English language CV

Business English Assignment

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Improving the programme

Last but not least, improving the programme.

First of all, I want to start with a compliment for Machteld. The way she presented the English classes in front of a lot of uninterested students is something I admire.

The points of improvement that I have, are more like points of change. The course Business English, has not been on the top of my priority-list. The main reason for this was the minor influence it has on the other courses. English isn’t in any of them, so my first point of change is to abolish the Business English course, and integrate it with the other courses. This could help to make the English language more significant for the studies.

If it is decided that Business English stays as a different subject, my advice would be to integrate it with International Business. During that course English is very useful, so make it significant.

As I said in the previous two points, I believe that it would be better to integrate English within the other courses. Because of the lack of significance, a lot of students don’t like business English. If it is integrated in the studies, instead of an extra course, I believe students will be more invested.

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Unknown expressions

Well, when I was looking for unknown expressions, I didn't have to look far. One was in the assignment.

Mainsplaining, I thought I heard of it before in a social media argument, but that turned out to be mansplaining. While googling mainsplaining, all I found was explanations for mansplaining, so that's what I'm gonna use in this blog.

Mansplaining is the occurance that a man explains something to someone, most times a woman, without her wanting something explained. Basically, the man automatically thinks he has more knowledge of the subject than the woman, thus wanting to explain it. Kim Goodwin of BBC Worklife gives a cringeworthy example: "When people (almost always men) explain the product design methods in my own book to me, I say I’m well-acquainted with them, mentally roll my eyes, and move on."

The second unknown expression is 'dank meme'. Well, I'm very familiar with meme-culture since I was thirteen. Yet I never truly understood the expression dank meme. I looked it up on the Urban Dictionary, which gave me a lot of insight in the definition of the expression. Firstly, a meme is a picture or short video of comical nature, which can be re-used in different comical ways. What makes a meme a dank meme? Well, dank memes are often collaborations of different memes, which are way overused, in poor image quality, with little to no meaning, yet they are still funny. The last part is what makes them 'dank'. When a meme is overused and meaningless, it's a bad meme. When the meme is overused and meaningless to the point that it's still funny, then it's a dank meme.

The last expression, is to kick the bucket. I googled weird english expressions, and this one popped up. It wasn't a known expression to me, but it means the same as the dutch saying: 'voordat ik de pijp uit ga'. To kick the bucket, refers to a bucket-list. The bucket-list is a list of things a person wants to do before he or she dies. When someone says, I want to do this before I kick the bucket, it means said person wants to do it before they die.

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A letter to my manager

Dear Gijs, I want to thank you for all you’ve done for our organisation during the time we both worked there. The way you managed the Albert Heijn was way different from other managers, but it worked and fitted you like a glove.

You managed to inspire and motivate us all by being there in the workspace and doing your part. When times were hectic, you were there ‘on the frontline’. Being so energetic is something I deeply admire. Furthermore, you managed to keep track of everything and everyone, even when you were busy working on the floor.

One thing you thought me, was to never stop trying to find your own way to do things. People usually want you to do things like they would do it themselves, even when that style doesn’t suit you. You gave me the space to find my own ways, which helps me to this day in every workplace I find myself in.

One piece of advice before this letter comes to its end, is to find ways to relax sometimes. You’re always working, always being there for everyone. Everyone loves it about you, yet everyone also understands that you need to blow off some steam every once in a while. Give yourself the space that you give us.

With kind regards.

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Coaching with Power

The most important learning experience during my time as a student, quite the subject..

During this time I’ve experienced a lot of different things. I’ve worked at various companies, including an IT company, non-profit organizations and an educational organisation. Yet my most important learning experience was during the minor in year three.

I studied the minor “Krachtig Coachen”, which means Powerful Coaching. The part powerful does not represent the way of speech that the coach chooses, it represents the power inside the coachee (receiver of the coaching).

During this course I learned a lot of valuable things. First of all, I learned a lot about my own values as a human being. I learned that what I value most isn’t profit, it isn’t a financial result. What I value most is justice, nothing annoys me more, than people being treated in a wrong way, and nothing excites me more than positive human development.

Why is this my most important learning experience? Well, a lot of the business administration studies focuses solely on profit and improvement, and seems to neglect the human aspect. During the minor, I got to see a different point of view, which will stay with me for the rest of my life.

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Zas

Wilco van de leugendetector

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Difficult words encounter

During the making of this blog, I have encountered a few unknown words. The first is collaboration. When I looked up the word, I remembered the meaning, which is working together or working with. 

The second word is the word conscious. This word has multiple meanings, which made it difficult to pick the right one. The right meaning in this context was responsible for people and environment. 

The third word is divest. It means the opposite of invest, so it means selling your investments or shares in a company.

The last one is meritocracy. This is a way of governing, meaning the ones who deserve it rule.

