Work and family

It can be very difficult to combine work and family.  Often, this leads to one parent working less, not working at all or completely changing their approach to work.  Read this article about the approach some mothers are taking to work and answer these questions: 

1.  What is a mompreneur?

2.  Do you think this is a good word, or does it promote some stereotypes or incorrect ideas of women?

3.  Would you change your working life or have you changed your working life as a result of having children?  How?

4.  What are some advantages of doing what this article describes?

5.  What are some risks of doing what this article describes?

Mom's the word

WORKING MOTHERS: The challenge of combining work with motherhood has led a number of women to start their own businesses. Some even call themselves “mompreneurs”. But don’t expect these female entrepreneurs to be satisfied with selling toys and organic baby food.
Marissa McTasney likes being called a mompreneur, because it means “we make humans and we can run a company”, she told The Toronto Star. McTasney, a former IBM staffer, retrained as a construction worker after having two children. Along the way, she discovered that traditional work clothing does not fit women properly. As a result, her third child, the business Moxie Trades, was born: McTasney sells work boots, tool belts and hard hats specifically designed for women. A national clothing retailer, Mark’s Work Wearhouse, now carries the Moxie brand.
Frances Wright, publisher of MOMpreneur magazine in Calgary, Alberta, understandably likes the term her publication is named after. “[It] very quickly crystallizes the idea that this is a person who has a business and a family,” Wright says. “But the majority are not in baby products.”
Jennifer Greenberg, for example, provides oil and gas exploration workers in northern British Columbia with a mobile first-aid service. Greenberg, a mother of four and a biochemist with paramedic training, has run the business for five years. She says it is important that women continue “ploughing into male-dominated territory and saying, ‘We can do it too. Here we are!’”
Mompreneur Robyn Green-Ruskin of Thornhill, Ontario, wasn’t even a parent when she started her business, Movies for Mommies, which offers afternoon film showings for mothers and babies. Now the ten-year-old franchise operation has 15 locations across Canada — and Green-Ruskin has two children. “I approached my business differently after having kids,” she says. “You know what? Women have babies. But we do many other things, too. I think it’s more important to just make peace with who you are.”
Still, not everyone agrees that the term "mompreneur" is positive. “Fine if it helps in business-to-business networking,” says Barbara Orser of the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa. “But if it contributes to that antiquated stereotype, then it’s had its day.”

Übersetzungen

challenge = Herausforderung, schwierige Aufgabe
female entrepreneurs = Unternehmerinnen
organic = Bio-
run = führen
staffer = Mitarbeiter(in)
retrained as = umschulen auf
construction worker = Bauarbeiter(in)
Along the way = dabei
tool belts = Werkzeuggürtel
hard hats = Schutzhelme
clothing retailer = Bekleidungsgeschäft, -kette
carries = führen
brand = Marke
publisher = Herausgeber(in)
understandably = verständlicherweise
crystallizes = hier: entstehen lassen
oil and gas exploration workers = Arbeiter in der Öl- und Ergasförderung
first-aid service = Erste-Hilfe-Dienst
biochemist = Biochemiker(in)
paramedic training = Sanitäterausbildung
ploughing = pflügen; hier: vordringen
showings = Aufführungen
operation = Unternehmen
approached = herangehen an
networking = Kontaktaufbau und -pflege
contributes = beitragen
antiquated stereotype = antiquierte Klischeevorstellung
had its day = abgemeldet sein

 

Article from Business Spotlight: http://www.business-spotlight.de/careers/trends/moms-the-word

 

When you've answered the questions listed before the article, please send them to tutor@virtualingua.de A professional English teacher will check your answers and reply to you with corrections, suggestions and English learning tips!

We look forward to hearing from you soon!

English is a positive language

Do you feel different when you speak different languages?  I know I do--when I speak German I am often more serious and direct, and when I speak English I make more jokes and laugh more.  Researchers have found that in the English language, we use more positive words than negative words.  Read the article below:

English is a happy language 

English is a happy language because people use mostly positive words.
US researchers from Cornell University and the University of Vermont looked at billions of words that people use to communicate with each other. They analyzed 361 billion words in 3.29 million books, nine billion words in 821 million tweets, one billion words in 1.8 million New York Times articles and 58.6 million words from the lyrics of 295,000 popular songs.

Then they made a list of more than 10,000 of the most-used words and asked 50 people to evaluate each word and give it a score between one and nine, based on how positive it was. The word "terrorist", for example, got an average score of 1.3, while "laughter" scored 8.5.

The researchers found that people use a lot more positive than negative words. Isabel Klouman from the University of Vermont led the research. She said, “A positivity bias is universal. In our stories and writings we tend toward pro-social communication.”

Übersetzungen

happy = hier: optimistisch, positiv
researchers = Forscher, Wissenschaftler
billions = Milliarden
tweets = Tweets (Kurznachrichten bei Twitter)
lyrics = Texte
score = Punktzahl, Bewertung
bias = Tendenz

 

From Spoton magazine 

Answer these questions and send your answers to us at tutor@virtualingua.de.  You can do this as a tutored exercise if you are a student with us.  If you're not a student with us, email us your answers and test our tutoring--you will get feedback and learning  tips from one of our tutors! 

1.  Do you feel different when you speak different languages?  Why do you think this is?

2.  If you have visited an English-speaking country, what are some differences in small talk and everyday contact with people, such as at the supermarket, gas station and in restaurants?  Do you find it more positive than at home or similar?

2. What differences are there in vocabulary and tone when you're speaking in a business situation in English and in German? 

How do you feel about going on vacation?

Do you sometimes feel bad, sick or stressed at the beginning or end of your vacations? A Dutch study is showing that vacations (this is American English, you say holiday in British English) can be not only a recharging and relaxing experience, but they can stress us or even make us sick.

Read the article below from Business Spotlight then complete the exercises after the article and send us your answers to tutor@virtualingua.de!

That holiday feeling

NETHERLANDS: It's summer, and everyone is off enjoying their holidays. Right? Well, maybe not. According to a new study, holidays don't make us happy — not for long, anyway.

Jeroen Nawijn of NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands has found out what people enjoy most about their holidays. Holidaymakers' happiness follows a curve, he says. Perhaps surprisingly for travellers excited to have finally arrived at their destination, that is the low point. "The first few days of a holiday trip appear to be particularly unpleasant, even dangerous," Nawijn told The Washington Post.

In exotic places, there is the danger of illness. Some people quickly develop flu-like symptoms once they are away from the adrenaline rush of demanding careers. Ad Vingerhoets of Tilburg University calls this "leisure sickness". Vingerhoets says this happens when people are unable to adjust to a slower pace of life. And, of course, travellers are often disappointed when the hotel, city or country is not as pleasant as they'd imagined.

Nawijn interviewed 1,530 Dutch workers for his study. He found that travellers' spirits are very high during their break, but longer holidays did not translate into greater satisfaction. He found that two- to six-day holidays offered the most benefits.

"The first few days of a holiday can be particularly unpleasant." Jeroen Nawijn

Just before returning home, most holidaymakers report feeling less stressed and more energetic. Unfortunately, says Nawijn, these feelings disappear almost completely during the first week back at work. He believes people are comparing their daily routines with the recent holiday thrill. Of course, lots of employees return to full email inboxes and a big stack of tasks that make them feel overworked almost immediately.

Nawijn also found that travellers are quite happy while preparing for their trips. So if you're looking forward to your summer holiday, enjoy that good feeling while it lasts.

Übersetzungen

University of Applied Sciences = Fachhochschule
low point = Tiefpunkt
flu-like = grippeähnlich
adrenaline rush = Adrenalinkick
demanding = anspruchsvoll
leisure = Freizeit-
adjust to a slower pace of life = sich auf eine langsamere Gangart einstellen
travellers' spirits are very high = die Stimmung der Reisenden ist sehr gut
break = Urlaub
energetic = energiegeladen
inboxes = Posteingangsordner
stack = Stapel

You can read the article on the Business Spotlight page here: http://www.business-spotlight.de/news/europe/that-holiday-feeling

1. What new vocabulary did you learn in the article? Write a list with the words in German and English.
2. Were there any sentences you didn't understand in the article? Send us the sentence and what you think it means (in German or English) and we will help.
3. Describe the curve of happiness during vacation. When are we happy and unhappy or disappointed during, before or after our vacations?
4. Do you think the results of this study are correct? What parts do you agree or disagree with?

