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BÀI GIẢNG
As we are more connected globally to one another, the study of economics becomes
extremely important. While there are many subdivisions in the study of economics, two
major ones are macroeconomics and microeconomics.
History of Economics1:
The first writings on the subject of economics occurred in early Greek times as Plato,
in The Republic, and Aristotle wrote on the topic. Later such Romans as Cicero and Virgil
also wrote about economics.
In medieval times the system of Feudalism dominated. With feudalism, there was a
strict class system consisting of nobles, clergy, and peasants.
In the system the king owned almost all the land and under him were a series of nobles
that had the holdings of various sizes. On these landholdings were a series of manors. These
were akin to large farming tracts in which the peasants or serfs worked the land in exchange
for protection by the nobles.
There are at least three ways societies have found to organize an economy. The first
is the traditional economy, which is the oldest economic system and can be found in parts
of Asia, Africa, and South America. Traditional economies organize their economic affairs
the way they have always done (i.e., tradition). Occupations stay in the family. Most
families are farmers who grow the crops they have always grown using traditional methods.
What you produce is what you get to consume. Because things are driven by tradition, there
is little economic progress or development.
In a command economy, the government decides what goods and services will be
produced and what prices will be charged for them. The government decides what methods
of production will be used and how much workers will be paid. Many necessities like
healthcare and education are provided for free. Currently, Cuba and North Korea have
command economies. Command economies have a very centralized structure for
economic decisions.
Socialism is another form of economic system that you will learn about in greater
detail in The 1st Chapter. It is a theory and system of social and economic organization
that advocates public ownership and control of the means of production and distribution,
of capital, land. This can be complicated with so many voices and opinions and that is why
socialism must also be a social organization that requires rules and norms about how to
collectively operate.
Most economies in the real world are mixed economies; they combine elements of
private ownership of the means of production and private ownership of the means of
production (or socialism and market-based systems). The U.S. economy is positioned
toward the market-oriented end of the spectrum. Many countries in Europe and Latin
America, while primarily market-oriented, have a greater degree of government
involvement in economic decisions than does the U.S. economy. China and Russia, while
they are closer to having a market-oriented system now than several decades ago, remain
closer to the command economy end of the spectrum. There are other nations that have
market-based systems that also utilize socialism to promote social welfare such as Sweden
and Scandinavian countries. A rich resource of information about countries and their
economies can be found on the Heritage Foundation’s website, as the following Clear It
Up feature discusses.
Markets and government regulations are always entangled. There is no such thing as
an absolutely free market. Regulations always define the “rules of the game” in the
economy. Economies that are primarily market-oriented have fewer regulations—ideally
just enough to maintain an even playing field for participants. At a minimum, these laws
govern matters like safeguarding private property against theft, protecting people from
violence, enforcing legal contracts, preventing fraud, and collecting taxes. Conversely,
even the most command-oriented economies operate using markets. How else would
buying and selling occur? But the decisions of what will be produced and what prices will
be charged are heavily regulated. Heavily regulated economies often have underground
economies, which are markets where the buyers and sellers make transactions without the
government’s approval.
Recent decades have seen a trend toward globalization, which is the expanding
cultural, political, and economic connections between people around the world. One
measure of this is the increased buying and selling of goods, services, and assets across
national borders—in other words, international trade and financial capital flows.
In recent decades, the export/GDP ratio has generally risen, both worldwide and for
the U.S. economy. Although the US is a world leader in GDP per person or per capita
(compared to India or China who trade much larger shares), the share of U.S. exports in
proportion to the U.S. economy is well below the global average, in part because large
economies like the United States can contain more of the division of labor inside their
national borders. However, smaller economies like Belgium, Korea, and Canada need to
trade across their borders with other countries to take full advantage of division of labor,
specialization, and economies of scale. In this sense, the enormous U.S. economy is less
affected by globalization than most other countries. Currently, the U.S. exports roughly
14-15% of their GDP. This implies that the United States is considered a relatively closed
economy, in other words, the amount traded with other nations is a small fraction of GDP,
unlike most other industrial societies that are relatively open economies that trade larger
portions of their GDP.
Table \(\PageIndex{2}\) also shows that many medium and low income countries
around the world, like Mexico and China, have also experienced a surge of globalization
in recent decades. If an astronaut in orbit could put on special glasses that make all
economic transactions visible as brightly colored lines and look down at Earth, the
astronaut would see the planet covered with connections.
So, hopefully, you now have an idea of what economics is about. It is essential that
you learn more about how to read and use models in economics.
In the case of a larger concern, if sufficient capital has not been brought in, a bigger
company must be set up. This kind of association is called a "Joint Stock Company". The
stock or capital is subscribed in shares, transferable by their owners, or shareholders, of
whom there must be seven at least.
When the capital of a Company is fully paid up, the shares are sometimes converted
into stocks. A Joint Stock Company can easily increase its working capital by issuing
debentures which bring in a yearly interest to their owners. At each annual general meeting
of the shareholders the company will appoint an auditor for one year. This auditor will
examine the accounts and make a report at the next general meeting.
B/Company structure:
Some people in an organization have colleagues who help them: for example, there
might be an Assistant to the Marketing Manager. This is known as staff position: its holder
has no line authority, and is not integrated into the chain of command, unlike, for example,
the Assistant Marketing Manager, who is number two in the marketing department.
Yet the activities of most companies are too complicated to be organized in a single
hierarchy. Shortly before the First World War, the French industrialist Henry Fayol
organized his coalmining business according to the functions that it had to carry out. He is
generally credited with inventing functional organization. Today, most large manufacturing
organizations have a functional structure, including (among others) production, finance,
marketing, sales, and personnel or human resources departments. This means, for example,
that the production and marketing departments cannot take financial decisions without
consulting the finance department.
Functional organization is efficient, but there are two standard criticisms. Firstly,
people are usually more concerned with the success of their department than that of the
company, so there are permanent battles between, for example, finance and marketing, or
marketing and production, which have incompatible goals. Secondly, separating functions
is unlikely to encourage innovation.
Businesses that cannot be divided into autonomous divisions with their own markets
can stimulate decentralization, setting up divisions that deal with each other using
internally determined transfer prices. Many banks, for example, have established
commercial, corpotate, private banking, international and investment divisions.