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Journey to Avila

During the international journey of week 46 I went to Avila, Spain. Avila is a small city, with dark ages written all over it. The city is surrounded by a big wall with towers, battlements and city gates. We spent the week in the dormitories of the Universidad Catholica de Avila.

I noticed various cultural differences between the Spanish, Russian and Dutch students. The Russian and Dutch students seemed more hardworking than the Spanish students. Moreover, the Spanish students barely spoke any English, whereas the Dutch and Russian students spoke fluent English. Even though these differences seem big, the biggest was the use of the siesta.

One day before the presentations, one hour until the report deadline. The two Spaniards of our group stood up, grabbed their stuff and where walking towards the door. We stopped them, asked them what they where doing and reminded them that the deadline was in one hour. They lifted their shoulders and said: “Siesta time”. I’m still shocked by their answer.

Another difference in culture was the perceiving of arrogant behaviour. “Running a business is like hitting on women, you only show what you are good at. That’s why I am so successful”. When one of the business experts said this, we were shocked, yet the Russian and Spanish students found it to be normal. In those cultures it is normal to be arrogant when you are successful.

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The Moral Foundations of Politics

In this Yale lecture, Sterling Professor of Political Science Ian Shapiro talks about the effect the enlightenment has had on the moral foundation of politics. He starts off his lecture with the subjects of the enlightenment. “Enlightenment is the idea of basing our theories of politics on science instead of religion, tradition, superstition and natural law” he says. Science is the core of politics and individual freedom is the most important political good. The enlightenment revolves around the question: “How do you scientifically design a society to maximize individual freedom?

The enlightenment has three traditions: the utilitarian tradition, the Marxist tradition and the social contract. The utilitarian tradition is the way in which you create a scientifically organized society is you maximize the greatest happiness of the greatest number. The Marxist tradition is based on the idea that we can have impersonal scientific principles that give us the right answer for the organization of society. In the ideal society, politics will be replaced by administration because moral disagreement will have faded. Even though Karl Marx is often described as someone who wanted equality, he still is an enlightened thinker. This is because he wanted everyone to be equally free, which is the core of enlightenment. The third is the social contract. This contract is described as the way we get a scientific theory of society is to think about what agreement people would make if they were designing society for the first time.

This lecture doesn’t seem like the obvious choice, looking at business administration. That is partly true, but this lecture is very important looking at my professional development. Because I’m very interested in coaching, it is important to know how people think and what their behaviour is based on. The enlightenment didn’t just lay the formation of modern politics, it formed the foundation of modern society. The reason western behaviour is so different from middle eastern behaviour is because of the enlightenment. Europeans always try to see the bigger picture and put things in perspective. This is developed during the enlightenment. My point being, understanding behaviour begins at the foundation, which is the enlightenment.

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How to disagree productively and find common ground

“Sometimes it seems like the only thing we can agree on, is that we can’t agree on anything.”

Let’s agree to disagree. How many times those words are spoken is uncanny.

“The way that you reach people, is by finding common ground.”

This makes a lot of sense. People are not interested in changing their viewpoint, if the new viewpoint is in no way the same as the old one.

“Step away from the keyboards, start conversing.”

A very important statement in a time of keyboard warriors and cyber bullying. 

This TED-talk by Julia Dhar is a talk anyone experiencing conflicting ideas should listen to. Not only would it make sure a lot less arguments happen, it would also help people find common ground when opinions differ. She states that creating an opinion on something should be done at the least personal version of an idea. I think she might be right here. It happens too often that ideas are dismissed, simply because we don’t like the person or organization that came up with the idea.

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How to find the person who can help you get ahead at work

“Our culture, our process, is a meritocracy.” 

A meritocracy is a way of governing, meaning: ruled by the ones who deserve it. Hard work pays of right? Turns out to be different.

“It was that moment that I realized that this idea of a meritocracy that every organization sells is just a myth.”

So hard work doesn’t pay off? It is really just depending on who is going to speak for you?

“There are two types of currency in any environment: performance currency and relationship currency.”

I picked this quote, because I think society works this way. Not only is hard work required, also 

Carla Harris speaks of experience and knowledge. She presents how you can make a good impression on possible sponsors, and thus get you higher up the ladder. Performance currency speaks to me. Under promising and over delivering is a concept I try to live by. Firstly because it gets you noticed, it gets you promoted and it may attract a sponsor. This is because everybody loves a star. I have seen it happen many times at my job. Someone makes sure he performs, he gets discovered and a few months down the line they are leading the team. I like this talk, I can relate to it and it makes a lot of sense.

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How conscious investors can turn up the heat and make companies change

“We love to engage on the issues of the day. We comment on the news, social media, we march, we protest. But who among us is working on solutions?”

