9 Things That Motivate Employees More Than Money

http://www.inc.com/ilya-pozin/9-things-that-motivate-employees-more-than-money.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

1.  Be generous with praise. Everyone wants it and it’s one of the easiest things to give. Plus, praise from the CEO goes a lot farther than you might think. Praise every improvement that you see your team members make. Once you’re comfortable delivering praise one-on-one to an employee, try praising them in front of others. 

2.  Get rid of the managers. Projects without project managers? That doesn’t seem right! Try it. Removing the project lead or supervisor and empowering your staff to work together as a team rather then everyone reporting to one individual can do wonders. Think about it. What’s worse than letting your supervisor down? Letting your team down! Allowing people to work together as a team, on an equal level with their co-workers, will often produce better projects faster. People will come in early, stay late, and devote more of their energy to solving problems.

3.  Make your ideas theirs. People hate being told what to do. Instead of telling people what you want done; ask them in a way that will make them feel like they came up with the idea. “I’d like you to do it this way” turns into “Do you think it’s a good idea if we do it this way?”

4.  Never criticize or correct. No one, and I mean no one, wants to hear that they did something wrong. If you’re looking for a de-motivator, this is it. Try an indirect approach to get people to improve, learn from their mistakes, and fix them. Ask, “Was that the best way to approach the problem? Why not? Have any ideas on what you could have done differently?” Then you’re having a conversation and talking through solutions, not pointing a finger.

5.  Make everyone a leader. Highlight your top performers’ strengths and let them know that because of their excellence, you want them to be the example for others. You’ll set the bar high and they’ll be motivated to live up to their reputation as a leader.

6.  Take an employee to lunch once a week. Surprise them. Don’t make an announcement that you’re establishing a new policy. Literally walk up to one of your employees, and invite them to lunch with you. It’s an easy way to remind them that you notice and appreciate their work.

7.  Give recognition and small rewards. These two things come in many forms: Give a shout out to someone in a company meeting for what she has accomplished. Run contests or internal games and keep track of the results on a whiteboard that everyone can see. Tangible awards that don’t break the bank can work too. Try things like dinner, trophies, spa services, and plaques.

8.  Throw company parties. Doing things as a group can go a long way. Have a company picnic. Organize birthday parties. Hold a happy hour. Don’t just wait until the holidays to do a company activity; organize events throughout the year to remind your staff that you’re all in it together.

9.  Share the rewards—and the pain. When your company does well, celebrate. This is the best time to let everyone know that you’re thankful for their hard work. Go out of your way to show how far you will go when people help your company succeed. If there are disappointments, share those too. If you expect high performance, your team deserves to know where the company stands. Be honest and transparent.

http://daniel-j-stone.blogspot.com (C) 2009-11

When does your week start?

Thursday, November 23, 2006

I remember when I was in the Navy, I had a chance to do a week internship at the Sheraton Hotel near the San Diego airport. Considering how our ship was doing work-ups for the upcoming deployment to the Persian Gulf region, it was an excellent opportunity to get out of some repetitive training on the ship. At the time, we would leave San Diego on Monday, cut figure 8's out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, do drills such as simulated "General Quarters". The ship's conditions had to change from the normal underway conditions to "battleship ready" in some ridiculous time of 5 minutes. Basically, you had to stop whatever it was you were doing and run to your battle station in the appropriate attire and close all of the hatches in order to meet the time. Imagine if you are in the head in the seated position.   If the conditions were not met, we would have to go through the same thing again. Then on Friday, we would return to port and spend either Saturday or Sunday doing 24-hour duty and then most of the other day doing laundry and other errons that couldn't be done since we were fooling around out in the middle of the ocean. Then on the following Monday, we did the same routine again. 

So, I got to go work at the hotel and got out of a week of "Bravo Sierra" training on the ship. While I'm working at the hotel, I see how these chefs, hotel managers and others go about their daily routine at this busy hotel. One guy shows me the schedule and has Wednesday in the place of where the Sunday goes and Friday in the place of where Wednesday goes. He explained that in the hospitality business that their weekends are when they are not busy which is Tuesday thru Thursday.

