Restaurant Myths

 

1. How often do you eat out?

2. When choosing a restaurant, what criteria do you use? Is your choice based on the menu, the chef, the clientele of the establishment, the day of the week? How do you know if a restaurant is worth a visit? Do you read food reviews or rely on word-of-mouth recommendations from friends? Which is the most reliable?

3. If I were to visit the last restaurant you visited, what advice would you give me?

4. Do you agree with the following:

a) The customer is always right on how food should be served

b) Michelin stars are always an indicator of a restaurant's quality

c) Never order fish on a Monday

d) The service charge goes to the staff

e) Early sittings are best?

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5. Read article here: Restaurant Myth Reading

6. Do you have any questions on the language/cultural points used in the article?

7. Did your answers to question 4 (above) change after having read the article?

8. Are there any beliefs or misconceptions about restaurant dining in your country, such as the best time to book a table, the quality of the house wine, and the etiquette of tipping and complaining?

9. When is your preferred time to go to a restaurant and why? In your experience, are restaurants more relaxed earlier in the day, and more lively at night?

10. How do you choose a wine when you dine out? Do you have a favourite type or region? Do you ask the waiter/waitress for a recommendation?

11. How do you tip in restaurants? Do you follow a rule or a percentage? When you tip, are you tipping (in your mind) just the person who served you, or are you tipping everybody i.e. the cleaners, the marketing staff etc?

12. Have you ever complained in a restaurant? What was the reason and how did the staff handle it? Do you prefer to complain after leaving the restaurant (on social media etc.)?

13. Have you ever seen/heard of people complaining in order to get a discount or freebies? What effect can a loud complainer have on other diners/staff?

14. Have you ever seen/heard of staff complaining about customers' behaviour?

15. Is taking photos of your food in a restaurant acceptable behaviour?

16. Are there any restaurant critics in your country that have quite a lot of power/influence over eating establishments?

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Situation

You host a podcast on gastronomy/eating out. You've invited a London-based restaurant critic (your teacher) to your show to talk about restaurant 'myths'. Ask him any questions you or your listeners might have.

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Discuss quotes

"If I can't eat a meal in a restaurant, and the waiter asks, 'Is everything all right, Madam?', I tell them that I'm on a diet."

--- Cilla Black

"You can put the greatest seafood restaurant next to an average steak house in an urban area, and that steak house will do more business than the seafood place. If you go to the seaside, you can put an average seafood place next to the greatest steak house, people are going to eat seafood.

--- Tilman J. Fertitta

"Although a great restaurant experience must include great food, a bad restaurant experience can be achieved through bad service alone. Ideally, service is invisible.

 You notice it only when something goes wrong."

--- Dana Spiotta

A: "Do they allow tipping in this restaurant?

B: Yes, sir.

A: Have you got two fives?

B: Oh, yes, sir.

A: Then you won't need the ten cents I was going to give you."

--- Groucho Marx

“What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain.”

― Maya Angelou

Student Handout PDF: Restaurant Myth

Photo: Mikkel Bendix

Management Books

1. Are you familiar with self-help books of the genre 'How to Unlock Your Confidence' or 'Don’t Wait For Your Ship to Come In. . . Swim Out to Meet It'? Have you read any? Which were useful to you; which weren't? Did any of the books affect the way you go about your life? If so, in what way? Do you have any recommendations for a book or an author? 

2. Have you read any personal development books for managers? What titles do they typically have? Are they popular amongst managers in your country? Which authors specialise in this genre? Who is a typical self-help book author (both domestic and international)? Do you have any criticisms of this particular genre?

3. Read article here: Management Books Reading

4. Did your criticisms match those of the author of the article?

5. Below are some of the constants that management advice books have, and their actual outcomes (according to the author). Do you recognise any of them? Have you seen any examples of them in your industry?

a) Human behaviour is changeable. (Then why do we spend years receiving therapy?)

b) The manager will bring about change. (Company infrastructure outweighs any individual.)

c) Everybody in the company will benefit from the changes. (Outcomes are different for different workers.)

d) The new technique is universally effective. (Cultural or sectoral differences stop this.)

e) Positive case studies that prove the technique works. (Negative case studies are avoided.)

f) Managers are heroes. (Adoption of folk tales doesn't help.)

6. Why do you think that the market for management self-help books exists? Isn't it in the interests of companies to train their own managers and not rely on managers doing it themselves? Is there something missing from a manager's learning journey (leave university, get an entry-level job, then promotion)?

