Interview Etiquette

What you say in the interview will be as important as how you show who you actually are. Your body language, mannerisms, attire, attitude will be noted & judged by the way to talk and the way you carry yourself. It is therefore very important to know how to conduct yourself in an ‘Interview’.

Though there are many tips which guide the job aspirants to perform well in an interview, there is this one thing that is the most common cause of interview failure i.e. excessive nervousness and lack of self confidence. In an interview your goal is to show the employer that you are able to do the job better than any other candidate. If you are lacking self confidence the employer is going to wonder if you can handle the pressure of the job. When you portray yourself as confident, not arrogant, the employer begins to see your potential. Here we are not saying that you won't be nervous, but that needs to remain inside. Like the old saying goes "never let them see you sweat."

Here are some small suggestions which can get you through an interview:

1. Keep your calm: I know it is hard to think of staying calm when your whole future depends on this interview. Try to think of those things which makes you happy let it be day dreaming about “you are hired” aspect.

2. Be Punctual: Make sure you are already in the waiting room, awaiting your turn to be called. Avoid making the panel wait for you.

3. When You Enter: Knock lightly before you open the door, ask for permission to enter & softly close the door behind you.

4. Greetings: Your interview panel would consist of at least 3-4 people. Greet everyone with a “Good Morning/Afternoon”. Your handshake should neither be limp nor bone-crushing. Make sure you make eye-contact with everyone. Wait till you’re asked to be seated. Thank them when the offer to sit is made.

5. Dress Right: It is very important to make the right first impression. Dress like a future manager would. Your attire should exude confidence & maturity. Wear well-tailored & ironed clothes. Men should opt for conservative business attire: shirt, trousers & tie. A business suit would be ideal. Women can wear Indian or western formals. Avoid being flashy. And don’t forget to wear a smile!

6. Be Confident: From the moment you enter the room, till the second you step out after the interview, act confident. But make sure that you don’t go over-board. The interviewers may grill you to check how you handle stress. Maintain your cool throughout.

7. Mind your Body Language: One of the reasons why there is more than one interviewer on your panel is so that while one of them throws questions at you, the other can watch your body language along with what you say. Actions like fiddling with your tie, shaking your leg continuously etc. convey nervousness. Sit upright & keep your chin up. Maintain eye-contact with all the panel members as you speak. Don’t talk to just one person throughout.

8. When You Speak: Be clear. Be concise. Don’t talk too loudly or softly. You shouldn’t be asked to repeat what you said because you weren’t loud or clear enough. Enunciate your words clearly. Most importantly, if you don’t know the answer to a question, admit it. Your honesty would be appreciated. If you fake it, it won’t go un-noticed!

9. In the End: Thank your panel as you get up to leave. Put your chair back in position. Close the door softly behind you as you exit.

Practice this basic interview etiquette as often as you can. Try to follow these tips every time you take part in such mock personal interviews. You will gradually get a hang of how to conduct yourself in an interview. These simple activities help you to tell yourself that you are the best person for this job and thus you begin to act the part. By the time the interview starts you will have begun to feel "at home" in your new job and in you’re mind you will have already landed the job! So relax and the job will be yours! 

Conditionals

A conditional is said to be an action which depends on something. Conditionals are used to talk about real or unreal situations; they are sometimes called ‘If-clauses’. Real conditionals describe real-life situations. Unreal conditionals describe unreal and imaginary situations. W0hat are conditionals and If clauses in English grammar? They describe the result of something that might happen (in the present or future) or might have happened or didn't (in the past). They are made using different verb tenses. For example: If a certain condition is true, then a particular result happens.

There are four kinds of conditionals:

• Zero conditional
• First conditional
• Second conditional
• Third conditional

The Zero Conditional:

 The Zero conditional is used for things that are always true as long as the condition is met. The Zero Conditional is used for actions that are always true and when the conditions are satisfied. The structure of these conditionals is straight forward. For example: (If + present simple, present simple)

·         If you heat water to 100%, it boils.

·         If I drink coffee, I get headache.

In these examples, the result will always occur if the condition is met, so the time is not important.

The First Conditional:

A First conditional sentence is for future actions dependent on the result of another future action or event, where there is a reasonable possibility of the conditions for the action being satisfied. It can also be said as the real possibility in the future. For example: (If + present simple, + will)

·         If it rains tomorrow, we will go to the cinema.

·         If she gets good grades, she will go to university.

Here we are talking about the future, but we use a present tense for the condition and ‘will’ for the result. In this case, the person is sure about going to university. Therefore (if + present simple, + will).

The Second Conditional:

The Second conditional can be used to talk about imaginary present situations, where we are imagining something different from what is really the case. Like always. Jokes apart, we can also use it to talk about things in the future that are unlikely to happen, as the condition is unlikely to be met. We use the past tense in the condition part and would for the result.  (If + past simple, would + infinitive)

·         If I had a lot of money, I would travel around the world.

·         If I were you, I'd tell her.

