“Bridging the gap between the classroom and the real world”
Using authentic texts in the Languages Classroom
Wei Qu and Kathy Purvis
1
Introduction
This paper is part of the research for a PhD thesis on the use of authentic texts in the
Languages classroom. It is based on the collaboration of the researcher working
with a non-native speaker Chinese teacher and her class of 10 Year 11/12 continuers
students at a large metropolitan government high school in Adelaide. The data was
collected over a period of eleven weeks and includes student feedback in response
to the authentic texts used.
The first part of this paper looks at aspects of what constitutes an authentic text and
the reasons for using authentic texts in second language teaching. The second part
describes the specific authentic texts that were chosen for this unit of work and how
they were adapted. The following sections describe the teaching and learning
process of how the texts were used in the classroom and analyse students’ work and
feedback to two surveys about their experiences of engaging with these authentic
resources.
2
Authentic texts and authentic texts use in second language
classroom
Nunan (1988) claims that authentic materials “reflect the outside world” and “have
been produced for purposes other than to teach language” (p. 99). Little, Devitt and
Singleton (1988) suggest authentic texts are “substitutes for the community of
native speakers within which ‘naturalistic’ language acquisition occurs”. In other
words, a text in general is considered as textually authentic if it is written or spoken
for real-life communication rather than being composed for teaching purposes.
The use of authentic resources in the language classroom has become common in
recent decades. Little, Devitt and Singleton (1988) claim that authentic texts should
occupy an essential role in language learning. The purpose of using authentic texts,
oral or written, in the language class is to enhance students’ understanding of
meaning and communication in the target language. Authentic texts which provide
social purpose, linguistic items, cultural understanding and authentic natural
language help students “bridge the gap between the classroom and the real
world”(Guariento & Morley 2001). In the second language classroom it is important
that the authentic texts should be appropriate to learners’ second language
proficiency, social needs and their previous knowledge and experiences, as well as
“to the realities of communication in the target language community” (Little, Devitt
& Singleton 1988).
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Lee (1995, p. 325) believes that “textually authentic materials are not inherently
learner authentic”. Learner authenticity involves learners being able to positively
perceive and respond to the materials appropriately (Lee 1995). Authentic texts may
play an unauthentic role when texts are too difficult and students perceive and
respond to the materials as merely assessment tasks and cannot respond to the
communicative purpose of the text. As a result, authentic texts may prevent learners
from interacting with the text in a meaningful way, frustrate and demotivate
learners in language learning (Guariento & Morley 2001). In order to eliminate this
possibility, authentic texts need to be carefully chosen or modified for language
teaching in accordance with learners’ language proficiency. In adapting the
resources, teachers need to ensure the following aspects are maintained. (Liddicoat
et al. 2003, p. 67):
Authenticity of the resource needs to be intrinsically of interest or there needs to
purpose:
be an extrinsic purpose (as in the case of maps, menus, etc.) if it is
to engage learners
Authenticity of Learners need to respond to the resource in an authentic way, thus
task:
what they are asked to do with a resource is at least as important
as its origin
Authenticity of The conditions for intercultural language use need to reflect the
conditions:
conditions for use of the resource in the ‘real world’.
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Choice of authentic texts
Three different kinds of texts were created and collected for the unit of work. They
included a set of letters from a group of students in China, a job advertisement from
a local business owner and a variety of short job advertisements taken from the
windows of businesses in Adelaide’s China Town.
3.1 The letters
The Chinese students who wrote these letters were from a boarding school in a
country town which is the researcher’s hometown. They wrote the letters in January
2013, five months before they took university enrolment exams. They volunteered
to write the letters talking about their hopes and plans for the future. They were
aware that their letters would be read by Australian students about their own age
and were asked to write simple Chinese. They were given no other direction about
how to write their letters or what to say. Since students’ access to computers and
the internet at that school was strictly controlled and these students hardly used
Email, the letters were written by hand, and a student scanned all the letters and
sent them to the researcher when he returned home for Chinese New Year.
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Two different types of authentic job advertisements were provided to the students.
