The text discusses the tendency for items at the beginning and end of a list to be remembered more readily than items in the middle of the list. This can be readily illustrated by the following demonstration:
Instructions:
After distributing the protocol sheet, tell the class: “This is an experiment in memory in which I am going to read you a series of unrelated nouns. Try to recall as many of those words as you can, regardless of the order in which I read them. Please begin to write them down only after I have read the entire list and have given you the signal, ‘Go.”‘ Begin by saying, ‘Ready?’ Then read the list (at a rate of about one per second).
Here is the suggested list:
Candle Maple Subway Poison Tiger Ceiling Lawyer Ocean Paper Garbage Thunder Sofa Mountain Dollar Wagon Doorbell
Ask how many learners remembered Candle (primacy) or Doorbell (recency).
Then ask who remembered Ocean or Paper.
If you ask learners to raise their hands, everyone can see the effects very easily.
Today, 19 November is Beaujolais Nouveau day – Le Beaujolais Nouveau has arrived, as it does every third Thursday of November.
Beaujolais Nouveau is a red wine made from Gamay grapes produced in the Beaujolais region of France.
It is the most popular vin de primeur, fermented for just a few weeks before being released for sale on the third Thursday of November.
This “Beaujolais Nouveau Day” used to see heavy marketing, with races to get the first bottles to different markets around the globe.
The current release practice is to ship the wine ahead of the third Thursday of November, and release it to the local markets at 12:01 a.m. local time.
Beaujolais Nouveau is probably the most famous of the young wines called ‘primeurs’ in France, where virtually every region has a primeur that comes onto the market on the same day as Beaujolais Nouveau.
Some people are a little snobby about Beaujolais Nouveau, saying that it is a bad wine and much too young to drink.
Most of the ideas regarding Beaujolais Nouveau are around the festivities and celebrations – there are often parties and special meals in restaurants in France and throughout the world.
Beaujolais nouveau is a purple-pink wine reflecting its youth, bottled only 6-8 weeks after harvest.
The method of production means that there is very little tannin, and the wine can be dominated by such fruity ester flavours as banana, grape, strawberry, fig and pear drops.
The wine is recommended to be slightly chilled to 13°C (55°F).
Beaujolais nouveau is intended for immediate drinking.
While some nouveau can be kept for a few years, there’s no real reason to, as it doesn’t improve with age.
For comparison, standard Beaujolais AOC wines are released the following year and can be stored for one or more years before consuming.
The wines show definite variation between vintages, and as such are considered to be an early indicator of the quality of the year’s regional wine harvest.
Stand up comedian Imran Yusuf takes a comical look at the ways that British pronunciation differs from American pronunciation during a show at The Comedy Store, using his very own British Citizenship test.
Imran puts a young Oscar through his own novel British Citizenship Test and tells us about his multicultural upbringing in Hackney Downs.
Imran Yusuf was born in Mombasa, Kenya, and initially grew up in Hackney, East London, before moving to Harrow, North-West London. Both his parents and two older brothers became refugees of the economic war following the expulsion of Asians from Uganda by Idi Amin in 1972. Yusuf also attended school in the USA from 1992 to 1993 and attended William Allen III Middle School in Moorestown, New Jersey.
Imran Yusuf initially performed two open spots in 2000 at a comedy show hosted by comedian Jeff Mirza, but then did not choose to pursue stand-up comedy in until the summer of 2003 while on sabbatical from his career in the video games industry. He was the first winner of the “You Must Be Joking” stand-up competition at Newbury Comedy Festival in 2004.
In 2010, he finally made his impact at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2010 with his first solo show An Audience with Imran Yusuf receiving five-star reviews and a nomination from the Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards for Best Newcomer.
Yusuf was the first performer in a free show to have received a nomination for the award.
Later that summer, Yusuf appeared on Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow. October and November saw Imran begin crafting his 2011 Edinburgh show with special invitation gigs, plus releasing official confirmation of his 43 date UK tour An Audience with Imran Yusuf starting in February 2011 at London’s Soho Theatre.
On radio, Boxing Day 2010 saw Imran’s debut on BBC Radio 7’s The Now Show for a satirical look at current affairs and news. The special 45-minute show used Radio 4’s format for an extended show with Imran and guests.
A follow-up appearance on BBC Radio 4’s prestigious The News Quiz came soon after in February 2011, along with his television debut on BBC Two’s How TV Ruined Your Life with Charlie Brooker, offering an opportunity to see Imran in sketch-show action in the episode “Aspiration”. Further to this, between March and April Imran made a second appearance on The Now Show and a debut special guest slot on Arthur Smith’s Balham Bash (BBC Radio 4 Extra).
Summer 2011 soon saw more great news and opportunities coming for Imran when Zai Bennett, controller at BBC Three, green-lit The Imran Yusuf Show for a broadcast pilot in anticipation of a series for the show.
Interest from BBC America also saw Imran record a performance for Funny As Hell, a stand-up series presenting the best of British comedy in the United States.
Soon came Edinburgh Fringe 2011 where Imran took his all new show Bring The Thunder to the festival.
Continuing with the previous year’s trend of recording TV slots during the festival; Imran recorded a section of his show for Edinburgh Comedy Fest Live 2011 and BBC Comedy Presents: Free@TheFringe.