An inherent problem of hierarchies is that people at lower levels are unable to make
important decisions, but have to pass on responsibility to their boss. One solution to this is
matrix management, in which people report to more than one superior. For example, a
product manager with an idea might be able to deal directly with managers responsible for
a certain market segment and for a geographical region, as well as the managers responsible
for the traditional functions of finance, sales and production. This is one way of keeping
authority at lower levels, but it is not necessarily a very efficient one. Thomas Peters and
Robert Waterman, in their well-known book In Search of Excellence, insist on the necessity
of pushing authority and autonomy down the line, but they argue that one element probably
the product - must have priority; four-dimensional matrices are far too complex.
Activity 01: According to the text label the diagrams, according to which of these they
illustrate
Activity 02: Match the departments on the left with the correct definition on the right.
1) Tamara Oku
2) Robert Ngara
3) Tessa Mkrana
We work very closely with Hassan's department although there are fewer of us. One of
our most important tasks is to……………………… items on the assembly line to make
sure there are no problems. We have to………………….very high
……………………….in the factory I also liaise with our principal customers to make
sure there are no problems.
Tessa is head of the…………………………….department.
4) Hassan Abdelkader
Our department is the …………………… in the company. In fact there are over 250 of
us altogether, and most of the people work in a system of three ……………………Our
work never really stops, unless there are…………………….problems. One of my main
jobs is to……………………………….. part of the assembly line.
Hassan is a supervisor in the ……………………department.
5) Hafiz Ahmed
Mine is the smallest department in the company. In fact there are only five of us and we
all come from a ……………………….or engineering…………………………Basically
what we do is to devise new products or to look at ways of………………………….the
products we make at the moment. It's a very exciting job.
Hafiz works in the …………………………….department.
UNIT 2: ECONOMIC SYSTEMS
2.1 MARKETI ECONOMICS
In all countries, the resources used to produce goods and services scarce. That is, no
nation has enough farms factories, or workers to produce everything that every one would
like.
Money is also scarce. Few people have enough money to buy everything when they want.
Therefore, people everywhere most choose the best possible way to use their resources and
money.
Children may have to choose whether to spend their allowances on a motion picture
or a hamburger. Storekeeper may have to choose whether to take a summer vacation ton
use their savings to buy more merchandise. A nation may have to choose whether to use
tax money to build more submarines. In economic items, the children, storekeeper, and the
nation all most economize in order to satisfy their most important needs and wants. This
means they must try to use the resources they have to produce the things they most want.
Economics is a study of mankind. It tells us how man subsists, grows and develops
in relation to the wealth available on the Earth. Relations made by persons in the society
which are in connection with material circumstances are economics.
I. READING
A. Main idea
A B
2. merchandise b. commodity
D. Comprehension question
Read the text and answer the questions
1. How do economists define economics?
2. Are the resources in the world used to produce goods and services abundant?
3. What do people and nation do with their limited resources and money?
4. Why it is said that economics is a study of mankind?
5. Which relations are called economic?
II. LANGUAGE FOCUS
A. Relative clauses
III. VOCABULARY
Ex 1: Fill the gaps with words from the box
2. The state of the economy was very b. therefore, we must start to economize
worrying
The functions of money: All modern societies use money. With money people can
easily trade goods and services with one another. That is money promotes trade. Money
serves a medium of exchange, a measure of or a unit of account, a store of value and a
standard of deferred payments. We discuss each of these functions of money in turn.
a. Money as a Medium of Exchange: Workers exchange labor services for money.
People buy or sell goods in exchange for money. Money is a medium through which people
exchange goods and services. What is a medium of exchange? A medium of exchange is
anything that is widely accepted in payment for goods and services and in settlement of
debts. Money is the most common medium of exchange.
I. READING
A. Main idea
A B
D. Comprehension question
Read the text and answer the questions
1. What is money?
Note:
Be careful with the preposition “to” because this preposition is part of the infinitive
form of verb, when an infinitive followed the conjugated verb the gerund will not
allow” to”
E.g: I want to play tennis. [Want is one of the verbs that requires the infinitive form of
B. Practice
5. Thanh you for ……………………..me to carry the packages to the post office.
III. VOCABULARY
1. If an ……….…. has low ………….... and steadily growth over several years, we
2. Many people try to avoid ………. because they want to keep their money for
3. The dollar is very …………………… currency since its value change very little
economic exchange.
5. The economic ………………..… rate of Vietnam last year was about 7%.
Ex 2: Match the beginning of the sentences in column A with the ending of the
V. NEW WORDS
Foreign exchange trading is divided into spot and forward business. Generally
speaking, spots transactions are undertaken for an actual exchange of currencies (delivery
or settlement) two business days later (the value date). Forward transactions involve a
delivery date further into the future, possibly as far as a year or more ahead. By buying or
selling in the forward market a bank can, on its own behalf or that of a customer, protect
the value of anticipated flows of foreign currency from exchange rate volatility.
Broadly speaking, there are three types of participants in the market: customers, such
as multinational corporations, are in the market because they require foreign currency in
the course of their cross border trade or investment business. Some banks participates as
market makers; that is their dealers with at all time quote buying and selling rates for
currencies – dollars to the pound, deutschmarks to the dollar and so on. Other banks or
corporations call them ask for their rates, and then buy or sell as the caller chooses. The
market makers earn a profit on the difference between their buying and selling rates, but
clearly they have to be ready to change their prices very quickly so that they avoid holding
large volumes of a depreciating currency, or being short of a rising currency. The third type
of participant, the brokers, acts as intermediaries between the banks. They are specialist
companies with the telephone lines to the banks throughout the world so that any time they
should know which bank has the highest bid (buying) rate for a currency and which the
lowest offer (selling) rate. By calling a broker, therefore, it should be possible for banks to
find the best dealing rate currently available. The broker doesn‟t deal on his own account
but charges a commission for his services.
I. READING
A. Main idea
Which statement best expresses the main idea of the text?
1. The overview of foreign exchange market
2. Types of foreign exchange market
3. Three types of participants in the market
B. Contextual reference
Look back at the text and find out what the words in bold refer to
1. ……….. on its own behalf or that of a customer, ………. (line 12)
2. ……. they require foreign currency in the course of their cross ………. (line 15)
3. ……. deal on his own account but charges a commission for his services. (line 30)
C. Understanding word
Find the words in column A with theirs definition in column B
A B
1. Trading floor a a. a businessman who buys or sells for
another in exchange for a
2. Quote b. the place on an exchange where trading
occurs
3. Quota c. someone who makes an offer for
business
4. Bidder d. valuation d. valuation
5. Broker e. a limitation on imports
D. Comprehension question
Read the text and answer the questions
1. What is the foreign exchange market?
2. How many types of participants are there? Who are they?
3. When corporations/ banks call the market makers?
4. What do market makers want to do?
5. Why do the dealers have to call a broker?
II. LANGUAGE FOCUS
A. Showing direct opposition: adverb clause “whereas” and “while”
Expressing Purpose: so that
B. Practice
Ex 1: Complete the following sentences, using whereas or while
Some people are tall, whereas………………………………………………..……….
