My comment on Fairtrade

In my opinion Fairtrade is one of the leading organizations in socially responsible business programs because Fairtrade tries to give the financial and social power to the small-scale producers who historically never had it.

In this statistic we can see how much fairtrade related producers and producer organizations are in the countries all over the world. In Latin America there are Peru, Colombia and Mexico with the most fairtrade producers/farmers. In Asia there are the most producers/farmers in India.

There are more than 1.4 million farmers and workers in 74 countries.

The story of Thanksgiving

In the last english lesson, we watched the video "The story of thanksgiving" on youtube  and it talks about how this holiday was originated. I thought you might be interested because thanksgiving is an important holiday in the USA.

Basically what it says is that pilgrims left england to get independent and also because of the potatoe famine. After they arrived in autumn 1620, they suffered in the "new world" from coldness and famine. They succesfully survived winter after a native american named Squanto helped them to get through winter building wooden shelters, teaching them how to cultivate corn and by helping them to hunt.

The pilgrims were thankful and they decided to celebrate this day every year. The first thanksgiving wasn't just one big meal. It was a three day festival of eating, hunting and entertainment in honor of the first pilgrims succesful harvest.

"Gender stereotypes exist - like it or not"

I was reading an article of June 2016 by Adrian Furnham. The author gives women advices about how they should deal with gender stereotypes. I thought you might be interested because this is a hot topic at the moment.

Essentially what it says is that success at work is often associated with male characteristics. Therefore, when women show these behaviours they are often seen as tough and disagreeable.

The author mentions that studies show that if women negotiate on behalf of their family, clients or team members – they will not be met with sexist responds. To be empathic and helpful on behalf of others is seen as careful: qualities which are mostly associated with women. According to Catherine Tinsley, an expert on gender issues said that women should change the way they manage so that they work towards the advantage of the whole social group and to be seen as a team member.

Furthermore, they should repeatedly say that they are negotiating on behalf of all members, as well as using their work position as a reason for authority rather than their personality or gender.

From my point of view, women should be aware of the fact that there are and there always will be gender stereotypes about them. What they can do is face these stereotypes and tear them down from the ground up.

For that reason, Tinsley’s advice is to be pragmatic and factual.

What do you think about gender stereotypes?


(Taken from „Business Spotlight“)

Hello everyone,

I've been reading the article "FAT-FREE and HAPPY", which includes cliches but also the reality about the USA.

I am convinced that you'll be interested because almost everyone has different opinions about the States.

The author tells that it's not true that the people have no culture. There are so many famous universities and museums. Even if it seems to be a mess of freeways, Massachusetts largest city Boston has a lot more to offer than it might look like. Especially the Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are world-famous. Besides, Boston has a lot of museums, which are worth seeing.

Yes, some of the chliches are true. Everything is bigger in the USA: the shopping malls, the women and the glasses of Coca-Cola(one pint). There are also many gay and lesbian people in some places, which shows that the citizens of america are more tolerant in comparison to some other countries.

My opinion is that everybody should know that the most things they know about a country are only cliches.

Icebreakers

In the first english lesson from this new school year we talked about icebreakers. Icebreakers are used to start a conversation with a person.

So let me share my favourite icebreakers with you.

First one is 'What do you want to accomplish in your life?'
to know if the person I'm talking to is positive/negative minded and to know what they want to do later in their life.

My second is 'If you could be an icecream flavour, which one would you like to be and why?'
to add some humour to the dialog.

The 3rd:'If you could hear what someone is thinking for a day, who would it be?'

4th: 'If you were trapped in a tv show for 1 month, which show would you choose?'

I think icebreakers are really good to break the ice between persons who don't know each other very well.

these 8 companies love Valentine's Day the most

Hej guys.

In class we were talking about Valentine's Day and what people on this day do.

First we talked about some companies that love Valentine's Day the most because they're making so much profit.

Victoria's Secret Inc. is one of the major companies which makes the most profit. They sell sexy underwear for women. They're simply selling underwear but they do it on a big level. They have many shops and a big range of products.

Church & Dwight Co. Inc. makes a lot of money through selling household products like toothpaste, pet food and condoms.
I think that this company is very demanded in the US because it has many subsidary companies.

The InteractiveCorp is a internet corporation. The most common sites are ask.com, ask.fm and so on.
They offer online dating in the US. Their profit is 3.7 billion in a year.

The Hershey Co. is a leading chocolate producer in the US. Their profit is about 6.64 billion in a year. That's big money. But I think in the US many people like sweets and on valentine's day they buy each other sweets.

My christmas holidays

Hej Rashid!

I want to tell you something about my christmas holidays here in Austria. Like you know, we have every winter two weeks of christmas holidays because of the christmas eve and the new years eve.

This year it was from the 24th december 2016 to the 7th january 2017. I like the christmas holidays because there is an unusual christmas atmosphere. Although I don't celebrate christmas because I'm no christian. But I think it is really important to know much about the different religions.

Although I was at home half of the time, I wasn't productive at all. I don't know why. It could be because I've watched five seasons of Game of Thrones in these two weeks. Made in Hollywood, not Bollywood 😄

Wherever we went, I had a lot of fun with my friends. We went to Linz, Perg, Wels and so on. There are many things to do if you've nothing to do or you just want to relax in your free time.

On new year's eve my relatives came to us and we ate, laughed and had a great time. Whatever, my cousin and me went outside and threw firecracker and shot rockets in the sky. We had much fun with the explosives. At the beginning I was sad because I was at home with my family. I wanted to celebrate the new year with my friends but whatever, I'm no longer mad about it.

Sincerely Yunus