Showing posts with label Intermediate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Intermediate. Show all posts

Friday, 7 October 2011

Steve Jobs



Steve Jobs died after several years of struggle against cancer. The world of business has lost an emblematic figure.

To check how much you know about Steve Jobs:
Enlacehttp://www.tutor2u.net/business/bizquiz/061011/quiz.html

For other entries about him on this blog:

http://business-kaleidoscope.blogspot.com/search?q=steve+jobs
http://business-kaleidoscope.blogspot.com/search?q=apple
http://business-kaleidoscope.blogspot.com/2010/07/mocking-companies.html

Thursday, 25 August 2011

The Impact of the Internet

If you have never visited www.englishcentral.com this is a good chance to do so. There you can find short extracts that you can watch and read but that's not all. If you have a microphone, you can record your voice, trying to imitate the original. Cool, right?
This is the video I recommend today.

http://www.englishcentral.com/video/11608/eric-schmidt-the-reach-of-the-internet


Wednesday, 25 May 2011

Marketing

Brand, advertising, customer service. What do all these words have in common? Yes, they're all related to marketing. How would you define "marketing"? If you talk about it every day but don't know how to explain what it is, click on the word. To learn more vocabulary, click on:

http://youtu.be/qLn1rAuZuVA

To practise:

http://www.businessenglishsite.com/exercise_marketing1.html
http://www.businessenglishsite.com/exercise_marketing2.html

Saturday, 7 May 2011

Tell me about yourself












This is a classic question at job interviews. Seems easy, right? However, it's not. There's so much we can say. How can we choose the right thing to say? Watch this video and learn some tips.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ezFNrWMTlc

For more practice on job interviews:

http://www.businessenglishsite.com/exercise_jobinterview1.html
http://www.businessenglishsite.com/exercise_jobinterview2.html

Tuesday, 15 February 2011

Financial vocabulary

Bookkeeping, transaction, credit, debit. What do all these words have in common? Yes, that's it. They are related to the field of accounting, financial vocabulary. Watch this useful video and try to collect as many new words as you can.

Wednesday, 12 January 2011

Writing a cover letter

When applying for a job, you will need to send your CV or résumé together with a cover letter. What is a cover letter? Watch this video and find out.



For useful expressions to write a cover letter, click onto:
http://www.businessenglishsite.com/exercise_coverletter1.html
http://www.businessenglishsite.com/exercise_coverletter2.html
http://www.businessenglishsite.com/exercise_coverletter3.html
http://www.businessenglishsite.com/exercise_coverletter4.html

Friday, 17 December 2010

Person of the year

Mark Zuckerberg has been named "Person of the Year". This man is the co-founder and CEO of Facebook,the social network that has changed many things on the Internet.
You can read his bio at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Zuckerberg
You can also listen to him talking about his company:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ092B7YMsM&feature=related
(if you want to read the subtitles, press on CC)

What do you think about this choice? Who would you choose instead?

Saturday, 11 December 2010

Talking about salary

Talking about your salary seems to be one of the most difficult issues when interviewing for a job. This video will give you some ideas on how to make it easier.


You can also read these negotiation tips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOF1tJPqFRY&feature=related

Learn some collocations with the word "salary" by clicking onto these links and doing the exercises after reading the info.:
http://www.hrenglish.com/salary/menu.php
http://www.hrenglish.com/pay2/menu.php
http://www.hrenglish.com/pay3/menu.php

Friday, 2 July 2010

Mocking companies

To mock is to laugh at someone, often copying them in a funny but unkind way. In this segment of The Simpsons, we can see their mockery of a well-known company. Pay attention to the slogan and the logo. What company are they making fun of? What are they criticising?

Taking part in meetings

I've been trying to find positive quotations about holding a meeting but to my surprise, most of them portray meetings as useless and boring. Look at some of them:
"A meeting is an event where the minutes are kept and the hours are lost."
"
A meeting is a gathering where people speak up, say nothing, then all disagree."
Why is there such a negative view of meetings? I'll be glad to read your comments.



You can also practise some useful expressions you can use in meetings. Do the exercises and press on the green button at the bottom of the page to check your answers
http://www.business-english.com/meetings/meetings1/exercise1.html
http://www.business-english.com/meetings/meetings1/exercise2.html
http://www.business-english.com/meetings/meetings1/exercise4.html

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

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: