Final class_ 10 June

Hello, hej, annyeong, merhaba and namaskaram everybody,

First of all, many thanks for doing the course, especially to those of you who managed to “stay the course”, as we say. It’s been a fun challenge for me and I hope you enjoyed it, learned something and feel that you got your money’s worth. I strongly recommend that you keep up your studies.

And thank you for the two excellent presentations! Plus a further apology for “overlooking” your email addresses when I mailed the homework to myself 2 weeks ago.  I’m normally very efficient.

If you were wondering what I was doing at the end of class on Tuesday, I was looking for this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n9Vn3ph5Ps. The reason is that I thought Amy Cuddy’s Ted Talk might be too long and this was a shorter alternative. In the end it worked out anyway. Watch the clip and see if you recognize anything.

Here’s a link to Amy Cuddy’s Ted Talk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks-_Mh1QhMc There are lots of other good Ted Talks on Youtube. Search for ones with “English subtitles” (human). The AI subtitles are usually terrible. The Dragons Den episodes with English subtitles are quite good as well for start-ups, pitching, investment and venture capitalism. You might find some here with English subtitles here.  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5A4nPQbUF8AsN8ShOBEFnIIn_qZvkNsp

Re. your English, there’s a lot you can do on your own, except have a conversation with yourself obviously. One of the aims of the course is to give you a few ideas on how to do it, but if you need any advice feel free to mail me.

Finally, please find attached the material from Tuesday. The good news is …no homework this week.

Have a nice summer!

Best wishes,

Eddie

Class material

2. Abbreviating months

1. Words to use in your CV….or not

13. The Employer Shopping List

3. Homework_10 Business buzzwords_key

2. 10 Latin adjectives_key

7. Signposting_basic

8. Signposting_advanced

11. Survival Tactics_key

Class 6_3 June

Hello, hej, annyeong, ni hao, merhaba and namaskaram everybody,

                                                                                                                                                                                  Class 5_27 May

Hello, hej, annyeong, ni hao, merhaba and namaskaram everybody,

                                                                                                                                                                                  Class 4_20 May

Hello, hej, annyeong, ni hao, merhaba and namaskaram everybody,

Many thanks for a good class on Tuesday evening and apologies for the slight delay in sending this email, which was due to a large amount of work unexpectedly  landing in my mailbox on Wednesday and Thursday. Hopefully, those of you who couldn’t come to class will still have time to do the homework.

George, I hope your in-laws are enjoying their trip to subtropical Sweden .

Chan, do you know somebody from the Korean community in Stockholm called Sofia Hwang?

This week, due to the fact that I don’t do a lot of grammar during this course (especially now that we only have 7 classes), I’ve attached a couple of info sheets with explanations about grammatical issues that have occurred in the writing. There are no exercises involved, but please read them when/if you have time.

                                                                                                                                                                                  Class 3_13 May

Hello, hej, annyeong, ni hao, merhaba and namaskaram everybody,

                                                                                                                                                                                  Class 2_6 May

Hello, hej, annyeong, ni hao, merhaba and namaskaram everybody,

Many thanks for Tuesday evening! I realized during our session that a few of you are a bit shyer about speaking English than I expected after last week. That’s something I’ll work on. At this stage, it doesn’t matter what you say as long as it’s in English. And for those of you who are stronger speakers, don’t be worried about speaking too much. I’ll make sure that everyone gets their chance.

Re. missing class or coming late to class, if you know you’re going to have to miss class completely, please let me know as early as possible by email, preferably a few days in advance (I might have planned something that I don’t want you to miss). If you know you’re going to be a bit late on the day, for example you get held up at work, the best option is to text me on 0705544438 before 6 pm and I won’t wait for you to arrive. Normally, it’s no problem — except this week (class 2) as I always start with the list of helpful online resources and didn’t want you to miss any of them.

Homework this week is as follows:

Reading: How to Be a Better Communicator in the Workplace + short exercise.The topic next week will be communication and how to improve your communication at work. Please make sure you so the first part.

Vocabulary: “10 useful business verbs_update”…please do the exercise.

Style: “Formal or informal email”...please match the informal phrases with the more formal ones.

Everything else from class time, including the list of Internet resources. There are innumerable ways of improving different aspects of your English for free (including pronunciation) if you know where to find them. These are just a few.

Now I have a lot of job reports to correct.

Have a nice rest of the week!
Best wishes,
Eddie

Homework

Homework_10 useful business verbs_update

Homework reading_communication 2

Homework_ style – Formal or informal email

Class material

1. online resources

2. Business words pronunciation_stress and schwab

5b. Style transfer 1_long

9. business topics – meetings

6. Compound nouns and collocations

7. Meetings collocations2

8. GIVING OPINIONS

Class 1 _29 April

Hello, hej, annyeong, ni hao, merhaba and namaskara everybody,

Hope you’re all well and many thanks for Tuesday evening. I hope you enjoyed it. You have the makings of a very nice (and interesting) group!

Apologies for the slight delay in sending this newsletter, which was due to a translation deadline yesterday.

Re. the course book, as I mentioned I don’t use one, partly because course books are expensive and our course is only 7 weeks long (now 6). However, officially our course book is this one.. https://www.akademibokhandeln.se/bok/business-skills-email-english-students-book/9783191728847  (Email English 2nd edition by Paul Emmerson). You don’t have to buy it, but it’s a very good self-study book for people who need to write emails in English.

If you have issues with your grammar then I recommend the Murphy’s Upper Intermediate grammar book (the holy book of English grammar). https://www.adlibris.com/se/bok/english-grammar-in-use-book-with-answers-and-interactive-ebook-9781108586627

I’ll bring both books to class next week for you to look at, as well some possible pronunciation material. I also show you a few useful links to dictionaries and language resources.

My FU blog is here https://blogg.folkuniversitetet.nu/stored/. I’ll post these emails, the homework and class material every week under the link Advance your Business English C1 on Tuesdays. For those of you who speak Swedish, there are some useful dictionaries as well under “Useful dictionaries”. I especially Janet Carr’s “Talking about Sweden”. And there are some “Useful links” as well, some of the ones I’ll be showing you next week.

Homework this week is as follows:

1.  Reading “Make meetings work for you” (no need to do the exercise). The topic of “meetings”, both old school and New Normal, will form the basis of the group discussion next week.

2.  Writing “job report”: use the rubric to write a well-organized report in your most professional/formal English (in a Word file) and send it to me at this addess topstoreytuition@gmail.com (or to eddie.storey@folkuniversitetet.se) by next Tuesday. Remember that you’re supposed to be describing/giving advice about your job/role, not writing about yourself. Nor is this a job description of the kind that you might see in a situations vacant ad. The people you’re giving advice to are new employees, i.e they’ve already been employed (new work colleagues). I’ve included a generic report introduction to help get you started. The writing is one of the few opportunities I have to help you individually.

3. Style/register “writing extracts”: Please read the 4 extracts and decide where they come from, whether they’re formal/neutral/informal and any other thoughts you have about style, vocabulary etc.

Style, register and context are very important elements of advanced English.

Finally, please find attached the material from class time and the homework, and feel free to mail me at topstoreytuition@gmail.com if you have any questions.

Hope to see you all next week!

Best wishes,

Eddie

Homework

HW writing – job report

HW Reading – make meetings work for you

Class material

11. Synonyms_adjectives 1_update3

3. Eddie_LinkedIn page_update8

2. Info about FU

7. Basic Course Framework for AYBE

6. Actual Student Level

9. IMPORTANT FACTORS IN LANGUAGE LEARNING