Library resorces for globalisation research

Yesterday I have spent more than half an hour searching for a book in the University library. My father told me about a kind of books to search which was one of them is 'The Lexus and the Olive Tree', it’s a view of globalisation. It’s useful for my essay preparation. First I skimed the pages and I found lots of ideas and informations which it could help me to write it in my essay.There are some points which I got it useful for my essay from this book.
Drivers of Globalization
Thomas Friedman (2000) in his book ‘The Lexus and the Olive Tree’ has identified the three major drivers of Globalisation:
(i) Historical drivers - The historical aspect of these drivers are the evolution of goods, services, cultures, markets, technologies, capital, ecologies, diseases, crimes, arts, ideas, labour and people of the world.
(ii) Technological drivers - Internet has played dominant role in the Globalization process. The global transport and communications system has reduced distances, thereby bringing people and commerce closer.
(iii) Economic drivers - Globalization has created a niche that has been rapidly filled by the multinational corporations. Independent nations have corporations that export jobs to parts of the world where labour costs are lowest and play off countries and locations against each other to find the cheapest fiscal conditions.
(iv) Trade drivers - Multinationals have been investing all over the world to avoid transportation costs, import restrictions, or to take advantage of less expensive labour, capital or materials.

Overview Business area

I have always been interested in business and how they operate, as well as being worked by other languages and cultural differences.
Business teaches and helps how to manage people, how to make and carry out decisions, and how to assess markets. It is a broad subject, which will develop ability to think logically and creatively.
Business can be defined as an organization that provides goods services to others who want them. When many people think of business careers, they just think of jobs in large rich company. Every part of the economy needs people with strong overall skills that can be applied to business careers. There are a large variety of career areas that exist in business settings for example accounting and finance.
While many people are interested in business, there are so many career possibilities and potential work environments; it can still be very challenge to find a good fit.
I read a lot of books about business which helped me to improve my concepts in business; even I explored lots of websites. As we know business develop very fast and every year we learn new and more things about it.

London Visit & Speaking Practice

Last weekend I went to Edgware road as people call it Arab road. I went with my Lebanon friend who is living in London since she is 7 years old and also I went with my brother and his friend. Actually we planed to go before two days ago to prepare for our celebration "Eid Al-Adha", I mean to buy a new dress and some food components. First of all we had our lunch in an Iranian restaurant, its my second time to have a lunch in this restaurant, they make a delicious food. After that we went to a small Arab shop which they sell Arab food components, we decided to cock our traditional food next Monday because it’s a special day for every Muslim people. After that my brother suggested to walk to the Hyde Park, that day was freezing and I was forcing my self to walk with them because we enjoy and have fun. We was walking more than one hour without stopping and suddenly we saw a huge building with security in each door and lots of people standing out and taking photos, it was the Buckingham Palace. It was great to see new places in London. In this trip I have practice my English speaking with my friend, I have seen new places in London and I had fun.

Reflective Writing

In this month I have learned lots new things I didn’t know it before. For example the seminar, it was very interesting discussion, to know the other's opinion and how they think, some who agree with the statement and some disagree. I didn’t found it useful for my essay because everyone says his view. Even though the lecture we have listened/watched about the surveillance society it was boring and un useful at all. The most important in this month is how to write an essay, it wasn’t easy, I wrote as much as I can but still I don’t do well as an academic writing, I'm trying to do my best to learn and I will keep writing until I get the point. I'm sure that in the future I will do much better than now, because I'm focusing in my studies more in writing, as I'm reading books of the right way of writing to improve as much as I can.

TV Discussion show

Today I decided to watch a program in the ITV website; I looked for Jeremy Kyle show. In this show Jeremy Kyle is solving people problems and he is not afraid to speak, he use his mind and believes to solve the problems. I watched more than one show, it was interesting to listen about people problems and the way how it will solved. When the human facing a problem he needs a person to talk and to understand him without punish and scream at him, as what Jeremy did in his program. He used words that surprised me for example he said for his guests "you are both as bad as each other.", "you are not a man"," you are a layer" and he is shouting. In my side I don't like this way to solve the problems and actually I don't think this is the right way. Anyway in this program I found it interesting, I learned some ideas and I will pursue this program.

Weblearn resources..

