Sholto's Blog

Tweet yourself to a new language

2010-03-10T05:28:00.000-08:00

"yǒuyìsi: adjective meaning "interesting" in Mandarin Chinese."
This was the tweet I got today from 'Chineselanguage' on Twitter.

The creators of the daily tweets in Chinese send a new word each day as well as other useful language learning resources and info relevant to people interested in learning Mandarin.

The links from each new word go to their home page where an audio file of the new word can be heard, as well as a sample sentence and the Chinese writing of the word... This is a potentially great way for anyone to easily build up their vocabulary...

But the tweets aren't limited to Chinese... Whether you're interested in French, Spanish, German, Hindi, Korean, Arabic, Polish, Finnish.... Whatever. These guys, Transparent Language, seem to have a tweet and blog for loads of of them. Simply type in the language in the search section of twitter followed by the word 'language', for example for french type in "frenchlanguage", then follow the user that appears.

If you don't know what twitter is, simply click here to find out...

A list of blogs these guys have, and of which I also follow a few as they go more into detail and have loads of other free language learning resource links can be found here

And if you're interested in practicing the language by speaking it with others I suggest some kind of group of people with this same aim in mind...

In Paris there's a group called the POLYGLOT club that come together a few times each week in a bar to just speak different languages. There are people from all over, it's free and loads of fun. Check it out here.

You could look for a similar group wherever you live or even consider to create one yourself if you don't have any luck finding any...

So you say you want to buy a camel huh? One hump or two?

2010-03-03T03:05:00.000-08:00

Just finished reading Conor Woodman's "Around the World in 80 trades".

Sudanses camels, Botswanan coffee, horses in Kyrgyzstan, blow-up bodyboards and jade from China, to Mexican Tequila or sustainably grown Brazilian Teak, Woodman's travels lead to trades of both the mundane and the bizarre, often with unexpeted results.

The book is a fine mix of entertainment, humour and education in the basic principles of economics and negotiation, and one I would definitely recommend. It is also a reminder of the many opportunities there really are if we just open our eyes and take a risk or two...

The British Channel 4 also ran series with the same title in which the author is filmed as he undertakes his above-mentioned adventures. The series is also really good and can be found on DVD.

You can find out more on the book in an interview from Channel 4 here, or get the book, audiobook or DVDs from Amazon here...

Ring.. Ring... your future job is on the line

2010-02-09T02:28:00.000-08:00

Found some really good pointers on www.jobsearchjournal.com and I thought I'd share a summary of the article: "Five ways to prepare for a phone interview", for those fellow job seekers out there who, like me, may find their careers "on hold" at the moment...

Know the company - seemingly apparent, and yet it is true that thourough analysis online (for news about the company, info on the website, etc...) can make all the difference.
Know the position - get a job description, highlight it, note why you qualify for the post, and keep it close for when you pick up the phone.
Know the interviewer - Google, linkedIn, etc... The more familiar you are with the person you're speaking with, the better prepared you are to know which subjects may be interesting to talk about.
Prepare questions - interviewers will usually ask if you have questions at the end of the call and this allows you to get answers to reduce your own uncertainty, eg: "What are the next steps?", "When will I hear back from you?". Keep your questions ready.
Review your resume - cross-examining yourself in advance leaves you better prepared to mention the relevant skills, experiences and qualities, and why they qualify you for the position. It also allows you to anticipate resume-related questions that may be asked and answer them.

Land lines also beat cells/mobiles, they cut out less, and as with most things in life, better to be overly prepared than to get a nasty surprise...

Socialnomics?

2009-08-20T01:18:00.000-07:00

Saw this video and thought I'd share it...

What are your thoughts? Socialnomics - another fad, or just a preview of the future?

Learn Spanish

2009-07-21T01:42:00.000-07:00

Saw some great sites for Spanish learners.

Text, video, audio, translations/subtitles. The only thing that's missing is a chance to speak the language, but then that's what Spanish speaking friends and countries are for...

Buen aproveche !

http://ssl4you.blogspot.com pods, text, translations
http://lomastv.com videos

Where did all the good people go?

2009-07-09T02:21:00.000-07:00

We speak a lot about social media and collaboration tools, but in the end these are only ways of collaborating and networking. The core has never changed, and he/she may be sitting right next to you. It's all about People !

Here are some points taken from one of the best-selling and most successful books on building relationships and selling ideas ever written: Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People"... Written almost a century ago, and still selling well today...

If it worked for Warren Buffet in earning his billions, maybe it may help you a little too...

Never criticize, condemn or complain.

Self-criticism is extremely rare. Your criticism won't be welcome. Criticism makes others defensive and resentful. Positive Reinforcement works better.

Become genuinely interested in other people.

People are most interested in themselves. Remember people's birthdays and other important details.

Talk in terms of the other person's interests.

Find the interests of others and talk about those things. If you know nothing of their interests, ask intelligent questions.

Be a good listener.

Give your exclusive attention to others. Urge others to talk about themselves. Ask pointed questions.

Make the other person feel important.

People yearn to feel important and appreciated. Praise others' strengths and they'll strive to reinforce your opinion.

Use Names whenever possible.

A person's name is their favourite word in any language

Smile.

Greet others with smiles and enthusiasm. Smiling comes through even over the phone.

If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.

Demonstrate your willingness to rationally examine the facts. If another is about to criticize you, don't let them start! A harsh self-rebuke may prompt the others to soften their critiques. Admitting errors clears guilt and everyone to move forward quickly.

