Humble Pie...mmmm, tasty

Humble Pie. My roommate, Cici, invited me to have dinner with her friend the other night. We walked around a little bit trying to find a restaurant and finally went into one Italian place that was apparently going to open the next day. We walked past the construction workers to go upstairs where we could see people eating. As we entered the main room, the manager said that the place was going to open tomorrow, but that we could sit and eat anyways for free. Cici, her friend, and I talked for a while and I eventually found out that he worked for Accenture. Naturally, this excited me. We talked about business, politics, and other topics. Eventually, I asked if he managed a team of people because he mentioned that he's worked with Accenture for over 10 years and he also said he was "small potatoes." Both he and Cici chuckled--I had no clue why. It turns out that he's the President of BPO for Accenture in China. Mmmmmm...an adult-sized portion of humble pie...tasty.

Entrepreneurship class. Over the past weeks, I've talked a lot with my students about why they are studying English and one of the things many of them say is that they want to start a business. EF provides great class content, but one of the things that they've missed is teaching business English that is relevant to entrepreneurship. So, I asked my bosses if I could design an 11-week course and they gave the go-ahead. My first class is August 10th. In the course, we're going to cover opportunity recognition, writing business plans, barriers to business in China, marketing, sales, finance, etc. I'm really looking forward to learning and teaching everything.

Feeling the Flow. Positive psychology professors Marty Seligman (TED talk link) and Tal Ben-Sahar (link to Harvard lectures) talk about the idea of flow, in which we are "so completely absorbed in a task that we barely notice the passage of time," and how important this feeling is to our happiness. Have you ever had that feeling? What did you feel like?

When I am in the class room teaching a 24-student lecture class, for example, I consistently feel the flow. I have never taught before, but I feel in my element when lecturing. The classes flow naturally, the students laugh and learn, and positive (yang) energy fills the room.