The authentic job advertisements were collected in different ways. Photos of five
short advertisements were taken in Adelaide’s China Town by the researcher. A
complete job advertisement, to which students replied by writing an application
letter and CV , was sourced from a Russian/Asian food stall in Adelaide Central
Market owned by a Chinese person who is the researcher’s friend. All these
advertisements were written by native Chinese speakers looking for Chinese
employees in Adelaide, an English speaking environment in which both writers and
readers communicate in English as a second language as well as Chinese. Some
English words were written in the advertisements. It is the authentic language of
Chinese speakers living and working in Australia and is slightly different from the
Chinese language used in China.
Each of the short advertisements was less than 30 words. Since these
advertisements were put up in the windows of restaurants, contact details and work
place were not mentioned, which was different from the formal job advertisement.
The students read these five short advertisements without any adaptation or
vocabulary list. In the real world language users use different words to express the
same meaning. From these authentic short advertisements, the students were able
to learn different expressions from those in the textbook. They had learned
expressions such as 招聘 (employ), 广告 (advertisement), 有意者请电 (if you are
interested, please call) and so on in their textbook. However, the word 招聘 appears
in only one advertisement while the other four advertisements used 诚聘 (sincerely
employ) and 招 (employ). Because these advertisements were put up on the
windows of the restaurants, the language used is less formal than that in newspaper
and internet advertisements.
The complete advertisement was originally used to look for new employees on the
website adelaidebbs. It was adapted by changing some of the criteria and also by
adding an introduction to the stall and a photo of the stall and the stall owner
The authentic texts described above were designed to complement a unit of work
for Term 1 which had already been planned by the teacher. The unit of work was
based on the themes, Education and Aspirations and The World of Work.
The first summative assessment task was a one on one discussion with the teacher
about future plans and career options. The letters about future career options and
aspirations from final year students at a Chinese High School provided by the
researcher were the first set of authentic texts to be used as part of the preparation
for this task. As these texts became available after the unit of work had been
planned it was decided to use them as one of a series of formative activities which
scaffolded students’ learning and prepared them for the task.
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Students’ first task was to read two texts from the textbook on which the unit of
work was based, Hanyu for Intermediate Students Stage 3, Chapter 6. Scarino and
Liddicoat (2009, p. 63)talk about the ‘constrained nature of resources’ such as those
presented in textbooks and how ‘information is usually presented in a way which
strips away the complexity, variability and subtlety of culture and represents
speakers of target language as homogeneous’. From a teacher’s perspective there
are some advantages of using these kinds of materials. The two texts from the
textbook were a useful introduction to students because they were written
purposely to expose students to relevant vocabulary and grammatical structures
that they might need to talk about their own careers and future hopes and
aspirations at a level commensurate with their language ability.
After students had learnt the vocabulary and practised some relevant grammatical
structures they were then each given one letter from a Chinese student. The letters
had been originally written by hand and it was clear that in order for the students to
be able to read them they would have to be typed. At first students were only going
to get the typed version but then we decided that they should receive the authentic
hand written letter as well as the typed version. The language used in the letters
was still too difficult for the students so a vocabulary list was also provided for each
letter. From the teacher’s perspective, giving students these letters was like taking a
step into the unknown. How would the students respond to a text which was much
more difficult than any text they had read in the past? If the Year 11 students in the
class struggled with the text would they think about not continuing with the
language in the following year?
Students were given help to translate the letters and in this process individual
discussions were had with students about the content of the letters and their
reactions to what they were reading. Taken as a whole set, these letters did express
the “complexity, variability and subtlety” (Scarino & Liddicoat 2009) of these Chinese
young people’s thoughts and aspirations and in retrospect more time could have
been devoted to their study. However, asking students to read all of them would
have been to impose a huge linguistic burden on them.
Students were then asked to send an email in English to reply to the letter they had
received. We might have not done this task because it was not something that
would help the students improve their Chinese skills. We did it because the Chinese
students wanted to receive an English letter back in reply to help them with their
study of English. When we read the English letters the students sent to their Chinese
counterparts, we realized to our surprise how much the students had ‘really drawn
connections between themselves and others’ (Scarino & Liddicoat 2009, p. 63). Their
replies were personal; they answered all the questions that they were asked as well
as providing information about their own future and how it might be similar or
different to that of their Chinese students. They also wished their students every
success in the future. As this letter was not assessed as part of the course there was
no external motivation for the students to write a detailed letter. They wrote them
because they genuinely wanted to communicate with the person who had written to
them.
