Last post:(

Today is the day, the last post on the Language Learning Blog of Loran Seuters.
It's quite sad, because I just started enjoying it actually. In the beginning I wans't really enthousiastic, but now I am!

Well first I will post the feedback that I had received on my graded presentation:

Reflection on the graded pair presentation
Loran Seuters (S2194147)

Speaking for an audience is often something people are very afraid off. On high school I was actually quite good in it and I wasn’t really afraid for it. But, when coming to the University, things changed. Now I had to present in English for people  that I didn’t know. But, my presentation skills didn’t let me down. The first couple of times were sometimes a bit strange, but after that presenting went better and better, and of course, I’m still improving. The first I stumbled quite a lot. This wasn’t strange to me, because I stumble quite often, but most of the times that it occurs when I had a couple of beers. When I present in Dutch I never stumbled, but in English I did.  Now that I practiced a lot, the stumbling is (almost) over. The practicing presentation of English helped me a lot to achieve this, because then I was able to practice, without the pressure of being graded. This helped me to process the feedback I had received in a good way.

The feedback I’ve received on my graded presentation was mostly about the pace (a little bit too slow) and about the informal language I’ve used (wanna’s and gonna’s). I really tried my best to speak slow, because often I talk quite fast. However, it seemed that I tried too hard, because most of my fellow group members thought that the pace could be a little bit higher. This is actually quite a relieve for me, because that means that I can speak in, for me, a more natural way. The informal language was a total other story. I know I use quite often wanna and gonna, so I really paid attention to it. Then, when the first person gives you feedback and he/she says that you did use these words, it is frustrating.

So, improving my language towards a more formal way of speaking is my main goal to achieve. Further, I need to find to right pace, but I think I almost have it.

It is important for myself that I’m able to present in such a way that people find it real hard to find negative points, because presenting is something I quite like. I prefer doing five presentations in one week instead of making an exam or something. Because I quite like presenting, I expect that I also have to do it when I’m graduated. 

The most important tip that I want to give to you is the following one:
Prepare yourself in a proper way, but also in a way that fits you. If you good in improvising, then you should know what it exactly is what you have to present, and make the sentences while presenting. If you’re not that good in improvising, just make sure that you know the important/key sentences and words by heart. And when you’re prepared really well, there’s no need to be nervous!

and now you've readed that, you can read also read my last memo report, the Leatty Shanghai contrustion project report:

Leatty Shanghai Construction Project Assessment Report

To:               Board of Directors of Leatty
From:          Arend Loran Seuters, Architect from the leatty construction project
Date:           17-01-2012
Subject:      New strategy/actions to improve the Leatty Shanghai constructing project

IntroductionAfter 9 months of working on the Leatty Shanghai construction project, we can conclude that things are not working as they should. At this moment, we are 2 months behind schedule and 16 % over budget. To optimize the project, all parties involved organised  a meeting at which we wanted to look for point that should be improved. At 11 January 2012, we met at 10 o’clock in a conference room in Shanghai. The outcome of that meeting is described below.

Communication & Information exchangeBy far the most important point that has to be changed is the communication and along with the communication, the information exchange. Nowadays, lots of work gets duplicated or missed, due to the bad communication. Our solution for this is quite radical, but we think that is necessary. From now on, we want to start with meetings. One week per months, all parties will meet in Shanghai to talk about problems, discuss about risks that have to be taken, and so on. With this meetings, we think we tackle lots of problems and improve the communication and information exchange dramatically. For example, thanks to these one week meetings, there will be no problems anymore with the time. Currently, it is really hard to find a right time and a right way to speak with each other. When it is 09:00 in Toronto, it is 21:00 in Shanghai. Due to this time problem, meetings weren’t hold that often. The second problem was in which way to communicate. Are we going to use the telephone or e-mail? Video-conference or paper-based communication? With these meetings, we tackle all these and communication and information exchange will improve hugely. Also we’ve decided to only use e-mails between these meetings, because telephone communication has often troubles with the connection.  We also hope that, due to this meetings, the team morale goes up and all the work will be done in far more efficient way.

Construction workersThe construction workers are also a problem. Lots of them are (almost) over-worked and they lost the fun in their jobs.  The construction workers think that the work schedules are unrealistic and aggressive. We want to help them by giving them some more free time (extra break, all breaks 5 minutes longer) and adjust the work pressure a bit. With this new strategy, we hope to boost their energy and give them their joy back, so that productivity and moral will increase hugely. Of course, there is a risk that the get further behind at the original schedule, but if we go on like this, work stoppages will probably be the result. Work stoppages will only result in a much greater delay than our solution.

