LIS 2a Class 25/2/2013

Today in class we covered many topics including grammar, interviewing in English, song lyrics and idiomatic phrases.  If you were not in class today and do not have a valid university approved excuse I will not accept the CV in English that was due in class today.

Important for an Interview

• Be on time.
• Be well dressed.
• Speak clearly and with a good vocabulary.
• Be prepared (know about the company and about yourself in relation to the company.)
• Bring you CV/resume
• Think about the questions that will be asked.

Here are the exercises used in class:

Use the following cues to write out full questions for a job interview.

1.    How long / work / present?

2.    How many / languages / speak?

3.    Strengths?

4.    Weaknesses?

5.    Past job?

6.    Current responsibilities?

7.    Education?

8.    Specific examples of responsibility at past job?

9.    Which position / want - like to have / new job?

10. Future goals?

Use the following cues to write out full responses for a job interview.

1.    Current job / school

2.    Last job / school

3.    Languages / skills

4.    How long / work / current job

5.    Three specific examples from past job

6.    Current responsibilities

7.    Strengths / weaknesses (two for each)

8.    Why are you interested in this job?

9.    What are your future goals?

10. Education

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT

Questions Often Asked By Employers 

1.       Tell me about yourself.                                                              

2.       What are your short-range and long-range career goals, and how are you preparing to achieve them?

3.       Why did you choose this career? 

4.       Why did you leave your last job?

5.       What do you consider to be your greatest strengths?  Weaknesses?

6.       How would you describe yourself?  How would a friend, professor, or previous coworker describe you?

7.       How has your college experience prepared you for your career?

8.       Why should I hire you?

9.       How do you determine or evaluate success?   

10.    In what ways do you think you can make a contribution to our company?

11.    Describe the relationship that should exist between a supervisor and those reporting to him/her.

12.    Describe your most rewarding high school/college experience.

13.    If you were hiring for this position, what qualities would you look for?

14.    What led you to choose your field or major? 

15.    What have you learned from participation in extracurricular activities?

16.    How do you work under pressure? 

17.    Describe the ideal job/college.

18.    Why did you decide to seek a position with this organization and what do you know about us?

19.    What major problems have you encountered and how did you deal with it?

20.    What criteria are you using to evaluate the company/college for which you hope to work/attend?

21.    What salary do you want? 

22.    Would you rather be liked or feared?

 It is important to know how to correctly answer difficult questions with good answers that make you a desirable candidate. 

We then discussed songs and used Queen songs as a listening activity:
 

Queen We Are the Champions

I've paid my dues
Time after time
I've done _____     _________________ 
But committed no crime  
And bad mistakes 
I've made a few 
I've had my share of _____________    ________________ in my face  
But I've come through 

We are the champions - my friends 
And we'll keep ____   ___________________ - till the end  
We are the champions  
We are the champions 
No time for losers 
'Cause we are the champions - of the world - 

I've taken my bows 
And my _________________        _________________ 
You brought me _____________    ________     __________________ and everything that goes with it 

I thank you all - 

But it's been no bed of roses 
No pleasure cruise  
I consider it a _______________ before the whole human race
And I ain't gonna lose  

We are the champions - my friends 
And we'll keep on fighting - till the end - 
We are the champions
We are the champions 
No time for losers 
'Cause we are the _________________________ - of the world

Queen We Will Rock You

Buddy you're a boy make a __________      _________________ 
Playin' in the street gonna be a big man some day 
You got mud on your face 
You’re big _____________ 
Kickin' your can all over the place 

We will we will rock you 
We will we will rock you 

Buddy you're a young man hard man 
Shoutin' in the street gonna _____________    ________ the world some day 
You got blood on your face 
You’re a big disgrace 
Wavin' your ____________ all over the place 

We will we will rock you 
We will we will rock you 

Buddy you're an old man poor man 
Pleadin' with your eyes gonna make you some peace some day 

You got mud on your face 
You big disgrace 
Somebody ____________      __________ you back in your place 

We will we will rock you 
We will we will rock you

LIS1 Class: Interviewing 22/2/2013

In class we talked about interviewing strategies in English and we created questions and dialogues to practice.

Important for an Interview

• Be on time.
• Be well dressed.
• Speak clearly and with a good vocabulary.
• Be prepared (know about the company and about yourself in relation to the company.)
• Bring you CV/resume
• Think about the questions that will be asked.

Here are the exercises used in class:

Use the following cues to write out full questions for a job interview.