4
Although the teacher and the researcher had not thought so much about writing a
reply in English it was always intended that our students should reply in Chinese. In
our discussions about the choice and use of authentic resources we were very much
influenced by Mickan (2012). He indicates that “Texts set up opportunities for
communication about content – for consent, for exploration of ideas and for
contestation” (p.39). However, whereas students were given the freedom to reply in
English as they wished, when they wrote their Chinese letter they were given some
guiding questions by the teacher. These were the same questions which would form
the basis of the conversation task which they would subsequently be asked to do, so
in writing their Chinese reply they were also formulating and expressing in Chinese
answers they would later need for the assessment task. It was pleasing to note that a
number of students used phrases and words in their own letters they had learnt
from their reading. What was of interest and some concern, though, was that their
Chinese letters did not show the personal connection that had been so evident in
their English letters. Was this due to the fact that were not given the freedom to
write what they wanted and had to follow guidelines or was their ability to express
their personal feelings limited by their Chinese language skills?
The second summative assessment task for this unit of work required students to
write an application for a job described in an advertisement. The five job
advertisements in Chinese photographed by the researcher were our first set of
authentic materials. Again students first read a sample job advertisement in the
textbook to familiarize them with the language and structures typical of job
advertisements. The teacher then gave students these job advertisements to read.
Again the Chinese in the advertisements was considered by the teacher to be quite
difficult, especially as some of them were handwritten. With this in mind the teacher
asked the students to see if they could identify just the job that was being advertised
and not to worry about other information in the advertisements. This time no
vocabulary or other support was provided. Again, surprisingly, from the teacher’s
point of view, students went ahead themselves and read and translated all
information contained in each advertisement. Once or twice they needed help to
decipher a handwritten character but they showed genuine interest and a sense of
achievement when they were able to work out what the advertisement was asking
for.
With the second authentic text for this task, again the researcher was looking for a
way to set up a task for students which enabled them to produce a response as
authentic as possible in the context of writing a job application. Although the friend
of the researcher who provided the job advertisement did not need any new
employees, he agreed to read the applications students produced and choose the
one he would employ.
The teacher had already chosen another job advertisement as the text for the
assessment task, but decided to use the more authentic text. This text needed to be
considerably modified. The expected reader of the ‘authentic’ advertisement would
have been a Chinese native speaker who had already finished school and was in the
work force. Our ‘job applicants’ were English speaking school students with perhaps
no work experience except for their work experience placement through school.
5
Also students needed to be able to write 250 characters in their response. With this
in mind we added a number of personal qualities such as ‘interested in working as a
waiter/waitress’, ‘hardworking, conscientious and polite’.
The teacher had decided that the response to the job application would be written
under test conditions. Students were allowed to keep the job advertisement and
read it at home, but the response was written in class. Students were allowed to
submit one draft for correction, and then do their corrections in class, before
completing their final writing of the assessment task again in class.
When the students were given the job advertisement they were told who had
written it and the photos on the advertisement showed them the actual owner in
this stall in the market. Some students recognized the stall when they looked at the
picture. The teacher would have liked to discuss with students this very interesting
authentic text written by a Chinese speaking person living outside China, containing
English words as well as Chinese. She did not do this because it was part of a formal
assessment task. Perhaps it would have been better to use this text for a formative
task like the letters rather than a summative task.
4
Analysis of student writing and feedback in response to the use of
authentic texts
This section of the paper looks at the results of two surveys carried out by the
researcher. The first survey asked students to talk about what they learnt from the
Chinese letter they received, their attitudes and personal reactions to the
information it contained, and how they felt when replying to it. The second survey
was implemented after students had written their job application.
