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New English Words

1.       Pertinent            When something is pertinent, it means that it’s relevant.                                        It’s relating directly to something else.

2.       Nefarious           This is something villainous or mischievous

3.       Miscible               When something is miscible, it’s capable of being                                                 mixed. This is term is mostly used in chemistry or                                                   physics.

4.       Inane                  Something that doesn´t serve a purpose or goal

5.       Strenuous          Something that takes a lot of effort.

6.       Exuberant          When you’re being exuberant, you’re full of energy and                                         cheerfulness. It’s like being enthusiastic.

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International Journey: Bali

The summer before last, my family and I went on a vacation to Bali. For two weeks, we had the pleasure of discovering the Indonesian Island.

One thing that was very significant in this culture, was how exceptionally friendly and kind the locals were. Eastern countries are often more about hospitality and that kinds of courtesies, so it didn´t came that much of a surprise to us. Still, I´ve never felt more welcome than they’d made us feel. Though, I also have to say that it somehow made me feel kind of guilty and uncomfortable; they practically treated us like royalty, like we were far above them.

I also remember that our guide told us that when we shake hands, we have to do it lightly. A firm handshake is considered rude. I remember that for some reason I found this pretty hard, because I was used to shake hands firmly. I wouldn’t be surprised if I insulted a lot of locals this way.

The architecture, of course, is something that you can´t ignore. It´s completely different than anything you come across with in Europe. There are very beautiful temples, now mostly used for tourists. But almost every household has a small square that serves as a temple in their backyard as well. It´s a very spiritual Island; almost everyone is Hindu. We also had a taxi driver, whose name was Johnny, with whom we travelled with over the island. He was also very religious. In the Netherlands, this often isn’t the case. Here, more than half of the population is not religious. I believe that is the biggest cultural difference.

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Yale Lecture: ‘Why Finance?’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTs2IQ8OefQ&t=2349s

I followed the first lecture of a course about finance. This first lecture was called ‘Why Finance’, and as the title makes clear, it’s about why finance is important when you study economics.

Economics and finance go hand-in-hand. The most successful people in economics often had a great interest in finance as well.

The professor explains he’ll be discussing two things that are missing in the current Standard Theory (about finance):

-          One is that it implicitly assumes you can buy insurance for everything (so, there’s always a complete markets).

-          Secondly, is that it leaves out collateral entirely, so you’ll never see the idea of collateral or leverage (persuading that the buyer is going to get their money back).

He shows a few statistics about the well doing of America’s economics. He explicitly shows times in which it was unstable. It’s hard to believe that expected profits in the US went down by 50% and back up by 50%. The conclusion: finances formulas stopped working.

The professor explains that the current theories about the market are correct, but not complete.

He continues and lays down a few questions concerning someone investing in something and the chances of him getting his return. He does this to give the students an image of what they’ll learn during the course.

The short version: Why study finance? To understand the financial system, because it’s practically equivalent to the economic system and to make informed choices as a citizen, and as an entrepreneur.

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As I mentioned, this lecture was the first of a course about finance. I figured this would be an introducing lecture, but it didn’t seem like a good plan to me to just jump into the middle of the course. So, I obviously hadn’t learned new things, but it did get me curious. Besides, it showed (as was the goal of this lecture) why finance was important, not just when you’re studying it, but as an individual. It taught me that it’s wise to look into finance, if I want to make informed financial decisions.

In short, I suppose I could say that this lecture was relevant to me as to make me aware that finance is important. It got me curious, so maybe I’ll finish the course.

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Ted Talk 3: ‘The single biggest reason why start-ups succeed’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNpx7gpSqbY

What makes a start-up succeed? What key factor matters the most?

Bill Gross, an entrepreneur, has founded a lot of companies. And he got curious why some start-ups fail, and others succeed. So, he ranked two dozen of companies (half of which failed, half of which succeeded) on five factors: ideas, team, business model, funding and timing. The outcome: “Execution matters a lot, but timing might matter even more.”

I never even stopped to think about this factor, so this surprised me a lot. I don’t think we even got taught this in our classes either. Bill Gross tells us that most companies also tend to overlook this factor, mostly because they think other factors matter more. But he urges us too pursue this factor.

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Ted Talk 2: ‘What they don’t tell you about entrepreneurship’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6nxcfbDfZo

Why do so many people have an interest in entrepreneurship?

“It’s a deeper yearning for a sense of purpose,” is what Mark Leruste says in his Ted Talk.

When we feel like we don’t have a goal or purpose, we are more vulnerable to mental issues as anxiety or depression. Especially in generation Z (Also known as millennials) is this a more occurring theme.

As a millennial, I really identify with what Mark is saying here. I also feel the pressure of wanting purpose in my life and that’s one of the reasons I applied to this business study.

Mark urges us to chase things that gives us a sense of purpose, even if the idea scares us.

“Because what scares us most is what we most often need to do ‘…’ If everyone had a purpose, the world would be a better place for us all.”

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Ted Talk 1: ‘How great leaders inspire action’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp0HIF3SfI4

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

Not only I, but everyone likes to think they’re rational when it comes to decision making. Simon Sinek explains in this Ted Talk that that’s not the case. He shows through the golden circle that we act on what we believe in.

I found it very interesting to know that what triggers our actions, is not rationality, but what we believe in. When leaders, organisations or companies start to tell us why they created something rather than what they created or how, it allows us to identify.