1.    How long / work / present?

2.    How many / languages / speak?

3.    Strengths?

4.    Weaknesses?

5.    Past job?

6.    Current responsibilities?

7.    Education?

8.    Specific examples of responsibility at past job?

9.    Which position / want - like to have / new job?

10. Future goals?

Use the following cues to write out full responses for a job interview.

1.    Current job / school

2.    Last job / school

3.    Languages / skills

4.    How long / work / current job

5.    Three specific examples from past job

6.    Current responsibilities

7.    Strengths / weaknesses (two for each)

8.    Why are you interested in this job?

9.    What are your future goals?

10. Education

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT

Questions Often Asked By Employers 

1.       Tell me about yourself.                                                              

2.       What are your short-range and long-range career goals, and how are you preparing to achieve them?

3.       Why did you choose this career? 

4.       Why did you leave your last job?

5.       What do you consider to be your greatest strengths?  Weaknesses?

6.       How would you describe yourself?  How would a friend, professor, or previous coworker describe you?

7.       How has your college experience prepared you for your career?

8.       Why should I hire you?

9.       How do you determine or evaluate success?   

10.    In what ways do you think you can make a contribution to our company?

11.    Describe the relationship that should exist between a supervisor and those reporting to him/her.

12.    Describe your most rewarding high school/college experience.

13.    If you were hiring for this position, what qualities would you look for?

14.    What led you to choose your field or major? 

15.    What have you learned from participation in extracurricular activities?

16.    How do you work under pressure? 

17.    Describe the ideal job/college.

18.    Why did you decide to seek a position with this organization and what do you know about us?

19.    What major problems have you encountered and how did you deal with it?

20.    What criteria are you using to evaluate the company/college for which you hope to work/attend?

21.    What salary do you want? 

22.    Would you rather be liked or feared?

Don't forget the presentation that is graded is during our next class.

MAG 1 Last Class: 18/2/2013

Thank you all for a great six weeks.  I am sad to say that is was short but I hope that you all were able to make some sort of improvement in your English. 

If you need someone to look over your CV in the future, send it to me in an email and I wold be happy to help!  Thanks again!


Annika Gielen

MAG1 Class 11/2/2013

Today we did an exercise about being stranded on a desert island to learn about convincing others of your opinion.  You had to choose 5 items from this list to take with you to the desert island, ONLY 5!

• a lighter
• 20 meters of rope
• a magnifying glass
• a pistol with 50 bullets
• jerry cans of water
• a bottle of whiskey
• a first aid kit
• fishing hooks
• a blanket
• a tent
• a penknife
• an axe
• signal flares
• a radio with batteries
• a telephone with batteries
• a bag of vegetable seeds
• a torch/flashlight

We then talked about the article and the questions that went along with it.

Reminder: next Monday (18/2/2013) is the controle continue in class.  The test will be on things we learned in class and will be short answer questions.  

LIS 1 Project Assignment 8/2/2013

In class we looked at different news reports and learned about breaking news.  In groups of 3 students you need to create a 3 minute presentation in class on 22/2/2013.  This presentation needs to be without a script and used the information that we learned together in class.  If you were not in class it is your responsibility to contact me to get a group and a topic.

LIS 1 Class 8/2/2013 Superbowl

Superbowl Sunday

3/2/2013

 Between two teams:

 

Football Highlights:

 Commercials:

 

 

LIS 2a Class 4/2/2013 For/Since and CV/Resumes

When do we use For/Since/During and While?

For
Use for a complete duration, that is a duration that is finished when you are speaking about it.

ex. I have been studying English for 2 months.
In this sentence 2 months is the complete duration.

Since
Use for a sentence talking about the start or beginning of a duration that is still occurring.

ex. I have been studying English since 1999.
In this sentence 1999 is the start of the time period that is continuing to today.

During/While
Use this when there are two simultaneous actions in the same duration.  You must have two actions to use during or while.

ex. During my holiday I went to London.

Here my holiday is the duration, and the two simultaneous actions are going to London, and being on holiday.

Exercises:

1. Sally has been working here _____ six months.
2. Sally has been working here _____ April.
3.  I haven't seen Tom _____ three days.
4. I haven't seen Tom ______ Monday.
5. I fell asleep ______ the film.
6. We met really nice people _______ our holiday.
7. The ground is wet.  It must have rained ________ the night.
8. We watched television ______ two hours last night.
9. Where have you been?  I've been waiting for ages.

We have been studying English...

