HOLIDAYS, hurrah!

Winter Holidays. Such a pleasant period of a year! I personally like these holidays the best. I guess I fancy the idea of a re-birth, new possibilities and impressions.

Anyway, let me ask you a question. Do you want to know how to talk about the forthcoming holidays in English? If so, here is the list of recommended sources:

Vocabulary:

Christmas & New Year vocabulary from BBC  

 Who is St. Nicolas? 

Home task for Friday

You can find all the materials here

How to organize yourself & manage time

Today I want to dwell upon some basic things connected with organizing yourself and managing time. These are not universal rules, just a few pieces of advice I’m using and they work for me. For three years now I’ve been using some techniques which help me in everyday life, I mean in planning my time and organizing my activities.
Before we proceed, let me ask you to do the test “How well do you plan?” Follow the instructions and add all the numbers you get. Next read this interpretation.
So, how do you feel? Are you an “excellent” or a “terrible” planner? Of course, this tiny test can not possibly be the one source you rely on, but still, it gives a general idea.
Anyway, when we speak about the advantages of planning our time, we can name at least these few:
1. gain time – when we plan, we get some extra time, we don’t waste it, ergo, we gain it!
2. it motivates – when you realize how much you have managed to do within a certain period of time, you are proud of yourself & feel motivated!
3. it reduces avoidance – meaning you don’t forget to do things
4. it promotes review – when you plan, write things down, you can analyse them as well as yourself
5. it reduces anxiety – you no longer have to worry that you have no time for something or may forget some stuff, you feel more confident.
Now, we know that planning time is useful, it’s definitely a good thing to be done, however we avoid it. We tend to avoid things we don’t know or the things that may cause some inconveniences, limit or scary us. But it’s like this only at the beginning, I guess the beginning of any activity, like skiing and stuff. First you are terrified and think if you need this in the first place. But after some time, you can’t do without it. It’s just the same exact situation with time management and organizing yourself. Just do it! I’ll try to give you a little push today, if you still need one.
I also started by a push from my friend. I was recommended to listen to several books/seminars connected with this topic. Here they are: “The art of managing your time” by Bodo Schafer, “21 Great Ways To Manage Your Time and double your productivity” by Brian Traicey and “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey.

TED – ідеї варті поширення

"TED Talks — це найкраща річ, яку можна подивитись у Інтернеті". Guardian

TED – неприбуткова організація, котра щорічно проводить конференції, присвячені „ідеям вартим поширення” (Ideas Worth Spreading). Все почалось із конференції 1984 р., котра звела людей із трьох світів: Технології, Розваг, Дизайну (Technology, Entertainment, Design). Від того часу, рамки TED суттєво розширились і тепер включають науки, мистецтва, політику, освіту, культуру, бізнес, глобальні проблеми, технології та розвиток. Поряд із щорічними конференціями у США та Англії, працює сайт TEDTalks із відеокастами. Серед спікерів цих конференцій були Білл Клінтон, Гордон Браун, Білл Гейтс, Сергій Брін, Леррі Пейдж та багато інших.

Podcasteng 2.0

   Про основи

    Час – штука відносна. Два роки у житті людини – недовгий період, а от для розвитку комп’ютерних та інтернет технологій - це досить таки поважний термін. Два роки – час „морального старіння” в ІТ індустрії. Майже стільки часу минуло від написання мною першої статті про подкастинг. Тим хто все ще не чув про це явище, рекомендую проглянути наступний ролик „Podcasting in Plain English”

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    За цей час це явище стрімко розвинулось та урізноманітнилось, проте уже позбулось своєї колишньої ексклюзивності. Сьогодні більшість поважаючих себе інтернет ресурсів викладають власний контент за допомогою подкастів. І усе більше ентузіастів створюють власні покаст ресурси, у тому числі і навчальні. Позитивним у цьому є те, що будь-хто може записувати власні подкасти, а негативним те …., що будь-хто може записувати власні подкасти. Це власне є характерною рисою соціально-зорієнтованого Веб 2.0 інтернету. Таким чином, пересічному користувачеві доводиться прискіпливо фільтрувати безмежні інтернет потоки.

