2 . Emoji(表情符号) and Workplace Communication

In Asia, messaging platforms are growing rapidly, with users in the hundreds of millions, both at work and play.     1    . It’s been reported that 76 percent of employees in some western countries are using emojis at work.

Written communications can often read as cold and dull. Using emojis can add humor and feeling, keeping intention clear.     2    , encouraging better and more frequent communication.

In any given office, employees can range from age 22 to 70 and beyond, and finding common ground in communication style can be a challenge.     3    . While the younger generations prefer to communicate visually, for those used to working with traditional tools like email, it may feel like a learning curve(曲线). The good news is that it’s simple to learn and can be worth the effort.

There is also the matter of tone(语气). Who hasn’t received an email so annoying that it ruined an entire day?     4    . Emoji can help communication feel friendlier, and even a serious note can be softened with an encouraging smile.

    5    , and emoji can contribute directly to that positive outcome. And when your employees begin adding smiling emojis to their business communication, you’ll know you have succeeded in improving your work culture.

3 . How to Do Man-on-the-Street Interviews

The man-on-the-street interview is an interview in which a reporter hits the streets with a cameraman to interview people on the spot.     1     But with these tips, your first man-on-the-street interview experience can be easy.

When your boss or professor sends you out to do man-on-the-street interviews for a story, think about the topic and develop a list of about ten general questions relating to it. For example, if your topic is about environmental problems in America, you might ask, “Why do you think environmental protection is important in America?”     2    

Hit the streets with confidence.     3     Say, “Excuse me, I work for XYZ News, and I was wondering if you could share your opinion about this topic.” This is a quick way to get people to warm up to you.

Move on to the next person if someone tells you she is not interested. Don’t get discouraged.

    4     Each interview that you get on the street shouldn’t be longer than ten minutes. As soon as you get the answer you need, move on to the next person. Make sure that as you go from interview to interview, you are getting a variety of answers. If everyone is giving you the same answer, you won’t be able to use it. A safe number of interviews to conduct is about six to ten.     5    

If your news station or school requires interviewees to sign release forms to appear on the air, don’t leave work without them.

4 . Do you like the idea of running your own business from home? Most of you do, and the first things you say you like about it are being your own boss, having flexible hours and working in your pajamas.    1    

Being your own boss is definitely one big advantage.    2     You must commit to work on your business regularly to make profits. If not, you will find that your income becomes non-existent.So, have set office hours where you productively work on building your business.

    3    Doctors’ appointments and family commitments can simply be worked into your schedule. Again, you need to arrange your appointments carefully and try to book them together. This way you can get all of your running around done in one day.

Working in your pajamas may seem appealing initially. But it can also prevent you from actually getting your work done.     4     After that, just walk into your office and start your day’s work. Being too casual means getting less work done on a regular basis.

In order to run a successful business from home you need to have a good mindset.    5    

5 . When I was a boy growing up in New Jersey in the 1960s, we had a milkman delivering milk to our doorstep. His name was Mr. Basille. He wore a white cap and drove a white truck. As a 5-year-old boy, I couldn’t take my eyes off the coin changer fixed to his belt. He noticed this one day during a delivery and gave me a quarter out of his coin changer.

Of course, he delivered more than milk. There was cheese, eggs and so on. If we needed to change our order, my mother would pen a note — “Please add a bottle of buttermilk next delivery” — and place it in the box along with the empty bottles. And then, the buttermilk would magically (魔术般) appear.

All of this was about more than convenience. There existed a close relationship between families and their milkmen. Mr. Basille even had a key to our house, for those times when it was so cold outside that we put the box indoors, so that the milk wouldn’t freeze. And I remember Mr. Basille from time to time taking a break at our kitchen table, having a cup of tea and telling stories about his delivery.

There is sadly no home milk delivery today. Big companies allowed the production of cheaper milk, thus making it difficult for milkmen to compete. Besides, milk is for sale everywhere, and it may just not have been practical to have a delivery service.

Recently, an old milk box in the countryside I saw brought back my childhood memories. I took it home and planted it on the back porch (门廊) . Every so often my son’s friends will ask what it is. So I start telling stories of my boyhood, and of the milkman who brought us friendship along with his milk.

10 . An interview is a discussion with someone in which you try to get information from them.     1     There are three basic sub-types of interview: structured interviews, unstructured interviews and semi-structured interviews.     2     Incidentally, “respondent” and “informant” are words that are sometimes used instead of “interviewee”.

A great deal is provided by this personal contact: you are another human being, and interviewees will respond to you, in bodily presence, in an entirely different way from the way that they would have reacted to questionnaires that came through their letterboxes or to emails.     3     Most people want to help and give their opinions, and they will usually be energized to help by your physical presence.

If you take the trouble to schedule a visit, you can be more or less guaranteed of a response. Most importantly, though, you will be able to relate to interviewees while you are talking to them.     4     You will be able to watch their behaviour which will give you important clues about how they feel about a topic. Because of the primacy of the personal contact, your appearance and tone are important—how do you want to be seen? As “one of us”? As a person in authority? As an observer? …Or what?     5     However you decide to present yourself, it is good practice of course to try to put the interviewee at ease before the interview begins — to talk about the weather, about your journey, about anything that will break the ice.