作文4/4th writing assignment

Hello!

How are you? Today, I will show you our 4th writing assignment (作文4): how to make excuses (詫び) and apologies (申し訳). Our scenario will be about problems in a hotel.

First, this is a sample letter of apology with a difference - some excuses in it. Some of these excuses are unbelievable! You can see this on the handout I have given you - but I will post it here as well:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am the general manager of our hotel. It has come to my attention that you have had a terrible experience at our hotel. Please accept my apologies for your experience.

I have no excuses for our poor performance, but I would like to explain our situation. First, because our front desk manager’s mother has been very sick recently, it has affected his work. In addition, we have had other problems recently with some of our old staff members and we have had to hire and train some new staff. They are still new to their jobs, so they are not as good as we hoped they would be.

In our restaurant, our head chef's cat recently died. He is not married and has no children, so this has been a difficult time for him because his cat was 17 years old. He loved his cat very much, so it has been very hard for him. To make things worse, two of our best waitresses have difficulties in standing for a long time because they have leg and foot problems. One of our vans drove over their feet when they were getting some things out of the back of the van to bring into the restaurant. So, they are getting treatment at the hospital for their problems, but it will be difficult for them for some time.

I cannot show how deeply sorry I am for the bad time you had at our hotel. So please allow me to offer you a free stay at our hotel in the future, when you would like, because we feel terrible for your bad experience. We are working hard to correct our problems and will make a much better experience for you.

Sincerely,

David T. Bunka

General Manager

Takasaka Hotel and Resort

Scenario
What I would like you to do is to write a letter of apology, with excuses, about a person's terrible stay at a hotel. Imagine that you are the general manager of the hotel and that you have heard about a person's bad experience at your hotel. 

Make some of your excuses a little unreal - for example, a staff member's dog just died, or the taxi service has changed, or there is a new chef in the hotel restaurant who is strange, or something like that. 

Write 2-3 paragraphs with an opening ("Dear Sir/Madam") and a closing ("Sincerely," and your name). 

Have fun with this! 

See you next time!

Image: personal photograph. All rights reserved.

問題を書き表している/describing problems

Hello!

How are you? Today let's learn about how to describe a problem (問題を書き表している). 

Do you remember from last week our pictures of the different hotels? Here they are again:

1. 

2.

3. 

4. 

Activity

Last week, you chose which of these hotels you would like to stay in. Then, I asked you to think of some problems that could happen in the hotel room (such as broken windows, no hot water in the shower, and things like that). Your goal now is to write 1-2 paragraphs about problems that happen in the hotel room you selected. 

You are writing to a friend about the hotel you stayed in on a summer vacation. Start with a strong topic sentence, like this:

例えば 1：

Let me tell you about my last vacation. It was great, but the hotel I stayed at was terrible.

From there, write about all the problems you can think of that happened in the hotel room you stayed at.

例えば 2：

Let me tell you about my last vacation. It was great, but the hotel I stayed at was terrible. I was very excited to stay there, but when I went to the room, I was shocked. The bed was not made and the sheets were dirty, there were wine stains on the carpet, and cockroaches were everywhere. (…)

From there, write more problems you found in the room.  You can also then write about other problems, like bad hotel staff, or bad food. 

At the end, make a warning (注意) to your friend about the hotel using "so."

例えば 3：

Let me tell you about my last vacation. It was great, but the hotel I stayed at was terrible. I was very excited to stay there, but when I went to the room, I was shocked. The bed was not made and the sheets were dirty, there were wine stains on the carpet, and cockroaches were everywhere. (…)

(…) So let me tell you to please never stay in this hotel. It is an awful place with dirty rooms, terrible staff, and bad food. 

Have fun writing this! See you next time!

Images: Top - "Spilled Glass Of Wine On A Carpet" (courtesy of Mister GC)/1. "Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore" (courtesy of posterize)/2. "Typical English Village House" (courtesy of Stuart Miles)/3. "Motel on the Beach" (courtesy of Aleksandr Kutsayev)/4. "Tropical Resort in Thailand" (courtesy of nuchylee)/all images from FreeDigitalPhotos.net