Hie Hie Good luck to you, my dears! ;)

Oh, a pile of homeworks and an exam ahead. OMG T^T I just wanna die! :(( Hazz... So, there will be no blog for today ^^. Instead for this, Please enjoy this song as an appology! So excited! :)

Beneath Your Beautiful - Labrinth feat. Emeli Sandé

ENJOY IT! :) 

The Voice Kid Vietnam - I Love!!!

I love The Voice Kid Vietnam so much! I love this show!!! :) :) :)

So excited! Wow!!!

Are entrepreneurs born or can they be taught? - By Sarah Treanor, Business reporter, BBC (P2)

'Positive spin'

For UK business coach and turnaround specialist Peter Ryding, successful entrepreneurs are predominantly born that way.

"I would say the simple answer is 70% born, 10% nurture, and 20% trainable," he says.

Mr Ryding says such people have two core genetic characteristics, which he terms "adaptive thinking" and "seeing reality with a positive spin".

"A person with 'adaptive thinking' can spot a business need, decide what skills are needed to address it, and then apply them quickly and effectively. They can then do this again and again as new needs or requirements arise," he says.

"By 'seeing reality with a positive spin', what I mean is that entrepreneurs are better able to see if something is going wrong with a certain plan, and how to turn this into a positive by happily switching to something else.

"And for the 20% that is trainable - you can train people to manage stress, be better leaders, how to be tenacious, how to be humble, how to be positive. But if they don't have the underlying genetics, it is hard to do that."

Brian Morgan, professor of entrepreneurship at Cardiff Metropolitan University, says that while "inherited genetic factors" play an important role in creating successful entrepreneurs, most still need to be taught other vital skills.

"In general, about 40% of entrepreneurial skills can be thought of as 'in the DNA'," he says. "But 60% of the competencies required to create a successful and sustainable business - such as technical and financial expertise - have to be acquired.

"This can be through college courses, or by working for a few years with a large company in a sector that the budding entrepreneur is keen to enter, and to use that experience to acquire some of the fundamental business and networking skills."

Prof Morgan adds that entrepreneurs who get such training "are more likely to pay attention to detail, and to place their start-up on a more secure footing".

But while some experts on entrepreneurship highlight what they see as the vital role played by genetics, others cite different factors.

"I don't think genetics is in this, it is a person's early life experience which determines whether they could go on to become an entrepreneur," says Cary Cooper, professor of organisational psychology and health at Lancaster University Management School.

"Often from my studies, the entrepreneur has had a negative life experience when they are young, such as their parents getting divorced, or being bullied at school.

"And they survive this, they learn from it, and want to bounce back, or prove people wrong. This determination makes them far more prepared to take calculated risks needed to be a successful entrepreneur."

Economic necessity

Whatever are the factors behind a successful entrepreneur, San Francisco-based technology investor Jennifer Moses, says that economic necessity on both sides of the Atlantic is making more people think about starting up their own company.

"There are fewer opportunities now in traditional professions, and necessity is the mother of invention," says

Ms Moses, a former Goldman Sachs banker who also used to be an adviser to former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

"Many people are being asked to take redundancy and to take early retirement. And those people are going to have to find ways to generate income."

Ms Moses adds that to be a successful entrepreneur does not mean you have to make millions of dollars.

"For me it's about someone who starts a business, however small, which isn't on top of an existing corporate platform. It is a very broad church."

Luke Johnson agrees that the changing nature of the jobs market is making more people consider starting up their own companies.

"The workplace is a lot more fluid than it used to be, and taking charge of your working life can actually be a better choice, as you do, to a degree, control your own destiny."

He adds that for him, this control is central, because he couldn't work for anyone. He adds: "I'm totally unemployable."

Are entrepreneurs born or can they be taught? - By Sarah Treanor, Business reporter, BBC

You have got a great business idea and you think you could make a lot of money from it - what do you do?

Perhaps you set up your own company, dedicate your life to it, and through drive and determination make a fortune.

Or maybe you just forget about your idea, and quietly get back to your salaried day job.

While most of us fear we would be in the latter camp, the entrepreneurs of this world would undoubtedly have a go at the fist option.

But what makes a successful entrepreneur like Richard Branson or Mark Zuckerberg, the people who set up and grow their own profitable companies?

Are entrepreneurs born with the skills they need, or can men and women be trained? Or perhaps, is it all down to a person's early life experience? 

Family background. 

