Role play job interview

November 16th, 2011 | Posted by glenn in Job Interview in English - (0 Comments)

It’s just a game. Take it too seriously and you have already lost. Job interviews seem like the most serious thing in the world when you are sitting in front of the manager being interrogated but I choose to see the manager as my opponent. The game is to score more points than the previous players and the best points to make are the points that show you are right for this job.

The first thing everyone knows about training before a big game is practice makes perfect. If you want to improve any skill, you should practice it and interview skills are no different. The question is do you want to practice by having a hundred interviews in the next few weeks or by simulating interview conditions so that you can get the job in the first few interviews that you do?

Role play interview: practice before the game

To help you in your training for your next match, think about how you would answer the interview questions below. Practice them with your family or friends in as realistic a situation as possible. Sit on opposite sides at a table but remember to have fun. When you are finished, ask your interviewer the following questions:

What did you like about me during that interview.
What answers do you remember the most?
Did I do anything you didn’t like?
Did I say anything negative?
How was my handshake?
How was my body language?
Did I smile enough?

See my tips for suceeding in interviews

Job Interview Questions to role play

About your previous jobs

What were your responsibilities?
Why did you choose this job?
What did you enjoy most about this job?
What was your greatest challenge in this job?
What did you learn from this job?
Tell me about a time that you went beyond the call of duty.
What was it like working for your supervisor?
Why did you leave?

About you and the position

How would your last employer describe you?
What are your strengths?
What are your weaknesses?
Describe your work style.
What motivates you?
How do you handle stress?
What is the number one criticism about you?
How would you help this company to succeed?
Do you prefer to work individually or in a team?

job interview, role play

Advice from celebrity entrepreneurs

November 6th, 2011 | Posted by glenn in Business English - (0 Comments)

Have you ever dreamed of starting your own business? Are you thinking about or planning a new business right now? Here are some really inspirational messages from celebrity entrepreneurs that you should take on board.

To practice your listening comprehension at the same time, listen to the video just one time to get the gist of the discussions. Then, have a look at the vocabulary below to help you with some of the language that might be new to you. Finally, listen to the video again and paraphrase (say it again in different words) what you hear.

Paraphrasing is a great way to show that you understand what you hear and also to use a variety of vocabulary and structures similar in meaning but different to the ones that you hear.

Some useful vocabulary

start-up- a new company, a company that is just starting up
lo and behold- say this before a startling or important point. It is used to emphasize the next part.
come off the rails- to go in the wrong direction, to start on a bad course
love it to bits- to really love something
get to grips with something- to get used to it, to understand it
tenacity- the strength of purpose, to be tenacious means that you will fight hard and not give up
soak it all in- to absorb the information, to accept and understand the information completely
a filter system- this lets the good in but stops the bad
a scalable business- a business that will grow into a bigger business

I have paraphrased the speakers as well but to get the most benefit out of this exercise, don’t read this until you have tried it for yourself.

Jacqueline Gold, Chief Executive, Ann Summers
Focus and don’t let negative people affect your work.
Miles Templeman, Director General, Institute of Directors
Just do it. Learn from the process of starting a business so that even if you fail, you have learnt and you are more likely to succeed the next time. Be confident.
Tim Smit, Co-founder, Eden Project
Do what you love so that you do it well. Don’t just do something because it is a good idea or it will make a lot of money, find the good idea that you are passionate about.
Julien Metcalfe, Founder, Pret
Look at the your experience and honestly judge what you have done well and what you have not done well. Don’t try to blame external factors but know that it is in your power to do it right next time.
And do what you love.
Simon Woodroffe, Founder, Yo! company
Get the advice of the people who know. They might seem unapproachable but everyone likes to talk about their company so try contacting them. Listen a lot but don’t take in the negative words that come from fear. Don’t be afraid of criticism as you learn a lot more from criticism than from mindless praise.
Sahar Hashemi, Founder, Coffee Republic
Do your homework first, believe that it will work, get the money together, then do it and don’t stop. Hard work and persistence will take you to success.
Steve Mills, MRI Network
You need to get the right people together as you cannot make a large successful business by yourself. Try to get people with different ideas and different skills to you.
John Madejski, Chairman, Reading FC
Business is difficult but the only way to do it is to be brave and never give up.

business English, entrepreneur, listening, paraphrasing, startup, video

Rediger un CV en anglais

November 2nd, 2011 | Posted by admin in Selected posts in French - (0 Comments)

Imaginez que vous soyez responsable de ressources humaines. Vous avez une longue pile de CV en face de vous. Vous recherchez un nouvel employé mais vous devez passer en revue une centaine de CV pour ce job. Vous comprenez donc bien que la préférence va aux CV qui sont clairement écrits, concis et faciles à lire.

Vous ne passerez probablement pas plus de quelques secondes sur chacun, et si l’un d’entre eux vous paraît intéressant, vous vous attarderez un peu plus dessus. Donc, le premier conseil pour votre CV est de bien mettre en valeur les points importants et de ne pas essayer de tout faire rentrer sur une page.

Les particularités du CV en anglais

Il est tout à fait acceptable pour un CV en anglais adressé à un public anglophone de faire 2 pages. Voici les rubriques principales:

Personal Information- Votre nom, adresse; email et numéro de téléphone doivent apparaître clairement. En généraln dans les pays anglophones, il n’est nullement nécessaire de joindre une photo ou de préciser votre date de naissance.

Objective (1-2 lines) – Pourquoi envoyez-vous votre CV? Que souhaitez-vous accomplir? Cela doit être personnalisé en fonction du poste pour lequel vous envoyez votre candidature. Exemple: A position teaching English as a second language in a dynamic company which would benefit from a special ability to motivate and communicate effectively with students.

Summary- Un résumé de vos compétences en quelques lignes

Work experience- Cela inclut vos expériences professionnelles, en général, pas plus des 5 dernières. N’oubliez pas d’y mentionner le nom de votre fonction, l’entreprise, la ville (ou le pays), la période pendant laquelle vous avez occupé ce poste.

Education- Ce que vous avez étudié, où et quand

Personal interests (3-4 lignes) – Quels sont vos loisirs? Que faites-vous de votre temps libre?

References- il est très courant de finir avec cette phrase: “references available upon request”

Enfin, derniers conseils, utilisez des adjectifs qui vous mettent en valeur, tout en restant honête. Et, si vous CV comporte plusieurs pages, gardez bien votre nom en entête de chaque page.

Améliorer sa prononciation en anglais

November 2nd, 2011 | Posted by admin in Selected posts in French - (0 Comments)

Améliorer sa prononciation anglais est surtout une question de pratique. On pratique souvent sa prononciation en anglais autour d’un son en particulier. Si c’est votre cas, il est important de le faire dans le cadre d’une phrase ou de mots réels, et pas juste des syllabes isolées car ce ne serait pas trop efficace.

Les étapes pour améliorer sa prononciation anglaise

Tout d’abord, trouvez les sons ou les syllabes qui vous posent problème.

b (bad), d (done), f (find), g (give), h (hello), y (yellow), k (cat), l (little), m (man), n (no), ng (sing), p (pen), r (red), s (sun), sh (she), t (tea), ch (check), th (think), th (this), v (voice), w (wet), z (zoo), z (pleasure), j (jug)

Souvent, les erreurs de prononciations proviennent du fait que les sons sont tout simplement différents de votre langue maternelle, ou qu’ils n’y existent pas. Si vous ne savez pas comment prononcer ces sons, faites appel à un professeur d’anglais anglophone natif pour vous guider.

Si vous avez un problème pour distinguer deux sons, le mieux est d’utiliser des mots qui se ressemblent, et de pratiquer à les prononcer les uns après les autres. Par exemple, si vous avez un problème pour différencier le L et le R, vous pouvez vous entraîner sur light et right.

Les sons dans la phrase

Une fois que vous avez isolé les sons problématiques, et pratiqué sur des mots clés, l’étape suivante est de s’entraîner à écouter. C’est une étape très importante pour bien améliorer sa prononciation anglaise. Prenez le temps de bien écouter votre professeur anglophone, et de répéter certains mots avez lui. Si vous faites cela régulièrement, vous obtiendrerz des résultats significatifs.

L’accentuation

Le dernier point, et non des moindres, est l’intonation dans la phrase et l’accentuation de certaines syllabes dans les mots. Lisez à haute voix les mots ci-dessous et essayez d’identifier où doit se placer l’intonation. Attention, ce n’est pas toujours au même endroit.

Photograph

Photography

Photographer

Le premier mot est accentué sur la première syllabe – PHO to graph. Les autres mots, qui sont plus longs, sont accentués sur la deuxième syllabe – pho TOG rapher, pho TOG raphy.

En écoutant bien l’intonation des mots, vous pourrez identifier où l’accent doit être mis.

Rappelez-vous bien que pratiquer et écouter des anglophones est le meilleur moyen pour arriver à changer sa prononciation anglaise.

Do ya get what I’m saying?

November 1st, 2011 | Posted by glenn in Improving your English - (0 Comments)

How good is your English? How do you measure your skill? Do you talk about how well you speak, how well you can write a letter? How well you understand what other people are saying? Learning a language is made of many different skills including listening, speaking, reading and writing but also grammatical structure, vocabulary and general communication skill. Dividing these into the productive and the receptive skills helps us to understand what we can do in order to really take our English to the next level.

Listening is the key

The receptive skills are the skills that people don’t usually work on intentionally but spend most of their time using. They say that 45% of the communication that we experience is listening (compared with 30% speaking) and 16% of our communication is reading (compared with 9% writing). So, the receptive skills are, at least on average, more common than their productive counterparts.

Improve your English listening skills to learn speaking faster

But how much time do you spend drilling your listening? Yet we need to listen at the speed of thought to keep up in conversation.

Think about it this way, when you were a child, how did you learn to speak your first language? Did you read a grammar book? Did someone train you to speak in a classroom? Chances are, you learned your first language by listening to your parents. Listening and understanding are the key to fluent production.

So, how do we improve our listening?

First we need to decide what to listen to. The material that we learn the most from is close to where our level is now. If you are a beginner, listening to the BBC World News is probably not going to very helpful. Choose something that is near your level but still includes words, phrases and structures that are new to you to ensure that you will learn from it.

Listen to something that you can repeat again and again. DVDs with subtitles, music (get the lyrics from the Internet), videos on YouTube are all useful as they can be repeated a couple of times. When you get stuck, you can check the written version to help you. It is important that you do not develop a dependency on hearing everything repeatedly so be sure to keep in mind that the goal is to be able to understand the input at natural speed the first time you hear it.

To improve your listening, try some of these activities:

Listen and repeat. Listen line by line and repeat back what the characters say. Try to imitate the intonation when you do this.
Play the role of one of the characters. You need to listen to the speaker and respond, then compare your response with the real responses.
Dictation. Listen to the conversation and write down what they say. Then check it against the subtitles or find the script/lyrics on the Internet.
Catching the gist. Listen to a YouTube video and explain what the article was about and then listen again and add more detail to your explanation.

activities, listening, natural learning

5 years already

October 28th, 2011 | Posted by admin in Newsletter - (0 Comments)

When we started Live-English.net 5 years ago, we didn’t imagine how much fun it would be to meet you and help you improve your English. Over the years, we have added more features and services to fit your needs. Helping you to feel more confident in English has not been an easy task but we have always been keen to take up the challenge.

Thanks for choosing us!

What do you think about Halloween? How is Halloween celebrated in your country? Send us all your comments about Halloween on our Facebook Fan page!

Latest Blog posts

Business English- The competitive environment Follow these steps to help you to improve your business English listening skills. First, watch the video and listen carefully. Then, take a look at the language which may be new to you. Listen to the video one more time to complete the sentences. If you are not sure, the answers and explanations are provided below. Try not to peak at the script until you have finished the sentences.
The top 3 tips for the TOEIC listening section Isolate your weak points. When you are practicing, find the parts that you do not understand and focus on these. You may not understand them because of the grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation or contractions used. Maybe they used a new combination of words or maybe they spoke faster than you are used to.
Getting that dream job overseas Interviewing for a job overseas can be a different story to interviewing in your own country. So, here is the guide to getting that job when you haven’t even seen the company yet.
Taking your English to the next level When learning a language, people tend to progress in bursts. This means that there will be times that you feel like you are really learning fast and other times when you seem to plateau. The reason for this plateau is not quite clear although I would like to suggest a couple of theories and ways to combat this and take your English level higher.
Easier than you might think – Understanding the financial news Do you want to be able to listen to and understand the financial news in English? It takes a lot of practice and vocabulary to do it and you need to do it regularly so that can keep up with the people, companies and situations that are currently being talked about. But with consistent practice, you can do it. Check out this video on the situation in China…
How to handle your first English job interviewGoing to your first job interview in English can be an intimadating experience so here is the secret to facing those nerves and being able to impress where others fail. The secret to gaining that competitive advantage.
Mastering the reading section of IELTS Understanding the reading section will go a long way towards getting those extra marks that you need to increase your band. Here are some tips that can help you to do just that.

