Some Job Ads this Morning ?

   Monster’s name is well chosen since this website is the world # 1 for jobboards – these websites specializing in job search and on which you can leave your CV.      

The Monster Virtual Job Fair allows you, from your armchair, to :    

• visit virtual stands
• find out detail information about the participating companies and the jobs they offer
• to chat with employers and professional recruiters
• to let your CV on the “stand” of an interesting company
• to apply online for an attracting new job

   All of this will be free, from the 27th to the 29th of September 2010 !     

   Click here and you’ll be able to not only visit the fair, but to subscribe as well to this event !     

Marco Bertolini proposes you a new workshop in the Hub Brussels : Mind Mapping Basics for Students.  This is all about how to improve your study skills by using the mind mapping techniques and an opensource mind mapping software : XMind.  Summarize books and documents, take better notes, give a better structure to your assessments, improve your memory, prepare oral and written examinations, and much more.

First, we’ll learn the basic principles of mind mapping :

- radiant and associative thinking

- hierarchy and structure

- keywords and pictures

- branches and space structure

MM workshop program

Then, you’ll design your first mind map on paper :

- about you and… No, we don’t want to tell to much now ! -We’ll explore together some ways to structure your documents, to take efficient notes, to analyze and organize your courses, to prepare your exams…    

We’ll use XMind

Which is a opensource mind mapping software that you can use during and after the workshop. Let’s discover how to organize things and events with the time and tasks features of this amazing sofware !

Bring along your laptop and we will give you the program for free !

Looking forward to learn together,

Marco Bertolini.

(Marco Bertolini has been working as a trainer and human resources consultant for more than 20 years.  Now,co-founder of the Lingua Franca Foundation, he dedicates his time and passion to innovative training methods such as mind mapping, visual thinking, framegames, etc.  He applies these awesome techniques to job search, business set up and learning efficiency.  He is also a member of the team which is currently translating the XMind software into French).

Practical information

On Saturday 25th September 2010 at from 9.30 AM to 5.30 PM

At the Hub Brussels – rue du Prince Royal 37

1050 Brussels – See Google Maps

Buy your Ticket here

More info on info@linguafrancaacademy.org

Discover also our conference on this subject !

]]> http://linguafrancafoundation.org/2010/08/29/our-new-workshop-mind-mapping-basics-for-students/feed/ 2 marcobertolini MM Workshop http://linguafrancafoundation.org/2010/08/29/improve-your-study-skills-with-mind-mapping/ http://linguafrancafoundation.org/2010/08/29/improve-your-study-skills-with-mind-mapping/#comments Sun, 29 Aug 2010 15:10:57 +0000 Marco Bertolini http://linguafrancafoundation.org/?p=1594 Continue reading →]]> How can mind mapping help you to succeed with your studies ?  What advantage can visual thinking tools give you ?

These are the themes we will explore through a conference and a workshop at the Hub Brussels in September.

Firstly, let’s focus on the conference.

People usually say that we use 10 % of our brain capacities.  That is totally untrue.  The brain is an awesome organic machine that brings to work millions of neurones at the same time.  But we use it in different ways according to our genre, our age, our culture.

And we can use it in better ways !

Our brain is composed of two hemispheres but our education and our school training favors only one of them : the left brain.  Which is the rational, sequential and logical part of our brain.  But there is another part, the right one, which is more intuitive, associative and which grasps everything in one go.  The picture here below perfectly illustrates that partition of our brains.

Most of the time, men use their left brain, while women tend to use both hemispheres at the same time.  Mind mapping reconciles us with a more holistic use of our grey matter : with its very logical and hierarchical structure, its stimulates the left brain, while the use of keywords, pictures and colours tickles our right brain and enhances our creativity skills.

Mind mapping, with its radiant and associative thinking also helps you to memorize better, which for students is a real gift : with the support of mind mapping, visual and lateral thinking techniques, you will learn faster and remember for a longer time.  Isn’t that good news ?

During this conference, we will :

• discover together the principles of mind mapping
• find out why it works
• how students can best use it for :
  • taking efficient notes  
  • structuring documents,
  • memorizing courses
  • preparing exams

• see what you can get from mind mapping softwares
• And much more !

Practical informations

Buy your ticket here

More info on info@linguafrancaacademy.org

Discover our Workshop too !

Now, it is Dr Naif Al-Mutawa himself who is the invited speaker of a new TED talk about his own creation.

In this funny and fascinating conference, Dr Al-Mutawa shows how American superheroes were inspired by biblical myths and values, christian archtypes that resonated with the American society positive values.

