W R IT IN G A host family

1 Imagine you are going abroad to do a short course and are going to live with a
host family. W hat information would you give them and what information
would you want? Think about:

dates food personal inform ation transport com puter access hobbies

2 Burcu Sancak, a Turkish student, is writing to her host family. Read her email.
Tick (√ ) the items from exercise 1 that she mentions.

A ccom m odation message

Fro m : Burcu Sancak [bsancak@mailnet.com.tr] S e n t: 16 July 2011
To: M r and Mrs Baker
Su bject: A cco m m o d a tio n

D e a r M r a n d M r s B a k e r,

I'm v e r y h a p p y t o a c c e p t y o u r o f f e r o f a c c o m o d a tio n . I’m re a lly e x c ite d a b o u t c o m in g t o L o n d o n

f o r t h e f ir s t tim e t o d o a n E n g lis h c o u rs e .

I a m in m y la s t y e a r o f s c h o o l a n d n e x t y e a r I w a n t t o g o t o u n iv e rs ity t o s tu d y e n g lis h L a n g u a g e
a n d L ite r a tu re . a t t h e m o m e n t i a m p re p a rin g f o r m y fin a l e x a m s, s o I'm w o rk in g v e r y h a rd . W h e n
I'm n o t s o b isy, I s p e n d a lo t o f t im e re a d in g , b u t I a ls o e n jo y s p o r ts I p la y b a s k e tb a ll f o r m y s c h o o l
te a m o n c e a w e e k . I a ls o e n jo y s w im in g . Is t h e r e a s p o r ts c lu b w ith a s w im m in g p o o l n e a r y o u r
h o u se.

A s I m e n tio n e d in m y la s t e m a il, m y c o u rs e s ta r ts o n 2 4 th Ju ly b u t I’m c o m in g t w o d a y s e a r lie r a n d

m y p la in a rriv e s a t h e a th r o w o n t h e 2 2 n d a t 14.25 C o u ld y o u t e ll m e t h e b e s t w a y o f g e ttin g fro m
t h e a ir p o r t t o y o u r h o u s e ?

I h o p e t o h e re fro m y o u s o o n a n d I’m re a lly lo o k in g fo rw a r d t o s e e in g y o u in L o n d o n .

B e s t w is h e s ,

B u rc u S a n c a k

3 Read STUDY SKILL Read Burcu’s email again. There are 12

mistakes (capital letters, full stops, question marks, and spelling). STUDY SKILL C h e c k in g y o u r w r itin g
Find and correct them. Every tim e you w rite , rem em ber to check yo u r w ork for;
■ cap ital le tte rs a t th e beginning o f sentences and fo r
W riting an informal email proper nouns (nam es o f peop le, cities, and cou n tries)

4 Imagine you are going to stay with a family for a short ■ fu ll stops a t th e end o f sentences

course. Write them an email. Write about 100 words. ■ q uestion m arks a t th e end o f questions
■ spelling m istakes. Use a d ictio n ary o r com puter
• Say you accep t th e ir o ffe r o f a room ,
spellchecker to check you r spelling. Keep a record o f
• Tell them ab o u t yo u r studies and yo u r hobbies.
any w ords you m isspell. Learn th e co rrect spelling.
• G ive them inform ation ab o u t you r arrival.
• Ask fo r inform ation you w ould like.

Check your work carefully. Give it to another student to check again.

Unit 1 • International student 7