I chose this quote, because I think it’s very accurate. Everyone speaks, yet nobody is saying anything.

“Activists like money. The way they make money is by getting management of corporations to make changes.”

This quote might be simplified, but it is a very accurate view on investors.

“You can’t divest your way to a greener world.” 

This quote is a statement to all conscious investors. Don’t pull out your money from bad companies. Instead, use the influence the stocks give you by turning up the heat, and making changes!

This TED-talk gave me a new outlook on investors. Not only do investors have a lot more influence than you might think, just by pressuring the companies. Vinay Shandel has done a great job on addressing this topic. He gave examples of greedy investors, conscious investors and both their influences in society. The way he spoke about an investor taking on the Argentinian government, is a story to remember. Just by increasing the pressure, he got his investment back multiple times. Conscious investors should take note. They shouldn’t sell their stocks once a company does bad things, they should use their influence to make a change.

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Why open offices are bad for us

Four years ago, Chris Nagele did what many other technology executives have done before — he moved his team into an open concept office. He did this because he wanted his staff working together more, to bond and to collaborate more easily than they had done working from home. It was a big mistake. “We’re 15% less productive, we have immense trouble concentrating and we’re twice as likely to get sick in open working spaces” research shows. There’s one big reason we’d all love a space with four walls and a door that shuts: focus. The truth is, we can’t multitask, and small distractions can cause us to lose focus for upwards of 20 minutes. Beside the cheaper cost, one main argument for the open workspace is that it increases collaboration. However, it’s well documented that we rarely brainstorm brilliant ideas when we’re just shooting the breeze in a crowd. Instead, as many of us know, we’re more likely to hear about the Christmas gift a colleague is buying for a family member, or problems with your deskmate’s spouse.

This is a relatable article for me. Working at Gemeente Ede gave me my first experience with open workspaces. The biggest complaint me and my co-workers had, was being able to hear the way too hard laughing of someone in another department. Back when there used to be closed workspaces, the concentration-span was a lot longer. Closed workspaces offer much more productivity to the seasoned employee, while open workspaces offer a lot more learning opportunities for new employees.

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The man who takes a plane to work every day

This is a story about mechanical engineer Curt von Badinski. Five days a week, he rises at 05:00 for the 15-minute drive to Bob Hope Burbank airport, for a 90-minute flight to Oakland, located 353 miles (568km) north west. He parks close to the departure building of Surf Air, a California-based airline that offers unlimited flights on a single-engine turboprop plane, for a monthly fee. Von Badinski pays $2,300 to take return flights from Burbank to Oakland. Once in Oakland, he takes his hybrid car for the drive into San Francisco. Von Badinski gets to the office by 08:30 and leaves by 17:00, allowing time for busy traffic on his drive back to Oakland airport to catch his return flight at 19:15. He is home in Burbank shortly after 21:00. His six-hour commute doesn’t bother him. “I am always excited to start the day” he says.

When I found this article, I was shocked by the hours of traveling he does daily. And it isn’t just by car or just by train. Everyday he gets up very early, drives to the airport, takes a plane and drives to work. I just can’t understand how he enjoys this life. Waking up very early, getting home late, sleeping, and then the cycle continues. It must be his dream job, because working those hours can become very depressing and dangerous, as showed in my previous review.

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The compelling case for working a lot less

There is a big difference between Rome and Washington DC. People take the time to do nothing. Old people leaning out of windows just to watch people, taking evening walks and so on. Yet the stereotype of lazy Italians doesn’t isn’t the whole story. Those same people often stay at work till 8pm. But doing nothing, isn’t that unproductive? It is not. It turns out that you need breaks to get to maximum productivity. The brain is a muscle, and 10.000 brain push-ups are not possible in one go. “The idea that you can indefinitely stretch out your deep focus and productivity time to these arbitrary limits is really wrong. It’s self-defeating,” says research scientist Andrew Smart. He says working too much can lead to severe depression. Other research states that working long hours increases the risk of heart disease by 40%, while smoking increases the risk by 50%.

In my search for an article to review, I came across this article describing the need for shorter working hours. Not only does it improve productivity, it turns out to be dangerous to have long working hours. This came as a surprise for me. I always think of working for a long time in one go as being productive, while it decreases productivity. I didn’t know it was this dangerous to work long hours too. I think the dangers of this should be wider known, so people can take breaks when needed, and thus decreasing the dangers of heart disease.

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Language CV

In my past, I have used the English language quite often. I first had English classes in group 7 of primary school, but I played my first English video game when I was only 6 years old. This means I grew up learning the basics of the English language. Later in my youth, I started watching English movies, first with subtitles, later without. Movies like Pirates of the Caribbean and Star Wars thought me the English language quite well. In high school I excelled in English class and finished my VWO with an 8.8 on my final exams.