Kulturraumstudien USA, Homework for March 27th

 For homework, please: 

- read pp. 5-8 (starting with "Photographs furnish evidence" and ending with "...so the reaction against these uses reinforced the self-consciousness of photography-as-art.") of On Photography featured in the "Reading for April 11th" folder on the Ilias Inhalt page. Sontag's language can be difficult, so take your time with her sentences and bring in any questions you might have to our next session.

- In On Photography, Susan Sontag writes, "From its start, photography implied the capture of the largest possible number of subjects. Painting never had so imperial a scope. The subsequent industrialization of camera technology only carried out a promise inherent in photography from its very beginning: to democratize all experiences by translating them into images" (pg. 7). Select 3-5 US photographs taken between 1890 and 1950 and consider whether this quote applies to them. Bring your findings with you to class. (There are two links below which might help you in finding images.)

The website "artnet" has a great search feature in which you can search by photographer and get their photographs in your search results. Clicking on their name will take you to the hyperlinked biography: Buy, Sell, and Research Contemporary Art Online: Artnet

The US National Gallery of Art has a fantastic page on which you can browse their thousands of photographic holdings here: Photography at the National Gallery of Art (nga.gov)

Kompetenzerweiterung II, Monday Group, Homework for March 27th

 Welcome back!

For homework, please: 

1. read through the files "Guide to the Teilleistung" and "Teilleistung agreement" on Ilias and make sure you have understood it

2. fill out and sign the Teilleistung agreement and send it to me either via scan or in person in class. (Do NOT put this form in my letterbox at the Institute.) This MUST be submitted to me by email by April 10th.

3. read Unit 9 in Destination (pp. 70-71) and complete all of the accompanying exercises (A-J). Bring any questions you have to our session on March 27th

4.  read Unit 10 in Destination (pp. 76-77) and complete exercises A-D. Bring any questions you have to our session on March 27th. 

5. make sure that you have met with your partner by the end of this week. Your first log entry should record 1) when you met (i.e. specific times), 2) notes concerning what was discussed, and 3) notes concerning your goals/objectives for your five future meetings. 

Current Topics in the Business World, Assignments for Thursday

**The post with the homework for the Wednesday session is one post below this one. Please scroll down.**

For our Thursday session (15:00-17:15), please complete the following:

- watch this short video on risk management and jot down the six risk management questions outlined in the video: Risk management basics: What exactly is it? - YouTube

- read the article "ChatGPT and the future of African AI" and imagine the following: you're working in the PR department at OpenAI and a recent article in African Business has caught your attention. Using the first four risk management questions from the video above, sketch an outline of a presentation you would give to your coworkers at OpenAI about the risks the training datasets and OpenAI's data-labelling practices pose to OpenAI's brand image and CSR (corporate social responsibility).   

 - do a SWOT analysis with a Polish company and another company from the same sector (your choice of companies is completely up to you, but here is a list of suggestions, just in case you aren't familiar with that many Polish companies). Each of the four categories (i.e. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) should feature at least two points. Be ready to present these analyses to your group on Thursday:

Wojas (shoes)

Hortex (frozen foods)

Tymbark (juices)

Bielenda / Soraja / Ziaja (cosmetics and beauty)

Orlen (gas stations)

Żabka (convenience stores)

Reserved (fashion)

Dr Gerard (cakes and cookies)

Herbapol (teas and syrups)

Tarczyński / Sokołów (sausages and cured meats)

Bakalland (dried fruits and cereals/granolas)

Wedel / Wawel (chocolate)

Amica (household appliances)

- concerning your final assessment, you will need to submit a proposal for an app or a business to me via email by Tuesday, April 11th at 10 am in order to receive feedback and your grade from me by April 28th. The absolute final deadline for the assignment is Monday, May 15th at 10 am. Students who submit their assignments between April 11th at 10 am and May 15th at 10 am will receive their grades by June but with no feedback.  Proposals should be between 500 and 1000 words in English. You have a lot of freedom when it comes to the design of your proposal but consider incorporating models and concepts that we discussed in class (where relevant). The application or business cannot currently exist one-to-one in the form featured in your proposal (respect intellectual property!). You are welcome to work with partners, but make sure you identify clearly in the proposal which contributions are from whom (students will receive individual grades based on their individual contribution, not a collective group grade). Proposals should feature at least 5 English-language sources in the works cited/bibliography. ANY plagiarism featured in the proposal will automatically result in a failing grade. Your grade will be composed of the following: 25% grammar and punctuation, 25% viability of the proposed application or business, 25% persuasiveness of proposal (remember: a proposal is a rhetorical text!), 25% use of specific business terminology/register. 

