Business

(топики на английском языке различной тематики)

2008

Business Lunch

It is very important to organise business lunch in a silent restaurant or cosy cafe for holding of talks. If we planned to hold a meeting first of all, we must choose a restraunt, moreover we must know what kind of food our partners prefer. It will be good if chosen restaurant will be specialy intended for such measure. You should never choose a restaurant where you haven't eaten before. You want to be sure that the service is good and the atmosphere is amiable. Business meeting can be organized at any time. The only difference is the time of the day. Often it happened in the morning or during the lunchtime and rarely on supper. Morning is the breakfast time. Specialists consider breakfast to be the most important meal of the day, because one is to be energetic during the long hardworking day. A business breakfast has some advantages: it can be briefer, usually does not include cocktails and does not interrupt the business day. For breakfast businessmen usually have rolls or bread and butter, coffee or tea. For a change they can have a boiled egg or buttered toast. Basically this is all than they are limited. People generally have dinner at twelve-one o'clock. The businessmen often find it impossible to come home for dinner mainly because of traffic jam. So they happen to go to a nearest cafe or a restaurant. The lunch should not last longer than an hour and a half. For dinner people usually have soup, meat, perhaps fish and potatoes, bread and salad. Sometimes we have chops, cheese and noodles, followed by tea or coffee. Much depends on a nationality of the partner and from traditions in his country and consequently it influences on meal which he prefers. For example, the traditional meal of Russian people is pelmeni, borshch and many other dishes. There is even no some special word for denoting this meal in other languages.

Supper is to be the smallest meal of the day because it happens in the evening. People usually prefer something a lung from meal (going to sleep with a full stomach is harmful for our organism) and any drinks. It can be an omelette, sausages, salad and plenty of fruit. One can also have a cup of tea with a piece of cake. However, everything depends on one's taste and money.

Business travel.

Almost all people are fond of travelling. It is very interesting to see new places, another towns and countries. People may travel either for pleasure or on business.

Never before in the history of the world have businessmen traveled so much as they do today. It is not surprising because we are living in a world of growing international trade and expanding economic and technical cooperation.

Nowadays people who go on business mostly travel by air. It is more comfortable, more convenient and, of course, far quicker than any other method. There none of the dust and dirt of a railway. Besides, flying is a thrilling thing. But it is also more expensive and dangerous.

Some businessmen prefer to travel by train. Of course, it takes much more time, but they have possibility to rest after long working hours, to sleep enough, to enjoy a quiet compartment. With the train they have speed, comfort and pleasure combined. From the comfortable seat of a railway carriage they have a splendid view of the whole country-side. If passengers hungry, they can have a meal in the dining-car. They can rest in the sleeper and can meet new people. From one hand, it is a safe means and cheap. But from the other hand, it's takes too much time and unfortunately stops too often.

I don't think that businessmen travel on business by sea as it takes too much time, but while on holiday I am sure they prefer this method. Travelling by ship is also very popular now. It is very pleasant to feel the deck of the ship under the feet, to see the rise and falls of the waves, to feel the fresh sea wind blowing in the face and hear the cries of the seagulls. But I think that it is rather dangerous, because the ship can crash. I hope that I am a good sailor and I have a dream to travel by sea round the world.

Conference Venue

My name is Ann and I work for the company “Crystal&Co”. We organize business lunches, conferences and meetings. And I can offer our clients different kinds of the most comfortable places, where they can work hard and productively and at the same time enjoy their time after work. We have already chosen two places according to your requirements, so we are ready to tell about them.

Well, the first place is the hotel “West”, which is in Athens in Greece. “West” is а luxurious hotel, occupying a central part in Athens with flight connections to all the major cities of the world, as you asked. This hotel combines a unique atmosphere, a world class restaurant on the second floor and 200 spacious deluxe suits, and all banqueting facilities for the participators of the conference. Moreover, exclusive beach and outdoor pools represent the hotel as a tourist centre. The administration of the hotel provides different services such as 24-hour room service, express checkout, car rental service, Internet access and full conference facilities. The spectacular views of the Athens make your business or your rest full of magnificent impressions.

