Euroasia: Language, Culture and Travel

Anyone keen to work in Shanghai next year at the World Expo? NZTE are looking for people at the moment.  These are PAID positions, NOT internships. Key things to note:  You have to speak Mandarin AND English well. Also have to have valid NZ work visa, permanent residency or citizenship. I just received this email so just thought we should share this opportunity with everyone. Those of you who did not heed our advice to learn Mandarin can still do so… we have a few spots available for tomorrow’s intake or the 10-week Mandarin course starting 12 October. This is  a brilliant opportunity and would suit those thinking of an unconventional OE. Spending 6 months in Shanghai during the World Expo would not just be great for your CV, but will also be a good business networking opportunity. Who knows? Maybe you’ll meet a big shot who ends up offering you an expat package plus all the travel perks. That would be nice…

The World Expo to be held in Shanghai, China in 2010 will be the biggest in world history. During the six months the expo will be open – 1 May to 31 October 2010 – it is expected to draw 70 million visitors.

New Zealand Trade and Enterprise is now seeking a number of individuals who are enthusiastic about representing NZ on the world stage.  Positions available include;

Attendants (24 positions available)
The Attendants will be representing New Zealand with credit by making visitors feel welcome, and enhancing their experience through friendly and helpful interaction with them.

Receptionists (2 positions)
Based in the VIP entry to the pavilion, the Receptionist will be our first point of contact for guests and visitors and assist them around the pavilion as required.

Operations Manager
The Operations Manager will be responsible for managing the teams of attendants, and will co-ordinate the delivery of operational and technical support as required in order to maintain high standards of ‘host performance’ in the pavilion.

Relationships Manager
Part of the management team, the Relationships Manager will be responsible for the organisation of official visits including Ministerial and key sponsors to the pavilion.

If you are keen to be part of this landmark event, have a degree of fluency in both Mandarin and English and are available from April to October 2010 then please visit the NZTE Recruitment website for further information and to apply.

For information about New Zealand’s participation at the expo, please visit http://shanghaiexpo2010.nzte.govt.nz

Please note all applicants must have the right to work in New Zealand.

Applications close Monday, 12 October 2009 and must be submitted through the NZTE Careers Centre.  Late applications will not be accepted.

How many of you have tried pig’s blood cake? Or Durian? These delicacies are on VirtualTourist.com’s list of the Top 10 Most Unusual Foods in the World. In this Reuters report, they have explicitly stated that “Reuters has not endorsed this list”. Hmm… I suppose they don’t want to be seen as recommending the consumption of these foods…

Here’s the list:

1. Pig’s Blood Cake; Taiwan.

Also known as Ti-hoeh-koe, Pig’s blood cake is made of pork blood and sticky rice. steamed for a snack. You dip pig’s blood cake with a layer of peanut powder and spread some cilantro/coriander.  Apparently, the aroma of the chewy rice cake makes everyone’s mouth water. In case you were wondering, yes, the pig’s blood is literally that.

2. Live Octopus; South Korea – If anything this is fresher than the usual calamari so I don’t think I have huge issues with eating this. I wonder how long they stay alive after you cut them up.

3. Grasshopper; Uganda

4. Pigeon; France – yummy, but don’t think you can order this in a New Zealand restaurant.

5. Durian; Malaysia – my favourite fruit from my home country; I can never have enough of this. Just looking at the picture makes me drool…

6. Lutefisk; Norway – Marinated in lye, this gummy fish takes days to prepare and is described as one of the most vile-tasting foodstuffs ever created.

7. Grubs; Australia – These white, high-in-protein snacks are actually the larvae of moths and an important insect food of the desert, once a staple in the diets of some Aborigines.

8. Snake Wine; Vietnam

9. Donkey; Italy

10. Ostrich; South Africa – what so unusual about this? If ostrich meat is on this list, surely crocodile meat and kangaroo meat should be too…

The UK will be held back as it seeks to emerge from recession unless it boosts the number of language graduates, campaigners say. From BBC this week:

The National Centre for Languages (Cilt) points to a worrying decline in the take-up of modern languages.

