Kalinago English: ESP:Marketing

(A Business English/EFL/ESP:marketing lesson)

After having lived, worked and taught English all over the world, I've noticed that cultures differ from workplace to workspace and this cultural divide isn't limited to the country of residence, nor to the sub-cultures there but, instead, is a part of a company's own philosophy.

Here in Germany, many people work side-by-side for years, never ever reaching first-name basis. Often they think Americans and Caribbeans are far too relaxed and dislike what they perceive to be a level of superficiality.

On the other hand, when you get to know the Germans, they are, deep-down, some of the most warm-hearted and generous people I've ever had the pleasure of teaching and they continually surprise me with their insights and knowledge.

As you've probably had conversations with your own students about cross-cultural business communication issues, no matter where you live, I thought I'd post up one of my older video exercises (you'll have seen it already if you've been in one my training sessions).

This video is a brilliant supplementary activity to take in with you: it's short, the speech of the actors is clear and the advertisement is particularly poignant for a Business/ESP:marketing lesson.

You can use it across a variety of objectives. On one side working on the concepts of business communication/cross-cultural issues or concentrating on the emotive metaphors, expanding the activity further by brainstorming others.

If you're teaching a group of marketing students, discussing the actual effectiveness of the advertisement can turn it into a particularly interesting conversation.

As an extra bonus, the video also provides a great context for practicing the Present Perfect vs the Past Simple.

Worksheet here (pdf)

Video here

Teaching notes:

The video works well with PreIntermediate students right up to Advanced students.

With the latter, the comprehension questions can be quickly glossed over if you wish, spending more time on the discussion, post video.

With the lower levels, watch twice and do the questions which your students can handle comfortably. Prompt your students to give you their general impressions and/or work on the grammar presented in the dialogue.

Enjoy!

Useful links related to this posting:
How to download video on to your laptop/netbook.

Best,
Karenne

List of Business English textbooks this video activity can be used to supplement:
-Business Basics unit 10
-Market Leader PreIntermediate unit 7 /unit 9
-Business Focus PreIntermediate unit 7
-Intelligent Business Intermediate unit 6
-InCompany PreIntermediate unit 4
-InCompany Intermediate unit 17

As a warmer
-Up to Speed unit 6
-Business Result unit 8

As always, if you'd like to add a book title to this list or you've got a suggestion for working with the video in another way, don't hesitate to add your thoughts!

A word regarding the following posting which is an attempt to kill three birds with one stone -

because why knock down two if the rock in your hand's big enough to hit more?

part 1 : aimed at my fellow triiibesters - how Seth Godin has been a huge influence on my life, my way of working -teaching me how to lead online communities, understanding business, learning best marketing practices while remaining ethical, having the guts to make some noise and get my stuff out there.

part 2: aimed at you, one of the great EFL teachers surfing the 'net looking for lesson tips and authentic materials for your ESP and Business English students - on how you can use Seth Godin's blog postings and books in these.

part 3: aimed at you, my fellow BELTfreers and also the N00bies anxiously awaiting your promised carnival - - a quick video about blogging, Seth Godin and Tom Peters.

Part 1: for the Triiibesters.

You, the band of Seth Godin's merry men and women are what make it such an amazing place to be. I have gained so much from being in your company and thank you very much for the laughs, for the discussions, for your sharing.

In honor of the 1st anniversary of Triiibes, this is what I've learned from the guru:

a) to be unique

The name, the pretty picture.

We speak English in the Caribbean, where I'm from originally, hence no imperialistic flags on the header here or website.

b) to answer all my emails

If Seth Godin is able to find the time to answer my emails (which um, was before I knew who he was... I just wrote the odd looking guy with the head you have to click on 'cause I thought his page was cool and couldn't comment), then, well, um...

I can find the time to answer the teachers and bloggers who write to me.

c) to be an amateur on purpose

No mimicry here.

Just Karenne and her rants, tips, ideas and uploaded lessons for teaching English.

d) to listen to my sneezers

Whenever someone out there decides to say something nice about my work, I not only appreciate it, I really try to make sure that they know that I've heard and that I appreciate their time, energy and effort.

e) to lead

I work on connecting people with other people who have similar objectives, goals or needs.

I try to make a difference by (re)igniting a passion for teaching.

Whatever brain stuff I know that doesn't hurt me to share, I give transparently and ethically.

f) to be succinct

Less is often more.

This is an area I'm still working on.

On Seth's books

The Dip saved me from quitting when I really thought I'd made a huge mistake in going solo, Purple Cow's case studies gave me new ideas and helped restructure my marketing plan and product.

Triiibes influenced the creation of my BELTfree Ning group - a passionate and exciting part of my daily activities, connecting me with so many other ELT bloggers from all over the world - bringing much joy!

I could also probably list at least ten other ways his writing has influenced my work but I won't 'cause, really, you need to move on to read the next entry...

Leading from Bob Poole's post about Magic to here, you can now head on over to Pat Ferdinandi on Triiibes.... Special thanks to Megan Elizabeth Morris & Matt Kern for organizing this event, Paul Durban for the blog-ring image.

Part 2a:

Because four birds are way better than three.

Seth Godin's blogs and books are an ideal source for authentic texts in the Business English classroom. He writes succinctly. Single paragraphs lead to hour long discussions so they're ideal texts for practicing Business English contextually.

www.sethgodin.typepad.com

click on his head to get to the blog

Who with?

ESP Marketing
Get your students to subscribe to his blog as should you. You will instantly have much more in common with your students.

Grab his postings - take them into class, these are particularly good:

Encourage learners to each purchase a copy of Unleashing the Ideavirus, Permission Marketing or both.

Read these with them, setting chapters as pre-tasks, combing through for relevant vocabulary in class and discuss language, philosophies and concepts.

ESP IT

As the web 2.0 grows, many of your international developers and designers are investigating the ideas behind communities.

Encourage them to get copies of Tribes and read this with them.

Business English, especially entrepreneurs, management and HR.

If you are teaching entrepreneurs, I recommend the Dip because they're going to go through one.

Purple Cow is also excellent and filled with ideas on how people can approach thinking outside of the box.

Great posts:

Part 2b:
As a fellow English teacher with an interest in linguistics, here's a few definitions of words and phrases used by Seth, no doubt very soon to be entered in dictionaries everywhere:

an ideavirus - an idea that spreads from mouth to mouth (or brain to brain)
to sneeze - to tell others about something
a sneezer - someone who consistently shares ideas, news about things they've discovered
a purple cow - someone or something that is not only unique, but is in fact, remarkable
being in the dip - the feeling of wanting to give up on a project

Stuff related to themes in our industry.

Part 3: for the bloggers and the wanna-be bloggers and the really... should I be a blogger-but-why people