Try honestly to see things from the other person's point of view.

This is the most important point, and key to get what you want through others...

More points can be found at www.notesofintelligence.com, but I recommend the book or an audiobook for a more in depth view...

If you have any other tips of your own, or something to say about those above or the book itself, please feel free to comment here...

Facebook

2009-03-20T07:11:00.000-07:00

Saw this on CNN recently...

Interesting developments:

Jiving... Inspiring advances in the area of enterprise 2.0

2009-03-18T06:30:00.000-07:00

Jive's "Social Business Software" looks to be a great step forward for one of the leaders in the enterprise 2.0 field.

I really liked this video and thought that it was worth sharing...

What if Work Was Social Again? from Jive Software on Vimeo.

Tomorrow Never Comes

2009-03-04T02:52:00.000-08:00

I found an interesting article on the economic crisis, the only one thus far that seems to reflect the attitude of an economics professor I once had who, in 2005, predicted the crisis we're now in.

Unsurprisingly, those who disagreed are also the same people who say that in a year or two all will be back to normal...

For those who think that the governments are looking out for our best interest by refinancing the banks that gave bad loans, and those who think that in a year or two we should all be "fine" again, you should definitely read this one.

http://whatmatters.mckinseydigital.com

"Virgin fantasies"

2009-01-23T06:38:00.000-08:00

Richard Branson
Just thought I'd get that part out of the way for anybody who was expecting something else from this entry.

I'm in the middle of a book entitled "business stripped bare", and I have to say that it's enough to make you cry...

It'll bring tears to your eyes if, like me, you think that the traditional, top-down (almost totalitarian really) style of business is completely archaic and belongs in a history book, not in current day-to-day business life.

How to boost innovation, improve service, motivate employees, tripple-bottom-line... the whole lot.

And the worst part of all is that the kind of stuff he says isn't rocket science, only (un)common sense.

I know where I'll be applying for my next job.

A really good read for anybody who's interested...

http://entrepreneur.virgin.com/author/richard/

2008-12-01T07:59:00.000-08:00

Here is a great video from Alstom University on Communities and Collaboration being introduced into large companies...

I'm proud to be part of the team working on this initiative in the group, and pleased to say that the results are already starting to be seen as success stories come through

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVoDJZT-Rnw

Tacit Knowlegde - "We know more than we can tell."

2008-12-01T02:15:00.001-08:00

I read an some interesting postings on CollaborativEye on the usefulness of Tacit knowledge to organizations and leadership's role in collaboration.

Imagine a company where everybody's knowledge could be shared quickly and easily to those who need it and didn't even know it existed.

Effectively, we have here the foundations for what might be seen as synergy...
1+1 = 3

It is true that collaboration is not meant to completely replace traditional structures.

We still need leadership and some sense of order if we are to avoid anarchy.

Too many chiefs and not enough Indians could definitely lead to problems.

If everyone is speaking and nobody is listening, this too is a concern.

Leaders need to guide collaborative projects, but should not control the process or it loses its organic strangth.

And as for those who still argue that collaboration is just another craze which isn't practical...

The results are in!

In the debate between collective knowledge sharing versus command ideology,

"Toyota beats Ford"... therefore "Bottom-up beats Top-down"...

What I really liked about the posting on the link provided below was its "how-to" conclusion...

For those who are:
(1) using inefficient interactive tools in their companies, with
(2) only text to communicate and educate instead of images, demos and presentations, and where
(3) many bureaucratic procedures are needed to do anything...

Collaboration may be perceived as being inefficient and inappropriate.

If these three conditions were changed, however, perhaps they would be singing a different tune.
Please feel free to read the orginal postings that inspired this, as well as others, at:
http://www.collaborativeye.com/collaboration_journal/category/collaborative-leadership

Change and icebergs

2008-11-19T04:40:00.000-08:00

I recently read a business book by John Kotter called 'Our iceberg is melting'.

In a bubble, the book tells a fable about penguins living on an iceberg who are on the brink of becoming a seal's wet dream, because their iceberg is melting and they don't realise.

One of the penguins discovers a crack in the iceberg, but he is low down in the penguin society, so nobody listens to him.

The head penguins, when he finally gets to talk to them, tell him that he is crazy, and that they know best. For them the iceberg will not melt because it has never melted before.

"What a crazy idea, an iceberg that melts..."

Our penguin who discovered the crack is hence ridiculed and his findings completely ignored, or at least almost.

Luckily, because influential and charasmatic penguins with other specialities actually listened to him, a team was created to come up with a plan to save the colony.

Despite much resistence, they succeeded...

The book is about change, and more notably how it happened from the bottom-up, thanks to the ability of one penguin who discovered the problem to speak to other penguins in the colony with whom he would otherwise never have communicated.

It made me think about why some companies manage to stay so flexible, even though they're huge, and why others don't.

They trust employees (are people-centric), regardless of their level, to solve problems and to share, for example through internal social network tools, their ideas with other people in the company they didn't even know existed...

Others who could use their ideas, or even who could solve their problems for them because they had the same experiences before...

More info on the book can be found at http://www.ouricebergismelting.com/html/iceberg.html

I also recommend this article on the mckinseyquarterly website (it's worth the one minute free registration) for those interested in the future of management... http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Innovative_management_A_conversation_between_Gary_Hamel_and_Lowell_Bryan_2065