Cilt chief executive Kathryn Board said: “English is one of the great global languages but it will only take us so far. Our engagement with the non-English speaking world will remain superficial and one-sided unless we develop our capacity in other languages.”

Recent research from Cardiff Business School suggests improving languages could add an extra £21bn to the UK economy and that export businesses that use language skills boost their sales by 45%.

That’s not surprising,  simply because foreign-language capable staff make a big difference in terms of engagement with clients. At the moment, many Kiwi firms use amateur translators (friends and family or Google Translate) to process enquiries and then respond to clients. This is tedious and messages can get lost in translation. Worse still, many NZ companies do not even bother translating documents in dealing with foreign language speaking customers.  The expectation is that the buyer will deal with us in English.

Much has been said of New Zealand’s increasing trade engagement with China, especially since the signing of the FTA last year. But the reality is much of our trade with China involves NZ importing Chinese-made goods.  In terms of our exports to China, I wonder how much we really sell once we strip out the contribution of Fonterra (dairy products), Fletcher and Carter Holt (wood products). Partly our dismal performance in terms of exports offshore is due to our inability to service foreign-language speaking customers.

The reason English is so dominant globally as the language of trade  is partly because traders have always learnt the language of the paying customers.  Our arrogant attitude in assuming everyone speaks English has been tolerated when NZ firms are the customers (which is most of the time looking at our current account deficit). If on the other hand, we are selling to overseas customers, the onus is on us to speak the language of the customer. Failure to do so could result in us losing the deal to those who can. The scary (or exciting?) thing for New Zealand is that we are becoming far less dependent on our traditional English-speaking markets and more dependent on other foreign-language speaking markets.

The English are getting very worried because of the dramatic decline in the number of students taking up foreign languages at school. In 1997, 71% of England’s GCSE pupils (roughly NCEA Level 1 or School Certificate in NZ) took a foreign language, last year the rate was down to 44%. The equivalent rate in NZ is about 14% (8400 taking international languages out of approx 60K Year 11 students).

Cilt’s director of communications Teresa Tinsley said: “We are going to be held back as a nation as we seek to emerge from the economic downturn or recession.

“Companies are looking to recruit people with language skills and if they can’t find them amongst our home-grown graduates they will obviously bring in people from other countries to fill these gaps.

“We really need to buck up our ideas or we are going to be stuck in a mono-lingual world when everybody else is taking global opportunities.”

If the English believe they will be “held back” as a nation because “only” 44% of their kids learn a foreign language at high school, what about NZ where only 14% of our Form 5 kids do? There is simply no way we can be a serious player in world trade when we cannot even communicate at the most basic level with our customers. We are not even at first base.

Apparently just a third of students going into secondary school are numerate. As rightly pointed out by University of Auckland maths lecturer Peter Hughes in today’s Herald, the problem we have is that “it had become acceptable to admit failure at high school mathematics as simply not being good at the subject”.

In fact, in my experience, some people wear this as a badge of pride. Some people say that they are bad at maths, but it’s ok, they will just do law, or social science or other disciplines that do not require maths.  I don’t believe that we should put science and maths on a pedestal as objects (subjects?) of worship at the expense of a well-rounded education. For example, learning foreign languages would most certainly enhance your quality of life. But the fact  remains that living well requires numeracy skills.

Students entering secondary school should be able to answer the questions here, according to Hughes. I just took this test and had to sweat a little to figure out the answers. This test reminds me of the one I took the last time I applied for a job. I reckon a lot of people out there won’t be able to do this within 5 minutes.

Use your brain (and not a calculator) to tackle these sums and see if your numeracy sizes up.