We look forward to hearing from you!
Talk to you later,
Your Virtualingua Team

Telephoning in English

Who hasn't gotten a phone call from an English-speaking caller and had some trouble understanding what the caller was saying? Perhaps understanding is not the problem so much as knowing the right words and phrases to be polite and get your point across. I know for me as a German learner, it was very difficult to make successful phone calls in German for a very long time. The only thing that helps is practice, practice, practice!

Visit the Focus Online site and watch the video about telephoning entitled "Hilfe, wir haben ein Problem" (here's a link). Then please answer the questions and complete the task below. If you are already signed up as a Virtualingua student, you can do this as a tutored exercise for your course, if not, send the exercise to us and test our tutoring for free! Send the exercise directly to your tutor or to tutor@virtualingua.de

Questions about "Hilfe, wir haben ein Problem":

1. What is the problem that the caller (the woman, Cynthia) describes?
2. In the first phone call, how does the man answer her questions? Is he polite or impolite?
3. In the second phone call, what does the man say to answer Cynthia's questions? Is he polite or impolite?

Now write your own phone call about some kind of problem! Maybe you've had a phone call at work or privately in English during which you had to handle a problem, or you can think of your own. Use the polite phrases from the call you watched.

Talk to you later!

Film Streaming Site Shut Down!

Do you know the site Kino.to? It was a site where you could watch even the newest movies using a flash player and streaming. Its operators have been arrested and the site was shut down due to copyright infringement. What do you think about this? Would you use a streaming site to watch a movie if it's free but perhaps illegal? Click on the link below to read an article about the arrest of the Kino.to operators, then answer the following questions.

Article from PC World

1. How many people have been arrested?
2. How many locations have been raided?
3. How did Kino.to work? Did you ever use the site? Was it easy to use?
4. How much revenue did Kino.to and other hosting sites generate per year?
5. How might the operators of Kino.to be charged? Do you think this is appropriate?

Send us your opinion on this topic and your answers to the above questions (tutor@virtualingua.de) and a qualified, English native speaker teacher will check your work and send corrections and English tips back to you! If you are a student with us already, you can do this exercise as one of your tutored exercises, if you're not a student with us yet, send us your answers and see how you like our service! Test us for free!

The Economic Crisis

The economic crisis is still rearing its ugly head in the United States, one major area it's affecting is the job market and especially employment opportunities for recent college graduates.

Read the article below and answer the following questions:

1. Define these words (describe them in English or give synonyms): humbling, lead astray, postpone, slings and arrows, bleak, opt out, pound the pavement

2. Some graduates have better chances of finding a job after finishing their studies than others. Which majors have better luck finding jobs? Which have trouble finding jobs? Why do you think this is? Is the situation similar in Germany or in your country?

3. What are the problems when a college graduate takes a job that they are actually overqualified for?

4. What are some ways that recent graduates can increase their chances of finding a job in their field?

Please answer these questions and send your answers to tutor@virtualingua.de! if you're already a student with us, you can have this exercise checked as a part of your regular tutoring for your course. A real tutor will check your answers and return them to you with valuable feedback! If you're not already a student with us and like this service, try one of our courses here: http://virtualingua.de/

Many With New College Degree Find the Job Market Humbling

Jessica Hill/Associated Press

Graduates at the University of Michigan commencement ceremony in Ann Arbor in April.

By CATHERINE RAMPELL

Published: May 18, 2011

The individual stories are familiar. The chemistry major tending bar. The classics major answering phones. The Italian studies major sweeping aisles at Wal-Mart.

Now evidence is emerging that the damage wrought by the sour economy is more widespread than just a few careers led astray or postponed. Even for college graduates — the people who were most protected from the slings and arrows of recession — the outlook is rather bleak.

Employment rates for new college graduates have fallen sharply in the last two years, as have starting salaries for those who can find work. What’s more, only half of the jobs landed by these new graduates even require a college degree, reviving debates about whether higher education is “worth it” after all.

