career21ST CENTURY 921ST CENTURY 4 foc JULY 23, 2014 JULY 23, 2014

GLOSSARYn四级词汇initiative [] 主动性

n六级词汇haunt [] 萦绕心头

n托福词汇acquaint [] 使熟悉

mitigate [] 减轻

newbie [] 新手

ordeal [] 煎熬

renowned [] 有声望的

residency [] 居住

supervisor [] 主管

Fresh graduates face tough career start

Starting one’s fi rst job can be a daunting experience for students coming out of university. QUANJING

WANG XIAOYING

21ST CENTURY STAFF

The alarm clock is ringing, but Zhang Fangfang doesn’t want to get up. When the 22-year-old Eng-lish graduate of Sichuan University landed a job a month ago, she was full of excitement. But now, what she feels most is anxiety.

Since July 1, Zhang has been work-ing as a journalist for a news website in Chengdu. She started off passion-ately, staying up late to write inter-view outlines and contacting inter-viewees every day. But she never received any good quotes from her contacts, giving her *supervisor the impression that she is incapable of finding suitable interviewees. Zhang has grown frustrated and is *haunted by nightmares in which she is con-stantly criticized by her supervisor.

Going to work has become an *or-deal for her. “I can never deliver the results my boss expects. I’m thinking of quitting my job,” says Zhang.

Many graduates are in a similar sit-uation. After weeks of working, they still find it hard to adapt to their new responsibilities and the pace of work and start developing anxiety issues.

Feeling anxious is a *newbie’s natural response to their lacking ca-pabilities at work, says Ning Jiaying, author of College Students’ Career Planning. “Graduates have high ex-pectations of themselves. When they can’t meet them, they easily become anxious,” she says.

In order to *mitigate such anxiet-ies, graduates need to bear in mind that it’s common for newcomers to make mistakes. “Employers don’t ex-pect graduates to know everything. In the first two years, graduates can demonstrate their ability by learning from their mistakes,” she says.

Even when graduates don’t make mistakes, they’re easily brought down because of poor interpersonal relationships.

Research by 51job.com, a Chinese recruitment website, shows that 45 percent of newbies nationwide are anxious because of frequent denial from their supervisors, while 31 per-cent experience difficulties in adapt-ing to the work environment.

“Graduates who have problems fit-ting into their new environment are usually those who have trouble deal-ing with their colleagues,” says Zhang

Meng, human resources manager of a Beijing-based consulting firm. In her opinion, graduates tend to do things on their own. They rarely commu-nicate or cooperate with their col-leagues.

“Some of our new employees are unwilling to have lunch together with the more experienced employees. It’s not helpful in building up their net-work,” she says.

Graduates can win their colleagues’ favor by offering a helping hand, says Li Li, a senior consultant at China International Talent Development Center.

“Don’t hesitate to do chores for senior employees. It’s a good oppor-tunity to get *acquainted with them and get to know their personality,” he says. “The best time to do so is after 11:30 am, on Friday afternoons, or when a new project is being launched.”

Study abroad opens doors back at home

After completing an accounting degree in Shanghai, Hu Yuyang was daunted by a job market fl ooded with peers of his age all holding similar qualifi cations and search-ing for entry-level positions.

To gain a competitive advantage and open up greater opportunities for his future, Hu looked into studying overseas to develop his English skills while obtaining a master’s degree from an internationally *renowned university.

“Australia is my fi rst choice for the ease of obtaining a visa through the Streamlined Visa Processing (SVP) *initiative and IELTS. I chose to study at Macquarie University. My agent helped me submit the application and recommended Navitas English to boost my language skills,” Hu said.

As one of the world’s best English lan-guage centers and an educational busi-ness partner for the SVP initiative, Navitas English o� ers students academic English courses with direct entry to more than 50 leading institutions, including universities and colleges, for diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

“I spent 20 weeks at Navitas English and found it very helpful in improving my English skills, especially writing, listening and speaking,” Hu says. “I felt free to ask any questions, and the style of teaching was very practical. There were not too many students in each class and I learned additional skills, like logical thinking and dealing with cultural di� erences.”

After completing his studies at Navitas English and then Macquarie University, Hu is now aiming to fi nd work with one of the big four accounting fi rms (KPMG, Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte) in Australia. He plans to take his IELTS exam and then apply for a skilled visa to attain permanent *residency in Australia, as this will give him more options in the future.

“It’s quite normal for Chinese students to go overseas nowadays, but my excellent study experience with Navitas English and the opportunities for working here will give me a competitive edge when I go back to Shanghai,” Hu says.

