Job Discussion Forums

[rwarp]

Greetings, I have just started teaching international business english in Ningbo China. I have enjoyed reading many different posts from everyone else but just wondered if anyone had any "Word of Advice" for me since this is my first time teaching. I didn't have problems with my first lessons this week, but i'm just worried about how to mix things up and make sure i'm actually helping these students instead of just lecturing. Thanks in advance.

RW

[7969]

try to incorporate something fun into each class. if you have a multimedia room available, show a five minute video clip on some interesting topic. I've shown short travel videos of different cities from my home country.

or start each lesson with a short game. there's plenty of those available online.

give the classes some lists of useful business vocab on different topics. you can break them down into import/export, human resources, marketing, meetings, advertising etc. you could teach 5 words each week from a different category.

whatever you do, don't teach straight from the book every class. if you have any business experience try to inject some real life stories into the class.

[LanGuTou]

Split them into small groups and ask them to work on some small business related presentation, design posters, powerpoints etc.

Chinese are highly competitive by nature. In the past, I did poster design competitions and gave small prizes like chocolate coins for the best group. The prize is not so important but watching them vie with each other for top dog is very interesting.

[The Revealer]

I think a lot depends on the type of school and age of the students for any good "words of advice" to be given.

If you are teaching at a training center, they should have different business case studies that focus on certain vocabulary pertaining to the topic, for example Advertising/Marketing. Basically, the students read about a situation and then discuss the issue.

In the past, in a training center job, we had a lesson about Advertising in which I introduced words such as "target market", "brand", "logo", "slogan", "jingle" etc... I then had the students work in groups and develop a new product and advertising plan. I still use the idea with my university students.

If you teach at a university, I assume the students are 3rd or 4th year. Of course, I could be wrong.

Either way, the same ideas I "discovered" at the training center can be used with university students, especially in a "Business English" class. For example - job interview/promotion and contract negotiation.

You could write detailed descriptions of 4 or 5 people who are applying for a job. For example - candidate #1 just graduated from college and has no experience, but he/she had very good grades, was active in school clubs (former Student Body President perhaps) and wonderful recommendations. #2 = a few years experience, but nothing special to brag about, #3 = 10 years experience, but changed jobs a lot because he/she didn't work well in a team setting, #4 = great experience, but is married and tells the interviewer she hopes to get pregnant soon and #5 = the best candidate, but nearing retirement age. I hope you get the picture.

Have the other students form 5 groups. They will be the interviewers. Then, have each candidate "Interview" with each of the 5 groups. Encourage the interviewers to ask a lot of questions as well as to record the different candidates answers. After the interviewing is done have the interviewers discuss and decide who they would hire/promote and why. Then they tell the class the reasons for their decision.

The same format can be used with a contract negotiation. Basically have the students form pairs or groups of 3 and negotiate the sale of a business or whatever. Half the class are the buyers and the other half the sellers. Each pair/group will eventually talk/negotiate with all of the groups and in the end see who gets the best deal.

Finally, although it would definitely entail more "work" for you, you might also consider tossing in some "Business Writing" classes. If the students are diligent, you could assign homework. Basically, have them write a resume, memo etc... before class. Then in class have them form pairs and edit each others assignment. Then, unfortunately, you would have to edit them yourself before the next class. "Barron's ESL Business Writing" book via Amazon is good for the writing idea.

Good Luck!

[brsmith15]

Humor. It helps. Depending on just how advanced they are in terms of English, I've tried these:

Sign in a store: "Our Credit Manager is Helen Waite. So if you want credit go to Helen Waite."

Sign in a bar: "We have a deal with the bank. We don't cash checks and they don't sell drinks."

Signs on garbage trucks:

"Our business is picking up."
"We refuse no refuse."
"You must be satisfied or double your garbage back."

[randyj]

Ask the students what they expect. Give them a questionnaire or survey about the meaning of "business English" to them. I am teaching "international business oral English" this term, but no one agrees about what that really means. For some students, it is just a form of oral English. Others want to learn nuts and bolts about business. Ask the students what they want.

[xiaolongbaolaoxi]

Short version:the social aspects (how to make presentations, interviewing, politely arguing with statistics) were much harder to cover but also much more rewarding than simple but lengthy vocabulary lessons.

Long version....

Resumes are a wonderful idea and can take a loooong time to cover. Very few of the students I taught knew anything about them and/or had no work experience, so there were a lot of "what do I write if I have nothing to write about questions ?"

Get ready for a lot of cultural issues: you may be presented with a long list of achievements/certificates that seem to have no real importance. Getting students to reword/explain them without exaggerating is a great activity.

"What are three strengths/weaknesses?" seemed to stump a lot of students. While it is good that many would not exaggerate in an interview, it does take some coaxing to get them to speak well of themselves. Almost all of them did not add fluency in various Chinese dialects on their resume... Important that they remember that what is not special in China can be very valuable elsewhere.

