Evaluation

I thought that it probably would be nice if I posted an evaluation about my experiences from the beginning of this study year until now.
The first couple of weeks  I had to get used to the language. I didn't have English for 1.5 year, and suddenly I had to talk, listen and write in English for almost every day. However, I think that that was the best way of becoming familiar with the language, you just have to do it!
I thought that I had a great advantage over my English language knowledge due to the good base I had built up in primary- and secondary school, but since I have read a few blogs of other students I found out that I do not have that much of an advantage.

I read a lot of blogs from students who went to foreign countries for almost a year or even longer.
Sören Brosch for example (http://learn-academic-english.blogspot.com/), travelled for almost ten months. He has seen so much of the world, and in the foreign countries he visited, the language to communicate was English. So in those ten months he went abroad, he greatly improved his English speaking, writing and listening skills.
I think that peope who have travelled before starting an English spoken study,  will have a big privilige.
I am very jealous of those students, I wished that I had travelled before coming to Groningen, but I just went to New York for eight days.
I hope that in the future, I will have time for travelling through countries outside of Europe. In our third year of IB&M we have to go abroad for six months, I hope that that is my opportunity to see something of the world.

However, due to the English course, I have greatly improved my skills. In the beginning it was difficult to use academic English words instead of "normal" English words, but I have noticed that I certainly have broaden my academic vocabulary.
All the assignments and presentations we had to do, like the memo reports and writing the Language Learning History, helped my to broaden my vocabulary and to improve my writing and speaking skills.

The Nestor Weekly Organizer was quite helpfull too, especially the tools which were published, like 'JustTheWord' and 'Thesaurus'. JustTheWord is a collocation finder, which helps you to find the correct adverb for example. It can justify your choice of words or it can suggest improvements. This tool assisted me in writing the memo reports, but also in writing reflections on HBR reviews for the course Introduction To International Business.

Thesaurus is a website which provides you with synonyms, antonyms, definitions and audio pronunciations. This website is a very helpfull tool while writing reports or reviews. I most often made use of the synonyms application. This application assisted me in using more academic English.



Letter of advice

I want to give next year's students some advice before they start with International Business and Management.

Firstly, you do not have to be afraid of talking English in public if you are nog able to speak as fluently English as some other students do. In the beginning, I met a couple of students who had travelled for more than one year before they started with IB&M. They had a great advantage over students like me. However, you do not have to pay attention to them, just focus on your own skills and try to improve them. It is ok if you do not speak fluently English in the beginning. From time to time you will improve your vocabulary knowledge, your presenting skills and your pronunciation, and before you know it, you can speak almost as much as fluently as your fellow students.

Secondly, you have to ensure that you keep to the course schedule given at the beginning of the year. I know that the beginning of your first year is hard, you are new in a strange city, you have to make new friends etc. And therefore, it is hard to have the discipline to prepare every assignment and every presentation as well as you are expected to, but try to keep to the schedule. Otherwise, before you realize it, you do not understand what the lecturers are teaching you and what the content of your book is about. The consequences are that you have to study very hard for the exams, otherwise you will not pass the course.

Finally, try to get the highest grades as possible. Do not be satisfied with an average of a six, but go for the eight or even better, the ten. I know that this sounds geeky, but in your third year of IB&M, you will study abroad for approximately six months. If you want to go outside of Europe, in most countries the admission rate is on average a 7.5 and in some other countries even an eight. So if you do your best in your first year, you will benefit from it in your later years.

Graded pair presentation

Last week, Michelle, Jasper and I had to give a presentation about Hazel. The assignment was to devise a strategic new vision to the new CEO of Hazel and its board of directors. We decided to give the company a new logo, a more comprehensive mission statement and we decided to launch a new product. You can see the slides of our presentation below.

I think the presentation went fairly well; the feedback I got was quite positive. However, there are a couple of points that I have to improve. 

Firstly, I have to let the person who asks a question finish his/her sentence. When I interrupted someone during my presentation, I knew that I should not have done this, but I already did so I could not turn anything back. Thus, this is one important point that I have to improve.

Secondly, I have to be more active in the question and answer session.

Thirdly, my part of the presentation was quite monotonous, it was a swot-analysis with just facts. Maybe, I could have done something to make it more interesting to listen to.

Fourthly, from time to time, I glanced at my notes. However, I think that I can definitely do without notes while presenting. When I am practicing at home I know the whole text by heart, so it are just the nerves that make me insecure.

Finally, I made a few little grammar and pronunciation mistakes which I easily could have avoided. I pronunciated for example 'representatives' wrong. Now, it is very obvious how to pronunciate it, so it was just a stupid little mistake. Furthermore, I said "They are nowadays..." instead of "Nowadays, they are..." and I said "They are very eager at looking good" instead of "They are very eager to look good". These are just tiny mistakes which I will not make again. 

For the next time, I will definitely keep in mind these points of critique, and I am certain that I am able to improve them.