Nine students completed the surveys. Because each student’s response is
determined by their own background and cultural understandings it is necessary to
know some details of each student’s background in order to fully understand the
context of their replies, especially as in this class there are students of very different
backgrounds. Student 1, Student 3 and Student 10 come from an English speaking
background. Student 2, Student 6 and Student 7 were born in Australia and are of
Malaysian background. These students speak some Chinese at home. Student 4’s
parents are from Guangdong but he was born in Australian and has only a
smattering of Cantonese language background. Student 8 and Student 9 have
recently arrived from overseas. Student 8 is Korean and Student 9 is Cambodian.
4.1 Students’ reflection on the content of the letters
Students answered two questions in the survey about their reactions to the content
of the letters.
1. What have you learnt from the letter about Chinese students’ thoughts about
the future?
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2. What differences and or similarities are there between the way you think
about the future as a young Australian person and the way the Chinese
student thinks in your letter?
Many of the students’ responses were, in the opinion of the teacher, surprisingly
detailed and insightful in their reflections on what they had learnt. One of the
Australian students S1 wrote:
“I thought the cultural exchange of thoughts was helpful in broadening our
perspectives of how the Chinese see the world and our future.”
He then continued to comment:
“The student used phrases that we would almost never use in English, such as ‘
我要用我微薄 的力量去关系我爱的和爱我的人，去回报 社会。’ (I want to
use my small ability to look after the people who love me and whom I love and
to give something back to society.) I don’t think this student thought very highly
of herself. She seemed confident in her future but didn’t think her life was worth
much. I thought this is quite opposite to much of Australians who quite like
themselves.”
What this student has picked up on is the tendency of Chinese people to be much
more modest about themselves and their abilities compared with Australians. This
example and other responses present how the students are developing more subtle
and fine grained intercultural understandings through their interactions with
authentic texts.
In answer to the questions as to what she has learnt, one of the Malaysian
background students S6, wrote:
“I have learned that Chinese students really take much consideration about their
future and that their parents may or may not have influences on the career path
that they choose to take – my student said that her parents hoped for her to
study medicine but just like a lot of us, she wanted to get into something she was
interested in doing which for her was an occupant that involved
economics….They also have a clear image on the kind of family they want; in my
student’s case, marrying a husband that loves her along with a beautiful
baby…Young Chinese students also take into consideration their parents which
shows that they have much respect for them.”
It is interesting to note that in this reply the student is seeing herself as an Australian
when she refers to herself: ‘just like a lot of us’
In another answer she clearly draws connections between herself as a person with
Malaysian background and her Chinese student when she says:
“My student said that she’d like to help out her parents in any way – for
example buy her dad a car because she knows he has a love and passion for. I
don’t know whether it is because I come from a Malaysian background but I do
7
find myself wondering about my parents after I have settled with a job and
family and what I could do to help them out – I think there is this Asian custom
to look after parents when they reach old age whereas there are such places
like nursing homes here in Australia.”
Through her interaction with her authentic text this student is able to explore her
own cultural place as someone whose understanding of the world is influenced by
both her Malaysian heritage and her experience of growing up in Australia.
The learning about the hopes, aspirations and attitudes of Chinese young people and
the intercultural understandings that are exemplified by the responses of the two
students above could only have come from their interaction with the authentic
letters. This becomes even more evident when these letters are compared with the
equivalent section in the textbook which talks about students’ future ambitions,
which the class read before they were given the authentic letters. This text contains
none of the richness of the personal stories the students were able to read (see
appendix).
4.2 Students’ reflection on language learning from authentic texts
Apart from what they learnt about their Chinese students from the letters, these
students also indicated that these letters provided a direct insight into Chinese
language use by native speakers. Different students mentioned the language use
from different perspectives. Even though the letters they read were “a lot harder”
(S5) because the Chinese students used “complicated words” (S5), the majority of
the students (7 of 9) found that they learned “real”, “generally used” and “updated
language” not found in textbooks. S2 wrote that “textbooks only show a piece of
time that’s not up-to-date and doesn’t give people the colloquial words or
grammar”. This view was supported by S7 who noted that “The way Chinese is being
presented is changing time to time”. In addition, students believe that they could
read real Chinese as S5 stated that “we get to learn how Chinese people really write”
and S6 wrote that “it was good to have been exposed to authentic text because not
everyone speaks or writes like how text is presented in the Chinese textbooks”. S1,
S3 and S10 all said that they learned how Chinese people use Chinese language.
