BBC 6分钟英语学习 工作电子邮件

Hello, catherine, here from BBC Learning English.

Just so you know, this program is from the BBC Learning English archive.

It was originally broadcast in january 2012 on our website.

Enjoy. This is 6 min English from BBC Learning English.

Hello, and welcome to Six Minute English from BBC Learning English.

I'm Michelle, and I'm Neil. Thanks for joining me, neil.

Have you got used to being back in the office after that lovely, long Christmas break?

I'm not sure about that. Just about I think it's always difficult coming back to work after a holiday, especially when the 1st thing you have to do is spend the morning going through all the work emails built up.

Yes, indeed, going through old work emails is a bore.

Well, today we are talking about a company that aims to ban, or to stop, all internal emails in the workplace.

It's difficult to imagine office life without internal emails.

But before we get onto that column, michelle, it must be time for my 1st quiz question of the year.

OK, if you're ready. Today's question is about spam.

That's the word for annoying junk emails.

Now, we all hate getting spam, but according to a recent report, which country produces the most spam?

Is it a India, B the United States, or Sea China?

I really have no idea what the answer might be, so im going to guess, and for no particular reason, IM going to say, india.

Okay, well, we'll find out the answer at the end of the program.

Now, for many office workers, sending and receiving emails to and from fellow employees is just part of the job.

But now a big it company called ATOS, plans to ban all internal emails by the year 2014.

Yes, the company has said that employees are wasting too much time dealing with internal emails, and that this has become the natural, lazy way to communicate.

Let's hear from Rob Price, a managing partner at ATOSK.

Here he's speaking on BBC five Live 1st.

He says email has become the definitive thing people use, meaning something that's fixed or determined.

But how does he suggest people in the office could communicate with each other?

Instead, email has become the definitive thing that people have used.

They naturally use, they laserly use.

Why don't you walk across the office or use instant messaging, or use arrangers kind of social media?

So there's different things that people can do.

This is about deciding what's the most effective way of communication, and and adopting and embedding those within the organization.

So he suggested a couple of alternative ways to communicate instead of using emails.

Did you catch them? Neil Well.

1st, there was the good old fashioned way of communication.

Can you imagine walking across the office to speak to someone?

Amazing. That's always a good one, isn't it?

I think he also suggested using a range of social media, such as instant messaging.

That's right. And he says that it's about deciding what is the most effective way of communication and embedding it or implanting it within the organization.

So let's listen to that clip.

Once again. The email has become the definitive thing that people have used.

They naturally use, they lazily use.

Why don't you walk across the office or use instant messaging, or use arrangers kind of social media?

So there's different things that people can do.

This is about deciding what's the most effective way of communication, and and adopting and embedding those within the organization.

So what do you think, neil, do you think it's a good idea to get rid of work emails altogether?

I think it's a good thing to try to do.

I'm not sure if it could actually be eliminated completely, but, you know, go and talk to people.

It's better. I think so too.

But of course, internal emailing can be incredibly useful, and for many employees, it would be difficult to work without it, especially as emails can be a good way of keeping records or keeping evidence of things that happen.

That's true, but Bob Price from ATOS has some more suggestions on the sort of methods people can use for record keeping instead of emails.

Let's listen to this rather fast list of ideas Video conferencing, file sharing, live meetings, wikis, collaboration, spaces, knowledge management systems, enterprise social system there's lots of different solutions, and we need to be cognizant of how those are used in the light of an organization.

Wow. A couple of things he mentioned.

There were video conferencing, file sharing, and basis, which is short for databases.

So he's got plenty of ideas for the modern office.

So Atras is hoping that by adopting some of these alternative types of communication, employees will communicate better with each other, and a lot of time will be saved.

Now, time to go back to that quiz question.

Neil. I asked you, which country produces the most spam?

The answers were a

India, be the United States, or see China.

And what was your answer? I had no idea, and had a complete guess at India.

OK? Well, according to a recent study by security firm Kasperski, the answer was indeed a India.

So there you go. Well, lucky me.

OK, so could you remind us of today's

words, please? Kneel Yes. Here they are to ban, to ban internal emails, internal emails, Spam, spam.

Definitive, definitive embedding, embedding. To get rid of, to get rid of keeping records, keeping records, adopting, adopting.

Thanks, neil. And that's all we've got time for in today's program.

But please do join us again for more six minute English at our web address, BBC learning english dot com.

Thanks for listening. Bye, bye. That was 6 min English from BBC.

Learning English dot com.

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