Have you ever been to New Zealand?  It is a small country in the South Pacific with about the same population as Ireland and yet it has a movie industry which produces such great names as Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings, King Kong and The Hobbit), Sam Neill (Jurassic Park, Merlin, Omen III) and Anna Paquin (True Blood, Fly Away Home).

Top 5 New Zealand movies

Here are the five top New Zealand movies in my humble opinion.

Utu

(Screened at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival)

In 1983, Utu was said to have the largest budget for any NZ movie.  It is a story set in the days of British colonization to New Zealand and the relationship they had with the NZ native people (the Maoris).

Geoff Murphy also made a handful of other iconic New Zealand films such as Goodbye Pork Pie and The Quiet Earth.

Bad Taste

(Probably not screened at any awards event ever!)

In 1987, the now legendary Peter Jackson was just starting his film career.  He made this movie on weekends playing two roles himself and enlisting his friends and coworkers for the other roles.  It was filmed mostly at his house.  The bulk of the movie was made for under $NZ 25,000.  Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles and Braindead are the three movies that started PJ’s career and they are all low-budget horror movies.  But they are the best low-budget horror movies ever made!

Peter Jackson took a serious note next with Heavenly creatures (starring Kate Winslet) and then The Frighteners (starring Michael J. Fox) before moving onto the Rings/Kong fame.

Once were warriors

Once Were Warriors was a hard movie to watch about family issues which included alcoholism, poverty, rape and domestic violence.  It was a very popular movie starring Temuera Morrison who went on to Hollywood fame (Speed 2, Star Wars 4, Barb Wire, The Island of Doctor Moreau). It was popular due to its hard-hitting portrayal of the life of an urban Maori family.

The Piano (1993-Won the Palme d’Or at Cannes) and Whale Rider (2003-Debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival) are probably the most widely-circulated and critically-acclaimed New Zealand movies and are both well worth a watch.

In the FCE writing test you will be expected to write a general (non-technical) text for a specific purpose.  This means writing an article, an email, an essay, a letter, a report, a review or a story to meet the requirements of the question.  As always, to prepare for the FCE writing test, the best advice is practice.

Know the FCE writing questions

Become familiar with the test and the types of questions that will be asked.  There really is a very limited scope of questions and the more you are exposed to past questions, the more comfortable you will be in answering them.

Know the answers to the FCE writing test

Look at sample answers.  When you are looking at sample answers, the common mistake is to try to use words and phrases that you are not familiar with and using them the wrong way.  Learning a language is all about making mistakes and learning from them so take all new phrases and make those mistakes with your teacher rather than in the test.  I recommend noting new words and phrases that you come across, writing some practice sentences using these and doing a class with a Live English teacher who can help to ensure that you are using the language correctly.

Know how it is marked

Your writing will be marked based on content, communicative achievement, organization and language used.

Content refers to how well you have done what you were asked to do.
Communicative Achievement refers to whether you have used the appropriate level of formality.
Organisation refers to how well you put together the piece of writing; is it logical and structured?
Language refers to the vocabulary and grammar that you used. Is it accurate and varied?

Know what resources you have available

Keep in mind that you are not the only person doing this test and the internet provides a way of sharing notes and samples with others so don’t forget to Google to find out what others are sharing about the test.

Good luck and remember, practice makes perfect.

Ireland is a beautiful island with a rich culture for tourists to enjoy so before you pack your bags, here are the top 5 things you should know to enjoy a trip to Ireland.

1)      English is not the (only) official language of Ireland. 

The official language in Ireland is Irish (Gaeilge).  Irish is part of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic family of languages.  Irish is a first language to only about 30000 people most of whom live in the country areas.  You can travel throughout Ireland without needing to use Irish but you may see road signs etc in Irish.  It is advisable to get a map which has place names in both languages if you are planning to travel outside the major cities.

2)      Ireland’s two national sports are Gaelic Football and Hurling.

Gaelic football is described as a cross between soccer and rugby while hurling is the fastest field sport in the world.  You should try to catch a game if you go to Ireland in the summer.

3)      Irish food is very “hearty”. 

Irish Stew

Almost all traditional Irish dishes are made with meat (especially lamb and pork), potatoes, and cabbage.  Here are a few; Boxty (potato pancakes), Champ (mashed potatoes with spring onions), Coddle (a stew of potatoes, pork sausages and bacon) or Colcannon (mashed potatoes and cabbage).

4)      It is relatively convenient.

The Irish government has been spending a lot of money on modernizing the rail system.  But if you are going to travel by train, try to book your travel in advance for huge savings (sometimes more than 50%).  But if you are booking at short notice be aware that not all special rates (e.g. family rates) are announced online and sometimes booking at the office at the station will be the cheaper option.

5)      You probably won’t need a visa.

If you are from the EU, you only need your passport or national identity card, you won’t need a visa.  Most other countries’ nationals can stay for up to 3 months without a visa.

Don’t forget the best travel advice anyone can give you is to check with your embassy or travel agent before you travel to any new country and notify your embassy if you plan to stay there more than a month.

What is innovation to you?  What products do you think of when you hear the word innovation?  What companies do you think are the most innovative companies in the world?

The video we are looking at today is all about what innovation is and how we can define the word.

Business English – Innovation

Take a look at the video once.  Then, watch the video again and try to catch the missing words:

1. It’s anything that you do that goes against _______________
2. Find the problem, find the solution, find the customer and __________.
3. Innovation is definitely our ability to use what we have to change our ________ for the better.
4. It’s a combination of __________ culture, one might say, versus something that is completely new.
5. Innovation is more identifying something that can be done better, faster, easier, more _________.

The missing words are not easy so don’t worry about spelling, this is an exercise in catching difficult words that are unfamiliar to you and being able to note them down so that you can ask your teacher or look them up.

Remember- Whenever you come across a word that you are not familiar with, try to catch the sentence not just the word so that the teacher can easily identify it even if you spell it wrong.

Answers

1. Status quo- The existing state of affairs
2. Iterate- To repeat a process
3. Environment- The surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates
4. Remixed- Produce a different version of by mixing elements of existing ideas
5. Eloquently- Characterized by persuasive, powerful discourse

Innovation is key to business. This exercise has been presented to you by Live-English.net, your online language school that helps you improve your English for business.

The best way to prepare for any of the major language exams is to become familiar with the structure of the test and then do some practice tests until you are comfortable with them.

The structure of the FCE listening test

Getting to know the test structure means knowing what kind of dialogue/monologue you will hear.  In the FCE listening exam, you will hear monologues (one person talking) such as answer phone messages, information lines, commentaries, radio documentaries and features, instructions, lectures, news, public announcements, publicity and advertisements, reports, speeches, stories and anecdotes, talks. You will also hear dialogues (two people talking) such as conversations, discussions, interviews, quizzes, radio plays, transactions.

PART 1
Question type: Multiple choice.

Listening for: General gist, detail, function, purpose, attitude, opinion, relationship, topic, place, situation, genre, agreement, etc.
Format: A series of short (about 30 seconds each), unrelated extracts from monologues or dialogues between speakers. There is one multiple choice question per text, each with three options.
Number of questions: 8

PART 2
Question type: Sentence completion.

Listening for: Detail, specific information, stated opinion.
Format: A monologue or dialogue lasting approximately 3 minutes. Candidates are required to complete the sentences with information heard on the recording.
Number of questions: 10

PART 3
Question type: Multiple matching.

Listening for: General gist, detail, function, purpose, attitude, opinion, relationship, topic, place, situation, genre, agreement, etc.
Format: Five short (about 30 seconds each), related monologues. Choose the correct answer from six options.
Number of questions: 5

PART 4
Question type: Multiple choice.

Listening for: Opinion, attitude, gist, main idea, specific information.
Format: A monologue or dialogue which lasts approximately 3 minutes. There are seven multiple-choice questions, each with three options.
Number of questions: 7

Now that you understand the structure of the FCE listening test, it is all about practice.  So get to the bookstore or search online for FCE listening practice to achieve the score that you are after.

What is English slang?

Slang is the informal speech that you will learn from your friends and from movies but is often not taught in textbooks.  This is because slang is not official language, it has come into the language through popular speech and may or may not yet be recorded in dictionaries etc.

A few examples of slang in English

If someone is not very smart, you might call them an airhead, a dumbass, or a bonehead (nouns).  If you are going to steal something, you jack it, you knock over a store or pinch it (verbs). If someone has had too much alcohol, they are tanked, sloshed or horsed (adjectives).

Why do we have slang?

We live in a society that values people who are attractive and fun to speak with.  If you make your language colourful, people will like that and mimic you.  So, if you say something in a way that people find amusing, it may be copied again and again until it becomes part of the language that people use.  It might even end up in the dictionary.

Slang comes from people saying things in a unique and interesting way.

How do I learn to use slang?

The same way everyone else does.  Slang is spoken English so if you want to experience slang, speak with people.  Don’t try to learn slang from books because if it is already printed, people are probably already saying something else.  Just listen to the way people speak and follow suit.

Don’t forget that slang is often very local so the slang that you learn with one group of friends may be completely different to the slang you learn with another.

Like most countries, Canada has a policy of welcoming immigrants who have skill-sets that are needed in Canada.  It may be a bit of a challenge to find the right job and whenever you are looking at working outside your own country, you have to make sure that your expectations are not too high.

