ut Nieuws weekblad van de Universiteit Twente
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Thursday 10 February 2011
WHAT'S NEW Body Language Have you also experienced that focusing on content alone is not enough when presenting yourself in academia? The Female Faculty Network helps you to upgrade your nonverbal presentation skills in their upcoming workshop. Professional actress Ariëlle Brouwer teaches you the dos and don’ts of body language during conference speeches and other public speaking events.You will also practise making short powerful statements in order to influence people. Interested? Email FFNT@utwente.nl to register. Tuesday 15 February, 1pm to 5pm, Drienerburght building
Crazy machinery Theater producers Septimia Kuhlmann and Jos Zandvliet ask for your help.They need to trace ‘hidden’ scientific treasures on campus to use in their upcoming music and theater shows in September, marking the UT’s lustrum. Are there some conspicuous, funny-looking devices or appliances in your lab? Do you know some attention-grabbing inventions or imaginative research material? Or do you simply have some good ideas for cultural performances related to striking technological advances? If so, please contact them at info@stichtingaccu.nl.
Happietaria Are you a food lover with a big heart? Then a visit to the ‘Happietaria’ is a must-do.The Happietaria is a temporary restaurant founded and run by volunteers, including professional chefs. By ordering one of its delicious meals – a main course costs as little as €10 – you will support the opening of ‘fair trade’ banana plantations in South America. So let both your heart and your tummy speak and visit the place, which is located nearby the UT, namely on the Hengelosestraat 172. It is open from 11 February to 10 March.
High ranking The UT now holds the 17th place in the subject area of Engineering among European universities in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2010 to 2011. It is the only Dutch university making it into the top 20 of the British magazine’s prestigious list in this area.The Times’ University Rankings are based on the Essential Science Indicators database from Thomson Reuters.The university gained its place on the basis of its citation performance between January and August 2010 and had 105 academic-quoted articles by UT researchers, averaging around 6.8 quotations per article.
Public Speaking Have you always had trouble controlling your nerves when faced with a large audience? Do you never seem to be able to actually get your message across? Then you should sign up for the course ‘Public Speaking.’This course will teach you all the basic techniques of public speaking. The program of the course is quite extensive and therefore is held during a weekend. Both days of the weekend will be filled with exercises and intense training. At the end of the weekend, you will complete the course by giving a presentation of your own writing. For more information, visit www.studentunion.utwente.nl/ skillscertificate. Friday 11 March, De Burink’s Hof, Buurse, €40 (including lunches and dinners)
International page Coordinator: Robbin Engels/UT-Nieuws | Contributors: Catherine Ann Lombard and Marloes van Amerom | For comments and suggestions, email: rengels@utwente.nl | For previous editions, see: www.utnieuws.nl
Year of the metal rabbit Six weeks into the European New Year, the Chinese Lunar New Year of the rabbit springs into action with celebrations, not only in the heart of China, but also at the UT. Festivities organized by the Chinese Student Association, despite gail-like winds blowing outside, drew 160 guests who mingled and learned the art of dumpling making and calligraphy writing. At the door, two Chinese students, one from Beijing and the other from Shandong Province, greet visitors and hand each one a lottery number, Chinese calendars and red cards with a yellow character to hang on the door of their house, meaning in essence: ‘May many blessings go into your home.’ In the glassed atrium, Ed Brinksma opens the evening with a speech, mentioning famous people who are born under the sign of the rabbit like Dick Bruna, Angela Jolie and Andy Warhol. While various representatives from international student associations give a brief reflection on what a rabbit means in their country, the aroma of Hu’s Garden food fills the air, as volunteers remove the chafing dish covers, preparing to open the buffet. In turn, Mingliang Jin shares a film, showing the step-by-step process of how to make a dumpling, while people casually sip Palm beers and glasses of coca-cola. ‘The person, who makes the most beautiful and highest number of dumplings, wins a prize,’ announces Jin, adding in that everyone will get to taste the workshop results if the dumplings can survive being steamed.