The Third conditional: It is used when we are talking about the past and imagining something different from what actually happened, that means for imaginary past actions, where the conditions for the action WERE NOT satisfied. For example: If + past perfect + would have + past participle

·         If I had known, I would have helped. I didn't know and didn't help.

·         If I had gone to bed early, I would have caught the train.

Fortunately for those of us who speak English, the theory is fairly easy to apply, since the conditional tense can usually be understood. As long as you remember the possibilities, you won't go wrong often by thinking of the conditional tenses. Give it a try for better understanding and knowledge on this subject. Remember there are no conditions applied for being wrong, mistakes are welcome. However, once realized, we should not repeat them.

We hope this blog has helped you understand Conditional tenses. To learn them better, enroll to the English language course at ELTIS!

Phonetics

Phonetics is derived from the Greek work phone which means sound or voice. Phonetics is a fundamental branch of Linguistics which has three different aspects in it:

·         Articulatory phonetics – describes how vowel sounds are articulated in organs of speech.

·         Acoustic phonetics- describes when speech sounds travel through the speaker to the learner; it does in the form of vibration in the air.

·         Auditory phonetics- describes how speech sounds are perceived to the learner.

In a spoken language, sound is produced by passing air over tightened vocal cords through a particularly shaped chamber.

Consonants are defined as speech sounds that are not vowels; a letter of the alphabet that represents a speech sound produced by a partial or complete obstruction of the air stream by a constrction of the speech organs (as taken by the dictionary) while vowels define the shape of the chamber while sound is being created. The actual sound produced such as simple vowel or consonant sound is called ‘phone’. If you can pronounce the sound on its own without moving your tongue, and it doesn’t have a clear start or end, then it’s most likely to be a vowel sound. I have been thinking a lot for the last few weeks about how English might be made phonetic. The first step is identifying vowels that we use in our spoken language, and forget everything we now know about spelling, wherever possible. I believe that it would make sense to use vowels, since they are so widely known and seem to be fairly consistent in most languages: a, e, i, o, u.

In English, or any other language, there are words with sounds different from the way they are actually spelled. This can be a good example of acoustic phonetics. For example, ‘C’ is always either pronounced as /k/ or /s/, except when it’s part of /ch/. So let’s make ‘c’ into /ch/. ‘Q’ is actually /k/ followed by a diphthong (where the tongue doesn't move and only one vowel sound is heard). A lot of vowels in English are actually diphthongs. For example, the word “tour” in American English and British English is pronounced differently. By simply saying that /r/ is /r/ as in tour“, it makes it easier for different language speakers to pronounce each vowel sound differently from one another, and yet have a consistent spelling that all can use. Vowel sounds may be pronounced differently in different countries (and indeed, there is a lot of variation with respect to the letter on this side of the pond) individual American and British speakers pronounce the letters consistently. And thus, we can all use the same letter for it, even if we sound a little different.

If you are interested in this topic, we highly recommend you to join Speakfast course or the Diploma in Practical English and Life Skills in which we conduct a separate course in Voice and Accent Neutralization.

Business Phone Etiquette

Courtesy is as important in speaking over the phone as in talking to people face-to-face. It is essential in career and for building good relations that we develop effective phone skills and are able to, for example, call to confirm an appointment or ask for an interview slot or speak with family/friends. Since we live in an age of information overload, it is difficult to predict how the person at the other end will react. Many of us have been through such kind of experiences. For example, when a caller is placed on hold, a minute seems like forever, this is a very common problem. Time is at a premium and people are stressed out. Given all this, no one wants to attend to that unexpected call during a busy day. But with little planning and preparation you can make a good impression through phone and achieve the objective of every phone call. Here are some specimens of feedback which can help you handle your calls in a better way:

Firstly, your tone of voice should be clear and sober. Try not to shout but speak distinctly. The person at the other end of the phone cannot see your facial expressions or gestures and the impression s/he receives depends on what he/she hears.

Second, always answer the call by saying “Hello”. “Hello” is the most proper way to answer a call.

These are the two main things which come to notice by the caller and would initiate his/her subject matter accordingly, not taking up the conversation in a hard way. Now going ahead with, here are a few steps which, when learnt, can do wonders to your communication.

·         Put off making important calls when you are too distracted or tired to give it your all. You have exactly one opportunity to make a great first impression and you will not make it, if you are not prepared.

·         Always ask whether it is a good time to talk when you are making a call. If not, ask when you can reach them again.

·         Try not to keep the other person on hold for a long time. If possible avoid it altogether. If you are making a call, you should have all the information readily available and do not keep someone on hold. If you can't help him/her right away, you can say that you will get back to her.

·         Open the call with a standard professional greeting depending on the time of the day. Mention your first name, organization, and the purpose of the call clearly and be as direct as possible. Don't beat around the bush; it can be very irritating.

·         It's a good idea to rehearse saying the person's name several times BEFORE making a phone call. This will help to avoid any pronunciation problems and also personalize the call.

·         Leave brief and clear messages on answering systems, providing your name, reason for the call and contact information. Do not forget to leave your phone number, even if the person has it, so s/he doesn't have to look it up.