About Navitas EnglishNavitas English (part of the Navitas

group) is one of the largest of Australia’s quality English language providers o� ering English language tuition and teacher train-ing to domestic and international students. Further information about Navitas English is available at www.navitasenglish.com.

Change of work attitudesInvolvement at work Work e� ciency Intention to quit

Work for less than one year

Work for two to fi ve years

SOURCE: SURVEY OF 11,032 PEOPLE BY ZHAOPIN.COM, 2014

Work for fi ve to ten years

Work for more than ten years

GLOSSARYn六级词汇attribute [] 把……归于

Language-learning apps teach

Educational apps allow students to take a fun and fl exible approach to learning, making the idea of matering a language less

compatible [] 兼容的

formula [] 公式

fragment [] 片段

n托福词汇abundant [] 大量的

gamification [] 游戏化

During the class break, on the bus, in the sub-way, Jin Xiaorong, 21, a law major at Nankai Uni-versity, is always busy with her mobile phone. But she’s not using Weibo or WeChat. Instead, she’s memorizing English words through the app Baicizhan. “When I downloaded the app and launched it for the first time, I fell in love with it at once,” Jin says. “It displays an inspira-tional sentence every time you use it.”

The clear categories and functions also sat-isfy her needs. “It can help me make a learning plan. For example, if I want to learn 3,000 CET 4 words in two months, it tells me that I need to learn 50 words every day,” she says.

When Jin recites words, a selection of pictures for each word keeps it interesting. “I read the English word in a sentence and then choose the right picture to explain its meaning, rather than looking at a Chinese translation. Whether it’s a noun, a verb or an adjective, there are always pictures to explain it,” she says.

In this app, remembering words becomes a fight, just as its name suggests. When the user masters a word, they can click “zhan”, which means “*slay” in English. This activates a lively sound effect. “It’s like the fruit-slicing game,” says Jin. “You feel the satisfaction of having learned a word and are motivated to learn more.”

It’s quite normal to pull out your smart-phone on the subway to play a game or check your social media accounts. But in-stead of killing time, how about practicing your IELTS listening skills or improving your CET reading ability? With education assistance apps gaining momentum in China, the answer for many students and young professionals is obvious.

According to the Apple Store, the online marketplace for iOS *compatible apps, education applications as a group are just behind games as the second most popular downloads among users. Xinhua News Agency reported late last year that there are more than 20,000 di� erent applica-tions providing teaching and learning ser-vices on the iPad platform alone in China.

With China’s smartphone users expected to exceed 500 million this year, studying on the go has become a trend among young people. It allows them to get the most out of their *fragmented time, while *gamifi ca-

tion makes learning just as fun as playing games.

In this package, four students share their stories of using di� erent English learning apps to improve their reading, speaking, listening and vocabulary skills. They also provide valuable advice on learning Eng-lish e� ectively.

VOCABULARYBUILDING READINGPROFICIENCY

Like many other passengers on the subway, Zhou Tianyao, 30, an English major at the Uni-versity of Science and Technology Beijing, uses his smartphone whenever he is on the subway. But rather than updating his Weibo account or chatting on WeChat, he reads English texts.

“I enjoy reading in English,” says Zhou. “I get new information while improving my reading ability little by little.”

Zhou’s favorite app for English reading is iYangcong, a platform where books and maga-zines are categorized into genres: history, phi-losophy, romance, social science, classic novels, even fashion.

“I’ve benefited a lot from reading about vari-ous kinds of topics. It has made me more *ver-satile in exams and allows me to quickly pro-cess information in English,” says Zhou.

Zhou’s favorite app, iYangcong, offers *abun-dant resources, with books, magazines and es-says covering many subject areas. Most material includes both Chinese and English versions of the text.

“I used to kill time on my commute by play-ing games. Now I make the most of my time by improving my English reading skills,” says Zhou. “You can never read too much.”21ST

Baicizhan (百词斩)Platform: iOS/AndroidCost: freeHighlights: Build up your vocabulary using visual cues and “kill” the words you want to remember. Build up your vocabulary like a fi ghting warrior.

Shanbay (扇贝单词)Platform: iOS/AndroidCost: freeHighlights: Users learn new words through repetition, as-sociation and vocabulary roots. You can share your progress through social media.

ToWords (拓词)Platform: iOS/AndroidCost: freeHighlights: Users have 15 seconds to identify a word. It’s a challenge designed to improve the user’s focus while making use of a small chunk of time.

拓词)

Jin Xiaorong

‘Words Lock Screen’ (单词锁屏)Platform: iOS/AndroidCost: freeHighlights: Of-fers customizable vocabu-lary groups such as TOEFL, GRE, and CET 4/6. Every swipe to unlock the screen becomes a quick vocabu-lary learning session. 21ST