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Presentations: Intermediate Podcasts from ESL Pod

22/10/2013

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ESL Pod has lots of useful podcasts for intermediate & upper-intermediate learners. You can listen to the audio online or download it to play on your phone or MP3 player.
Usually the format is:
  • a short conversation or speech at a slow speed
  • an explanation of the words, idioms & US culture related to the conversation
  • the conversation spoken again, but at a normal speed for native English speakers
The audio is free but if you want to see the transcript of the explanation or other resources, you have to pay.
Here are some useful podcasts about presentations:
  • ESLPodcast 69 - Making a Presentation - A presenter talks about the steps of giving a presentation: setting up his projector and laptop with PowerPoint; clearing his voice (although it's more common to say clearing your throat); greeting those present, introducing the topic, using a clicker to advance through (or flip through) through the slides (which have bullet points), inviting questions from the audience, and concluding by summarizing the main points. He even talks about being nervous: getting stage fright and having butterflies.
  • ESL Podcast 170 - Questions and Answers at a Presentation
  • ESL Podcast 204 – Using Visuals in a Presentation
  • ESL Podcast 644 – Giving a Successful Presentation
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Q&A: What is coaching?

18/10/2013

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Update 2013-11-20:
  • Added more info about coaches and trainers.
  • Added link: British Council > Learn English - An Introduction to coaching.
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My student Yeping from China asks:
In the course named Training and Development Strategy (Part 1),I can’t find the relationship between coaching and its explanation (developing a person's skills or knowledge so their job performance improves what does the word “coach” mean?
My answer:
A good question. In fact, coaching (as a form of employee development) can be a little difficult to understand clearly even for native English speakers, as it is a new idea and not very clear yet.
Basically, in coaching one person helps another to achieve an improvement in their performance at work.

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Sales: Intermediate Podcasts from ESL Pod

17/10/2013

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Update 2013-12-10: Added link to Quizlet and Listen and Write exercises for Podcast 750.
In our classes on Sales, we cover topics like sales vocabulary, retail, wholesale, modes of payment, discounts, e-commerce, trends etc. So here are some useful intermediate podcasts related to these topics.
ESL Pod
ESL Pod has lots of useful podcasts for intermediate & upper-intermediate learners. You can listen to the audio online or download it to play on your phone or MP3 player.
Usually the format is:
  • a short conversation at a slow speed
  • an explanation of the words, idioms & US culture related to the conversation
  • the conversation spoken again, but at a normal speed for native English speakers
The audio is free but if you want to see the transcript of the explanation or other resources, you have to pay.
  • ESL Podcast 224 – Holiday Promotions - A marketer for an online store (i.e. e-commerce, not a brick-and-mortar store) has to come up with a holiday promotion to increase retail sales in this sales cycle (a period time over which sales is measured) and capitalize on gift-giving at this time of year to make inroads into the gift-buying market. They can afford to slash prices, but she doesn't want to resort to gimmicks to attract today's computer-savvy consumers. And because they have a lot of inventory,  they don't have to worry about running out of stock.
  • ESL Podcast 140 - Buying on the Internet - A consumer talks about the advantages of online shopping / e-commerce (like comparison shopping) and the process of purchasing on the internet: reading the product description, adding the product to your shopping cart (or basket) (example), seeing if it's in stock, choosing shipping options (example) (like standard shipping or expedited shipping), filling in your shipping address (example), completing the online billing procedure by filling in your billing address (example), credit card number and expiration date (example), then seeing the confirmation page (example) and the order tracking number (example).
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1. Issuing Bank Logo - 2. EMV chip (only on "smart cards") - 3. Hologram - 4. Personal Account Number - 5. Card Brand Logo - 6. Expiration Date - 7. Card Holder Name - 8. Contactless Chip - SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card
  •  ESL Podcast 384 – Accepting Credit Cards - Two store managers discuss accepting a new mode of payment: credit cards. They talk about card features like the card number, the expiration date and the security code, the step of swiping the card's magnetic strip through the POS (point of sale) terminal in the register, the possibility of the issuing bank declining the card because the cardholder has already reached their credit limit, and the idea of a chargeback if the cardholder disputes a charge.
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1. Magnetic Stripe - 2. Signature Strip - 3. Card Security Code - SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card
  • ESL Podcast 750 – After Christmas Sales - A couple talking about going to the after Christmas sales, when stores mark down their prices to clear their inventory, especially to get rid of seasonal items. When shops slash their prices, consumers take advantage of discounts, by purchasing large quantities of items that are on sale, stocking up on cheap goods. Nobody likes to miss out on a great deal. (Here "deal" = a bargain, low price for the buyer. The only dictionary page I could find with this meaning of "deal" is not possible to link to directly. Go here, then near top of page click "3) deal (noun)", then look at definition #3.)
Update 2013-12-10: I found some free online exercises related to this podcast:
  • Quizlet - ESL Podcast 750 - After Christmas Sales - flash cards, spelling exercises and more to help you remember the vocabulary.
  • Listen and Write - ESL Podcast 750 – After Christmas Sales - it plays a sentence, you listen and type the sentence. If you write it correctly, then it moves on to the next sentence. NOTE: do not type spaces, punctuation, apostrophes etc. Only type the letters.
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Tencent Weibo: Too unreliable (at least for foreigners)

14/10/2013

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Summary: As someone who is not fluent in Chinese, I cannot rely on Tencent 腾讯/QQ for microblogging (or indeed anything). So I'm not using Tencent and now I'm trying LinkedIn instead.
Update 2013-11-15: Once again, Tencent Weibo is denying me access to my account without explanation and without a way to resolve the problem in English.