He created the 99 with the same kind of idea in mind.  In fact, the superheroes embody the 99 attributes of God, Allah : mercy, generosity and so on.  For instance, Jabbar, The Powerful; Noora, The Light; Darr, The Afflicter; Jami, The Assembler; Widad, The Loving; Fattah, The Opener, etc.  So far, not all of the 99 characters have been unveiled.  Each of the 99 is living in a different country which makes the series a kind of universal story.

Another link with Western culture is the recruits Dr Al-Mutawa brought in his project : these are all aknowledged artists in the comic books industry.  There is Fabian Nicieza, writer of the X-Men and Power Rangers ; Dan Panosian, characters creator for the X-Men ; Stuart Moore, best known as the writer for Iron Man; June Brigman, illustrator for StarWars and Supergirl; Ron Wagner,  illustrator for Batman and DareDevil; and, last but not least, John Mc Crea, who was an inker for the late Spiderman…  No wonder if the drawing looks so familiar to the superheroes series readers !

What is fascinating in this series, is the combination of different cultural elements : the characters are Allah’s attribute, but the Noor Stones (the “Light” Stones, in Arabic) are the ones which chose you and not the opposite, and that’s what Dr Al-Mutawa calls the “King Arthur element of the story line”.  The medium itself, the comic book, is a Western form of art and the chosen artists are mainly of Western origin or background.  If the values conveyed in this series are inspired by Islam, they are actually universal : generosity, knowledge, tolerance, freedom.  Who on earth would deny such a set of values ? (Perhaps some extremists, who are likely to be found everywhere, in whichever society…). 

Amazingly, Dr Al-Mutawa’s the 99 readers include President Obama  who praised the the importance of these characters in spreading tolerance and open-mindedness.  He said about the 99 , as a response of his Cairo Speech to the Muslim World : “I have to say, perhaps the most innovative response was from Dr Naif Al-Mutawa, from Kuwait. [...] His comic books have captured the imagination of so many young people with superheroes that embodied the teaching of tolerance of Islam.”

The 99 are now a 26 episode animated TV series and Kuwait built a theme park called The 99 Village Theme Park.

But for Dr Al-Mutawa, the importance doesn’t lay in publishing success. Being responsible of a training program for the survivors of political torture in Bellevue Hospital (New York), he knows what intolerance means.  And for him, it is the spreading of positive elements about Islam and the understanding between cultures that matters.

You can download your free copy of the first episode, THE 99 Origins, just by cliking here.

Yes, Germany is looking for 65.000 skilled workers and cannot find them in the homeland.  So it is calling for volunteers from abroad.

Why is that ?

Well there are several reasons :

1. Germany is the first exporting country in the world.  And it doesn’t export much raw material but manufactured goods and high value services. 
2. Germany has developed a protection policy for its workers and the recent economic crisis hardly affected its employment rate contrary to most European countries which are still facing high unemployment figures.
3. The German population is growing older and many of the so called “baby boomers” are going to retire very soon.  The current birthrate is not sufficient to replace people who are retiring, so the country is compelled to called for foreign skilled workers in order to sustain its huge and competitive industry…

What kind of workers are they searching for ?

 They are mostly looking for workers in these for fields :

1. Computer sciences
2. Natural sciences
3. Mechanics
4. Mathematics

What are the required procedure to work there ?

For workers from EU Member States, there are no special requirements : they can live and work in Germany without staying and/or working permit.  For people from outside EU (Chinese, Indian or Brasilian workers or students), authorities are considering creating a new specific working permit for skilled workers, something similar to the Canadian procedure.  So far, it is not clear if this will be the so-called European Blue Card or some local new system…

To discover more on visas and permit you can visit this page for tips or the official page of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany.

What are the working conditions in Germany ?

Actually, German working conditions are among the best in Europe :

•  Salary : German wages are amongst the highest in Europe.  German workers are well organized and their trade unions negotiate pay rises each year.
• Time tables : Germans seldom work more than 8 hours per day and it is forbidden to stay more than 10 hours at your workplace. 

What are the advantages and inconvenients ?

With the German wages you can really have a comfortable life.  German salaries generally come with some extra advantages such as company car, telephone, laptop, health insurances and so on.  The German welfare system is very generous and taxes vary according to your salary but also according to your family situation (working partner, number of children, etc.).

 Food tend to be cheaper than in France for instance, but it is also less varied.  As Germany hosts the broadest Turkish community in Europe, you can easily find halal food. 