Some people prefer to live in the country, while……………………………………..
While some people know only their native language, ………………………………
Some people are extremely rich, ……………………………………………………
Some people like fat meat, …………………………………………………………….
Ex 2: Combine the ideas by using “so that”
1. Please be quiet. I want to be able to hear what Peter is saying.
2. I asked the children to be quiet. I wanted to be able to hear the president‟s speech
3. I‟m going to cash a check. I want to make sure that I will have enough money to go
to the market.
4. Ann and Larry have a 6-year-old child. Tonight they‟re going to hire a baby-sister.
They want to be able to go out with some friends.
5. I unplugged the phone. I didn‟t want to be interrupted while I was working
III. VOCABULARY
Number the following words with their underlined equivalents in the text
Affluent Catastrophes Claims
Commission Gilts Huge
Indemnify Insurance brokers Policy
Retires Sums Underwritten
Insurance is designed to provide a sum of money to compensate for any damage
suffered as the result of a risk that has been insured against in a specific insurance (1)
contract, such as fire, accident, theft, loss, damage, injury or death. Thousands of people
pay premiums to insurance companies, which use the money to (2) compensate people who
suffer loss or damage, etc. Some people also use insurance policies as a way of saving. Life
insurance policies, for example, usually pay a certain sum on a specific date – for example,
when a person (3) stops working at the age of 60 or 65 or whenever, or earlier if the person
dies.
Insurance companies, like pension funds, are large institutional investors that place
great (4) amounts of money in various securities: shares, bonds, (5) British government
bonds, etc.
Insurance companies generally employ their own agents who sell insurance to
customers, but there are also (6) other middlemen who work with several companies,
selling insurance in return for a (7) percentage of the premium.
If a particular insurance company considers that the risk it has (8) assumed
responsibility for is too big, it might share the business with other companies, by way of
reinsurance. Lloyds of London underwrites a great many risks which are spread among lots
of syndicates, made up of groups of (9) wealthy peole known as “names”.
In return for earning a percentage of the insurance premiums, the names have
unlimited liability for losses. After a series of (10) demands for payment following lots of
(11) natural disasters (shipwrecks, earthquakes, hurricanes, and so on) in the late 1980s,
many Lloyds syndicates had to make (12) enormous pay-outs, and many names were
bankrupted.
V. NEW WORDS
1. Foreign exchange market (N): thị trường trao đổi ngoại tệ
2. Capital flow (N): luồng vốn
3. Spot (N): ngay tức thì
Spot and forward business (N): kinh doanh tức thì và kỳ hạn
4. Transaction (N): kinh doanh, giao dịch, trao đổi
5. Anticipate (V): thấy trước, đoán trước, tính trước
6. Volatility (N): hay thay đổi, không ổn định, dễ đột biến
7. A trading floor (N): sàn kinh doanh
8. Deal (N): hiệp định, thỏa thuận
9. Counterpart (N): vật đối chiếu, bản đối
10. Quote (N, V): bản dự kê giá, khảo giá, định giá
11. Quota (N): hạn ngạch, chỉ tiêu
12. Depreciate (V): sụt giá, mất giá của đồng tiền
13. Rising currency (N): đồng tiền tăng giá
14. Bid (N): định giá mua
Bidder (N): người đấu giá, đấu thầu
15. Broker (N): người môi giới
16. Pesos (N): đồng pơzô (tiền Mỹ La tinh)
17. Deutschemark (N): đồng mác (tiền Đức)
18. On behalf of (N): nhân danh, thay mặt
19. Anticipate (V): đoán trước
20. Volatility (N): tính hay thay đổi
21. Multinational (Adj): đa quốc gia
22. Intermediary (N): người trung gian
23. Specialist (N): chuyên gia
24. Line (N): dòng
25. To charge (V): tính giá
26. Affluent (Adj): giàu có, phong phú
27. Indemnify (N): bồi thường
28. Catastrophes (N): thảm họa
29. Gilt (N): mạ vàng, bóng nhoáng
30. To unplug (V): rút
31. To claim (V): đòi, yêu cầu
32. To underwritten (V): bảo lãnh
UNIT 3: SIZE OF THE ECONOMY
3.1. THE THREE SECTORS OF THE ECONOMICS
Sunlight flooded the cabin as the plane changed course. It was a bright, clear morning.
Robyn looked out of the window as England slid slowly by beneath them: cities and towns,
their street plans like printed circuits, scattered over a mosaic of tiny fields, connected by
the thin wires of railways and motorways. Hard to imagine at this height all the noise and
commotion going on down there. Factories, shops, offices, schools, beginning the working
day. People crammed into rush hour buses and trains, or sitting at the wheels of their cars
in traffic jams, or washing ups breakfast things in the kitchens of pebble-dashed semis. All
inhabiting their own little worlds, oblivious of how they fitted into the total picture. The
housewife, switching on her electric kettle to make another cup of tea, gave no thought to
the immense complex of operations that made that simple action possible: the building and
maintaince of the power station that produced the electricity, the mining of coal or pumping
of oil to fuel the generators, the laying of miles of cable to carry the current to her house,
the digging and smelting and milling of ore or bauxite into welding of the metal into the
kettle’s shell, spout and handle, the assembling of these parts with scores of other
components – coils, screws, nuts, bolts, washers, rivets, wires, springs, rubber insulation,
plastic trimming; then the packaging of the kettle, the advertising of the kettle, the
marketing of the kettle to wholesale and retail outlets, the transportation of the kettle to
warehouses and shops, the calculation of its price, and the distribution of its added value
between all the myriad people and agencies concerned in its production. The housewife
gave no thought to all this as she switched on her kettle. Neither had Robyn until this
moment, and it would never have occurred to her to do so before she met Vic Wilcox. (In
this extract from David Lodge;s novel Nice Work, Robyn Penrose, a university English
lecturer, is accompanying Vic Wilcox, the managing director of a manufacturing company,
on a business trip to Germany. She looks out of aeroplane window, and begins to think
about the essentially English act of making a cup of tea.).
1. What is the key point that this extract is making about economies?
2. Comprehension
the primary sector: argiculture, and the extraction of raw materials from the earth;
the secondary sector: manufacturing industry, in which raw materials are turned into
finished products (although of course many of the people working for
manufacturing companies do not actually make anything, but provide a service –
administration, law, finance, marketing, selling, computing, personnel, and so on.);
the tertiary sector: the commercial services that help industry produce and distribute
goods to the final comsumers, as well as activities such as education, health care,
leisure, tourism, and so on.