Home task for my 3-year students

Hi, everyone!

Not to lag behind after a three-week time, I decided to provide you with the material that we are supposed to cover. Detailed instructions are in the home task file. Enjoy!:)

Home task file can be downloaded here.

Job interview

‘Friends’: ‘The one with Rachel’s inadvertent kiss’

Rachel interviews for a coveted department-store job as coordinator of the Ralph Lauren women's collection. Unfortunately, she inadvertently kisses the interviewer, Mr. Zelner, on the cheek when he bends near her to open the office door as she is leaving. She is afraid the kiss will affect her chances of getting the job. During a second interview with Mr. Zelner, Rachel gets ink on her lip. Misinterpreting Mr. Zelner when he indicates the ink, Rachel berates him for demanding sex and leaves angrily. Later, she returns to explain the misunderstanding, and gets the job on her merits.

Match the words below to their explanations:

hussy   integrity berate  litigious  covet  inadvertently 

1	formal to speak angrily to someone because they have done something wrong
2	old-fashioned a woman who is sexually immoral
3	formal to have a very strong desire to have something that someone else has
4	without realizing what you are doing
5	very willing to take disagreements to a court of law
6	the quality of being honest and strong about what you believe to be right

Answer the questions:

1. What piece of news did Rachel announce to their friends?

2. What was Phoebe’s suggestion?

3. What happened at the end of the first interview?

4. What happened during the second meeting with Mr. Zelner?

5. Was Rachel a successful applicant?

Answers: 1 – berate; 2 – hussy; 3 – covet; 4 – inadvertently; 5 – litigious; 6 - integrity

Applying for a job II

CV & Covering letter

Життєпис/резюме та супровідний лист

Once you have found a proper position to apply for, you should write or update your CV. It is very important to draw it up diligently, especially when you are going to send it. It represents you and the layout, style of it should be proper. You can download several examples of CV and cover letters for your reference. Most of them are form the book "Commercial correspondence" by A. Ashley.

CV 1; CV 2; Covering letters

Applying for a job I

Let's start with essential vocabulary:

1. apply / ə’plaɪ /	to make a formal request, usually written, for something such as a job, a place in a university, or permission to do something
2. applicant /’æplɪkənt /	someone who has formally asked, usually in writing, for a job, university place etc
3. fill in/out an application form	to write all the necessary information on an official document, form etc
4. temporary job	continuing for only a limited period of time
5. permanent job	continuing to exist for a long time or for all the time in the future
6. to work nine-to-five	between nine o'clock and five o'clock, the normal working hours of an office worker
7. to be on flexitime	a system in which people work a particular number of hours each week or month, but can change the times at which they start and finish each day
8. to work shift work	if workers in a factory, hospital etc work shifts, they work for a particular period of time during the day or night, and are then replaced by others, so that there are always people working
9. a full-time job vs a part time job	to  work for all the hours/or less of a week during which it is usual for people to work
10. HR / personnel	Human resources - the department in a company that deals with employing, training, and helping people

The extended version of essential vocabulary & job advertisements can be downloaded here.

Should you have any questions, ask!

Shape of my heart

‘Shape of my heart’ - that’s a pretty old but a lovable song. I understood the meaning of it when I was a first-year student. Until that time I had not fully grasped the title, as well other parts of the lyrics. I knew that it has something to do with cards, but what it was exactly remained a riddle for me. 

I believe you know that an English word may have several different meanings (it’s called a polysemantic word). So, the song is about four suits, not clothes but the four types of cards in a set of playing cards. They are: diamonds, clubs, spades and the only one not mentioned is ‘hearts’. That’s why Sting sings that diamonds, clubs and spades are not the shape of his heart, hearts are the shape of his heart. Sorry for tautology.