Today me and my friend who is in the yellow group class, we decided to practice our grammar, vocabulary and reading. We used the weblearn resources.
First site we used is about grammar/spelling exercises. We choose exercise 1, it's about the adjective and adverb. It wasn’t easy, a bit confused. I got 16 out of 24 and my friend got better than me 19 out of 24. Then we also did exercise 2 it was much easier then the first exercise, I got better than my friend 18 out of 22 and my friend got 16 out of 22.
Then we explore to the next site, was about vocabulary. I've choose Academic/general vocabulary. The exercise was matching the formal phrases to the informal phrases. Actually, I didn’t find it useful at all.
Then I've choose reading as one of the areas I'm focusing this month. I used reading exercises (Cambridge Advanced Exam). The first test was caring three parts; the first part is to read an extract from a writer's journal, then answer eight questions multiple choices, it was easy, I got 7 out of 8 right answers. Second part was about an article from a magazine, caring 7 sentences removed from the article, so I choose the suitable sentence from the list, it was a bit confused and took me a time to choose the answer. The third part is read a selection of letters from a magazine, then choose from the people, in this part I got 86%.
This site very beneficial, I found some exercises which helped me to improve my weakness area in English.

Pronunciation Book

I've borrowed an academic pronunciation book from my friend who is studying in the University of reading. This book is very important for me because when I talk to people I want them to understand what I say more clearly.
In this book there are two CD's which I listen and repeat patterns of a pronunciation, and also it's help me learning the phonic alphabet and development.
I like this book it's not just focusing to learn listening and pronounce the words, also the vocabulary focused on in this book to both academic study and my needs. There are many words new to me for example: -Badge –Batch –Scheme –Mesh –Zinc etc.

This book divided to eight sections, every section there are more than three exercises and the end of the book you will find the answers key.
I answered more than ten exercises from different sections and I feel that I done well.

Plagiarism and Referencing

Yesterday I opened Metranet and I decide to learn more about the plagiarism and referencing. I choose the subject area what I'm interest in ((English and American Studies)) I learnt more things and now I know more about plagiarism. And here a bit from what I've learnt and some notes I wrote from the present.
Plagiarism is using the words or ideas from another writer as if it's your own work, make the reader think that the words and ideas belong to you when it's not, that is definitely plagiarism. What I can say this is more than cheating, its crimes that stealing someone else work.
You should create your own work, you can use information from articles, books and internet for you essays, but you should provide a clear reference.
Better students write on their own words, ideas etc its helps to write better essays on the future and to develop their critical thinking skills and also to improve their general study skills.
Actually plagiarism stops you from learning.
People who plagiarism some of them they don’t manage their time or plan, some who didn’t care about the source information, some who didn’t complete the reference etc. Universities are very serious about plagiarism.
There is ways help not to plagiarism:
-Plan a head: Divide the process, "time for reading, thinking, writing, review"
-Key information to record: note down about all sources every time.
-take appropriate notes: the three main reasons to take notes: select, understand and remember.
-Reference correctly: you should make sure your reference correctly.

Business Vocabulary

Two days ago I went to the library of the University; I have chosen two books on Business, first one is "Business English Usage" and the other one is "Business Vocabulary in Practice". Both books designed for who have to use English in their career as it's focusing in important areas of business vocabulary including marketing, finance, sales and customer service. These books are good to improve your ability to understand and use vocabulary in business context. I like these books; I find lots of examples of business words and practice exercises, its help and useful information.

. Ill lists some new vocabulary words that I've learned from those books:
-Ordinary share: are shares in a company that are owned by people who have a right to vote at the company's meeting.
-Preference share: are shares in a company that are owned by people who have the right to received part of the company's profits before before the holders of ordinary shares.
-share price: is the price at which a company's shares are bough and sold.
-Stock: are shares in the ownership of a company, or investment on which a fixed amount of interest will be paid.

Pronunciation

I'm now living in an English speaking country, and attending classes to learn English,
I learned new ways of producing sounds and the way how to prounuce, and it may become my habit when ill speak English.
You have your mind the knowledge and understanding of how to produce every sound in your original language .I add some sounds that are in the British sound system that is not in my own language sounds system. The way how I learn is to record my self reading a brief paragraph then ill listen to the recorder.
Also I'm practicing in front of the mirror, its easy for me to see if I using the correct position. If you can't hear the way the sounds are produced you cannot learn how to produce the sound.

