Making a positive career choice is a problem which worries many people nowadays. What am I good at? How can I find a well-paid job? What kind of knowledge and what traits of character should I have to succeed? These are the questions that people often ask themselves. Nowadays employers demand perfect knowledge, work experience, a range of transferable skills and such qualities as efficiency, punctuality, practicality, creativity and many others. If you want to get a good job, you must convince your employer that you are the best candidate for it. Choosing your future job you should take into consideration your interests, abilities and opportunities. Besides, you should know your employer's requirements.

If you want to become a good specialist, to keep your job and to get a promotion, you should be competent. Competence is a requirement for a person to properly perform a specific job. In other words, it is a combination of knowledge, skills and behavior, the ability to perform a specific role. Today executives and managers don't only speak of skills and qualifications of their employees, but of their competencies that measure a person's appropriateness for a particular job. There are a lot of competencies but as a rule they are divided into two large groups: technical competencies and personal competencies. Technical competencies comprise the skills and knowledge that are essential in order for a person to do a particular job appropriately (for example word processing). Personal competencies include characteristics that people use together with their technical competencies in order to do their work well (for example, initiative and sociability). Competence development is a long process that requires training and personal development. Competence grows through experience.

The ability to make the right decision is crucial in the world of business. A well considered decision will lead your team to success; a poor decision can result into failure. A good employee should demonstrate problem-solving capability and think about what is to be achieved and how it is to be achieved. Many companies need people who can work effectively in different countries and cultures, in other words, people who can function in a global context. Therefore it is important to develop intercultural competence. This requirement stems from the mass globalization of business and the development of cross-cultural contacts. Intercultural competence is the ability to understand people of other cultures and to work effectively with them. A person must remember that the traditions and customs that he or she is used to may be inadmissible in another country. That is why one should be aware of intercultural differences to avoid mistakes, misunderstanding or offence and to achieve one's business goals.

Negotiating is part and parcel of working life that is why negotiating skills are essential no matter what kind of job a person has. The most important thing is to take into consideration your personal style and your partner's expectations and reaction. You should be calm, reasonable, self-confident and convincing. You should try to win your partner's favour and make him trust you. It is useful to take into account all details: your speech, body language, physical contact, eye contact, etc.

Relationship-building is a new popular term that means building good relationships with partners and clients. You should understand their needs and respect their rights. You should also maintain good relationships with supervisors and peers. It is very important to handle appropriately criticism and complaints, to deal respectfully with cultural and racial diversity and never to engage in harassment of any kind.

Modern life is full of stress that is why it is essential to be able to cope with stress and fatigue. When a person is busy achieving his aspirations, he often forgets about work-life balance. Many people suffer from the conflict between work and family. They are too much preoccupied with their career and they have no time for rest, pleasure and spiritual development. Don't forget that if you want to make a career, you should be healthy and happy. And if you want to be healthy and happy, you should not forget a simple rule: don't overwork, take breaks and remember that we work to live but not vice versa.

     Do you know what a generation gap is? Even if you don’t know the particular definition, you are aware of this problem, basing on your own experience. Generation gap is a popular term used to describe serious differences between people of two generations.

     To realize how to deal with it, you should keep in mind that generation gap includes several aspects: children must know as much as possible about their parents and parents — about the world outlook of their children, about relations between brothers and sisters, and also about the attitude to them of close relatives on both sides — father’s and mother’s.

     Children demand a great deal of attention, time and patience, so, if you are not ready to devote all that to your baby, it is better not to hurry. There are many families where both parents keep working after giving birth to their baby. It is similar to the situation with a single-parent family, when a father or a mother hardly have enough time and neglect their children’s upbringing. In such cases most of the time the child has to spend on his own or with his friends. Due to the fact that he has not got any guidance from his parents he may be involved in some bad companies which commit violence or even crime and become alcohol or drug addicted. When the parents discover that, it’s usually too late to change anything.

     On the other hand, there is a different situation when the parents treat their children too strict and don’t give them any freedom at all. In this case the children may become pariahs among their peers. Constant bans may increase the risk that the child will grow up insolent and defiant. This causes another big problem — lying. The child is forced to lie to the parents because of the fear to be punished. It can be anything from putting on make-up in the girls’ room at school to stealing.