“It has been a great insight into how Chinese students our age write.” (S1)
“It helps me understand how Chinese people think and in turn how they write.” (S3)
“It was also good to get a feel for how real letters in Chinese are written, not only in
their context, but in the setting out and opening/ending of the letter.” (S10)
Therefore, the view that authentic texts “bridge the gap between the classroom and
the real world”(Guariento & Morley 2001) and helped them to learn Chinese
language use was supported by the students’ feedback. The students learned about
young Chinese people’s thoughts and were exposed to real Chinese language use
through reading these Chinese students’ letters connecting their textbook
knowledge with an enriched understanding of language use in the real world.
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Chinese textbooks are easier to understand because the texts in them are written for
second language learners. Chinese language in authentic texts is much more difficult
and complicated in vocabulary and structure. Since the students read different
letters they received the teacher’s and the researcher’s individual help in terms of
their needs while reading and replying to the letters to Chinese students. Five
students in their survey pointed out that the vocabulary lists provided by the
researcher helped them to read and reply to their Chinese pen pals. S6, S7 and S9
did not received a vocabulary list as they could communicate with the researcher in
Chinese and the teacher and researcher supposed that they could understand their
letters with the general word list of new characters found in all letters provided to all
students. However, these three students wrote that they, too, needed vocabulary
support.
The view that vocabulary is an important support to students’ Chinese reading
authentic texts was sustained by the second survey which was a reflection on their
second task of job application. The majority (8 of 10) of the students considered that
the vocabulary list was very helpful. One of the questions of the second survey was
designed to ascertain how much the vocabulary helped them to read the text. The
students could choose from level 1 (not very useful) to 7 (very helpful). One student
selected 5.5; another one selected 4 and the remaining eight selected 6. Hence the
vocabulary is a necessary support for language learners to understand authentic
texts.
4.3 Students’ reaction to the authentic task of writing a job application for
a real job advertisement
Guariento and Morley (2001) argue that an authentic communicative purpose is
considered as more significant aspect than participants in terms of text authenticity.
Interestingly when student were given this task, not all students considered the task
as a real application. This is a combined Year 11 and 12 class and the students’
purposes for studying Chinese are various. All four Year 12 students took this writing
task as a writing task for assessment not as a real application for a job. S2 gave three
reasons “did not want to work”, “not an appealing job” and “time frame
inconvenient”. Also, he said that he would not apply for this job in real life as he was
not interested in this job. S4 gave the reason that he “knew that the letter wouldn’t
be truly treated like an application”. Only Year 12 student, S1 completed the task
with the purpose of both conveying information to a potential employer and
completing a writing task because “It was important to address it as if in real life”.
The Year 11 students are not under the same pressure of marks and tertiary
entrance scores as the Year 12’s. Only one student thought he was just completing a
school assessment task rather than writing a ‘real’ application letter conveying
information to a potential boss. S6 wrote that “It made writing the letter more
realistic” because “the stall is real” and “they were informed that their letters would
be submitted to the boss”, whose picture was on the job advertisement. From the
above analysis, it may be inferred that a task could appear authentic to some
students while appearing unauthentic to others, depending on the context and
purpose of their study.
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5
Conclusion
From a busy second language teacher’s perspective, using authentic texts in the
classroom is time consuming, because it is not always easy to find appropriate
authentic texts and risky, because it is not always possible to predict how
students will react to the texts. Even more challenging than locating and
modifying texts was the process of finding ways in which the students could
themselves respond in an authentic manner to what they had read.
Having said that, however, the feedback from the students shows unequivocally
how much their own learning has been enriched by the experience. All students
commented on how difficult the texts were, but all enjoyed the challenge of
reading ‘real’ Chinese written by real and identifiable Chinese people. All
students engaged personally with the writer of their letter and through this
engagement gained a deeper and more nuanced understanding of their own
world and the world of young Chinese people. These intercultural insights could
not have been obtained through reading the texts in the textbook. There is no
doubt that, if well chosen and suitably adapted, engagement with authentic texts
does indeed “bridge the gap between the classroom and the real world”.