Not as taxing

Keep in mind that Canada has a lower income tax than a lot of other western countries so it is important to look at what your income will be after tax.

Living cheaper in Canada

To get a good idea of how much things cost, take a look at one of the online supermarkets and you will see that compared to Europe (not US), food is generally cheaper, housing is considerably cheaper in a lot of cases, petrol and cars are cheaper and power is cheaper although look at how much you will be spending on heat.  All of this means that you will be able to make less and still maintain the same standard of living that you have in your own country.

Getting a job in Canada

If you are looking to migrate, start checking the job boards online to get a good idea of what kinds of jobs are going before you commit to the move.  You can start applying for jobs a couple of months out but if you do so any sooner than that, don’t be discouraged if you get no replies.

Make sure that when you start to apply for jobs, your resident visa is in process and that you have been deemed eligible to apply.  This will mean that potential employers know that they will not be disappointed by last minute upsets.  Getting a job in Canada can be a slow process so leave enough time to get things done.

Adapting to change

As with any change, it is important to keep your mind open to different ways of doing things and different ways of behaving.  Make sure that you do not go there expecting things to be as they are in your home country in order to make the transition more comfortable.

Often, we think of marketing job interviews as completely unstructured tests of creativity but in reality, marketing directors have their favourite questions just like all recruiters.  Choose a famous company and one of their leading products and use these as a basis to answer the following questions.

1. Why do you think you will do well in marketing?
2. What does “marketing” mean to you?
3. Other than marketing, what other jobs could you see yourself doing?
4. What do you do when customers tell you “no”?
5. What resources will you use in order to increase the sales of this company?
6. What do you think of our current campaign?  How would you improve upon this?
7. What would you say were the most marketable points of our product?
8. If you were to identify our top 5 “typical” consumers, what kind of people would they be?
9. How would you identify with our target audience?
10. How do you cope with pressure?
11. What do you think is the best way to convince someone in that building over there to come to this building just to buy our product?
12. What campaigns have you run in the past and what were their strengths and weaknesses?

Buzzwords for marketing job interviews

And no marketing job interview would be complete without dropping the following buzzwords:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Putting your website #1 on Google search
• Lead generation – Getting the contact details of people who might buy
• Conversion rate optimization – Making sure that leads are good
• Mobile media – Getting your message on Blackberries, iPhones and other smart phones
• Social networking – Face book, Twitter etc
• Market segmentation – Knowing who your “typical” consumers are

How extensive is your English vocabulary? Have you ever wondered how many words you know? What is the difference between passively knowing a word and being able to use it in a sentence?

The secret to remembering vocabulary for good

The answer here is collocations. A collocation is a set of words that are often used together. For example, we say “rely on someone”.  If you saw the word “rely” for the first time and did not know what it meant, you might look it up in the dictionary. Now you have the ability to recognize that word and probably to figure out what the sentence means. This is passive knowledge.

However, now you go to use the word and you remember the word “rely” but you do not remember the sentence that you saw the word in.  You do not remember that rely is followed by “on”.  Without this knowledge, you cannot successfully use the word.  If you understand the collocation “rely on someone”, you can use the word and start to build your fluency using this word to get a working ability to use this word in conversation (or active skill).

The moral of this story is in order to really develop your vocabulary, and in order to be able to pass exams like the FCE which will test not only your understanding of but also your ability to use vocabulary, you need to do more than just remember vocabulary lists.

Remembering vocabulary for the FCE

Get into the habit of remembering the spelling, the meaning, the way to use the word and the way the word sounds. It might sound unbelievable but the more you try to remember and the more you practice using the word, the easier it will be to keep the word in your long-term memory.

Questions to think about before watching the video

What is stimulus money?  What does it stimulate?

Why does the government give out stimulus money?  How does this help the government?

How can a company make money by helping other companies to qualify for government stimulus money?

Questions to think about after watching the video

What is happening with Growth Management Group?

A)     It is using government stimulus money to increase its capital

B)      It is down-sizing and letting more than 100 people go

C)      It is undergoing growth and expanding its headquarters

D)     It is claiming government stimulus money to give executives a raise

What new positions are NOT mentioned?

A)     Sales and marketing

B)      Human relations

C)      Customer service

D)     Project management

One employee was interviewed, what did they say about the job?

A)     It was horrible and she quit

B)      It has great training and support

C)      It is well-managed and highly-paid

D)     It has a great atmosphere and she recommends it

What kind of people should apply for these jobs?

A)     Dedicated and diligent

B)      Energetic and dynamic

C)      Educated and well-dressed

D)     Low-energy and low-patience

Why is this a good economy for the company to grow?

A)     An up economy is a good economy to grow in

B)      A down economy is a good economy to grow in

C)      Any economy is a good economy to grow in

D)     No one knows what kind of economy is best

Answers    C, B, D, B, B