Jena Graduates, January 2011

[Georgeta]

Good morning ,Torsten!

Thanks a lot for your appreciative feedback and I look so much forward to hearing the new ideas that you are willing to share with us.

I wish you a relaxing weekend.

Georgeta

[Georgeta]

Hi Jon,

Please post an update on Thursday and Friday so I know where exactly to start tomorrow from.

Many thanks,

Georgeta

[Joneiche]

Georgeta, Torsten,

Sorry for the delay in posting about Thurs. and Fri. They were both rather long days considering the train schedule, so I spent yesterday recovering.

Overall, I believe both days went very well. We covered all that we had scheduled to go over.

Here is a quick run down of activities we covered over the two days.

Thursday:
Started with an introduction of myself and my background. Quickly went around the room and had students tell me their names and a brief bio.

Moved onto a discussion of CVs vs Resume. Class participated in formulating ideas on what the similarities and differences were regarding structure, the content, the length and any potential variations a specific industry may need in a CV or Resume. Class was asked to take their Europass CV and turn it into a resume, which we will review on Tuesday.

The only handouts for both days that were prepared were examples of resumes. For activity 2 I showed handout on the projector. Had the students go around the room reading sections of the handouts. While one read the others had to listen and comprehend. After we were complete with the reading we discussed the questions in the class prep.

Activity 3: Went over the vocabulary list. The class participated in defining the vocabulary. Once we defined the vocabulary we had a class discussion on the benefits and shortcomings of each type of employment. We then had students tell which type of employment they are looking for and the reasons why.

Activity 4: Had students write an essay on work and family life. I gave a brief lecture on the challenges of this. We then had a class discussion focused on the questions in the class prep.

Activity 5: Life long learning. Had to project handout on the screen. We then went around the room having each student read a section while the others listened and comprehended. We worked on vocabulary issues as they came up, and also addressed questions after each individual read.

Activity 6: Prepositions. Used some of my material for definition of prepositions. We had a class discussion on prepositions and when to use which one. Compared with German and discussed how flexible English prepositions can be. Used the reader for a quick class exercise.

Activity 7: I gave verbal overview to an MBA program. Students were supposed to use this as listening and comprehension exercise. Questions were asked by students regarding specifics of an MBA program.

Friday:

Activity 1: Assigned students to groups to discuss and list characteristics of types of reports. After 20 min of group work we discussed the results as a class and refined what each type of report is and its basic structure and content.

Activity 2: We read (used the projector) a summary of both German and American business culture and etiquette. After reading a section we discussed the merits of the article's view point and whether it was accurate or not. We then discussed in the class the questions posed in the class prep. Answered vocabulary and pronunciation questions as they came up.

Activity 3: Had a brief demonstration on abbreviations associated with specific jobs, with what the students may find in American classified ads, and also common abbreviations that might be seen in email or other written correspondence.

Activity 4: Had a mock negotiation. Had two groups of seller and two groups of buyers. They had 15 min to prep for the negotiation. Both sides were blind to the other side's scenario. After prep they negotiated for 10 min, after which we took 10 minutes to reconsider strategy etc. All groups closed the deal. Seemed to be the highlight of the two days. After the negotiation we discussed negotiation style and some helpful hints. We applied this to the mock negotiation by comparing the lecture with what actually happened in the negotiations.

Activity 5: Worked on how to identify, structure and solve problems. Used the projector again for the presentation. After going over how this is done (during lecture we used an example of building a house as an example of a problem to solve) we ran through a case study on a scenario regarding McDonald's on how to apply what was just learned. Students worked in small groups and then as a whole class.

Activity 6: Discussed popular jobs. This didn't seem to go over well with the students. It was the last thing of the day, and they seemed tired and wanting to start their Fridays early. We did get some vocabulary in and also identified all the most popular jobs in the US, UK and Canada for 2011.

Overall, both days went very well. Students generally responded well to everything.

At the end of day one, I asked them for input on the first day and whether they thought it was useful, or not, and how I was presenting material. Generally there were no complaints. The one concern that several students had was that they had to take a very similar course in German and didn't know why they had to learn business skills in both. They thought there was a little too much over lap. I glazed over the subject and continued on.

At the end of the second day we completed the weekly review of the class and Georgeta and my performance for IBS. Frau Goethe seemed to be very pleased with the results! From the marks that I saw, we had pretty consistent 1's, 2's and 3's.

Hope this helps everyone. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll try to get them answered before Monday.

