Xmas is coming

There are just almost 2 weeks left and we will be all done for this semester. I was sometime lost because I have very little experience in reality. Hence, learning all these subjects in a more pratical way seems to be a great challenge. But they are interesting indeed. We are wrapping up everything by doing the project, professional plan and comprehensive exams and this two coming weeks will promise to take a lot of effort..Try your best classmates and good luck to you all!

LUNAR NEW YEAR – TET in Vietnam is coming

There are just almost 3 months left and we, Vietnamese people, will celebrate a Lunar New Year according to our Calender. This is similar to the New Year in Western Culture, however, the way we celebrate and enjoy every moment of this special event is somehow different. In order to help you guys partially feel how and why we are so eager, let's have a look at our history of Tet (the New Year in Vietnamese)

This scared Festival sometimes between late January or early February (depend on Lunar Calendar ) and Tet has become so familiar to the Vietnamese that when Spring arrives. The Vietnamese, wherever they may be, are all thrilled and excited with the advent of Tet, and they feel an immense nostalgia, wishing to come back to their homeland for a family reunion and a taste of the particular flavors of the Vietnamese festivities. Although officially a three-day affair, festivities may continue for a week or more with every effort made to indulge in eating, drinking, and enjoyable social activities. It is also a time for family reunions, and for paying respect to ancestors and the elders. Gifts of food are made to friends, neighbors and relatives in the days before Tet.

The Tet of the New Year is, above all, is an opportunity for the household genies to meet, those who have helped during the year, namely the Craft Creator, the Land Genie and the Kitchen God. Tet is also an opportunity to invite and welcome deceased ancestors back for a family reunion with their descendants to join the family's Tet celebrations. Finally, Tet is a good opportunity for family members to meet. This custom has become sacred and secular and, therefore, no matter where they are or whatever the circumstances, family members find ways to come back to meet their loved ones, gather for a dinner of traditional foods like "Bánh Chưng" (a square cake made of sticky rice stuffed with beans and pork), "Măng" (a soup of boiled bamboo shoots and flied pork) and "Xôi Gấc" (orange sticky rice). This is followed by a visit to the local pagodas.

Everyone is in a rush to get a haircut, buy new clothes, spruce up their homes, visit friends, settle outstanding debts, and stock up on traditional Tet delicacies. Businesses hang festive red banners which read "Chuc Mung Nam Moi" (Happy New Year) and city streets are fes¬toned with colored lights. Stalls spring up all over town to sell Mut (candied fruits and jams), traditional cakes, and fresh fruit and flowers. Certain markets sell nothing but cone-shaped kumquat bushes. Others sell flowering peach trees, symbols of life and good fortune which people bring into their homes to celebrate the coming of spring. As vendors pour into the City with peach trees strapped to their bicycles, the streets look like moving pink forests. 

Vietnam Teacher's Day - November 20th

Teachers� Day is really a unique celebration, which shows how important and valued the position of teacher is in Vietnam. Students regularly buy gifts for their teachers and both students and parents will send cards and wish you a �Happy teachers� day.� Students will also thank you for the all of the ways that you, as a teacher, have helped them in their studies as well as their lives. . Teachers� Day is a great way to realize the impact you have on your students, now and in the future.

Teachers� Day is an annual holiday taking place every 20th of November and is usually an all day event. This holiday allows students to express their respect to all their teachers. Students begin preparing a week in advance, and many classes usually prepare literature and art to celebrate the day, while other students prepare food and flowers for the parties held at their schools. Students sometimes visit their teachers at their homes to offer flowers and small gifts, or organize trips with their teachers and classmates. Students also pay respect to their former teachers on this day.

As a teacher the entire day you feel very proud of your profession and incredibly appreciated. Even if your students don�t give you gifts you will get good wishes and cards all day long. If your students do give you gifts you can expect anything from dress shirts to bottles of wine and bouquets of flowers for the ladies. All of these gifts and wishes of good health and good luck are intended to make teachers feel how much they are appreciated by their students. In Vietnam teaching is a very well respected profession, and Teachers� Day is just one of the ways that Vietnamese people show respect towards teachers.

How to face the Reality: Our Economy Needs More Engineers and Fewer MBA’s

Recently, MBA has becoming a trend worldwide not only because of the high demand for a professional manager in the past but also because of the dream-worthy salary that you can have, at least according to some sources. We come, we learn but are we sure about what we will do in the future?