+ In lines 4-7, Robyn sees examples of all three. What are they?
+ The long sentence in lines 11-28 lists a large number of operations belonging to the
different sectors of the economy. Classify the 18 activities from the passage according to
which sector the belong to:
This is related to a larger fact that has attracted very little discussion. After a country’s
people are supplied with the physical objects of consumption, they go on to concern about
their design. They go on to an enormous industry persuading people they should buy these
goods; they go on to the arts, entertainment, music, amusement – these become the further,
later stages of employment. And these are things that are extremely important.
Paris, London, New York and so on do not live on manufacturing; they live on design
and entertainment. We do not want to consider that this is the solid substance of economics,
but it is.
I don’t think it is possible to stop this progressive change in the patterns of human
consumption. It is inveitable. (J.K. Galbraith in conversation with Steve Platt, New
Statesman and Society.).
Read this extract from an interview with the well-know Canadian economist,
John Kenneth Galbraith, and answer the questions.
The measure of economic activity that includes all the goods and services bought or
sold in a country over the course of a year is called gross domestic product (GDP). GDP
measures a country‟s economic activity, when a country produces more goods and services,
its economic activity increases. A healthy economy grows steadily over a relatively long
period of time. When growth slows down or stops, the economy is said to be in a
“recession”.
I. READING
A. Main idea
Which statement best expresses the main idea of the text?
1. What is GDP?
2. What is GNP?
3. GDP determines the size of a country‟s economy
4. GNP measures both economic domestic and international activities
B. Contextual reference
Look back at the text and find out what the words in bold refer to
1. That allow its people …………………………………………..
2. …………………………………………………….. that it produces
3. ……………… its economic activity ………………………………
4. …………. which takes place …………………………………..
C. Understanding word
Refer back to the text and find the synonyms for the following words
1. a lot of
2. manufacture
3. home-product used
Refer back to the text and find the antonyms for the following words
4. import
5. deficit
6. inland
D. Comprehension question
Read the text and answer the questions
1. What are coal and timber examples of?
2. What happens to goods not consumed in the country?
3. How is the size of a country‟s economy determined?
4. What is the best way to measure economic growth?
5. What is GDP?
7. What is a recession?
8. How is GNP different from GDP?
II. LANGUAGE FOCUS
A. Verb patterns
Infinitives - to + verb
- Some verbs are followed by the infinitive from as in “to tend to discourage”. Other
common verbs that are followed by the infinitive from of the verbs include:
- Some verbs are followed by a pronoun then an infinitive as in “to lead someone to
- Some verbs are followed by either a gerund or an infinitive as in “to begin to rise” or
To prefer To start
To continue To like
To love To hate
In the Previous section we listed some verbs that are followed by the infinitive and a
few that could be followed by either an infinitive or a gerund. Below is a list of verbs
Enjoy Avoid
Appreciate Postpone (put off)
Mind Delay
Mention Suggest
B. Practice
1. Enjoy + watch TV
3. Stop + rain
7. Discuss + go to a movie
8. Suggest + go to a picnic
III. VOCABULARY
3. She speaks English very well and is able to ……….. ……….. her ideas clearly.
8. ………… profit is the profit that remains after paying all the expenses and taxes.
9. There are several large ……….. companies in Japan including Toyota, Honda and
Nissan.
10. They bought health ……….. so if they are sick and must go to the hospital they
11. Incomes have been increasing …………. and now people have enough money to
13. Vietnam should develop its ………… industry since most of the people in
16. It is very hard to ………… on studying when people are talking or watching TV.
17. If you export …………. you will earn less money than if you make them into a
V. NEW WORDS
5. Timber (N) gỗ
7. Automobile (N) xe ô tô
Once every five years, in the second and seventh year of each decade, the Bureau of
the Census carries out a detailed census of businesses throughout the United States. In
between, the Census Bureau carries out a monthly survey of retail sales. These figures are
adjusted with foreign trade data to account for exports that are produced in the United
States and sold abroad and for imports that are produced abroad and sold here. Once every
ten years, the Census Bureau conducts a comprehensive survey of housing and residential
finance. Together, these sources provide the main basis for figuring out what is produced
for consumers.
For investment, the Census Bureau carries out a monthly survey of construction and
an annual survey of expenditures on physical capital equipment.
For what is purchased by the federal government, the statisticians rely on the U.S.
Department of the Treasury. An annual Census of Governments gathers information on
state and local governments. Because a lot of government spending at all levels involves
hiring people to provide services, a large portion of government spending is also tracked
through payroll records collected by state governments and by the Social Security
Administration.
With regard to foreign trade, the Census Bureau compiles a monthly record of all
import and export documents. Additional surveys cover transportation and travel, and
adjustment is made for financial services that are produced in the United States for foreign
customers.
Many other sources contribute to the estimates of GDP. Information on energy comes
from the U.S. Department of Transportation and Department of Energy. Information on
healthcare is collected by the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality. Surveys of
landlords find out about rental income. The Department of Agriculture collects statistics
on farming.
All of these bits and pieces of information arrive in different forms, at different time
intervals. The BEA melds them together to produce estimates of GDP on a quarterly basis
(every three months). These numbers are then “annualized” by multiplying by four. As
more information comes in, these estimates are updated and revised. The “advance”
estimate of GDP for a certain quarter is released one month after a quarter. The
“preliminary” estimate comes out one month after that. The “final” estimate is published
one month later, but it is not actually final. In July, roughly updated estimates for the
previous calendar year are released. Then, once every five years, after the results of the
latest detailed five-year business census have been processed, the BEA revises all of the
past estimates of GDP according to the newest methods and data, going all the way back
to 1929.
UNIT 4: MARKET
4.1 DEMAND
The demand for anything, at a given price, is the amount which will be bought at that
price. Demand always means demand at a price. The term has no significance unless a price
is stated or implied. The simple statement that so many thousand cars a year or so many
million tons of coal a year are demanded in Great Britain may be intended to mean that for
some years the prices of cars and coal have been fairly stable and that every year the volume
of sales in Great Britain has been very near the figure reported. But such a statement, taken
literally; does not make sense, for the volume of sales that is the demand would be different
if the prices were different. There is no doubt that if the prices of cars could be reduced
enough twice as many would be sold and that if their prices went high enough their sales
would be halved.
The amount bought of anything will vary and may vary considerably with its price.