This past Tuesday, I was chit-chatting in Japanese with one of the teachers at the local university where I'm studying Japanese and she asked when I last went to Tokyo. I replied in Japanese, "This (week) Sunday." She had a puzzled look on her face and then said, "You mean Last (week) Sunday, right?" There we realized that in Japan, they consider that their week begins on Monday but in the US, we consider our first day of the week as Sunday. I then simplfied things by saying, "Ototoi deshita". (It was the day before yesterday.)

http://daniel-j-stone.blogspot.com (C) 2009-11

The Agree or Disagree Lesson

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

For the past two years, I`ve been asked to help at the various junior high schools with the "Agree or Disagree" lesson. I think this time around, I got it right. Out of the six questions that were asked, two were pretty much split down the middle. The Japanese are too big on the consensus therefore one will decide as the other does which makes for a lousy lesson. I decided to get rid of some of the supplies that I have around the house and picked out 30 sheets of 2 different colored paper and had them hold them up for their decision. Then I decided to come up with some "soft" questions basing it when comparing Japan to other countries.

Here is how it went with JHS 3rd year students (9th graders):

1- In the US, you can not smoke inside most restaurants. I think it should be the same in Japan.

Agree- 28
Disagree- 1

2- In the US, you can not ride your bicycle on a busy sidewalk. In Japan, I think you should get off your bicycle and walk your bike until it isn`t busy.

Agree- 15
Disagree- 13

3- On sunny days when the weather is nice and pretty, I think we should hold the English class outside.

Agree- 4
Disagree- 25

4- For classes such as Science, Math or Computer Lab, I think that those classes should be taught in English.

Agree- 0
Disagree- 29

5- In Canada, there are two official languages which are English and French. For example, in Vancouver, a box of cereal will have English on one side and French on the other side. I think that in Japan, there should be two official languages which would be Japanese and English.

Agree- 0
Disagree- 29

6- In Korea, English is a compulsory course taught to students beginning in the ES 4th year. I think it should beginning sooner that JHS 1st year in Japan and the Japanese should follow the model that the Koreans are following.

Agree- 16
Disagree- 12

A good way to take up 10-15 minutes if given the chance.

http://daniel-j-stone.blogspot.com (C) 2009-11

Ohio TESOL- 2011

http://clear.msu.edu/teaching/online/ria/audioDropbox2/index.php

http://daniel-j-stone.blogspot.com (C) 2009-11

Cultural Issues For ESL Students

Although the personality of two individuals in one country can vary much more than the average personality in two different countries, having some knowledge of how cultures vary from each other can at least give teachers a starting point in knowing how to approach a student or class until teachers get to know the individual preferences of the class. Here is a by no means exhaustive list of some cultural differences that can come up in class.

1. Body language and gestures

The list of gestures by the teacher or students that could be misinterpreted or even found offensive is huge- in fact the number of totally universal human gestures is very few. You can fairly easily research the typical body language and gestures of the country your students are from or are interested in, but particular things to look out for in the classroom include pointing at people, gesturing “okay”, and holding up various fingers to illustrate numbers etc. The main point to note with any of these is that people do not stop finding a gesture offensive just because they understand that it means something else in other countries.

2. Dress

This could be a matter of avoiding even brief and accidental showing of parts of the body like shoulders and belly, or could be more a case of certain clothes such as bright colours or overly sturdy shoes being taken as tacky and/ or unprofessional. Other things to bear in mind include avoiding holey socks if you might have to take your shoes off. There might also be issues with students wanting to keep on head wear that blocks eye contact and so makes communication difficult. Students might also use dress as a clue to try and work out the financial position of foreign teachers, with negative reactions to both seeming too poor and too rich being possible.

3. The teacher’s role

Different cultures can show different attitudes to the teacher admitting they couldn’t be wrong, letting students make classroom decisions, pairwork correction, and pairwork more generally. For native speakers, there might also be issues of differing reactions to your knowledge and use of the students’ L1 or lack of.

4. Asking questions/ saying you don’t understand

To give an example, in a Japanese company it is normal for a subordinate to say “Yes, I understand” to any instructions from the boss, and then find out from elsewhere whatever they didn’t understand. Some people can show the same reaction to grammar explanations and game instructions in the classroom.

