Since I am barely a fortnight into bloging, I still have heaps to learn. I wish I had got into this sooner. Am feeling like I missed the bus. Any tips my friends in IT have to share will be great. Specially if it has anything to do with getting more traffic onto the site.
Have been getting plagued with a software which keeps wanting to protect my privacy. I wish it was a guy in front of me instead of an irritating pop up. I would truely whip him into shape for bothering so much about my privacy.
Next I have been reading up about SEO. A term which I had never even heard of till the 9th of May 2008. For those of my dear friends who are as lost as me, it means Search Engine Optimisation. It means that when you type in a lot of stuff that you want others to read, you also type in a lot of keywords that people keep hunting for. So when they do searches on google your page also pops up in the results.
Will keep you updated of my endeavours.
31 May 2008
Humour In Uniform
Being an Army Daugther and an Air Force Wife I have seen both the services at close quarters. There may be quite a few things different, but some things don't change.
Last evening a friend came in splits of laughter to my house. It seems her husband asked the household helper to bring him the "CD" to the bedroom. Time went by and eventually a good ten minutes later, they hear a scraping noise. Then the chap walked in with the MES ka "Seedi".
Straight away reminds me of the time when I was a kid and with Dad at A'Nagar. The regimental centre has guys who are literally "raw recruits". These poor rustic guys, you can imagine them direct from the villages, three decades ago, obviously didn't have a clue.
Two neighbours living on the left side of the block of four houses used to go to play squash every evening together. One fine day the guy downstairs wasn't feeling upto it and so he decided to skip the game that evening. He called his sevadar(aforementioned raw recruit) and told him, "Seedi se upar jao aur sahab ko bolo aaj Sqaush ke liye nahin jayenge" (Go up stairs and tell sahab that we wont play Sqaush today.)
Then the husband and wife retired to the bedroom for their siesta. Within a few minutes they heard a persistant metallic noise outside the window. The lady opened the window to see the chap poised to climb up the "Seedi" to the bedroom window of the upstairs neighbour.
To date I wish she had let him pass the message just to get the neighbour's reaction!
Last evening a friend came in splits of laughter to my house. It seems her husband asked the household helper to bring him the "CD" to the bedroom. Time went by and eventually a good ten minutes later, they hear a scraping noise. Then the chap walked in with the MES ka "Seedi".
Straight away reminds me of the time when I was a kid and with Dad at A'Nagar. The regimental centre has guys who are literally "raw recruits". These poor rustic guys, you can imagine them direct from the villages, three decades ago, obviously didn't have a clue.
Two neighbours living on the left side of the block of four houses used to go to play squash every evening together. One fine day the guy downstairs wasn't feeling upto it and so he decided to skip the game that evening. He called his sevadar(aforementioned raw recruit) and told him, "Seedi se upar jao aur sahab ko bolo aaj Sqaush ke liye nahin jayenge" (Go up stairs and tell sahab that we wont play Sqaush today.)
Then the husband and wife retired to the bedroom for their siesta. Within a few minutes they heard a persistant metallic noise outside the window. The lady opened the window to see the chap poised to climb up the "Seedi" to the bedroom window of the upstairs neighbour.
To date I wish she had let him pass the message just to get the neighbour's reaction!
29 May 2008
Training Potential Air Hostesses
I am wondering how the orientation people take in any and everyone at such courses. There should be some standards if you want any kind of success rate with the Airlines. Some time back I was teaching a course on Persona Enhancement to a class where I personally would not select a single individual for Cabin Crew duties. Not just because of the looks either. Most of them just did not have the correct aptitude or attitude for the job.
All said and done, it is essentially a customer service job and requires you to have a lot of patience and fortitude. Things that were essentially missing in this group. Most of them had never lived away from home longer than a month on vaccation. And even then they were with family and elders. How is someone like that going to survive being uprooted and transported to the working lifestyle of a typical Air Hostess? A girl who is on the move throughout the day and gets to her pad at night dead tired and ready to crash!
It was not just the girls whom I felt could not take it. The boys were even worse. Most of them that lived in hostels so were used to being away from home. What went against most of them was the attitude that they carried on their sleeves. If you can't say Please and Thank You how are you ever going to serve in style?
I just wish people would go through a more detailed aptitude examination before blindly joining any professional course and then being miserable for the rest of their lives.