In other words, the demand must mean demand upon per unit of time, per year or per month
or per week or per day.
Demand, it may be noted, is not the same as desire or need. There is no doubt that
many people who can not afford a car would like one, and also that many children need
more milk than they get. But unless desire or need is backed up by ability and willingness
to pay, it does not affect the volume of sales. The demand for a thing at a given price is the
amount which would, in fact, be bought at that price.
I. READING
A. Main idea
Which statement best expresses the main idea of the text?
1. Demand always means demand at a price
2. Demand always affects price
3. The relationship between demand and price
B. Contextual reference
Look back at the text and find out what the words in bold refer to
1.………………. considerably with its price (line 12)
2. Demand, it may be noted, is not …………………. (line 15)
3. ………. it does not affect the volume of sales. (line 18)
C. Understanding word
Refer back to the text and find the synonyms for the following words
1. meaning
2. to refer
3. unchanged
Refer back to the text and find the antonyms for the following words
4. to decrease
5. fluctuating
6. supply
D. Comprehension question
Read the text and answer the questions
1. Give the definition for demand at a given price
2. Why do we always have to state or imply a price when we mention the demand for
something
3. What does demand depend upon?
4. What is necessary for desire or need to become demand?
II. LANGUAGE FOCUS
A. So…that and Such…that
So and Such with That express result. So is used with adjectives and adverbs:
Eg: The manual was so complicated that I couldn”t understand it.
The manual was written so badly that I couldn”t understand it.
Such (a) is used with an adjective + noun:
Eg: They were such noisy machines that we couldn”t hear her voice.
It was such a bad manual that I couldn”t understand it
B. Practice
Ex 1: Use either so or such in the following sentences as suitable
A B
1. The meeting went on for a long time. A.The factory couldn‟t meet the
2. The company was in a very bad demand for it
financial state. B. Nobody ever wants to leave
3. Frankfurt was very busy during the C. We decided to interview him.
book fair. D. They called in the receivers.
4. They treat their employees very well E. I missed the train home.
5. My potable computer I was very F. We couldn‟t get a hotel room.
unreliable. G. I don‟t like to use it.
6. The new drug was very successful.
7. He had a very good CV
III. VOCABULARY
Find ONE suitable word to complete the sentences
1. She is too poor, she can‟t even ………… to buy new clothes
2. Although he didn‟t say it directly, he ………….. that he would lift the trade
embargo soon
3. “Car pool” ……….. would mean a place for cars to go swimming, but actually it
means a group of people who owns
4. A car hit her motorcycle so she ………. down the licence number on the back so
she could tell the police
5. He …….. clearly that he would kill his wife if she did not divorce him
6. After her library card was stolen, she had to ………. Ti to the library officials so she
could get a new one
7. His …….. to buy a new motorcycle was very strong so he worked very hard to save
enough money to buy one
8. His ……….. to travel on the job makes him more desirable than the man who wants
to stay near his family
9. The sky looks ……….clear, but it still might start to rain in a couple of hours
10. The president‟s strong …………. about protecting the environment was not
backed up by money so the policy was not effective
11. It ………. to drink when you are thirsty
12. When her husband said he had to work late every night with his secretary, she
………. the truth of his works, especially because his secretary was very beautiful
13. He was a good politician because he always ……… his words with action
14. After he graduates from the university, he ….. to find a job in international trade.
IV. FURTHER PRACTICE
Translate the text into Vietnamese
V. NEW WORDS
1. To state (V): nói rõ, khẳng định
2. To imply (V): ngụ ý, hàm ý
3. Statement (N): lời tuyên bố
4. To intend (V): dự định, có ý định
5. Report (V, N): báo cáo
6. To make sense (V): có ý nghĩa, hợp lý
7. Literally (Adv): nghĩa đen
8. To note (V): nhận thấy, ghi nhận
9. Desire N, V mong muốn
10. To afford (V): có khả năng mua, mua được
11. To back up (V): ủng hộ
4.2. SUPPLY
In ordinary speech, the term “supply” may have any of several different meanings. It
may mean the total amount in existence. The term is often used in this sense when the total
stock can not be increased, or can be increased by only a small percentage, during the next
year or two. Thus the supply of Picasso paintings may mean all the paintings ever painted
by Picasso and know to still be in existence. The world‟s supply of gold may mean the
total amount of gold which has been extracted from the mines and rivers and is still in
existence.
The supply of anything which is currently produced may mean the normal output per
unit of time. Thus it may be said that the world‟s supply of wheat is over 200 million tons
a year. The term is more likely to be used in this sense if stocks are small, as stocks of
wheat, compared with annual output.
But supply may also mean the amount offered for sale per unit of time. In this sense,
the concept of supply parallels that of demand. Just as the law of demand deals with the
behavior of consumers, as it is reflected in the relationship between price and quantity
purchased, so the law of supply deals with the behavior of producers (sellers), as it is
reflected in this relationship.
The law of supply states: in a short – run time period, in a given market, other things
being equal, the quantity of an item which is offered for sale varies directly with its price.
I. READING
A. Main idea
Which statement best expresses the main idea of the text?
1. What is supply?
2. The role of supply
3. The function of supply
4. The operation of the law of supply
B. Contextual reference
Look back at the text and find out what the words in bold refer to
1. It may mean the total …………………………… (line 2)
2. ……… which has been extracted from the mines and rivers ……. (line 7)
3. Thus it may be said that the world‟s supply of wheat ………. (line 10)
4. it is reflected in the relationship between price and quantity purchased (line 15)
C. Understanding word
Find the words in column A with its definition in column B
A B
1. Consumer a. to obtain from a substance
2. To extract b. a proportion in relation to a whole (which is usually the amount per
hundred)
3. To reflect c. the same quantity, value, or measure as another
4. Equal d. a person who uses goods or services
5. Percentage e. to give evidence of the quality of
D. Comprehension question
Read the text and answer the questions
1. How many meanings of the term “supply” does the author mention in this passage?
2. Explain the meaning of “the supply of goal”
3. Give an example of when the term “supply” means the normal output per unit of
time
4. What relationship is mentioned in the law of supply?
5. What is the law of supply?
II. LANGUAGE FOCUS
A. As and Like
Like is a preposition, so it is followed by a noun or pronoun
Eg: I‟m very much like my mother
As is a conjunction, so it is followed by a clause, with a subject and a verb
Eg: You should have done it as I showed you
B. Practice
Complete these sentences with like or as
1. Your English is very good. I can‟t speak………….you.
2. I think I prefer this room………it was before we painted it.
3. This coffee is terrible. It tastes………….water.
4. He never listens. Talking to him is……….talking to a wall.
5. Why didn‟t you do it…………..I told you?
6. Tom‟s idea seemed a good one, so we did…………..he suggested.
7. You can do it………………..you like.
8. He passed the exam……………….we expected.
III. VOCABULARY
Find ONE suitable word to complete the sentences
1. Vietnam must import ……… because it is needed to make bread and very little is
grown in Vietnam.