5. Making mistakes and correction

As with most of these, the embarrassment at making mistakes and being corrected varies more from person to person than culture to culture, but general national characteristics can also be discerned. There might also be issues with how much correction they expect, if that correction can come from other students, and if it can be in front of other people.

6. Status

Students might feel they cannot interrupt or correct people who are older, in a high status job, are male etc, or may be shocked when the teacher or another student does not pay attention to such distinctions.

7. Gender roles

This is mainly just one subset of “Status” above- if students think that women (especially younger or other “lower status” women) are lower in the ranking, that will exagerate any negative reactions they have to being interrupted, corrected, told to do things in the classroom that are unfamiliar etc.

8. Food and drink

In Islamic countries you might have to take account of low blood sugar levels and varying break times during Ramadan. In other places there might be a taboo against the teacher taking in certain drinks or drinking straight from the plastic bottle, or indeed drinking anything if that is seen as rudeness towards students who do not have drinks. There might also be strong reactions in various places against smelling of or admitting to liking certain foods.

9. Taboo topics

A very much less than exhaustive list of taboo topics in various places included female family members, dogs, politics, social classes, certain periods of history, the Royal Family, the police, the underclass, being mixed race, and homosexuality.

10. Eye contact

The frequency and length of eye contact changes a lot from country to country, as does the times when eye contact is and isn’t considered suitable. One frequently misunderstood example is that East Asian students often close their eyes when concentrating.

11. Small talk

There can be cultural differences in the amount and timing of small talk that is expected in the classroom. For example, Japanese meetings tend to start and finish with quite a lot of small talk but have a clear transisition, whereas British managers (and me in my lessons) will often try to move cleverly and smoothly between the small talk and the start of the first lesson topic. Other cultures might expect small talk to be shorter or even absent until the end of the lesson.

12. Silence

In some countries, most famously Japan and Finland, silence between conversation turns and when thinking is quite normal. The danger is that the teacher or another student might jump in to fill the silence and so prevent them from speaking, or that they will make others feel uncomfortable with their silence. The best short term solution is to teach phrases to fill thinking time like “Well, let me see”, with the next stage being teaching sentence stems to at least get them started quickly, e.g. “I think that…”

13. Writing styles

Most of the things that native English speakers are taught in school are good writing style, such as a clear progression of ideas and one topic per paragraph, exist less or in different forms in other cultures. This can make the writing of even higher level students difficult to follow, and can also mean they are missing out on vital clues to what information is where when reading an English text. Guided planning and reading tasks that identify topic sentences to solve these problems (eventually) are fairly common in Academic English and IELTS textbooks.

14. Interrupting

In some cultures several people almost talking over each other is normal, whereas others will wait until there is complete silence before making their contribution. This can be a problem when you have students from different cultures working together or in EFL tests where the ability to split the speaking 50/ 50 between partners is assessed. Methods to tackle it include giving the one person who is speaking something to hold, making a third student judge each pair on the percentage each person talks, and teaching forms like tag questions that aid turn taking.

15. Directness

Students who prefer to get straight to the point in L1 often find it easier to communicate in English, but there is a chance of them or other students who don’t have the language level to be polite seeming too direct and offending people. They also might miss polite requests to stop doing things etc, for the same cultural, personality and language reasons. This can also be an issue when writing student progress reports, when the same constructive criticism to two different students could offend one and seem like a compliment to the other. Teaching functional language and asking them to judge the politeness of different forms are two good approaches, as is giving realistic reactions when students are rude or overly indirect in class.


