How to Learn Other Languages and Be Able to Communicate with People from Different Backgrounds - Personal Statement Example

Business Communication Table of Contents Part A 3 My language 3 How to improve English 4 Training Plan 5 Cross- Culture problems 6 Business ethics 7 Part B 8 Report: Green University 8 Meeting Minutes 10 Reflection: Group presentation 12 Semi-formal email to Manager 13 Formal Letter to Mr. Philip Hargreaves 15 Reference List 18 Part A My language I was born in a Chinese family and was brought up in the capital city of China, Beijing. As a child, I studied in a national school, where classes were conducted mostly in the local language. This did not give me sufficient opportunity to get exposed to English. There was also a small section of students who spoke Korean and communicated in their mother tongue. Such circumstances made me realize that there was a need to learn other languages so as to be able to communicate with people from different backgrounds. As I proceeded to middle school, I became aware of the existence of English as a global language for communication. Our teachings became focused towards English language. I was required to learn English for most of my classes and build a good grasp over the same. Back home, not many people were well-versed with the language, although I was immensely helped by my siblings. They assisted me in correcting grammatical errors and also my diction to some extent. I had to work hard in order to master the language as I had begun late in middle school. As I moved to University, I chose Human Resource Management as my major subject and received education in English. Here, I was introduced to individuals from diverse backgrounds and realized that English was a common language that was necessary for communicating with most people. This was when I felt the need to learn English so as to be able to get a job with a multinational company and also grow within the workplace. Communication is an important tool for performing job tasks or even completing the work, where language plays a vital role. How to improve English As I grew up, I had realized that it was not sufficient to be able to merely speak English. English was a global language, which is necessary for holding communication so as to be competitive in the job market as well as conduct successful business dealings. For the purpose, I established few short-term goals for myself towards language improvement (Bohlander and Snell, 2004). Specific: I realized that I was weak in English grammar and my specific objective was to improve upon grammar related skills through increased personal focus on reading. Measurable: In order to measure my attempts, I made it a point to read one chapter of grammar each day and apply the learning in my daily reading of 5 pages of English fiction. To supplement my reading, I listened to several English audio tracks over the television through movies. Attainable: To reflect upon my learning, I tried to construct 10 sentences every day while reading and got it verified by people who were well-versed with the language. Realistic: The target of 10 sentences was realistic as it would require about 30 minutes of my daily schedule. It was feasible to devote this time span out of my daily routine. Time Bound: I had set a 6 month target for myself in order to oversee the progress and improvements (Maund, 2001). Training Plan I would like to take up the position of a human resource manager when I enter into the job field and therefore, would like to train myself to become suitable for such a position and responsibilities associated. Through the questionnaire survey, I found that I prefer more of the auditory learning style compared to kinaesthetic or visual styles. This provided me with insights into ways that I should adopt for preparing my training plan for the language in order to be job ready. For this purpose, I decided to invest more of my learning time in watching videos and listening to audios that had subtitles in English which could be read and subsequently relate. Such learning would take the form of movies, news transcripts, online teaching modules and videos as well as that of communicating with people in English. Along with language learning, it is also important to understand expressions and attitude of people while they speak in order to interpret the correct meaning of speech. As a human resource manager, it would be critical for me to understand body languages and relationship with people to correctly recognise their needs and be able to develop positive relationships with them. To do so, it is important to participate in team activities and increase communication with people in the language so as to become a successful manager. Cross- Culture problems The problems highlighted within this section reflect upon the variations in communication that can arise out of cultural difference between two individuals. The key to manage such cross-cultural differences is to have knowledge of different cultural traditions, which alone can help in effective communication and interpretation of language as well as gestures. I present an account of a personal experience of cross-cultural difference (Evans, Pucik and Bjorkman, 2011) It was on one occasion where I was cooking in the kitchen, when an English classmate entered and asked, “What’s up?” From my English knowledge, I plainly answered, “The second floor?” She replied, ‘Yeah!’ and to my surprise, left the room immediately. All that I had understood from her question was that she was asking me about what was above my room as she had already been on my floor; I replied that there was a second floor above. However, in English parlance, the phrase implied--‘What was I doing?’ Due to cross-cultural difference, I was not able to realize the same and interpret correctly. A good answer to this situation would have been---‘I am cooking lunch’. This is where we come to understand the critical nature of cultural differences as well as the necessity to interpret expressions and not mere words while learning a language (Allen, Shore and Griffeth, 2003). Business ethics Ethical business decisions comprise ethical standards and require a company to comply with the legal as well as the moral standards for community existence and sustenance of a business. I work as a human resource manager in a company and the role of corporate social responsibility is quite important from perspective of the company’s behaviour towards the employees (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). A company with a good corporate social responsibility has the ability to attract customers, thereby increasing its sales and profits owing to positive company reputation. The company with a good image among its people is able to appeal to more number of people for employment and source quality staff. A company with ethical behaviour has a good reputation among its investors, which shall be responsible for maintaining the share prices and also facilitate mergers and acquisitions if any. In my opinion, a company must be socially responsible because the society wherein it operates forms the base of business operations. In order to sustain themselves, companies should bear some ethical responsibility for the environmental or social damage that is caused. As an example, we can consider that of Nike, which was defamed and criticized for labour practices followed in its foreign sweatshops. Low wages and unhealthy work conditions at its Indonesian and Bangladeshi factories were largely criticized. It was only with publication of the codes of conduct for factories and for facilitating transparency, Nike was able to rebuild its reputation and revive the sales (Wright, Dunford and Snell, 2001). In China, the conditions with labour are quite drastic as multinationals mainly establish their manufacturing units therein to avail the cheap labour. The situation is seeing a gradual improvement with rise in awareness among the labourers and the government. Part B Report: Green University 1.0 Executive summary The concept of green buildings, green businesses and green cars is very popular nowadays. In order to follow the lead, it is important for the universities to attempt towards becoming green in order to have a good reputation in the society, which is increasingly turning environment conscious. Attempts in this regard involve reduction of pollution, cutting down on CO2 emissions and efforts for saving energy. The aim is also directed towards recycling wastes and managing fuel efficiently. 2.0 Introduction The prime focus of this report shall be the following; Attempts taken by the university towards developing green buildings within the campus Measures that can be adopted for developing a green building. 3.0 Findings 3.1 Current situations about the university The University is dedicated towards following sustainable waste management practices and adhering to established legal norms for green buildings. The staff of the university work incessantly for continuous improvement and incorporation of best practices. The Sustainable Waste Management centre in the University is the UK’s Centre for Excellence for conducting multi-disciplinary researches on issues related to local, regional and national agendas on sustainable development (Carl, 2011). In addition to this, the University also desires to reduce its CO2 emissions by 43% from 7947 tonnes in 2005-06 to approximately 4530 tonnes in 2019-20. As a part of the routine activity, the university’s infrastructure development and internal operations concentrate upon developing efficiency in resource and waste management as well as devising sound ways for utilising resources, minimizing green house emissions and preventing pollution (Deller and Maher, 2009). 3.2 Suggestions The lights within the building are not sensor enabled, which implies that if a person forgets to switch the lights off, then they will remain on, thereby wasting immense amount of energy. It is recommended that all lights are sensor enabled in order to save energy. In a similar situation, all heating systems do not automatically control central heating systems with weather fluctuations. Intelligent heating systems need to be installed at all locations in the university. 4.0 Conclusion The report studies significant efforts made by the University towards becoming environment friendly. It also supports a number of attempts made towards energy management and instilling efficiency in energy systems. 5.0 Recommendation Install intelligent heating systems. Convert all lights to sensor enabled ones. Meeting Minutes The meeting was held at Town Hall at 10 A.M. Attendees Edith Raven [ER], Project Director, Europe Head Office. Manuel Garden [MG], a young graduate. Carl Gutzman [CG], Community Mayor. Juan Gutzman [JG], Leader of Farmers’ Group. Mary Fernandez [MF], Member of Parliament. Apologies Josef Eider [JE], Community Health Officer Topic 1 / Problems Low employment levels force young graduates to leave city after school. Such a situation also poses threat to vanishing local traditions and culture (Colakoglu and Caligiuri, 2008). The locality requires infrastructure development in terms of road links to larger cities. Topic 2 / Issues & Suggestions Proposed Marina plan might leave no space for fishermen to park their boats. Proposed Golf Course might encroach upon farmland. Additionally, the project would use excessive water for golf course maintenance. This water could be more effectively utilised for farming. Suggestions Develop fishing as a tourist activity. Promote sales of local produce. Make space for parking boats on the Marina plan. Shift Golf Course away from farmland. Develop plans to support