“After all,” Simon Sinek says, “Martin Luther King gave us the ‘I have a dream’ speech, not the ‘I have a plan’ one.”

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Article 3: 'I just got fed up with the sexism. It was everywhere'

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-48607165

This article follows the story of Stephanie Shirley, who was raised while persecuted by the Nazis and grew up to set up her own company ´Freelance Programmers´. Throughout her story we read how she was smart and determined, but that she was constantly held back by sexism: she had to go to a boy’s school to take a higher level of maths, because that wasn’t taught on her own girl’s school; she couldn’t go to study math in university, because women weren’t allowed on that course; her boss wouldn’t give her promotion, because she was a woman.

She was done being held back by men and decided to set up her own company. They literally laughed at her at the time, but her company grew and is able to employ 4000 women at the moment.

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I choose this article, because feminism is important to me. I hate the fact that the word feminism is almost a curse word these days, even though it stands for something that we should all believe in as a human race; equality.

Frankly, I’m also afraid that I won’t be taken seriously as much as people would take a man seriously when I’ll be working. And I know it won’t be to the extent of the way Stephanie Shirley experienced it, but it will still around.

I love and admire how Stephanie didn’t let anything stop her from what she wanted to do. Even when society told her ‘no, you can’t’, she said ‘yes, I can’.

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Article 2: ‘Unilever to cut plastic use to appeal to Gen Z’

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49923460

Companies who are aware of environmental problems and adapt their selves to it, is not just for the sake of bettering the planet, but apparently also to attract more customers. Especially generation Z customers.

Unilever has decided to reduce their figure of producing 700,000 tonnes of new plastic a year, by using recycled plastic. They´re also looking for alternatives. Often companies think that being eco-friendly will cause them to make less profit. However, Alan Jope, owner of Unilever, said millennials and Gen z´s are remarkably more aware of products that are sustainable. He believes that if you want to stay relevant in the market, you’ll have to adapt to what your customers find important.

On another note, Mr. Jope also said that the recycling policies should change so that manufacturers could make the instructions clearer to customers.

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I am personally very happy to see companies getting more and more aware of the bad effect they have on the environment and that they are trying to better themselves. Even if part of it is because of gaining financial performance.

I also notice that people of my generations tend to think twice about what they’re buying, deciding on whether it’s eco-friendly or not. More so than other generations.

I highly agree what Jope says about the recycling policies. Because most of the damage is done by the customer, who carelessly throw their products away without thinking where it should belong. And if the instruction on the products would be clearer, than we’d know where we should throw it away.

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Article 1: ‘How rude service inspired a multi-million euro firm’

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-48760522

A rude employee and an offended 15-year-old were what it took to create the idea of a successful company with an annual turnover of ten million euros. Heikki Vaananen believed in the value of customer service and made it into a business idea; HappyOrNot. The idea is that customers can rate their experience at physical feedback terminals, so companies have a better view of how they’re doing in the eyes of the customer.

Questions will appear on the screen of said terminal. Questions like ‘How would you rate your travel experience?’ or ‘How would you rate our customer service?’.

Heikki and Ville levaniemi, HappyOrNot’s other founder, used the money they received of their former business for the start-up of HappyOrNot.

And even though some companies dismissed their idea at first, some called back years later, admitting their interest in HappyOrNot.

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What I like the most about this story (and also what amuses me) is the fact that a person left behind such a bad impression that it inspired Heikki Vaananen’s idea. Just imagine being so offended by someone you decide to solve this by setting up a whole company. These kind of stories prove to me that it is very important to know what you believe in and what you want to achieve to set up a successful business.

I also admire the persistence of these two men. Their idea was dismissed several times, but they did not give up. It’s also quite satisfying to know that some companies who weren’t interested at first, sought contact with HappyOrNot years later. They proved them wrong. They proved that their idea had value.

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English Language History

Through the years, I’ve almost spent as much time educating myself on English as the schools I went to educated me. English class, apparently, wasn’t taken very seriously when I was younger; The first time I had an official English class I was eleven years old, which I find very late. At that school, we had one English class a week. When I went to another school a year later, we had about three English classes a week. This went on for five years. After I graduated from the HAVO and went to CHE, I also received English classes, but only for one semester.

I’d taken an interest in the English language from the age of fourteen. I replaced my Dutch books for English ones and decided to watch movies and TV-shows with English subtitles instead of dutch subtitles. I wanted to quit the subtitles as well but, unfortunately, I couldn’t hear a single syllable through the noise of me munching on crisps when watching said movies and shows.

When it comes to speaking in English, I used to be really shy. So, when a foreigner asked me something in English, I would glance at the people around me, hoping they could answer the question for me. Obviously, this wasn´t the way to improve my English, which I wanted to do. That´s why I began to try to get into a conversation with someone who speaks English. Not only did (and still does) this improve my English, it´s also very interesting to have a chat with someone from abroad.

Two years ago, I took up a former hobby of mine; writing. When I started my first few short stories, it came to my notice that I tended to use English words instead of Dutch ones. This was probably due to me reading book after book in English. So, after a few months I gave in to the temptation and only wrote in English.

To me, English is a beautiful language. When comparing it to the Dutch language, you’ll see that the English vocabulary is so much bigger. It gives me the opportunity to express myself better than I ever could in Dutch, which is why it’s so important to me. That’s why I want to evolve in my knowledge of English and why I wanted to take on the C1 class.