2. The ……….. of the Vietnamese population living in the cities is lower than that
living in the countryside.
3. She had s toothache so the dentist ………. her tooth.
4. Income doesn‟t always…. how hard someone works, sometimes it depends on luck.
5. She is …….. a student, but next year after she graduates she will be a doctor at the
Bach Mai hospital.
6. When a company tries to sell a product, it must understand what the ……….will
find attractive and advertise appropriately.
7. The development of the stock market in Vietnam …….. the development of the one
in Philippines.
8. The ……….. of a highly educated population makes Vietnam a very attractive place
for investment.
9. That‟s the first time, she …………. left Vietnam in her life.
10. They do the same kind of work and have been with the same company for the same
number of years so their salaries are ………………………..
11. There is much gold ……….. in the mountains of Vietnam.
12. Costs in Vietnam are low ……….. with costs in the U.S.
IV. FURTHER PRACTICE
Translate the text into Vietnamese
V. NEW WORDS
1. Existence (N): sự tồn tại
2. Percentage (N): tỷ lệ phần trăm
3. Ever (Adv): từng
4. Extract (V): thu được, triết xuất
5. Mine (N): mỏ
6. Currently (Adv): hiện hành
7. Wheat (N): lúa mì
8. Compare (V): so sánh
9. To parallel (V): song song với
10. Consumer (N): người tiêu dung
11. Reflect (V) phản ánh
12. Equal (Adj): cân bằng
13. Meaning (N): ý nghĩa
14. Stock (N): vốn, cổ phần
15. Compared with (Adj): so sánh với
16. To offer (V): mời. đề nghị
17. Sale (N): sự bán
18. Concept (N): khái niệm
19. Law (N): luật
20. Quantity (N): số lượng
21. To purchase (V): Mua
22. To reflect (V): phản ánh
23. Relationship (N) mối quan hệ
24. To state (V) khẳng định
25. Equal (Adj): công bằng
26. Substance (N): chất, vật chất, nội dung
UNIT 5: PRODUCTS
5.1 PRODUCT POLICY
1. Marketing theorists tend to give the word product a very broad meaning, using it
to refer to anything capable of satisfying a need or want. Thus services, activities, people
(poloticians, athletes, film stars), places (holiday resorts), organizations (hospitals,
colleges, political parties), and ideas, as well as physical objects offered for sale by
retailers, can be considered as products. Physical products can usually be augumented by
benefits such as customer advice, dilivery, credit facilities, a warranty or guarantee,
maintenance, after sales service, and so on.
2. Some manufacturers use their name (the ‘family name’) for all their products. E.g.
Philip, Colgate, Yamaha. Others, including Unilever and Product & Gamble, maket various
products under individual brand names, with the result that many customers are unfamilar
with the name of the manufacturing company. The major producers of soap powders, for
example, are famous for their multi-brand strategy which allows them to compete in
various market segments, and to fill shelf space in shops, thereby leaving less room for
competitors. It also gives them a greater chance of getting some of the custom of brand-
switchers.
3. Most manufacturers produce a large number of products, often divided into product
lines. Most product lines consist of several products, often disitinguished by brand name,
e.g. a range of soap powers, or of toothpasted. Several different items (different sizes or
models) may share the same brand name. Together, a company’s items, brands and products
constitute its product mix. Since different products are always at different stages of their
life cycles, with growing, stable or decling sales and profitability, and because markets,
opportunities and resources are constant evolution, companies are always looking to the
future, and re-evaluating their product mix
4. Companies whose objectives include high market share and market growth
generally have long product lines, i.e. a large number of items. Companies whose objective
is high profitability will have shorter lines, including only profitable items. Yet most
product lines have a tendency to lengthen over time, as companies produce variations on
existing items, or add additional items to cover further market segments. Additions to
product lines can be results of either line-stretching or line-filling. Line-stretching means
lengthening a product line by moving either up-market or down-market, i.e. making items
of higher or lower quality. This can be carried out in order to reach new customers, to enter
growing or more profitable market segments, to react to competiors’s initiatives, and so on.
Yet such moves may cause image problems: moving to the lower end of a market dilutes a
company’s image for quality, while a company at the bottom of a range may not convince
dealers and customers that it can produce quality products for the high end. Line-filling –
adding further items in that part of a product range which a line already covers – might be
done in order to compete in competitors’ niches, or simply to utilize excess production
capacity.
I. READING
A. Read the above text, and write a brief heading for each paragrahp
B. Comprehension
C. Vocabulary
Find words or expressions in the text which mean the following.
1. the possibility of paying for a product over an extended period
2. a promise by a manufacturer or seller to repair or replace defective goods during a
certain period of time
4, consumers who buy various competing products rather than being loyal to a particular
brand.
5. the standard pattern of sales of product over the period that it is marketed
7. possibilities of filling insatisfied needs in sectors in which the company can produce
goods or services effectively.
Read the conversation between Interviewer and Jogishwar Singh, a director of the Swiss
holding company Tégé, to discuss about the forcoming launch of ‘Fresh Fries’, a fast-
food product that will be sold in vending machines.
Jogishwar Singh: This product is crisp, hot, fresh french fries, which will be delivered
by vending machine. All that the customer has to do is choose the number of portions, one,
two, three or four, pay the corresponding amount which he can see on the machine because
the amount will vary according to the country, put the money in, wait 64 seconds for the
first serving, and then eat the chips which will comw out nicely in very beautiful looking,
striking container, a cup.
Interviewer: So this machine can be installed in the street, as well as in restaurants,
or cafés …
Jogishwar Singh: Well, the idea is to install it in public places, you know, not so much
inside restaurants, but, you know, not so much inside restaurants, but, you know, anywhere
where people gather you can install the machine: airports, railway stations, football
stadiums, sports centres, service stations, cinema halls, anywhere where people want a nice
cup of french fries.
Interviewer:An these fries are made from powdered, a powdered potato mixture?
Jogishwar Singh: This is correct. They are made from dehydrated potato powder, to
which we add certain ingredients, you know, which are subject, well, which are secret,
which we keep to ourselves.