·         Allow another person to take plenty of time to speak, and use prompt words such as "I see" and "really" (in a sincere tone, of course). This shows them that you are truly interested in what they are saying.

·         If the person you have called needs to get back to you with information, give him/her a variety of options such as e-mail, fax and voice-mail. The objective is to make it easy for them to get back to you.

·         Note: always put the telephone down during the conversation, gently.  DO NOT SLAM THE RECEIVER DOWN. The person at the other end may still have the phone close to his ear, and then a sudden sharp bang can be hurtful as well as rude.

Learning good telephone etiquette is extremely important and those who master it get a better chance of succeeding. Thus, go out there and sizzles up your phone calls and get more hands on it by enrolling at ELTIS.

Reading and its Relevance in Learning a New Language

No language can be fully understood or properly learnt unless  one can read it  effectively, pronounce  words correctly and write it well.

How to enhance the process of learning a language?

It is  really simple. The answer to this question is- READ.

It is extremely important that a person who is engaging himself / herself in learning a new language reads texts in that language. It increases his/her vocabulary and helps  understand the usage of grammar pertaining to each language.

It helps more if one reads a story they’ve read before in a language they know in the language they’re pursuing. For example- if you are learning Spanish, it will help if you try looking up a simple story like, Little Red Riding Hood in Spanish, and go through the story. It gives you an idea of sentence formation, usage of words and grammatical knowledge of the language.

Now a days it is simpler still to punch in a topic you would like to read about, and come across blogs which can be read. This, however, requires discretion of websites one looks up, but blogs can turn out to be a good source of reading for people.

The gist of the matter is that reading is a crucial step in the process of learning a language well.

So, read up!

To learn a new language enroll at SIFIL ELTIS- http://www.eltis-symbiosis.org/SIFIL.html

Misspelled words

Many people say: English is not an easy language to learn.

Do you think so? If yes, why?

If you do not think so, is it because you can speak, read and write in English? Well, the fact of the matter is that learning a language is a little difficult than most people think because everyone does not learn the correct usage, at least as far as spellings of words go.

There are some words in English that are commonly misspelled-

(Misspelled- there’s a double ‘s’ and a double ‘l’.)

Their, They’re, There- The most common mistake. “Their” means belonging to a group of people. “They’re” is a contraction of “they are” and “There” is in reference to a place.

‘Your’ and ‘you’re’- “Your” means belonging to someone in the second person. “You’re” is a contraction of “you are”. This is the most commonly misspelled word.

People seem to face problems where there are double letters. The trick is to pronounce the word and spot the places where the syllables are stressed. This makes it easier to spell words correctly.

Another area where people tend to botch up is in the usage of ‘i’ and ‘e’. There is a rule to remember which order to use these letters in- “i is always after e, except after c”. For example- the word believe is written with the letter ‘e’ after the letter ‘I’, whereas the words ‘receive’ and ‘deceive’ see the letter ‘e’ before the letter ‘I’.

Let us study some more examples-

Lose- the verb form of the word ‘loss’. The opposite of the word win
Loose- not tight

Its- an indicator of possession
It’s- the contracted form of “it is”

Definitely- it is NOT spelled with the letter “a” as in definately’

Weather- snow, rain, sunshine, humidity, are types of weather
Whether- a word used as a substitute of “if”

A lot- it is NOT a word

Then- used to specify a particular time
Than- used for the purpose of comparisons

These are few of the commonly misspelled words in the English language. But these are only a few. The best way to avoid spelling mistakes is to read a lot. Have fun working on your spellings!

To learn good English enroll at ELTIS- SIFIL:  http://www.eltis-symbiosis.org/SIFIL.html

Hospitality and Festivals of India

It is no covert that people enjoy the culture of India  through its festivals. Indian festivals not only signify joy and laughter but also illustrate colour and light.

What is interesting to notice is  the easy way  in which a foreign tourist is welcome into the festivities that surround India at any time of the year. It is as though for a moment, all differences are kept aside and the people are more than welcome to be a part of the festivities.

It is obvious that people plan their vacation to visit India based on the festival calendar of the country.  Thus, India sees a large number of tourists around the time or when festivals like Holi , Diwali   Navratri are round the corner. The idea is to give them a taste of the Indian celebration. Because of this , India seems to be more hospitable than ever during these  festivities.

People who really benefit and enjoy are NRIs. They come back home on these occasions and  meet all  whom they miss while they are away. . Indian traditions are magnified at the time of festivals and this somehow fills any void that NRIs might be feeling away from home. The music, the food, the dresses, they all scream Indian festivals and people need that when they come back home after a long time away!

The best thing, however, is that families  get  much time to be together.  Grandparents meet their grandchildren, cousins meet each other and that in reality is what makes the festivals of India so memorable for NRIs. Family and festivity  becomes   a good combination there !

To  know more about Indian culture and festivals, enroll at SIFIL-ELTIS- http://www.eltis-symbiosis.org/SIFIL.html