7. Modern authors sometimes borrow classical works and adapt them to modern business environments - I'm thinking of Lao Tzu's 'Art of War' - to arrive at something like 'Lao Tzu's Art of Accountancy'. What is the appeal of using texts from the past for the basis of a self-help book, do you think?

8. Could common sense replace a lot of the advice given in self-help books, or do you think that they contain real insights?

9. In what situation would you face 'myriad challenges'?

10. Does your language have an equivalent for 'herding cats'?

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Situation

The CEO of AndrewCorp (your teacher) wants to reduce the costs of the employee training programme: most employee training is done in-house by training contractors who teach IT, software programmes, and some foreign languages. His idea is to give each employee a small training budget which they should use for the purchase of books which are relevant to the employee's position in the company. 

You are the head of HR. Make your opinion known on the use of self-help books for employee training - in which areas will it be effective/non-effective? Make recommendations on the types of training you think will be needed.

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Discuss quotes

"Self-help books for women are part of a multibillion-dollar industry, sensitively attuned to our insecurities and our purses."

--- Harriet Lerner

"Self-help books are for the birds. Self-help groups are where it's at."

--- Janice Dickinson

“The conventional definition of management is getting work done through people, but real management is developing people through work.”

— Agha Hasan Abedi

“Make your top managers rich and they will make you rich.”

— Robert H. Johnson

Student Handout PDF: Management Books

Photo: Andrea Piacquadio

Identity Cards

 

1. How many different types of card do you use in your daily life? Do they make things easier or more difficult?

2. Do people in your country have to have identity cards? If so, when were they introduced?

3. In what ways are identity cards a good idea?

4. What personal details do you think should not be stored on personal identity documents?

5. Identity cards may be introduced in Britain soon. Some members of the public object strongly to this. What do you think their reasons are?

6. If you have an identity card, is it worded uniquely in your language, or does it also have translations? Does anyone object to the translations?

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7. Read article here: Identity Card Reading

8. What is your reaction? Do you understand the Académie Française's desire to protect the French language? If not, what is driving the demand for all-French wording on official travel documents?

9. Clément Beaune, France's European Affairs Minister, said 'We are going to stop the decline of the French language.' How do you know if a language is in decline? What criteria could you use to judge that?

10. Is there a sentiment in your country that your language is being menaced by foreign languages? Who expresses this sentiment? Is there an institution like the Académie Française designed to protect the language? What measures has it taken? If not, would you like to see such an institution created?

11. Can you think of any examples of people from your country using foreign words even though a perfectly good native word already exists? Do you know any foreign words that English has borrowed?

12. According to UNESCO, 230 languages went extinct between 1950 and 2010. Does this lend support to the idea of protecting languages? Is a language's importance related to the number of speakers it has, or the concepts it can describe?

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Situation

You are writer and musician Etienne Liebig (see article). You have been invited to take part in a radio discussion on language in the 21st century. Make your viewpoint known and answer the host's (your teacher) questions.

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Discuss quotes

"I am absolutely opposed to a national ID card. This is a total contradiction of what a free society is all about. The purpose of government is to protect the secrecy and the privacy of all individuals, not the secrecy of government. We don't need a national ID card."

--- Ron Paul

"Nations which don't find their national identities will be preyed upon by other nations."

--- Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

“Teachers are powerful enough to kill indigenous languages: they are not powerful enough to bring them back to life.”

― Andrew Dalby

"He who knows no foreign languages knows nothing of his own."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Student Handout PDF: Identity Card

Photo: Jackmac34

Family Business

1. Have you ever worked for a family-run business? What was your experience? If you haven't, what do you think working for a family-run business is like? What are the pros and cons?

2. Are there any famous family-owned businesses in your town/city? What relationship do they have with their employees, do you think?

3. Has anyone in your workplace ever said 'We are just one big family here'? How did you react?

Read article here: Family Business Reading

4. Do you recognise any of the the three downsides given to trying to create a family atmosphere at work (blurred work-life boundaries, exploitation of committed employees, departing employees treated as traitors)? Give an example from a time when you have seen these things.

5. Does your current company provide free breakfasts, meditation classes, happy hours, or other benefits in order to keep employees satisfied? If not, should it?

6. Do you keep in touch with former colleagues? Is this encouraged/discouraged/not addressed by your current company? 

7. How aware are you of your company's purpose? Does your company have a mission statement? Do you know what it is? 

8. Would an out-of-hours email ban, a four-day week, or taking all of your holiday allowance make you a more efficient employee? If not, what would?