All said and done, it is essentially a customer service job and requires you to have a lot of patience and fortitude. Things that were essentially missing in this group. Most of them had never lived away from home longer than a month on vaccation. And even then they were with family and elders. How is someone like that going to survive being uprooted and transported to the working lifestyle of a typical Air Hostess? A girl who is on the move throughout the day and gets to her pad at night dead tired and ready to crash!
It was not just the girls whom I felt could not take it. The boys were even worse. Most of them that lived in hostels so were used to being away from home. What went against most of them was the attitude that they carried on their sleeves. If you can't say Please and Thank You how are you ever going to serve in style?
I just wish people would go through a more detailed aptitude examination before blindly joining any professional course and then being miserable for the rest of their lives.
Working From Home
Work and Home in the same sentence would never exist even a decade ago. However with the advent of the Internet and its popularisation in India, this is a happening new field now. So many people used to tell me, why don't you do something online. There is supposed to be a lot of things that you can do online these days. i would agree politely and then shift the conversation to something else.
While it is true that there are a multitude of people sitting at home and making mega bucks, i was not one of them. Why? Because though I had learnt computers at APTECH and done content writing for a website, I was always in touch with people over the phone. Or I would have been for an interview in person before I got these jobs. The mere thought of getting work online from an unknown person frightened me.
Unreasonable, I know, but true all the same. My basic nature is not geared up for taking risks. I am the kind of person who will weigh all the pros and cons before getting into what i call a calculated risk situation. Thankfully, getting back onto the net and mingling with some strangers has let me ease up on my fears. The mere fact that i am writing this blog is proof of that.
I would also like to thank two close friends of mine for pushing me over the net via supportive emails. they told me to just do something to keep myself busy. It began in a small way doing things I enjoyed, and now here I am.
While it is true that there are a multitude of people sitting at home and making mega bucks, i was not one of them. Why? Because though I had learnt computers at APTECH and done content writing for a website, I was always in touch with people over the phone. Or I would have been for an interview in person before I got these jobs. The mere thought of getting work online from an unknown person frightened me.
Unreasonable, I know, but true all the same. My basic nature is not geared up for taking risks. I am the kind of person who will weigh all the pros and cons before getting into what i call a calculated risk situation. Thankfully, getting back onto the net and mingling with some strangers has let me ease up on my fears. The mere fact that i am writing this blog is proof of that.
I would also like to thank two close friends of mine for pushing me over the net via supportive emails. they told me to just do something to keep myself busy. It began in a small way doing things I enjoyed, and now here I am.
My Lost German
I have been wondering what to do about this problem for some time now. I had learnt German in college from Max Mueller Bhawan, Pune. What a place that is...teeming with students and the sound of German. Accents of all kinds trying to get a grip on the new language.
My German blossomed there. It was reasonably fluent and I quite enjoyed speaking the language. As with all languages you need to speak to keep in touch. After I left college I still kept in touch with a few German speakers. Then they drifted away. Now, however, I feel I have lost my German. I can still make out the few words that come as precaution on products, and I can remember the literal translations of the household things I use, but ask me to converse and I'll freeze!
So here's my solution. I am now going to try and teach a course as Introduction to the German Language. I will model it on my English Speaking Course and of course use some of the methods that my teachers at MMB used on me. AHA also has a course in basic German. let me see what ideas I can get out of them as well. Will keep you posted on how it turns out.
My German blossomed there. It was reasonably fluent and I quite enjoyed speaking the language. As with all languages you need to speak to keep in touch. After I left college I still kept in touch with a few German speakers. Then they drifted away. Now, however, I feel I have lost my German. I can still make out the few words that come as precaution on products, and I can remember the literal translations of the household things I use, but ask me to converse and I'll freeze!
So here's my solution. I am now going to try and teach a course as Introduction to the German Language. I will model it on my English Speaking Course and of course use some of the methods that my teachers at MMB used on me. AHA also has a course in basic German. let me see what ideas I can get out of them as well. Will keep you posted on how it turns out.
Genesis, a new start
A new begining is what the word means. That is literally what it is for my mom. My mother has made a radical shift in her life from being a Research Fellow persuing her Phd at NIRI to becoming an Army Wife and now an Owner of an Interior Decorating Firm.
An artist, she always was. Now she has finally come into her own and started this new company with a couple of friends. All of them are Forces Wives and have been shifting base with their husbands for more that 20 years each. Make that 30 years, in my mother's case.