Current Topics in the Business World, University of Warsaw

For our Wednesday session (13:15-16:30), please prepare the following (all sheets mentioned are included in folder given to you on Monday): 

- read the sheet "28: brands and branding" and complete the accompanying exercises (28.1, 28.2, and 28.3)

- create your own brand/product positioning map (see section B on the "brands and branding" sheet for assistance). Remember that brand/product positioning maps require two variables, one of them being price. Be ready to present and discuss this map in small groups on Wednesday.

- read the Economist article "Why mission statements matter" and jot down two reasons why the author mentions that "investors can learn a lot from the way that companies describe their goals". In addition to this, look up at least two words/phrases from the article that are new to you. 

- watch the following short video and identify 1) how Burger King rebranded and 2) why this has caught the attention of advertisers: Burger King goes retro with its rebrand, and General Motors misses the mark on its new logo - YouTube

BONUS Activity (not required): 1) Have a look at the Łomża Export advertisement included in the materials distributed to you on Monday. Imagine that Łomża Export wants to create an English-language campaign inspired by this advertisement and has commissioned you to do this. What ideas would you present to them? (You might need to radically change the content/message/layout of the ad to cater to English-speaking audiences.) 2) The US fast-food chain Wendy's plans to expand to Australia but will need to change their name in the Australian market as Wendy's is already trademarked there. (This is nothing new for Australia: Burger King is known as "Hungry Jack's" in Australia as a result of a similar trademark issue.) Come up with a new name for Wendy's for the Australian market. The students with the best responses for BOTH bonus activities will win prizes on Wednesday.

Wednesday is International Women's Day and we will be celebrating by discussing negotiation for a portion of our session. Please bring in any questions regarding negotiation you wish to discuss. 

See you on Wednesday!

Kulturraumstudien USA, Tips for an Enriching Break

Thanks for a productive semester! Below are some tips for keeping your English and cultural knowledge active during the break:

- aim to read at least one (US) novel or work of non-fiction in English.  Good book reviews can be found on the NY Times, Guardian and Globe and Mail websites. Have a look at the books available in our book swap shelf on the fourth floor in the main wing of offices.

- watch some (US) films in English (obviously Netflix is great, but explore the cinemas in the region that offer English-language films in the original, like Odeon, Off Broadway and Filmpalette in Cologne, Brotfabrik and Neue Filmbühne in Bonn, and Black Box in Düsseldorf).

- check out the documentaries on US history and culture available on Netflix. Documentaries by PBS and part of the series called The American Experience are of a very high quality.

- keep up to date with US news by regulary watching news clips (PBS NewsHour is my favorite US news source) on YouTube or reading headlines from news outlets like the NY Times, the Guardian, or the BBC. The Atlantic and National Geographic are great resources for long reads.

- when we reconvene in March, the primary period for the 2020 elections, so keep up on who is in the lead among the Democrats, possibly by watching some of the debates and campaign speeches made.

- check out the YouTube channels of major publications like the NY Times and the Economist. Bonn-based Deutsche Welle has excellent English-language content. Content made by YouTube influencers can also be very interesting to analyze culturally.

- the Literaturhaus Köln invites a lot of US-based authors for readings and Lit.Cologne is an annual literary Festival in Cologne that also invites many "A-list" US writers to read and lecture.

Links of interest: 

The Paris Review - Addy Walker, American Girl

Kompetenzerweiterung I, Tips for the Semester Break

After the exam, I highly recommend that you do the following to stay immersed in English during the break: 

1) Subscribe to an English-language newspaper's/magazine daily newsletter to get a daily dose of English (even just reading the headlines is a great way to practice and add new vocab)

2) Find some podcasts you like in English, ideally in accents/voice types that are harder for you to understand

3) Read content in areas that are foreign to you (so if you like the arts/entertainment, read the business pages and vice versa)

4) Subscribe to a SAT/GRE word-of-the-day newsletter to increase your academic/advanced vocab 

5) Find a way to organize your vocab items for regular review 

6) Challenge yourself to take in more English-language TV shows, film, music, etc. (only turn on subtitles when absolutely necessary)

7) Talk in English regularly with someone from class (you don't need a native speaker to do this!)

Kompetenzerweiterung I (Wednesday Group), Homework for January 11th

In preparation of our last class session of the semester, please review Unit 23 (verbal complements) in your book and bring any final questions about the course content from this semester with you to class.

Please also read this article (click on "read the text version here" above the photo) and complete the following (you can also listen to the article using the player featured on the page): 

From the archive: How to spot a perfect fake: the world’s top art forgery detective – podcast | News | The Guardian

a) at the beginning of the podcast, you'll hear a speaker of Indian English. Identify (some of) this English variety's key phonetic features.  

b) identify at least 10 words, expressions and/or collocations featured in the podcast (consult the "How to spot an art forgery" file on Ilias)

c) answer the following question: is art forgery less egregious than other crimes? Why or why not?

If you are interested in (fine) art, I highly recommend the following YouTube channels: 

The British Museum - YouTube

The Met - YouTube