     Some children rebel against discipline and family values. They listen to a loud music, wear inappropriate, to their parents’ mind, clothes, dye their hair in inconceivable colours, have all their bodies pierced and tattooed trying to show their independence and establish their identity. They want to be treated as adults, but they are not ready to take all the necessary responsibilities. It doesn’t mean that your child is bad and he will become a criminal. Of course, not! It only means that your child is in his transitional age and he is in need of your understanding and support. But how to handle such behaviour? Parents should become his close friends. First of all they should learn to respect his interests. Try to speak with him as often as possible, offer some parent-child activities like shopping or going in for sports. It is worth involving the child in discussing some family questions, just to show that he is a full member of the family. Moreover, children in their teens are very vulnerable when they are criticized in public, so try to avoid it. Parents should always be honest and sincere with their child; otherwise it would be unfair to require the same from him.

     Too authoritarian parents can’t do any good to their children as well as parents who overindulge all the child’s caprices. Overindulgence may lead to the same results as negligence. There are parents who are afraid of hurting the child by banning something when it is necessary. Such parents risk becoming powerless in the family and losing control over their children who may become spoiled and capricious.

     It demands to make a great effort from both parents and children to reach mutual understanding. There are many different opinions on the question of treating children if they disobey their parents, but every parent should decide for himself what will be best for his child and set him on the right path.

Questions

1. Give your explanation of the notion “generation gap”.

2. How do you think, which is the tensest period in the relationships between parents and their children?

3. What type of behaviour is usual for adolescents?

4. Have you noticed any changes in your own behaviour during the last years?

5. How would you characterize your relations with your parents?

6. Do you like to spend time with your family?

7. What is, in your opinion, the basis of healthy and peaceful relationship between parents and children?

8. Are you a spoiled child?

9. Do you approve of the way your parents brought you up?

10. What would you like to change in the way your parents brought you up?

     Nowadays we are often told that young generation is absolutely impolite and disorganized. As for me, I partially agree with this opinion as there are various facts that support it.

     To begin with, teenagers are reluctant to listen to their parents` advices because teens are absolutely convinced that they are always right and consequently do not need any help. They feel like looking independent and confident but, of course, in fact they can neither live on their own nor manage with all difficulties themselves. Moreover, teenagers believe that they understand any life situations better than adults. They do not understand that which way you treat people - you will be treated by the same way.

In addition, I strongly believe that teenagers` behavior is influenced by mass media. Today most of young people have TV-sets as well as computers with permanent internet connection in their bedrooms. Therefore, despite the fact that a lot of TV programmes are inappropriate for teens they watch them because few parents actually check up what their children watch. So, programmes containing offensive language, scenes of violence and loud screeches influence teens badly. It is really difficult for children to determine the difference between the reality and the fantasy. Hence, they start imitating the violent behaviour they see in their favourite programmes.

     However, there are some people who oppose this view. They suppose that teenagers seem rude and selfish due to their age. Their character is changing, they are growing up and must be responsible for their actions. It is very difficult for them to cope with these problems, that is why they become aggressive.

     In conclusion, I firmly believe that a lot depends on parents and the way a child is bringing up. If a teenager has the common sense, then he or she will be able to solve any problem and improve his or her behavior.

Questions

1. Do you have the same problems described above in the text?
2. What websites do you usually browse?
3. Do you like violent scenes on TV programs or films?
4. What do your parents dislike about your actions?
5. How does your place of residence affect your behavior?
6. Are you satisfied with yourself?
7. What would you like to change in your life?
8. What are your advantages and disadvantages?
9. Do you have an image that you wanted to be like?
10. Are you vindictive of resentment or do you forget everything quite quickly?

      Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology. This process has effects on the environment, on culture, on political systems, on economic development and prosperity, and on human physical well-being in societies around the world.

Globalization is not new, though. For thousands of years, people—and, later, corporations—have been buying from and selling to each other in lands at great distances, such as through the famed Silk Road across Central Asia that connected China and Europe during the Middle Ages. Likewise, for centuries, people and corporations have invested in enterprises in other countries. In fact, many of the features of the current wave of globalization are similar to those prevailing before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.

But policy and technological developments of the past few decades have increased cross-border trade, investment, and migration so large that many observers believe the world has entered a qualitatively new phase in its economic development.

In the years since the Second World War many governments have adopted free-market economic systems, vastly increasing their own productive potential and creating new opportunities for international trade and investment. Governments also have negotiated dramatic reductions in barriers to commerce and have established international agreements to promote trade in goods, services, and investment. Taking advantage of new opportunities in foreign markets, corporations have built foreign factories and established production and marketing arrangements with foreign partners. A defining feature of globalization, therefore, is an international industrial and financial business structure.