Excessive workplace stress causes a staggering 120,000 deaths and results in nearly €200 billion in health care costs each year.
This represents 5% to 8% of national health care spending, derived primarily from high demands at work (€50 billion) and work-family conflict (€25 billion).
These are some of the harmful health effects from excessive stress:
Reduced ability to cope with future stress and increased anxiety and chronic depression;
The onset of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD);
Reduced immune system functioning;
Increased inflammation and depression.
High on-the-job demands and insufficient resources contribute to stress.
In addition, an effort-rewards imbalance with perceptions of high effort and low compensation or recognition can also contribute to workplace stress.
Goals perceived as exceedingly difficult or unclear, rather than achievable challenges, are also factors in excessive stress, anger, and anxiety.
Try this survey to find out if you are at risk or are working in a stressful environment at work.
Is my workplace a stressful place?
Micro managers, annoying co-workers and unrealistic objectives - just three things known that make people stressed at work. It doesn't matter whether you're based in an office or a warehouse, being unable to cope with the pressures at work can make your life unbearable. Not only does it take its toll on you emotionally, it can leave you at higher risk of a range of physical illnesses. Stress in the workplace can lead to :
• Anxiety and chronic tension • Agitation and fits of panic • Aggression and short temper • Mood swings and disorientation • Negative self-talk • Sleeping difficulties and constant fatigue • Lack of energy • Eating more (or less), drinking more (or less) • Pessimism and despondency • Lack of motivation • Gradual withdrawal from society and friends
Take this test to evaluate if your workplace is causing you stress*.
* This Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
Always seek the advice of your doctor or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this or any other Website)
It is sometimes surprising how some of us consider that we do not have a regional accent, when we really do.
Accent is part of us, our roots, our heritage and our history – it’s what makes us, well … us.
However, accents can also be closely linked to global, national and regional stereotypes, which can form barriers to communication and à priori, even though we do nothing, apart from opening our mouths and uttering words.
Originally, BBC television and radio presenters and news-readers spoke with standard received pronunciation (RP), with not a trace of a regional accent – which made the ‘B’, of British Broadcasting Corporation, slightly redundant.
RP, is difficult to place geographically, although some considered that it was somewhere within the home counties, around London.
Indeed, the majority of English Language teachers; working in language schools, up until a few years ago, spoke with an accent resembling RP, which the students were able to understand quite easily. The only problem, was that subsequently, the people the students encountered in ‘real life’ didn’t speak with RP, but had regional accents that then proved difficult for them to understand.
Thankfully, today the variety of different accents that teachers have is both accepted and welcomed.
The thing with accent, is that it impacts on people’s emotions and can affect the perception of the person’s effectiveness, competence, credibility, honesty, trustworthiness and friendliness.
What, all this just through accent?
Well, yes, just think about it for a moment …
I am originally from Somerset, in the south west of England – you know where the farmers are from … I have never farmed, but go tell that to the marines. Over the years I have lost the majority of my accent, with only the very faintest hint remaining – in fact when I hear people from back home speaking, I often think that they are putting it on, just a tad… I never spoke like that, did I?
Last night on tv, there was a documentary about social workers in Bristol – in the south west of England. The subjects were very harrowing, but there were many comments about the accents on Twitter – one or two insinuated that the people were ‘thick’ or stupid, because of the way they spoke, others couldn’t believe that a social worker could have an accent like ‘that’ … #WTF, as it the young and trendies say on Twitter …
We have seen examples in the media of east London or Liverpool accents being linked with ‘Jack-the-lads’, a little on the dishonest side; Geordie, from Newcastle-upon-Tyne as salt-of-the-Earth, Manchester as stroppy people, Glasgow as violent, Scottish Highland accents as being naïve etc, etc.
The media feeds, and feeds-off of these stereotypes – mainly as being an easy way of compartmentalising people or hanging labels on them, which serve as a first impression, which can then be negated or confirmed through experience.
So can an accent mar one’s presentation and standing in the workplace?
Most answers to this will probably be, that it shouldn’t do.
There are always comments from Tweeters about Raymond Blanc, the French tv chef, and surprisingly many about his accent, as if him having a strong French accent detracts from his cooking and linguistic skills – he is very eloquent, to say nothing of his cooking skills. This apparently isn’t the first thing that impacts on some people, whilst others hand out a lable of the smooth, sexy Frenchman … oh well.
I work in France, I have a pretty good command of the language, but I have quite a strong English accent, which I use in my job to my advantage. For example in my job, I am able to say things slightly more direct than a French person would – although we may use the same words and sentences, which often gets results, although this needs to be handled with care.
It is perhaps more important to pronounce words clearly, use slang sparingly in some situations and decrease glottal stops, rather than the importance of accents, although there will always be that first impression that we all need to get over.
Personally, I feel that accent is less important than the quality of the discourse and ultimately depends on where the listener is from – if a person from Somerset listens to another speaker from Somerset, they will most likely feel more at ease with them and maybe even trust them more. This has actually been proved through studies of accent (not just Somerset accents…).
The jury may still be out on the question in the title of this post, Is your accent important in the workplace? but I’d be interested in your thoughts on this – vote in the poll or leave a comment.