Thanks all,

Jon

[Georgeta]

Hi Torsten and Jon!

Jon, thank you very much for the detailed update. I am sorry to hear that you had a hard time getting back to Leipzig. The weather was indeed terrible and spending some more hours travelling after an 8-hour course is really tiresome. It is great to hear that you enjoyed the two days in Jena and I am quite sure the students enjoyed the activities and they learnt many valuable things from you.

I faced the same problem: answering that WHY do we need to do this all over again once we learnt about these matters in German. Besides making them aware of the advantages of speaking a foreign language in general and English in particular, I explained to them that it should be a piece of cake to deal with notions already familiar to them in their mother tongue and just 'transfer' the information into English.

Maybe if IBS agrees, for the next courses, it could be an idea to suggest having a reversed order of the German and English course.

It is good you had the projector at hand and you solved the lack of handouts. I am also thinking how to cope with a possible technical issue tomorrow: one of the projectors simply refuses to work with my laptop. I also have a rather lengthy report to use for one of the activities and I think I will 'borrow' your method.

Tomorrow night I will post an update myself and let you know what happened during the day.

I wish you both a nice evening.

Regards,
Georgeta

[Torsten]

Hi Georgeta and Jon, thank you both for doing such an excellent job, we're definitely are on the right track. Tomorrow (Tuesday) I'll have a meeting with i.b.s. management in which we'll discuss the strategy and contents of the upcoming course commencing at the end of February.

I do think that an exchange of information regarding the other training modules will help us greatly in adjusting our program. At any rate we should continue providing a combination of both language as well as skill based activities. If our clients already knew how to apply for a job, how to write a resume or CV, how to negotiate properly, how to put themselves into an entrepreneur's shoes, etc., they wouldn't be in that course in the first place.

With the next group we need to make sure our learners understand the fact that doing these activities is like doing a sport: Only if you practice it on a regular basis will you be able to achieve the results you want. The target for them is to get hired as soon as possible.

More on that soon.
Thanks,
Torsten

TOEIC listening, photographs: In a kitchen

[Georgeta]

Day 6/ 10,Jena, January 3rd, 2011

Hi Torsten and Jon,

Torsten, thank you for your kind words and I look forward to hearing the news after tomorrow's meeting. You are absolutely right about the fact that we need to work on making the students aware of the ongoing aspect of the language learning process.

A good day again. In the morning, one student reminded the group the topics covered on Thursday and Friday. As I promised them on Wednesday, we began the activity with 'Going the Extra Mile'. It's just a personal observation, but the students are doing better and better on listening activities. They are taking notes all the time, ask questions and seem really interested in the success principles. Each student had to give an example from their own experience.

I tried to find a link between this and the next activity by having the students find adjectives which best describe people who are 'going the extra mile'. I used the handout which I shared with you and they had to find the adjectives in the word search sheet, choose those which refer to personality and make sentences. I also prepared a handout in order to help them use the adjectives in the right order. They wrote a paragraph in which they had to use at least 10 adjectives and describe a typical German businessman. They strongly relied on what they learnt from Jon on Thursday.

The fact that one of the students used the adjective 'negative' in his description helped me introduce the next activity. We discussed the importance of a positive mental attitude. I used the worksheets from which each student had to choose and answer two questions of his/her choice. We also listened to the audio material and analyzed its message.

Keeping 'success' as the keyword of the day, we watched the video presenting the history of the Levi Strauss company. I saw that the students not only became aware of the story behind this very 'common' item of clothing but also felt proud that the successful businessman had German origins. Using the projector, I presented them the layout and the content of the company's 2009 annual report and we discussed some of the issues. I asked one of the students to print out the descriptions for two of the jobs advertised on the company's homepage. I also suggested they do additional research on the jobs because there are quite a few possibilities around Germany.

I made a slight change in today's plan because one of the students 'went the extra mile' and on her own initiative, prepared a presentation on her job interview experiences. I considered it very important to let the student present the material not only for its content but also to help her gain self-confidence and let her see how her 'going the extra mile' really pays off.

She received positive feedback from her colleagues and I encouraged two more students to share their experiences.

The grammar part planned for today will be done on Wednesday.

We watched the movie 'The Secret of my Success', I gave the groups the quiz and we analyzed the interview situations and I asked them to think about the success principles which helped the main character to achieve his goals.

Jon, I switched the two projectors this morning and the one I brought from the computer room worked perfectly with my laptop. If you have problems with it, please ask Frau Gothel to switch them back. I would like to wish you a pleasant and successful day tomorrow.

