Suspended

So yes, we were suspended from the last meeting, because we arrived 15 minutes late, and we had a coffe in our hands.

I understand that our teacher was mad at us, and we both understood that this communicates disrespect if you are late from a meeting, and of course I would never do that if I would work for a company. But give us a break here, I don't think that on erasmus, in Spain it is that big of a deal to be a little late. Of course if it is that important I can understand, and it won't happen again, but sending us out for the first time...I'm not a 5 year old boy, it's not gonna work on me if someone punishes me like this. Actually it wasn't even bad for me, it was bad for my teammates on the presentation activity, because this way they suffered. For this, I am sorry guys (Javier and Gergő).

See you all hopefully on the next class ;)

Presentation skills

Nowadays it is often happening that you have to present something. At your university or at your job. Sometimes it is just for 3-5 person, but it could even be group of 10-30 or more people. If you bore your audience, then it is gonna be a fail for sure.

You can develope skills by practicing, but normally the biggest problem is that you are afraid and nervous. You have to think about the fact, that you are talking to other peoples, they are almost the same as you, not gonna bite you ar anything like that. The most important thing is to know what you are talking about. You seem authentic when you really are an expert of that task. Normally you have to present something of your work, so if you really worked on it, you can not fail.

Of course some person has the talent of talking borned with them. They just know how to act, or what to say. That's natural talent. They don't really have to practice.

By the way "practice". I've promised a video that is truly about practice (now you can check the post before, and now you understand it)

  

E-mails again

On thursday we were finishing our corrections of e-mails. We had to tell the problems to be corrected and write the new version.

The problem for me was, that it always depends on the circumstances how you write an e-Mail and just from a few details it's hard to write it correctly. Besides I think that there are many good way to do it if you describe why you did it that way.

After all I think that I did not upgrade my level of writing with this, but I don't think that  I really needed to improve anyway. ( of course nothing is perfect and there is always room for advance )

If you don't understand this joke, stay tuned for the next post! 

Effectivity in e-mails

This time we had to correct e-mails and write new ones. But first of all, we discussed about this task. 

To be honest, I did not understand why we had to do the e-mail's fileds explenation on FreeMind Map, I think it is pretty clear to university students what is the field "From", or "To". 

In my opinion we should have worked on the body, subject and signature more by discussing about the details of these things. 

When I worked for E.ON in Hungary, I had to write a lot of e-mails, so I practiced this in real work situations. The most important thing is to be clear all the time, to write down all the necessary information, so basically be short, because a lot of people has to focus on several stuff, so they don't want to read a lot. To reach this goal, I think, if you have to share a lot of information, then attach a pdf with the details, and if it is important to someone, then they can open it at any time, saving the trouble of searching for your e-mail.

Secretary day

Secretary for me is someone next to the boss' office, who takes calls and brings coffe and beverages, so it was a bit funny that I was called the secretary. But I understand that this is a bit different role in this class. Actually it was easy, and it is always easier when you have cooperative people in a meeting. I had to do the minute as well later, but before the next class to help Joaquin prepare to be the next secretary. 

After all it was a good experience. Taking notes of everything, paying attention, concentrating. I won't say that I was in the mood of writing the minute, but when you have a job, and have to do a work for an exact date, then you have to do it no matter what (of course it is always a good excuse when you are dying).  

Profile picture

I have no profile picture on the Virtual Campus, because I didn't know, that here it is important. I mean we have no often used website in my university at Hungary, so I wasn't paying any attention to this one, I haven't edited my profile. I'm gonna do it for sure.

Nowadays when you apply for a job the first thing the HR does is cheking out your facebook profile. In my site I only allowed to see my profile picture, my education and work information. Nothing else. I hope that facebook is safe, and I believe that in HR they are too dumb to break into my profile, but if this is the case, and they don't give me jobs because of some pictures, then shame on them.