“I have friends with the same degree as me, from a worse school, but because of who they knew or when they happened to graduate, they’re in much better jobs,” said Kyle Bishop, 23, a 2009 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh who has spent the last two years waiting tables, delivering beer, working at a bookstore and entering data. “It’s more about luck than anything else.”

The median starting salary for students graduating from four-year colleges in 2009 and 2010 was $27,000, down from $30,000 for those who entered the work force in 2006 to 2008, according to a study released on Wednesday by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. That is a decline of 10 percent, even before taking inflation into account.

Of course, these are the lucky ones — the graduates who found a job. Among the members of the class of 2010, just 56 percent had held at least one job by this spring, when the survey was conducted. That compares with 90 percent of graduates from the classes of 2006 and 2007. (Some have gone for further education or opted out of the labor force, while many are still pounding the pavement.)

Even these figures understate the damage done to these workers’ careers. Many have taken jobs that do not make use of their skills; about only half of recent college graduates said that their first job required a college degree.

The choice of major is quite important. Certain majors had better luck finding a job that required a college degree, according to an analysis by Andrew M. Sum, an economist at Northeastern University, of 2009 Labor Department data for college graduates under 25.

Young graduates who majored in education and teaching or engineering were most likely to find a job requiring a college degree, while area studies majors — those who majored in Latin American studies, for example — and humanities majors were least likely to do so. Among all recent education graduates, 71.1 percent were in jobs that required a college degree; of all area studies majors, the share was 44.7 percent.

An analysis by The New York Times of Labor Department data about college graduates aged 25 to 34 found that the number of these workers employed in food service, restaurants and bars had risen 17 percent in 2009 from 2008, though the sample size was small. There were similar or bigger employment increases at gas stations and fuel dealers, food and alcohol stores, and taxi and limousine services.

This may be a waste of a college degree, but it also displaces the less-educated workers who would normally take these jobs.

“The less schooling you had, the more likely you were to get thrown out of the labor market altogether,” said Mr. Sum, noting that unemployment rates for high school graduates and dropouts are always much higher than those for college graduates. “There is complete displacement all the way down.”

Meanwhile, college graduates are having trouble paying off student loan debt, which is at a median of $20,000 for graduates of classes 2006 to 2010.

Mr. Bishop, the Pittsburgh graduate, said he is “terrified” of the effects his starter jobs might have on his ultimate career, which he hopes to be in publishing or writing. “It looks bad to have all these short-term jobs on your résumé, but you do have to pay the bills,” he said, adding that right now his student loan debt was over $70,000.

Many graduates will probably take on more student debt. More than 60 percent of those who graduated in the last five years say they will need more formal education to be successful.

“I knew there weren’t going to be many job prospects for me until I got my Ph.D.,” said Travis Patterson, 23, a 2010 graduate of California State University, Fullerton. He is working as an administrative assistant for a property management company and studying psychology in graduate school. While it may not have anything to do with his degree, “it helps pay my rent and tuition, and that’s what matters.”

Going back to school does offer the possibility of joining the labor force when the economy is better. Unemployment rates are also generally lower for people with advanced schooling.

Those who do not go back to school may be on a lower-paying trajectory for years. They start at a lower salary, and they may begin their careers with employers that pay less on average or have less room for growth.

“Their salary history follows them wherever they go,” said Carl Van Horn, a labor economist at Rutgers. “It’s like a parrot on your shoulder, traveling with you everywhere, constantly telling you ‘No, you can’t make that much money.’ ”

And while young people who have weathered a tough job market may shy from risks during their careers, the best way to nullify an unlucky graduation date is to change jobs when you can, says Till von Wachter, an economist at Columbia.

“If you don’t move within five years of graduating, for some reason you get stuck where you are. That’s just an empirical finding,” Mr. von Wachter said. “By your late 20s, you’re often married, and have a family and have a house. You stop the active pattern of moving jobs.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: May 19, 2011

An earlier version of this article included a photo caption that erroneously said the University of Michigan commencement was held in May.

The Movie Business

Where do you prefer to watch movies, at home or in the cinema? The article below from the Guardian is all about a change in release patterns of films and what effects this could have for the film industry.

Before you read, answer these questions:
1. Do you watch more films at home or in the cinema?
2. When was the last time you went to a movie theater?
3. When you watch movies at home, do you get them online, from a video store or do you own the videos?
4. What are some advantages and disadvantages of watching movies at home rather than in the cinema?

