Canada prepares for an Asian future

Chinese immigrants have flocked to Canada's west coast and transformed Vancouver into Canada's very own Asian metropolis. The days of concern over the city being turned into 'Hongcouver' have gone. What does the future hold for Canada's Asian population?

Shoppers stroll casually past a Lamborghini store in Richmond's Aberdeen Centre - a major Asian mall in this once sleepy Vancouver suburb known for its farmland and fishing village.

Outside the shopping centre, people are queuing at the many Chinese restaurants. In the local supermarkets, butchers are picking live seafood out of fish tanks, chopping off the heads, then gutting and packaging them up under the watchful eye of customers, almost exclusively Chinese-Canadian.

Richmond is North America's most Asian city - 50% of residents here identify themselves as Chinese. But it's not just here that the Chinese community in British Columbia (BC) - some 407,000 strong - has left its mark. All across Vancouver, Chinese-Canadians have helped shape the local landscape. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-radio-and-tv-18149316 

‘Mis-hires’ and how to avoid them

In today’s hyper-competitive business environment, organizations can ill afford to “mis-hire” – especially at the senior-most levels. Yet, bad hiring decisions are made all the time. These mis-hires are costly, disruptive, demoralizing and difficult to undo. The Globe and Mail spoke with executive recruiter Hart Hillman, senior partner leading the global technology search practice for the Bedford Group/Transearch International in Toronto, about finding Mr. or Ms. Right for those critical C-Suite roles.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/management/mis-hires-and-how-to-avoid-them/article5739340/ 

English or Hinglish - which will India choose?

Today's aspirational Indians want their children to go to a school where lessons are taught in English. But often the pupils leave speaking a language that would not be recognised in London or New York. Could this Hinglish be the language of India's future?

Why, half a century after Indian independence, does English remain the language of higher education, national media, the upper judiciary and bureaucracy and corporate business?

The answer is that India, unlike its rival Asian giant China, has no truly national language of its own. Hindi, the official language of central government, is an artificial and largely unspoken 20th Century construct.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20500312 

Hobson-Jobson: The words English owes to India

In 1872 two men began work on a lexicon of words of Asian origin used by the British in India. Since its publication the 1,000-page dictionary has never been out of print and a new edition is due out next year. What accounts for its enduring appeal?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18796493 

Facebook & Work: Will Friending Your Manager Help Your Career?

http://business.time.com/2012/11/07/facebook-work-will-friending-your-manager-help-your-career/

Nobody's Perfect Und beginne keinen Satz mit "und"

Wollen Sie Barack Obama etwa vorhalten, dass er nicht das Englisch der Queen spricht? Das gelingt doch nicht einmal der Queen selbst. Unser Lieblingsbrite Ian McMaster hört Amerikanern gern zu: Sie finden selbst ein Putensandwich phantastisch. And now let's switch to American English.

"Oh, you're from England, are you? So, are you related to the Queen?" I had no idea how to answer the woman in the coffee shop in Columbus, Ohio, where I had come to follow the recent US elections. 

http://www.spiegel.de/karriere/ausland/a-866419.html

Human Beings Are Getting Dumber, Says Study

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/11/15/research-suggests-humans-are-evolving-to-be-dumber/#ixzz2D3z1bOqk

http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/11/15/research-suggests-humans-are-evolving-to-be-dumber/

5 tips to learn from your failed speeches – Obama did

It’s an awful experience to give a presentation that bombs.

You can feel shocked, humiliated and angry, all at the same time.

You can walk away from your talk convinced that your career has been ruined, and that your colleagues will never speak to you again.

Or, you can decide to deal with reality and demonstrate an invaluable vocational trait called speaker resilience.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/careers-leadership/5-tips-to-learn-from-your-failed-speeches-obama-did/article5284024/ 

Four ways to make the most of your career

Media coverage regularly reminds us that unemployment rates are still hovering around 8 per cent, but when you've lost the love you once had for your job, even with the knowledge that having one at all is a blessing, the bulk of your week is an uphill challenge. Before you write off all hope, focus less on what's lacking and more on shifting your lackluster perspective. Here are four easy ways to feel better about your job.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/four-ways-to-make-the-most-of-your-career/article4615874/ 

How TV Killed the Republican Party’s Family Values

Republicans are searching for an explanation as to why voters rejected their vision of America. The answer may be on their television screens, where an ever-expanding, bluer definition of family values makes their nostalgic idea of family values feel like a foreign world.

The biggest loser of last week’s elections may have been the Republican Party’s image of the American family. Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, blamed the Republican loss on a dramatic change in our country’s “moral landscape.” He’s right, but this isn’t new: the GOP vision of America, which includes patriarchal churchgoing families with sexually abstinent teenagers who have no use for birth control hasn’t been a reality since the 1950s.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/11/15/how-tv-killed-the-republican-party-s-family-values.html

Who, What, Why: Who first called it a 'fiscal cliff'?

The phrase "fiscal cliff" is now part of the American lexicon, describing the looming deadline when tax cuts expire and spending cuts kick in. But where did the term come from and is the image a helpful one?

No sooner had President Barack Obama awoken from his election night victory rally than the media was discussing the next pressing issue sitting atop his in-tray.

The so-called fiscal cliff describes the automatic tax increases and spending cuts due to take effect on 1 January, a combination which economists say would push the US into recession - with global consequences. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20318326 

Using iPad at night 'could trigger depressio

Using your iPad or watching television late at night could make you depressed, according to a study that shows exposure to bright light during sleeping hours affects behaviour and stress levels.

American scientists found that mice regularly exposed to light at night became ‘depressed’ - showing less interest in doing ‘fun’ things, being less likely to explore new objects in their cages and not moving around as much. They also had higher levels of cortisol, the stress hormone.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9677947/Using-iPad-at-night-could-trigger-depression.html

When Colleges Look Up Applicants on Facebook: The Unspoken New Admissions Test

Judging by its Facebook network, Hastings High School in New York has one strange senior class. A student named “FunkMaster Floikes” is somehow rubbing shoulders with Lizzie McGuire and the fictional parents from That ‘70s Show. Meanwhile Samwise Gams (a nickname of a hobbit in Lord of the Rings) is listed as a 2012 alum. At first glance, such social media profiles have all the makings of crude online pranks. But in reality, they have been strategically created by actual Hastings seniors determined to shield themselves from the prying eyes of college admissions officers. “There’s a fairly big party scene there,” says Sam “Samwise” Bogan, who is now a freshman at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania. “When the college search process comes around, people start changing their Facebook name or untagging old photos that they don’t want anyone to see. It’s kind of a ritual.”

http://nation.time.com/2012/11/15/when-colleges-look-up-applicants-on-facebook-the-unspoken-new-admissions-test/