Jogishwar Singh: There is. We are, after the proper launching of the vending machine,
the inventor is aldready working on what he calls a table-top machine, you know, which
will be for kitchens or kiosks or smaller places, yes.
Interviewer: And could you talk perhaps about all various stages that come between
an inventor – this is an American inventor…
Interviewer: … having the idea and when now your company launching this product?
Jogishwar Singh: Well, the inventor had the idea and he did the first, I mean he
developed obviously his ideas, he’s been working on it for the last eight or nine years. He
got into touch with people who subsiquently become shareholders in the holding company
Télé, and he went through a series of at least five prototypes, each time modifying the
design because, you know he found new, not really inventions, but new technical support
to improve the functioning, to reduce the time of delivery, and the problem is basically
financing, you see. It’s extremely difficult for an individual to finance such a major project.
So he was looking for partners. And we have put, you know, experts and engineers at his
disposal. This is important because an inventor is not an industrial engineer, you know. He
might be a brilliant inventor but he does’t have much of an idea, well in this case of
industrial production, and the economics of the whole project. So ww surrounded him with
very capable people who are costing us a fortune, and the machine will be manufactured
by Zanussi, one of the two leading vending machine manufacturers in Europe and the
world.
Interviewer: So for you the technological advance in the machine, rather than the
product, because powered chips sounds quite revolutionary as well?
Jogishwar Singh: That is correct. It’s the machine; it’s the time in which you can
deliver the chips; it’s the crispiness and the quality with which you can deliver the chips;
and more than these things it’s the consistency. If we can manage to deliver the same
product in 180 countries in the world, I think that’s where the success of this project will
lie.
Jogishwar Singh: Oh, yeah, yeah. Doublessly, certainly. Over… Not immediately, but
I am sure we will see our vending machines with the same logo, the same colour scheme.
Whether you are in Bangladesh or Taiwan or the US or Europe or whereever, Africa, I
mean, it might take us some time getting to Rwanda but we will get there.
A. industrial engineering.
B. raising finance
6. Jogishwar Singh thinks the most important reason the product will succeed all over
the world is
B. the fact that the fries will always have exactly the same quality.
B. Read the following words and expressions, then read the interview again, and write
down the words and expressions use in the interview that mean nearly the same.
3. eye-catching, noticeable
6. a small booth used for selling newspapers, cigarettes, ice cream, and so on
A. DEFINING MARKETING
There will always, one can assume, be a need for some selling. But the aim of
marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand
the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself. Ideally, marketing
should result in a customer who is ready to buy.
1. What do you think of this definition? Can selling really become superfluous, even
if the customer is ready to buy? Or is there one important aspect of business that this
definition overlooks?
2. Can you think of any axamples of products for which marketers anticipated a
consumer need (i.e. products you had never imagined needing before they were
developed)?
Below are some more basic marketing terms. Match up the words in the box to the
definitions.
3. dividing a market into distinct groups of buyers who have different requirements or
buying habits.
4. making a product (appear to be) different from similar products offers by other sellers,
by product differences, advertising, packaging, etc.
7. someone who contacts existing and potential customers, and tries to persuade them to
buy goods and services.
8. the attributes or charateristics of a product, such as size, shape, quality, price, reliability,
ect.
9. the extent to which supply or demand (the quantity produced or bought) of a product
responds to changes of price.
10. the strategy of setting a low price to try to sell a large volume and increase market
share.
The graph shows the standard product life cycle. At the introduction stage, sales, are
low. They rise quicky during the growth stage, level off at the maturity stage, before
eventually falling during the decline stage until the product is withdrawn from the market.
Which stages do the following sentences about sales, costs, prices and promotion
describe?
A. Public awareness about the product increases and sales volume rises significant.
D. The sales volume is low and customers have to be persuaded to try the product.
Costs:
F. The product’s features may have to be changed so that it differs from competing
brands, which involved new costs.
H. Either costs are too high compared to sales, so the product is discontinued, or the
company continues to offer the products to loyal customers, while reducing costs to
a minimum.
Prices:
I. The price is either maintained, or greatly reduced to liquidate stock it the product is
discontinued.
J. The company can choose between high skim pricing to recover development costs,
or low penetration pricing to build market share rapidly, if there are aldready
competiors.
K. The price can remaim unchanged because demand is increasing but competitors
aren’t usually yet well established.
L. Prices may have to be reduced because competitors are established in the market,
but companies try to defend their market share while also miximizing profit.
Promotion:
M. Promotion emphasizes product differentiation.
N. Promotion is aimed at a much broader audience (the majority of the product’s users).
To say that Fleet Street in the early 1980s was out of control barely hints at the scale
of matters. The National Graphical Association, the printers’ union, decided how many
people were needed on each paper (hundreds and hundreds) and how many were to be laid
off during a recession (none), and billed the management accordingly. Managements didn’t
have the power to hire a fire their own print workers, indeed generally didn’t know how
many print workers they employed. I have before me a headline from December 1985
saying ‘Auditors find 300 extra printing staff at Telegraph.’. That is to say, the Telegraph
was paying salaries to 300 people who didn’t actually work there. On top of plump salaries,
printers received special bonus payments for handing type of irregular sizes, for dealing
with heavily edited copy, for setting words in a language other than English, for he white
space at the end of lines. If work wad done out of house – for instance, advertising copy
that was set outside the building – they were compensated for not doing it. In consequence,
many senior printers, with skills no more advanced than you would expect to find in any
back-street print shop, enjoyed incomes in the top 2 per cent of Bristish earning. It was
crazy.
1. What does this extract suggest about newspaper managements and the printers’
trade union at the time?
2. What does the first sentence- ‘to say that Fleet Streer…… was out of control barely
hints at the scale of matters’ – mean?
3 Bryson makes one statement that probably isn’t true, i.e. is a deliberate
exaggeration. Which do you think it is?
4. Do you know what happened to the printers at Bristish newspapers soon after the
period Bryson is writing about?
Reading
Manual and service industry workers are often organized in labour unions, which
attempt to ensure fair wages, reasonable working hours and safe working conditions for
their members. British unions are known as trade unions because, as in Germany, they are
largely organized according to trade or skill: there is an engineers’ union, an electricians’
union, a train-drivers’ union, and so on. In other countries, including France and Italy
unions are largely political: workers in different industries join unions with a particular
political position.
In fact, a numer of politicians and business leaders are beginning to reget the
weakness of unions. Some managers, including Antoine Riboud, the former head of the
huge Danone food conglomerate, actively to encourage unionizaiton because they insist
that a big company needs someone ot represent and articulate the needs of the employees
and act as a social partner to the employer. But there is clearly a problem if workers believe
that the unions are incapable of doing this, and choose not to join them. (*Peter Drucker:
An Introdcutory View of Management).
