Boston University economist Juliet Schor says people are increasingly coming together for these kinds of informal swaps.

VOA: special.2010.11.22

Instead,some of these children attend what are known as non-formal or informal schools.

VOA: special.2009.08.24

They say the presence of informal schools means that Kenya has two levels of education: One for children from the slums, another for children from better conditions.

VOA: special.2009.08.24

A government spokesman says the government is trying to discourage informal schools.

VOA: special.2009.08.24

Marciel says he does not expect any high-level dialogue with Burmese leaders, but says lower-level officials could hold informal talks.

VOA: standard.2009.11.05

Johnson says that her students, over the past several years, have increasingly used a more informal English vocabulary in formal assignments.

VOA: standard.2010.01.16

They say that electronic mail is often informal, and so many people do not use proper spelling or grammar.

VOA: standard.2010.01.16

But 62 percent of Thai workers are in the informal sector, such as contract workers,farmers, street hawkers, and motorcycle-taxi drivers.

VOA: standard.2010.03.24

Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo says during informal discussions, APEC foreign ministers touched on the financial crisis, economic coordination, and financial reforms.

VOA: standard.2009.11.11

Another problem is access. Connecting informal communities to the city's water pipeline is a challenge because many are living on the land illegally.

VOA: standard.2010.08.04

International Labor Organization,ILO, figures say almost 80 percent of Thailand's female workforce fall into the informal sector category, many in areas outside Thailand's labor protection laws.

VOA: standard.2009.03.09

University-level research papers, she says,are now being peppered with casual phrases like "you know" and words like "guy" informal usages that were absent almost a decade ago.

VOA: standard.2010.01.16

House-Senate negotiations aimed at reconciling the two versions of the bill are not expected to begin until the new year, although informal contacts are likely already under way.

VOA: standard.2009.12.24

"A science caf, it's a concept that actually started in Europe, and it was an idea to get scientists engaged in an informal conversation with the general public."

VOA: standard.2010.05.04

"We are finding that this is not only in the backward economy of developing countries, even though most forced labor today is indeed in the informal or the background agricultural sector of Asia, Latin America and then Africa."

VOA: standard.2009.08.21

And women are three times as likely as men to work in informal economies, and therefore abuse,sex trafficking and the absence of legal rights and protections for women are still unacceptably commonplace in so many places around the world."

VOA: standard.2010.04.28

The New York meeting co-chaired by President Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was the first summit-level session of the informal Friends of Democratic Pakistan grouping, and it brought together leaders of some 25 countries and organizations.

VOA: standard.2009.09.24