Self-confessed "serial entrepreneur" Luke Johnson, who had led UK restaurant chains including Pizza Express, Strada and Patisserie Valerie, thanks his father.

Luke Johnson

"My father was self-employed and still is, and at 84 is still working," says Mr Johnson.

"Having that role model in the house of someone who didn't want to work for anyone else, and wasn't dependent on an employer, was very helpful.

"I have found over the years, having worked with many entrepreneurs, and having met hundreds of them, that they all have, in their backgrounds, a close family member or friend who is a role model, a self-employed person or boss running their own company."

By contrast, Mr Johnson says starting a company would be a more difficult a proposition for people without any exposure to someone self-employed.

"If you personally come from a background where everyone is in a safe job, with a career which will surely last a lifetime, with a final-salary pension scheme, then the idea of starting out on your own without that security blanket can be very frightening," he says.

Two economics professors, David Blanchflower, of Dartmouth College in the US, formerly of the Bank of England, and Andrew Oswald, from the UK's University of Warwick, also agree that if a parent is self-employed it is a great deal more likely their children will go on to do the same.

(to be continued) 

IELTS: Writing Tast 1 - Line Graph

Line Graph - Task 1 in IELTS Writing test.
You should spend a maximum of 20 minutes on this task and write at least 150 words.

Example 1: (Source: ieltsbuddy.com)

The line graph compares the number of car thefts per thousand of the population in four countries from 1990 to 1999. 

Overall, it can be seen that car thefts were far higher in Great Britain than in the other three countries throughout the whole time frame.

To begin, car thefts in Sweden, France and Canada followed a fairly similar pattern over the first five years ,all remaining at between 5 and 10 per thousand. The general trend though for France and Canada was a decline in the number of vehicles stolen over the period, with both at around 6 in 1999. 

In contrast, Sweden experienced an upward trend, starting the period at approximately 8, and finishing at just under 15.

Interestingly, car thefts in Great Britain started at 18 per thousand, which far exceeded that of the other countries. It then fluctuated over the next nine years, reaching a peak of 20 thefts per 1000 in 1996, and ending the period slightly lower than where it began, at approximately 17 per thousand.

(Words 173)

Example 2: (Written by me, Please let me know if you find errors :) )

The line graph shows the proportion of population aged 65 and over in three countries including Sweden, Japan and the US from 1940 to 2040.

In general, there are upward trends in the proportion of population aged 65 and over in three countries.

To specify, seeing a increase from about 9 percent to 15 percent for the first forty years, the proportiob of population aged 65 and over in the US decreases slightly to about 15 percent for the second forty years, before a significant rise to nearly 24 percent for the third twenty years.

Meanwhile, In Sweden, after a rapid climb from about 7 percent to 14 percent for the first forty years, the proportion of population aged and over fluctuates between 14 percent and 20 percent for the second forty-five years, followed by a rise to about 23 percent in the last years.

Strikingly, after a slow decline from 5 percent to about 3 percent for the first twenty years, the proportion of population aged 65 and over in Japan increses slightly to 10 percent for the second seventy years, before a sudden rise to about 22 percent for the third ten years.

In brief, the proportion of population aged 65 and over in three countries increase at least 2 times in 100 years from 1940 to 2040. 

(Words 220)

Avoid Getting Grillered At Your Office Picnic - By Kathleen Kingsbury, BBC

Office picnics can be fun - or they can be downright painful. 

Alex Abrams has always been competitive and ambitious. That’s how the then first-year associate found herself in front of a large bowl of hot dogs and baked beans at her New York law firm’s annual July barbeque. Her boss had asked her to participate in the hot dog eating contest.

“Of course, I had to win,” said Abrams, now 33-years old.

Abrams closed her eyes, slathered the first dog in ketchup, and downed it. She kept going. She was concentrating so hard on the task at hand that she missed the signal the contest was over. Eventually Abrams looked up to find her new colleagues watching in awe. She’d eaten 21 sausages — three times more than anyone else — in just under 12 minutes. 

“Eight years later, certain partners still only know me as ‘Franks,’” Abrams said.

Ah, the company summer outing. While there is some evidence that company picnics are a growing phenomenon in the United Kingdom, they are primarily a US tradition. The recession brought some cutbacks to such gatherings, but surveys in recent years suggest that office mates will once again find themselves together for company softball games, picnics or corporate beach parties.  About 55% of American companies had a company picnic, according to a 2012 Society of Human Resources survey.

