oCoder Education - English listening Audios are suitable for learners with different levels of English. Here are some ways to make them easier (if you have a lower level of English) or more difficult (if you have a higher level of English).
You can choose one or two of these suggestions – you don't have to follow all of them!
Making it easier
Read all the exercises before you listen to the audio.
Look up the words in the exercises that you don't know or don't understand in a dictionary.
Play the audio as many times as you need.
Play each part of the audio separately.
Answer all questions in the exercise.
Read the transcript after you have listened to the audio.
Making it harder
Listen to the audio before you read the exercises.
Only play the audio once before answering the questions.
Play the whole audio without a break.
Don't read the transcript.
Now, listen to the audio and do the exercises on the following tabs.
If you do not complete all the question, you can play the audio again.
After that, read the dialog to make sure that you understand all word in the audio.
According to the speaker, what is special about running a small business?
You can specialize in any area you wish.
You can enjoy more free time.
You have to do many different jobs.
You can decide how to spend your day.
What kind of employees does the speaker like to hire?
Qualified workers who can challenge her
Members of her own family
Employees who had experience working in Japan
Specialists in human resources
What does the speaker compare her organizational structure to?
A wheel with many spokes
A car that has a single driver
A building made of many bricks
A family with the parent in control
How does the speaker train her staff?
She hires specialists to do the training.
She trains each employee to work independently.
She expects employees already know the needed skills.
Every employee learns every part of the business.
What does the speaker say about her former employees?
She knows they make more money elsewhere.
They use her philosophy working in other corporations.
She gets upset when workers leave her company.
Few employees ever leave her company.
What is the purpose of the speaker's talk?
To complain about unproductive employees
To describe qualities of a good employee
To share her business philosophy
To recruit people to work for her
6
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When you are in business, especially if you are in a small business, you have to wear many different hats.
And you find yourself having to be concerned with financing.
And be concerned about incorporation, and laws, and human resources, and personnel.
And all of the different elements and components that make up a successful small business.
So I think in many regards, operating and running a small business is much more difficult, than being a specialist in a larger company.
Where you can just spend all of your days specializing in one particular field of the business.
One of the areas that I have, always enjoyed the most in my small business experience, has been in working with staff.
And knowing how to hire people and how to, surround yourself with the people who you will eventually, depend upon to have a successful business operation.
In my small business in Illinois I was very intent on finding people who had expertise and skills that were far superior to mine, in the areas that I didn't know.
So I interested in surrounding myself with people, who would challenge me.
And encouraging them to grow and learn from each other.
So my form of management was creating a sense of family but not in the sense, that the Japanese did it.
It was our organizational structure was based on a wheel with spokes.
And each of the staff, represented a spoke in that wheel.
And they would have to bring a certain strength to the wheel to make sure that that wheel turned.
And the cog in the wheel, was actually the business plan, or the objective of the business.
We were all working to make sure that that cog stayed nice and strong.
And that we stayed focused on that.
And as time went on I learned from my experience, the more I encouraged other people to learn and each other's skills, and to cross train, the more they gave to the business.
Because they knew that they were learning skills that they didn't originally have.
And that they would be taking those skills with them, wherever they would go in the future.
So they knew that it was not only a training ground for them personally and professionally, but that they were also helping to grow the business.
And today, these employees that I have worked with for so many years continue to stay in touch with me.
And I grow very proud to learn of their progress over the years, that they have continued with this philosophy, that we imparted in the small business.
And they have continued to perpetuate that philosophy wherever they go now in the world.
And many of them are traveling internationally.
And they have risen in the ranks of other small corporations, or larger corporations.
And it really is quite a joy to me and one of the things that I cherish the most in being a business person.