1. ______  seven months.
2. ______ June.
3. ______  the beginning of last year.
4. ______ for about 20 minutes.
5. ______  I was a child in play school.
6. ______ ten months.
7. ______  a long time.
8. ______ five days.
9. ______  I was 17 years old.
10. ______ eleven days.
11. ______  I came to Ireland.
12. ______ 2 hours a day for 3 years.

For homework please complete these exercises by responding to the questions using the answers in parentheses:

1. How long have you lived in the UK? (3 years)
2. How long has Margaret been a nurse? (1999)
3. How long has Mark known Jennifer? (not long)
4. How long have they been studying Spanish? (a few years)
5. How long has Peter been playing golf? (a long time)
6. How long has Sinead been playing the clarinet? (secondary school)
7. How long has Lucy worn glasses? (1985)
8. How long will you be on holiday? (three weeks)
9. How long have you driven a car? (Christmas)
10. How long has Simon had his new computer? (a few weeks)

CV/Resumes
We learned about CVs/Resumes in class and how they are different in English from French versions.  You need to write your own CV in English that will be due in class 25/2/2013.

CV/Resume Notes

Writing a CV/resume in English is very different to writing one in French.  It is important to understand the structure and vocabulary used in English CVs/resumes.

Heading

Name: In English, the first name is written first, followed by your last name with only the first letter capitalized.

(ex. John Smith)

Address: This should be written on two lines and include a postal code.  In English, only the first letter of a city is capitalized.

                (ex. 49100 Angers)

Phone: Include the country code for your phone number so those who need to reach you can do so easily.

                (ex. +33 6 12 34 56 78)

Email: you do not need to write the word “email” before the heading, it is clear that this is your email thanks to the @.

(name.lastname@gmail.com) ß make sure that the email address is something professional that has your name in it, not something such as frenchgirl234@gmail.com

Birth Date: this is optional on an English CV/resume, however you may include it if you wish.  Make sure that you label this as Date of Birth on the CV and use the English date format of Day/Month/Year.  (ex. 3/12/1990)

Nationality: this is also not necessary to include, but if you would like to make sure that you have labeled it correctly. 

Objective

This part of the CV is important to give your future employer a quick definition of yourself and why you should be hired.  This is a short headline that is a description of how you fit into the job opportunity. 

(When using numbers here make sure that any number under ten is written out in word form.)

Work Experience

This is the most important part of your CV, so make sure that you are thorough in your descriptions.

1.        Make sure you put the date of your work experience either in a separate column or in bold so that it is easy to identify.  Use at minimum the years that you worked (ex. 2005-2007) but if you know the precise months include those as well (ex. June 2005 – September 2007).  If you are still currently working at this job write the date you started followed by present (ex. June 2005 – present).

2.        Write the name of the company that you worked for in another style such as bold or italics followed the location (city, country) where the company was located in regular font.

3.        Write the title that you held during the job and whether it was full time, part time, or an internship (stage en français).  (ex. Assistant Manager, Full Time)

4.        Then you should give a brief description of what the company does and your role within the company.  This could include any major achievements made during your experience (ex. Raised inventory productivity).

5.        Work experience should be listed from most recent to least recent.  There should be no large gaps in your experience unless it is accounted for by school.  You do not need to include seasonal jobs that do not relate to the opportunity that you are applying for. 

6.        DO NOT include specifics of how many hours you worked a week or how much money you earned, these can be discussed in an interview later if needed. 

7.        Avoid using the word “I” in the CV; instead write your information without the subject (ex. Oversaw construction site personnel).

8.        Here are some helpful "action verbs" (for example: achieved, arranged, assisted, co-ordinated, completed, dealt with, developed, established, expanded, handled, helped, implemented, improved, increased, interviewed, introduced, maintained, managed, negotiated, organised, planned, processed, programmed, proposed, promoted, purchased, redesigned, reduced, reorganised, revised, sold, solved, streamlined, supervised, trained, translated, worked, wrote).

Education Experience

Education is important to getting a job in the future and it is important that you list the equivalences correctly of the French system to an English system. 

1.        Make sure you put the date of your education experience either in a separate column or in bold so that it is easy to identify.  Use at minimum the years that you were in school (ex. 2005-2007) but if you know the precise months include those as well (ex. June 2005 – September 2007).  If you are still currently attending, write the date you started followed by present (ex. June 2005 – present).

2.        Write the Name of the School in English in another style such as bold or italics.  (ex. University of Angers or Charles de Gaulle High School (US) David d’Angers Secondary School (UK)).

3.        For university, write the equivalent in English only if possible, however you may write the French title and then translate it to English in parentheses.  (ex. L3 Anglais (equivalent Bachelor’s of English)). 

