I taught a course for two years for the EPGP program (Executive Post Graduate Program) called “The Good Life course.” It had modules that covered art, architecture, design, luxury brands, food, wine, and other topics that fall under the “social skills,” tag. Had a great time teaching the course
Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!
About the Author: Shoba Narayan
Shoba Narayan is an author, journalist and columnist. Besides writing, she is interested in nature, wine, gadgets and Sanskrit. Her lifelong mission is to get fit without exercising and lose weight without dieting.
1. Improve my social networking skills in an informal/formal setting.
2. Build on my networking skills in a multi-cultural environment.
Expectation from the course:
To gain basic knowledge of art, music and design – ultimately to have a meaningful conversation with someone who is interested in these areas. If time permits please touch upon Indian contribution to these areas and the area of literature.
Brief intro of myself:
I have worked in telecommunications R&D for the past 8 years. And would continue in the communications domain post EPGP. Apart from my work and time with my family, I spend time avidly studying philosophy, non-fiction and a little bit of fiction. My favorite littérateurs are Plato, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Kahlil Gibran, C.Rajagopalachari, Amartya Sen, Bharathiyar, and Victor Hugo ( I might have missed many others!). I have very little knowledge on art, music and design – but I love listening to classical music – both carnatic and western. My favorite musicians are Mozart and M.S.Subbulakshmi.
Great, thanks.
Shoba
Dear Professor,
I look forward to this course with an open mind. Art has always interested me and through this course I would like to get initiated to art, architecture and culture across the globe. Though I try to observe and learn, sometimes it just does not stay in my memory, from this course I will like to learn how to go about exploring and learning more.
Dear Professor,
As part of my job I deal with many customers from different parts of the world. I do spend good amount of time in liesure/social settings with them. On many occassions I felt, unfortunately after the event, that I could have utilized the time better to understand them better and take away something good for me and my business. I lookforward to pick up some skills of schmoozing so that such unfortunate occassions are minimized.
Dear Professor,
As a person rise through the ranks, soft skills takes a larger portion of the skill set requirement basket. We grow up working in great details about the technicalities and don’t bother so much about schmoozing yet some times at the cost of it.
My expectation from the course is that how can I learn this art yet I appear to others as if everything is menifesting so naturally.
About me:
I have 9 years of experiance in Manufacturing industry in variuos functions. My job didn’t demand much of networking. Post EPGP I would like to join Manufacturing company but client / customer facing roles. My interests are Playing Badminton, Making portraits and community work.
Look forward to brush up the soft skills.
Thanks. This helps.
Out of the class learning..
Rgds,
Piyush Deogirikar
09324220110
To be socially graceful by the end of the course.
I am looking to enhance my knowledge of the skills required for networking with people from different backgrounds. Live demonstrations and role plays will be extra helpful in understanding these things from a practical viewpoint.
About myself:
I have worked for 8.5 years with clients in different sectors consulting on ecommerce solutions. I have a strong interest in people and communication skills, having run amateur forums myself. These forums helped participants become aware of their communication styles, strengths and weaknesses so they could work on improving them.
Dear Prof,
I have interests in Movies, sports, music, books, quizzing, blogging and cooking. But I would definitely want to know more about relatively difficult topics such as visual arts, sculpting, wines etc-atleast enough to strike a casual conversation with people whose interests lie in these esoteric fields.
I worked with TCS for 8.5 years prior to EPGP, with around 4 years in the US and 6 months in Nepal.
Most of the expectations are covered by some of my friends. It makes more sense to me why this course is more aptly called “How-to-Schmooze” rather than “Good-Life”. However, I would like to understand what is beyond small talk and how to transition to a business discussion after making those initial (hopefully good) impressions. How to sound to the other person that I am doing a “Canned-Conversation”? Looking forward to few skills that I can pick up on “What-to-say? How-to-respond-to-cues?” as part of this course.
Dear Prof,
I am an Entrepreneur in the field of home textile design and manufacturing. Through this course I would like to improve my networking and communication skills, so that I can converse and interact better in different business and social environments.
Regards
Ashis Patwary
Hello Ms Narayan,
I read your article and found it interesting.
On a side note I have an observation. I find articles on Art and Movie reviews bit difficult to understand. Its not about vocabulary; I think its more to do with complex sentence structures. Most of the times when I complete reading an article on art, there are hardly any takeaways as I mostly miss the essence. I feel intimidated whenever I come across such articles and hence the deficit of understanding.
Thanks,
Kiran
I am looking at this course to help expand my perspectives. I’ve always held strong views on culture music, movies, sports, architecture etc. and tend to hit it off like of house of fire with anyone with similar taste. However, I find it hard to open up to others with divergent interests. With this course, I am hoping to take a step closer to engaging (even if not fully appreciating) with these diverse point of views in a more endearing fashion.
About me: avid reader (fiction, plays); movie & music buff (love European cinema, ghazal & rock music); sports aficionado and a serial globetrotter. Nine years of work experience in IT services. I’ve lived and worked in US for about 3 years and in Europe (Germany & Italy) for a year.
Are you a Schmoozer or are closer. Read here