多少英会話に慣れてきても、電話での英会話は案外緊張してしまい、なかなか
思うように言葉が出ないものです。
ここでは、直接Mr.Daveに英語で問合せをするときの会話のサンプル文を掲載
しました。内容は以下の4パターンで構成されています。
RING RING RING ♪
Mr.Dave: Hello, good morning.
You: Hello, my name is Hanako Yamada. Is this Mister Dave?
Mr.Dave: Yes it is. How can I help you?
You: I am from Japan. And I would like to study English with you.
Mr.Dave: Thank you for calling me up, Hanako. Maybe I can help you.
Please tell me what kind of English you would like to study.
For example, would you like to study English Converssation?
Or would you like to study to become an American College Student? Or would you like to study Writing? Or would you like to study a different kind of English?
You: I would like to practice my Conversation, and Learn to speak more like a native speaker.
Mr.Dave: Maybe I can help you, Hanako. How did you find out about me?
You: I saw your website on the internet. And I am interested in
taking lessons with you.
Mr.Dave: Wow. That sounds good. Are you in Hawaii right now? You: Yes.(I am staying with a friend.)or(I am staying in Waikiki.)
Mr.Dave: I would like to meet you, Hanako. You: Me too.
Mr.Dave: We could meet in two different ways. One, I could ride my
bicycle to your(house)(hotel). Or two, you could take a city
bus to the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and we could meet
in one of the UH's libraries, or in one of the UH's cafeterias.
If you decide to come up to UH, I could even meet you at about
UH bus stop, and we could then take a walk together to UH
library or to a campus cafeteria. And when we found a
comfortable and a quiet place, then we could sit down and
have a good conversation. And I could show you some textbooks,
or you could tell me what kind of English you were interested
in studying.
I give most of my lessons at the UH, Hanako, in either a UH
library, or in a UH cafeteria. I like to work at UH because
it is quiet, and it is peaceful, and it is place where there
are many friendly and interesting international people,
just like you.
You: Could you come to my hotel?
Mr.Dave: Yes, I could. I could come to your hotel for our first meeting.
Please tell me the name of your hotel, and maybe how to get
there, and then I will ride my bicycle(to Waikiki). Then we
could meet in the reception area of the hotel, and we could
try to find a peacefuland quiet place nearby where we could
talk together about lessons. And then if we are able to have
a good conversation, and then if you would like to study English
with me, we could make plans for you to take a short ride on
a bus, or walk, or take a taxi, or find an easy way to come over
to the campus of the University of Hawaii, and then we could study.
You: I am staying at the (Island Colony Hotel, etc.). Do you know
where that is?
Mr.Dave: I think so. When would be a good time for me to go over there
to your(hotel)(house) to meet you?
You: How about tomorrow morning at ten a.m.
Mr.Dave: I'm sorry. I am busy at that time. How about tomorrow
afternoon at three p.m?
You: I'm sorry. I am busy then too. How about the day after
tomorrow, at ten a.m?
Mr.Dave: Hmm. OK, that sounds good. Ten a.m. So, I will go to your
(hotel)(house) at that time, and I will meet you at (the reception
desk)(your front door). Then we can find a quiet place, and
maybe have a good conversation. And maybe make plans. OK?
You: OK.
Mr.Dave: So I will meet you then, Hanako. Good bye.
RING RING RING ♪
Mr.Dave:Hello, good morning.
You: Hello, this is Hanako.
Mr.Dave: Hello, Hanako. Thank you for calling me up. What can I do for you?
You: Mister Dave, I would like to talk about the times that we have
for our lessons.
Mr.Dave: OK. What would you like to do?
You: I don't know how often we should have our lessons. And I don't
know when you are available for lessons. For example, do you
give lessons only in the daytime, or only one time a week, or
not on the weekends. I have questions like these.
Mr.Dave: Those are good questions, Hanako. I'll try to answer them as
clearly as I can.
My best answer for any questions you may have about the
time for lessons is that I am a one-and-one tutor. And that
means that our teaching experience is planned to be as helpful
as possible to YOUR OWN NEEDS AND WISHES. If working
together one time a week is good FOR YOU, for example
Wednesday afternoons, then that is the best time plan. If
working together two times, or three times a week is good
FOR YOU, for example Monday-Wednesday-Friday mornings, then
that is the best time plan.
