English for Common Interactions in the Workplace: Basic Level

The Course is assigned for basic level English language learners, specifically level A2, according to the standards established in the Common European Framework of Reference.

Upon course completion, you will be able to: 

• one, describe jobs and everyday workplace tasks. 
• Two, make and receive basic professional phone calls. 
• Three, make plans for meetings 
• four, discuss past work activities.

First, you will see a video with a model situation which simulates an interaction in the workplace that is relevant to the module objective.

Model Situation 1: Gabriela meets a new colleague

Gabriela: Good morning, are you Camila? 

Camila: Yes, I am. I'm the new journalist. It's nice to meet you. 

Gabriela: It's a pleasure to meet you too. Welcome to Global Voice Publicity. My name is Gabriela and I'm the Human Resources Manager here. Would you like me to show you around the office and introduce you to people? 

Camila: Yes, please. That will be great. 

Gabriela: Okay, come this way.

Gabriela: Good morning Paulo. I want to introduce you to our new colleague. This is Camila. Camila, this is Paulo. Paulo is an office assistant here at Global Voice Publicity. Camila is a journalist from Argentina.

Paulo: Hi Camila. It's nice to meet you. Welcome to our office. 

Camila: Thank you. It's nice to meet you too.... I look forward to meeting everyone.

Gabriela: Yes, let's introduce you to some of the other staff.  

Camila: Okay. It's nice to meet you, Paulo.

Someone: Hi, Camila. It's good to see you again. How are you? 

Camila: It's good to see you too. I'm very well, thank you. I'm excited to start working here. How are you? 

Someone: I'm great, thanks. Let me know if you need anything. Let's have lunch in the cafeteria today. Great. See you later. See you.

Simulated Interaction 1: Introduce yourself 

greeting: Good morning, Good afternoon, Good evening

First time: It's nice to meet you, or, it's a pleasure to meet you

If you know the person:  it's good to see you again, or, it's nice to see you again.  

introduce Paolo, this is Camila. She is a Journalist (an Office Assistant)

Am I in the right place?

Simulated Interaction 2: A typical day at work

Media Bias: My challenge to this issue

Peer-graded Assignment, three people give me two points ( 1,no, 2, maybe , 3, yes). 我觉得我写的很好，提出了自己的观点符合题目的要求。可惜别人不这么想。我发现我想的总是和别人不一样。

https://www.coursera.org/learn/media/peer/RK0PK/unit-4-assessment-2-peer-reviewed-media-bias/submit

1. Describe the article or video. What kind of source is it? Who is mentioned in the story? When did the situation happen? What happened?

2. Try to identify the type of bias that you see:

• bias by omission
• bias by placement
• bias by spin

3. Explain why you think it is this type of bias. What information or point of view might be missing? Is the placement of this article or video appropriate? Do you see any biased language that might influence your opinion?

Model Response:

I watched the television news for my city. At the very beginning of the program, one of the people in the TV studio said that they had important news about keeping children safe. I thought, wow, I really must see this because I want to keep my children safe.

So I waited for this news story. I had to watch some advertisements before the story. When I finally saw the story, it was about how to protect your children from strangers who want to take them. There was a video of a person who tried to take someone’s child, but other people helped prevent this. Then there was an interview with a police officer.

I think this story is bias by placement. They try to make me think it is an important story by talking about it at the beginning of the news. Of course children are important. But I know that the situation they talk about is very uncommon. In my country, if someone tries to take a child, it is usually not a stranger. By placing the story at the beginning of the news, they take a situation that is not very common in my society and make the danger seem more common than it really is.

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I think our teachers may be too polite to use the spin which means giving a positive or negative point of view about a subject in order to change the opinion of the audience. But spin can become disinformation. But for a person like me who comes from authoritarian China. Disinformation is not even the right word to describe the world where 1.4 billion are living. It is lies. Here is a piece of evidence.

RSF (Reporters Without Border) appeals to the UN to act for the release of Apple Dialy founder Jimmy Lai who has been jailed for his adamant support for Hong Kong's pro-democratic movement.

In his twitter, Hu Xijin, Editor-in-chief of the Global Times, China state-affiliated media, wrote, "It is the long-term support and instigation from you, Western forces, that has set Jimmy Lai up. You incited him and gave him the illusion that he can rely on you to defy the law and confront central govt without paying any price. Please spare him and those confused HK people."

What is this central govt? It is govt to build internet censorship GFW (the great firewall) to fool the Chinese and the World with lies. The Media literacy class neglects this type of media.

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Vice President Kamala Harris under fire for 'disrespectful' tweet. Vice President  Kamala Harris came under fire Saturday for tweeting about Memorial Day, but without mentioning the significance of the weekend. "Enjoy the long weekend," Harris wrote, above a candid photo of herself smiling.

I think it is a typical example of bias by placement. Bias by placement happens when stories that are important for our daily lives don't receive important placement in media messages. It can come from consuming news as entertainment. Another word for this is sensationalism. Sensationalism means, using news media messages to entertain people, instead of informing them about events that are important to their daily lives.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/vice-president-kamala-harris-under-fire-for-disrespectful-tweet