Outside of the United States, summer outings are not as common, although spending some free time with managers is widespread in other cultures. In Japan, for instance, socializing with the boss at a karaoke bar or other nightspots after business hours is often required. 

In the US, bosses often see out-of-office summer outings as a chance to bond as team, to boost morale and to reward hard work. For employees, however, it’s not so simple. While having fun with colleagues and their families, workers must be careful to not have so much fun that those same people are whispering about you at the office for months afterward.  

Many employees loath the tradition, saying they have no interest in socializing with co-workers during precious free time.

Other problems can arise when colleagues meet outside their usual environment.   To dispel social awkwardness, some find themselves drinking too much.  Employees lose the ability to rein in their own inappropriate behaviour when drinking at events like company picnics, showed a 2011 study conducted by the University of Birmingham in England.

Recent research suggests that the events are not as successful at teambuilding as some bosses would like to believe. While social events allow homogenous teams to build bonds, that same benefit didn’t arise in more diverse workplaces, according to a paper published in the Maryland-based journal Organizational Science in February.

“Rather than bringing workers together, these activities can underscore differences,” said the paper’s co-author Nancy Rothbard, a management professor at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Still, it’s important to remember that office outings can be valuable networking opportunities. The best approach going in? Think of them as work.

“Your boss will be there, maybe your boss’s boss,” said Karen Burns, a careers blogger based in Seattle and author of the book Working Girl. “Which, sadly, makes it not a party but a business function.”

Here are a few tips on how to survive your company’s summer gathering:

Graciously attend.  Even if you dread such events, it’s important to show up. Management is throwing the party to thank employees, and to miss it is bad form, said Sue Fox, author of the book Business Etiquette for Dummies. “You don’t want to be known for never attending,” Fox said. 

Don’t stand out.  You will be scrutinised if you drink too much alcohol, make off-colour remarks, behave in a manner that wouldn't fit in your workplace or dress inappropriately (casual-Friday attire is usually safe, as is a modest swimsuit if there is a call for such attire). Don’t forget that any faux pas may end up being posted on social media. And, perhaps most importantly, even if you end up drinking a bit too much or saying something you regret, you must show up at work the next day or people will surely be talking.

Prep your guests. Most companies encourage employees to bring both partners and children to picnics. It’s important to discuss appropriate behaviour beforehand.

“Imagine it’s your kid that jumps so aggressively in the bouncy castle, it pops,” said Cathy Johnson, a Houston, Texas-based caterer with several corporate clients. Worse yet, what if your spouse takes this opportunity to complain about your long hours at the office? Make sure family members know what is off limits.

Mingle. It’s easy to stick with your closest colleagues, but make an effort to expand your office network, including getting to know the higher-ups. Still, Fox warned, “Remember it is a picnic, not a job interview and not everyone will want to talk shop.”

Play ball. Joining in games or other contests allows you be viewed as a team player. Play your best, but, Fox noted, play fair and be a good sport. It’s okay to admit you don’t know the rules or have never played before.

That’s a lesson Abrams learned the hard way. “I’m Jewish, don’t eat pork, had never had a hot dog before that day,” she said. Twenty-one hot dogs later, she fell ill and had to be driven home — by her boss. 

“He seemed less than impressed,” she said. 

Bad Habits For Learning (P3)

According to "5 bad study habits and effective solutions", by Glace Fleming

4. Rereading the chapter.

Students are often encouraged to re-read a chapter on the night before an exam to reinforce what they've learned. Rereading is the good tactic as a last step.

Just like the other study habits mentioned above, rereading is only one part of a puzzle.

Rereading is the good tactic as a last step.

Solution:

Make sure to use active steps like charts, shrinking outlines, and practice tests and follow up with rereading your chapter.

5. Memorizing definitions.

Students spend a lot of time using flashcards to memorize definitions. This is a good study methord, as long as it's a first step in the process of learning. As students progress through the grade levels, they are expected to progress in cognitive skills.

Once you've exited middle school, you can't expect to do well on an exam by memorizing the definitions to terms. You must learn to memorize a definition and then define the significance of the new vocabulary terms you encounter. If you're in high school or college, you should be prepared to explain how terms are relevant in the subject, compare them to similar concepts, and explain why they matter at all.

Memorizing definitions is a good study methord as a first step

Solution:

Once you have memorized the definitions of your terms, give yourself a short essay practice test. Make sure you are able to define a term and explain why it is significant. Be able to compare and contrast your term to something or someone of similar significance. The act of testing and retesting yourself somehow makes the information stick.