I used to use a Tencent Weibo microblog to give my Chinese students useful or interesting links related to English, China, business etc. But back in June, I had a major problem with it: I could no longer access it at all. I wrote about that in my blog post here.
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Any attempt by me to fix the problem would lead to lots of untranslated pages in Chinese. So I e-mailed their international support. The only response I had from Tencent was a link to instructions about what to do when you lose your password.
There were several problems with this:
  1. I hadn't actually lost my password (I save all my passwords with a useful program called KeePass).
  2. The instructions were out of date, and did not explain some new steps in the password recovery process.
  3. Despite Tencent claiming to be international, all messages and pages on the website for dealing with this problem were in Chinese (with the further problem that many important words & buttons were not really text but actually images, making it impossible to translate the Chinese into English using a service like Google Translate).
  4. The instructions did not resolve the problem. I still had no access to my Tencent account.
I continued to try to resolve this problem communicating in English with Tencent / QQ International, via e-mail and via their blog (which is what you get taken to when you click on "Help").
No luck for me with Tencent
I never had another reply from Tencent International's e-mail, despite me writing twice more.

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Presentations: Vocabulary, Articles, Audio and Exercises for Signposting and Transitions

10/10/2013

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Update 2015-12-11: Added BEP 102c
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In our course on business presentations, we have a class on signposting (#2) and transitions.
In a presentation, signposting is giving the audience information about where they are in the presentation and where they'll be going.
In presentations, a transition is the action / process of finishing one topic and moving to another.
(See this post of mine for a video on signposting and transitions: Presentations: Video with Signposting and Transitions )
Here are some links with useful vocabulary, articles, audio and exercises for signposting and transitioning in presentations. 
  • Business English Pod - BEP 102c – Signposting a Presentation
  • ESL Gold - Signposting - Useful phrases, and you can hear them in an MP3 file.
  • BBC Learning English - Presentations - Signposting
  • Business English Resources - Student Guides: Signposts
  • Effective Public Speaking Skills - Signposting - phrases and exercises


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Presentations: Video with Signposting and Transitions

10/10/2013

2 Comments

 
Update 2015-12-11: Updated vocabulary & other links.
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In our course on business presentations, we have a class on signposting (#2) and transitions.
In a presentation, signposting is giving the audience information about where they are in the presentation and where they'll be going.

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CVs & résumés: Personal Statements

9/10/2013

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Update 2016-03-24: Removed dead VideoJug link.
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A personal statement is a short paragraph about yourself near the top of a CV / résumé, which quickly gives the reader the most important information about you, and makes them interesting in hiring you for the job.
It can also be called a:
  • value statement
  • (résumé) profile
  • (career) summary
A similar idea is an objective statement (or objective), where you say what you want to achieve in the job you're applying for, but most advice nowadays say that objective statements are no longer useful. You can read about both profiles and objectives here.
Here are some links to useful articles about writing a personal statement on your CV / résumé.
  • ​Jobs.ac.uk - How to create a CV: Part One: Personal Statement
  • University of Kent - How to write CV profiles, personal statements, career aims and objectives
  • Houston Chronicle - How to Write a Good CV Personal Statement
  • Timewisejobs - How to write a personal statement
  • The Guardian - How to write a personal statement for your CV
  • eHow - CV Personal Statement Ideas
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    G.A.L.E.S.L. / joe3

    Some tips and links on learning English.

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  • Home
  • Blog
  • ESL Links
    • Links during Online Classes
    • General English
    • TOEIC
    • TOEFL
    • Online Conversation / Language Exchange
    • Listening
    • Vocabulary
    • Grammar
    • Verbs
    • Business English
    • Telephone English
    • Other Links
  • Articles
    • Q & A: Help with International Accents, Page 1 >
      • Accents page 2: Ask them to slow down
      • Accents page 3: Get to know other accents
      • Accents page 4: Using online accent resources: IDEA
      • Accents page 5: Using online accent resources: Speech Accent Archive
      • Accents page 6: Using online accent resources: Map Your Voice
    • Case Study: BMW and Rover
  • Conversation Issues
    • Nice to meet you
    • How have you been?
    • Where are you? / Where are you from?
    • meet a problem
    • colleagues
    • -ed [versus] -ing
    • borrow [versus] lend
    • "or" questions
    • Relax myself
    • Sorry for my late
    • Name card
  • Search
  • About / Contact
  • Sound Problems
    • Feedback & Echo
    • No Sound
    • Fans
    • Interruptions
    • Volume Level