Conversations - How to start?

I don't know how you feel about starting a conversation with a stranger. Some people feel a bit awkward. So I decided to collect some good questions and tips that can help you out in those uncomfortable situations.

Hi. 

- Do you know anyone here?

- Where do you work?

- Which business are you into?

- How long have you known 'Peter'?

- What drink would you recommend me? / Can I help you to choose a drink?

Ask people about the things they want to be noticed by other people, for example a rose in a woman’s hair. ‘What a nice rose. Do you always wear hair like this?’

If you go to a business meeting, you can start the conversation by talking about the circumstances of your travel. There is almost always something happening on the roads. It’s easier if you are some minutes late. ‘Sorry for being late. The traffic was terrible because of slippery roads.'

Do you have any other ideas in your mind?

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Can computer games change the world?

Most of us have preconceptions about computer games. They are usually regarded, mainly by teachers and parents, as waste of time. But children and young adults are obsessed with them and spend more time on playing computer games than on anything else. 

So what can we do? Restrictions don’t seem to work. How about making more meaningful games? Do you think it’s possible?

Read this BBC article about serious games.

While reading the article, try to answer these questions:

1. How are computer games generally regarded?
2. What is the concept behind serious games?
3. Describe the settings of World Without Oil. 
4. How did the players of WWO look at their gaming activity?
5. What roles can you choose in Peacemaker?
6. What was the result of playing the Peacemaker in terms of social relevance?
7. What is the expected outcome of playing Coventry and Warwickshire? Who is the target audience of the game?
8. Why is it important to use innovative techniques in the classroom?

Think through the article again by following the outline of the article:

Three billion hours a week are spent on playing games. -> Can it be given a social relevance?

Examples: 

Direct analysis of the results from a game is rarely fully carried out.

The evaluation of outcomes has been deficient.

Using innovative techniques in the classroom can increase the educational performance.


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A drop in the ocean: Location-aware music

Location-aware music. What might it be? Is it a song collection for a particular public space or a music that is instantly created by a mobile app based on characteristics of a location?

Watch this TED video and find it out.

Pre-listening task

Match the following words with their definitions:

a.) to convey, b.) sonic, c.) to traverse, d.) to unfold, e.) an array of, f.) seamlessly, g.) to be intrinsic to sg

1. of sound or the speed at which sound travels in air
2. being an extremely important and basic characteristic of a person or thing
3. happening without any sudden changes, interruption, or difficulty
4. to express a thought, feeling, or idea so that it is understood by other people
5. to move or travel through an area
6. a large group of things or people
7. If a situation or story unfolds, it develops or becomes clear to other people

Definitions are taken from Cambridge Dictionaries Online.

Now, it’s show time. Watch this TED video and find out more about location-aware music.

After watching the video, try to answer these questions:

• What is the concept behind location-aware music?
• What functionality is needed for this app?
• Why can’t people outside the US listen to this music?

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Business Terms: Roaming charges fall in EU

We face many challenges in the course of business meetings and negotiations. We are unsure many times if we use the proper structure or phrase that can express our thoughts. The best way to eliminate this uncertainty is to learn from the natives. In Business Terms section you can listen to short talks, interviews etc. and by completing the tasks you can practice the most relevant terms appearing in the video.

Today let’s see a BBC interview about mobile roaming charges. Click here to see the video.

After watching the video, try to complete these sentences. (Probably you have to see the video more times to do this task, but don’t give it up.)

1. Mobile companies have a reduction by around … per cent in the … prices.
2. There are reductions in …
3. This has been going on since …
4. This only covers …
5. You may actually face …
6. The companies have been quite vocal against …
7. They lost an appeal before …

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Get A Job: Typical job interview questions

Today we start a new series entitled Get A Job. It is going to provide you with useful information about how to prepare for a job interview.

Now read about typical questions on a job interview you must prepare for.

Most of the questions sound quite embarrassing. That’s why you have to deal with them and make an effort to find out the good answers in advance.

What are good answers like? The key is to be honest and self-reflective. No one is interested in the millionth slightly narcissist and cheesy answer. Real self-confidence can’t be imitated by nicely put words. Show who you are, that’s much more interesting.

So, here are the questions to prepare for:

Tell us about yourself.

What do you know about us?

Why are you interested in working here?

Why should we hire you?

Why did you leave or are planning to leave your last job? 

Give us an example of where you have succeeded at…

Give us an example of where you have failed at …

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A drop in the ocean: New company, new life

Just imagine that you have the chance to work with and be one of the people who solve technical challenges on a daily basis. They build something day by day that has never been done before. They are excited, passionate and capable of working creatively on technical hurdles. Knowledge-sharing is not only a slogan there, but a part of their daily routine. 

Just follow the link and see the video.

Now imagine you can go there. AppNexus is looking to hire experienced programmers, engineers and developers to work full time in New York City and Paris.  Follow this link.
If you are interested in any open positions at the company, please contact Tommi Hurme directly and indicate which job you are interested in applying for. For US-based positions they will sponsor a H-1 visa. 

If you feel fear and worry about your level of English and this is the reason (or pretext) for not applying, I must say: forget it. You have the motivation, you want to change the way your life unfolds, we can do it together. Come to Walk English Coaching and you're going to be ready to go in 1,5 months. English is not a purpose, it's a tool. And you can acquire it. 


WALK further.

Why do we need feedback?

Feedback accelerates learning and is essential for controlling anything. Only by relying on them we can reach our purposes. That’s the main message of the article published on BBC website in February 2013. Here you can read the shortened version of it.

 Cybernetics is the name given to the study of feedback, and systems that use feedback, in all their forms. The term comes from the Greek word for "to steer", and inspiration for some of the early work on cybernetics sprang from automatic guiding systems developed during World War II for guns or radar antennae. Around the middle of the twentieth century cybernetics became an intellectual movement across many different disciplines.  

A key message of cybernetics is that you can't control something unless you have feedback – and that means measurement of the outcomes.  

The flip side of this dictum is the promise that with feedback, you can control anything. The human brain seems to be the arch embodiment of this cybernetic principle. With the right feedback, individuals have been known to control things as unlikely as their own heart rate, or learn to shrink and expand their pupils at will. It even seems possible to control the firing of individual brain cells.  

But enhanced feedback methods can accelerate learning about more mundane behaviours. For example, if you are learning to take basketball shots, augmented feedback in the form of "You were 3 inches off to the left" can help you learn faster and reach a higher skill level quicker.  

Thanks to feedback we develop more complex responses to the environment. Feedback allows animals like us to follow a purpose. 

Think of your everyday experiments. Let’s take the time optimisation in the morning as an example: What time do I have to get up the latest if I want to reach the bus that takes me to the gym for opening? After the first rough estimation, let’s say, I decide to get up 80 minutes earlier than the gym opens. What factors can I monitor in order to evaluate my decision? First of all I have to check if I manage to catch the bus after the morning preparations. If I can, I have to measure the time I spend with waiting and try to reduce it to minimal but at the same time I have to pay attention to the risk coming from early bus arrivals. So I have to note down the changes of the following:

- time of leaving the flat
- successfully reaching the bus (yes/no)
- time spent with waiting for the bus

(I assume that the speed of morning preparation and the time I spend on walking to the bus station is constant. However, these assumptions require further consideration.)

The answers in my notebook are the feedback that will help me find the optimal time to leave.

Later I’ll report my results.

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