Central America & the Caribbean -- Geography

Central America, the Caribbean and South America are often called "Latin America." In most of these countries, people speak Spanish. Most people include Mexico as part of Latin America, but this country is in North America.

Central America is right in the middle, between North and South America

Belize and Jamaica are the only larger countries in this area where they speak English. What are the other countries in Central America and the Caribbean?

Countries in Central America, the Caribbean and northern South America

Presentations: Introductions (give listeners an outline)

[Biz]

Outline #1
Very important: a presenter should give listeners an outline at the beginning. Explain how many things you will talk about (and maybe tell them how long each part will take). An outline is like a mental map. It helps listeners understand your message.

Taking Notes
If you are a listener, you don't need to write down everything you hear. Only write down some key words (mostly content words = nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs). Leave out most function words such as prepositions and determiners

Country Reports (How to Compose A Draft)

[BIZ]

Your reports should be typed and submitted on four sheets of A4 paper with 2 cm margins. Page 0 is the Title Page, Page 1 is the table of Contents, Page 2 is a 200-word summary of your research, and Page 3 is a List of References (bibliography).

Country Report Structure

 Please use 14-point Arial for the cover page and 12-point Arial for the three inside pages. Put a staple on the upper left-hand corner.

Here is a suggested work flow:

Kindle -- Efficient Reading 4

[BIZ] Before you visit another country, it is important to do some homework. Here is part of the Table of Contents (TOC) for Romania-Culture Smart! The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture, a very interesting and useful book about Romania. By skimming the Table of Contents, I can quickly find some interesting sections to read before I get on the airplane to Eastern Europe.

Kindle -- Efficient Reading 3

Well-written Amazon Kindle books include search tools. These help you quickly find what you need:

Kindle -- Efficient Reading 2

Amazon's reader lets you easily change the appearance of Kindle books:

The "appearance" button lets you change the font, the size and the background color (black on white, white on black or black on sepia). Small black words on a white computer screen give me a headache, so I like to change to bigger words on a sepia background:

White on Black

Kindle -- Efficient Reading 1

If English is not your first language, reading a book in English can be difficult. Here are some suggestions to make Amazon Kindle books easier to read:

1) Notice the Kindle tools:

The "back" button lets you go back to previous pages. If you start reading page 17, and then jump to page 63, "back" will let you jump back to page 17.

Tourism Industry Vocabulary-1

Many jobs in the tourism industry are temporary.

Temporary = Only lasting for a short time (a few days, weeks or months)

Temp(or) +      ary

TIME     +      [ADJ]

Other jobs involve shift work. In a hotel, for example, someone should be on duty at all times. Your supervisor might sometimes ask you to work the night shift or the midnight shift.

 

shift work

The day shift	0800-1600
the night shift	1600-2400
the midnight shift (the graveyard shift)	2400-0800

'flight attendant

'NN

Receptionist

Receive guests

People can drive cattle and cars, but not airplanes

Drive a car	fly an airplane
Driver	pilot

IT = infotech

Preparing to do Business in Another Country--Country Reports [20140930 update]

Preparing to do Business in Another Country

Please look for information about these topics:

Culture
What cultural or regional differences should visitors know about?

Which religions are important in this country? Are there any conflicts?

People--Women, Friends, Foreigners

What is the role of women in business and in society as a whole?

How and where do people meet and make friends?

How do people feel about foreigners?

Other Countries

This blog is made for EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners. If you are interested in learning about non-English speaking countries or meeting people from these countries, this blog is for you. Comments and questions are always welcome.