only in an informal dialogue such a “nope”.

It is easy to know if a conversation is formal or informal. Identify the people who are part of the conversation it’s a good way to know what kind of conversation is.