My response to A Conversation with Michael Ignatieff

29 January 2009. Launch Magazine.

I am completely non-partisan when it comes to municipal, national or federal elections. Elections at my university, however, are a completely different story, especially when it comes to the student union president position.

Every time there is an election, I go through each of the platforms and decide which one is the most plausible and aligned with my beliefs. I think there have even been a few times I’ve abstained if I didn’t feel like candidates have represented me adequately.

Recently, Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff embarked on a campaign to get the opinions of Canadian youth. A Conversation with Michael Ignatieff reached many universities, including Dalhousie, McMaster, Calgary, Manitoba and UBC. At most locations, the event was over capacity and students had to be turned away.

The campaign was a kick-off to the Canada at 150: Rising to the Challenge conference that will be held in March 2010. The conference is supposed to be non-partisan, yet is hosted by the Liberal Party, so take from that what you will.

I was in class, so I couldn’t attend the event at McMaster, and was also unfortunately unable to attend the online chat because I was doing some work for McMaster’s upcoming presidential elections. However, upon the reading the transcript of the online chat, I thought there were two very important questions which were asked.

[Comment From Mike Brown]
Mr Ignatieff, I would like to thank you for your cross country tour of universities. I had the opportunity to see you speak here in Calgary. My question is as follows: I recognize that post-secondary education is a provincial issue but just like health care it can be influenced by the federal government. Here in Alberta we are facing large increases in tuition each year without a comparable increase in quality of education. In fact, the quality has tended to decrease. Should the Liberal party form the government, how do you hope to help students cope with increasing tuition and, as a result, increasing student debt?

Michael Ignatieff: You get the grades, you get to go. That needs to be our motto for higher education in Canada. In practice this will mean higher levels of student aid, more grants than loans, and where loans are applied, longer repayment terms and lower interest rates where possible. We also need to incentivize hiring of young graduates from colleges and universities. The current level of youth unemployment–double the national average–is just too high.

I disagree with what Ignatieff says here based on what I have experienced: as someone who was illegible for OSAP, I couldn’t get bursaries or scholarships, even if my grades were high enough. Despite being a first-generation post-secondary student, I wasn’t eligible for that bursary once again because my parents’ income prevented me from getting OSAP.

However, I agree with what he says on hiring young grads: there are tons of us out there who want work, but are finding that companies are not always interested in new hires. Of course, this is also where TalentEgg comes in, but enough shameless self promotions.

Do you agree with Ignatieff’s statement here? Why or why not?

[Comment From Joe Turcotte]
Mr. Ignatieff, your recent university tour and this online town hall seem to indicate that you’re hoping to reach out to a new, and often overlooked, segment of the Canadian population– the youth. Could you please explain what role you see for Canada’s youth in politics today and describe any changes that the political system itself should take to engage/incorporate us?

Michael Ignatieff: I got involved first time when I was about 17 and once bitten at an early age, you stay bitten. Parties need to reach out and engage young people and give them responsibility early on. I was a national youth organizer for Trudeau at age 21, and that was a challenge. Bottom line: I trust young people because when I was young someone was crazy enough to trust me.

I completely agree with Ignatieff here. I think there is so much voter apathy amongst youth because there is no candidate to adequately represent us and, furthermore, we often see the issues the candidates present as irrelevant to our age group.

So, why are we so apathetic?

After all, we are the ones who will lead our country in the not-too-distant future. Is the problem that we don’t want to get involved in politics, or is it that we don’t know how to get involved?

What can we do to solicit change? How do we want Canada to function in the future?

The benefits of learning new languages, Part 2: The business world

January 29 2010. TalentEgg Incubator.

In Part 1 of The benefits of learning new languages, I asked McMaster University professor Alexandré Sevigny about his opinions on the benefits of learning additional languages, and I provided some of my own justifications for learning or being in the process of learning five languages other than English.

I’ve heard there are many benefits of learning a second (or third) language because it can drastically improve your career options. For example, if you’re interested in working in government, knowing both French and English could offer you better opportunities.

I’ve also read that students considering working in business, especially in international business, should contemplate learning Mandarin since China has become such a powerhouse in the business world in recent years.

Here, Sevingy answers another question on the importance of learning additional languages, but this time his response focuses on future work and career possibilities.

Q. Do you think particular languages are advantageous to learn for certain career aspirations? Why or why not?

A. Well, French is certainly very useful for working in the public sector, or for one of the banks, or even in public relations. It is very difficult to be involved in any of Canada’s national industries without a working knowledge of French.

French is also a key international language as it permits access to the cultures of the Francophonie, an international collection of francophone and francophile states that represent almost every region of the world. French is spoken in North and South America, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, the Maghreb, Asia and Oceania.

French also still remains an international language of culture, prestige and diplomacy. Knowledge of it can raise your status and open doors in international not-for-profit and non-governmental organisations, such as the United Nations.

Spanish is, of course, very important for speaking with our neighbours in Latin America.

Brazilian Portuguese, having recently overtaken Continental Portuguese as the world standard, is an emerging language of business and culture. Brazil will be a very big player in geopolitics and world business in the next 50 years.

