Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Learning from Donald Trump

"The Apprentice" is an American reality television show hosted by Donald Trump, a famous business magnate. Billed as "The Ultimate Job Interview," the show stars sixteen to eighteen businesspeople competing in an elimination-style competition for a one-year, $250,000 starting contract of running one of business magnate Trump's companies. Even Arnold Schwarzenneger was involed in the show!!!What did he say about his success story in US - what is the KEY to success according to Schwarzenneger?
Take your time to watch the video and list the 4 business tips for young entrepreneurs Donald Trump is describing. Can you name them?

Financial Forecast for Eastern Europe

According to Russia Today and the report they published on March, the 9th, 2009,"The European Union has rejected a 190 billion euro bailout for Central and Eastern European members in deep economic crises. Now the prospects for Eastern Europe are gloomy at best." Watch the following video and tell us more about:
- Which country scored the worst result among the 27 EU countries (a drop of more than %10)
- Which country's economy is "laying in ruins" (its GDP dropped by %20) and why?

What do you think of the Business English Course you took this semester?

Dear FB students,
I would appreciate if you could take a few minutes to take the following survey I put together to get some feedback from you. The results of the survey will be used to improve the overall quality of the course and will help me select the appropriate teaching methods and materials for the rest of the semester. Please be honest - your name will not show up in the survey results :)
Thank you and see you in class next week.
Click Here to take survey

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Let's share our Voicethread Projects

Dear ASEM FB students and Forsyth American Partners: this week we are going to share our wonderful Voicethread Project. Your task is to choose 3 PROJECTS you liked and


LEAVE text or voice COMMENTS to at least 3 other projects done by your colleagues!
Let's see which project will get the biggest number of comments; by the end of the project I will assign 3 diplomas to:
- the most original and creative Voicethread Project
- the most entertaining Voicethread project
- the best English narration Project.

Good luck - we are looking forward to hearing your comments on our projects!
Project 1 The World under the Heel (by Alina )
Project2 E-Banking ( by Anatoli)
Project3 The Most Powerful People of Moldova (by Anastasia )
Project 4 Corruption ( by Olga )
Project 5 How does the crisis affect SPORTS (by Stas)
Project 6 Remittences (by Liza)
Project 7 Sweatshops - How big brands violate the world (by Alex)
Project 8 Corruption in Moldova (by Natalia)
Project 9 Sweatshops (by Marina)
Project 10 The End of the World (by Diana)
Project 12 Recycling in Moldova (by Aliona)
Project 13 Women in Business (by Valeriu)

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Welcome to our Business Exchange Voicethread Project

Dear Forsyth Technical Community College students - welcome to our Moldova-US Business Voicethread Exchange project. Please take your time to find out more about our universities:
ASEM (Moldova) and Forsyth Technical Community College (USA)
Task 1: Let's get to know each other better before we start our exchange - please leave an introductory message as comment on this post:
- Tell us your name,
- where you are from
- what aspect of the Business Microeconomics your are especially interested in
- do you have any special hobbies, interests you would like to share with us
and - what you expect to learn from this collaborative project with Moldova.
Good luck and see you online!

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Just for fun - Money trivia


Just for fun - read the following Money-Trivia website and share with us 5 fun facts you learned about money. Choose from the followinf categories:
1. Money Doesn't Grow on Trees? - Fun Money History
2.
Seed Money - The Making of Currency
3.
Don't Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is - Dirty Money

Other Trivia here:
- Paper Money Trivia
- US Money Trivia

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Should Moldovan winemakers seek other markets?...

It is well known that Russia and the former republics are Moldova's main target when it comes to wine exports. According to the latest data provided by Moldova-Vin, wine exports over January-November 2008 have increased by 51% compared with the corresponding period last year. Exports to the CIS states totaled US$152 million, up 56%. Russia imported Moldovan wine products worth US$56 million, Ukraine and Belarus – US$41 million and, respectively, US$40.6 million.
Let's not forget though that Moldova's dependency on this market has its own disadvantes; in 2007 our economy suffered enourmously due to Russia's banning of both Moldovan and Georgian wines. My questions to you is: should Moldova keep exporting its wines to Russia and CSI or start looking for other markets as well? Do we have an alternative? According to Moldova-Vin we .... Read the following report Moldovan Wine Exports and answer the questions below:
- Where did Moldova export alcoholic products worth US$2.947,4 millionin the first half of 2008?
- What does Agroindustrial Agency “Moldova-Vin” say about the first-half wine exports to Romania compared with the corresponding period last year?
- Which country is Moldova’s second largest European import partner?
- Which country is the second?
- How much did Moldova export to Poland over January-June 2008?
- Did the wine exports to the Czech Republic increase or decrease and by how much?
- How much did Moldova export to the EU?

World's Richest People according to Forbes

For those students who are working on their presentations related to World or Moldova's richest people, have a look at the following videos and the links posted below. Let us know if there is anything surprising related to the Forbes' list of billionaires as listed per country (in %):
- Russia
- US
- India
- Mexico
How old are the top 50 people in the list? How many women are there in the list? Who is the youngest self-made billionaire in the world?

Other related videos:
Top 15 Richest people
How richest people in the world spend their money

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Business Etiquette - Dos and Don'ts

In class we discussed some of the most common business etiquette do's and don'ts. A special attention has to be paid to exchanging business cards - isome parts of the world, a business card is considered an extension of a person. Etiquette coach Syndi Seid goes over the do's and don'ts of presenting and receiving a card. Watch the video carefully and tell us if there was anything surprising you learned about exchanging cards with Asian busienss people and not only.

Other relevant videos: The Etiquette of Business Dining

Other tips here: Business Etiquette PPP