Housing is rather cheap compared to European prices.   The heating cost are a little higher than in France or Belgium, but generally the German installations are more recent and therefore consume less energy.  Most German cities have plenty of green spaces, cultural and sports resorts.

The language, with its everlasting changing cases,  is pretty difficult : but, generally, people talk or at least understand English.  Germans, like Dutch people, tend to be pretty direct.  They also speak very loud : you get the impression they are always scolding you.  No : they just talk.  For people of Asian or Latin origin, this can be a little bit disturbing, but after a while you get used to it…

So we can say, that Germany can be a thriving and exciting experience for young skilled workers…

Some more tips to find a job in germany

To find a job anywhere in the European Economic Space, you can visite the Eures website.  For young Europeans who would like to discover the working life in another European country, the European Commission proposes stages through its Leonardo Program.

The main job boards have their own page in Germany, as StepStones or Monster.

WikiLeaks defines itself as “a multi-jurisdictional public service designed to protect whistleblowers, journalists and activists who have sensitive materials to communicate to the public.” (Definition given in the introduction of the main website : clic here to access to this page).

The website gained an enormous popularity since it published secret documents related to the war in Afghanistan.  Since then it has been relentlessy attacked and criticized by American officials and the Pentagon – the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense – in particular.

Today, other voices joined to denounce the Website lack of “consideration about civilian lives“.  According to weekly magazine Time, Human Right groups sent letters to WikiLeaks to asked for the name of civilian people to be redacted to avoid further reprisals from the Talibans.  These groups comprise The Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, the Open Society Institute (the foundation of George Soros, the American billionaire of Hungarian origin)  and the International Crisis Group.

 Amnesty International, which in 2009 attributed a rewards for defence of the human rights toWikiLeaks, contacted the responsible of  the website to discuss about the issue of civilian protection.  But Suzanna Flood, the spokeperson of the organization, still didn’t say if Amnesty would endeavour some work of censorship with WikiLeaks.

Other attacks come from some blooger who accuse Julian Assange to blackmail “Amnesty International and other human rights groups for $700,000 to remove names of Afghan civilians who might get killed by the Taliban if their names get released on Wikileaks“.  But these “revelations” don’t seem to me to correspond to WikiLeaks philosophy and I would discard them until further verification, which I doubt…

Last minute info

Julian Assange, now in Stockholm ( Sweden) for a seminar, announces that WikiLeaks will release the new 15.000 documents on Afghanistan war as planned, despite warnings from the U.S. government.

Assange said “innocent parties who are under reasonable threat” would be redacted from the material.

During the seminar itself, some participants called the Safety Net Project an Eye-Opener !  We are very honored to be perceived as such !      

But what is it about ? 

Event before we created the Lingua Franca Foundation, we were worried about the fate of some Asian women we saw in dire strait around us, in the Netherland.  Some of them divorced in the most desperate – and more often then not – violent conditions.    We decided to react and to create a specific project to help these women : the Safety Net Project (more details about this project in these pages).      

 This project in multidimensional, we aim to contribute to :      

• prevention
• coaching, training & networking
• aid & empowerment
• information & training of the welcoming countries institutions
• partnership   

We went all the way to Malaysia and organize this seminar in order to reach two of these goals :      

• prevention : by giving the participants information about life in Europe and how to get married, to work or to set up a business there in the best possible conditions
• partnership : we wanted to meet NGO’s, local authorities and companies to agree on common resources and actions 

We coudn’t have done half of it without the patience and invaluable support of our local partner : Hotel Abadi Sdn Bhd (Hotel Abadi Melaka).  So we are deeply thankful to these wonderful people who helped to make this seminar a successful event !      

If you missed this seminar, here are the presentations we made that day :     

First, an introduction to the program of the day.      

Then, Suzi started the real presentation with a Prezi about the Lingua Franca Foundation and the Safety Net Project itself. (Cick on t the presentation).       

Safety Net Project Prezi

I, then, followed with a short (and boring, I warned you, people !) Prezi on Europe and its institutions…      

Europe Prezi

After that, I gave the floor back to Suzi who then presented the first part of this Powerpoint on Moving to Europe : she explained the European rules regarding marriage and relationship.  Everybody needed a pause after such an intense morning work  and we all enjoyed the delicious Malaysian cuisine served in the hotel restaurant before I presented the sequel of this combination of Mind mapping and PowerPoint about working and setting up a business in Europe.      

Frame Game : learning with fun 

After more than a half day of presentations, we all needed to move.   The (in)famous disease ALSS (After Lunch Sleeping Syndrom) was threatening everybody in the seminar room and we started the Frame Game : Let’s Net Together !      

