Education Tips
1
Sep 10
Spanish to Become Most Spoken Language by 2045
The Spanish letter "ñ" on a keyboard
It is estimated that by the year 2045, Spanish will be the most widely spoken language in the world. Humberto Lopez Morales, the secretary of the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language, claimed that this is predicted by evaluating several factors. Perhaps the most prolific of these is that Spanish is the second most-learned language in the world (behind English). He also highlights the advantage of speaking another language in economic powerhouses such as the United States, where being bilingual opens the door to the labour market. This contributes to the number of people learning Spanish, and in the US almost 16% of the population are Spanish speaking.
There are currently more than 500,000,000 people in the world that speak Spanish; including native, bilingual and foreign-language speakers. It is the third most widely spoken language in the world, and the second when referring to native speakers alone. I can´t think of a better reason to start learning a language today! Here are some courses to check out:
Expanish in Buenos Aires, Argentina, offer small group classes of 20 hours a week. The average group size is 4 people, and students can practice conversation, engage in group activities and improve sentence structure with their fellow classmates. Expanish believe the best approach to learning a language is to also learn about the culture and how the two intertwine. They organise a number of activities and workshops so that students can apply the Spanish that they have learned in the classroom to real life situations.
In Colombia the Spanish World Institute have Spanish courses for students to learn Spanish as a foreign language. Their academic programs look for a deeper understanding of the Colombian culture, through cross-cultural education, personalised attention and dynamic teaching methods in a professional and friendly atmosphere and they also offer voluntary programmes.
If you have an interest in a particular country I would recommend that you choose to study Spanish there, as most of the programs involve learning about the local culture and customs as well, which is an added bonus. Suerte! (good luck!)
Reference: Wikipedia
16
Aug 10
Food Photography – Course of the Week
Photo by ccharmon
The title of this week´s Course of the Week leaves little guess-work as to the flavor of this course… have you ever driven past a huge billboard with a big juicy hamburger where you can actually see the pearls of dew on the taunt perfect skin of a ruby-red sliced tomato? Oh and the crisp lettuce that is so brilliantly green you can imagine the crunchy sound it would make as you…
Time to exit?
Visual images of food are so powerful that with the right tools food can be transformed into more than a life-sustaining grouping of carbohydrate, lipid and protein molecules…it can be art! With this course in Food Photography offered at the Brooks Institute in California, you will learn how to capture food at its best angle.
Photo by ccharmon
Blueberry muffin anyone?
12
Aug 10
Tips: Dorm-Decorating on a Budget
Photo by Kevin Blair / The Collegian
It´s that time of year again when new university students are leaving home and moving into apartments and college dorms. Decorating your college dwelling can be a fun way to define your new life and create a comfortable space that will be your home away from home. Although you are a student and thus living on a budget, decorating your new space doesn’t have to break the bank. Here are some decorating suggestions to help you get started:
- Go vintage! Check out local garage sales, resale shops or junk yards for pieces that could be easily revamped. You may have to wade through a lot of trash but sometimes you can find treasures that can give your room some style.
- Craigslist.org. Most people these days have heard about the website Craigslist but for those who haven´t you should definitely check it out. People who want to sell furniture (among other things) post a description with pictures and prices. Sometimes these items need to be sold very quickly and the seller is willing to drop the prices significantly to get rid of the items as soon as possible. Check the site daily for deals and steals!
- Revamp stuff you already have! Old and ugly furniture can usually be revamped if you have a place to work on it and the time to give it a little love. Think refinishing, painting, recovering. Plus, if you get creative, your old furniture not only gets a new life in your new space, but also becomes a conversation piece among your new friends and dorm-mates.
9
Aug 10
The Truth About Animated Movies
Image from Toy Stoy 2
Summer (well for North America and Europe anyway) is the perfect season for big movie releases, and 2010 was the big come-back for animated films. The latest animated releases Shrek Forever After and Toy Story 3 were hugely successful at the box office, and what a lot of people don’t know is that taking them to the big screen is not as easy as it seems. Making animated movies requires a lot of effort and technological innovation, which not only takes a lot of time, but also costs a lot.
