The Learning Log and Personal Plan for Language Development - Assignment Example

Portfolio 02243 of the Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Part A: The learning log 3 Week one: Individual language history 3 Week 4:Discussion critical incident 4 Week 5: My own training plan 4 Week 6: Reflection on Business Ethics 5 Week 12: Presentation Reflection (Differentiation in India and UK) 6 Part B: 7 Week 3: Personal Plan for Language Development for the Next Year 7 Week 8: Website Briefing writing semi-formal letter 7 Week 14: Writing Minutes of the meeting case study 8 Week 20: How Green is the University Of Northampton 9 Week 23: Writing a Formal Letter to a Consultant named Philip Hargreaves 11 Reference list 14 Part A: The learning log Week one: Individual language history Early language history: My parents are native Chinese belonging from the Jiangsu area. The area is surrounded different cities and multilingual affects are observed among the peoples. My parents are used to speak fluent native language. They use the popular Mandarin language which is popular among the south western and northern region of China. Fluency and pronunciation style of my parents of Mandarin language is excellent. Accent of my parents have influenced my linguistics rapidly. Moreover, the area is known for their position as the global exporters of the electronic equipments, chemicals and textiles (Gholami and Bagheri, 2013). Thus, our family have to learn English for meeting the global requirement. However, being the native peoples we were facing the challenges of speaking English correctly. In terms of learning English or other foreign languages like German and Spanish my Mandarin pronunciation got inaccurate and my parents helped me a lot to rectify the languages (Grainger, 2014). Education: My education emphasised on the first language Mandarin which is my native language. I have faced multilingual issues in the Jiangsu are different languages are used by the local peoples. I observed that the maximum peoples of my school are using Mandarin languages, some of them using English, German and Spanish to communicate with the others. From the age of 12, I selected German as my second foreign language. However, I faced intense complexity in learning the foreign language in classrooms. Major I faced problem was the accent of German language. Very less number of peoples was using the language thus I did not have the scope of learning the methods of oral communication. Teachers were just teaching us the methods like paraphrase of Chinese and German, and some basic grammars. I have started to communicate with European classmates to improve my accent of English and German. Idiolect My Idiolect was developed from my family background as well as educational aspects. I can speak Mandarin language quite efficiently and my pronunciation of English and German needs to be developed. Week 4: Discussion critical incident Discussion helped me to gain insight on various critical incidences and cross cultural traits. The discussion of CT 5 provided me with the details of Mr J and Mr S. From the discussion it is observed that Mr J is working in a foreign country which unfamiliar to him as per the culture and languages. Mr J took the help of the Mr S to understand the culture of the new country. However, it is also observed that the culture of Mr S is empowering the hangouts and spending time with friends and acquaintance. They can interact with the immigrant or the foreign country members very easily and they are very helpful (Beausaert, Segers and Gijselaers, 2011). Culture of the country emphasises high values on the promises. On the other hand, Mr J is having the culture of individualism he loves to enjoy the free time after his office. Therefore, culture Mr J argued with Mr S and they stopped contacting each other. From the segment I learned that the cross cultural factors are harming the interpersonal relationships and value and ethical exchange (Cory, 2005). Week 5: My own training plan Individual work: I have done my studies on marketing domain so in the near future I will be selecting any marketing related job. This type of job will be requiring excellent communicational skills. In addition, I must have proper analytical and researching skills to investigate on the consumer expectation, perception and capacity of payment. Training plans will aid me to increase the potentiality of developing future career growth (Ellwood, 2011). Training plan: I will be using the VAK questionnaire to develop my skills and knowledge base. Such questionnaire will be helping me in gaining visual, auditory and physical learning process. In the process I will be using different questions for gaining other student ideas and knowledge base and skills and work competency areas. The questionnaire is attached in the appendix part of the study (Gholami and Bagheri, 2013). Discussion: Visual learning process will help me to gain the insight on the experimental circumstances. In addition, such training will provide me with the statistical overviews, diagrams, expression of various situations (Sharp, Bowker and Byrne, 2008). In addition, I can learn from different presentations, contributions of the other employees. On the other hand, verbal learning policies of the VAK style will convey me with different type of information. Ii can listen to other employees, team members and class room teachers. Effective communication will help me to gather experience easily (He et al., 2014). Week 6: Reflection on Business Ethics Business ethics is one of the most important factors I will be assessing as a customer and society member. In the contemporary era globalised markets are facing huge competition and sustainability and growth is getting complex. Ethical business policies are highly required to attract the customers and stakeholders. Corporate social responsibilities are adopted by the firms in order to increase the sustainability. As a potential customer of different retail and apparel firms, I will also seek for the ethical business from the traders. Modern business policies must have the duty to act responsible manner to meet the social commitments (He et al., 2014). I observed that the major international retail and manufacturing firms are using the CSR policies. Major retail firms are using the CSR policies to increase their