Farewell England

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Costa Rica remain undefeated in Group D when they gave a gritty display to carve a 1-0 victory over four-time world champions Italy in Recife, Brazil. The Tico Boys have now advanced to the knockout stage – the first time since the 1990 World Cup.

 

Costa Rica are supposed to be the weakest team in a group crowded with three former World Cup winners, but the Central American side were the first to secure their place in the last sixteen.

 

This also means England say farewell to the World Cup, no matter the result in their final match. A record of sorts for England – the first time since 1958 that England are eliminated after just two games.

 

And the Italians need a victory or a draw over Uruguay next week in order to move on. Of course, I will be rooting for Luis Suarez and Uruguay. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, France routed a sorry Switzerland side 5-2 at Salvador and all but secure a second-round spot. Having survived a physical Honduras side in their Group E opener, Didier Deschamps' men had it a lot easier when they ran roughshod in a delectable display that left the Swiss shell-shocked.

 

On Tuesday, I was back at KL Sentral having accepted Betty Phua’s invitation to be the Humor Master and Evaluator at the Allianz Toastmasters meeting on Level 6 at Plaza Sentral. It was another round of good speeches and evaluations. This club is going great guns and I am proud to be associated with it in some way. And it was also nice to see their CEO there too. Dare I hope that he might be persuaded to sign up as a member?

 

I am going to give this meeting a score of an 8 over 10 simply because members have recorded remarkable progress in their Toastmastering. And that is important – to me, members’ self-development must come before the club. When members do well, the club does too.

England Loses Again

England is on the verge of being shown the door. And this is because of Luis Suarez’s brilliance at the Arena de Sao Paulo. His double strike (39, 84) in Sao Paulo, Brazil means it is the first time England have lost their first two World Cup games.

 

The odds are now stacked against England qualifying from Group D. They will be out for sure unless Italy – who overcame England in Manaus – beat Costa Rica on Friday.

 

And they also need Italy to win their final game against Uruguay, which could then see England conceivably qualify on goal difference by beating Costa Rica next Tuesday, June 24.

 

But for all England’s potential (supposedly), they could only show a record of two games played and two games lost – and this rarely adds up to anything other than elimination at the World Cup. No side have ever progressed after losing their first two matches.

 

And you know what? There are many Liverpool fans who are right behind Suarez and we are delighted that Uruguay triumphed!

 

Yesterday, Japan and Greece played to a goalless stalemate that keeps alive both teams' chances of progressing from Group C. But I would be surprised if Japan can make it – they have been mediocre.

 

And today, I present the 5 winning videos from my DMK1013 students – April 2014 cohort – at Sunway University. These commercials were adjudged the best five out of a tally of twenty-one:

Spain Exit WC

Spain crash out of the World Cup on Wednesday. Chile delivered the fatal blows when they put two goals past hapless Spain. The world and double European champions had the dubious honor of being the first team to leave the 2014 World Cup, knocked out of a major tournament for the first time in eight years. 

Netherlands hung on to beat Australia, 3-2 in a Group B clash in Porto Alegre, Brazil and although it was a laborious win, the result is all that counts. 

On Tuesday, Russia drew 1-1 with South Korea in a Group H match. 

And on Monday, I was at KL Sentral to attend the KL Advanced Toastmasters meeting. This was my first meeting as a returning member. Also, I delivered my CC speech #8 titled "Foreign is Good" and Lucky was my evaluator. I purposely went to Village Grocer in Bangsar Village to buy imported chocolates – they cost me RM23.80 – to use as my visual aids. Those at the meeting got to eat the chocs too. A good speech, if I may say so myself! It wasn't a surprise therefore that I was voted Best Assignment Speaker. Overall, it was indeed a good meeting.

And we even had visiting Toastmasters from abroad. They are two sisters from the Toastmasters Mongolia Club in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. Zagdaa Ganchimeg, the club president was our General Evaluator at this meeting. 

Sunway University's DMK1013 Students Impress

Sometime in April, I put up this post about a company Mamee-Double Decker at this link http://helpvictor.blogspot.com/2014/04/mamee-double-decker-in-malacca.html – this gave me an idea for my DMK1013 course project and so, my students at Sunway University were tasked to look at this company’s products this semester.

Today, in Hall 1 at the university's Graduate Center, these students presented a total of 21 video commercials that they had produced as part of the DMK1013 course requirements. This time around, I put together a panel of eight judges – including me – to grade their work. 

Four of them are lecturers from the Sunway University Business School (namely Chong Soon Meng, Dr Jolyne Khor, Adrian Mitra Nathai and I) and another four are industry practitioners (namely Mohd Fadli Mohd Hafetz, Head of Marketing, Mamee-Double Decker; Herry Budiazhari, Country Marketing Director, Unilever Malaysia; Grace Chan, General Manager, Group Human Resource & Administration, Berjaya Corporation Berhad and Dr Sharon Tong, General Manager, R & D, PKT Logistics Group S/B, and Board Member, Women Institute of Management).

Believe me when I say it was not easy to grade these videos. In any case, I have chosen the best 15 to showcase in my blog – and the first installment of five videos can be viewed below:

It is pertinent to inform that the students have not yet learned Marketing or Advertising & Promotion. I did give them some pointers but that was it. One tutorial.

 

The course Introduction to Business is their very first business subject that they are taking this semester and I am privileged to be their lecturer.

 

Kindly note that this is their first semester at University and so, I am very proud of my students because the work that they had produced exceeded my expectations! Well done!