Halloween, Newsletter

It’s like writing but fun

October 22nd, 2011 | Posted by glenn in Improving your English - (0 Comments)

Here is a very easy way to make your writing immediately more interesting.

In English, we start most sentences with a subject. This is usually a person or a thing. But sometimes, we want to talk about an activity. The easiest way to make your sentences more interesting is to add some variety to the way that you make them.

Mix up the short and the long

If you create a mixture of short sentences and long sentences, you will quickly make your writing unpredictable. It’s that simple. This means that you should not use connectors to make every sentence a compound sentence. Just some. But be careful not to use sentence fragments in your formal writing.

A variety of subjects

Using simple nouns for subjects all the time can become dull. To use a variety of subject types is to make your writing more interesting. You can use the following to start a sentence:

Pronouns

I am having a party.

She is definitely coming.

Other simple nouns (or more precisely noun phrases if they have an article or adjective with them)

The party is at my house.

My house is near the police station.

Modified nouns, which are nouns that have a clause to modify them

The party that my friend went to is over now.

The house where the party was held is badly damaged.

Infinitives

To go to that party would be a mistake.

To drink and drive is illegal.

Gerunds

Going to parties is just something that I don’t enjoy doing.

Cleaning up afterwards is something I hate even more.

Empty subjects- there and it

It is great to be able to have a party at my house.

There will be another party next week.

Noun clauses

Who is at the party is a surprise.

Whoever is left at the end of the night can help me clean up.

So, when you next find yourself with a pen in your hand, try to keep these in mind for the benefit of those who will read your words. Variety is the spice of life.

subjects, writing

The top 6 interview faux pas

October 22nd, 2011 | Posted by glenn in Job Interview in English - (0 Comments)

Making a good impression is all about the first few minutes of the interview. You need to be able to show your potential employer that you would be a good fit in their image of what their company is. Here are some pitfalls to avoid when you are at the interview.

The dead fish

The dead fish

When you shake hands, it is important to have a strong grasp, a cool, dry hand and good eye-contact. Don’t just offer your finger-tips and don’t be too aggressive, but a hand-shake should be firm. If your hand is limp and sweaty we call it a dead fish. Not a nice image, right?

Rabbiting on

This means that you are talking too much. Ask questions, involve the interviewer as much as possible and answer questions concisely. If you are not an interesting person to talk with, you are lowering your chances of being remembered favourably. If the interviewer hasn’t been able to ask questions for the past 30 minutes, you might want to consider stopping to breathe.

Bad-mouthing

Bad-mouthing

This means that you are saying negative things about your past employers, company or colleagues. This is bad because if you cannot be positive for the duration of the interview, you probably will not be a positive employee. Also, if you didn’t fit well in your last company, you might not fit well in this one so paint all past experiences beautifully. If your last job was hell, talk about how you enjoyed the tropical climate.

Being rude to the gatekeeper

The first impression that you make is actually on the receptionist. Managers often take into consideration feedback from the staff as they will need to work with that person too. So make a good impression on the gatekeeper and also look interested in your surroundings while you are waiting. If you don’t look interested in being there, the interviewer might be less interested in speaking with you.

Becoming a burden

Showing up late for a job interview is obviously not good but often companies will frown upon candidates who show up too early as well. If you show up too early, you risk becoming a burden on the company so going early and waiting at a nearby café is always a good. Taking a pillow or a tent is obviously going a little far.

The stare down

Too much eye-contact can seem intense. Too little eye-contact can make you seem disinterested. The rule of thumb is to keep the eye contact fairly constant but keep in mind that it’s not a date.

Best of luck with your next interview!

bad-mouthing, being a burden, dead fish, faux pas, job interview, rabbiting on, stare down, the gatekeeper

How are people liking the new TOEIC?

October 22nd, 2011 | Posted by glenn in English Exams - (0 Comments)

It has been 5 years since the introduction of the new-look TOEIC test so how are people taking to the change?

First, let’s take a look at what the differences are. We start with the division of the skills into two tests. The new TOEIC has two tests; the listening and reading test and the speaking and writing test. So, the first big difference is that now, TOEIC tests your speaking skills.

The listening and reading test

The listening and reading test is a two-hour multiple-choice test with 200 questions. The questions are split evenly between listening comprehension and reading comprehension. The main differences to the old test are:

No error recognition. The error recognition section was removed due to criticism that it was not a practical skill in the business environment. It was replaced with a sentence completion section.
Longer passages. But don’t worry, there are fewer of them. This means that each passage has more questions.
More accents. You will now hear accents from Britain, Australia, New Zealand and North America.
Doubling it up. There are now double-passage questions where you have to read two passages and compare in order to answer questions.
Skills not rules. The new test is attempting to take the focus off knowledge of grammatical rules.

The reaction

So how is the public liking these changes? Soon after the change was made, the Institute for International Business Communication in Japan conducted a survey. It showed that 56.8% of people who did both tests found the new version to be harder. The lower the result that the respondent got, the stronger the opinion that the new test is more difficult. The higher-scoring candidates voted that the test is now easier after the change.

We recommend that you ask the test centre when you book which test you will be doing because as far as I’m aware, there are still some areas administering the old test.

test format, TOEIC

Business English- The competitive environment

October 22nd, 2011 | Posted by glenn in Business English - (0 Comments)

Follow these steps to help you to improve your business English listening skills. First, watch the video and listen carefully. Then, take a look at the language which may be new to you. Listen to the video one more time to complete the sentences. If you are not sure, the answers and explanations are provided below. Try not to peak at the script until you have finished the sentences.

Language

Stark reality/harsh reality – the simple, blunt truth
in a timely fashion – means not too slowly
To pull ahead – means to get the advantage
To lock yourself into a strategy – means to choose a path that you will not be able to change
Complacent – means that you are not pushing to succeed more. You are happy with your past successes

Listen to complete the sentences:

It’s not a question of whether you’ll fail, it’s ________________.
They really don’t seem to be able to __________________________________.
So you’ve gotta be able to _________________________.
Success, in many respects, ________________ because people become complacent.
Essentially they cannot adapt and then they are _____________________________.

Answers

It’s not a question of whether you’ll fail, it’s a question of when you’re gonna fail. This just means that you will definitely fail.
They really don’t seem to be able to respond in a timely fashion to the need to change. They are too slow to change.
So you’ve gotta be able to design an organizational structure that adapts fast. If you can build an organization that adapts quickly, you are more likely to succeed.
Success, in many respects, sows the seeds of failure. This means that success comes from failing. Your success comes thanks to your failures.
Essentially they cannot adapt and then they are on a blind alley and almost bound to fail. To be on a blind alley means that you are wasting your time on a job that is unproductive.

The script

The competitive environment is changing, and so if you are not prepared to change your strategy, unfortunately, you will fail eventually. The stark reality is if you are changing more slowly than your competitive environment, it’s not a question of whether you’ll fail, it’s a question of when you’re gonna fail.

And yet, so many companies find it difficult to adjust their strategy. If you call the measure of intelligence the ability to adapt to a changing environment, then companies tend to lack strategic IQ. They really don’t seem to be able to respond in a timely fashion to the need to change. Those that are capable of responding fast when times are not so tough, are actually gaining ground on those that are not changing; they are pulling ahead and when times get volatile, they have a much greater chance of survival than those that don’t have the capacity to change because they’re used to it.

If you’re gonna adapt the strategy, you need to adapt the structure. And if you design the structure that might be very efficient but it’s still difficult to change, then effectively, you’ve locked yourself into the strategy.

I know many senior executives that say, “strategy’s not our problem. We know what we need to do but we just can’t get the organization to do it” because they’ve got a huge organization that is very very difficult to change. So you’ve gotta be able to design an organizational structure that adapts fast. Ideally, a smart organization that actually changes as the strategy needs to change.

Success, in many respects, sows the seeds of failure because people become complacent. They do not want to change and they’d rather repeat past behaviour because it’s more efficient and they fail to invest in change until the point where it’s too late and essentially they cannot adapt and then they are on a blind alley and almost bound to fail.

business English, complacent, lock in, pull ahead, video