Friday, 29 July 2011

GOOD MANNERS IN TURKEY




Turkey is a big county, with 70 million people, it's a mixture of European and Arabic culture.


GREETINGS

About greetings, they have an European behavior when they meet someone for first time, they kiss on both cheeks and after that they shake hands.

CLOTHES

In Turkey, they can wear European clothes or Arabic style, if they are Arabic they have to be careful, specially women, who can't show their body. They must wear clothes that cover their body an also a head scarf.

FOOD AND DRINK

It's well-known that the most typical food in turkey is the Kebab, but they have an types of food that you can imagine. However, you shouldn't eat pork, if you want to respect their religion. In restaurants you must tip 10% of the bill, but is only in the most expensive restaurants. If you are over 18, you are lucky, because you can buy and drink whatever you want.


CELEBRATIONS

They only celebrate religious holidays and New Year's party which is celebrated by half of the population. On this day, they have the dinner with their family and they give presents to each others.

Good Manners in Turkey


Hi! I'm going to write about my partner's country and their customs and traditions.



  • Greetings:

In Turkey you have to shake hands when you meet somebody. Although with your friends you can kiss on both cheeks and have physical contact between men a women.

  • Clothes:

It is not an obligation for women to wear a head scarf. However, some women wear it for their religion. Apart from this, everybody can wear all kinds of clothes, even shorts ans skirts.

  • Food and drink:

They eat three times a day: breakfast, dinner and lunch. For breakfast they drink tea and orange juice and eat eggs. For lunch they have salads, hamburgers, toast, kebabs and other things. Finally, for dinner, their most important meal, they eat soup, salads and meat like chicken and kebabs.

  • Culture:

In Turkey there are various religions. It is the most important thing about their culture, although they don't have to pray daily like in other places.

  • In public:

They have rules from the government such as they must not smoke in public buildings, but you are allowed smoke outside.


QATAR


Qatar is a small country, the capital of Qatar is Doha. There are big buildings in the centre but in the suburbs, there are a lot of big house.

About greetings, they kiss on both cheeks or shake hands, it depends on their relationship.

Everyday, men wears a thawb and women sometimes wear an abaya, but they don't only wear that in work with uniform (police...).

In Qatar, people don't eat pork or drink wine, because their religion doesn't allow it. They go to the Mosque five times every week. People in Qatar try to help poor people or other poor countries though their religion.

About their houses, everybody has maids and drivers. Normally, a house has three or four big living-rooms.

In public, you can't drink in the street and you can't smoke inside.

Qatar is a beautiful country to visit.


Good Manners in Thailand.






I'm going to give you some advice about things you should or shouldn't do if you go to Thailand.






Greetings-->How should you behave when you meet someone for the first time? In Thailand, the greeting is made by pressing both hands together at the chest, as if you're praying and bowing your head slightly, eye contact is avoided as a sign of respect.



Clothes--> All kinds of clothes are acceptable, except when you go to the temple,you need polite dress.



Food and Drink--> In Thailand, dinner is often the biggest meal of the day. Every meal is served with rice., but in Thailand can eat every food. Tipping in a restaurant depends on the person.



Culture--> In the winter, they have Songkran to celebrate the new year. And in November, Long Kralong, when they apologise to Kong Ha.



Body Language--> In Thailand, one person can't touch the head of another person and eye

contact is avoided as a sign of respect.



In Public--> In Thailand, they can't smoke in public.



Rules--> They've a special law for speed, they mustn't drive faster than 120 km/hour , which is the same as in Spain.

Good Manners In Spain


If you want to travel to Spain, you need to know about good manners in this country. Here are some things you should know and some things you should avoid.


Greetings in Spain are normally the same as other western countries. They shake hands to say hello but the Spanish also kiss friends on both cheeks.


For clothes, you can wear whatever you want to wear because in Spain there are no specific rules for your clothes. But on special occasions you should wear smart clothes.


For food and drinks, the Spanish eat lunch as the main meal of the day. And when you are there you should try 'tapas', the traditional Spanish food. And it's not necessary to tip after you finish your meal.