10
Reference
Chang, P, Mackerras, A & Yu,H-C 1999, Hanyu for Intermediate Students. Course
Book Stage 3, Addison Wesley Longman, Melbourne.
Guariento, W & Morley, J 2001, 'Text and task authenticity in the EFL classroom',
ELT Journal, vol. 55, no. 4, pp. 347-353.
Lee, WY-c 1995, 'Authenticity revisited: Text authenticity and learner
authenticity', ELT Journal, vol. 49, no. 4, pp. 323-328.
Liddicoat, AJ, Papademetre, L, Scarino, A & Kohler, M 2003, Report on
intercultural language learning, DEST, Canberra.
Little, D, Devitt, S & Singleton, DM 1988, Authentic texts in foreign language
teaching: theory and practice, Authentik.
Mickan, P 2012, Language Curriculum Design and Socialisation, Multilingual
Matters, UK.
Nunan, D 1988, The learner-centred curriculum, Cambridge University Press, NY.
Scarino, A & Liddicoat, AJ 2009, Teaching and learning laguage: A Guide,
Australia, <http://www.tllg.unisa.edu.au/lib_guide/gllt.pdf>.
11
Letter from Chinese students about future aspiration
亲爱的朋友：
你好！我和你们一样都是一名高三的学生。不知道你们是不是和我们一样
学习很累。但同样在高三也很有乐趣，与同学们一起学习、玩闹，都很开心。
高考给我们的压力很大，并且每个人都希望考入理想的大学，毕业后能找
到一份好工作。对于我来说，家里非常希望我能学医，可我内心比较害怕这个
专业。我可能更多的会选择财经、管理之类的学科。如果考的分数并不是很高
的话，我也会选择去当一名老师，因为我比较喜欢用自己的方式去管理学生，
让他们去喜欢学习，而不是讨厌。还有一个原因就是老师的假期很多。我的梦
想就是有很多钱，可以和家人、老公、孩子或是朋友一起去旅游，到每一个向
往的地方游玩。同时用照片记录我们在一起的每一张笑脸、每一个美丽的时刻。
我同很多女孩一样，都有一个公主梦，嫁一个爱我的帅气老公、有一个漂亮的
宝贝、过着幸福的生活。因为我的爸爸很喜爱车，所以我希望以后有机会可以
给他买一辆好车。同时也让爸爸妈妈做他们想做的事。我也像他们爱我一样爱
着他们。
为了实现心中梦想，让我们努力吧。
马丹宁
250823738
Dear friend,
I am a Year 12 student like you. I don’t know if you find studying very tiring like
us. But at the same time, year 12 life is fun studying and having a good time with
friends.
Being in Year 12 brings a lot of pressure and everyone hopes to get into a
university of their choice and find a good job after graduation. As for me, my
family wants me to study medicine, but I am scared of going down this path. I
perhaps will choose a course relating to finance and management. If I cannot get
a very high score, I will choose to become a teacher because I’d like to use my
way of managing students to make them enjoy study rather than hating it.
Another reason for being a teacher is that teachers have many holidays. My
dream is to become rich and travel with my family, husband, children or friends,
to all the places I would like to go, taking photos to record being together with all
the smiling faces and every beautiful moment. Like many other girls I have a
dream of being like a princess, marrying a handsome husband who loves me,
having a pretty baby and a happy life. My dad loves cars, so I hope I will have an
opportunity to buy him a good car. At the same time, I want to give my parents
the opportunity to give my parents the opportunity to be able to do whatever
they want. I love them in the same way that they love me.
Let’s strive to achieve our dream.
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Hanyu for Intermediate Students. Stage 3 Text on Future aspirations.
我最喜欢去旅行了！我跟着父母去过中国南方的广东省、云南省，我看过东北
的大森林和雪山。我还在内蒙古的大草原上骑过马呢！
I particularly like travelling. I have been to Guangdong province and Yunnan
province in the South of China. I have seen big forests and snow covered
mountains in the northeast of China. I have also ridden a horse on the prairie in
Inner Mongolia.