Technology has been the other principal driver of globalization. Advances in information technology, in particular, have dramatically transformed economic life.

Globalization is deeply controversial, however. Proponents of globalization argue that it allows poor countries and their citizens to develop economically and raise their standards of living, while opponents of globalization claim that the creation of an unfettered international free market has benefited multinational corporations in the Western world at the expense of local enterprises, local cultures, and common people. Resistance to globalization has therefore taken shape both at a popular and at a governmental level as people and governments try to manage the flow of capital, labor, goods, and ideas that constitute the current wave of globalization.

To find the right balance between benefits and costs associated with globalization, citizens of all nations need to understand how globalization works and the policy choices facing them and their societies.

      Globalization is a controversial issue for business and governments throughout the world. We recognize globalization mainly through its effects. It's a bit like electricity - we cannot see it, but we certainly observe what it does.

Globalization can be described as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society and function together. This process is a combination of economic, technological, sociocultural and political forces. It's a movement of people, goods, capital and ideas due to increased economic integration.

Globalization is a controversial issue mainly because different groups interpret it in different ways. For its opponents globalization is a threatening word. It prompts visions of large multinationals dominating the world in pursuit of ever-higher profits. Many pressure groups fear that globalization threatens the environment as well as national cultures - they predict that it will make the rich nations richer and the developing countries even poorer than they are. But its supporters have another point of view. They believe that increasing and freer trade between nations will offer prosperity and economic growth for all countries and businesses.

The advantages of globalization are:

1. An opportunity to get acquainted with cultures of different nations;
2. A variety of choice for consumers: when they can buy in their local stores and supermarkets not only home-produced goods but also foreign ones;
3. Transnational corporations create additional work places for local people, at the same it is convenient for these large corporations as well: they may locate the labour-intensive part of their production process in countries with a relative abundance of labour in order to minimize their costs;
4. Another point is risk-sharing. It's more reasonable to invest money not in one company but to create an international company with great amount of subsidiaries in various countries, so it won't have so serious consequences if one of them will not stand cut-throat competition; 5. This cut-throat competition in the local markets between domestic and foreign producers leads to production of high-quality goods.

The disadvantages of globalization are:

1. Pollution of the environment (and there one peculiarity should be admitted - developed countries try to locate their harmful for the environment factories and works not in their own countries but in developing countries);
2. Globalization destroys cultural identity, for example Europeans usually try to impose their customs and traditions on Asian people;
3. Multinational corporations prefer to use cheap labour-force of developing countries for instance in Asia. And at the same time they provide their workers with bad and sometimes even awful working conditions; 4. It's difficult for domestic producers to compete with multinational corporations especially if it's an infant industry;

The last but not least is that we don't actually know to what globalization can lead, we don't realize its consequences.

      Globalization is something than we can’t see but we can feel the effects of it. It’s a process of interaction among the people, companies and governments of different countries. We can feel globalization almost everywhere nowadays. People eat American fast-food, wear Italian shoes and Mexican shirts, drive Japanese cars and listen to Korean music. Generally speaking, globalization is a blend of cultures.

Some people think that it’s a new process. In fact, globalization existed even during Middle Ages, when people decided to trade goods with merchants from distant countries. Since 1980, it has begun to move at a faster pace. Today globalization is at its peak. There are, of course, some advantages and disadvantages of this process. The best thing is that people can buy and sell whatever they want from every corner of our planet. Internet has made it easier. People enjoy the variety of choice and prices.

Globalization also gives an opportunity to learn more about culture of other nations. Countries focus on what they can do better instead of making bad-quality products. For example, Belgium is good at agriculture and producing fine chocolate but it doesn’t produce cars. Thus, they can buy cars from Germany or France.

Another advantage of globalization is the growth of international companies. They can open affiliates in different countries and create additional workplace for local people.

The first issue on the list of disadvantages that globalization has brought is the pollution of the environment. The building of new harmful factories has resulted into considerable environmental problems.

Another disadvantage is the fact that globalization gradually destroys cultural identity. It’s especially obvious when European people try to impose their traditions and customs on Asian nations.

And last but not the least: domestic producers also suffer. They find it difficult to sell their produce when people buy everything on international market.

      I am not really interesting about politics and economics. I see that our culture lifestyle in every country are changing every year.

10-15 years ago we used to live in different conditions. My parents had to work on two works to earn enough money, we couldn’t go for vacation to another country, we had completely different rules and laws.