I guess one may find some other implications in this song. Anyway, I really like it and hope you’ll find it useful.

P.S. It was a soundtrack to the film “Léon: The Professional”

Essential vocabulary:

chance - можливість, випадок clubs - карт. pl. трефи conceal v - приховувати curse v - проклинати deal v - карт. роздавати diamonds – карт. pl. бубна fade v – зникати, стиратися (з пам’яті) find out to their cost – отримують те на що заслуговують hearts - карт. pl. чирва hidden – прихований jack - валет Download lyrics ось тут.

law - закон meditation - роздуми, міркування outcome – результат probable - можливий respect - повага sacred - священний spades – карт. pl. піки suit – карт. масть suspect v – підозрювати sword – меч war - війна weapon – зброя

Gogol Bordello

Last summer I had an opportunity to go to the concert of Gogol Bordello. This is a multi-ethnic Gypsy punk band from NY. Before the concert I had heard a lot about them, but I knew only one song ("Start wearing purple"), and also I knew that their front-man Eugene Hütz starred in "Filth and Wisdom" directed by Madonna. 

Gogol Bordello were the last to sing and what we saw on the stage was an extraordinary performance, which at first looked like a total chaos and mess, but one could not but notice an amazing coordination of the band. They were singing for about two hours, and all that time the crowd couldn't help dancing. Having seen their performance, I kinda felt sorry for our bands whose level is still pretty much domestic.

Anyway, Gogol Boredello is an extraordinary, modern and in a positive way a crazy band. I especially like their remix of Madonna's "La isla bonita". Watch it and you will understand a bit what is Gogol Bordello; then watch some other videos of this band on Youtube and you will start liking them; and after that, try to get to one of their concerts and you will love them. 

"Older people: age & experience" (Business English)

1   Demographics    usually    proves    a powerful force for  change  in the business- world,   and   the   rapidly ageing world population looks likely to continue the pattern. By the year 2050, according to the International Labour Organisation, the number of people aged over 60 will rise from 600m to 2bn. In less than 50 years, for the first time in history, there will be more people in the world over the age of 60 than under the age of 15. All this has profound implications (strong influence/effect) for employers and, says the ILO, should provide an incentive (something that encourages you to work harder) for companies to fight     age     discrimination     and accommodate older workers, creating challenging   careers   to   persuade them to stay in their jobs longer.

Business Correspondence I

SALUTATIONS

SURNAME KNOWN

If you know the name of the person you are writing to, write it as the first line of the address. Include either the person's initials or his or her first given name, e.g.Mr. J.E. Smith or Mr John Smith, not Mr Smith.

CouRte sy title s used in addresses are as follows:

—Mr (pronounced /'miste/) is the usual courtesy title for a man. The unabbreviated form Mister should not be used.

—Mrs (pronounced /'misiz/, no unabbreviated form) is used for a married woman.

—Miss (pronounced /' mis/, not an abbreviation) is used for an unmarried woman.

—Ms (pronounced /miz/ or /mas/, no unabbreviated form) is used for both married and unmarried women. It is advisable to use this form of address when you are unsure whether the woman you are writing to is married or not, or do not know which title she prefers.

—Messrs (pronounced /'mesez/, abbreviation for French 'Messieurs', which is never used) is used occasionally for two or more men, e.g. Messrs P. Jones and B.L. Parker, but more commonly forms part of the name of a company, e.g.Messrs Collier, Clark & Co. It is rather old-fashioned.

Negotiations

Have you ever negotiated?

I guess yes. You might have negotiated for a remote-control or your elder sister's bag or for something more serious, like contract, delivery or payment terms. 

There are many various resources connected with negotiation vocabulary. I strongly advise you to use BBC and British council materials to help you to enlarge your negotiations vocabulary. Using these two sources and a few business books I've elaborated a worksheet called "Negotiations", it can be downloaded here. Hope, you'll find it helpful.