I would highly recommend repeated roleplays, getting more involved each time. "What is a way that your initiative helped your employer?" They need to be able to explain how they [pretended to] develop a marketing campaign that resulted in 15% increase in sales... Students really focused on the format of the resume, which was a little disconcerting as they all insisted they had to have a photo on their resume. The solution to this is, "In China, giving your photo is fine, in America there are many reasons why we don't want to see your picture first." Proof that she picked up on "ask the interviewer questions" and use concrete examples= the woman in question said, "Well, being pretty is one of my strengths, I worked hard at it, and I want to give an example of that." All I could say was, "Uhhh." The class enjoyed that.

For more advanced students, lessons in statistics/idioms are very useful. 32%= almost a third, but can be spun as "almost seventy percent said no," 40%=almost half, and sometimes "98%" is more impressive than "almost everyone." One class was given a stat=30% of people in this city speak Mandarin at home. I thought they would say something like "70% need more Mandarin lessons, Mandarin is rarely spoken, etc." Their response (which I thought was wonderful), "70% of people in this city speak fluent Cantonese so we will make more money if we advertise in Cantonese instead of Mandarin."


Aloha,

XLB

[MisterButtkins]

I'm having trouble with this as well. I've been assigned several business English classes, some of which are very advanced. To be honest I find the corporate culture disgusting and not being a part of it was one of the main reasons I moved to China. I've never worked in a large corporation and don't really know anything about economics, although I did take a single advertising class in college. Thus far (having only had 3 classes) I've only done activities from the book. The advanced class has the best English of any class I've had in China and I've tried some of the listening exercises I've used in the past and they breeze through them. Honestly I find it a little intimidating. I guess I'll try the advertising activity and job interviews but other than that I'm just not sure what to do.

[xiaolongbaolaoxi]

Depending on the social skills of the group, an ongoing activity could be to make a business. What kind of people do you need=interview activities. What products/brands are better than other and why=marketing. Logistics=schedules and time expressions. Creating very good (but not professional-level) brochures is a good way to work on marketing language and shortening text. What kind of market research do you need, can you make a "more VIP" version of the same product to increase profits, or should you actually thinking about having a more downscale version for when times are tough... Rinse and repeat.

Although I never went into great detail, I did use"create a business" as a good timefiller... I passed out a bunch of tags from stuff I liked as examples of small ads (being that it was all outdoorsy type clothes and fairly unknown to Chinese college students who worshipped Super Junior, this helped a lot). They created their own spin with a lot of inside jokes, which was wonderful. Later, write 20 sentences about the ad they created. Interview for it, both as employer/jobseeker and radio/newspiece. Usually they took something that already existed and put their own spin on it, but still they had to come up with good answers/questions as to why they were the right person/product.

It is worth noting that in a very advanced class, very few students wanted to talk about business in China. It became obvious that doing so would involve criticising/saying a bunch of things that should not be said. They had no problem talking about popular western brands that succeeded in China, but talking about Chinese brands in China was definitely not comfortable for them [they would prefer to talk about a western brand in the same industry.]

Aloha,

XLB, Inc.

[johntpartee]

No matter what they call it, every class I've had in every school in China has been basic oral English. They can "dress it up" with a fancy name, but you can't address a specialty in the language until the students can speak it.

[Zero]

[MisterButtkins]

[LanGuTou]

[The Revealer]

MB,

It is very simple. Simply "delegate authority". Have the students create their own corporation. Have them arrange with attorneys the corporate by-laws, decide where to incorporate etc..

What the H E double toothpicks am I typing about - I detest the corporate world as well. But, they do pay well!

Really though, it is simple - Import/Export or Trade. I'll get back to you with more ideas other than - buy low & sell high!

Where's Peter when you need him?

It's not his department. Pete is merely the "idea man". Some folk need direction.

Do this, Do that. What a wonderful world corporate America/Canada/OZ/UK/France/Germany/Japan/China etc... is. Excuse me for ending a "sentence" with a preposition.

What was I thinking?

[Teatime of Soul]

Here is a suggestion you may be able to use:

After you organize them into a "corporation" make their assignments "In Box" exercises.

Example, The CEO (you) has read an interesting article on cloud computing in the in-flight magazine while jetting to a corporate retreat and thinks it sounds interesting. He wants to know if it makes sense for the company. His memo to the IT section asks for an evaluation.

Meanwhile, the HR department head receives a sexual harassment complaint by the secretary of a manager. Task the HR head to suggest a response and to outline what, if any training might be beneficial to the workforce.

John, Supervisor of the widget line needs to write a memo to the CEO explaining why the assembly line has slowed 18% over the last two weeks.

Have each Dept. "Team" present their report to the CEO as an oral presentation as well as in writing.

For humor, pass out a Dilbert cartoon and ask students what they think it means. Then explain it.

You can tailor the assignments to the level of the student.

Hope this helps.