Vocabulary
4. an opponents or enemy
Vocabulary
The following sentences define some basic words about work. Which ones?
3. Relations between employers and employees, managers and workers, management and
unions.
5. Most people are far more creative and ingrenious than their employers realize.
7. People want to be interested in their work and, given the right conditions, they will
enjoy it.
8. Under the right conditions, most people will accept responsibility and want to realize
their own potential.
Reading
In The Human Side of Enterprise, Douglas McGregor outlined two opposing theories
of work and motivation. What the calls Theory X is the traditional approach to workers and
working which assumes that people are lazy and dislike work, and they have to be both
threatened (for example, with losing their job) and rewarded. It assumes that most people
are incapable of taking responsibility for themselves and have to be looked after Theory Y,
on the contrary, assumes that people have a psychological need to work and want
achievement and responsibility.
Manay people assume that Theory Y is more ‘progressive’ and an advance on Theory
X, but later theorists argued that it makes much greater demands on both workers and
managers than McGregor realized. Abraham Maslow, for example, spent a year studying a
Californian company that used Theory Y, and concluded that its demands for responsibility
and achievement are excessive for many people. He pointed out that there are always weak
and vulnerable people, with little self-discipline, who need protection against the burden
of responsibility. Even strong and healthy people need the security of order and direction.
Managers cannot simply substitute Theory Y for Theory X have to replace the security
provided by Theory X with a different structure of security and certainty.
Summarizing
Read the text again and complete the following sentences, using your own words as
much as possible.
4. Maslow argued that even though they might want to be given responsibilities at
work…
UNIT 7: MANAGEMENT AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY
7.1. MANAGEMENT: AN ART OR A SCIENCE
WHAT IS MANAGEMENT?
Peter Drucker, the well-known American business professor and consultant, suggests
that the work of a manager can be divided into planning (setting objectives), organizing,
intergrating (motivating and communicating), measuring, and developing people.
First of all, managers (especially senior managers such as company chairmen – and
women – and directors) set objectives, and decide how their organization can
achieve them. This involves developing strategies, plans and precise tactics, and
allocating resources of people and money.
Secondly, managers organize. They analyse and classify the activities of the
organization and the relations among them. They divide the work into manageable
activities and then into individual jobs. They select people to manage these units
and perform the jobs.
Thirdly, managers practise the social skills of motivation and communication. They
also have to communicate objectives to the people responsible for attaining them.
They have to make the people who are responsible for performing individual jobs
forms teams. They make decisions about pay and promotion. As well as organizing
and suppervising the work of their subordonates, they have to work with people in
other areas and functions.
Fourthly, managers have to measure the performance of their staff, to see whether
he objective set for the organizations as a whole and for each individual members
of it are being achieved.
Although the tasks of a manager can be analysed and classified in this fashion,
managerment is not entirely scientific. It is a human skill. Business professors obviously
believe that intuition and ‘instinct’ are not enough; there are management skills that have
to be learnt. Drucker, for example, wrote nearly 30 years ago that ‘Altogether this entire
book is based on the proposition that the days of the “intuitive” manager are numbered *;
meaning that they are coming to an end. But some people are clearly good at management,
and others are not. Some people will be unable to put management techniques into practice.
Others will have lots of technique, but few good ideas. Outstanding managers are rather
rare.
Vocabulary
1. Managers have to decide how best to allocate the human, physical and
capital……………..available to them.
2. Managerss – logically – have to make sure that the jobs and tasks given to their
subordinates are………..
7. Top managers are responsible for the……. that will allow a company to adapt to a
changing world.
Discussion
Multinational companies can either attemp to use similar management methods in all
their foreign subsidiaries, or adapt their methods to the local culture in each country or
continent. Which procedure do you think is the most efficient?
Do you think the culture of your country is similar enough to those of neighbouring
countries to have the same management techniques? Or are there countries nearby where
people have very different attitudes to work, hierarchy, organization, and so on?
Discussion
A Dutch researcher, Fons Trompenaars, and his associates, have asked nearly 15.000
business people in over 50 countries a number of questions which reveal differing cultural
beliefs and attitudes to work. Here are five of them, adapted from Riding the Waves of
Culture: Understanding Cultureal Diversity in Business. They concern ways of working,
individuals and groups, rules, and personal friendships, and so on. What are your answers
to the questions?
1. If you had to choose, would you say that a company is (a) a system designed to
perform functions and tasks in an efficient way, using machines and people, or (b) a group
of people whose functioning depends on social relations and the way people work together?
2. What is the main reason for having an organizational structure in a company? (a)
So that everyone knows who has authority over whom, or (b) so that everyone knows how
functions are allocated and coordinated?
3. Will (a) the quality of an individual’s life improve if he or she has as much freedom
as possible and the maximum opportunity to develop personality, or (b) the quality of life
for everyone improve if individuals are continuously taking care of their fellow human
beings, even if this limits individual freedom and development?
5. Imagine that you are a passenger in a car driven by a close friend who hits and
quite seriously injuries a pedestrian while driving at least 25 kilometres an hour to fast in
town. There are no other witnesses. Your friend’s lawyer says thst it will help him a lot if
you testify that he was driving within the speed limit. Should your friend expect you to do
this?
Reading
‘Multi-active cultures’ in Southern Europe, Latin America and Africa attact more
importance to feelings, emotions and intuition, and relationships and connections. People
like to do many things at the same time; they are flexiable, good at changing plans and
happy to improvise. They believe in social or company hierarchy, and respect status. They
are essentially collectivist, and also what Trompenaars calls ‘particularist’- they believe
that personal relationships and friendships should take precedence over rules and
regulations.
People in ‘reactive cultures’ in Asia prefer to listen to and establish the other’s
position, and then react to it. They try to avoid confrontation, and don’t want to ‘lose face’
or cause someone else to. They rarely interupt speakers and often avoid eye contact. They
try to formulate approaches which suit both parties.
Other countries have cultures which how combine characteristics of two of these
poles, and can be represented along the sides of a triangle.
Comprehension
4. Who is more likely to say, about other people: ‘They can’t be trusted because they
will always help their friends or family’ – universalists or particularists?
5. Who is more likely to say: ‘Oh, you can’t trust them; they wouldn’t even help a
friend’?
Vocabulary
Match the words in the box with the definitions below.
2. thought based on reasons and judgement rather than feelings and emotions
12. looking directly at the people you are talking or listening to.