To give you an idea of the complexity of the process, technicians working on the second part of Shrek worked for months developing the animation that made it possible for the characters to have long hair. Things like recreating a forest or giving movement to the characters takes months to be accomplished. For Shrek the third, Dreamworks had to assign two animators per scene, when usually only one person per scene is required.
The software that most animation programs utilize is Linux, and the technicians that are part of this creative process have skills in 3D modeling, Maya, and Linux commercial package for 3D design.
So if you thought that computer-related careers were boring, maybe you should reconsider and explore this ever-expanding industry!
21
Jul 10
Collaborative Editing Program, Useful for Students
Got a paper due and not confident in your editing skills? Notapipe, we recently discovered, is a web service that allows you to upload a draft or document to be edited by multiple users in real time. The document can be accessed anywhere there is an internet connection and the program is compatible with web browsers for both PCs and Macs. Just think what this means for group projects! Every connected user can edit text, and changes are updated for everyone. Revisions to the document can be saved at anytime and there is no limit to the number of modifications that you can make. Students working in a collaborative atmosphere should find this much easier than making photocopies and marking up changes in red pen.
As far as pricing goes, Notapipe has a free plan option, however, it is a bit limited. To get a SSL connection (a secure connection) one must pay for the premium plan which is around 20 USD.
Recap:
- Cool service that allows for a document to be edited by various people.
- Can see changes made in real time.
- Access the the document anywhere there is internet.
- Free, basic and premium plans
- Secure connection can only be achieved through premium plan
- Not sure if the good old eraser and white out still sell, but who needs them?
14
Jul 10
Cheating Has Gone High-Tech
Source: www.thesun.co.uk/
The eternal temptation for students to cheat has gone high-tech. The old-school exam cheating methods from the past like sleeve method, toilet tank method, foot signal method, tissue cheat and the dictionary cheat are considered naïve and had been replaced by new generation methods that include mobile phones and other sophisticated technology. Cutting and pasting from the internet and sharing homework online like music files also worries teachers. Pupils can buy on-line exam cheat equipment, like for example a concealed ear-piece to receive information.
Cheating is a form of dishonesty and is generally considered unethical, nevertheless American research shows 74% of students at some 4,500 high schools admitted to serious test cheating, and 97% copied either homework or question papers. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland more than 4,400 people were caught cheating last year and an official figures show a 6% rise in cheating. As mobiles started to provide internet access, they became one of the biggest problems for examiners. Mobile phones enabled students to take photos, swap notes and search the web.
Schools and universities are trying to combat this abusive behavior and have already responded with their own efforts to crack down on it. Schools buy detection equipment to trace devices being used secretly in exam rooms. In Britain it was agreed students should sit exams in metal-lined rooms to block mobile phone signals. Airport-style security scanners should also be installed to prevent pupils from taking in phones and other equipment. One college in Florida, USA installed industrial camera systems in examination halls to track students. When a teacher sees something suspicious, they record the student in real time and the images are burned onto a CD for evidence. Students are not allowed to chew gum during an exam as chewing could disguise a student speaking into a hands-free mobile to a peer outside.
Around 55% of colleges and universities now use anti-plagiarism services that require students to submit papers to be vetted for copying. However, using technology shouldn’t totally replace educating pupils from an early age about why cheating is not appropriate. Students will always be tempted to cheat, and the more sophisticated the cheating becomes, the more efficient the education against cheating as well as detecting it will need to be.
1
Jun 10
Study Tips for University Students
Everyone has their own habits and rituals when the time comes to prepare for a test. Some study in the early morning, others in the afternoon and some late at night. There are those who prefer to study with a group or those who study alone. Each person creates habits according to their personality. We can, however, give you some study tips that are helpful for everyone.
* Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) differentiates between people who are visual, auditive and kinesthetic learners. If you are more visual you will find it useful to use bright colors to highlight and take notes when studying. If you are in the second group, reading outloud could be quite beneficial. The last group, the kinesthetic group, will find it most helpful to write or read while they are walking or doing some sort of movement. Take some notes while you are running on a treadmill at the gym.
* Trust your instincts. This will prove useful during multiple choice exams. If you do not know the answer, go for your first instinct. Sometimes over-thinking things will steer you off track. If you have studied, your brain will guide you to the correct answer.
* Sleep well. There are many people who pull all-nighters to prepare for an exam. It is actually less productive for you for two reasons: One is that your brain works less when it is tired, it processes less. The second reason is the intrinsic relationship between sleep and memory. Brains remember more when they have time to rest. So, even though it doesn’t seem like it, you are studying while you sleep.
Flickr Creative Commons - umjanedoan
* Eat healthy. Studying is an activity that requires a lot of energy. Make sure your diet helps you replenish and fuel your body for the long study sessions. The idea is not to die of hunger or to get so full that you cannot even breathe. Apples, nuts, brown rice and fish are some recommended items for these situations.
* Sound of body, sound of mind. Your level of attention decreases after just 40 minutes of focusing. The best thing to do is to have a short physical activity that won’t wear you out. A quick jog or walk will allow you to rest your brain for a couple of minutes.
* Your personal image speaks a thousand words. We do not know if this phrase is necessarily true, but it does make sense. One should dress for success. If you feel prepared and professional, you will be more confident when it comes to sitting down and doing the test. Also, your professors will see that you are taking their class seriously.
* Two ways to communicate. It is not only expressing yourself with words, but also your gestures, posture and tone of voice. This needs to be taken into account during oral exams. You can show confidence in yourself and in what you are saying. Speak slowly and firmly.
* Our final advice is to take exams how they really are: one more moment to learn something. When you do not know the answers, take advantage of the fact that your professor is there and ask them to explain it to you once you have finished.
These are our recommendations. Some of them you will find applicable to your situation, and others no. Is there anything we missed? Happy studying!
26
May 10
10 Steps to Become a Celebrity Personal Assistant
Have you ever thought about how cool it would be to work as a celebrity personal assistant? To enjoy an incredible lifestyle that most people can only dream about, including flying first class, chatting with other celebrities and going to upscale parties? Actually, being a personal assistant to a celebrity also means that you are responsible for that celebrity’s success and career development.
Does this sound like a great job to you?
If so, here are 10 steps to your dream position as a CPA:
1. Pick a Celebrity
You can choose to assist not only actors and rock stars, but also professional athletes, politicians, bestselling authors, wealthy families, business executives etc. Choose the field you’re interested in.
2. Develop Your Skills
Celebrities are currently looking for technologically advanced assistants with strong computer and typing skills. Most of them are also interested in your etiquette knowledge, communication skills and personal shopping abilities.
3. Get Some Training
Currently there are no formal university qualifications (that we know of) to become a celebrity personal assistant, but you can develop many of the necessary skills in related programs, such as: Executive Secretarial Certificate, Personal Assistant Course, Office Administration, or an Events Management Diploma.
4. Get Some Experience
The best way to learn is to practice. Become a non-celebrity PA first.
5. Find a Job Opening
Try to meet celebrities through networking, volunteering or working as a production assistant on a movie set. Look for job openings through word of mouth and via the internet. Advertise yourself in a trade magazine or publication.
6. Get in Touch With the Celebrity
Send your resume to the celebrity and follow it up with a phone call. Get in touch with the celebrity’s agent, attorney, or even their current personal assistant as they may have an opening in the future or know someone who does.
7. Avoid Common Mistakes
Don’t provide too much personal information about yourself. Don’t mention you are hoping to start your own career in show business soon. Instead, focus on what you have to offer the celebrity.
