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COURSE CONTENT
There is more to good communication than language acquisition. EARTH can provide you with a whole new outlook on self-expression, the transfer of knowledge, and the overcoming of barriers to good communication.
- Keynote, Farewell, and Other Speeches - The writing and delivery of an interesting and informative speech that leaves your audience with a desire to hear more, learn more, and take action.
- Report Writing and Executive Summaries - The recording, gathering, organizing, analyzing, and compiling of facts, opinions, and experience in a manner that others can easily understand and as a result make informed decisions.
- Oral Presentation - The art of speech making and report writing combined with up-to-date technology to stir the imagination and promote a new product, service, process, concept, or requisite change.
- Channel and Format Selection - Choosing the wrong format, channel, or both can distort a message or even prohibit it from arriving at its proper destination. All messages contain noise and proper channel and format selection helps to overcome this barrier. Other factors such as cost, security, targeted audience, velocity, and the reliability of the communication are also important considerations that should be taken into account.
- Oral Communication and Body Language - When both sides are willing, each side has properly prepared, and the cost of coming together is efficient, there is no better way to communicate than with a direct physical presence.
- Written Communication - In the absence of direct and immediate feedback (online chat rooms) written communication is generally more difficult than oral communication. One must consider alternative ways in which your message can be interpreted, and thus be more selective about what you write. The margin for error is diminished.
- Negotiation - Like oral and written communication, speech making, and formal presentation, negotiation is an art with its own body of techniques. Learning these techniques can help you obtain whatever it is that someone else has with a minimum amount of sacrifice to yourself and a maximum amount of benefit to both.
- Cross-Cultural Communication - Some communication requires little or no thought with regard to cultural differences. Other communication requires a profound understanding of them. In general, knowing how to overcome these differences when they are surmountable, and how to circumvent or ignore them when they are not can greatly enhance your ability to do business with people of different ethnic or national origin.
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INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP LESSONS
Some individuals prefer one-on-one attention; others prefer to learn in the company of peers. EARTH is well prepared to offer both learning environments.
- INDIVIDUAL INSTRUCTION - This method of instruction is best for the following purposes:
- Language Maintenance - Language, like any acquired knowledge that is not utilized, can be easily forgotten.
This method of instruction is ideal for an individual who is already well-advanced in the language, but who has little opportunity to use it in his/her present situation.
- Examination Preparation - Are you preparing for an examination that is highly specialized and requires high-level language competence?
Talking and writing about probable examination topics in the presence of a knowledgeable partner, who can stimulate discourse and provide valuable critique is a useful preparation technique.
- Negotiation - Are you seeking a promotion, new contract, or competitive job assignment? Do you know your BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement)?
Negotiation is something that we enter into everyday of our lives. It is an art with a body of technique that you can practice and acquire with a partner.
- Writing Style and Format - Composition, like negotiation, is an art with an associated body of technique. This technique can be acquired without sacrifice of personal style. Simply you must be clear about the difference between the two, and the role that each plays in the effective transmission of messages.
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- GROUP LESSONS
- Presentation Skills - There is no better way to improve your presentation skills than to practice before a live audience who is able and willing to provide you with the valuable feedback you require to improve.
A small group of 3 to 5 people with a knowledgeable and experienced instructor to coordinate and guide activities is a great way to learn your strengths and weaknesses and your overall effectiveness in getting your message across to strangers.
- Grammar, Vocabulary, and Conversation - Language works because everyone follows the same rules of grammar and pronunciation and utilizes the same set of words and expressions when communicating.
There is no better way to improve you speaking skills than through practice in the presence of someone very knowledgeable about the language you are seeking to master. Group lessons are a cost effective way to achieve this in the absence of more casual conversation partners.
- Composition - Reading, conversation, and quality language references are the key to language learning. Casual conversation with other English speakers can likely provide you with all of the conversational practice and feedback for only the price of a beverage at a local restaurant, café or teahouse.
Few people are eager, however, to provide the kind of feedback necessary to become a good writer.
People with the same mother tongue acquiring the same second language tend to make similar mistakes whose correction and explanation can be of benefit to everyone at a similar level of competence. Group lessons are ideally suited for this purpose.
- Phonetic and Phonemic Training - The ability to communicate verbally in a language requires a basic understanding of, and ability to produce, certain key sounds.
How to recognize and produce these sounds is well-suited for group lessons, because what is oral practice for the one, becomes listening practice for the many.
- Standard International Business Formats and Communication Channels - Like grammatical rules and vocabulary there exists in the international business and legal communities a fairly standard set of formats and channels shared by everyone for the purpose of verbal and written communication.
These standard rules and practices can easily be acquired in a group among one's peers. Their acquisition can greatly enhance your company's ability to communicate both internally and externally across ethnic and national borders.
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CUSTOMIZED LESSON PLAN
EARTH understands that no two people are alike and that each person’s communication needs, ability, and learning skills are different. Groups also have different identities, needs, and goals.
Customizing a lesson plan can be achieved in either of two ways depending on the client's wishes.
- PRE-COURSE PLANNING - Groups lessons are typically organized by companies, corporate personnel departments, business associations, private clubs, and government agencies for the purpose of enhancing the communication skills of their staff or members. As such, it is easy to plan ahead, as it is known in advance who will be participating and the group's anticipated objectives.
- MID-COURSE PLANNING - The autonomy of a group in determining the group's learning objectives depends, of course, on the way in which the group was organized and the agreement reached between the group's organizers and EARTH at the outset. In any case, EARTH remains open to suggestions from its students and the group's organizers with regard to changing course content and instructional design.
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TIME AND PLACE
You set the time and place, and EARTH will be there!
EARTH does its utmost to meet its client's time schedule. Factors to be taken into consideration when arranging times are the following:
- NUMBER OF CLASS HOURS - As EARTH provides on-site training travel time is an important consideration on the part of the course provider. Thus, clients who can offer the largest number of class hours per journey are given priority with regard to scheduling.
As the optimal class time varies with the individual and group, priority scheduling can be achieved by offering additional courses with the same or different people.
Break times are not considered lesson time, but they can play an important role in extending the number of classroom hours that student(s) and instructor spend for any given visit.
- TIME OF DAY and DAY OF WEEK - Although very flexible with regard to either, like any company, EARTH must honor its existing contracts before taking on new ones. As a result, flexibility on both sides with regard to new arrangements will always produce the best outcome for everyone.
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COURSE FEES
EARTH charges a standard fee of HK$490.00 per hour and yields an equivalent amount of service and customer satisfaction.
This fee is negotiable depending on the number of hours per journey, time of day, day of the week, classroom accommodations, and nature of the class.
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