Well, I want to attract your attention to the second place that I have chosen for you. It is modern business centre “East”, which is in London in Great Britain. It is famous for its ability to organize special private events or, if you prefer, different kinds of activities. “East” occupies the central location in London. It includes a hotel, a restaurant, a place for various conferences and entertainment center. “East” also makes an impression thanks to spectacular views across The Trafalgar Square. It is a building with 90 floors and full facilities for business meetings. Express checkout, in-room laptops with Internet access and car rental service all go to make “East” a business venue. With its unique atmosphere and fully equipped convention centre for 2500 people, its 95 meeting rooms and 2000 square metres of exhibition space, “East” is sure to be a huge success with both you and your colleagues.

So, you can get more information about these places on our website www.conference_venue.ru. Here you can also book rooms in these hotels and get 15% discount. Please, don't forget: the greatest conference venue is the step for success that can be provided by our company. You are always welcome.

E-mail.

Today in the age of high technology there are many inventions that help people and make it easier to communicate with each other. They are: mobiles, Internet, telegrammes, faxes and, of course, e-mail. Most businessmen, and not only them, use e-mail communication at work, most youngsters use it at home.

E-mail has several obvious advantages over the phone. I mean, for me, the main one is that it's instantaneous. You can get straight down to business, without wasting time on getting through to the person you want and then having to ask them how they are, about their family and so on and so force. So it's more efficient. Also, it's a lot easier if I'm using English writing e-mail gives me time to think about what I want to say. Besides on e- mail you can communicate with the friends, colleagues worldwide using the Internet. It is more convenient and cheaper, than to dialogue on the phone. Sometimes I do not have time to phone and to talk to my friends, but on e-mail I always can make it.

E-mail is great but it always gets lost, unlike telephone messages and people are often slow to reply to their messages. There are no universally accepted rules for writing e-mail, but here are some useful guidelines. You should create a subject line with impact, proofread the message before sending it, write short sentences, keep paragraphs short, use headings, bullets and numbering, put your signature on the message. According to the institute of Directors, the majority of business people receive around 30 e -mails a day. As it takes about 5 minutes to read and reply to (or ignore) each, that means 2 and a half hours' work or of the working day. According to a recent Internet survey, nearly three quarters of business people have sent an e-mail and then regretted it. Hastily written messages can easily sound too direct or even rude, and upsetting a colleague with an angry e-mail can seriously damage your professional relationship.

I consider, that despite of some disadvantages communication using e- mail is great invention, that makes it easy and comfortable. I am sure this system will be developing and improving.

Globalisation

First of all, I'd like to mention some global companies: Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Marlboro, IBM, McDonald's and Intel, the full list of which we can find in the Forbes magazine. Such big companies, as Nestle or Pepsi have lots of subsidiaries all over the world, and such company as Microsoft - only local support centers, but the "brain center" is in Redmond, but all of them try to enter new markets using local partners and resellers. As for good and bad points of global companies, I can mention that all companies that I know try to increase the quality of their products, as they want to be the leaders in competition. Moreover, every company is always willing to hear the customer's opinion about its products, to receive some suggestions, how to improve the product. Some people can say that they've opened new world thanks to globalisation and, particularly, watching "soap operas". What's more, global companies try to adopt their products to the traditional way if using them. On the other hand, globalisation hurts the local government's ability to deal with wages and taxes. Another bad point is that local factories, which are disappearing every day, use more clean methods of production, as it's not necessary to transfer production on long distances, for example. And now I want to quote Valentine Matvienko, vice-premier of Russia, who took part in the work of Third World Commission of Social Aspects of Globalisation on October, 15th in Geneva. She said that the positive side of globalisation is that qualified workers can migrate to other countries and get a well-paid job. At the same time, she said Russia doesn't want to be out of the border of the world processes. She also told that some problems of globalisation, for example, Russian producers are not ready to rival fight. The will of many foreign companies to weaken our economy in order to put local producers away from the rival market was also mentioned. Vice-minister told that we should save our local culture when entering the global economy, and I fully agree with this.

International English.

Nowadays I think it is very necessary to know English. English is the most universal language. First of all, it is the official language in over forty countries. About 2 million people speak English in the world.

Now, we can tendency when in the countries where English is not the first language, a number of English words are used. Moreover, many words are borrowed more from English than from others language. For example, hundreds of words borrowed from English can be found now in our everyday speech such as jeans, Ok, baseball, Internet, computer. Some words are used just as they are others are changed to make them more like the native language, easier to say and remember.