http://daniel-j-stone.blogspot.com (C) 2009-11

Teaching Methods

• Circle errors and allowing the students to determine how to correct them
• Directing the students to read and write silently to herself to correct the errors
• Instructing the students to read the writing to the class for peer editing
• Reading the writing to the student and allowing her to listen for errors
• Achievement assessment- may include evaluation of mastery of content, cognitive and affective gains (e.g., general knowledge, skills, attitudes and values, behaviors
• Proficiency assessment- the process of documenting the ability of an individual to speak or perform in an acquired language.
• Diagnostic assessment- provides instructors with information about student's prior knowledge and misconceptions before beginning a learning activity.
• Placement assessment- the process of documenting the ability of a language learner before starting a language program.
• The Linguistic approach- Linguists are interested in explaining what kinds of rules people unconsciously follow, regardless of the social status of their speech.
• Language Experience approach- First, the learner tells a story or recounts a personal experience, and the teacher or another helper writes down everything he or she has said, word for word, including every sound and without trying to fix anything. Second, this original transcript becomes the text for the teacher to go over together with the learner, focusing on grammar and word choice, leaving the paper marked up as needed. Third, the learner writes the text again, taking care to incorporate all the changes and corrections. Fourth, the learner reads the revised text out loud to the teacher, experiencing what it is like to express him or herself with enhanced clarity.
• Basal-reader approach- are textbooks used to teach reading and associated skills to schoolchildren. Commonly called "reading books" or "readers" they are usually published as anthologies that combine previously published short stories, excerpts of longer narratives, and original works. A standard basal series comes with individual identical books for students, a Teacher's Edition of the book, and a collection of workbooks, assessments, and activities.
• Sight-word approach- Sight words and the whole-word approach to reading are a significant teaching technique considering 65% of the population identify themselves as visual learners.
• Bottom-up reading strategies- analyzing relationships between words in a sentence and deciphering the meanings of individual words in a sentence.
• Audiolingualism- Utilize drills and pattern practice frequently; play a tape of two students talking about buying clothes, then distribute a page with the taped dialogue written out, then ask the students to repeat the dialogue several times as the teacher models it. Lastly, for homework, the students memorize the dialogue for class the next day.
• Direct Method- Second language learning should model first language learning in that it should be learned 'directly'; grammar is taught inductively with no explanations, the learner's first language is not used in the class, and new vocabulary is introduced by demonstration.
• Suggestopedia- Rather conventional, memorization of whole meaningful text is recommended; learning occurs through suggestion when learners are deeply relaxed with baroque music is used; learners are required to master prodigious lists of vocabulary pairs with the goal of understanding not memorization; a passive state and allow the materials to work on them.
• Community language learning- Learners in a classroom are considered not a class but a group. The social dynamics of such a group were of primary importance. Group members need to interact in an interpersonal relationship in which students and teacher join together to facilitate learning in a context of valuing each individual in the group. In this case, members lower their defenses that prevent open interpersonal communication. Anxiety is replaced with support of the community. Teachers are not received as a threat but to impose limits and boundaries as a true counselor and center the clients/group members on their needs. Defensive learning was made unnecessary by the empathetic relationship between the teacher and the students. CLL’s principles of discovery learning, student-centered participation, and development of student autonomy (independence) all remain viable in their applications to language classrooms.
• Project-based learning and portfolio assessment
• Self-directed study in independent learning centers
• Visually rich classrooms and a focus on familiar experiences are good for ESOL students with limited formal schooling.
• Self-monitoring strategies- A metacognative learning strategy (think about what one is learning) that could be modeled for ESOL students.
• Performance-based assessments- “Students will be able to>>>”
Used for formative or summative evaluations, include demonstrations/artistic interpretations, and used in place of multiple-choice assessments.
• Behavioral objectives
• Informal assessments
• Communicative Language Teaching- integrative test in which students are asked to write a letter to a friend; encourages interaction with others in the target language
• The Writing Process: 1- Brainstorm, 2- First Draft, 3- Peer Review, 4- Revise, 5- Proofread, 6- Submit Final Draft
• Beginner language learners that make mistakes in conversation should only be corrected when it interferes with communicating meaning.
• Discussing a student’s prior experiences related to the topic at the beginning of a unit is a good way to identify semantic (meaning of words) and syntactic gaps (order of words).