For culture, in February there is a carnival in Spain where people wear different clothes. It is fantastic to come at this time. Another celebration is New year when the Spanish eat 12 grapes because they want a wish from god and 1 grape means 1 wish.


For regulation, it's the same as other countries, there is a speed limit, you mustn't drive more than 120 km./h. And you can't smoke indoors but you can smoke in public.

Monday, 25 July 2011

a little bit of descriptive writing...


So...this is my first blog entry on the Berlitz Manchester blog. As homework we had to do some descriptive writing about a scene we could choose. Our teacher Joel then had the idea to post it on the blog. So here is mine:

The children were laying on the parched ground like dead animals in the shadow of a small tree. It was too hot and too exhausting to run around and have fun. But something was different that day and they could feel it. The air was salty and oppressive. Suddenly a wind came up and blew dark and heavy clouds across the sky. Big rain drops fell on the ground and the children began to jump around like animals driven wild because they were so excited. It seemed like the rain was breathing new life into them while you could hear the heavy drops knocking on the dusty roof...

First signs

Yeah, actually our teacher, Joel, gave us this as a homework. We had to write a short scene with lots of adjectives and so on.
At that moment I was thinking of my prospective Croatian holiday with my family and boyfriend and that`s why I wrote this below. But at that moment I didn`t know that my boyfriend can`t come with us because there isn`t enough place for one more person. But here is the scene:

"They are staring at the sea, which is as glittering, because of the rising sun, as his almond-shaped diamond eyes. He looks at her softly, his face warms up the chilling purplish red dawn. They can speak without words, even a small smile is enough to show their eternal love. They are breathing the fresh mediterraenan air as if they were breathing their first breath in this very moment.
They are holding each others` hands tightly as though they never want to release them. They are sitting close with the mysterious shadow of the silence, but a good silence, called happiness. It is crystal clear that they belong to each other like a pair of shoes: existence without the other can`t be imagined. He is smiling happily, breathing her sweet perfume and all he wants to do is to stop time to be with the girl he loves more than anything in this colorful world."

The beginning of a story




It was an enormous shopping mall. The warm feeling of Christmas was present in the air. The noisy chatter of school children could be heard from a distance like the sound of victorious soldiers returning from war. It was snowing crazily outside and lots of people were at the mall to pick up lovely presents for their loved ones. The mall attendants were dressed in funny looking Santa Claus costumes and a group of people were singing a cheerless Christmas carol, their voices like a choir of birds singing on a sunny morning.

Wednesday, 20 July 2011

CLINT EASTWOOD


- BIOGRAFY


Claint Eastwood was born on 31 May 1930, in San Francisco. He is an american film director, actor, producer, compositor and politician. Eastwood has fathered at least seven children by five diferent women and because of this, he has benn described as a 'serial womanizer'.

Despite appearing to smoke in many of his films, Eastwood is a life-long non-smoker, he has been concious of his health and fotness since he was teenager. However, on 21 July 1970 his father died unexpectly of a heat attack at the age of 64.

Eastwood is an audiophile and has had a strong passion for music all his life. He particularly favours jazz and country and western music and is a pianist and conposer. Jazz has played an important role in Eastwood's life from a young age even he has he own Warner Bros Records dristributed imprint Malpaso Records.


- HIS CAREER


He started his career as film actor working in a spaguetti western film. Some films he has worked are Unforgiven, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and For a few dollar more. After work in several films he decided create his own company called 'Malpaso Productions'. Since he created his own company he has been working as film director and producer doing films such as Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino or Hereafter.

Eastwood has recibed some awards for his films. The most important award was The Academy Award for The Million Dollar Baby and Unforgiven.





IKER CASILLAS' LIFE


He was born on 20 May in 1981 in Mostoles (Madrid). His father is a civil servant and his mother is a hairdresser.

When he was a child he lived for 4 years in Basque Country, but he is from Madrid.

He has one brother younger than him, called Unai.

He started playing in Real Madrid when he was 8 years old as a goalkeeper.

He debuted in 1998 in “San Mames” (Spanish stadium). In 2002, he played the World Cup in Japan because Cañizares broke his leg. Casillas was 21 years old, he was a baby, but he showed that he will be the bestn in the future.

