English C1

This proposal enlightens some relevant suggestions on how to improve the program of Business English 1, 2 and 4 for both Business and HR students from the Christian University of Applied Sciences at Ede (CHE).

Motivation

The content of the Business English is very useful and is sufficient to improve someone’s English business skills. The method is very effective and really helps to give some guidelines on how to communicate in a proper manner in business environments. The program also meets the required knowledges and skills in order to make corresponding tests. The teacher offers really helpful material to practice and prepare for those tests. 

However, there are also some recommendations to consider. From own sources, I know that - due to other assignments and appointments - many student are not always motivated to commit themselves to practice English. Although writing and reading English content is highly stimulated, there is not always a present urgency to be committed to this subject. I suggest this can be solved by implementing some improvements.

Recommendations

First of all, it may be effective to oblige the students to read English books, which are offered by school. This can take place during class or in spare time. To stimulate students to actually, it is important that:

1. Students can select the book they like or are interested in from a range of books;

2. Students have to give a short presentation about the book they liked the most.

There are many English words who I am not familiair with. After some research on the internet, I found some extraordinary English words, which I consider unfamiliar.  

#1 Abnegation

The first word I learnt when browsing on the internet is: Abnegation[1].

According to Cambridge dictionary (2023), the definition of abnegation can be seen as:

‘The act of not allowing yourself to have something, especially something you like or want’

Here are some examples to place the word in a correct context:

They believe it is the duty of women to live for others in complete abnegation of themselves.

It is a heart-warming tale of courage and abnegation.

Besides, it can also be interpreted as: 

‘The act of not accepting something, or of saying that you do not have something’

Some examples on this one are:

To ignore these issues would be a serious abnegation of responsibility.

This abnegation of customer care really annoys me.

#2: Sesquipedalian

When I was searching for an interesting online article, I came across the word sesquipedalian, which I found in a journal register[2].

According to Fara Tamizuddin (2009), sesquipedalian is a description of a person who loves big words. It was first used in 1656 and according to the Merriam Webster dictionary (z.d.) it can be described as: given to or characterized by the use of long words.

Sentence example[3]: he is a sesquipedalian television commentator.

#3 Bibliopole

Another funny word I found on the internet is ‘Bibliopole’.[4] This word was firstly used in 1710 and a derivative of the Latin word ‘bibliopōla’ and the Greek word ‘bibliopṓlēs’. It can be defined as: a book seller, especially a dealer in rare or used books. A sentence example for this word is: ‘’If I had the poetic vein, I would indite a pendant to Byron's iambics to that enlightened bibliopole’’ – George A. Lawrence

[1] Source: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/abnegation

[2] Source: https://eu.sj-r.com/story/news/2009/11/17/a-word-to-wise/41730403007/

[3] Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sesquipedalian#h1

Dear Mr Brown,

This is just to thank you for the great time I had during my internship at the company. 

I can honestly say that I learnt a lot of things and I definitely developed some new skills due to the opportunities I’ve been given into the organization.

What I really appreciated was that you were very dedicated and committing in guiding me during the project. It felt very comfortable and convivial for me and helped me to integrate easy and effective into the organization. I also want to compliment you for your useful advice and recommendations, it really helped to scope the project. You were also very patient and calm, which had a very positive effect on me and made it possible for me to perform well without being obstructed by any stressful factors. You gave some tips about writing short and clear by asking yourself the question ‘what is the point I want to make?’. This was very helpful and really helped me to write short and specific. 

As you know, I had some struggles with keeping up with the planning. This is something I discovered somewhat late and could have been prevented with some strict guidance. This is something many students do find difficult, but it actually helps to be strict about it rather than assuming that the student will figure it out on his own. May you see a student struggle with time management, do not hesitate to intervene, even if that means that the student must be addresses in a way he or she doesn’t like at the moment, but in the end, both will benefit from it. 

I had a great time at the firm, and I am thankful for everything I learnt in the past few weeks. 

Wish you all the best.

Kind regards,

Introduction

This report highlights some retrospective episodes concerning me as a future business administrator. In the previous years of the study Business Administration, I have discovered some relevant insight from which I learnt a lot. In this report I would like to outline some of them.

Learnings

First of all, I have to mention that I never regret my choice for my current educational route. I certainly had some doubts at the beginning, but they gladly vanished over time. I am convinced that this route has equipped me with some requisite qualities, which can be very helpful in a future job. However, because of the generality and wideness of the subjects being teached, for me it brought also some difficulties regarding next decision-makings, which means to apply for a job or to continue studying. I am more into the last option, but still have to discover which study to choose.  What I learnt the most during the past years is especially how to write formal, comprehensible advisory reports. I have done a lot of research in order to solve occurring problems including the writing of a lot of reports for clients. This was not always the most funny thing to do, but it has definitely developed and enhanced my commercial writing.

Conclusion

Metastazising: something small that spreads and become something big and worse.

Retribution: has to do with justice. If you do something wrong, you have to pay for it. 

Ted talk

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEP7_BeXH64&t=9s

The Tedtalk is about biases. We all have biases about someone or something in a particular situation. These biases and the assumptions we have come from the part of our mind where we make conclusions. In this TedTalk, two employees tell about how they handle work biases. I like the way these two women explain how they solve this problem on the work floor. You can choose by yourself a method that reminds you of what you’re saying is something based on bias. The woman in the TedTalk uses the word ‘’purple flag’’, but if you rather use something visual like a gesture for example, it’s all fine! In this way you become more aware of your blind spots. This will prevent you from harming someone and making yourself embarrassing. It therefore is very important to create a norm for how to respond when your bias is pointed out.

‘’Flagging the bias didn’t prevent us from getting the work done, in fact, it helps us work together more honestly’’.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20211022-is-hr-ever-really-your-friend

Author: Joanna York

Employees often believe that HR is there for their problems. But is this actually true?

A study showed that 70% of employees don’t trust their personal department. the number of rulings on workplace litigation in the US hit a record high. The feeling of mistrust becomes more when we don’t get what we expected from HR. Another misconception is that The company feels that HR is there to protect the organization, while employees think HR is the only way where to go if they have a work issue. This is mainly because employers tell their joiner that HR is there for them. This is actually not really true because there is no role within HR department that defines ‘’that is 100% for the employee.’’ But every organization can chose about where to focus on.  

Going to HR is therefore not always a magic solution. You better deal first with what you can control and preserve the good relationship with your manager before involving HR. But if you want to approach HR, do this in good faith.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6bbMQXQ180

Speaker: Richard St. John

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/12/business/economy/imf-world-economic-outlook.html

Author: Patricia Cohen and Alan Rappeport

The global recovery’s is threaten by the resurgence of the coronavirus and the supply chains chokeholds. Except from this, the overall growth will remain at a high level of 6 percent. his expansion causes a vast divergence between poor and wealthy countries. Gains are reversing because of many unemployment. Worldwide poverty, hunger and unmanageable debts are still of concern. So is the access to vaccinations. 96 percent of people in low- income countries are still unvaccinated. Bottlenecks and restrictions for factories have caused supply shortages. Besides. 4.3 mln people quitted their jobs to find new one because of the work force. The fear of rising inflation is rising and prices are growing. According to ms. Gopinath the risks to economic prospects have increased and policy take-offs have become more complex. The pandemic has underscored how economic success or failure in one country can ripple throughout the world. Due to this the worlds estimated output could reduces by 5.3 trillion dollars over the next five years. Despite this, some economies are doing pretty well. This is because some commodities like oil and metals became most valuable, so prices increased. This causes very uneven recovery’s throughout the world.

