Philippines' Global Workers Top Business English Index

Okay, here’s the deal: the Philippines trumps the rest of the world—or so it seems—in Business English proficiency in the workplace. We even nosed out the US, UK, Canada and Australia—all native English-speaking countries!

GlobalEnglish recently published their 2012 Business English Index and we—or our global workers—scored 7.11. That means we can hold ourselves well in any virtual or real-world business meetings, actively contribute in any enterprise debates or deliberations, and do intricate tasks (like creating presentations or negotiating contracts).

(A 1.0 rating means you can read and talk English in simple questions and statements but, to a certain degree, can’t speak or grasp basic business information during phone calls. A 10.0 score means you’re at par with a native English speaker in interactions and collaborations in the workplace.)

So why the premium on Business English?

A Birthday Soliloquy

Me: Great news!

Myself: What?

Me: It’s our 41st birthday today!

I: What’s awesome with that? We’re another year older. OLDER! Don’t you get the concept of getting old yet?

Myself: Yeah, like our-feet’s-nearing-the-point-when-it-gets-buried-six-feet-under kind of old. And I don’t mean the getting-stuck-in-one-helluva-bog kind of buried.

Me: C’mon, gurls. It means we’re grown up. Remember, we always said, “When I grow up I’ll be a…” when we were younger?

Myself: Newsflash, gurl. We’ve been there long before now. We’re grown up.

How to Start Freelancing Online

I’ve been freelancing online since 2008 and I can say it’s absolutely one of the BEST decisions I’ve ever made in my entire money-making life. Besides the fact that I work on MY time schedule (more or less!), I got to earn on the side maintaining a day job. When it was time for me to go full time, I’ve already established a good portfolio and a higher hourly rate.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. If you’re an absolute newbie to the work-at-home, online freelancing life, you probably want an answer to this one burning question first:

How do I start making money as a freelancer online?

My answer is another equally burning but all-important question:

What are the skills and services that you can sell in exchange for a fee?

There are many things you can do for money online but the main thing is, you need to zero in on one or two skills that you excel in before you start bidding on projects.

Introduction to Psychology: Some Takeaways

As I’m moving more towards a career in copywriting, I’m regaining my earlier fascination with psychology…how the mind works, why we feel what we do, and why we want stuff.

When I stumbled onto this free online course at Udemy, I immediately signed up with my Facebook profile.

Here are some of the takeaways from the introductory session: