TED: Ideas worth spreading

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. “TED is devoted to giving millions of knowledge-seekers around the globe direct access to the world’s greatest thinkers and teachers.”

TED offers a lot of interesting video and audio material – interesting and fascinating articles from the 3 areas.

I selected the theme Presentation Innovation and saw Jeff Han’s presentation about the multi-touch user interface (the iPhone uses it) – really cool!

I definitely will come back to TED. Feel free to join interesting articles you found no this blog!
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Listen and improve your English! – audio podcasts

From Wikipedia: “A podcast is a collection of digital media files which is distributed over the Internet for playback on portable media players and personal computers.”

This English as a Second Language (ESL) podcast is an audio podcast free of charge. It offers a collection of MP3 files, you can listen to directly on there web page www.eslpod.com (not at HL) or download to listen on your mp3 player.

I really like listening to this audio because it offers a wide range of subjects and stress the learning aspect. Usually you here the articles several time at different speed. A host gives explanations for new phrases and uses them in different contexts.

Another freely available audio podcast I can recommend is the Business English Podcast (BEP). As the name implies it focus more on business topics, but nevertheless is well done. The presentation style is similar to the ESL pod, but in addition there is even space to answer questions.

Both podcasts are surrounded with additional material you can pay money for, if you want.
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“Rogue Trader” – my notices

sort things out
8 is a lucky Chinese number
rogue – Gauner
one giant casino
a gambler is playing with money
being a lady of leisure
a plasterer – a plaster is on the walls inside a room
red tape - burocracy
We all believe in you. or We all trust in you. – both are similar
shame about the bonus - used to say that sth is a cause for feeling sad or disappointed
speak over P.A. – Public Announcement System

I expected a little bit more from this movie. It gets 33% on rt.com. It was interesting to see how only a small group of people can influence the whole global market. In fact it did not excited me really. So I agree to the rt.com review from Ryan Cracknell.

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“Freedom Writers” in March session

It was decided to see the movie Freedom Writers during the March session.

alliance words from the floor

added value
market research
competitive advantage
out-source
intolerable sacrifice – Abraham sacrifiece his son.
mutual benefits – benefits for bot sides
raise standards
call it a day – we agree to finish at this point
lowest common denominator – an agreement at an unexpectected low level
core competencies
profit centre

words and phrases

woman is singular and women (wiman) is plural
man is singular and men is plural
stop smoking or stop to smoke
beside me sits …
but besides me there are other people around (another word actually)
last as long as – similar to exists as long as
sacrificing quality – means lower quality
threatened – Larry feels threatened by Anna.

phrases regarding the today’s picture story

in the picture – always in, never on!
I didn’t see – the see is present
railing – protects pedestrians on a bridge from falling down
near the railing – no ‘to’ before the word railing

new UK female singers – npr.org article we listened too

According to the npr.org article “Winehouses Blazes Trail for U.K. Female Singers” there arising several new female singer-songwriter worth hearing.

One of them is Adele with their song “Chasing pavement” from the album 19 (see reviews on Amazon). Very interesting voice.

Another artist mentioned is KT Tunstall. From the album “Eye to the Telescope” (see reviews on Amazon) I like the songs “Suddenly I see” and “Black Horse & The Cherry Tree”.

self study tasks February

1. read article “The Penny Idea”
2. “Mission statements say it and live it”
3. “6 rules for writing mission statements …” – compare habit 2
4. choose one of the 4 company stories and work through; be ready on the first day in March; it’s a must
   1. Body Shop
   2. Tom’s of Maine
   3. Rhino Records
   4. General Electric
5. decide on possible exam discussion topics
6. find a very interesting article; give D. and S. a copy (or send by e-mail)
7. read articles D. or S. send in
8. look and listen to www.npr.org
9. bbc.co.uk, cnn.com
10. the alliance tasks
11. personal progress file, action plan (think on and fill out)
12. check rottentomatoes.com and find reviews which you agree with for
    1. Rogue Traders
    2. Last Kiss
    3. Freedom Writers
13. check the blog or even better, contribute to it
14. be proactive
15. keep sharpening the saw

words and phrases

doing well – but things can be good; well with all verbs
The spoken English is going to the dogs. - the quality is getting worse
illogical instead of unlogical
always reponsible for

Can you borrow me this movie? – Yes, I can lend it to you until tomorrow.