我属猴，从小就好动，所以我对体育运动非常有兴趣。我以后想当羽毛球运动
员。我除了想到体育学院学习以外，还希望能参加国家队。所以上体育课，锻
炼身体对我来说非常重要。其他的课，能及格就行了！
My star sign is monkey and I have been active since I was young, so I am very
interested in sports. I want to be a badminton player in the future. Apart from
wanting to study in a Sports College, I also hope to be a member of our national
team. Therefore, PE lessons and physical exercise are very important for me.
With the other subjects, as long as I pass I am happy.
我这个人很幽默，对人非常有耐心，所以我的朋友很多。他们觉得我诚实、可
靠，很喜欢跟我在一起。我们常常一起去爬山，去游泳，去跳舞。
I am a humorous person and very patient, so I have many friends. They think I
am honest and reliable and like my company. We often go to hiking, swimming
and dancing.
13
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啡。2008 年由现在的中国老
板经营后店里增加了中国食
物：混沌，肉丸和珍珠奶
茶。
这家店非常受欢迎，有很多顾客慕名而来。曾经有一位顾
客两次早上从悉尼坐飞机来订 50 个 Piroshki，下午带回悉
尼开派对用。
招聘服务员要求：
1. 能够上早班，从 7：00 到下午 2：00
2. 英语流利,并且会说汉语
3. 对服务员工作感兴趣
4. 工作努力、认真
5. 对顾客热情、耐心、有礼貌
6. 时薪$16.00
7. 有经验者优先
有意者请把求职信与简历发送到 waulice@yahoo.com.cn
哈萨克斯坦 (ha sa ke si tan)
肉丸 (rou wan)meatball
14
Kazakhstan
珍珠奶茶 (zhen zhu nai cha)bubble
tea
曾经 (ceng jing)used to
派对(pai dui) party
慕名而来 (mu ming er lai) to come
to a place on account of its
reputation (idiom)
订 (ding) order
优先(you xian) Priority
shíxīn
时薪
The shop was established in 2003. It mainly sells Kazakhstan Piroshki, Russian
dumplings, cabbage rolls, borcht soup, salad and a variety of coffees. After the
current owner took over the shop in 2008 he began to sell Chinese food,
including dumplings, meatbalsl and bubble tea. This shop is very popular and
many customers came here on account of its reputation. There was a customer
who twice ordered 50 piroshki. He flew from Sydney in the morning to collect
them and returned to Sydney in the afternoon.
The criteria
1. Be able to work the morning shift from 7am to 2pm
2. Speak fluent English and be able to speak Chinese
3. Be interested in a waiting job
4. Work hard and conscientiously
5. Be enthusiastic, patient and polite to the customers
6. $16 hourly rate
7. Experienced applicants will be given priority
Interested applicants please send your application letter and CV to
waulice@yahoo.com.cn
15
The English translation of S1 and S6’s application letters
Dear Sir：
您好！
My name is S1. I am a Year 11 student at Unley High School this year. I study
Chinese at school. Apart from Chinese, I also study chemistry, music and English.
I will study maths and research project next semester. In Chinese class, the
teacher gave us your job advertisement. After reading your criteria, I think I can
work there.
I started to learn Chinese in 2010. In my opinion, my Chinese is reasonable. In
addition, English is my first language. I am able to work from 7am to 2pm on
Saturday. I am interested in a job as waiter. I am patient, polite and work hard
and conscientiously.
I did work experience in the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra for one week last year. At
the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra they told me that I am hard working and work
conscientiously……….(a sentence unclear)….Although I don’t have experience, I
would like to learn.
I would appreciate if I had the opportunity to work in your shop.
S1
02/05/2013
Dear Sir:
您好 ！My name is S6. I am 16 years old. I am in Year 10 at Unley High School in
Adelaide. After reading your job advertisement last Thursday I am interested in a
job as waiter and I think I can work here.
I was born and have studied in Adelaide. I go to school between 8:30 and 3:15
from Monday to Friday, but I am able to work at other times and work during the
whole school holiday. I am patient, work hard and conscientiously. I grew up
here, so my English is fluent. I can communicate in simple Chinese as I have
studied Chinese for four years. I have worked in Dominos since 2011, so I have
experience of counting the money and serving customers.
I hope I have theopportunity to work in your shop and I am thankful that you read my
application letter!
S6
02/05/2013
16