 The United States economy is in serious danger from a growing mismatch between the skills that will be needed for jobs being created and the educational backgrounds (or lack thereof) of would-be workers. That is the conclusion of a mammoth analysis of jobs data being released today by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.

The new report says that the United States is "on a collision course with the future" since far too few Americans complete college. Specifically, the report says that by 2018, the economy will have jobs for 22 million new workers with college degrees, but, based on current projections, there will be a shortage of 3 million workers who have some postsecondary degree (associate or higher) and of 4.7 million workers who have a postsecondary certificate.

The colleges that most students attend "need to streamline their programs, so they emphasize employability," said Anthony P. Carnevale, director of the Georgetown center. Carnevale acknowledged that such a shift would accept "a dual system" in which a select few receive an "academic" college education and most students receive a college education that is career preparation. "We are all offended by tracking," he said. But the reality, Carnevale said, is that the current system doesn't do a good job with the career-oriented track, in part by letting many of the colleges on that track "aspire to be Harvard." He said that educators have a choice: "to be loyal to the purity of your ideas and refuse to build a selective dual system, or make people better off."

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Above all, do we really have to learn something that we don't know whether it will help us with our future?

Inspirational life lesson from cartoon movies

When I was a kid, I had been watching so many animated movies, many of which still stay vividly in my memory.  It may sound absurd and immature of me to have my old habit of watching animated movie, especially up to this age, but when it comes to the work of Hayao Miyazaki, believe or not, one cannot help but sit in front of the screen for hours. Hayao Miyazaki is one of the greatest animators and directors in Japan. Quite true, Miyazaki has been producing masterpieces of all time. May the cover of the composition book be faded and its corners are bent, but its words will stay forever with time. To be honest, Miyazki’s movies are peculiar, not because that any of us is praising or flattering the case. Accordingly, when we follow up his works, we are casted by the deep impressions. We watch the movies for entertaining reason, however, in the end; we end up watching them again and again, much like being under a spell, which is rather perplexed. Apart from the appraisement, we can then have a glance at his portfolio. Born and raised during  the World War II, Miyazaki, being the second of the four, soon had the opportunities attached to his father work’s being director of Miyazaki Airplane. At the very young age, Miyazaki developed a lifelong fascination with aviation, a penchant that later manifested as a recurring theme in his films (let it be his work later on).  We can see aircraft-related stuff and the painstakingly designed model in three fourths of his movies. For most of his animations, the plots are simple plus inspired by books of many novelists. Plainly told, a bit dreamy and magic-about stories, “Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind “, “Laputa: Castle In The Sky”,  “My Neighbor Totoro”, “ Grave of the Fireflies”, “Howl’s Moving Castle” ( together with many other masterworks) are outstanding, compared to any other Japanese animations during the time. Whereas there are thousands of 3-D animated movies compatible, the works of Miyazaki are fascinating enough to grab our attention and our zest into 2-D movies. His movies are somewhat whimsical in an old but unique style, and yet to be categorized classic. The presence of undefined beings, objects, machines and technology soaks us viewer in the beautiful fantasy, and the lack of visual realism allows our imagination to fly high.

Four Truths About Today's MBA

You guys should not be so serious when these truths are released. Actually when heard about "truth", I often think about a negative outcome. However, what I learned from this article seemed to be useful and totally different from my previous thinking.

This article was written when the whole world economy has been shrinking considerably. The gloomy picture has affected almost every field including prospective MBA students. Here is what Alysa Teichman from Business Week wrote about the truth that we,MBA students have to be ready to face:

Until this year, you could say with near certainty that an MBA from a well-respected business school was a ticket to a good job and a respectable salary.

But with the financial crisis, a lot of those certainties are gone. Looking at the business school landscape, however, you can say at least four things with confidence. 

1. You will face more competition for slots

 

Business schools aren't increasing their class sizes to accommodate the anticipated surge in applications. This can only mean that in a year when more people are applying to business school, admissions will be more competitive and a smaller percentage of applicants will get in.

The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) reports a jump of more than 11% in the number of GMAT tests taken this September compared with a year earlier. And schools report an increase in interest—both at information sessions and in online discussion forums and blogs.

For those students who think they can bank on getting into a middle-tier school, think again. If getting in has become harder across the board, students will likely apply to more schools to increase their chances. With a fatter stack of applications to choose from, middle-tier schools could shock prospective students with rejection letters they didn't expect.

One silver lining: For top students, getting into the elite business schools may not be any harder. After all, says Peter Johnson, the executive director of admissions at Berkeley's Haas School of Business' full-time MBA program, "An increase in the number of applicants does not mean an increase in the quality." 