With shelves rolled up, Inge Broekman (center), institutional Erasmus coordinator, learns from Chinese students how to make dumplings. Photo: Gijs van Ouwerkerk
Indians, Chinese, Dutch and Mexicans crowd the table to make dumplings, experiencing first-hand one of China’s ancient-old cooking techniques. ‘Ok, ok,’ says Jin,‘let’s start the competition.’ Elsewhere, children are nibbling on kroepoek shrimp chips and playing with rocks in a bed of artificial plants. Memories of China are being shared the whole evening. ‘Beijing clears out, clogging the roads when people go to their family house to celebrate,’ recalls a 29-year-old post doctoral researcher, who explains that while dumplings are popular in the North regions, rice cakes are served in the South of China. ‘It’s said that the year of the sheep is not as lucky as other years,’ says organizer Xiaofeng Sui from the Shandong Province, who was born in the year of the pig which means to Chinese, you are a hard worker. Has the animal
zodiac prediction held true in his life? He laughs, ‘No, not really. Last year was the year of the metal tiger and is known to be a lucky year. Chinese consider it an ‘auspicious occasion’ to have a baby born in the so-called years of good fortune.’ Sui is especially proud of his wife, who is working as a volunteer that night behind the bar. She left her job with a multi-national company in China to accompany him in the Netherlands. ‘She’s learned Dutch and is now working on learning German,’ he says. Later in the evening, Lixian Xu, 28, is eager to demonstrate to people how to draw Chinese characters with black ink on red paper, explaining in exact details how you should not let your arm rest on the table.‘It’s different than how you hold a pencil,’ he shows and watches as Karen Paardenkooper, head
of the International Office, writes with fluid movements, appearing to have long mastered the art. ‘Well, that’s more like painting,’ he casually observes. ‘She really takes her time with each brushstroke.’ ‘What a job!’ says Paardenkooper. In China, the most valuable calligraphy pens – the absolute best – according to Xu, are made from the tail hair of a wolf and lesser quality models are made with the tail hair of sheep. Xu insists, ‘the hair is only taken from the tail.’ And in order to really be able to communicate daily, he estimates you roughly need to know around 5,000 to 6,000 Chinese characters. Visit online and click on YouTube video about the Chinese Spring Festival: www.utnieuws.nl Robbin Engels
toastmasters refines the art of public speaking
Are you scared to death of speaking in public? ‘Developing personal confidence is crucial in life,’ says President Candi Luth. For many people, speaking in public is an indispensable skill, but not always considered a favored part of an academic career. Founded in the US in 1910, Toastmasters International aims to perfect people’s speech skills. To find out what it is all about, UT Nieuws attends a meeting of the Twente Toastmasters. ‘Toastmasters really helped me with my studies, by helping me to structure my presentations better,’ whispers German Saxion student, Nina Müller on the Toastmaster’s evening, as she explains between presentations how the organization has helped her. Not a big surprise, one of the first things one notices about the meeting is its tight organization, alongside a friendly atmosphere. The printed agenda in front of me follows a minute-based planning and both the meeting and the speeches to follow are highly structured. When Candi Luth, ‘president-forthe-evening’, has finished opening the meeting, in a speech that is at once eloquent, concise and humorous, members move on to hear the first of three speeches. Once enrolled, Toastmasters members can prepare for and practice various types of speech techniques, using the Toastmasters Competent Communication Manual as a guide.
UT Health Sciences Master student Haiwan Wang during her ‘no joke’ speech. Photo: Gijs van Ouwerkerk
On this evening, Russian Dariya Gavrish, who joined a few months ago, holds her ‘maiden speech,’ introducing herself formally to the audience. She appears confident and articulate, one of the main comments by appointed reviewer, Daniël van Doorn, is that she could gesture a bit more and establish better eye contact with the audience. ‘A good critic should offer a few positive aspects,’ summarizes Josien van Lanen, who follows the guidelines for good critiquing and suggests further points for improvement: ‘Always end on a positive note; everyone should leave feeling good about themselves.’ Next in line, Chinese-born Haiwan Wang immediately silences the room by putting a washing-up bowl and a tea towel in front of her. Her speech involves the art of ‘persuasive speaking’ by ‘addressing the opposition.’ She warns against the hazards of failing
to rinse dishes with water after using liquid dish detergent – something Dutch people do all the time in the Netherlands. ‘Chemicals remain on the plates and can make you sick,’ she explains. Finally, the last speaker is Danny Bos, who also gives a persuasive speech, promising the smokers in the room that she’s not going to ‘bang on’ and lecture about the warnings printed on the sides of cigarette packages. As a starting point Danny, instead, talks about the importance of quitting smoking, using the arguments of Allen Carr’s famous credo: ‘Smoking is not a habit, it is a drug addiction.’ Evaluator Viola Krutwage is impressed by her research and additionally offers a suggestion that he should not just summarize information, but also use more direct quotes from Carr’s book entitled Easy Way to Stop Smoking in order to
engage and persuade the audience even more. After a short break, the ‘Table Topics’ contest starts. On this night, the theme is centered on various famous quotes on the basis of which everyone will devise an impromptu two-minute speech. On an upbeat note the meeting ends, when after sharpening listening skills through a short quiz in which members match earlier-made statements to the correct audience member, everyone gets a tasty lollipop as a reward.‘Initially I loathed the Table Topics exercise,’ Dominik Huckebrink says with a grin when he’s relaxing in Irish pub Molly Malone a little later that night. ‘But now I love it. It makes me sound more eloquent in formal discussions.’ All members agreed that Toastmasters is more than just developing public speaking skills. ‘It is also about developing leadership skills and extending your network,’ says Josine. For Australian born Candi, developing personal confidence is the most essential part. ‘Nerves will always be part of the speaking process and a part of life, but Toastmasters seems to help you channel nervous energy and make it work to your best advantage. Many people tell me it is like getting a free English lesson!’ Should you be interested in joining Toastmasters, anyone can join. A sixmonth membership is €45 or €25 for students. Likewise, you can first just have a look around by visiting a meeting or the organization’s upcoming comedy night on the first of March. For further details see www.toastmasters.nl/ttc. Happy speeching. Marloes van Amerom