water needs in the area and devise eco-tourism venture (Collins and Clark, 2003). Topic 3/ Actions ER took responsibility for changes required in Marina and Golf Course plan and arrangement to be made for promoting the sale of local produce. MF and MG (representing community and company) would work together towards eco-tourism venture and also test its functionality and feasibility in the region. Reflection: Group presentation Business communication involves a whole host of skills, of which Presentation skill is one of the most critical. Individual presentation is very different from group presentation, which requires teamwork along with presentation skills. While carrying out this group activity, I was quite perplexed regarding different roles that would be adopted by each team member for the presentation, given that we were unaware of our strong areas. It was also difficult to direct interests of all team members towards the presentation and subsequently maintaining group cohesion (Batt, 2002). In the initial stages, formal introductions were followed by discussions on presentation topic. We decided to compare and contrast between the British and Japanese cars. The groups failed to conduct any discussion on distribution of work and aspects of individual roles. I also faced inconvenience in understanding my role in the presentation while struggling with my English skills. However, we managed to complete the PowerPoint presentation before the deadline given. The group consensus was not derived for final practice. This was quite surprising as I believed that we should have taken a run through before the final presentation in order to eliminate errors and clear confusions. As a result, the presentation did not turn out well and we failed to accomplish the desired marks. This was a great learning experience for the entire group and I hope to gain a greater learning from weaknesses recognised in this group activity (Kearns and Forrest, 2000). Semi-formal email to Manager To: John From: Vicky Subject: Website’s Modification for the Company’s Expansion into the USA Dear John, This email is aimed at providing suggestions towards website modifications required for the company’s expansion into the USA. These suggestions are necessary to bridge the gap between the local Chinese culture and the new American culture. To manage cross-cultural differences, the website language must be translated into English and be made available to Americans so as to support understanding. Hence, the new version shall have both Chinese and English language options. The website would also need a logo, slogan and name redesign to make sense to the Americans. China considers the colour, red as auspicious while in the USA, red backgrounds are seldom used. Consequently, all red backgrounds need to be altered for complementing the American culture. Also, the holiday list needs to be updated according to the American requirements (Blakemore and Craglia, 2006). Lastly, the methods of communication over the website need to incorporate Facebook and Twitter for the USA users. Chinese websites use QQ and Weibo, which are not popular in the USA. Other suggestions that follow include: 1. Translation of all information from Chinese to English with proper focus on cultural differences 2. To choose White or Blue for the USA aligned websites 3. Accommodate Facebook and Twitter for local communication in the USA. These are important and necessary changes that the company website must incorporate before expanding into the USA. Formal Letter to Mr. Philip Hargreaves Vicky Zhang BZ Company 24 Variance Street London United Kingdom 02.03.14 Mr Philip Hargreaves Hargreaves consulting company 45 Sleep Street Birmingham United Kingdom Dear Mr Hargreaves, My name is Vicky Zhang and I am writing in order to introduce you to a proposed eco-tourism venture. Background The plan of the proposal is to develop the area between the mountain and the ocean in South America. Despite the fertile land, this area encounters problems concerning employment and infrastructure. In a meeting held with the different concerned groups, the problems were discussed and it was highlighted that young individuals were forced to leave their towns in search of jobs, which also threatened to wipe out the local culture. The infrastructure was also quite poor. A road was decided to be built, connecting to the nearest larger town that is 20 kms away. This road would facilitate transportation as well as bring ease and comfort in communication for the local people. It is necessary to protect stakeholders’ interests, which is why Marians is proposed to be designed for parking of boats and arranging sales of local fishermen produce. The eco-tourism venture shall prove to be economically attractive and also provide jobs to the local people (Geyer, 2008). The SMART objectives of the proposed venture can be described as follows: Specific: To increase local employment To improve local infrastructure and develop road links of the town Measurable: It is estimated that the project shall generate £1 million profit annually. Attainable: The government and the private company decided to invest about £10 million in the project collectively. Relevant: Land fertility and scenic views provide adequate reasons for land development. The government wants to develop the area, which also has a strong company support (Ozkazanc-Pan, 2008). Time bound: It is estimated that with £1million profit each year, the investments shall be recovered within 10 years. Looking forward to hear from you soon. Yours sincerely Vicky Zhang Reference List Allen, D. G., Shore, L. M. and Griffeth, R. W., 2003. The role of perceived organizational support and supportive human resource practices in the turnover process. Journal of management, 29(1), pp. 99-118. 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