Check out today’s Teatime Titbit: Monday Mails. Better late than never.
Have you just got back after a holiday? Is your email in-box full to bursting point ? What to do? I’m sure the thought of clicking “delete all” is swimming around your mind! (The vocab. section is now below)
Thanks to your auto responder, everyone knows you were out of the office. But what about on those occasions when you overlooked mails or put off writing back until later and then simply forgot about them?
Here are a few phrases to hopefully smooth things over. First of all, GROVEL something like:
“I apologise for not replying/getting back to you any earlier but .. ” or
“I’m (terribly/so) sorry, that I didn’t get around to write back before but ..”
Secondly, EXCUSE (make it a good one – hard work is always a good start)
“I’ve been very busy lately”.
“I’ve been in endless meetings in the last few days.”
“I’ve been on a lot of business trips in the last few weeks.”
“I’ve had a lot to do / on my plate recently.”
“I’ve been snowed under with work.”
And the best till last –
“I’m covering for / standing in for my boss / a colleague.”
Hope they work! If not, don’t look at me!!!
Vocab section.
- to be full to bursting point (zum Bertsen voll sein),
- to put sth off (etw verschieben),
- to smooth things over (Schönwetter machen),
- to grovel (um Gnade winseln),
- to have a lot on my plate (viel am Hals haben),
- to be snowed under with work (mit Arbeit zugeschüttert sein),
- to cover for sb / stand in for sb (jdn vertreten)
QOTD.Is it better to have the vocab at the end or in the main text like before? What do you think?
It’s tempting to look directly at the translation instead of trying to translate a new word just by context if the German word is mentioned in the main text. On the other hand, if you don’t get it at all, it’s annoying to scroll up and down if the vocab is at the end.
However, I prefer the latter way because thus you have all the vocabs gathered and get a brief overview – and in my opinion you learn more.
So, both ways have their benefits and disadvantages.
Hi Jenny. Thanx for the Feedback. As I’m in the process of revamping WET and putting the final touches to Handy 1, I thought this way of presenting the vocab would be the best and what you see in places like the Spotlight Magazine. Cheers.Dave