Lesson 9.B - part 5 – page76

Different approaches to problem solving:

1: Dominique:

I used to see something I liked and I would just buy it. But now I'm saving for my future. I mean some day I want to own my home. Anyway, I find making expensive purchases quite difficult. Probably because now I don't want to make a mistake and get stuck especially for something that costs a lot of money like a car. So, when I bought my car, I knew I just couldn't go to a used car lot and choose one. No impulse buys for me. I needed a lot of time to think it over and consider the options. So, first I read consumer magazines and did research online to see how their cars were rated. I wanted to know the average prices and safety records of different cars. I mean, you never know. And once I decided which one I liked. I read the classified ads until I found someone who was selling one used. I suppose you could say that my approach takes a lot of time but once I make up my mind I feel secure in my decisions. It's so different from the way I used to be.

2: Carla:

I'm in charge of hiring new staff for my department at work. Recently, I had to hire someone for a pretty important position in the company. Now I had it narrowed down pretty quickly to two people: Tony and Max. It was a little harder after that because they had very similar resumes and they were both really impressive during the interview. Now I had to admit that I hate to waste time making decisions. So here's what I did. First, I wrote down a few important questions and called each person right away to talk to them one last time. Then I hung up the phone, looked at the clock and gave myself five minutes to decide. It didn't even take me that long. Tony had said he would work for less money than we were offering so I hired Max. I didn't want to hire someone who was willing to settle for less. The way I see it, you just have to go with your instincts, that is you do what you think is best and then just hope that it works out. I mean we all get strong feelings about things and usually those feelings are right. The important thing is to act quickly. I've been pretty lucky so far. The people I've hired have all worked out, no major problems yet.

3: Wayne:

Now I know why I never used to get anything done. I used to try and make important decisions all by myself but I would just get really confused. It was like the more I thought about something and considered all the options, the more frustrated I got. I could sit and analyze something forever. My friends say that I can always see both sides of everything which makes it hard to decide on anything. You can imagine how irritated my friends must have been with me. I finally got tired of never accomplishing anything. Now when I have to make an important decision, I talk to a lot of people and get their input. When I was deciding where to spend my winter vacation last year, I asked everyone for their opinion. Basically what I did was pose this question: where would you go in December if you had three weeks? I listened to all the answers and then made my decision and then, after that, I searched on the Internet for the best price. You might think I'm strange but it worked. Based on everyone's advice I, I went to Miami. I had an amazing vacation and I got a great deal too.

Lesson 9.A - part 6 – page72

How are they different?

Yoshiko:

In some ways, small ways, I’m just a typical Japanese teenager. I go to high school five days a week just like everyone else. I have interested similar to most of my friends. A bunch of us joined the sports club at school. Right now it's our volleyball season. When the weather gets nicer, we'll start track. And oh yeah, I love Hip-Hop music. It drives my parents crazy. There is one way I’m different though, I spent almost six years living outside Japan. My father's company transferred him overseas to Mexico and of course we went with him. Fitting into a foreign culture was really tough at first but I guess I'm lucky in a way. I learned to speak Spanish fluently and I made a lot of good friends there. We still email each other almost every day. So you can see that I'm really quite a bit different from my classmates.

Renato:

I don't know my life is pretty typical, I think. I head off to school at seven in the morning and school finishes around the middle of the afternoon. After school, I usually study or play soccer. On weekend I like to get together with my friends. We usually hang out in one of the shopping centers. Everyone just shows up there on Saturdays and Sundays. It's a lot of fun most of the time. I think one way I'm kind of different is that I like to, to do my own thing sometimes. I don't always want to hang out with the group, you know, my friends always want me to hang out with them but I don't always listen to what they say. I guess you could say that I think for myself. Sometimes it makes my friends upset but too bad, that's just the way I am. But really overall I think I'm pretty typical for my age.

Suzanne:

Hmm, I guess I worry about the same things other kids my age do, you know, grades and getting along with my parents and stuff like that. I guess I'm doing ok in school but I have to study really hard. I just want to make sure that my grades are good enough so I can get into a decent university. I'm pretty much like everyone else. I go to classes, attend club meeting after school and then do my homework at night. Weekends are great because I get to sleep late and oh yeah; I'm also a member of the orchestra at school. I play violin. My school is a little different from other school in the US though. We study all the core subjects like most other students. In the morning, science, math, English, history, the usual stuff but unlike the other schools, we study things like music, dance and art in the afternoon. See, I go to the special school for the arts. A lot of us have dreams of becoming dancers or singers someday. That's why we spend so much time learning about the arts. So yeah, I guess my life pretty different from most kids like my age.

Andy lyrics

'Don't go away' from the successful album "Balla" (1990)

متن و ترجمه آهنگ Don't go away از Andy در ادامه مطلب:

ادامه نوشته

Lesson 8.B - part 5 – page68

1-Bill Bower man:

Good ideas often start with a really silly question. Bill Bower man was making breakfast one day. As he stood there making Waffles for his son, he wondered what would happen if he poured rubber into his Waffle iron. Later, he tried it and the result looked something like the bottom of most sneakers we see today. Still, when he took this idea to several existing shoe companies, he was literally laughed at. In fact every single shoe company turned him down. Though he was rather discouraged, Bower man preserved and went on to form his own company: making Nike athletic shoes.

2-Fred Smith:

Sometimes good ideas grow out of frustration. When Fred smith was a student at Yal University, he had some paperwork that he needed to have delivered across the country the next day. Smith was amazed to find out that overnight delivery was impossible. He sat for a long time wondering why. Why couldn't there be a reliable overnight mail delivery service? He decided to design one and then turned his design into a class project. His business professor gave him only a C for his efforts. However, smith was not through. He refined the ideas in that class project and eventually turned them into one of the first and successful overnight mail services in the world: FedEx

 

Lesson 8.A - part 5 - page64

Creativity at work:

1-Samira:

Well, um, I guess I'd have to stay that creativity is essential to my work. I'm an architect and the creative part is looking at old things and trying to make them look new. What I mean is we recycle a lot of ideas and then adapt them to fit our needs. And of course we have to stay on top of new trends. We have to know all about new building styles and efficient ways to use energy; you know, um, the kinds of things that homeowners worry about. No one wants a house that isn't heated or cooled efficiently or one that looks outdated. And we work long hours but I have to say: the job's pretty interesting. You never know what to expect next.

2-Alex:

Well, I run my own small business. I think all business owners especially small business owners have to be pretty creative. I mean we have to do everything. I do the work, answer the phones and take care of the accounts whatever. And you know, there are so many potential problems and there is no one else to turn to. I mean I can't just ask my boss for help. I am the boss. The hardest part is figuring out how to identify your customers. Who are they? Where are they? How can you get to them? You also need to think to think creatively about the competition. How can you make your business services more attractive than what the competition has to offer? Well, it's certainly challenging and I think it requires a lot of creativity.

3-Naomi:

I'm an interior designer so what I do is go into people's home and create a suitable environment for them. You know, my clients, they don't know what they want. So I have to look at their homes and help them decide what would look best. Not every idea works in every home. You have to match the appropriate idea with the right place. So after I come up with an idea, I present it to my client. Sometimes they don’t like my first idea and boy that can be frustrating. You have to start all over again. So I need creativity to both come up with the ideas and to communicate them. Creativity also comes in handy when I want to convince a client that my idea is the best one. I don't always succeed but I do manage to get my way a lot on the time.