Intro
1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.
2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.
Do you remember life before the internet? Nowadays, we send messages at lightning speed. We use Facebook to talk to relatives who live far away. We use Instragram and Snapchat to share videos with friends. We can communicate with everyone, all of the time. But life wasn’t always like this.
Before the internet, people sent each other snail mail. They wrote letters on real paper, used real envelopes, and bought real stamps. If they needed to communicate pertinent information, they had to make a phone call. Sometimes, people had a penpal or a friend who lived in another city or country. Now, sending snail mail to a penpal is almost a lost art.
Marni and Andy have different opinions about penpals. Is it worth having a penpal? Listen to this English lesson to find out what they think.
Dialog
1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.
2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.
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Marni: Andy, I just got the coolest thing in the mail from my penpal overseas in Taiwan!
Andy_H: Snorefest.
Marni: What? You don’t… what… what do you have against penpals?
Andy_H: Um, it’s slow. I’m sorry. Snail mail is really old-fashioned, and I would much rather hear from my friend in India or Mexico today. Like, in several seconds.
Marni: OK, sure. There’s all kinds of great technology that helps us communicate with people at lightning speed. I get it. I’m a part of that as well. But there’s like a lost art of communicating where you write letters, and you send it, and you wait for that correspondence to come in the mail. It’s just…
Andy_H: And you have to buy stamps, which keep getting more expensive. And you have to wait and wonder. I mean, what if you actually have something pertinent to tell them? I understand it’s old-fashioned, but there’s a reason it went out of style. We used to do a lot of things that were old-fashioned, and they got replaced.
Marni: OK, but some traditions are worth keeping around and worth participating in. And I’m still going to engage in handwriting letters.
Andy_H: Well, I will email you my response to that.
Grammar Point
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Discussion
Not everyone wants to have a penpal. Some people think having a penpal is great, but others don’t agree. It’s not a secret what Andy thinks about penpals. Snorefest! He prefers to communicate with friends at lightning speed. He doesn’t want to buy stamps, and he doesn’t want to wonder if his letter was lost in the mail.
For Marni, having a penpal is worth it. She loves writing letters, sending letters, and getting letters. Because few people have penpals now, Marni says it feels like a lost art. Sure, snail mail can be slow, but it’s fun to get correspondence from a penpal. In fact, her penpal in Taiwan just sent her something really cool. Marni is going to continue writing letters to her penpal, even if Andy thinks it’s old-fashioned.
Do you have a penpal? Where does your penpal live?
Comments
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Indonesia |
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China |
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Aruba |
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Saudi Arabia |
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Austria |
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Turkey |
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