http://daniel-j-stone.blogspot.com (C) 2009-11

Psycholinguistics

• Acculturation- The process of acquiring a “second culture,” usually as an effect of sustained and imbalanced contact between two societies. Members of the “weaker” society are compelled to adopt aspects of the dominant society.
• Code-switching- The practice of using more than one language to express a thought or an idea.
• Circumlocution- a style that involves indirect ways of expressing things
• Ethnocentrism- belief in the superiority of one's own ethnic group, The tendency to look at the world primarily from the perspective of one's own culture
• Phonetic Spelling/ Invented Spelling- - spelling a word as it sounds (love = luv). Primary students often use phonetic spelling (sometimes called “temporary,” “invented,” or “creative” spelling) as they begin to construct an understanding of written language. (spelling the word “elephant” as “elafunt”)
• Semi phonetic Spelling- In this phase children show a developing understanding of sound-symbol relationships.
• Precommunicative Spelling- is used to describe writing that only conveys meaning for the child who wrote it.
• Redundancy reduction- when two languages come into contact within the same psycholinguistic environment, the speaker is forced to solve the duplication of rules and functions in two languages and simplify the cognitive overload”
• Overgeneralization- A language practice used by children as they are learning a language in which they apply a perceived rule or use of a word incorrectly. For example, a child may say "mans" instead of "men" to show the plural form of the word "man".
• Phonemic awareness- The ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words
• L1 transfer- Many learners expect that because they collocate something a particular way in L1, it will translate directly (and correctly) into English.
• Fossilization
• Pidginization- A "pidgin" language is not the native language of any speech community, but is instead learned as a second language.[1][2] A "pidgin" language may be built from words, sounds, or body language from multiple other languages / cultures. "Pidgin" languages usually have low prestige with respect to other languages.[3]
• Reduced speech- in casual speech, words are shortened. (would and other modals)
• Information gap- A situation where all the information isn't known by all the students. They have to use language they have been taught to complete the information gap by asking questions and giving information.
• New students are often reluctant to participate and require more time to participate orally and interacting with other students.
• Semiotics- the study of sign processes (semiosis), or signification and communication, signs and symbols
• Semantics- is the study of meaning, usually in language.
• Morphology- the meanings or prefixes and suffixes, combinations of words to make new words and the inflection of nouns and verbs.
• the form and structure of words in a language, esp. the consistent patterns of inflection, combination, derivation and change, etc., that may be observed and classified.
• Inflection- the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, mood, voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case.
• Expose the class to others in the school who speak with an non-American English accent and hold a class about the value of diversity.


http://daniel-j-stone.blogspot.com (C) 2009-11

Linguistics

Linguistics: The study of natural language. This study has two divisions which are language structures and language meanings.
1. Language Structures consist of morphology, syntax and phonology/phonetics.
• Morphology is the study of the structure of words and their modifications. (prefix, root and suffix)
• Syntax is the study of how words combine to form grammatical sentences, aka word order.
• Phonology/phonetics is the study of sounds and pronunciation as well as the study of sound symbols.
2. Language Meanings consist of pragmatics, semantics and discourse analysis.
• Pragmatics is the study of how context contributes to meaning.
• Semantics is the meaning of words.
• Discourse Analysis is the analysis of language in spoken, written and signed texts.


http://daniel-j-stone.blogspot.com (C) 2009-11

Interlanguage

What is interlanguage? This is a developmental system based on first language, second-language input, language universals and communication strategies. It is thought to be a system that language users use to make sense of a new language. This system is an”inter” language because it has unique qualities based on such things as the speaker’s native language, language universals, and communication strategies. This can also be explained by the process of mastering a target language (TL), second language learners (L2) develop a linguistic system that is self-contained and different from both the learner’s first language (L1) and the TL.

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Attitude

Your attitude determines the seasons you enter.

Do you watch car race to see who wins or to see who will have a wreck?  Are you fascinated in another man's life and treat them as an idol and cowardly call that man a liar from the comfort of your computer?  And if the truth were to be known, it was in fact YOU who was the liar and the very creditals that you dare to mock are items that you have only dreamed about but never had the courage to see materialize?  When challenged, do you rise to the occassion and seize the opportunity?  Your attitude and approach make up a lot of what the final outcome will be.

One of my favorite movies is about an American baseball player who four years prior was the MVP for the World Series Yankees. At the start the season, the aging veteran is cut and finds himself only wanted by one team. A team in Japan.

In an effort to salvage the season and end his career on a high note, he reluctantly goes to Japan and finds out that his slumping performance is due to many sloppy habits that he had developed over the years. The former slugger can no longer hit and his brash attitude in light of this finds him suspended from the team.

The Japanese manager pushed for the American slugger to come to Japan and must find a way to get the slugger back in the groove before he looses face.