Mandarin Chinese permits access to the language and culture of the only serious challenger to the United States’ lone superpower status.

Russian is also a language of importance. It is still a key language of culture, prestige and business in the Slavic world, which represents a world population of approximately 300 million people.

Finally, the leading languages of India will emerge as important for trade and culture. One has only to look at the massive popularity of Bollywood films across the globe to see that India is rising. Some would say that the lingua franca of the sub-continent is English, but as the nation becomes wealthier, its most popular languages will grow in prominence.

Stephen R. Anderson states that there are 6,809 known languages to date worldwide. This number is certainly much greater than I would have initially expected, and I do not think many other people would think there to be so many. The tragedy in this is the number of languages are rapidly decreasing. For example, about 88 languages in Canada are in danger of becoming extinct.

Regardless of what language or languages you decide to learn, how you learn them, or for what purpose, having additional language skills will benefit you in countless ways. Although there are some more practical reasons for learning a language, such as to improve your employability skills, it may also help you personally, such as if you plan on doing a lot of travelling.

The benefits of learning new languages, Part 1: Why take a language?

January 27 2009. TalentEgg Incubator.

Kwékwé skennenkó: wa ken? Danielle ióntiats. Ok nì: se?

I said, “Hello how are you? My name is Danielle. And yours?” in Mohawk.

Mohawk is the fifth language I am in the process of learning. I have completed classes in French, Spanish and Ojibwe as well as learned some German from my family.

Unfortunately, my fluency in all of these languages is poor at best: my French is limited to food packaging and episodes of Telefrançais. Although I could once read Harry Potter in Spanish, my knowledge of the language has deteriorated.

You could say I am really interested in languages, but I don’t know if I see it that way. If that statement were true, I would have much better speaking, and certainly reading, abilities in both Spanish and French.

Ojibwe and Mohawk fulfil some of the degree requirements for my Indigenous Studies minor. I was wary of taking Mohawk because I struggled so much with Ojibwe – it is not an easy language to learn since it is very different than English .

I have heard that there are many benefits to learning additional languages, and wanted to find out why so many experts suggest this. I asked McMaster University French and communication students professorAlexandré Sevigny about his opinions on learning additional languages.

Q. What are the benefits of learning a second or additional language? How can this help students academically or in their future careers?

A. The advantages of taking a second language are many.

First, every language you learn is a window onto a new cultural landscape. When you hear and read the world in a second language, the same scenes, the same family relationships are vibrant in new colours. That is why it is such a tragedy when a language is extinguished, when the last speaker passes.

Second, when you learn a second language, you learn how to interact with a new group of people. A whole new set of social possibilities are open to you.

ou can make new friends, engage new people politically or do business with them – all in a fashion that makes you feel and seem authentic to their way of living.

You can make new friends, engage new people politically or do business with them – all in a fashion that makes you feel and seem authentic to their way of living.

To address someone in his or her own language is profound sign of respect. It shows you are willing to step out of the bounds of your own identity, to make yourself vulnerable and communicate with someone else on his or her own terms, rather than on your own.

Third, it has been demonstrated that speaking several languages has cognitive and neurological health benefits.

While much of this sort of science is preliminary and maybe even shaky, some studies have suggested that practising multilingual people suffer less from things like Alzheimers and dementia.

Fourth, there is the academic asset of being able to read the thinkers whose theories you are studying in the original. No matter how good the translator is, there are nuances and subtleties in the original text that can never be transferred through a translation. Every text is much greater than the sum of its sentences and paragraphs. It has a tone, a feel, a music that can’t be replicated.

Roland Barthes, the famous French semiotician captured this very well when he spoke of “the rustle of language,” like the rustle of leaves in the trees, when a wind or breeze passes through the forest. That sound is unique and experiencing it in its forest of origin is unlike hearing it another place. The roll of the land, the height of the trees, the density of the leaves all make for sound that, while it resembles the wind in the trees in any other forest, is unique and beautiful in its little differences.

Language is the same – different languages permit the rustle of different winds of meaning and culture. Each language is unique.

The benefits of getting a second (or third) opinion on your resumé

19 January 2010. TalentEgg Incubator.

Despite being unsuccessful when I applied last year, I opted to apply to grad school again this year because I believe – given my areas of interest and what I want to do as a career – I need to have at least a master’s degree.

As part of my graduate school applications, I was required to submit a curriculum vitae as part of my package. Unlike a resumé, which is a short listing of your most relevant work and volunteer experiences, a CV includes years of experience and accomplishments and can be multiple pages long.

Even if you don’t plan to apply to graduate school, you should still develop a CV or master resumé. You can also use your CV as a means to organize all of your work and volunteer experience since all of your accomplishments are in one place – it makes it easier for you to make new resumés that way (gotta love copy and paste).

Since I didn’t get in last year, I have taken more actions to improve my chances of getting in this year, and one of them was having my CV critiqued.

Most, if not all, post-secondary institutions have some kind of career services office which can help students improve their existing skills or learn new ones, find a job or have their resumé critiqued. I consulted some of the career services staff at McMaster to help me with my CV.