There was no stability to set up shop anywhere for their talent. The paintings, murals, foil work, arts and craft that they made usually ended up being appreciated by all close friends who saw them. Usually gifting away their original work and being happy with an occassional order for a painting was their way of life.
Then they met up and the three of them got organised. They formed a company called GENESIS and struck out on their own. As of now they are still finding their feet and hope to get more work. The two exhibitions that they have held have been moderate successes, giving them more motivation.
If you would like to see a small sample of the kind of work they do and the services that they offer you can visit them at their website at
http://www.genesisartinteriors.com/
An artist, she always was. Now she has finally come into her own and started this new company with a couple of friends. All of them are Forces Wives and have been shifting base with their husbands for more that 20 years each. Make that 30 years, in my mother's case.
There was no stability to set up shop anywhere for their talent. The paintings, murals, foil work, arts and craft that they made usually ended up being appreciated by all close friends who saw them. Usually gifting away their original work and being happy with an occassional order for a painting was their way of life.
Then they met up and the three of them got organised. They formed a company called GENESIS and struck out on their own. As of now they are still finding their feet and hope to get more work. The two exhibitions that they have held have been moderate successes, giving them more motivation.
If you would like to see a small sample of the kind of work they do and the services that they offer you can visit them at their website at
http://www.genesisartinteriors.com/
Teaching Spoken English
Hello All,
One of the reasons why I've created this blog is that I get to put things in perspective. When I first started teaching Spoken English I had no clue about the differences between written and oral skills. I learnt on the job and now I will attempt to tell you more about it.
Essentially there are Four Language Skills that one needs to master to learn a language. These may be categorised as listening, speaking, reading and writing. That's the way a newborn baby learns his first language. In India more often than not the baby is bombarded with at least two different languages at home. The regional language or mother tongue and Hindi. In urban areas there may be a smattering of babies who learn English at home as well.
However the majority of Indian's are more fluent with their Mother Tongue and Hindi and English is learnt in school. When you teach English in school you use the following Language Skills come into play; writing, reading, listening and speaking. The teachers are more interested in perfecting the written word for the exams and after the priliminary classes when orals are no longer part of the exams one hardly gets to prqactice the language at all.
This leads to a large population having learnt English with grammar and all in schools but with little confidence to speak the language. That's where Spoken English classes such as I teach come in. What I do is make them speak as much as they can in English. This is done using various techniques such as impromptu discussions, prepared speeches and presentations, dialogues between people, etc. This improves their confidence levels and Spoken English.
Keep a look out for my next post with more details on the same topic.
One of the reasons why I've created this blog is that I get to put things in perspective. When I first started teaching Spoken English I had no clue about the differences between written and oral skills. I learnt on the job and now I will attempt to tell you more about it.
Essentially there are Four Language Skills that one needs to master to learn a language. These may be categorised as listening, speaking, reading and writing. That's the way a newborn baby learns his first language. In India more often than not the baby is bombarded with at least two different languages at home. The regional language or mother tongue and Hindi. In urban areas there may be a smattering of babies who learn English at home as well.
However the majority of Indian's are more fluent with their Mother Tongue and Hindi and English is learnt in school. When you teach English in school you use the following Language Skills come into play; writing, reading, listening and speaking. The teachers are more interested in perfecting the written word for the exams and after the priliminary classes when orals are no longer part of the exams one hardly gets to prqactice the language at all.
This leads to a large population having learnt English with grammar and all in schools but with little confidence to speak the language. That's where Spoken English classes such as I teach come in. What I do is make them speak as much as they can in English. This is done using various techniques such as impromptu discussions, prepared speeches and presentations, dialogues between people, etc. This improves their confidence levels and Spoken English.
Keep a look out for my next post with more details on the same topic.
27 May 2008
Spoken English
Well, these days I'm trying to get as much training done as possible so that I have an impressive resume by the time I get to Pune and look for a full time job. So I am currently working on a "Train the Trainer" workshop for ladies who want to teach Spoken English. Given the craze for the language in our country its bound to be a success if the teacher can be even a bit effective. Will be conducting it on the 2nd of June. Wish me luck.
My First Blog
I have been wanting to do this for quite some time now and finally did it. Am hoping to make this a place where I can do some of that serious writing practice i keep promising myself to do. Let's see how good, bad or ulgy it turns out to be.
Ciao
Ciao
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