by Elena Kravtsova

Created on: January 26, 2010   Last Updated: January 27, 2010

  It has been almost 14 years since I graduated from university. I am lucky that I had a chance to thank my dear professor in public while making a final speech at our graduation ball! I was really nervous! My speech happened to be more spontaneous than I had prepared it the night before. But I still remember each word I was pronouncing there!

    When you are 21-22 you cant help keeping your emotions and  'thank you" words in an appropriate order: you are trying to say everything good in a few minutes speech! I remember my professor was really surprised! He was even crying!

    Now I am a teacher myself. And I understand WHY HE WAS CRYING THEN. When I hear 'thank you' words addressing to me, I feel the same: shyness, pride and gratitude to those who are pronouncing these words. Now I do understand that it is rather brave to be sincere and open-hearted when you take a risk and bear this responsibility- the responsibility for your words and an emotional state of a person you are thanking for something.

     A week ago I gave my students an assignment to watch a video with Oprah's Acceptance speech. As far as we all know all her speeches are full of passion! When she appears at the stage it is always thrilling and it attracts!

     She is always thanking anybody who played a great role in her success not in one sentence. She is trying to give her own motivation WHY THIS PERSON DID SO AND HOW SHE IS TRYING TO JUSTIFY THEIR ATTITUDE TOWARDS HER! The audience is crying!

       Writing a Thank You letter is a hard job! You should remember all events which helped you to realise that this very person did something meaningful in your life and try to express your ideas on paper in order to IMPRESS the one who is going to read it!

      My students watched that video with the only purpose: to learn how to thank! I must say they did it profoundly! In the end of the lesson they all were reading their thank you notes. They tried not to miss a thing remembering each step THAT PERSON had taken in order to help them in something.

They all started their speeches with " Dear Mr. ,Mrs.., thank you for". Certainly , there can be a preamble given before the main body of the letter, but I am sure that in each sentence the word ' THANK YOU" must be a key one!

        I personally was honoured to be thanked too. Now I feel an easy feeling that I am doing right in my profession!
        Thank YOU!

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