Conclusion    
In brief, we can say that by implementing our new actions (Monthly meeting of one week in Shanghai & decrease work pressure of construction workers) we hope to make the project far more effective than is it nowadays. In this way want to prevent further delays, and maybe win some time back on the schedule. We hope that you will approve these actions so that, in the end, the Leatty Shanghai construction project will be a huge success for everybody!
We trust to have informed you sufficiently and we look forward with interest to receiving your response.

Arend Loran Seuters
Architect of Leatty Shanghai construction project(549 words)

And now I've posted these two things, there's not much left actually. Tomorrow is my presentation about this blog. In the description was stated that no PP was needed, so I just stick to that and won't make a powerpoint!

Well, thanks for reading this blog!

BYE!

This post will be something like a goodbye or something. The course is almost ended and tomorrow I will upload the feedback that I received on my graded presentation and the last Memo report about Shanghai. Further the presentation of my blog will be on-line also.

English was lovely, really. We we're really lucky with our teacher, Mr. Henebury, that is for sure! Could always joke with him, but when something was important, he would let you know from second one!
English wasn't a boring course like Organisational Behaviour was/is. With English you actually do a lot of thinks in stead of only learning theories by heart. And, most important of all, you notice yourself that your English is improving hugely.

The only thing that is a pity is that I'm really getting the hang of this blog now, but that's a bit late. It's my own mistake, I know, but now I'm actually starting to like it. Just write thing that are on your mind. And for now that is Fc Zwolle, and I have to say something about it, because I'm really scarred!!
Last year, they we're thirteen(!) point ahead of the number 2, but they didn't made it.. Now they're 12 points ahead, but again they're started with losing games. Sincerely, I go insane if they won't make it this year. We will see, but I already start to get a bit nervous.. 

What I also wanted to post in this blog is some recommendations/tips for the next year students. Because during this course their are some things that you should pay attention to. The major thing is that you should keep yourself to a really good schedule. Because of the long time you have for this course (one semester), often students, including myself, think that they can do it ''later''. If you say ''later'' a couple of times, it will become the same as never, and then you're in trouble. But, If you just do what you have to do, this course isn't hard at all and could actually be quite fun!

Well, the last words will come tomorrow along with some other stuff! 

I know, it's 2 days later, but my new laptop isn't working as it should be, so Office isn't working. Therefore I couldn't upload my powerpoint presentation. But, in this post I will!

The feedback I will upload tomorrow!

Click on the folowing link to go the presentation: AudioWire presentation.

I'm sorry

Really, I'm sorry. I know I should have posted more..

It is insane how often I say to myself:' Ah, today I'm going to work on my blog.' and every time I realise that at the end of the day nothing happened. It's frustrating because I know it's a bad thing. I've got to learn on keeping myself to a proper time schedule.

But, I realise I'm doing wrong and I'm working on it, so enough about that!

Well, now the real start of this post: HAPPY NEW YEAR & and all the best for 2012!
The vacation was PERFECT. I've spend most of the time just hanging with my friend, not really doing something, but just making fun. Christmas was as usual this year; played some games with the family and prepared and ate dinner BIG time.
New Year's eve was awesome. I've been with my friends all day, went home at 23:30 and was back at the party at 00:20. I've partied all night up untill 06:00. I was quite drunk actually, but I remember everything and I didn't had to throw up, so that was a good thing!

And, last but not least, I live in Groningen now! I found a (small) place for 5 months. After that I can move to much bigger room (same house). So, no parents any more who say that I should keep things clean and stuff. I think it is good for my personal development. Because now I have to do everything. Now there isn't a mom any more that , if you wait long enough, will clean your mess up.
I hope I'll become more independent real quick, because then I also will be better in following a proper time schedule, I hope..

Also I want to say something about Ajax for quite a while, but yeah, you know..
There's a lot I don't understand about what's happening at my club. I really don't understand at all why they are holding back Cruijff. I mean, look at Barcelona. Cruijff made the whole youth academy, AND LOOK. FC Barcelona is one of the best teams ever, and lot's of players are home grown.(Short movie about why Cruijff should lead Ajax) So, I totally don't get why they are doing so stupid in Amsterdam, but it is part of the game I think..
I hope that Cruijff in the end will win and that Ajax will become one of the best teams in Europe again.
But, before that's happened, I probably will earn 43.000 on a yearly basis and have a lovely wife and 3 amazing kids. 

I will post my AudioWire presentation tomorrow, I promise! Because now my office isn't working yet. I have a new laptop (HELL YEAH!!) but I have to install Office, but I'm not able to find the code that i need to do so, and now I'm waiting for the help of my brother!

Next post will be tomorrow, bye!

