Emptying my postbox yesterday, I found a letter which looked quite unusual; the envelope was red and my address was hand-written. I was even more surprised when I saw who it was from. A student of mine had sent it, Ambitious Annette (that's what I call her here, in German, her surname alliterates with the word "Ehrgeiz" for English "ambition"
![wink wink](https://cdn.newbienudes.com/_common/modules/emoji/images/wink.gif)
. She is 17, one of my third-year English students, and she works very hard, although she is not always very successful.
Lately (see March,
![eek eek](https://cdn.newbienudes.com/_common/modules/emoji/images/eek.gif)
she had cried when she had got back her English essay, and I had advised her to write English more regularly to stay in training (the way I do it here on NN). Now she has sent a letter - to me, in English. She says she does not know anyone to send English letters to, but me, and if I minded her doing this regularly.
Do I mind? Basically yes, because it is not very professional to have a regular correspondence with a student. On the other hand, I made her cry with my assessment and advised her to write, so I cannot be too harsh on her. What to do and not hurt her feelings too much?
What I will do is the following: Today in class, I will tell her that she can go on writing if she likes, but I will keep my answers short and tell her how to further improve her writing skills. If she can agree with this, there should be no problem, and the red envelopes can keep coming.