This game is a personal adaptation of a Thiagi’s Frame Game.  We distributed 4 cards to the participants and asked them to write 4 items about the question : What can people expect from a project like Safety Net ?        

The goal was to collect the ideas of the group, to broaden our scope regarding the aims of the project and to validate our assumptions about the needs of people and the actions we started.        

We then collected all the cards.  We mixed them up and gave back two cards to each participant.        

They had to place their cards in order of preference.  If they didn’t like their cards, they could exchange them with the rest of the cards, which laid on a table.      

Then, the participants could exchange their remaining cards with another or several participants.  As much cards they wished, but one for one.        

We then asked them to read other people’s card and to gather with the ones who have the closest statements on their card to form several groups.  Three groups resulted of these exchanges, of very different sizes, between two and ten people !         

We, then, prompted the participants to determine the 3 favorite cards of each group.         

When this has been done, we proposed them to present their choice to the rest of the participants.  But… there were some rules they have to respect :         

• no words, no letters 
• No figures and as few symbols as possible 

• draw
• sing, but without lyrics
• mime
• imitate the noise of object 

After a few minutes of hesitations, all the groups endeavour their work with a great fun and a lot of creativity : we had drawings, mime, song (national anthems) and noise (a plane taking off and landing), etc.         

And we got the answers to our questions : yes, the Safety Net Project is an interesting one, it’s a eye-opener, it can give the right information, it can make life easier for people going abroad.     But it could also help student to move abroad, it could  make more taylored conferences and seminars for targeted audiences, it could give handouts at the end of the day, and so on…

 We

 We ended the day by thanking the participants for their pretty good job and with a warning : you thought you could get rid of us so easily, but actually we could be back at the end of the year, with a new conference…   

  Click to view slideshow.     

it’s time for us to reveal

 The Safety Net Project is a program associated between Lingua  Lingua Franca Foundation and Hotel Abadi Sdn Bhd (Hotel Abadi Melaka) to promote safe and harmonious ‘win-win’ international exchanges as well as diversity between nations. This project aims to deal with domestic violence against women from abroad and to help them to integrate in the welcoming country or to go back safely to their country of origin and to inform local authority, potential partners and contributors of the current situation and what plans for improvement. It is also a discussion platform for future collaboration from both sides to promote and maintain the durability of the project.

 “  Somebody you know may need these information badly. The speakers are people with first hand experience on the subject, and have worked with people with similar predicaments. The lesson from their experience is that some problems can be prevented, and it is best if you are prepared before making that big decision! Read the brochure to find out more! “

REGISTER NOW TO SECURE YOUR SEAT

Click here if you wish to pay with the credit card

To enable you to be from where you are  to where you want to be, you have move. Yes! Move. Move from one side to another, and one place to another. Just, literally…move.

Making contact is like building a bridge. It connects you from one end to the other. Once you cross the bridge, there is no turning back. Along the way, you will encounter little stops that either help you build a bigger picture of what you want to construct or just simply destroy what you hope to build. It’s as simple as that. If your journey helps you to build and contruct, then once you implement all the information, you are able to lay down some structure later. These structures will help you re-build your global-view plans so that you can narrow them down to more concrete measures and whence, you manage to see what you can and cannot accomplish.

Using this concept, I decided to extend the Foundation’s bridge to another continent; initiating new projects so that the Foundation can continue to pursue and develop its goals. Knowing I will find new territories, I packed my bags; along with the toys donated by the kids4kids club for the needy children, off I went to the country with the oldest rain forest in the world. The moment I touched down at the international airport, I realised that this country has a lot of potential. Upholding their slogan, Truly Asia; Malaysia is not only enriched with multinationals and culture, but also considered as one of the well-developed countries in the Asian continent.

During my stay in Kuala Lumpur, I have engaged with several types of crowd; from business to politics, and  journalists to hotel management. Between us, I could see that we have one thing in common: to make contact and to expand our bridges. We share the same vision: to expand our horizons and to globalize our mission. We want to reach out beyond our borders and we want (and hope) to do it together.

One of the main cores of the Foundation is education.  The Foundation wishes to establish an international learning network to connect and get the best out of both worlds. The Foundation strongly believes that education plays an enormous role in stripping the veil of ignorance and naivety, thus assist our evolving mind to be more responsible and productive. Connecting two worlds by creating a bridge and a platform would be a big project for the Foundation – such project can only be achievable through constant networking and getting international partners for full-time involvement.

