Saturday 26 June 2010

Planning your day

How do you plan your day? Listen to Jack Canfield.



Vocabulary building:
He says that planning your day the night before has its payoff. If you don't know what it means, click on the word.
You can also try this quiz, to check how well you can understand it.

Friday 25 June 2010

Education in the workplace

The following is an extract from an article in Business Week. In it, the writer argues to what extent an online programme that helps employees at Wall-Mart get university credits. I find the following extract very interesting. What's your opinion of it? You may click on those words you find more difficult. The full article can be found at http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/jun2010/ca20100617_324567.htm

The Intellectual vs. the Manager

Too often, we consider learning to be something done stiffly, in a classroom. But that's silly. "Learning is a continuing biological process," Drucker said. "It begins at conception and ends only at death. We further know that learning is not an activity of one specific learning organ—the mind or the intellect. It is a process in which the whole person is engaged: the hand, the eye, the nervous system, the brain."

Being able to use all of these assets, Drucker suggested, will increasingly come to define "the educated person." More and more, he wrote in his 1993 book Post-Capitalist Society, we are going to "have to be prepared to live and work simultaneously in two cultures—that of 'the intellectual,' who focuses on words and ideas, and that of the 'manager,' who focuses on people and work.

"The intellectual's world, unless counterbalanced by the manager, becomes one in which everybody 'does his own thing' but nobody achieves anything. The manager's world, unless counterbalanced by the intellectual, becomes the stultifying bureaucracy of the 'Organization Man.' But if the two balance each other, there can be creativity and order, fulfillment and mission."

Sunday 20 June 2010

Telephoning

Afraid of speaking on the phone? Learn some expressions with this video!!



Here are some other expressions you can learn:
http://www.learn-english-today.com/business-english/telephone.html

TOEIC

TOEIC stands for "Test of English for International Communication" and it measures the everyday English skills of people working in an international environment, which is why many companies are choosing it to learn how well their staff can communicate in English.
This video explains what the TOEIC is about



If you want to learn more about this exam, you can visit the following websites:
http://www.ets.org/toeic

http://www.toeic.co.th/TOEIC/pdf/ExamineeHandbook.pdf

5 Mistakes to Avoid

Looking for a job? Check these tips on things to avoid when you attend a job interview. Can you add any other?



Read these sentences from the video. Can you guess what they mean? If not, click on them and find out.
"Many people try to cover up their nervousness by rambling "
"The way you dress can speak volumes to someone you're meeting for the first time"
"Stomach butterflies are to be expected"
You may also take this quiz to learn new vocabulary on applying for jobs:

Monday 14 June 2010

How to present like Steve Jobs



We've all had to deliver a presentation at one point or another, and we've all been afraid of facing an audience. In this video, we're introduced to an analysis of how a successful executive like Steve Jobs does it. Here are some of the main ideas on the video.
- Set the theme: make it relevant and memorable
- Open and close your segments with clear transitions to help your audience to follow you
- Demonstrate enthusiasm
- Make numbers and figures meaningful
- Make it visual
- Give them a show
And finally...REHEARSE, REHEARSE, REHEARSE