Hazel Case

Well, today I post everything that is related to the Hazel case

Here is the new logo, advertisement and the product :

As you can see, we tried to keep the logo as simple as possible, but also is easy to remember, and we think we succeed with this logo. Well, our advertisement maybe has too much tekst, but we think that was required to explain the new product to our customers.

And now, i will upload the press release and mission statement. First the mission statement, after that the press release:

The mission statement
The mission of Hazel is to bring more confidence into the world and to make it easier and faster to reach the beauty people want, by offering high-quality products that are easy and fast in use. Hazel believes that more confidence leads to better performance. This way, we hope to contribute to people´s lives.

And now, the press release:

New York’s fashion week, New York
29 November, 2011

Hazel presents:
The most inventive product we’ve ever made

Shaving without blades; It sounds impossible, but thanks to Hazel, this is now reality. This crème makes it possible for men to shave without blades, our new, highly inventive crème does all the work.

‘Thanks to this product, all men across the world can save time and money with shaving without any form of irritation. Blades can be thrown away and shaving is changed in something that is no longer time consuming and it’s no longer a source of irritation for your skin ’ according to Angela Lang, CEO of Hazel.

With this new product, men can save so much time, because shaving is done in only 2 minutes. Nowadays people are always in a hurry, because everything is going fast, and you just have to keep up. Thanks to Hazel, men can just put the crème on, the crème does it’s work and when you wash the crème off, the small hair on your face will also be washed off! So, while shaving, you can do your hair or something else, because the crème does all the work for you. Blades are no longer required and therefore outdated

In short we can say that our new crème makes shaving for men tremendously easy. No blades are required and your done in 2 minutes.

The product will be available in the US from 12 December. In the following weeks the product will be sold across the entire world, starting with Asia and Western-Europe.

END

About Hazel

Hazel was founded in 1972 and is one of the world’s largest direct sellers of cosmetics and beauty product over the last 50 years. From the beginning until the mid-1980’s, Hazel was one of the leaders in the global cosmetics, fragrances and toiletries (CFT) industry. Since 15 years, Hazel is facing some problems with reaching their customers and dealing with the heavy competition on the market. Although Hazel was able to hold their position as one of the leaders in this market, they wanted to change things. With a new CEO, Angela Lang, and a new, highly inventive product they want to boost the company  to the number one position in the world. 

This was everything that had to do with the Hazel case. I think i'll post tomorrow again about the match of ajax that will be played tonight!

Second post!

Well, today my second post on my LLB. I had planned to post some memo-reports we've made, but that isn't possible today. My laptop, on which I made the Memo-reports, does not like the internet at all. He's not in the mood for making connection or something, so sending the memo-reports or uploading them is not a possibility today..
But, I am able to post my Language Learning History. The Hazel study is almost finished, so all the material related to that will be posted on wednesday or something. But first, my Language Learning History (LLH):