Have a good night and I look forward to reading your post tomorrow night.

Best regards,
Georgeta

[Joneiche]

Georgeta, Torsten,

Class went pretty well today. We once again were able to get through all of the planned material.

Georgeta, the projector worked fine with my computer.

We started with a group exercise where students needed to come up with a list of stereotypes for both Germans and Americans. Needless to say the list for Americans was longer!

Once we had the list we spoke about origins of the stereotype and then their accuracy. We also discussed how they could be helpful and of a hindrance in the professional world. Then I had the class give their opinion on stereotypes and reasons for the opinion they held.

Next I gave the students time to discuss their CV's, resumes and cover letters. I let them know on Friday of last week that I would proof read and add suggestions for changes if they wanted. Only one student wanted me to look at their cover letter, so this went rather quick. Was a little dissapointed that there was so little interest in free help.

We next discussed how to promotes one's self. This was a pretty good discussion. In it we spoke of the value of job boards, how you can learn who potential employers are from them and then head to the company website to find specific information about the firm and then apply through the company website. I told them how companies prefer to look at resumes that come in through their website because it is free, and generally of higher quality. Additionally we discussed how in the employer/employee relationship, employee are service providers to their employers, and how important it is to make sure that potential employers think you are better than the next applicant. We also spoke of the power of social networks. There was some heated debate on this. Some people thought that it was inappropriate to approach their friends to help in their job search and it would seem like begging. I mentioned ways to tap the knowledge of you friends without "begging" for work, but some did not agree. Within the networking piece we also discussed the power of donating your time to charitable organizations or to other organizations as it builds your network, which in turn opens up possibilities. Finally we closed with a discussion on the power of a personal website and how to get that done.

Next we worked on Modal Verbs. We had a brief lecture on this specifically to address severity of modal verbs, a more subtle concept, and then did two short quizzes. There seemed to be a good grasp.

We listened to The Effect of Enthusiasm and had a comprehension review where students had to take notes and provide an overview of the listening.

We had a good discussion on trade publications and business magazines. We spoke about what is available to read, and more importantly what information is contained in trade publications. We discussed how most trade organization publish yearly compensation reports that clarify the pay rate and demographics of their employees and how this can be useful in seeing what jobs you are qualified for, negotiating a salary and pricing yourself aggressively.

We closed out the day with a case study on Wal-Mart in Germany. Student had 30 minutes to read the case and prepare and analysis of the business situation and ultimately what had caused Wal-Mart to fail.

Hope this helps. Talk to you all soon.

Jon

[Georgeta]

Day 8/ 10, Jena, January 12th, 2011

Hi Torsten and Jon!

A reminder on Tuesday's topics. I used a phrase from the movie viewed on Tuesday to start the marketing and sales activity. We first listed the qualities of a good salesperson then we read a material from 'Manage in English' which I will attach to the course. Discussed vocabulary, expression related to sales and defined the sales manager's role and place in a company.

Students, in groups, had to give examples of marketing strategies. We read the article
'Five Strategies for Business Growth' and analyzed each strategy.

Because we didn't have internet access we couldn't research Solar Valley's homepage. Instead the groups worked on a case study in the 'In Company. They had to come up with possible solutions and then we learnt what the 2 companies did in order to overcome the crisis.

I prepared handouts for the next topic and we discussed how the 'supply demand ' concept in trade works on the labour market.

Students had to answer the question: What would you do if you had a million dollars? I was impressed: most students mentioned investment and only a few thought of buying a fancy car or spending money on clothes. We listened to the recording and the groups' summaries were compared. The re-telling of the story using the first person narrative mode wasn't very successful. I reminded them the structure of conditionals and we solved exercises in IBS reader.

Ready to do or make business? We discussed the use of verbs often confused in English.

The stress factor in business. Student had to choose an occupation which they consider the most stressful and give reasons for their choice. I prepared a PP and we tried to guess which were the 10 most stressful jobs in 2010.

I introduced the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs business support programme. We read a success story and discussed the opportunities offered by such programmes.

Students worked on the project, and tomorrow the groups will present them together with the logo they will design for their companies.

Good night to both of you and more tomorrow night.

Regards,

Georgeta

[Torsten]

Hello Jon and Georgeta, thank you very much for your excellent work and for keeping each other up to date. In our Skype session next week we are going to talk upcoming projects.

