You move to Australia, write a letter to a property agent Sir, Madam, I am writing to you this letter because me and my family plan to settle in Australia within the next months, hence we need your services for our housing needs I work as an engineer for a big carrier company, which has subsidiaries in Australia. This is a great opportunity for us to live abroad. My wife, who is a pastry and our two daughters, aged 10 and 12 are also happy to move there. We would like to rent a three bedrooms house, preferrably a terraced house, not a flat, with a garage, a yard and all the modern conveniences. Regarding the budget, we an afford to spend at most 1500$ a month for the rent. Concerning the location, we are not very keen of Sydney city center, and prefer to live in southern suburbs requiering not more than 30 minutes to reach the central business district. For the school, living near a bus stop of any line would be great, and if some shops are reachable by a little walk that would be wonderful. I look forward to hearing from you

Write a letter to your insurance company to complain against fees increase Dear Sir /Madam, I am writing to you as I recently received a letter from you informing me that my monthly insurance fees for my car are going to increase by 20 % from next month. I do not see any good reason for this increase, it should in fact at least have continue to decrease over the years. I am a client of your company for over 10 years, with several insurance contracts. Moreover, I neither have ever been involved in any car accidents, nor ever requested any assistance from your services. Given all the above reasons, I would like to stay a satisfied customer, however I would really appreciate a discount, or at least a promise to keep my fees at the same level for the next 2 years. Furthermore, many other insurance companies are offering me really interesting rates for all my insurance needs, at the same terms and level of service. I look forward to hearing from you

Letter to a friend who is going to take care of my pet and house while I'm away Dear Alan, As we talked earlier, I am going to leave Paris for two months tonight. Thanks for helping me while I am away, it really puts a weight off my shoulders! I will not be able to receive phone calls most of the time, anyway, here is my mobile phone number: +33 612345678, don't hesitate to leave me a voice message, I will call you back as soon as possible. Your main duty will be to take care of Bob, my dog. I know you don't have any pets, but this is really simple. Feed him twice a day (the dog food is in the cabinet over the dishwasher), ensure he has always fresh water in his bowl, and don't give him too many treats. If you could walk him everyday that would be fantastic. He is disciplined, now worries to have about the others dogs. Apart Bob, please grab all parcels and mails and store them on the kitchen table. Once on a while, opening the windows to refresh the air would be great. Also, don't forget to water the plants, especially the ones upstairs, which are the most subject to dryness. Cheers,

Letter to a friend leaving for Australia, asking advices for learning English Dear Marie, You must be very excited, I'm very happy that you took the plunge. Thanks for asking me advices, having moved to New-Zealand taught me a few tips on learning English. Regarding your conversation skills, nothing beats practice. Even if you don't have any native English speaker neither in your relatives nor among your friends, Internet can help you. Try to find a language partner online, many websites aim at meeting people who have a shared desire to learn a foreign language. Personally, I ended up on Italki and Skype. Likewise, your listening abilities will only improve over hours of exercises. Luckily, this point is easier, given the amount of websites where you can listen to radios and download podcasts. Watching movies or TV series with subtitles is also a good start. I use to listen to podcasts during my commute, which is very time effective. Learning vocabulary is a long haul task, personally I keep track of words, expressions or idioms I've learned in what is called flashcards. This is a very convenient way to keep learning new things, without being overwhelmed by all the material collected over the time. Try Anki, a free software that you can install in your computer, mobile phone or use directly through its website. I hope these advices may help you building a better English before leaving, I wish you a good luck to find your feet in Australia, if any questions pops in your mind, feel free to ask. All the best,

Career objective To use my skills and my perseverance to solve challenging problems within a team or on my own, as an open source systems engineer.

Dress code at work What do you think about dress code at work? A dress code is what kind of clothes you wear at work. For my explanation, I will consider two types of dress code: the casual one, and the business one. The casual one dress code is about clothes you feel relax within: tshirt, polo, jean, sneakers. However clothes must not be too worn out, nor too eccentric. A business dress code is more refined, and is usually a suit for men, with a tie and smart shoes. For women, it can be a tailored skirt, with heeled shoes. The dress code depends of what your role is and the company you are working for. Usually, people who are facing customers or business partners, like receptionists, HR, business men and women should avoid the casual dress code. Even if you are not directly in contact with customers, some sector of activity are used to require its employees to follow the business dress code. Such sectors are banks, real estate, insurance or companies with a lot of people. Having to follow a dress code has advantages and drawbacks: you may not feel at ease with a suit in summer because of the heat, or with a tight tie. Casual dress code involve less work than the business one, like the need to go to the pressing from time to time. The advantages are that you may feel more professional to people, impress them at the first sight. It also gives a more strict separation between work and personal life. Once you put your business clothes off, work is over.