VIP Class Notes (Nick)

Find an example of a situation where you need to write an appreciation letter, or an example of a letter you have written/received.

Discuss appreciation letters, both in general and a specific example/template.

Vocabulary

Contagious – when a disease can spread between people
e.g. Colds are very contagious, and you can catch the through the air, through water, by contact.
Contract – to GET a disease from someone (generally a contagious one)
e.g. I contracted a cold from my girlfriend.
Infect – when someone GIVES you a disease
e.g. My basketball friend infected me with chickenpox
— For “contract,” put the disease name directly after the noun (it is the object) and tell where you got it by using “from.” The person who gets the disease is the subject of this verb.
— For “infect,” use “with” to link the disease to the verb, and put where you got the disease as the subject.

Season – any long-ish period of time when something happens
e.g. April is cold season! (contracting a cold in this period is common)

Immune (adj) – when you don’t get or feel the effects of a disease, often by having a vaccine
e.g. As kids, we all have to have a measles vaccine (the verb is “immunize”/”vaccinated”)

Chickenpox – 水痘

Quarantine – when you put someone who is sick in a room by themselves until they are well again so that they don’t get other people sick
e.g. When I got chickenpox, I had to be quarantined.
Curfew – when you can’t go out of your house after a certain time, often used in war or disaster situations; when parents say that their kids have to be home before a certain at night
e.g. If you aren’t home by ten, I’ll take away your phone all morning tomorrow!
— Those these are both used to limit someone to some space, they are for different purposes. “Quarantine” means that someone must stay IN some place AWAY from other people; “curfew” means that you can’t go OUT.

Material vs. Fabric – “material” is very general, just anything you can use to make something; “fabric” is like clothing, anything that’s made of small threads
e.g. Steel, granite rock, concrete, cotton, are all materials
e.g. Wool, cotton, denim, jean, are all fabrics

Conflict of Interest – when doing one thing would harm the interests of someone else, or some other goal
e.g. If we represent the fabric brand on this campaign, we will have a conflict of interest with our contract with brand C.

Non-compete agreement / clause – a contract (or part of one) that limits what you can do during the contract period or for some time after
e.g. Our contract with C restricts our ability to pair with competitor companies in this market.
e.g. After leaving this company, you cannot work in this market for one year . . .

Spin-off – when you take some characters from an established storyline/show and give them their own show
e.g. “The Good Fight” is a spinoff from “The Good Wife.” They are in the same universe.
The same universe – when two shows have the same background/context and maybe even reference each other

Wicking material – material that absorbs water (or sweat) and helps it to evaporate quickly so that you stay warm in winter and cool in summer

REJECTION LETTERS:

Clothing company A wants to pair with brand B, but B is a competitor to brand C.

— The traditional technique is to “sandwich” the bad news between two compliments.
— Or, you could give the bad news right away and then offer a way forward with the rest of the relationship.

Hello (Company A Representative),

I am sorry to inform you that our legal department has notified us that we cannot proceed with the campaign you proposed with Company B. We have a prior agreement with/contract with/obligations to [Company C]. Though we would very much like to be involved in this [insert positive adjective] campaign/project, we have to respect our prior obligations. However, we hope that this will not affect in any way our productive/fruitful relationship in other areas / However, we very much value our business relationship with [Company A], and we look forward to continuing to develop our close relationship on future projects.

APPRECIATION LETTERS:

— In general, just tell them directly what you are happy about and maybe why you are happy.

Grammar

Boring vs. Bored – boring is what makes you feel bored
e.g. This assignment is very boring. I wish my boss had given it to someone else.
e.g. It has been very slow at work this week, so I have been really bored / I have felt really bored.

Pronunciation

Contract – con – tract (n); con – tract (v)
— This is a pretty general rule for noun/verb pairs with two-syllable words