Final Reflective

English

Final Reflective

Presenter: Abdulqader Al Hashmi

Topic: Car Accidents in the UAE

Date and Time: 29^th of May 2012

Venue: Research and Innovation Center

Abdulqader’s presentation was on a rather common topic chosen and addressed by many: accidents in the UAE. While observing his posture, body language and speaking skills, I was able to tell Abdulqader had the confidence he needed, in order to meet this presentation’s grading demands. The presentation was rather interesting, targeting subtopics linked to the cause of major accidents, such as weather conditions, equipment failure, driver negligence and much more. A statistics chart was displayed, showing the remarkable drop in annual accidents in the UAE from 2010 till the present; despite my disbelief in the statistics, I was somewhat convinced simply by listening to Abdulqader.

During the presentation, I found something extremely interesting. At one  point, Abdulqader started speaking about the consequences of car accidents, and he took excellent advantage of the situation and despite having only a few things to say, he turned the tables around by simply shifting and lowering his tone from high and confident, to deep, low and sympathetic.

Closing in on the end of the presentation, we were presented with ideas and solutions as to how we can solve this major issue in the UAE, along with an interesting video of a man driving at a speed of 200 kph, before getting into a car crash, and unfortunately, dying on impact (as I have heard when the video was first released).

Excellent job Abdulqader, and thank you for reading.

Reflective Writing 3

Presentations of personal Interests

A couple of weeks ago, Mr. Hedley informed us of an assignment which needed to be done by everyone. The assignment was based on producing either a PowerPoint presentation or a video; of something which is of great interest to us. Many groups were made, all with incredibly interesting topics. My group consisted of Abdullah and myself, targeting the handicapped and how they are treated in our society.

In this reflective text, I am asked to write about one presentation done by another group. The one which grasped my attention, was the presentation done by Omar and his group, based on Fencing.

First of all, in terms of the topic itself, it contained content of great interest, especially since I knew nothing about fencing other than the fact, that it is a form of swordsmanship.

Second of all, the organization of speech between each member in my opinion, was well arranged, speech was good, putting aside very small grammatical errors.

Lastly, in terms of the PowerPoint presentation itself, it contained a good amount of pictures targeting each slide’s content, slight grammatical and spelling errors were found in a few places, and an incredibly interesting video was shown at the end.

Overall I would like to say their presentation, in my opinion, was great, and they were more than able to answer everyone’s questions without any issues, no issues in terms of content knowledge or English.

Great Job Omar and Group.

Simulated Meeting Description, Agenda and Reflection

Meeting Activity

Simulated Meeting Assignment

Topic to be discussed: Emiratization

Date of Meeting:  Sunday 18^th of March 2012

Time of meeting: 8:00 am

Venue: Research and Innovation Centre

Group Members:

Chairman: Abdulqader

Secretary: Nabil Luqman

Participant: Ahmed Saleh

Preparation:

Grouping of chairs and a round table.

Agenda:

Emiratization

The negative effects, of not providing enough information to students, targeting the private sector as well as the public.

The restrictions caused by this lack of information to fresh graduates seeking jobs.

How can we solve this issue and what measures need to be taken to combat this rising issue.

 Topic Description:

Recent statistics and studies have shown how the public sector job vacancies are quickly being taken by fresh graduates every year. This will prove to be a great problem for fresh graduates from institutions such as HCT in the near future; how so?

Most Emirati graduates target the public sector in their search for jobs, due to benefits, salaries etc… but what if a job is unavailable? The private sector is at large and growing at an incredible pace, but due to the lack of information, many would believe the private sector is a far cry from the public sector’s many strengths.

 In this meeting, we wish to provide a number of ideas as well as solutions, to help soon-to-be graduates know the differences between the public and private sectors, along with a great number of advantages and disadvantages.

 The Meeting:

Time of meeting: 8:33 am

At 8:33 am, The Chairman, Abdulqader, called the meeting to order. Abdulqader brought the topic to hand and addressed myself, Nabil Luqman, and our colleague, Ahmed Saleh, on the rising issue of Emiratization.

Many points were brought to light, issues as well as solutions.

Abdulqader explained how it’s very difficult for the public sector to accommodate all fresh graduates, from institutions such as HCT; the number of vacancies against the number of graduates are inversely proportional.

Mr. Hedley asked questions portraying the competition between the private and public sectors. We answered Mr. Hedley with an explanation of how the current lack of information on the private sector, is putting many graduates at a standstill.

The lack of stability was mentioned; the public sector may have more benefits, but lacks the ability to take in all graduates seeking jobs, hence, a solution is required, the private sector, not unemployement.

Before the end of the meeting, we discussed the matter with Mr. Hedley, summarizing the whole meeting and all points covered.

Abdulqader called an end to the meeting at 9:11 am.

End of meeting: 9:11 am

Reflective Writing

Simulated Meeting

Our simulated meeting assignment was quite an interesting experience. My group consisted of 3 members, Abdulqader, Ahmed Saleh and myself. Our meeting was targeting the issues of Emiratization. Each of us was given a role; I chose to be the secretary in order to be able to both speak and take down notes, Abdulqader was the chairman and Ahmed Saleh was the participant. This simulation gave us the opportunity to speak; both professionally and expressively. In my personal opinion, Ahmed showed a great level of descriptive vocabulary; while Abdulqader showed a great level of expressive vocabulary. We were able to exchange our thoughts, discuss issues/solutions, and were able to confidently address the issue at hand to Mr. Hedley; along with a summary of the whole topic. I would like to conclude, that this was an interesting and productive assignment.

Reflective writing 1

On Sunday, the 19^th of February, we were asked to perform mock interviews by Mr. Hedley, our teacher for this course. The interviewers include a team of three, including Mr. Hedley himself, along with Hammam and Saleh. At the moment, it is exactly 9:18 am and the interviewee is my classmate, Ahmed.  As I have been observing both Hammam and Saleh mostly, I noticed they seem to have some sort of experience in interviewing, either through work or through personal/ academic training. Saleh’s English is excellent, whereas Hammam’s posture and questions carry more…..what are the right words….experience and charisma.

Mr. Hedley is a very interesting interviewer; he doesn’t make the interviewee feel uneasy or nervous, but rather, brings out confidence whilst still maintaining that stern vibe. I’ve noticed that due to the language barrier and multiple English levels in this class, many of my classmates seem to  lack either speech, expression, grammar, vocabulary or a mixture of it all; due to this barrier, it’s quite difficult for them to express exactly what they want to say.

However, my words should not be misunderstood, what I have mentioned above does not deny the fact that ambition, effort and aspiration is an integral part of everyone here.

My interview was rather interesting; Mr. Hedley was a rather comforting and amusing interviewer, but obviously one who observes your body language, english speaking skills and ability to converse effectively in an interview. The other two interviewers, my classmates, whom I am still not familiar with, had good ideas as to what they should ask and im confident I was able to answer all questions without struggling.

It was a very interesting assessment.