Five Bucks, Paperclips, and Wallets--Riding the Stanford Entrepreneurial Crest

This week, under our Business Networking theme, we checked out several Stanford University videos featuring Prof. Tina Seelig (Hey, we're famous! See the newspaper clip above!). The first clip showcases her sharing of entrepreneurship and innovation principles and experiences at the Entrepreneurship Boot Camp:




The second clip features the Wallet Exercise, which we executed in class today:



If you like what you saw, remember the Global Innovation Tournament? Here's an entry, featuring not paperclips or rubberbands or $5, but ... water bottles:



And, congratulations to the three teams that came up with exciting business plans that filled the white board and an afternoon of lively discussion (thanks to Teacher Ethel for the picture!):

We also saw some incredible wallets, but who's got the pictures of those? Please post!

Keep working together on business ideas, and I hope to see your ideas fly out of our LINC business incubator! Better yet, who will carry a sign at a street corner on Sheppard and Victoria Park that says, "LINC Students for Sale--Buy One Get Three Free!"?

All About Maces, Pages, and Faces at Ontario's Legislative Assembly

From various directions, we all finally made it to Queen's Park, the site of the provincial legislative assembly, for a one-hour guided tour of the building. MicroSkills participants Susan and Dingding, Irene, Apphia, Max, Liji, Jie, and Yumei followed our expert guide, Sarah, on a tour of the Legislative Chamber and the East and West Wings of the building.

Look at the carpet and guess what two colours represent the Province of Ontario.

Where everything takes place, the Legislative Chamber is where you'll find MPP faces, the mace, and Grade 7 and 8 pages on a session day.

Sarah talks about the portraits of various Speakers of the House, from the old, sombre-looking poses to the avante garde paintings of more recent personalities.

The long-lost mace is back.

Not tonsilloliths, like some might think, but these are actual diamonds mined in Ontario!

A few parting shots before heading on out.

A brief recap and a whiff of what's cooking from Macdonald Block.

Older, and perhaps wiser, marching back from Ontario's Legislative Assembly Building.

Field Trip on July 20: Queen's Park

On Tuesday, July 20, we'll be making a trip to see Queen's Park and Ontario's Legislative Assembly, located in Downtown Toronto. Since the MPPs are on holiday, crowded scenes like the above can safely be ignored.

Those who wish can meet on the Southbound Platform of Sheppard Yonge Subway Station, where we will be leaving at 10 a.m. Hopefully, the "mainly sunny" forecast will hold up; but you may wish to bring an umbrella just in case. We meet for our hour-long tour of the Legislative Building at 10:50.





The location of MicroSkills Language Program places it under the Don Valley East riding of David Caplan, Lib.

UPDATE: The Toronto Star reports that "OPP’s anti-rackets branch executed search warrants and raided government ministries in the Macdonald Block near the Ontario Legislature on Thursday."

Elaborates the CTV News:

Lynda Cranney, an OPP media relations official, said the forces anti-racket branch is conducting the investigation.

"There is an investigation with the branch involving the ministries and some vendors."
Cranney said the investigation involves irregular transactions between government ministries and outside vendors.

Hmm, why does the saying "The fish rots from the head" come to mind? Anyway, just in time for our next field trip as well as our new weekly theme, on "business networking"! It might be worth (followed by a gerund!) walking by those government offices en route the Legislature on Tuesday and taking a whiff of what might be coming out of them. Bring your cameras and gas masks!


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Things Not Looking Too Up Underground

 
UPDATE: Please check out the Toronto Star's report on "Grubby TTC Stations" (Star picture above) here and remember to return to me the hard copies of your completed questionnaires.

Ten of us MicroSkills volunteers (including Bruce, Max, Jie, Irene, Apphia, Dylan, Zumurod, and Susan, with little Dingding in tow) scanned, scoured, and scrutinized one of the TTC's less busy subway stations, Bessarion, today as part of Councillor Joe Mihevc's TTC Passenger Audit.

Although things looked pretty good at first glance, you never know what can surface when a group of intelligent, enthusiastic, and nitpicky LINC learners are turned loose. Discarded bottles of mineral water, PowerAde, and VitaminWater; disposable plastic knives; and cigarette butts appear at the most unlikely places. Graffiti on emergency alert fixtures, water streaks and stains on the floor and wall "art," and, most hideously, missing ceiling bits--these were all duty noted on the audit questionnaires.

Work done, it was time to regroup and say good-bye to Bessarion Subway Station, one of our class's least eventful field trip destinations. Hopefully, our sacrifice will go some way in making the TTC accountable and our city great.

But next to the bike post-and-ring bikestands above ground, what was this minivan doing, parked right under the No Parking sign?

Thursday, July 15: Field Trip to Audit Bessarion Subway Station

Everybody, except for Dylan, please meet at 10 a.m. inside the station (don't go out through the gates or you'll have to pay to get back in!).

Bring your questionnaires, good walking shoes, and a sharp pair of eyes.

Let's have fun keeping the TTC on their toes!

Accent Reduction Resources

Changing one's accent is sometimes harder than learning a totally new language. Here are some free library resources that may help you:

1. Video by David Alan Stern: Breaking the Accent Barrier
2. Downloadable Book: Accent Reduction Made Easy
3. Videos According to Your First Language: Accent Correction/Reduction for English Speakers

There also a number of Youtube videos available online.Here's one example:



Check them all out and blog your response. Also, share any methods you may have that have been helpful to you in terms of pronunciation!