Category: Blogs

Notes for the 2025 Lunch Coaching Hour on Business Communication

How to Establish and Expand Your Professional Network

March 27, 2025

Coach Ric started the 2025 Lunch Coaching sessions with a slide that reminded me that human nature is at the core of communications – people would connect for 3 reasons: they like/believe in you, they like/believe in your cause, or ROI. There were many questions whe we discussed what lies at the heart of networking. Ric also shared some practical networking formulas and tips.

Overall, networking is not about having answers ready but about having the right attitude and an open heart. If you don’t have an answer to a question – whether it is about sports you are unfamiliar with or local politics – you can always ask the other person’s point of view. Find the slides here, and join our conversation and discussion next month (April 24th) live if you missed it this time. Register the series here.

Continue reading “Notes for the 2025 Lunch Coaching Hour on Business Communication”

Notes for the 2024 Lunch Coaching Hour on Business Communication

How to be an Effective Communicator for Presentations

October 24, 2024

There is an old saying in Chinese, “To stand like you are a pine tree (Zhan Ru Song),” symbolizing steadiness. Today, Coach Ric introduced us to a new tree to mimic during presentations: the palm tree. It represents both steadiness and natural flexibility. The session was packed with theoretical and practical advice, including RSVP (Rhythm, Speed, Volume, Pace) for voice and PPP (Pleasure/Pain Principle). My personal favourite, though, is his honesty about how he, a native speaker and communication coach, still practices his speeches and looks for improvement constantly. Check out this month’s material here.

Continue reading “Notes for the 2024 Lunch Coaching Hour on Business Communication”

How to Order Chinese Cuisine Authentically to Get the Best of It

How to Order Chinese Cuisine Authentically to Get the Best of It

By Yang Wang

April 15, 2024

 

I hosted an eating-out for a blind women’s group last month on St. Patrick’s Day.  In the group each member takes turns to organize an outing, usually to a restaurant of their choice.

I invited members to a Chinese restaurant, the Asian Legend in Scarborough.  It was a bit of travel for some members who lived in the Downtown area or in the West end of the city.  But hey, there were lots of authentic Chinese restaurants in Scarborough.  And people in Scarborough spent that much time travelling to Downtown or further for work or entertainment all the time.  I really wished we had had more subway lines extended to this east end of the city!  The biggest truth was I had a ski accident in February, and was still having some headaches and dizziness so I took the advantage of being a host, and chose a good and relatively familiar restaurant that was nearby me.  Anyway finally Five of us sat down at a Lazy Susan round table, and began to order.

Continue reading “How to Order Chinese Cuisine Authentically to Get the Best of It”

Notes for “EAWLC Dialogue with Ed Shiller”

By Ed Shiller at EAWLC, April 27, 2024

I’ll begin by sharing with you a few observations and experiences.

I believe that prejudice and racism are acquired traits, perhaps emerging as a consequence of the human instinct to form tight-knit communities of like-minded people.

Continue reading “Notes for “EAWLC Dialogue with Ed Shiller””

EAWLC Outstanding Service Award Winners

East and West Learning Connections (EAWLC) is run by volunteers.  Without their talents, commitment, and hard work,  all the programs we have offered to the public just cannot possibly come into reality.  Every year at our Annual General Meeting, our Board chooses a number of winners to receive the EAWLC Outstanding Service Awards based on time commitment, task impact, and organization involvement in the previous year.  The award does not apply to board directors, advisors, or guest speakers, even though they are also volunteers to whom we are deeply grateful for their help.  Each year there will be friends generously donating some cool items so we can give the winners as a gift.  The winners are the representatives of all EAWLC volunteers who all come to help us with a giving heart for the community.  Thank you so much, members, volunteers, and donors, for your great support and contributions! 

2024 EAWLC Outstanding Service Award winners

Continue reading “EAWLC Outstanding Service Award Winners”

Happy Loong or Dragon New Year and Family Day the Canadian Way

By Yang Wang
February 19, 2024

CCB Toronto Visionaries, a peer support organization for the blind, organized a trip to the Lunar New Year Reading and Tea at Montgomery’s Inn yesterday. The event was a celebration of the Lunar New Year (Feb 10-24) and the Family Day (Feb 18). Montgomery’s Inn was a museum in Toronto, turned from a historic inn built in the early 19th century. It was free for visionary members but was attended by a full room of people from across the city from all kinds of cultural backgrounds, age groups, and professions.

Continue reading “Happy Loong or Dragon New Year and Family Day the Canadian Way”

Living with Cultural Barriers: A Speech, a Poem and the EAWLC / 我的文化差异体验

By Yang Wang

I was invited to give a speech at Don Heights Unitarian Congregation on October 15, 2023 to introduce East and West Learning Connections (the EAWLC).  I shared my personal stories and observations of cultural difference, barriers for first generation immigrants, problems the immigrant  community face to realize the two-way diversity process, and what the EAWLC had been doing to help address those concerns.  Thanks to the engaging audience, their frank and thoughtful questions, plus interesting stories made my wish for a meaningful conversation come true!

Continue reading “Living with Cultural Barriers: A Speech, a Poem and the EAWLC / 我的文化差异体验”

EAWLC Business Etiquette Coaching on Executive Presence: Excerpt and Notes

The notes by Ellen Meng

Click the following link to download the high-definition file.

 

Business Etiquette Coaching Hour_Notes and Thoughts on Executive Presence by Ellen

 

The excerpt by Ric Phillips

Continue reading “EAWLC Business Etiquette Coaching on Executive Presence: Excerpt and Notes”

On The Spring Festival, Chinese New Year and Lunar New Year: Different Perspectives Compiled

The article I wrote, followed by comments from friends, gives some light to different concerns and perspectives around a recent hot topic in the Chinese community. Thanks a lot to my friends who have shared their thoughts frankly; their names are listed in the Acknowledgement at the end. I found the rethinking and learning process very beneficial to me.

–Yang Wang

Continue reading “On The Spring Festival, Chinese New Year and Lunar New Year: Different Perspectives Compiled”