Hikikomori ひきこもり

A new way of “life” Hikikomori, from Hiki “to withdraw” and Komori “to be inside”, was first observed in Japan during the ‘90s, when the economic “ice age” prevented young people from achieving their goals. Anxiety helped Hikikomori spreads among students and workers, and today a million people worldwide are affected. The core features are being isolated at home and …

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Business and Zen

Business and Zen

How positive thinking builds your skills Years ago, I had a life-changing moment. After my knee surgery, I was stuck in my bed, in pain. Healing was a challenge, and in one month I was back on track. It was an amazing recovery, and I thought I could face every situation. So why, years later, it was so difficult to …

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Empathy In The Workplace

Empathy In The Workplace

Or how the previous generation is responsible for millennials’ failures. Managers are leaders that should help employees be at their natural best. Their main feature is empathy, so what’s wrong with modern management? How do people become managers? People usually become managers if they are good at their job. This sounds great, but pay attention not to fall into the …

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How to start a side hustle

I worked for ten years for a big firm. After all that time, I felt bored and demotivated. I liked the job, but I didn’t like the fact that I was working for other people. Nothing wrong with that, except it wasn’t what I had in mind after university. Struggling for a change, I took the CELTA and started a …

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Planning your speech

Substance matters. There is absolutely no substitute for knowing what you’re talking about. Select a topic that you know and understand, so that you can talk about it with confidence. Know your audience. Tailoring the content to meet the audience’s expectations is not a guarantee of success, but a journey of thousand miles starts with a single step. Write down …

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The teacher’s voice

Every teacher’s nightmare is speaking in front of an audience when no one is listening. Smartphones aren’t really helping, because people’s attention span is slowly fading away. As teachers, we are aware that voice is an important asset and feature, but do we really know how it works? We are going to analyse four different aspects of the voice that …

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