Speaker: Bill Gross

Date 2 October 2021

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNpx7gpSqbY

The successful founder Bill Gross came to a moment in his life while he started to wonder about what makes companies succeed the most. In the first instance, he thought there were five factors necessary. During his life, he has founded hundreds of companies. Some with extreme and great success, others with a lot of failure. Gross believes that the startup organization is one of the greatest forms to make the world a better place. This is because of a way that unlocks human potential in ways that achieve unbelievable things. The five factors that accounted the most for company success and failure are:

1.     Ideas

2.     Team

3.     Business Model

4.     Funding

5.     Timing

Later on, Bill discovered that Timing doesn’t really belong on place five, but is actually the MAIN factor for success. ‘’Business success all matters about timing’’. So, not the idea, but timing is the most important factor for guaranteed success.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210721-why-worker-loyalty-is-at-a-breaking-point

Author: unknown

Date: 2 october 2021

Due to COVID-19, many employees finded out that they were actually able to do their job remotely. Because of the increasing number of vaccinating people nowadays, employers want their people back on the work floor. This causes resistance to some employees, simply due to the fact that employees needs and preferences have changed. If people feel pressed to return to the pre-pandamic way of working, millions are choosing to quit instead. This transformation leaves a fundamental shift in power dynamics away from employers and towards workers. But what make employees less committed? This is because of several reasons:

1.     Employees have gained new perspective to what’s important to them;

2.     People define themselves less to their job;

3.     Employers are less emotionally attached to their employer.

Just pushing people getting back to the office will probably cause ‘quitters’. The only way to order staff back is to do this in an appealing way.

Lecture 1, Episode 1: ‘’The Moral side of murder’’

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBdfcR-8hEY

In this lecture, Michael Sandel discusses the philosophy behind justice. He starts with a description of a weird situation. Suppose you are in a trolley truck and before you there are five workers working on the track. Suddenly you notice that your brakes don’t work, so you cannot slow down the truck.  Off to the right, there is a side track where one worker is working. Your steering wheel works so you can turn the truck onto this side track killing the one, but sparing the five. Ofcourse most of us would rather kill one life instead of five. But let’s suppose that you are the onlooker and next to you there is a fat man leaning over the bridge. You see the truck and it’s brakes don’t work. If you shove the fat man he would fall down right in the way of the truck, be killed but the five are spared. Most wouldn’t do this.

Yes, but what is the philosophy behind this? It’s about our moral principles. Philosophy is about seeing things another way. It estranges us from the familiar. Moral reasoning consists of consequentialist (locates morality in the consequensces of an act) and categorical (locates morality in certain duties and rights) moraltity. According to Benthams theory, the right and just thing to do is to maximize utility. ‘’Utility is the balance of pleasure over pain, happiness over suffering’’. It can be summarized with this slogan: ‘’the greatest good for the greatest number’.

Tedtalk 1

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDsMlmfLjd4

Speaker: Peter Anderton

Date: 17th september 2021

What is real leadership? Who is the right person to be a leader? Peter Anderton shares his point of view during his TedTalk.

He says that there is a lot of information about leadership. Because of all that – mostly difficult- information through models and concepts, we often don’t get the real message of leadership nowadays. He says that leadership is actually very simple. Leaders have always existed through history. But what are the elements that make someone a great leader? Anderton tells that anyone can become a leader. It comes simply down to two rules. The first rule is that leadership is nothing about you. This means that leadership isn’t about power at all, it is about service - like Jesus did. A great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves is his statement. Everyone can become a leader if they understand who they are, where they stand for, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. According to John Maxwell, people follow because:

-          They have to;

-          They like you;

-          You deliver;

-          You help them grow;

-          Of who you are and what you represent.

So if you want to be the change in this world, rule number two of leadership is as clear as simple: It’s only about you. Changes start with who you are and how you behave. However, the thing to keep in mind is always: listen. What we have to understand about leadership is that we have to listen to what is already been said.

