023 post office
Words
Post office parcel letter send stamps airmail surface mail registered mail envelop counter philately postman/woman deliver(y) letterbox queue
Phrases
Send a parcel
Seal an envelop
Weigh a parcel
Check the weight
Pay postage
Surface mail
Registered parcel
Welfare benefits

Beginner
A: I’d like to send this parcel to Australia.
B: certainly. Could you put it on the scales, so I can check the weight?
A; sure. It’s not very heavy.
B: that’s 850 grams. The coasts depends on how you would like to send it.
A: I see. What are the options? I suppose airmail is faster and more expensive than surface mail.
B: that’s right. Sending it by airmail will cost twelve dollars and sending it by surface mail will cost eight dollars.
A; how long will it take to get there?
B: airmail should take four or five days and surface mail should take about two weeks.
A: it that case, I’ll send it by airmail. I’d like to send it as a registered parcel.
B: no problem. That’s one dollar extra.
A: no problem. There’s thirteen dollars.
B: there’s you receipt. Goodbye.

Intermediate
A; post office offer lots of services nowadays, don’t they? Years age, you only really used the post office to send mail, save money, and send or collect money.
B: nowadays, they offer so many services, you hardly know which one to choose. Take mailing for example. Do you send something first class or second class or do you use EMS?
A: I save money in a post office saving account. There used to be just one kind of account, but now there are several. They each have different conditions and interest rates.
B; you can buy things at post office that were never sold there before. You can buy sweets and chocolates, newspapers ,birthday and Christmas cards…..
A: post offices are still the place to go to collect welfare benefits, like unemployment benefit and child support benefit. The queue are very long on the days when people collect those payment.
B: my son likes going to the main post office. They have a philately counter where he can buy stamps for his collection.
A: do you think that the service at post offices has improved?
B; I think it’s better for some things, like sending and receiving money, but if you need to post something it sometimes takes longer than it used to.
A: I like being able to buy newspapers and magazines at the post office. It means that I don’t need to go to two places.