4.        Next for lycée, write what you obtained in the French system in French followed by the English or American equivalent in parentheses.  (ex. Baccalauréat (High School Diploma), specialty, with honors) or for UK (ex. Baccalauréat (A levels in (state the subjects), with honors).

5.        Write about any other training that you received through educational courses with descriptions and dates. 

6.        Underneath every school write any special mentions you received or activities that you did that might be applicable to the job. 

7.        Do not include grades because they are often not the same as the systems in Anglophone countries.  You can write that you were at the top of your class or had a high standing if that is the case. 

8.        Do not write about any schools attended before the age of 15.

Languages

1.        Include all languages that you speak and their level including any diplomas that you have received for language.

(ex. French (native language); English (fluent) TOEIC 789; Spanish (conversational); Italian (beginner)).

2.        If you have different levels orally and in written form be sure to specify those as well.

Programs/Skills

1.        Write about any skills in computer or other programs that you have that are useful to the job you are applying for.

(ex. Proficient in Microsoft Office, HTML, CSS and Content Management Systems).

2.        Do not list surfing the internet or email as a skill.  You can include a driver’s license if that will be important for your job.

Interests/Activities

1.        If you have room you may include any interests that you have that are interesting.  Do not put anything here that you would not want to discuss during an interview. 

2.        This could include sports or trips that you have taken. 

References

Often times employers will ask you to provide references from other jobs, you may decide to list references in this format:

Name, Title, Company, Location, Phone, Email address

Or simply write that References are available upon request. 

Important Tips for Writing a CV

·         Keep a simple format; use the same font throughout the CV to keep it clean.

·         To emphasize important words or headings, use Bold, italics, underlines, or CAPITALS.

·         A CV should fit neatly onto one page and have an easy to read font and size.  Use simple fonts like Times New Roman or Calibri in sizes 12 at the largest to 8 at the smallest. 

·         Always list things in chronological order from most recent to least recent.

·         List education first if you are applying to a school and work experience first if applying to a job or internship.

·         Always type and print your CV in black ink.

·         You do not need to attach a photo in the US or the UK. 

·         Be short, simple and concise in your phrasing. 

Words for Interests/Extracurricular activities

Licencié dans un club              Member of a club

Pratique en competition         At competetion level

Titulaire du BAFA                   Diploma in organising activities and looking after children

Secourisme                             First Aid

AFPS                                        First Aid Certificate

Educateur sportif (tennis)      I have a certificate which allows me to teach sport to children

Animateur (colonies de vac)  Children’s Summer camp organizer

Soutien scolaire                      Help children in difficulty with their schooling

Scoutisme                               I am Boy/Girl Scout

Travail saisonnier                   Seasonal work

                                                                     First Name Last Name

Address

Address

Email address

Phone Number

Date of Birth: dd/mm/yyyy

Nationality

Career Objective:

Explain why you are looking for a job and what position you hope to find.

Qualifications:

Concrete reasons why you are qualified

Experience:

Dates                                        Name of Company,Location                                                   Title

List your main duties

Dates                                        Name of Company,Location                                                   Title

List your main duties

Dates                                        Name of Company,Location                                                   Title

List your main duties

Education:

University Name (Dates Attended)

Current Status

Major and Program

Mentions

Awards

High School (Dates Attended)

Final Note

Awards

Activites

Languages

Skills/Hobbies

References available upon request.

 BAD RESUME EXAMPLE

Fiona Jenkins

13 Valley Lane

Dundee

DD3 7UH

Tel: (01382) 1234567

hotbabe@mail.com

Personal Details:

Marital Status: Single

Children: None 

Health: Very good

Nationality: British

Education:

1993 – 2000                  Highgate Primary School, Dundee

2000 – 2005                  Balgay High School, Dundee

            Achieved 3 Highers and 8 Standard Grades

2005 – Present              Tayside College, Dundee

                                                Currently studying to achieve HNC Retail Management

Work History:

Retail Assistant, Kensington Clothing, Dundee                                        2002 - 2005        

Duties: Worked part time in a clothes shop.

Assistant Manager, Streetwise Fashions, Perth                                       2005 - Present

Duties: Asisting in the running of a busy high street clothes shop.

Hobbies / Interests:

I enjoy watching TV, playing games on my computer and going out with my friends.

Additional Information:

Fluent in French and Spanish

Driving Licence (6 points)

Referrences:

Mrs Stewart                                                          Mr Jenkins                            

Tayside College                                                13 Valley Lane

Dundee                                                 Dundee

DD8 7PL                                               DD3 7UH