Article 1

Source: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210913-what-happens-when-your-office-has-changed-for-the-worse

Author: Kate Morgan

Date: 14th September 2021

Due to COVID-19, many things have changed in a short time. The pandemic affects everybody and every part of life. Gladly we can slowly return to our normal life again. But is this true? Are things still the same at the moment as they were before the pandemic made its appearance? This article shows us the impact of COVID-19 on office life.

When the pandemic began, everybody thought they would soon be back at the office. However, this was not what happened. Many employees found it very tough to work at home. So, when the moment came that it was possible again – when fully vaccinated- to return to the office, many were excited. This excitement did not last long though. It even became underwhelming. Although being back at the office meant a lot of perks, for many the office didn’t feel the same as when they left it. This is because there are far fewer people in the office. After all, many are not yet ready to come back. Due to this, many key elements in the office have disappeared. This brings many disappointing feelings because the office is still the same, but it has changed for the worse. According to Professor Anne-Laure Fayard, we must just accept this new situation and don’t stop talking about our feelings because of it. Employer Scottie Langton says that he tries to keep the hope up that eventually everything will become the same one time again. That’s his way to stay optimistic in this strange time.

At many times and in many times we get to deal with the English language. We learn it at school or we watch a movie, read a book, meet foreign people and so on. There are many ways to learn English by heart. But which way is the most effective one? Let’s give you a short story about how I improved my English skills.

In primary school I learned my first English words. They were quite simple, as you can imagine. As things become more difficult, which is quite understandable when you get older, the English language became also more complicated, logically speaking. First, we learned some English words, but later on we could speak and write down whole sentences. During my secondary school period, we also had to do Holmwoods for homework. Holmwoods is a online learning tool or method to get better at the English language. This method uses reading and listening exercises at all different levels, such as A1, A2 or C1, to empower your English skills. We started at A1 level, the base level for learning some primary English.

After primary school, I moved on to secondary school, where I ended up in HAVO class. During secondary school, we learned a lot of English skills. In the first year we started at A2 level. We brought our English skills to a higher level, because of Holmwoods, Holmwoods and a lot of Holmwoods, but we also got some extra boring homework: Rosetta Stone. Rosetta stone is a program which lais his focus on your pronunciation instead of grammar. It was mostly of the time very boring to do, because of the obligated aspect. However, I can now say it was also very useful. At this time, we also had some subjects where only English was spoken. The subjects in question were history and physical education. At history, we were only allowed to write English words and sentences, even at tests. While it was sometimes tough, it was also a very effective way to improve my English skills though.

Although I learned a lot of English at school, I also watched many English movies during this time. I always preferred to add English subtitles to the movie to get better at English. My favorite genres are: romantic, action, thriller, historical movies and movies based on true stories. This was and still is a very useful way to get used to English conversations or concepts. Conclusion: it gave a good boost to my English skills. There is also another way to improve your English. I love music, especially English spoken music. I listen to a lot of gospel and worship music, but I also like instrumental or classical music. Listening to English spoken music is also a very good way to get used to the English language.

In my second class at Havo, we got the opportunity to do a certified Anglia exam. Our teachers really encouraged us to do this test, so I did. At that time, I passed the test at A2 level. The test consisted of some reading, writing and speaking components. We also had a lot of grammar during this period, but in my last two years of Havo, we rarely had grammar or we only did some repetition. We did learn new, more difficult words to broaden our vocabulary and read many articles. This articles, we had to summarize. For our final exam, we were supposed to do a reading test at B2 level. However, because of COVID-19, we never had to make this test, so we couldn’t get a mark for it. Because of this issue, the other marks were counted.

Last summer holiday, I went to Kenya. I had a great time over there and it also improved my English skills. I was determined to speak a lot of English and to not let myself led by fear or anxiousness for saying stupid things. I can say it worked out well and I felt confident and comfortable most of the time. So, for me, this was also a good exercise and a new experience with the English language. I had lots of conversations and I really enjoyed it!