It was quick and relatively painless since I used a style guide that is used at career services and other departments at McMaster. I was told to ensure I use Canadian spellings and correct verb tenses, but otherwise, the staff member who looked at my CV said it was pretty good.

After a few quick edits, my CV and the rest of the components of my applications were dropped off in the mail. Now I play the waiting game for the next few months to see how my applications went this time around.

What if you are no longer in school, or would like a second opinion on your own resumé or CV?

TalentEgg is here to help you out!

TalentEgg recently launched a new component of the site called Answers, which is a discussion forum. The forum has different sections where you can post questions for your peers, TalentEgg staff, and industry professionals, including (so far) Resumé help, Jobs and career paths, Career-launching events, and Job hunting and career building. In the Resumé help section, you can even submit your own resume to be critiqued.

Also, a copy of the CV I submitted as part of my grad school applications is posted for other users to check out and comment on.

Remember, just because you think your resumé or CV looks good, it never hurts to get a second (or third) opinion!

MacInsiders Mentioned in McMaster Times (Volume 25, Number 1)

12 January 2010, MacInsiders

MacInisders has been mentioned in the McMaster Times, the McMaster Alumni Association's magazine!

The magazine is published three times a year (Winter, Spring and Fall), and is sent free to all alumni in the mail.

In the Alumni Directions section, Karen McQuigge, the director of Alumni Advancement talks about how her life has changed since she was a student at McMaster because of the advent of Web 2.0, and how the MAA has utilized it in the past couple of years to bring McMaster to people even if they are not on campus or elsewhere in Hamilton.

She says:

These are just a few of the ways Web 2.0 is extending the McMaster experience beyond the edges of campus. McMaster students have created a popular website called www.macinsiders.com that provides a venue for students to share insights, tips, advice, news and even recipes (among other things).

We are so excited to be mentioned in the McMaster Times! This magazine goes out to all McMaster Alumni (over 120 000 to date), and reaches people all over the word. A PDF of the magazine will be availableonline soon.

Cheers,
Chad Fullerton, MacInsiders founder and President
Danielle Lorenz, MacInsiders VP Admin

Why I choose life-long goals instead of New Year’s resolutions

7 January 2010. Launch Magazine.

Now is the time for people to make resolutions for the New Year; they want to go to the gym more often, quit smoking, learn something new, get out of debt, get organized, etc.

For the majority of people, what they resolve to do doesn’t end up happening. Sure, they’ll go to the gym for the first few weeks of January, but then slowly taper off until they don’t go at all.

I can’t remember a time when I made New Year’s resolutions because I don’t think it’s a good idea to wait until a prescribed time every year to try and instigate change. I also think they’re lame because people make a huge production of them and then don’t do what they set out to. So, I do not make New Year’s resolutions. However, in 2009, I wrote a list of the 100 things I wanted to do before I die.

Last May, I was a leader for a high school leadership conference called Creating Leadership Among Youth (CLAY) where the keynote speaker was a group of guys called The Buried Life.

Their goal is to complete their list of 100 things they wanted to do before they die and help other people with their own lists along the way. Before CLAY started, they asked the staff and delegates to send them a few of the things we wanted to do before we die, and to start writing our own lists.

At the conference, they helped one of my co-staff cross something off his list, which I thought was really cool. About a month after the conference finished, I interviewed the guys for TalentEgg to get their take on why students and new grads should write a bucket list. Since then, they have completed more things on their list, and their show is about to premiere on MTV.

Although I am clearly not cool enough to get my own show on MTV, I did manage to cross off some of the things on my list.

#1 Figure out what is wrong with my wrist and get it fixed!

One of my wrist bones is deformed and as a result it doesn’t work properly. In order to manage the pain, I have to get cortisone shots. Admittedly that is not fixing the problem per se, but it is solving the issue.

#39 Go to a powwow

I went to two powwows this year. There was a Welcoming Powwow put on by the McMaster First Nation Student Association that I helped with, and I also went to the Canadian Aboriginal Festival, which is one of largest in Canada.

#64 Be an active member of a conservation group

A couple of years ago, I joined an organization called Frogwatch and now whenever I see a frog or toad, I submit my observations. This summer, I also saw many turtles, so I extended my involvement by joiningTurtle Tally. I hope to continue being involved with both groups as my exposure to wetlands permits.

#78 Have dinner at the Olive Garden

This one seems pretty weird, I realize. Olive Garden was my favourite restaurant and probably at least 10 years ago now, corporate office decided to get rid of chains in Ontario. This prevented me from eating at Olive Garden. But when I went to Calgary this summer, I was lucky enough to have dinner there.

I didn’t even realize I had crossed these items off until I took a look at my list a couple of hours ago. Although I haven’t completed them yet, I’ve also gotten closer to finishing numbers 42 (Visit every province and territory in Canada), 59 (Love my job) and 95 (Lose 30 pounds). Come this time 2011, I hope to have crossed off a few more things.

So, let me ask you: what do you want to do before you die?

Please share some of your items with other readers; we’d love to see them! Or, am I a cynic when it comes to New Year’s resolutions? Did you make some and stick by them?