You are welcome to answer questions posted in the Ask a Teacher forum as long as your suggestions, help, and advice reflect a good understanding of the English language. If you are not a teacher, you will need to state that clearly at the top of your post. Please note, all posts are moderated by our in-house language experts, so make sure your suggestions, help, and advice house the kind of information an international language teacher would offer. If not, and your posts do not contribute to the topic in a positive way, they will be subject to deletion.
"In recent days" is very 'political documentary', 'TV news report' kind of language. Even 'recently' is more 'newspaper report' style writing. In everyday speech, it is quite formal. A native speaker would have some kind of throw-away, arch (=deliberately or affectedly playful and teasing) comment where they would use this word.
(I'll try to think of one and edit this post with it.)
Did you have any situation in mind that calls for some reference to this short-term frame of reference??
' a few days ago, I went...'
"a few weeks ago, I was talking to..."
'Not long ago, I bought petrol and it was only half the price. Boy, it's gone up!'
'a little while back'
And exactly :) how long is your 'short-time frame of reference'?
Exactly!! that's why I asked you. 'Recent' could be days, weeks, depending on the person's perspective. If we are saying, 'in recent history', we could be talking a couple of centuries!
recent 
Linear Mode
