Glass Ceiling

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am Gregor Barth and I go to school in the business high school at Perg in Upper Austria. Yesterday I was reading an article in the online edition of BBC News and the headline was “Female Managers say glass ceiling intact”.

Basically, what it talks about is that it is harder for women to climb higher rated positions than men. The Institute of Leadership and Management conducted a survey, which shows that 75% of women still face barriers to top level promotion. So, it was confirmed that the glass ceiling still exists.

It also says that the government of the UK is willing to set a two-year time frame for the companies. Thereby they want to achieve, that the number of women on their boards increases.

What shocked me most was that only 12 out of 100 FTSE directors are female.

In my opinion, women are not as much as disadvantaged as it stands in this article because the aim of every boss of a company is to find the most suitable workers for their company. So, it doesn’t matter if the boss is a man or a woman.

What do you think about the glass ceiling?

Cartoon Analysis

Hi guys,

in our last English lesson we have been talking about cartoons and how to interpret them. Our teacher assigned us to choose a cartoon on our own and to describe it. As you can see above, I chose the cartoon “Global Warming” from A. Winger, because global warming is ever-present. On the cartoon is a man, who spins the earth above a bonfire, which is out of plains, cars, factories and cows. The relationship of the person and the other elements is, that the person made the bonfire and he wants to fry the earth evenly. Furthermore, the man is wearing a suit and looks very dangerous. The smoke, which comes out of the cars, plains etc., seems to be exhaust gases.

Andy Winger tries to make the point that the human, who lives on the earth, are the reason, why the earth is going to warm. He wants the people to remember that the inventions, which were invented by the human, are going to destroy the planet. In addition, he makes the people aware of the danger which arises, when we undertake nothing.

In my opinion this cartoon is very convincing because its message is very clear. So, it is very simple to recognize, what A. Winger wants to say. Global warming concerns everybody of us and if we help to together, we will be able to make the earth a little bit better and stop the global warming.

I hope, I could give you a little analysis of this cartoon. Please, write in the comments, what do you think about the global warming.

http://www.mygeo.info/cartoonview.php?file=globwarm.gif

See you later alligator

Top 5 factors determining job satisfaction

Hi guys,

last English lesson we have been talking about statistics. The bar chart is about the top 5 factors determining job satisfaction. The chart is divided into 5 parts, which are salary, quality of work environment, flexibility to work outside the office or at home, relationship with line manager, being able to determine how work gets done. It is taken from our school book of the 5^th form.

The highest percentage, which is 55%, is the salary. The second important factor of job satisfaction is quality of work environment with 37%. For one out of three persons finds, that flexibility to work outside the office or at home is also important. Relationship with line manager and being able to determine how work gets done are factors, which are not as much important as the other factors. Only 29% of those polled find, these factors are important.

So, we can say that the most important factor determining job satisfaction is salary and the least is being able to determine how work gets done. There are more than 50%, who insist on salary.

See you later alligator

Perg: main square and city hall

Hi guys,

I would like to tell you about two tourism attraction in Perg.

The first attraction is the main square, which runs through Perg. It offers many shops and other possibilities to spend money, for example the night club “Jederzeit” or the fitness center “Happy Fit”. I know some friends, who sometimes walk on the main square to do some shopping.

Let me move on to the second attraction, the city hall. The city hall was built in 1876. It is placed in the centre of Perg, next to the parish church. The main task of the city hall is to represent the town. It is also the center of administration, that’s why the mayor’s office is also there. The current mayor is Anton Froschauer, who has been mayor since 2007.

I hope, I could give you a short insight of Perg’s tourism attractions. So move on and visit Perg!

See you later alligator

New trends in tourism

First of all, what does tourism mean overall?

Tourism has 2 simple definitions. The first definition is, the activity of traveling to a place for pleasure and the second definition is, the business of providing hotels, restaurants, entertainment, etc., for people who are traveling.

Crowdsourcing of luxury hotels

This means luxury hotels are no longer financed by banks and investments, but they are financed by private people. So the new hotels offer unique features, which were chosen by the people, who deposited in these hotels. So it is possible to build individuals luxury hotels.

Smart Travel

The advent of wearable tech starts a new era of travel and tourism. While apps have provided some customization and reviews from individual travellers have offered tourists more and more information about the best places to see, eat and sleep.

Destination Iran

Global relations with Iran have been improving over the past couple of years, in part due to a call for increased cooperation with Middle Eastern countries. Although Iran receives millions of visitors each year, foreign travel companies are now ready to enter the market, thus opening it up to increasing external tourism and potentially making the country one of the must-see location for 2016.

Solo Traveling

More and more people, who are interested in traveling solo, are millennials. Some suggest that millennials travel more than their parents and grandparents, simply because travel is more affordable and accessible than it was in the past. But the leading reason for solo travel is that it’s quite simply easier to plan a trip for 1 than for 2 or more.

Words List:

pleasure à Vergnügen

provide à anbieten

deposite à einzahlen

advent à Beginn

usher à einführen

customization à Anpassung

in part due à teilweise aufgrund

foreign à ausländisch

millenials à Personen, die Teenager waren im Jahr 2000

affordable à bezahlbar

accessible à erreichbar

Here is the link to the original text: http://www.escapehere.com/travel-tips/the-top-7-tourism-trends-for-2016/5/

See you later alligator

Burning Man

Hi guys,

last English lesson we have been talking about two festivals, the "Holi" festival and the "Burning Man". I decided to write a comment on the second one. 

 

The "Burning Man" is a festival, which takes place in the Black Rock Dessert every year. The festival has nearly 50,000 visitors every year, so it is one of the biggest in the USA. Burning Man is a huge art festival, where everybody is encouraged to perform and organise activities. To be naked is normally strictly forbidden in the USA, but it is allowed at Burning Man.

The use of money is strictly forbidden, as well as any type of automobiles.

In my opinion the Burning Man is a great festival, because nowhere else you are allowed to express yourself and show your lifestyle as at this place. Profitability does not exist at this festival, so for few days a year, the people, who visit Burning Man, have nothing to think about. Altogether Burning Man is a crazy festival, where you can do what you want. 

What do you think about Burning Man? Please, write a comment

See you later alligator

Our trip to france

Hi guys,

last English lesson we have been talking about our trip to France last school year. So I want to give you a short summary of our journey.

The trip starts on Friday the 17^th June 2016 with a flight from Vienna to Paris, which lasts 1 hour 30 minutes. After that we went to Saint Malo by bus, which is on the north-west coast of France. We stayed at host families in groups of two.  The settling-in period lasts only one evening, then on Saturday we went to Dinard by ship. In the evening I celebrated my 18^th birthday with the whole class in an Irish pub. On Sunday we were allowed to do something on our own. On Monday and Tuesday, we had to go to a French class for 6 hours and in the afternoon we did some sightseeing.

After these 4 days in Saint Malo, we returned to Paris by bus to watch the international match between Austria and Iceland. We stayed in Paris to do some sightseeing for 2 days. Finally the trip ends on Friday the 24^th June 2016.

I will never forget this journey, because it was the first time for me to make holiday in France. This was my short review of our language trip. I hope, I could give you a little summary.

See you later alligator