LESSON 14 - Situational Dialogues

          Situational dialog exercise helps you improve your listening and speaking skills through listening to, composing and acting out dialogs.

       In this lesson, it is not intended that you memorize the dialog but rather you read them.

Dialogue

          Salesman goes through a door in the back of the store, comes back in few minutes with another man. The salesman points to Mr. Lopez and the other man comes toward Mr. Lopez.


Manager (M)  : Hello, I am the manager. Did you have a problem with something?

L                  : I bought these shoes last week and they are starting to fall apart and I want my money back.

M                 : Let me see the shoes, please. Oh, this is no problem at all. 
                      We can fix these again for you in no time.

L                  : I don't want them repaired. I want my money back.

M                 : It is not our policy to refund money.

L                  : I understand what you are saying, but I want my money back.

M                 : Listen, Mr...?

L                  : Lopez.

M                 : Mr. Lopez, if we refunded everybody's money, we would have a bookkeeping nightmare.                             We just can not afford that.
                       Surely, you can understand.  

L                   : I understand what you are saying, but I want my money back.

M                 : But you have worn these for a week. We can not give you all your money back.

L                  : I know I only wore them for a week and they started falling apart and I want my money back.

M                : (Sigh) O.K., come with me and I will see that you get it back.


Exercise 1 - Discussion questions

1. How did Mr. Lopez take care of his problem? What method did he use?

2. How did the salesman and the manager try to make Mr. Lopez feel guilty? (What kind of things did they say?)

3. How did they "pass the buck" (avoid responsibility)?

4. How did Mr. Lopez react to the salesman and the manager?

5. What do you think of Mr. Lopez's method

6. Would you like to use his methods? If so, in what situations?

Note to the teacher:

1. Explain to the students the philosophy behind the techniques, namely, "persistence pays off"

2. Point out to the students that limited language ability should not be a disadvantage for them this type of technique.

3. Expressions that can be used in this situation:

      " Can I help you..."
      " I would like to return this..."
      " There is no problem with this...?"
      " It is a very nice shirt but the color/size is not quite right"
      " I'm afraid that..."

Reference

 English, Communication Arts I (Conversational Approach) pp. 153-158