8. Join an Agency
Register yourself in top CPA employment agencies. Network with existing celebrity personal assistants and start filling in when someone is sick or on vacation.
9. Interview
During the interview your personality match with the celebrity is just as important as your CV. Be honest and direct when you speak.
10. Join Professional Organizations
There are professional organizations that assist celebrity personal assistants with their career development. Madonna’s assistant became her manager. Other assistants moved on to executive positions in the film industry. Good luck!
21
May 10
5 Study Abroad Scholarships That Will Blow Your Mind
Studying abroad is an eye opening experience for students. One thing it should not do is break the bank, but unfortunately it is not cheap to study in another country. Luckily there are literally thousands of scholarships available to students, both undergraduate and postgraduate, who want to study abroad. Many of them are given out to specific fields of study, but below we have found five international study abroad scholarships that offer money to a wide range of students:
Gilman International Scholarship Program
For: U.S citizen undergraduate students in financial need.
Scholarship of: Up to $5,000
This program offers grants to pursue academic studies abroad. It is a congressionally funded program that gives awards to about 1700 students a year. Recipients are chosen based on a variety of factors including financial need, chosen country of study, disability status and ethnic background, among others.
Boren Awards for International Study
For: U.S. citizens studying abroad that want to “add an important international and language component to their education.”
Scholarship of: Up to $20,000 a year ($30,000 for the fellowship)
The Boren Awards are a privately funded, federally regulated set of scholarships and fellowships that offer funding to American students for study abroad programs. They are interested in funding the study of languages that are less mainstream, like Arabic and Turkish.
Mary Isabel Sibley Fellowship
For: Female post-doctoral researchers who are studying Greek or French language, literature, archaeology or history.
Scholarship of: Up to $20,000
The Mary Sibley Fellowship is offered by the Phi Beta Kappa Society, but applicants do not have to be members to apply.
Central European University Fellowship
For: Postgraduate students from anywhere in the world.
Scholarship of: Monthly stipend, houseing and tuition waivers.
Central European University in Budapest, Hungary offers financial aid to help lower study costs. Students from all over the world are eligible to apply, no matter their field of study, if they plan to enroll at CEU.
SIT Study Abroad Scholarships
For: Future SIT students.
Scholarship of: A wide range of financial aid options and scholarships.
Students who apply for study abroad programs through SIT Study Abroad are eligible for a range of financial aid options and scholarships, including a number of study-specific funds that cater to particular interests. SIT operates programs all over the world, including Switzerland, Spain, Ireland, Netherlands, France, Iceland, Czech Republic and the Balkans.
17
May 10
Wedding Planning – Course of the Week
Photo: Flickr Creative Commons Clevercupcakes
Are you one of those people who just loves weddings? When you saw the film The Wedding Planner, did you picture yourself as Jennifer Lopez, happily planning that special moment in other people´s lives? Well, forget Hollywood because Wedding Planning is a real profession! There are many courses available all around the world that will equip you with the skills to be able to organise, market and manage the big event. Wedding planners are multi-taskers, event managers and business professionals and provide great customer service. They have a wide range of training, from small business management and starting your own business, to event management and even how to handle emergency situations.
UK Open Learning offers an Event Management, Wedding Planning and Business Course which is perfect if your scope is a little broader and you want to get involved in other event planning besides strictly weddings. The course is delivered online, making it flexible to the needs of modern students with an internet connection. You will even get allocated an experienced event planner as your tutor!
In Australia you can study a Diploma in Wedding Planning, designed by the Wedding Planning Association of Australia (WPAA). Here you will study the following subjects:
- Ceremonies and licences
- Wedding Etiquette
- Marketing
- Working with suppliers
There is the option for greater or fewer contact hours per week, depending on your work commitments, and the course is designed for people to be able to study while working full time.
It´s never too late to think about a career change or to return to study, and with the flexibility that institutes offer these days, it really makes it easy to get started and follow your Wedding Planning dreams! Think outside the box…
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