Another project is to introduce one of our activities to the Asian audience – The Safety Net Project. This special project has been under experimental in the Netherlands since the middle of 2009 and we are hoping to launch it officially somewhere in Kuala Lumpur. The Foundation hopes that the meeting with a few relevant and motivated people will be fruitful and the project will be introduced to the public in the up coming months. The project is targeted mostly for women audience and how to exercise prevention and educating women their rights, responsibilities and capacity. The Foundation is promoting safe international exchanges between the West and East; and by trying to connect both worlds, women from all over are able to participate in a programme to learn to grow out of naivety and being motivated at the same time.  

Besides trying to make proper introduction about the Foundation’s activities, I have taken the opportunity to launch our first international exchange project. Kids4kids club (a club formed by the Foundation) has been active in collecting toys for the needy children since January 2010 and my journey to Malaysia has enable me to deliver the hard work the children have poured into to make this charity project a success. I have brought more than 20 kilos worth of toys to be distributed to several needy children from everywhere in West Malaysia.

Doing charity work is part of the Foundation’s establishment. I wish that this charity project will always exist and continue throughout the existance of Lingua Franca Foundation.

“  You give but little when you give of your possession. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give ”      

A truly beautiful and worthy quote. Something we all ought to carve onto our hearts indefinitely. Plenty of hearts out there are blackened by the stubborness of penurious and greediness. This is hard to swallow but true in reality. Most people take things all for granted. Plenty of us totally ignore, and some even forget that countless of people out there are so unfortunate, naked and beggared from all the necessities which we humans need to survive. Sadly to say, most of them are children.

 It is not easy to lean a hand, or even to part with some of your precious belongings and (worse!) offer them to anybody who truly needs it. The first thought that usually comes to mind is that: hey, this belongs to me. I worked day and night for this, why should I give it to someone else?  There is a lot of truth in that sentence. People who genuinely work day and night to support themselves and families, they too, deserve to have ‘something’  in life.  Who’s to say that they shouldn’t? However, everybody deserves to have that little ‘something’ too. Nobody deserves any less. After all, part of life is giving…

One thing that all hard working people have in common is that they tend to accumulate material things. Yes, they do. They start spending what they thought they need and most of these ‘stuff’ are all piled up somewhere, either in the attic, or closets, or in the basement, or garages etc. The point is: they collect, they accumulate, they gather. Up to a point where there is no return for some people !

But, seriously! Do they actually need all of these things? Some say, yes, some say, not really, and some even say NO. Imagine, collecting all those things just to say NO at the end. NOPE, I don’t really use it actually. I have no freaking idea why I bought the thing. Shocking, isn’t it? To think that people spent enormous amount of money to buy things they do NOT need.

What about toys? Is that luxurious goods or neccessity? To the ‘little people’, toys are considered as a neccessity. I am not referring to the luxurious, too sophisticated, high-tech toys that only the children of the Rich and Famous could afford. I am talking about the real simple toys. Toys help children to grow and to nourish. Toys also build bridges between children no matter where they are. I am saying this because two of the co-founders of the kids4kids club (created under the Lingua Franca Foundation) have decided that they, too, want to participate in the act of giving.

In order to promote diversity and international exchanges, the Lingua Franca Foundation has gone another step further with it’s activities.  This time, the kids4kids club have decided to part with their beloved toys and give them to other needy children who are at the other side of the globe.  Besides parting with their own toys, they have also collected toys from other children who share the same idea and philosophy  - help and give to other needy children. The children have been collecting toys since January 2010 and have piled up over more than 50 kilos worth of toys (soft, wodden, plastic etc).

Finally, the Lingua Franca Foundation is very proud to annouce that…

On the 10th of  May 2010, the Lingua Franca Foundation has taken it’s wings and flown all the way to the eastern part of the globe : a country called Malaysia. There, Lingua Franca Foundation has marked it’s first donation by giving away their first batch of toys (collected by the kids4kids club) to the director of  Hotel Abadi – a hotel which is located in the state of Melaka.

 This hotel is conducting a special on-going campaign to help distribute used toys and clothing to the poor and needy children in Malaysia. This is an on-going project, therefore, the kids4kids club will continue to collect more toys and also chilren’s clothing for the needy children.

We are also calling for more volunteers who are willing to help gather more toys and children’s clothing in their area. We are also hoping for more collaboration with schools and other institutions for more help.

 If you, your child, your family, your child’s school, your workplace, or anybody who you know, want to participate in this noble project, please contact us by clicking here,

and if you want to support our work by donation, please click here.