You: That sounds interesting. But when is your eaarliest lesson time,
and when is your latest time? And do you work on Saturday
and Sunday?
Mr.Dave: My normal working hours for Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-
Thursday-Friday are from 9 a.m. in the morning until 6 p.m. in
the early evening. On weekends, I can be available on Saturday
afternoons from 1 until 5 p.m., and on Sunday afternoons and
evenings I can be available from 1 p.m. until 8 p.m.
so if you add up all those hours of availability, you will find
that Mister Dave is available for about 56 hours every week for
his tutoring lessons. And you can decide when the best time for
lessons FOR YOU might be. The UH cafeteria are not open in the evenings. They are open
From Monday-Fridays during mose of the day. The UH
libraries, however, are open seven days a week, all day and all
evening long, and in the afternoons on Saturday, and in the
afternoon and evenings on Sunday.
You: What about holidays, or vacation times? Are the cafeterias and
libraries open at that time?
Mr.Dave: Not usually. But, if there are holidays, or vacation times, then
we can make plans to study at a different place, for example at
a public library in Honolulu, or we can study at a quiet
Starbuck's coffee shop, or at a Border's Book Store, or even at
your hotel in a quiet place. Holidays and vacation times happen
maybe 5% of the times that I am giving lessons. They are not a
real inconvenience.
You: And what if we begin to have lessons two times a week, then Island
want to change our times to three times a week, or change our
time from the moning to the afternoon? What about this?
Mr.Dave: Good questions, Hanako. I try to be as flexible as I can. Flexible means "able to bend". And Mister Dave tries to be able to change his plans as well as he can. Our lessons are a tutoring experience, and not a classroom experience; it si just between you and me, and not ten-twenty-thrity people. So, it is much easier to make changes if they are needed. In my tutoring time as Mister Davem which has been going on from 1998 until now, or for ten years, I have made changes with different student schedules and plans. It is a part of what the tutoring experience is. It is not difficult to do. And it can actually be a good thing. Please remember we are one-and-one. I'll do my best to give you lessons that will be helpful, and when they are helpful, and where they can be learned in a comfortable exciting way.
RING RING RING ♪
Mr.Dave: Hello, good evening.
You: Hello, good evening, Mister Dave. This is Hanako.
Mr.Dave: Good to talk to you again, Hanako. What can I do for you?
You: Well, we're going to begin our studying tomorrow at
Sinclair Library. And I've never had a tutoring lessons
before. So I wanted to ask you a few questions about
what we're going to do. OK?
Mr.Dave: Sure.
You: My first question is, how is your teaching different from
taking lessons in a classroom?
Mr.Dave: My teaching is very different from taking lessons in a
classroom. First of all, I will be only with you, and I
will be sitting closely to you, probably at a table, or
at a table, or at a big desk. And we will be able to see
each other clearly, and hear and speak to each other just
like in a normal conversation. I will not be giving you
a lecture. We will be trying to have a conversation.
you are a very important person. You are the entire class,
as a matter of fact. So what you want to study, and how
fast you want to study, and where and when you want to
study at the UH, will all be something that you, and I,
can choose together.
You: That sounds very interesting, Mister Dave. But will it
be scary to sit close to you?
Mr.Dave: I sure hope not. I try my best to be friendly, and to go
slowly and carefully, and I will try to make our lessons
interesting.
You: If we have a conversation, what kind of questions will you
ask me with all the idioms you teach?
Mr.Dave: I will probably ask you questions about your life, and about
what you like to do, and where you like to go, and what your
plans for the future are, and things that are important to
your life. But even more, I will expect you, as my student,
to use the idioms we have learned, to ask me the same kinds
of questions. I will try to encourage you, as my student,
to learn how to SPEAK YOUR MIND. Do your know what this
idiom means? Speak your mind means feeling comfortable when
you express an opinion, or share your thinking about something
or share your personality with me.
You: Gee, Mister Dave, I hope I can learn how to do that.
Mr.Dave: It's not so hard. I will do my best to teach you how to express yourself like an American, when you use American English.
RING RING RING ♪
Mr.Dave: Hello, good afternoon.