1: 69.9 x 60.08 is closest to:
A 4000
B 4200
C 4400
D 4600

2: The cost of 0.267kg of cheese is $7.95. Which calculation is needed to find the cost of 1kg of cheese?
A 7.95 ÷ 0.267
B 0.267 + 7.95
C 0.267 x 7.95
D 7.95 – 0.267

3: 79.8 ÷ 0.092 is closest to:
A 80
B 800
C 8000
D 80,000

4: Which has the largest answer? (Don’t do any calculations)
A 218 x 217
B 216 x 218
C 217 x 219
D 216 x 217

5: The percentage profit of $500,909 on sales of $1,998,976 is nearest to:
A 10%
B 15%
C 20%
D 25%

Scroll down for answers

V

V

V

V

V

1B, 2A, 3B, 4C, 5D

How did you do?

Taste of Japan

The annual Taste of Japan is coming up again. This is a free event where you can experience Japanese culture and food at its best in Auckland City. There will be Japanese food, Taiko Drums, calligraphy, tea ceremony and more. We encourage everyone learning Japanese to attend this event, and certainly a number of us from Euroasia will be there. If you’ve always wanted to learn Japanese, go along to be inspired. It’s the closest you will get to Japan at spring-time in Auckland.

When: Sat 19 Sep, 10:00am–4:00pm
Where: Logan Campbell Centre, ASB Showgrounds, 217 Greenlane West, Epsom

I’ve been to Taste of Japan when it was held at ASB Stadium in Kohimarama, and certainly moving to the Showgrounds is a great idea. At least it solves the parking problem. I really don’t know what the fascination is with shaved ice but there were 50 people in the queue at any one time at a previous festival.  It’s the lowest cost product with the highest margins, and the enterprising guy who passed this off as Japanese food deserves high commendation (as well as the thousands I’m sure he took home for a day’s work).  I will be going along just to sample the authentic Japanese food, although the drummers should be good too.

This is the perfect day out with your friends and family so don’t miss out.

Euroasia Spring Update – 1 Sept 2009

Firstly, thank you all who came out in support of the launch of International Languages Week at Euroasia. Photos are available on our Euroasia Facebook page.

Latin American party- 26 Sept

The 2nd Fiesta de la Chilenidad en Auckland is coming up, in conjunction with the Chilean National Day celebrations. We would like to invite you along to this amazing celebration organised by an established Chilean community group. If you want to see how Latin Americans party, you have to be there. Of course, those who went last year already know what it’s all about.

The details:
Date: Saturday, 26 September 2009
Time: 6.30pm (show starts at 7.30pm)
Venue: Te Atatu South Community Centre, 247 Edmonton Road, Te Atatu South.
Cost: $30

This event is open to all (not just those learning Spanish) so feel free to ask your friends along as well. Renowned Latin American dance group Renacer will be performing.

Euroasia is proud to support the Chilean National Day celebrations. All ticket holders will go into the prize draw to win a free course at Euroasia valued at $359.

As there are limited tickets available we would encourage those interested to purchase tickets from your teacher if you’re currently enrolled in a class with us. Tickets are sold on a cash basis. Sorry folks the organisers don’t take Visa. You can also email our Spanish teacher Jose-Luis at jose.valdivia@euroasia.co.nz if you’re keen. He will send you payment details.

Last year they sold out weeks prior and unfortunately the organisers had to turn away quite a few people on the waiting list. So get in quick!

Aotearoa Jasmine singing project – this Saturday

If you’re around this Saturday we would encourage you to head to Auckland Museum at 11am to join other New Zealanders from all walks of life to sing China’s best-loved folk song “Jasmine Flower” or Mo Li Hua. This session will be recorded for television.

Don’t worry if you don’t know how to sing this song. It’s well worth going along just to see what it’s all about. This NZ China Friendship Society initiative will celebrate the friendship between NZ and China. It is also a special gift for the 60th birthday of the People’s Republic of China. As we are the first country in the world to see the sunrise, its broadcast on television in New Zealand and in China will enable New Zealand to become the first country to wish China “Happy Birthday”. More information at http://aotearoajasmine.org.nz/

Let us know if you have any questions/feedback.  Great that spring is here. Let us know if you want to talk about upcoming courses. Or check out the Euroasia timetable.