(Q&A) E-mail

[Write 2 Speak]

E-mail certainly keeps me busy. I never used to write as many letters as I do now. In the good old days before computers, we wrote real letters, with paper and envelopes. I wrote one or two letters a week. But now, with e-mail, my in-box is never empty. There’s always someone mailing me. I would like just one day where I’m free of e-mail. The sad thing is, very few mails I get are interesting. I get loads of spam – junk mail trying to sell me things I don’t want. I also get lots of mail from people asking me to do stuff. Do this, do that, reply ASAP. It’s too much sometimes. The one good thing about e-mail is that you can get things done quickly. I can e-mail a company in another country and they can mail me back in two minutes.
* the good old days = 좋았던 옛 시절/ envelope = 봉투/ be free of ~ = ~에서 자유롭다/ loads(tons) of ~ = 수많은 ~/ stuff = 일[것](사람들이 일반적으로 행하거나 말하거나 생각하거나 하는 것을 통칭함)/ ASAP(= as soon as possible) = 가급적 빨리

* 질문 *

1. How important is e-mail to you?
2. How much time do you spend reading and writing e-mails?
3. Have you ever pressed ‘send’ and then wish you hadn’t?
4. Are you good at replying quickly to e-mails?
5. How many mails are there in your InBox?
6. How many different e-mail accounts do you have / need?
7. Which e-mail provider do you use (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo..)? Are you happy with the service?
8. Do you prefer e-mail via your mobile phone or a computer?
9. What new functions would you like to see with e-mail?
10. Are you worried that governments or criminals can read your mail?
11. If you could secretly have access to someone else’s e-mail account, who would it be and why?
12. Are you always polite in e-mails and start with “Dear” and end with a closing salutation like “Best wishes”, or “Yours sincerely”?

(의견) E-mail.mp3