I must mention a problem that is connected with the globalization of the English language. Unfortunately with the expansion of English, people forget their native languages. If to speak about our Republic as a minor nationality, the Mordovian language is not spoken in Saransk. It is used only on Mordovian villages. But I think young people should be at least acquainted with the language and culture of their ancestors.

I learn English, because I understand that I can use it. I learn English because I want to read foreign literature , foreign newspaper and magazine, to develop friendship with foreigners, communicate with people while travelling. There are a lot of films in foreign languages. If you know them, you can understand films without any help, now we buy many clothes from other countries. Knowing English , you can read something about size, quality and manufacture of this or that things. It is clear for you what it is made of.

Many people use English in their job. They need English for travelling on business, socializing with clients and colleagues, writing documents, e-mails, faxes and letters and to feel more confident when they speak.

I am sure English would help me in my nature profession. You know businessmen all over the world speak English, only English is used in their negotiations. Most firms, companies that deal with foreign clients hire people who can speak English. In short, I understand that I have to learn English in a proper way and I try to do it.

Shopping

Shops play an important role in our life, because everything we have, everything we eat and wear we buy in shops.

Out of all services used by people shop service is the most frequent and it's no wonder. Shops are supplied with the necessary things which people buy to keep themselves living. There are different types of shops in cities. The biggest of them are groceries and department stores. Lately supermarkets have become popular. In big cities there are huge grocery stores.

Shops takes a great part of our life. These days shopping has become the way not only to buy things we need, but also the way to relax, to entertain especially for women. Some women even consider shopping to be a kind of promenade. That is to show themselves and to look at others. Besides for some women shopping has become a real disease, that is having no shopping one day, they feel themselves ill. Psychologists call such people shopaholics.

Nowadays the process of shopping is an easy one. People prefer supermarkets to any other shops. Because in a supermarket you can buy practically all necessary thing and spend less time. You can buy meal, household chemistry and clothes. In large cities, some people have not enough free time and consequently they go shopping 1-2 times a week, they buy products and other necessary things for the whole week. They take their buying to the car which is left on parking not far from the supermarket. It is really very convenient.

Many people also prefer supermarkets, because after they buy all necessary things , they pay only one time at the cash desk. The shop assistant weighs goods on scales and says how much they cost. At big grocery shops there is a special delivery service where you can make your orders by phone or in person. The charge for delivery service is quite reasonable. However, the people who are on the look out for the best quality like to see what they are getting. They prefer not to do their ordering by phone. The people have to make sure that they don't do over their daily allowance. The family budget must always be kept balanced.

I live in N town. In N town there are a lot of different shops and supermarkets. In the centre of the city there are several department stores, in which there are a lot of different departments and large assortment of goods. However, I consider that in N town the network of supermarkets is not so developed, as for example in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In N town there are no such known supermarkets as HaxepOHKa, KoneftKa, AmaH, in which large assortment of goods has reasonable prices. As for me, I do not like to go shopping, because it takes a lot of time and I get tired very much.

BBC Company

If I would be offered to be a CEO of a well-known company, I would like to be a CEO of a TV-company for example BBC Company. We I'd like to say some words about this company.

The British Broadcasting Corporation, which is usually known simply as the BBC, is the world's largest broadcasting corporation. It has 28,500 employees in the United Kingdom alone with an annual budget of more than ?4 billion. Founded on 18 October 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company Ltd, it was subsequently granted a Royal Charter and was made a publicly funded corporation in 1927. The corporation produces programmes and information services, broadcasting globally on television, radio, and the Internet. The stated mission of the BBC is "to inform, educate and entertain" (as laid down by Parliament in the BBC Charter); its motto is "Nation Shall Speak Peace Unto Nation". The BBC is a quasi-autonomous public corporation as a public service broadcaster. The Corporation is run by the BBC Trust; and is, per its charter, "free from both political and commercial influence and answers only to its viewers and listeners. The BBC's domestic programming and broadcasts are primarily funded by levying television licence fees (under the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949), although money is also raised through commercial activities such as sale of merchandise and programming. The BBC World Service, however, is funded through a grant-in-aid by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. As part of the BBC Charter, the Corporation cannot show commercial advertising on any services in the United Kingdom (television, radio, or internet). It reaches more than 200 countries and is available to more than 274 million households, to CNN's (its nearest competitor) estimated 200 million, which also gives it the largest News channel in the world. Its radio service is in the short wavelength, which makes it available to many regions of the world. It also broadcasts news - by radio or over the Internet - in some 33 languages.