Episode 18 Start Your English Emails With Confidence (General and business English)

Today we are talking about how to begin your emails. We will be talking about emails all this week.  So many people need to write emails in English these days, even though English is not their native language. English is confusing at the best of times but when we start to think about politeness and etiquette and English, things get even more complicated. Hopefully these next three podcasts will help you feel more confident about writing your own emails. In these three podcasts I have talked about three levels of politeness. For people you talk to every day, colleagues you are working with on projects or daily work and you know well For people you speak to less often or you don't know as well For upper level people, CEO's Directors, and for people you are writing to for the first time. In this podcast we are looking at beginning your email. How do you start? We can increase the politeness level in English by increasing our sentence length, for example: 'Give me that!' 'Please can I have that.' 'Sorry to bother you, would you mind passing me that, if you have a chance please. When we are taught how to write letters in school we are taught to always start 'Dear Sir' or 'Dear John' and end 'Yours sincerely, Jane.' Emails vary quite a lot in comparison to letters. For high level emails we can start: Dear Sir/Madam Dear Mr/Mrs/Miss Johnson Dear Director Smith Level 1 Daily emails might not have any start at all and maybe nothing, or only a name at the end. 'Can you send me the project file?' 'I don't have it.' 'OK, sorry. Who does? Do you know? - John' Level 2 Hello Jack, Hi Jack, Hey Jane, Sorry to bother you Jane, Jack, I wanted to reach out, I hope you don't mind me getting in touch Jane, How are you Jack? Cultural/Grammar note: We only use 'Dear' when addressing a letter or email. We never use this to refer to a person. If you are meeting someone online or face-to-face, you should use their name to refer to them: Sorry Director Smith, that's not possible. Yes Mr Smith, I'd be happy to help. When do you start using first names? It's a good idea to take the lead from the other person, they will tell you to call them by their first name when they are ready. Either by simply saying 'Call me John' or by ending their email 'Regards John'. From then on you can start your emails 'Dear John' or 'Hello John'. Additional Vocabulary Recipient - the person receiving a letter or email.