The American slugger decides to cooperate and finds himself at a golf driving range hitting golf balls with a baseball bat. In frustration, he exclaims, "I want to hit baseballs!" The manager replies, "What did you say?" The slugger realizing that if he can hit the smaller golf ball that he will be able to hit the larger baseball replies, "I want to hit."

Remember, we must do whatever it takes to keep the dream alive! Do want we do. No explanations, no excuses. Plan for the worst, hope for the best!

http://daniel-j-stone.blogspot.com (C) 2009-11

Patience

Those who do not respect your time will not respect your wisdom either.

Patience is the weapon that forces deception to reveal itself.

Why is it that I get annoyed in certain situations that I should simply disregard?  It is because of expectations.  Because of this, I sweat the small stuff.  As a director, I can't be a "small-stuff" person.  I try to be a "big stuff" person, but I still struggle with this. 

Tardiness is probably the biggest thing that I get annoyed with.  I know that I should overlook it and having lived in Los Angeles for five years, I should have had enough training in dealing with people who are tardy.  But, time and time again, I see someone who is tardy when dealing with me as someone who is insulting me.  "Your time is more valuable than mine?"  "I have to wait for you?"  I'm fine with valid reasons for delay and get irked with myself with I'm late.  I recently moved and early on, miscalculated the commute to work and for a while, I was a few minutes late for about a week.  UNACCEPTABLE!!  People who are late because they seem to think that there is not an issue with this eliminates them from my activities.  Unfortunately, this goes against the grain for the Middle Eastern culture which happens to be the biggest customer base at my Center.
Patience is a good thing.  Patient people are often kind and accepting of the faults of others.  If I've decided to be in a profession where I can help people, then I need to learn how to be patient.  As the old saying goes, "Patience is its own reward."

http://daniel-j-stone.blogspot.com (C) 2009-11

Decision Making

Champions make decisions that create the future they desire while losers make decisions that create the present they desire.

It was 2009 when I was delivering mail as a rural mail carrier for the US Post Office.  I've never thought that any job was beneath me and since collecting unemployment was a new thing for me, it was something that I wanted to remove from my life as soon as possible.  I interviewed for such places like Adidas and local government agencies only to not get an offer.  The sign in the post office about working as a rural carrier got my attention and I figured, "Why not?"

Fast forward to 2011, I now reside in Columbus, OH and recently bought my first home.  One of the prerequisites to make this happen was to have 24 consecutive months of employment history. Since I have not been with my current employer for that long, I had to use my time at the Post Office to satisfy this requirement.

Deciding to take a job because of my industrious spirit was the difference and banking on the future regardless of your age will allow you to be successful.

On the other hand, I know of a woman who gave up her full-time job with benefits to take a part-time job with the hopes of it becoming full-time.  The economy has been bad for over three years and may take 10 more years to rebound.  I realize that it is important to spend time with your children when they are young, but how will she provide for them as they grow older?

http://daniel-j-stone.blogspot.com (C) 2009-11

Comfort or Character?

Often people will not pursue an opportunity or make a change because it is more comfortable to keep things as they are and not buck the system or accept the test of their true character in the face of uncertainty.  They hold on to a situation when they need to move on or move on from a situation when challenged.

Being an "Average Joe" who has had to fight, scrape and bleed for everything that I've ever had in the past twenty years, I dare say that if you are reading this you have trouble coming your way. Not everyone looks for trouble but trouble always seems to be looking for you. 

What are you going to do when trouble finds you?  As for me, I will confront it head on since avoiding it will only prolong the situation and make it worse.  I know that I will stumble and I may fall.  But I will not give up. 

That is my advice to you:  Don't let the comfort of what you have always known to be what is known as the status quo keep you for allowing your character to accept and eventually pass the test of a troubling situation.

It is better to have tried and failed than to go through life not knowing what it would have been if you would have tried. 

http://daniel-j-stone.blogspot.com (C) 2009-11

In the spirt of "Kaizen"

Kaizen, the Japanese phrase meaning, "continuous improvement" is the cornerstone of Japanese companies that have gone on to become global powers such as Toyota.  Progress must be spun anyway you can in order to acheive kaizen.  For example, when a food service provider at a small college goes from charging its students full price for the meal plan but serve next to nothing to the students for over the two-week Winter Break to serving box meals over a four-day holiday and overcharging the students with product that the students find undesirable to providing box meals and charging what the aggreement calls for despite the box meals not meeting expectations forcing students away from campus housing, believe it or not, kaizen is taking place.  Why?  The school was charging students for meals and not providing any meals in return to charging students for meals which were provided. 