You: Hello, this is Hanako.
Mr.Dave: Hi Hanako. Good to hear your voice. What can I do for you?
You: I would like to ask you about the cost of your lessons. How much do you charge for your work?
Mr.Dave: Your question is very important, Hanako. And sometimes
it is not so easy to answer. But I will do my best.
First, and most importantly, I try to charge a fair tuition rate.
As you know, when you have a tutor, all of the class is just one
person. If there are twenty students, and so the amount that each
can be paid by the twenty stu, and so the amount that each
student pays is much less. If there is only one student, then the
full tuition must be paid by that one person.
My tuition is not cheap, but my tuition is not expensive either,
in my opinion. If we meet for our introduction meeting at UH
(or at your house/hotel/apartment), we will talk about how
much your tuition should be.
And most often, my decision about how much to charge you
for tuition will be based, or determined, on what your plans for
study are. If, for example, you plan to study English for a short
time, like maybe a month or two months, and for maybe one
lesson a week, then I will probably charge you more, for each
lesson. However, if, for example, you would like to study
English for a more serious time, like for more than two months,
and for more than one lesson a week, then I will charge you less.
My tuition becomes less if you would like to study for a longer
time, and for more than one time a week. My tuition is more fore
each lesson if you would like to study for a shorter time, and for
only one lesson a week.
You: And how much, exactly, is your tuition rate?
Mr.Dave: My more expensive rate is about $35-40 for each lesson hour.
My less expensive rate is between $25-33 for each lesson hour.
You: And how long is each lesson?
Mr.Dave: My lesson are usually close to an hour in length. But I do not
measure my lesson times by a clock, or by a bell, etc. I will do
my best to complete a lesson, or a chapter, or a unit of material,
or a project, etc., in a lesson's time. Sometimes that may need
50 minutes, and sometimes that may need 90 minutes, and
sometimes that may need somewhere between 50-90 minutes.
What do you think, Hanako? Do you think that my tuition
rate are expensive?
You:I don't know for sure. If I go to a school, my tuition rate for one
hour of lesson time would be much less expensive, that's true.
But, when I am in a classroom, I may not be studying something
that I want to learn, or, I may not like the way the teacher is
teaching, or some other students might be fooling around and
wasting time, or they might be asking questions that slow down
the classroom experience, or, the teacher might not have time to
try to answer my questions, or, I may feel that I am far away
from the only person in the room who is a native speaker-the
teacher; or, I may not be able to practice my conversation with
a native speaker because I have to share my teacher with the
other twenty students. But I would be able to save money.
Mr.Dave: Hanako, I agree with everything you have just said. But there are two other things that are important here. One, if you are taking lessons in a classroom, and if you want to stop your lessons, or go back to Japan, etc., you will not get a refund of your unused tuition money. You are "out of luck," to use an idiom, in this situation. But with Mister Dave, if you change your mind and decide that you do not want to study anymore, or that you have to go back to your country, or that your plans for studying have changed, and FOR ANY REASON you want to stop studying with me, then I will give you a full refund for all of the tuition money that you have not yet had lessons for. Let me give you an example. Perhaps you would like to study two times a week, and for eight weeks, or for 16 lessons all together. OK. So we decide to study Tuesday and Fridays at Sinclair Library at UH, say at 10 a.m. So I charge you $32 for each lesson. 16X32=$512 (which includes local taxes). Five hundred twelve dollars. OK. So you write me out a check, or you put your cash in an envelope, and we begin our lessons. Then three weeks later, you decide you want to stop our lessons, FOR ANY REASON. OK. You have had six lessons, and you have ten lessons not taken yet. So I will give you a refund of $320, which would have been the charge for the remaining ten lessons.
You: One more question. What happens if I can't come to a lessons
one day?
Mr.Dave: Those things happen, of course. Sometimes I may not be able to
come to have a lesson with you.
If either you or I can not come to a lesson that we've made
plans for, then it is important that you, or I, try to contact
each other, usually over the telephone, at least one day before
the lesson to be canceled. Then, we will make a plan to have a
lesson at a diffferent time, or, we will plan to have an extra
lesson at the end of our tutoring times.
And so I hope that this answers your questions.