Globalization has changed all the system. According me the life became easier, people have more freedom. For example my grandparents had no chance to get any education at all. They went to school 2-3 years, they can hardly write correct. Today everyone can finish school, go to college or university and choose any job. I am happy to be born at this time.

Economic situation has also changed. Today we have possibility to travel abroad (even for education), visit our relatives, spend vacation and so on.

Honestly for me it is not so easy to imagine the life before. But everything has been changed.

Globalization made a good thing to our life. Education, politics, economics and many other things are becoming better. I hope to see only advantages in future.

I am sure our life can not be on the same place. People want to develop and grow. People want to learn new things, to create new modern machines to make new steps. It is not always easy to accept changes especially for adult and old people. But I think the more information we get, the better life we can give to our children.

      Globalization is a process of interaction between people, companies and governments of different nations. It is driven by international trade and the development of information technology. We observe its results in all spheres of our life. It has great influence on our environment, culture, political and economic systems. Globalization can be described as movement of people, goods, investments, labour and ideas all over the world. Of course it’s impossible to define whether globalization is good or bad. It has both pros and cons. Some people just hate globalization and find it threatening for national cultures. Others believe that free trade between countries offers prosperity and economic growth for all nations and businesses.

Today we know a lot of world-famous brands. Wherever we are, we are likely to have lunch at a fast-food restaurant McDonald’s. We can find Coca Cola or Lipton tea at any store. And these products are offered almost in every country. Multinational companies create additional work places for local people. But there is a negative side here because it’s hard for small domestic firms to compete with worldly recognized companies. That’s why they often incur great losses.

Globalization gives me freedom in choosing a place for holidays, in purchasing goods made in a country I prefer most. We can easily get acquainted with other traditions, customs and national cuisines. Living in Russia, for example, we can try new dishes in Japanese, Italian or Georgian restaurants. But on the other hand, little by little we forget about our own culture and the youth starts losing old traditions. Globalization destroys cultural identity.

Another benefit of globalization is advances in information technology. Thanks to the Internet I can get almost any information I need. It helps me with my education and with my studies at the university too. We can participate in international educational programs, communicate with pen-friends from other countries, apply for a piece of advice to any professional through the Internet.

Another advantage of the era of globalization is that I have an opportunity to get closer to my friends and distant relatives by sending messages and exchanging photos and videos. However the Internet completely transformed our communication and we meet each other in reality less and less nowadays.

      Globalization has had a great implication to different part of the world. Nowadays, even in some of the most remote parts of world, we can connect to the internet and do business. However, there are pluses and minuses of this. One disadvantage, for instance, is that the local culture and language can be affected. It can also mean that rural manufactures and plants have to reduce their prices to have a competition with big companies. There are advantages, for example, globalization may bring new branches of business to small areas. It is improve local economy: new work places will appear, unemployment will reduce and youth will stop to run away from small towns. If young people have a chance to start own business and have a success, evidently, some of them will stay home. Access to the internet also means an absence of isolation no matter where you are.

Good afternoon dear colleges!

I want to prove the statement made by Kofi Annan which says “Arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity”.

First of all we want to say that globalization isn’t an imminent fact now, it is the accomplished fact already. At the same time, as you know, our world is not homogenous one. So how it can happen, that the world is homogenous in many aspects and at another point not? Everything is really very easy, people all over the globe use the same electronic devices, cars, clothes and production of famous brands. So every person is a subject of globalization in a varying degree, even you, my friends just look what language we are using now.

But all these people have their own individuality; they think, speak and live differently. And after this we can talk about pluralization of some kind.

There is no need to be for or against globalization; it is funny when there are indigenous people, who think that globalization will lead to world dominance of some country or companies. Evil guys will appropriate all natural resources of our planet and everybody will become a subject of consumerist culture. It is even more interesting when people are ready to lose their ethnicity, when they are ready to be fully acculturated by other guys. Doing this they just fasten the process of global hegemony.

And now let’s return to the beginning of our talk, we’ve stated that there is no need to fight against globalization. The best way out from this situation is to adapt to it. The new world culture has already diffused all over the world, so try to take all that you need from it and stay a real human being. Just don’t forget who you are, remember your routes, your language, your history!

      There is no doubt that globalization has become an indispensable part of modern life. Many people think that it has a detrimental effect on the world, whereas others disagree with this point of view.