Language learning history: Reflective report

The very first second that I heard I had to write this report I started thinking when it was that I started to learn English. Formally, it was in group 7 of the primary school. I can’t remember lots of it, but I can remember that I found quite easy back then. This memory is supported by mine school report of that year. There is stated that I had a ‘Excellent’ for my English. Excellent was the highest ‘mark’ you could get on English.  But, you may have noticed that I just formally in the beginning  of this reflective report. I did this because, personally,  I think that I started maybe 3 years earlier with learning English. 3 years before you reach group 7 you are 8/9 years old. When you are 8/9 years old, nothing is more interesting then television, radio, computers and computer games. When I child hears so much English, you already start with recognizing some words and its definitions. This helps a lot with the development of your English. Well, on my secondary school I had English for 6 years and always had quite good grades for it. On a scale to 10, I normally had something between an 6.8 and 8.5. Scores between the boundaries I just mentioned are quite good, but now really outstanding or something. For that reason, It was quite a hard decision to do a complete English study. I was scared that my English was not as good as that from my group members and that I had to work even harder than my fellow group members. After some weeks, I can say that my English is good enough, so that I maybe was a bit overanxious. I’m not really struggling  with my English, although I have more problems with English on paper than with talking and listening. But, in terms of English, everything goes quite well.
There was one thing on this University that is was quite surprised about, concerning the English language and that is the English of some teachers. I expected that all teachers were able to speak English in a fluent  way. This seems rather normal to me, because they have to teach in this language. However, things turned out in another way. I’ve already met some teachers (that also teach in English, red) that totally flabbergasted me. They talked with a huge, huge Dutch accent and as soon as they weren’t able to find the right words or to make the right sentences, they just said it in Dutch. These things quite surprised me and I totally didn’t expected it on an University, and I still think it is rather strange that such a thing is possible. But, to avoid such things, I’m quite busy with improving my (written) English dramatically. I try to do as much as possible to improve my English. I often watch BBC, also because it’s just great TV. Listen English music, but not only listening, but also understanding the lyrics without internet. Of course, I read a lot in English for this study and I also have to hand in assignment after assignment after assignment, so my written English is really tested these days. This is definitely a good development for me and I hope I will notice some results quick. My final goal is just to use English the way an Englishmen does. I know this goal is quite high, but I think it’s possible. The 2 major things I must improve is, like already mentioned before, my written English and my Dutch accent. Getting rid of that accent is also very important to me, because without that accent the first impression from people of me will be much, much better then when I have a Dutch accent. I comes across as professional and that is something I really want to achieve, and I hope I am able to achieve that this year.  When I can achieve the goals that I’ve just mentioned, I think the next 3 years could be just as fun as useful. It’s just a big relief when you don’t have to worry for grammar mistakes, punctuation, etc. It makes it all easier and more fun.
After the upcoming three years, I hope I benefit hugely from the way I deal with English. If I’m able to reach my goals and pass this study, I hope I can work for a multinational company. That really is something I want to achieve , but therefore I have to work hard, maybe a bit harder then I’m doing right know. But, motivating myself is a bit harder than I expected. Dealing with so much free time is not as easy as it seems, and I definitely have to improve it if I want to pass this course/ block/ semester/ year/ study. It happens quite often that I get distracted when I’m half way with a assignment or something. With these things I’m even irritating myself, but stopping it is not as easy as it seems. But, on the other hand, we’re just started with a whole new way of living, so getting used is not something I have to be ashamed of in my opinion. But I have to improve and perform  better, not only to pass courses, but also for myself, because I know I can do it, and it’s really frustrating when you don’t do it. So, an advice for the students that are starting this course next year will be to set your personal goals as high as possible and really go for it. Really try to achieve as much you can because only then you really enjoy your study I think.
This was my Language Learning History/Review. Including a summary and things that I want to improve myself, which I’m already working on. For now, I’m done!

Loran Seuters (2194147)
Group 10

I know, it's quite a story!
Next post will be somewhere in this week, bye!

Language Learning Blog of Loran Seuters

Finally, a first post on the language learning blog of Loran Seuters. The start was quite frustrating, because two times there wen't something wrong with uploading my blog, due to my really old laptop in combination with a bad internet connection.
But, from now on we look forward and start working on this blog, to make this a real succees.

First, I will start with introduce myself briefly.
I am Loran Seuters, born and raised in a small town called Havelte.I have two sisters (Annemarie, 26 and Heleen, 20) and one brother (Marijn, 24) My parents are divorced since I'm 7 years old, so I don't really now how it to have always both parents around.I went to primary school in Havelte and afterwards to high school in Meppel. High school was a lovely time. Always had lots of friends and I managed to graduate quite easily.
Most of my time I spend with my friends from Havelte. Almost every second free time in holidays and weekends I spend with them. I actually have one hobby besides my friends and that is soccer. I joined the local club when I was 4 years old and I'm still playing there.
But, as I said, I graduated at high school and now I'm studing International Business and management on the university of Groningen. It goes quite well up un till now and I hope I can continue this.
I start this blog for English. In this blog I, and everybody else, can see my progress in English

Choosing an international study was quite a big choise for me. My English was never of such a level that teachers reccomd me to do an Eglish study. However, the experience and the opportunity to study abroad have convinced me to choose this study. I think is was wise decision, because this is exactly what I want. It is hard to keep up with the pace, but I think I'm able to, I only have to get used to it.

I'm already feeling that my English is getting better with the day. My speaking is improved tremendously since the start of this course. Talking in English is no longer an issue for me. Also listening to English has become much easier. It's just that i don't have to translate every word in my head anymore, but I know what it means the very first second I hear it. Take for example the paper 'Asses your skills'. When i have a look my assesment of mine listening skills, I'm actually quite surprised. When I have a look at it know, the assesment would be fare more positive then it was in the beginning of the year.
The only thing i'm struggeling with is the thing i'm doing right now, writing. I find it hard to get the right spelling of words that i don't use that often. I also have problems with the punctuation in English. I hope that one day I can write just as easy in English as an Englishmen does. Therefore, I have to practise more often, and this blog is a good help.

So, I think my learning goals are quite clear for this course. Just improving my english as far as possible, so that I'm not facing any troubles with my english in my years that i'm studing.

In my next posts, which will be quite soon,  i will add two memo reports (Knoplicka and Supersun) with it's related word clouds and word profiles. So, enough things to analyse in the near future. Looking forward to it. I won't let you wait to long, that's a promise.