Newsletter: Wish you were here

[Alan]

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Hi,

I've just come back from holiday and as I didn't send any postcards back home this time, you might be interested to read my latest newsletter: Wish you were here...

Alan

Link: http://www.english-test.net/newsletter/wish-you-were-here-180.html
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[BernieS]

Hi Alan,
I enjoyed your story about travel in France. You said toward the end of the story that you did not send a card to a 'sole'. I think the word should be 'soul'. Do you think I might be right?
Thank you for the help you give us.
Bernie

[Cesar Lopez Petrovich]

Hi, Alan!
It was pretty interesting your article about "Wish you were here " topic.
Actually, my dear friend, I am learning too much every day.

Thanks a lot, Alan.

Best wishes,

Cesar Lopez Petrovich.

[Alan]

Hi BernieS,

Thanks for that. Yes it should be 'soul'.

Alan
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[Inga]

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Dear Alan,
Your story is wonderful, unless you don't think that any adventure is an adventure.
I like travelling so much that even bad weather is not an obstacle. We want to see a foreign country as it is, after all.
By the way, last summer we visited France (Paris and Quiberon, and the beautiful island that is called so - Belle-Ile). Everything was nice: the food, the accommodation, and people. Although people there had no desire to speak English. That was the problem sometimes. Or, as you wrote, one small fly in the ointment.
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[Salvador]

Hello, Alan,
I enjoyed your story about travel in France. Do you know something? soon, I have to go to the United States because I have manything to do there. First, I'm going to buy some English books. also your grammar stories. Then, I am going to go around it. Well, I have to tell you, thanks for helping me in my English skills.

See you later.

[SkiIucK]

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It was pleasant to read it.

[Faten]

hello Mr Alan
thanks a lot for your usefull newsletter and keep sending such wonderfull stories because it helps us to improve our english
Faten

[Lillo]

Dear Alan (I hope you don’t became angry and let me to call you so friendly) I've read your delicious and exhilarating novel about your travel in France with some trouble (due to my not fluent English reading), and first let me congratulate with you because I've amazed by your fine irony and by your involving capacity.
I've only one question to ask you: but did you really had so a curious series of mischance during that strange holiday in the south of France ?

[Alan]

Hi Lillo,

Thanks for your comments. What happened on my trip is fact not fiction.

Alan
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[Volcano1985]

Hello Alan, you should try Istanbul too ; )

[Thunu]

Hello Alan

This essay is very interesting and humorous with many the idioms and phrases that I'v never known before such as 'kill two birds with one stone, drop off, be stone deaf or get a wink of sleep...'. And if it's your real trip, I believe it'll be unforgetable one for you.

I have two questions that
1. Are the idioms and phrases that you used and explained in the essay regularly used in written or spoken language? If they are used in written language, what kinds of written language are they used in?
2. Are these idioms and phrases that English people use regularly?

I hope to receive your answer soon.

Thank you in advance.

Thu
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[Alan]

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Hi Thu,

Thank you for your comments. The language that I've used in the newsletter is not really different from what is regularly used in both written and spoken English. What I try to do when I write my newsletters is to imagine that I am talking to the people who will read them. I am using what you might call a conversational style which can also apply to the written language. I hope this answers your questions.

Best wishes,

Alan
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[Saneta]

Alan has written in his essay Wish you were here... of free e-mail english course:,,He explained that there was really no need to put on the air conditioning because it wasn't really hot...''

Please tell me if,,there was really no need..'' concerns past or present time?, if present:,,there is really no need...'' so this is an example of sequese of tenses: ,there is' to ,there was', after 'explained'?

Thank you for help.

[Torsten]

"There was really no need" refers to the past.
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