Best regards,
Torsten

TOEIC listening, photographs: Past due notices

[Roberto]

Hi Jon and Georgeta,

I'm quite glad to read that your students in Erfurt have been making more and more progress in English. Let the students keep up the good work!
I hope I can meet both of you personally some day and exchange or share our experience.

Have a nice day!

Regards

Roberto
_________________
Graduate Management Admission Test
GMAT Preparation & GMAT Vocabulary
Learn more about: Roberto Enrique Steffens Villarreal

[Georgeta]

Hi Roberto!

I think that the greatest reward for every trainer is to see the students' progress. It would be great to meet one day. Maybe we could ask Torsten to organize an English Team meeting that would be a good opportunity to meet fellow trainers and share ideas, experiences and, why not, learn from each other.

Have a nice evening and a relaxing weekend ahead!

Best regards,

Georgeta

[Georgeta]

Hi Torsten and Jon!

A rainy but otherwise very pleasant day in Jena today.

After the usual morning report on the previous day's activities, I explained the students the tasks related to the final phase of their projects. Because I intentionally advised them to be 'creative' and this, just as I expected, started a discussion on what being creative really means, we felt the need for explaining the meaning of this word. I listed everything the students suggested on the whiteboard, then we read the text 'Creativity'. We discussed and concluded that the 'formula of creativity' is 'the action of rethinking existing elements'. I also showed the students some examples of organizational diagrams and they had to create one for the company in their project.

Next we spoke about means of advertisement, logos and slogans. We analyzed each means and the students started working on designing their logos and giving the final touch to the projects. Each project had something special in it and the students were very enthusiastic. We had a 'project exhibition' and each group had to visit the other groups' stand and leave comments and make suggestions in the 'guest book' (well, guest A4 paper sheet in our case). The 'hosts' had to respond to the comments left by their peers. At the end of the activity I congratulated each group, gave them feedback and handed them the diplomas.

Two of the projects were designed as internet businesses and this helped me introduce the next topic: e-business. Brainstorming on 'why establish a business on the Internet?'. Besides the clear advantages, students gave, and supported their point of view with arguments, a number of reasons why they wouldn't start an e-business.

For the 'International Organizations' activity I used the video and gave the groups the while-listening questions. They seemed a little bit tired and managed to answer only a few questions during the first listening. I re-played one by one the parts which contained the answers and the second attempt was more successful.

In 'Working abroad' I inserted another listening activity and this time the results were positive. We discussed the advantages and drawbacks of working abroad, the cultural impact, the importance of information and research and ,since none of the students has ever worked abroad, they shared travel experiences and the problems they encountered while visiting different countries.

The last part of the day was spent with correcting some exercises given as homework and solving some more in the English Reader.

Now I need to confess: I already feel bad about tomorrow because I wish it wasn't the last day with this great group.

Have a good night and relax during the weekend. I look forward to talking to you next week.

Best wishes,

Georgeta

[Georgeta]

Day 10/10, 14.01.2011,Jena

Hi Torsten and Jon!

This was the last day of our 2-week course in Jena.

In the morning we reviewed spelling, grammar and vocabulary. I used a text from 'Manage in English' and exercises in 'In Company'. The students were invited to ask questions related to the topics we covered during the 2 weeks.

For 2 hours the students worked on the final test.

After the lunch break, they had to 'visit' the board and chose one of the folded paper slips pinned to it. They contained the most important topics and the students were given time to prepare their part of the final revision. Each student presented the assigned topic in front of the class and step by step the round-up got its final form.

During the last part of our today's activity, we decided to 'go the extra mile' for a student who joined our group yesterday. On Monday, he has an interview and this was a good opportunity for the students to put once again into practice everything they learnt about interviews. They were so enthusiastic, sent out the interviewee and prepared themselves for a 'tough' interview. The outcome was a perfect combination of team-tag and stress interview.

It's been a real pleasure working with this group of young graduates.

Many thanks,

Georgeta

[Roberto]

Hi Torsten,

thanks for the invitation. I'm unfortunately busy at that time on Wednesday. Could we postpone it to Friday 21 at 5 p.m.?

Regards

Roberto
_________________
Graduate Management Admission Test
GMAT Preparation & GMAT Vocabulary
Learn more about: Roberto Enrique Steffens Villarreal

[Torsten]

Hello Roberto,

From now on we will be having meetings on a regular basis so you will more opportunities to take part. Many thanks, Torsten

TOEIC listening, photographs: Loading the car