9. What other ways are there to creating loyal employees? In times of economic hardship, do employers need to worry about this?

10. What typically happens when a colleague leaves a company in your country? Would you ever consider returning to a former company? Do people from your country, in general, ever do this?

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Situation

You are an employee at Andrew Corporation. You work long hours for little reward and are thinking of leaving the company. In an effort to reduce staff turnover, the CEO (your teacher) has introduced free meditation classes, free dry-cleaning, and happy hours - but this has had little effect. As the employee representative, approach the CEO with some of your ideas on how to improve staff/company relationships.

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Discuss quotes

"People who build family businesses are not classically trained. They have to deal with an enormous amount of politics. You think corporate politics are tough? Go work for your dad or mom."

 – Gary Vaynerchuk

"Starting a business with your brother either ends business or ends brotherhood."

 – Amit Kalantri

"You have family-owned businesses that have been around for over 500 years. You cannot name a corporation that survives in fact for even a few decades."

 – Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Most people will choose unhappiness over uncertainty.”

--- Tim Ferriss

"Maybe it was because my resignation letter was well written, and this attracted the attention of the factory supervisor. They kept me on and gave me a promotion to head up my own newly created department."

--- Zhou Qunfei

Student Handout PDF: Family Business

Photo: Tatutati

Track Your Health

1. How do you know when you are not in good health? What are the first signs that you might be coming down with something?

2. Is your health your responsibility alone, or are there other stakeholders involved e.g. an annual check-up at the doctor's for the purposes of health insurance?

3. What technology do you use to monitor your health? Do you have a thermometer, or a blood pressure monitor? Do you have any wearable technology that measures the number of steps you take, heart rate, or blood sugar? If not, would you consider using them? Are they necessary?

4. In terms of privacy, do you think your health should be the concern of your employer?

.........

Read article here: Track Your Health

5. What is your reaction? Do you think that the Cleveland Clinic is right to increase health insurance premiums to staff members who don't participate in "wellness programmes"? Do you think that questioning employees on their marital status is appropriate, or is it justified in an age where data collection is the norm?

6. Which of the following questions would you object to if they were part of a workplace questionnaire?

a) Do you plan to start a family?

b) Have you recently been through a divorce?

c) Which social groups do you belong to?

d) How many units of alcohol do you consume in a week? 

Is there a less confrontational way of finding out this information?

7. If you were offered a position with your 'dream' company and they asked such questions, would you go there or walk away?

8. How would you describe the attitude of the author of the article? Is she hostile towards this type of monitoring? Do you not think that in an age where everything can be measured, there is nothing sinister here, and that if anyone's privacy has been infringed, it can be taken into account by an understanding employer?

9. Does your country have any legislation on the recording and usage of your health data? If not, should it? In the UK, most (all?) data is anonymised before being given to third parties involved in research - isn't this enough to safeguard your privacy?

10. Shouldn't employment healthcare be a win-win situation for both employer and employee? Healthcare costs were reduced for BP (see article) and Bates College employees lost weight using wearable trackers. Why would we push back on something that is designed to make us healthier?

11. Does your employer provide healthy food options in its canteen/restaurant? Does it offer gym membership? Are there any facilities for showering at your workplace? If your company proposed a treadmill desk, would you or your colleagues use them? Would peer pressure be enough for you to use/not use them?

12. Do you agree that what is driving the desire to monitor employees is 'big tech' companies, and not necessarily employers seeking to reduce costs? (After all, humans have been employees for thousands of years without the need for intrusive monitoring)

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Situation

In an effort to reduce employee absenteeism through ill health at AndrewCorp, the CEO (your teacher) wants to introduce wearable health trackers to the workforce as a means of improving productivity and employee health. As the chief representative of said employees, make your concerns known to the CEO.

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Discuss quotes

“He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.”

― Lao Tzu

"A consultant starts by offering a 'solution' and creates a problem.”

--- Nassim Taleb 

"The difference between technology and slavery is that slaves are fully aware that they are not free."

--- Nassim Taleb

"Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking of them."

--- Alfred North Whitehead

“If you read someone else's diary, you get what you deserve.”

― David Sedaris

Student Handout PDF: Track Your Health

Photo: Pearlsband

Your Own Currency

 

1. What does the centre of your town/city look like? Does its shops/cafes/restaurants resemble those found in other towns and cities? (Every UK town/city has the same chains, making it difficult to distinguish between different places) If it looks the same as every other town/city in your country, why do you think this is?