As everyone else, I also have an opinion about someone if I see his/her profile picture, but it doesn't mean, that I'm not gonna open for he/she. The real first expression is when I see somebody live, using his/her mimics, and his/her style. I think you can have a proper opinion after talking to someone, and it's not too smart not giving anyone a shot just because you don't like his/her picture.

Non-verbal communication

When we are talking about communication, we should know the fact that most impressions we make, are not our words, but our body language and mimics. I read several weeks ago, that nowadays it is changing a lot, because of social networks. The new generations are using it constantly, and when you are talking to other people on the facebook you don't have to use your body to communicate. This way when you communicate in person, you also use it less significantly. In my opinion it's really bad, because i like to read the faces of people. 

In the class we had to analyze other persons picture. For me it was funny, when I asked my spanish classmate to analyze Hungary's prime minister, Orbán Viktor. He said that he is not trust-worthy, and on a picture he was like a dictator. If you read news about hungarian politics, you gonna find this really funny.

Space

In this class we talked about Pedro Duque who is an astronaut from Spain. I've never heard about him before. For me the most interesting part would be his training to go outerspace, but it is the same for every astronaut, this way it's not really a specialty connected to him.  

I think every child wants to go to the "sky", so do I. It has to be a good experience without gravity. On the other hand, for me it sounds more interesting to land on another planet rather then doing some engineering work on a space station.  

When it comes to astronauts, the Axe Apollo commercial always comes to my mind. If you have never seen this commercial, it's for you:

Creativity

This is a word that often used when it comes to writing, dancing, painting etc. It is the same with 'art'. But in my opinion both of those words are more general. I mean you can be an artist with the numbers as well, or you can make a show with physics, that attracts people more than a movie. Of course if you are really good at it. Creativity is also linked with a lot of things.

I think that the problem with the school system is not that it highlights the subjects what is important for the society. Maybe it is also true a little bit, but for me the biggest concern is the way of teaching. Simply it's not fun. To maintain a child's creativity, professors have to be creative as well. More entertaining classes makes learning new things easier, at least for me this is the case. 

For example in Hungary at my University I often find myself thinking about other stuff, staring out of the window, because I'd lost all my intrest in that subject. 

The best example for the responsibility of the teachers is when I had a calculus exam, but I missed all the classes, because they were sooo boring. Then someone told me, that there is another teacher, a PhD student, who is really good. So before the exam (literally before, I think the class was 8 hours before the exam) I went to that class without any preparations. I was absolutely sure that I would not make that exam. It was really fast, because the guy had 2 hours to tell us as much as he could. When it was over, I was like 'ok, I think I am ready'. After all, my exam was graded around 80%. And it wasn't basic calculus, it was calculus 3.

So please theachers, don't be boring, be effective and crative! :)

p.s.: "earth without art, is just eh"

Introductions and a short one

The first lesson was a bit strange for me. I'm not talking about introducing each other. I am talking about the level of english of the students. Of course I was the only erasmus student in the group just like my basketball class full of spanish guys and two of us from Hungary. My overall opinion is that spanish people don't really have a good level of english (in my basketball class literally no one could make a proper sentence in english). Fortunatelly that's not the case here, because everyone has an acceptable english or better. After all I'm glad that my class is full of spanish people. This way I can have spanish friends easier.

For me, the second class was a little bit shorter (ok i admit that it was an hour shorter), but Bosco explained me what is the secretary and what is the minute of the class, so I hope I didn't miss anything important.  

This class is a lot different from what I've seen in Hungary before, so I'm looking forward to be in these meetings.

The first

Hola!

This blog is created to communicate our ideas and thoughts with each other about the course meetings mentioned in the discription.

I'm János Gönczi from Hungary. I'm on Erasmus here in Spain. In Hungary I study electric engineering, and I am on my Master's degree. I decided to come to Spain for a semester, because I like the attitude and lifestyle, and of course the language and the weather of this country.

This first post is also for testing the blog, getting familiar with it.

You should watch this video, and share your thoughts about it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy0HNWto0UY