2. International students are going to find loans tough

 

International students face a new obstacle after the rigorous process of getting into a B-school has long passed. With the credit crunch, student loan programs are tightening up or disappearing entirely. For instance, this fall, Citibank (C) cancelled its CitiAssist loan program. That means many international students are out of luck unless they have lived in the U.S. or have a co-signer here.

The cutbacks have some administrators stumped. Rosemaria Martinelli, admissions director of the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, says that fixes to the problem are only short term and the school is still searching for a solution. Still, Martinelli remains committed to a diverse student body.

Besides the near impossibility of getting loans, international students face difficulties after they get their degrees. In a weak market, where companies have the luxury of sifting through more applicants, international students may find it even harder to obtain scarce H1-B work visas.

The end result: the continuation of a trend in which more and more students are choosing to go to business school in their home countries. 

3. Quitting a job is risky

 

People in steady, well-paying jobs have always had to weigh the benefits of quitting to attend business school. This is especially true in a down economy, when no one knows what the job market will look like in two years. Viable options now include either putting off the MBA or joining a part-time program while staying employed.

According to Judith Hodara, admissions director at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, prospective students most frequently ask about opportunities for summer internships and post-graduation employment and are both "nervous" and "concerned."

Traditionally, students who quit jobs at the start of a recession graduate with an MBA when the economy is in an upswing. But no one is able to predict with certainty how long this recession will last.

Erin Nickelsburg, admissions director at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Business, said that predictors of the "opportunity cost" of going to business school in a downturn have been skewed by the apparent end of big salaries and juicy bonuses in investment banking.

Still, Nickelsburg warns that opportunities could be missed, as well. "Not making an investment in yourself can turn around and haunt you when the economy goes back up," she said. 

4. The learning is still valuable

 

While the return on investment on an MBA is still up in the air, no one is disputing that what you learn in business school will be extremely valuable as the economy recovers. Case studies have new meaning, now that executives face tougher decisions and large-scale business problems.

According to Chicago's Martinelli, now is a "cool time to study this, learn from this position, and figure out how you can add value"—meaning it's a great time to be able to learn about not just hypothetical but real issues.

Still, students may need to adjust their career goals and possibly their salary expectations. "This is a good time to park yourself in an MBA program and build up your portfolio of intellectual capital," says David Wilson, GMAC's president. "Graduates will emerge in two years or so and be in a different market."

Link cited: http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/nov2008/bs2008114_924879.htm

Conflict-destructive and constructive outcomes- important for management as well as organization

As a matter of fact, there have a lot of components affecting the outcome of a conflict situation in which communication makes up a large portion. Whether or not the situation become destructive or constructive depends largely on how people communicate during the time when conflict happen. In other words, language manner decide what direction conflict will go.

According to many research, communication behaviors, represented by the way we communicate, can make the conflict better or worse. In case people involving are calm enough to focus on the main problem only, they tend to use appropriate language that does no harm to each other. There are also limitations in the intensity of words they use; therefore conflict escalation has no chance to happen. For instance, in a family argument about the irresponsibility of family member, parents and children appear to be controllable. Children show the respect to their parents even when disagreement exists. On the other side, they sat together and focus on the problem: who is irresponsible and what should that member do to make things better. They use selected words and they think before speaking it out. As a result, the conflict has a very constructive outcome where every member realizes the problem and they try to solve it by trying on their own. Gradually, by appropriate manner and language, we can be sure that conflict will be completely solved.

Conversely, in such situations where people cannot control their mood, conflicts seem to be tenser. Destructive outcome is the negative side of language’s impact on conflict. Instead of using appropriate manner, the misbehavior can fuel the conflict seriously. Under the circumstance, people tend to attack others verbally by trying to find others’ personally matters rather than concentrating on the main problem. In every argument, there has very little percent that people calm down to separately understand the main problem. On the contrary, they often make the conflict tenser by beating around the bush, attacking the opponents or forcing each other to take the responsibilities. For instance, there is conflict in a department of an organization. This monthly productivity decreased considerably. Of course the fault does not belong to only one person. In contrast, each one in the organization has to be responsible. However, the manager tried to blame his staff for counterproductive while his employees thought in mind that the manager’s capacity was not good enough. Gradually, conflict cannot be solved because they did not have suitable behavior communication, which led to the decreasing productivity then. Unsolved conflict leads to destructive consequences. Not only the conflict keeps happening and increasing but it also cause bad impacts on things surrounding.