Dear Subscribers

You can now view the December 2006 issue of Workplace English Training E-Magazine.

In our business speaking section this month we're focusing on telephone skills. The topics include requesting information and speaking to the boss.

Don't forget that each of the speaking topics is accompanied by a podcast audio lesson. The lessons are very language-focused and will help you to grasp the main points covered in each speaking topic. It's a good idea to print out the podcast lesson transcripts and read them before you start listening. Also try to find a quiet place and practice saying aloud the phrases you hear in the lessons until you're happy with your intonation and pronunciation.

In the writing skills section our main topic is about using vertical lists in your business documents. It's easy to create a list but have you ever considered whether your list is 'parallel'? In other words, are all the items in the list of the same grammatical form? If you follow a few basic rules, you'll soon be creating grammatically-perfect vertical lists.

Our first reading article concerns how Chinese tourists in Hong Kong are being forced to shop in order to generate sufficient commission for the tour guides and travel companies. Recently, a tour group from China was abandoned for not spending enough money! This led to widespread negative publicity for Hong Kong's tourist industry. Our second article asks whether we're in the middle of a new dotcom boom after the recent acquisitions of Skype, MySpace and YouTube by some of the big Internet players. Both articles will test your listening and include lots of useful vocabulary.

We encourage you to email us with any feedback you have about Workplace English Training E-Magazine. It's through your feedback that we continue to improve your learning experience.

Best regards

Tania Roberts
Editor
Workplace English Training E-Magazine