Speaking Practice

There are four key skills to learn a language: listening, speaking, reading and writing. One of those is different from the three it’s the speaking. The other three you can do it alone, you can listen to music alone, read a news paper alone and write a letter alone without anyone else. But you can't speak alone!!
On that way you should find somebody to speak with.
In my country the second language is English. These days you can't get a good job without English certificate. At school you should study English subject.
So when I was at school I practice speaking English with my teacher or with my friends, if the teacher will ask me a question in the class ill answer as much as I can, they teach as to don’t worry about the mistakes. Just speak.
When I went to the University I was studying in Malaysia, so all the subjects in English and I was practicing with my friend no chance to speak with the lecturer, they were busy all the time :p
In the University this days I am not practicing much speaking with my classmates or the teacher, don’t ask me why, but what I feel I just write it down.
I can say that also I am practicing speaking when I go out for shopping, ill ask the person about the products that interest me in the shop even if I don’t want to buy anything, ill just speak.
Sometimes when I am in the mood to listen English songs, ill write the words of the song what am listen to it , then ill play the song again and ill repeat the words as many as possible until they become automatic.
I love to speak, even with people I don’t know them, and ill talk about anything happened around us, it depends to the person, so no anyone ill speak to. Here in London a bit strict, they don’t have time to
I'm not afraid to speak, I know I make lots of mistakes but no one will learn without mistakes. There is a saying my father love to say it to us: "The person who never made a mistake, never made anything".
When I know I have made a mistake I know that I have made a progress.

Vocabulary building and teaching:

I've borrowed an academic English book from my friend who is studying in University of Reading. This vocabulary book gives systematic practice in using words that commonly occur in academic texts. The book provides practice in using key academic words. They give in the first task about Education and health meanings word for example - a – The growing popularity of the subject is evident in the number of students wanting to study it – b – Most physician believe we will derive great benefit from this new form of treatment. I've answered more than three exercises for example matching, the words on the left and the definitions on the right, complete the pairs, and chose the words from the box and complete the sentences etc. It's not difficult to learn new vocabulary what you need is just keep your vocabulary note book and make a record of the new words and how are they used. Try to review the words at the end of the day, then to the end of the week and again after two weeks it will helpful you to learn it easily. I'll list some of the words and see if you can give me a definition of the word:- -Vary –Interpret –Work flow –Welfare –Colony –communist regime –absurd –threaten –bulky – civil war

Preparing for further study: Reading

Professional English in Use " Finance"- This is the name of the book that I borrowed from the library I chose it cause its suitable with the master course that I've chose in it .This book covering all the aspects financial vocabulary from accounting Borrowing and lending, Central banking and many more types. It helps me to use English in a financial environment. I didn’t read the whole book but I know it's allow learners to apply the vocabulary they learn to studies in their own and helps for working lives. Also this book giving learners confidence and ability to function in a financial environment. First ten pages is boring and I didn’t understand what is the book really about, then I chose some topics that’s might help me for the future. Students who are applying for Business course go for this book it will help.

My own language abilities and needs

My weakest is definitely grammar. My strongest would be Speaking and reading. I'm not really good writer and I hate to do it. I'm not organized person to organizing a paper it's really hard for me. In the middle of the night I'll turn my lamp on and I'll start to write it down cause I know myself that what I'm going to write it won't remember it in the morning. I still can't speak English fluently, so that’s one of the reasons why I'm in London now, I planted on going abroad to study the language from the mother itself.
Vocabulary is really interesting that to learn new words. However it's hard but excellent if you have a good teachers, they can make such a difference. I love vocabulary because I find it so interesting, but it is not easy, that’s for sure, just had to work harder.
There are many ways what I'm using it those days to improve my own English language. Writing can be a great way of properly learning. The problem is that I don’t know what to write about, so I decided to change my own routines diary writing from Arabic to English and ill write a news diary about what news that I read and listen every day. Even though I'm listening to English music it may be able to be a good way of learning the words. Also I like to watch movies with English subtitle. Another way is to read the dictionary translator in English. There are lots of ways but this what I'm using it this day.