2. Do you prefer to give your patronage to local businesses, or do you appreciate the uniformity of service/product quality provided by national chain stores?

3. What form does your patronage take? Do you always lunch at a certain eatery, or recommend a certain tradesperson?

4. Have you always used your national currency when buying a product/service locally? What financial alternatives do people have available when money weakens as an exchange mechanism? Gold? Silver? Are these viable alternatives?

5. Read article here: Own Currency Reading

6. Would the idea of a local currency appeal to you? Why/why not? The Brixton (London) Pound has the image of David Bowie on its notes - who would you choose for your local currency?

7. According to you, what would be the minimum number of participating businesses needed to make a local currency worthwhile? How difficult would it be to get businesses in your area to adopt a local currency, do you think? What means would you use to promote it?

8. Bristol's Pound is app-based which allows for digital transfers to be made - given the travails of various cryptocurrencies, does a digital currency reassure or worry you?

9. How did people in your country feel about banks pre/post-2008? Would having local currencies address any of the lack of trust surrounding large banks? How important is it to know the bank manager at your local branch? How often do they change? Do you think it's a good policy to change the manager regularly?

10. Do you think that local currencies (if sufficient in number) might support the national currency in times of high inflation/economic downturn? Or might they undermine it?

11. Do you have/use loyalty cards? Where do you use them? Is your wallet/purse stuffed with them? Do you, like me, find them bothersome, and prefer to use straight cash instead? Does their usage clash with digital transactions as well?

12. Do you think schools should teach basic financial concepts? Would people be more careful of their financial situation if they knew more about how financial institutions work? Would that benefit the world economy? The economy of your country?

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Situation

You are currency expert Edgar Kampers. You are appearing on a radio show to promote awareness and the use of local currencies. Put forward your ideas and answer the host's questions.

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Discuss quotes

"The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency."

--- Vladimir Lenin

“Our greatest currency is our time and we cannot save it. Spend it wisely and never waste another's or your own.”

― Kyle Barger

“The world can run without money and currencies but not without business and trade.”

― Amit Kalantri

“Treat others with respect and you will always be wealthy, because your community is your real currency.”

― Bryant McGill

“Money frees you from doing things you dislike. Since I dislike doing nearly everything, money is handy”

― Groucho Marx

Student Handout here: Own Currency

Photo: Cottonbro Studio

Career Advice

 

1. What was the best piece of career advice you were given? Did you follow it? Have you yourself given career advice to someone else? What was it?

2. Have recent economic events caused you to find ways of saving money/diversify your income? What areas of expenditure would you like to reduce?

3. Would you be tempted by a change of career if your new career provided for a lot of the non-fiscal things that you currently need?

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Read article here: Career Advice Reading

4. What is your reaction? Does the author's suggestion of joining the military seem far-fetched? Would it have been considered just as far-fetched if he had written the piece 100 years ago?

5. How attractive would having accommodation, a profession, and disposable income be to a young person today (assuming they could avoid front-line action)?

6. Is your country subject to the same pressures that might make joining the military seem a reasonable idea i.e. a shortage of affordable homes, a mountain of student debt, and personal debt?

7. Do you think that the military's "solutions" to these problems could be replicated in a non-military setting e.g. car pooling/sharing, apprenticeships instead of going to university, more house building? How would people in your country view the above strategies?

8. Are there any other institutions that provide for your immediate/future needs in a similar way to joining the military? Can labour shortages be addressed by offering good global packages to potential employees? Do you know of any examples?

9. If you could modify your current job with only one of the following elements, which would you choose?

a) The use of nearby accommodation

b) Increased non-specialisation training 

c) Subsidised public transport/use of company car

d) A less intense working regime that allowed personal projects

10. Daniel Younan's text contains one or two errors that make certain idioms appear non-idiomatic - can you spot them?

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Situation

You are a careers advice officer for a local college. Give your counterintuitive advice to a student (your teacher) who has yet to decide on his/her future career.

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Discuss quotes

“If the wind will not serve, take to the oars.”

 – Latin Proverb

“Desperation works in job search as well as it does in dating. ”

– Darrell Gurney

“You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do. ”

– Confucius

“Where military service begins, logic ends.”

― Turkish Proverb

"A man who pays his bills on time is soon forgotten."

- Oscar Wilde

"If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments."

- Earl Wilson

Student Handout PDF : Career Advice