innovation traits, saving cost of productions, brand discrimination, long-term strategic orientation, engaging their customers and increasing the benefits of the employees. I have observed that global organisations like Nike, Adidas, Tesco, Ford and many other manufacturing firms are using strategies like the developing society, infrastructural development, educational setup, plantation, and developing the concept of green earth (Migliore, 2011). China is tem most populated country and having huge industry presence. There are many manufacturing industries like cars, electronic equipment, technological gadgets, chemical equipments and textile products. Environment of the Chinese continent is facing intense pollution issues. Moreover, in our country child labour related issues are also faced. I think carbon footprint and carbon credits have to be maintained to increase environmental sustainability. According to Paliwal (2006), all the companies should go for ethical investment funds and green environment. Workplace safety and appraisals are required to be maintained to attract the employees. Week 12: Presentation Reflection (Differentiation in India and UK) The power point presentation is developed by me with the help of two other team members. The presentation has been developed on the topic of McDonald’s Differentiation strategy in India and UK. This topic will be helping me and my teammates to gain insight on international marketing policies of the famous fast-food retail firm. McDonalds is a famous international firm having interactive website so information collection is easy (Steel, Rinne and Fairweather, 2011). My group members are from same continent and we are able to interact in Mandarin language. We can collect information regarding the strategies of McDonalds easily. My team members induced high quality statistics and comments on the internationalised differentiation strategies. Shared beliefs will increase our knowledge base. In power points slides overview of the firm has been stated with the vision of the firm. Moreover, we can able to contrast three global strategies of the firm in terms of making the diversification of the strategies in UK and India. We have developed a brief outline of the conditions and polices of McDonald’s in India (DAveni, 2010). The power point slides are disseminating marketing mix of the 4P’s strategies for the firm. We are able to develop informational slides on the basis of the target customers, and religious beliefs of the potential markets. In addition, we are able to outline the complexity of designing the products and pricing them effectively. From the presentation we can state that McDonalds are facing challenges of diversified economic conditions and linguistic threats. My team member’s effects can be graded moderately (Hinojosa, 2012). The presentation slides are quite informative and lucrative as they are using lots of figures and pictures. However, less number of statics of the international selling process is provided. We are failed to contrast the differentiation strategies (Torres, 2010). Part B: Week 3: Personal Plan for Language Development for the Next Year I am facing certain problems with the foreign languages like English and German. I need to improve my vocabulary, accent and grammatical knowledge. Thus, I will be adopting SMART objective plans to achieve the success. Specific: I am facing complexity in reading English newspapers, educational textbooks, Finance, or Marketing journal articles. In addition, I have limitations in writing English correctly in the course assignments. Listening and speaking inefficiency also leads to lower indulging on the conversations and positive speaking capacity. Thus, I will try to learn financial and marketing vocabulary. Measurable: I will try to learn at least two new financial and marketing jargons every day. Moreover, in a month I am aiming to learn 75 new marketing and accounting vocabularies. Attainable: I will be gaining the vocabularies by using various materials like dictionaries, online and offline glossaries like the library and other educational journals. In addition, I will be attending various seminars in terms of increasing my listening and speaking skills. Relevant: I will be emphasising my career on the marketing terms so learning 75 jargons in each month will increase my career growth. Time-bound: the learning process will continue for the next six months till my educational course ends. Week 8: Website Briefing writing semi-formal letter Dear Tom I want to inform you about the different approaches which will increase compatibility in global segment of our XonMiun Foods. I have critically investigated on the features of our E-commerce website to meet the global customers. We are only concentrating on the B2C and B2B types of commerce for Xiun Hun fast food products. We are using cloud computing and online payment options to sale our products in global range. However, we have many limitations like lower cloud space, very less currency acceptance in the online payment option. My recommendations are to develop the cloud space, offer more online auctions, effective online money transfers and offering mobile application to attract smartphone users. Moreover, our website must have the option of multilingual navigation options. This policy will help us to attract the native Chinese customers as well as English speaking peoples like Australia, India and many other Asian country members. I will also suggest that the online payment must be more secure to attract global customers. Electronic data interchange will include card verification numbers for increasing the security of transactions. In addition, our food retail website will try to penetrate in the Indian market and we need to maintain proper ethical polices. Marketing Department Support Advisor Consultant Building 4th floor Middle four road Beijing China Week 14: Writing Minutes of the meeting case study Meeting was held in the town hall in Santa Monica, a small community in Chile, 10 o’clock in the morning Present Edith Raven [ER] project director of tourist company from the head office in Europe Manuel Garden [MG] young graduate and local member of the company Carl Gutzman [CG] community Mayor Juan Garcia [JG] the leader of local farmers’ group Mary Fernandez [MF] local Member of Parliament Apologies Josef Eider [JE] The community health officer Topic 1 / Problems Local employment scope is very limited, youth peoples are leaving the area and local culture and traditions are fading away. Topic 2 / Suggestion + problems Local infrastructure need to be improved, 20 kilometres link road with Menahos need to be developed. Aiding the prime employers like farmers and fishermen. Topic 3/ Actions MF suggested with social and environmental sustainability actions and MG suggested eco-tourism ventures. Date of next meeting Four week after this meeting same time and place. Week 20: How Green is the University Of Northampton Executive summary: the report will be covering the environmental policies adopted by the University of Northampton. Critical evaluation of the strategies will outline limitation and gaps of the sustainable strategies adopted by the University. Recommendations are provided to reduce the gaps (Tucker, Duncan and Davis, 2011). Introduction: Special group research will be done on the sustainability and green strategies of the University of Northampton I will be discussing on the meaning of the green or environmental development strategies. I will be critically evaluating the sustainable strategies adopted in the campus to identify the gaps in the environmental management policies Findings: Campus of University of Northampton is covered by some sustainable environmental norms. Directors are using recycling policies for the papers and other office equipments. Students are encouraged to recycle the waste. Directors are promoting use of the pollution free bicycles. Moreover, university members are promoting plantation programs to increase the greenery in the campus. Students are influence to organise plantation programs in their native locality also (Gavai, 2010). Conclusion: The university is using sustainable environmental norms although they are facing the challenges of lower recycling of waste. Garbage and other solid wastes or the food materials of the students are harming the environment and beauty of the university campus. Paper consumption is high among the students which will be harming the environmental sustainability. Recommendation: University of Northampton must promote lower consumption of papers. Online teaching modules will reduce the use of papers. Solar energies can be used to enlighten the classrooms and university campus. Green building concept must be used to develop the structure of the university building Week 23: Writing a Formal Letter to a Consultant named Philip Hargreaves Sylvia Delgado 57, Henkele Street Santa Monica Chile Mr Philip Hargreaves Hargreaves Consulting Company 15 Stamford bridge London Ref: BAC17 29 April 2015 Dear Mr. Hargreaves (Re: Eco-Tourism Project plan) Members of the committee decided to develop an eco-tourism project in the second meeting. The meeting was held in the town hall in Santa Monica a small community in Chile. The area was facing intense challenge as the traditions and culture is shaded away. Thus, our company is planning to use scenic beauty of the Santa Monica area. Being the clerk to the committee I am sending you the consultancy brief for obtaining your advice for the project development. The area was facing huge challenge in meeting the issues like isolated peoples, lower local employment potentials, young people are leaving the area and traditional and local cultures are getting disrupted. This eco-tourism project development in our community will be having different positive and negative factors. Thus, I am providing you with the SWOT analysis Strengths: Natural beauty of Latin American countries Position in the Fertile land between a mountain range and ocean Weakness: Remote culture Potential employees are leaving area for lower job opportunities traditions and local culture are imbalanced Opportunities Eco-tourism is gaining high popularity Rising economic issues. Threats: Insufficient government rules Entire project will costing nearly 20 million dollars which will be shared among the government and tourist company Budman and co. The cost will be shared equally among them. Regards Sylvia Delgado Clerk to the committee Santa Monica Chile Reference list Beausaert, S., Segers, M. and Gijselaers, W., 2011. The Personal Development Plan Practice Questionnaire: the development and validation of an instrument to assess the employees perception of personal development plan practice. International Journal of Training and Development, 15(4), pp.249-270. Cory, J., 2005. Activist business ethics. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers. DAveni, R., 2010. How to escape the differentiation proliferation trap. Strategy & Leadership, 38(3), pp.44-49. Ellwood, F., 2011. Understanding the importance of a personal development plan. Dental Nursing, 7(3), pp.160-163. Gavai, A., 2010. Business ethics. Mumbai [India]: Himalaya Pub. House. Gholami, S. and Bagheri, M., 2013. Relationship between VAK Learning Styles and Problem Solving Styles regarding Gender and Students Fields of Study. JLTR, 4(4). Grainger, A., 2014. Your personal development plan. Br J Healthcare Assistants, 8(1), pp.6-6. He, J., Bartram, D., Inceoglu, I. and van de Vijver, F., 2014. Response Styles and Personality Traits: A Multilevel Analysis. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 45(7), pp.1028-1045. Hinojosa, J., 2012. Personal Strategic Plan Development: Getting Ready for Changes in Our Professional and Personal Lives. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 66(3), pp. 34-38. Migliore, L., 2011. Relation between big five personality traits and Hofstedes cultural dimensions. Cross Cultural Management, 18(1), pp.38-54. Paliwal, M., 2006. Business ethics. New Delhi: New Age International. Sharp, J., Bowker, R. and Byrne, J., 2008. VAK or VAK‐uous? Towards the trivialisation of learning and the death of scholarship. Research Papers in Education, 23(3), pp.293-314. Steel, G., Rinne, T. and Fairweather, J., 2011. Personality, Nations, and Innovation: Relationships Between Personality Traits and National Innovation Scores. Cross-Cultural Research, 46(1), pp.3-30. Torres, A., 2010. International Committee of the Red Cross: emblems of humanity. Mrkting Intelligence & Plan, 28(2), pp.223-235. Tucker, F., Duncan, A. and Davis, L., 2011. Investing in yoursel: personal development planning in practice. Planet, (24), pp.10-13. Read More