Now skim the article (look over it quickly while searching for specific information without actually reading every word) to find this information:
5. What is VOD?
6. What's the cost of a night out at the cinema vs. a home movie night?
7. Typically, how long does a film run in the cinema before its VOD release?

Finally, read the article (every word!) and answer the questions after the article.

Top Hollywood directors protest over home downloads

Film-makers say studios' plan to allow video-on-demand while movies still on release could close cinemas and increase piracy.

Kathryn Bigelow was among 20 leading Hollywood directors who have written to four studios protesting over their plans to allow home downloading of films while they are still at the cinema. Photograph: Startraks Photo /Rex Features

More than 20 leading film-makers, including James Cameron, Peter Jackson and Robert Zemeckis, have written a protest letter to Hollywood studios over their decision to allow films to be downloaded into people's homes while they are still being screened in cinemas, rather than once they have completed their theatrical run, will take its toll on the box-office and film-making.

The directors say they are shocked that Sony Pictures Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, Universal Studios and Warner Bros are to release some films on a premium video-on-demand (VOD) service 60 days after their cinema release. At the moment, cinemas generally have an exclusive run of around 120 days.

Although VOD and theatrical releases are already overlapping for some films, directors and producers are alarmed that four of the biggest studios are going down that route.

They have joined cinema owners to warn that reducing the exclusive release window traditionally given to cinema chains will lead to dwindling audiences and increased piracy with pristine digital copies being made available so early.

Cameron, who was showered with Oscars for Titanic and Avatar, said: "The cinema experience is the wellspring. If the exhibitors are worried, I'm worried. Why on earth would you give audiences an incentive to skip the highest and best form of your film?"

The letter, whose signatories also include Kathryn Bigelow, Roland Emmerich and Michael Mann, states that changing release patterns "could irrevocably harm the financial model of our film industry".

Acknowledging that studios are struggling to replace revenue lost by declining DVD sales, it condemns "a distribution model that cannibalises theatrical ticket sales". It warns: "Some theatres will close. The competition for those screens that remain will become more intense, foreclosing all but the most commercial movies from theatrical release."

Last week, Sony's Just Go With It, starring Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler in a romantic comedy about a plastic surgeon who pretends to be married, had a VOD release 70 days after opening in cinemas.

John Fithian, head of the National Association of Theatre Owners, which represents cinemas in 50 countries, including the UK, warned of the perils of what he called a "misguided adventure".

Phil Clapp, chief executive of the Cinema Exhibitors' Association in the UK, said that it could be "particularly destructive" for smaller, independent cinemas, leading to "a significant enough erosion of attendances to make them no longer financially viable".

But the industry is divided. A leading British producer, Stephen Margolis, head of Future Films, sees the benefits of change. He released his film Flawless, starring Demi Moore and Michael Caine, on VOD three weeks before it went into theatres to work up word-of-mouth recommendations.He said: "The film industry has an opportunity to avoid some mistakes that the music industry made. It has to grasp reality and understand what the consumer needs are. With VOD, you can watch it when you want, you don't have to book a babysitter, and it's no longer a £100 evening, but maybe £15 or £25 for VOD."

This seems to be the next chapter in the internet's revolution of home entertainment. The legal downloads of films more than doubled from £35m to £78m in 2010, according to a recent report by the British Video Association. Last year, the supermarket giant Walmart, owner of the Asda chain in Britain, acquired the US VOD service Vudu. Last month, Tesco saw the potential of the British VOD market, taking an 80% stake in Blinkbox, a rival to existing services such as Amazon's LoveFilm.

Christopher Dodd, head of the Motion Picture Association of America, which represents the studios, said: "Films are made to be shown on big screens in dark theatres filled with people." He added: "This is all part of a broad effort by our industry to lead through innovation and develop new business models that respond to growing demand by expanding consumer choice in an era of tremendous technological development."




Questions:

8. What do the film studios want to change?

9. What effects will this have on movie theaters? What do the directors say?


10. How has the number of legal film downloads changed in the last years?

11. Do you think this will significantly change business in movie theaters?




Send your answers to us at tutor@virtualingua.de