He won 2 UEFA's cup, 4 Leagues,... and 14 Individuals awards.

At the moment he is the captain of R.Madrid and Spanish team. He won European Cup in 2008 and he won the World Cup last year in South Africa.

At the momenthe lives with Sara Carbonero, a Spanish journalist.

Iker Casillas has two NGO in Africa, he helps poor girls and little children.

He is the best goalkeeper in the world and his heart is very big and good.

One of his dreams is finishing his carreer in his team.

Muhammad Ali

Casius Marcelus Clay was born in 1942 in Kentuky.
He was a famous boxer, he won three World hevyweigh champion and he won the Gold Medal light heavyweigh in 1960 in the Olympics Games in Rome.
He changed his real name after join the nation of islam in 1975. He refused to be conscripted into U.S. army based on his religious beliefs and oposition to Vietnam war.
He was arrested and founded guilty on draft evasion charges,his box licensed was suspend, and he was four years without fighting.

Gregor Mendel

Gregor Johann Mendel was an Austrian Augustinian friar and scientist, who gained posthumous fame as the fonder of the new science of genetics for his study of the inheritance of certain traits in pea plants.


He was born 20th of July of 1822 into an ethnic German family in Heizendorf bei Odrao, now Czech Republic. He had two sisters, one older and other younger than him.

During his childhood, Mendel worked as a gardener, studied beekeeping, and as a young man attended Gymnasium in Opava. Later, from 1840 to 1843, he studied philosophy and physics. In 1843 Mendel began his training as a priest and entered the Augustinian Abbey of St. Thomas in Brno.


File:Bazilika nanebevzetí panny Marie.jpg

Gregor Mendel is known as the father of modern genetics. He studied variation in plants and he conducted his study in the monastery's garden. Between 1856 and 1863 Mendel cultivated and tested some 29,000 pea plants. After Mendel completed his work with peas, he turned to experimenting with honeybees, in order to extend his work to animals. He also described novel plant species.


At first Mendel's work was rejected, and it was not widely accepted until he died, in the early twentieth century. In the 1930s and 1940s the modern synthesis combined Mendelian genetics with Darwin's theory of natural selection.

Mendel died on 6th of January of 1884 from chronic nephritis.

If Mendel were alive, today it would be his 189th birthday, as you can see on Google.


Monday, 4 July 2011

Social Media as a Marketing Tool

Have you ever joked, had fun or expressed your ideas and thoughts on the web? You probably think that social networking sites such as facebook, twitter and youtube are spaces where you can join a group, or criticise brands or politics freely. Nevertheless, this is far from the reality. More and more companies use social networking as a marketing tool.

Facebook alone has over 500 million registered users spending on average 700 billion minutes a month viewing this site. In addition, consumers frequenting social networking sites and consuming or contributing to this media, are growing up. With stats like this, marketers couldn't ignore this trend and miss out on an important communication media.

Furthermore, social media marketing has very positive benefits:

  • they are relatively inexpensive

  • they don't need additional staff

  • they are accessible to enable anyone (even private individuals) to publish or access information


However, marketers cleverly execute this kind of marketing because, while we are resistant to marketing in general, we are even more resistant to direct or overt marketing through social media platforms. This is the main reason why nowadays, marketers present themselves as social authorities with credibility. A marketer knows that we will not be receptive to a marketing message in and of itself.

In 2008, a survey reported that the majority (58%) of the respondents most trusted companies or product information coming from "people like me" while in 2010, the majority (64%)switched to preferring their information from industry experts and academics. Why this changing?

In the past, marketers used social media badly. They were asking their employees to take part in a forum, a group or a facebook page to avoid a negative image. The problem was that the employees were hiding the fact that they were working for the brand they were defending.

Once this strategy was discovered, companies started to work to be seen as social authorities with credibility.

What next?


All things considered, companies monitor social as well as traditional media to supply protection to their brand while lots of “social media gurus” like to talk about how social media is all about “joining the conversation” and “listening to the customers.” Social media is just another
marketing tool which has the same value as other marketing tools.