Main Topic 2: Business Interactions Lesson 20: Complaining (20-25 minutes) Today, you will: 1. Learn useful vocabulary related to COMPLAINING. 2. Review Prepositional Phrases and Verb Agreements. I. VOCABULARY Exercise 1: What s the meaning? (5-6 minutes) A. Choose the meaning of the underlined words from the choices that follow. 1. The manager wants us to improve our customer service skills. a. be satisfied b. be the same c. become worse d. become better 2. It is the chef s fault that the food was served late. a. reason b. mistake c. suggestion d. explanation 3. This case of bad service can be filed in court. a. can be viewed b. can be submitted c. can be understood d. can be experienced Page 1
4. A client should always be served well. a. visitor b. foreigner c. customer d. businessman 5. I don t want to buy from a store with rude sales clerks. a. Impolite b. imperfect c. unattractive d. unintelligent B. Sentence-Making Practice (3-4 minutes) Practice using these words in your own sentences. 1. Improve 2. Fault 3. File 4. Client 5. Rude Page 2
Exercise 2: What s the word? (4-5 minutes) Read the following dialog with your tutor and try to use context clues to fill in the blanks with the most appropriate word. You can find the missing word from the pool of words at the bottom. Ms. Finch approached the restaurant manager to complain about one of the waiters. Mr. Adams: Hello Ms. Finch, I m the manager of this restaurant. One of my staff said you have a complaint. May I know what it is? Ms. Finch: I am not happy with the way one of your waiters treated me. You know, I have nothing your restaurant but this particular waiter has been very rude. Mr. Adams: My sincerest apologies, Ma am. Ms. Finch: I was very with the way he took my orders. I love the food you serve but I think waiters like him will cause problems to your business. Mr. Adams: Don t worry Ma am. Give me your letter of and I will immediately do something about this. Ms. Finch: I will surely write a letter immediately. Thank you once again. Mr. Adams: You re most welcome Ma am. Please do not hesitate to approach me for any other concerns. I assure you that we will try to make our services better. Choices: a. complaint c. for b. upset d. against Page 3
II. GRAMMAR REVIEW: Topic: Prepositional Phrases and Verb Agreement (5-6 minutes) Description: Prepositional phrases begin with a preposition and end with a noun. E.g. in the kitchen (preposition) (object of the preposition) Prepositional phrases may come in-between the subject and the verb of a sentence: Subject + prepositional phrase + verb With this pattern, a common error is usually committed: Incorrect subject-verb agreement: Ex. The employees in the company receives a complaint. Correct subject-verb agreement: Ex. The employees in the company receive a complaint. The common error is that the verb matches the form of the object of the preposition instead of the subject. The verb receive should be in its plural form to match the plural subject employees. Remember: The form of the verb should always follow the form of the subject and not the form of the object of the preposition that comes in between the subject and the verb. Examples: Sample Preposition aboard beside opposite Sample sentence The passengers aboard the old train are unhappy. The owner of the café beside my shop is not friendly. The customers opposite me find the food too spicy. Comprehension Check: Have you ever experienced complaining about a bad service in a restaurant? Please use a prepositional phrase in your answer. Page 4
Exercise 1: Incomplete Sentences (3-4 minutes) Choose the word or phrase that would best complete the following sentences. 1. The viewers in the movie theatre not satisfied with the movie s ending. a. is b. was c. were d. will be 2. The guest in the hotel not contented with his suite. a. is b. are c. were d. will be 3. The guests inside the hotel restaurant their rooms are good. a. think b. thinks c. thinking d. is thinking Page 5