But, in the spirit of kaizen, more work must be done since the goal is to have 100% occupancy with on campus housing which is more likely to happen when students are having their expectations met.   

http://daniel-j-stone.blogspot.com (C) 2009-11

Philosophy on hiring, training equalling retention, managing and creating ownership with staff and faculty

When it comes to hiring staff and faculty, my philosophy is to hire based on the candidate's  attitude and then train them for the skill needed to do their position effectively and efficiently. It is important for me as the local hiring director to find a good fit to the company's system. Once a good fit is found, every effort is made to have employees trained to optimize retention.

Once this has been established, the atmosphere is one where staff and faculty are allowed to conduct their tasks without being hindered by being over supervised. The ownership mentality comes full circle when staff and faculty are given the opportunity to lead a training session or being given an opportunity to provide input on an upcoming meeting or operational matter. In particular, instructors are encouraged to be creative in the classroom as long as they are adhering to the Objective and
Evaluating Criteria sheets, using the established curriculum as the base and completing coursework in the time that is provided.

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Why an International Student should come to Columbus, OH

http://daniel-j-stone.blogspot.com (C) 2009-10

E-mail etiquette- When the situation is not good

Anybody can write an email when the situation is good and the desired results have been met. But, what do you do when the situation was not good? Like, when your host institution closes up shop for the Winter Break and you have 30 international students that are expecting lunch and the main dining hall on campus is closed and the nearest restaurant is a good two miles away?


In maintaining the proper e-mail etiquette when the situation is not good, please note the following:

First, it is important to watch your tone and do not let your emotions get involved when constructing your e-mail. Even if the person is dead wrong, you do not want the person to feel that they were attacked. Next, convey understanding and empathy for their perspectives (even if you don't agree) while at the same time information is being conveyed. Lastly, a good rule of thumb is, if you don't want it on the front page of the New York Times, don't press "send".

http://daniel-j-stone.blogspot.com/ (C) 2009-11

ELL Source

http://ellexpress.wordpress.com/about/

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Learn the language.

I was recently asked about my time abroad and my experience in learning the language.

Having lived in Japan for three years and with a slight head start than the typical American due to being stationed in Japan 10 years prior in the military, being married to a Japanese woman whom I met in California and studied Japanese for two semesters in college (I could recognize the basic alphabet and knew basic vocabulary and grammar). Within my first month in Japan, I was riding a bus to a nearby shopping mall and met a foreigner and predictably, struck up conversation. He mentioned that he lived in Japan for seven years and it took him until the 4th or 5th year until he could understand what he read in the newspaper and could be conversational in a professional setting. There is alot of truth to this having actively studying Japanese while I was in Japan. There are ways to accelerate this which is by studying at a language school or university and practicing and not worrying about making mistakes. Also, the younger you are, the more likely it is for what you take in will stick.

While Japanese is one of the most difficult languages for a Westerner to master, after a my first year in Japan, I had progressed by leaps and bounds. I was able to find things out at the grocery and department stores, maneuver my way around the Yahoo Japan website, send text messages in Japanese from my cellphone, follow the weather on NHK news and knew which parts of the train were cooler than others and for women only. More importantly, I was able to do my job more effectively which was presenting English and American culture to Japanese elementary students who never had any exposure to a non-Japanese person until they met me. Teaching English in Japanese may seem strange but is par the course in Japan.



http://daniel-j-stone.blogspot.com (C) 2009-10

LPGA to mandate Koreans and others speak English

A story I heard on NPR on the drive home from work:


On the one hand, the capitalistic approach is only concerned about the bottom line whereas translators and cultural sensitivity could be used.  My opinion is, non-English speaking golfers will be successful if they can raise their English ability in the following ways:

1. Sponsorships to a broader audience

2. Ability to participate in charity events

3. Be taken seriously and reach the Tiger Woods level



Story



http://daniel-j-stone.blogspot.com (C) 2009-11