In my opinion, globalization affects people’s life in a positive way. Firstly, they can exchange goods, money and ideas faster and cheaper than ever before because nowadays transmission between different countries is developed quite well. Secondly, people and organizations have an opportunity to work and interconnect. Hence, a great number of countries become closer to each other. Finally, it is beneficial for consumers to have a larger market and freedom of choice.

However, there are those who think that globalization does more harm than good for people.

According to their opinion, it causes unemployment because countries move their factories to places where they can get cheaper workers. Additionally, uniqueness of various cultures is replaced by companies and their brands.

Despite this, I cannot agree with these statements. If a person has good education and high qualification, he can get a high paid job in large international corporations. What is more, close interaction between countries helps them to know other cultures better and distribute their products over the world.

In conclusion, even though there are different points of view on this problem, I am inclined to believe that globalization has a beneficial effect on people’s mind and development of countires.

      Hi, everyone! My name is Olga, and I’m graduating from school this year. As for many teenagers, the choice of future career is a real challenge for me. There are so many jobs, so it’s rather difficult to make the right decision. Furthermore, I’m firmly convinced that the choice of future career is essential, and I don’t want to regret it for the rest of my life.

So I have been thinking about it for a long time. I have discussed it many times with my parents and closest friends, but I’m still a bit confused.

Firstly, I had a wish to do something I am keen on. I suppose turning your hobby into your future job is a great way one can become a successful specialist. I think I’m not bad at writing stories. I absolutely adore it! I can spend evenings thinking about the characters and the plot of my stories. I’m also fond of making illustrations to them. In addition, all the process of story making is very enjoyable to me. That’s why I firmly believe that working as a writer is the best variant for me.

The only problem is that my parents totally disagree with me. They say it’s not the right way to make money and it’s just my childish dream. They think I must be realistic and force me to become a programmer. I love computers and I spend quite a lot of time sitting in front of one, but programming is a completely different thing. I’m attending a programming course at the moment, so I can see it’s not something I’d really want to do.

Thus, I hope I’ll be able to make the right choice, but for now future career is still an open issue.

      When I start to think about my future profession, I imagine that I work in a big company with people and do very important things. I imagine that I am an economist. I like to work with numbers, with a computer, I like to communicate with different people.

Just few months ago I realized I can be an economist. My choice was not easy, because there are many different professions. I wanted to be a teacher or a doctor. But later on I have decided that the best thing for me is to become an economist.

This profession looks so interesting and important to me. I am very good in mathematics. I can say numbers is my passion. I like to solve the problems, check algorithms and work with numbers. It’s not easy but it makes mathematics more interesting.

In future I have to study at university. There maths will be more complicated. All 4 years I will study hard to become the best economist.

Today all the companies need professional people. Lawyers, programmers, managers and of course economists play a very important role in developing of any company. If I succeed to become a part of this company, I will be proud of myself all my life. I think it’s important to find your vocation in the life. Nowadays it is very difficult to make the right choice for a teenager. I am sure we are able to change our decisions but it’s important to choose with the heart.

Today economists work a lot and they have good money. Of course you need to have good experience and knowledge. You have to love and enjoy your job. I see I will be a very successful and professional economist. I speak with my relatives who have this job and they are very happy about their choice.

I am sure one day my family will be proud of me because I have already made my choice and I do my best to get high results.

      Business is an organization which involves the trade of goods and services. Every day thousands of people start their own business. To be successful in business one should have special character traits, for example, to be hard-working, clever, energetic and even adventurous.

If a person wishes to launch a new business he or she has to take some preparatory steps. The first one is the selection of a legal form. Different countries have different laws about legal types of businesses. Usually they are a limited liability company, a partnership and a sole proprietor. These forms of business slightly differ. The limited liability company is a legal entity. In case of a bankruptcy it has to reimburse its debts with all its assets. Sole proprietors or partners do not form a legal entity. In case of their bankruptcy they reimburse the debts not only with their assets but also with their own belongings. It includes houses, cars, money, etc. That’s why the majority of businessmen prefer to set up the limited liability companies. The second step is the preparation of certain documents. The third step includes initial investments and the appointment of a director.

Every new business has to be registered with the official company register. Business should mainly bring profit. However, the founders sometimes don’t have enough experience and make many mistakes. This leads to losses instead of profit. All financial information of the company can be kept in the financial reports. There are a lot of reports submitted annually, semi-annually and quarterly. Every government requires detailed information on the company’s performance and collects taxes. That’s why financial reports are important.

In conclusion, I’d like to add that every business is not an easy activity. Thus, the knowledge of basic economic principles is vital for people who want to set up a business.