Latest news with #English-speakers
Local Sweden
an hour ago
- Business
- Local Sweden
Almost 17,000 summer jobs still available in Sweden
If you're looking for a summer job in Sweden, don't give up just yet – there are still thousands of job openings in everything from the hospitality industry to healthcare. Advertisement 'There are almost 17,000 summer jobs available right now,' Alva Johansson, analyst at the Swedish Public Employment Service (Arbetsförmedlingen), told the TT newswire. A total of 130,314 summer job ads have been posted via the service's job site, Platsbanken, this spring, somewhat fewer than the 133,144 job ads last year. Although hiring for more permanent positions often grinds to a halt during the summer, it can also be an ideal period for breaking into the Swedish labour market. Full-time employees are legally entitled to four consecutive weeks off during June-August, so there are plenty of temporary substitute openings available on top of seasonal work. While many jobs require Swedish, the summer season often offers more opportunities than usual for those with limited Swedish skills. The majority of jobs are found in the healthcare and social services sector, but there are also plenty of openings at for example cafés and restaurants and in cleaning. Even if the summer job does not exactly match your level of experience or future career aspirations in Sweden, it can be an opportunity rather than a step down. In Sweden, seven out of ten jobs are obtained through personal connections, so using the summer to build networks and industry knowledge can be particularly useful for newcomers. Advertisement Seasonal jobs for English-speakers may for example be available in major cities or tourism destinations, where it is more important that you can communicate with international tourists than have fluent Swedish. In the healthcare industry, there may also be opportunities to work as a personal care assistant for someone whose native language you speak. Another option could be to look for entry-level jobs such as a cleaner. Although many foreigners in Sweden need a work permit to work in the country, EU citizens, as well as non-EU citizens here on other permits, such as student permits or permits as accompanying family members, are able to work without needing a work permit first.
Otago Daily Times
21 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
About both journey, destination
While Japan welcomed an incredible 37 million international visitors last year and is targeting 60 million per year by the end of the decade, there are still parts of the country that host few foreign tourists and don't seem to have changed much in the past few decades, Queenstown travel writer Craig McLachlan finds. Two-thirds of international visitor nights are spent in Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima and few stray far from the beaten path. I've been writing Japan guidebooks for Lonely Planet since 1998 and it's part of my job to tell visitors how to get off that beaten path and inform them about parts of Japan that they've never heard of — and I can't think of a more enjoyable job. Island-hopping My wife Yuriko and I are in Japan at present, island-hopping from Kagoshima, at the southern end of Kyushu, Japan's third-largest island, to Naha, the main city in Okinawa. Didn't know you could go island-hopping in Japan? Well, this is one of the world's great boat journeys. Nothing luxurious at all; these are inter-island ferries that have delivering freight, the lifeblood of the islands, as their primary purpose. In return, they cart agricultural products from the islands to market. Moving islanders to and from the various islands to Kagoshima and Naha comes next, with carting tourists, especially non-Japanese-speaking ones, as an afterthought. If you want to take this on, be aware that island-hopping through the Amami Islands is like an old-style backpacking adventure. It's about both the journey and the destination, an extremely satisfying trip with experiences to be had along the way that you'll never forget. But it's a trip that's going to require a bit of effort — not many English-speakers, English-language menus or much in the way of Western-style food out this way — but the locals are friendly, you'll face a lot of smiles and most will try to help you make your visit work out for everyone. The journey It's a 25-hour journey from Kagoshima to Naha, with stops at four islands along the way — Amami Ōshima, Tokunoshima, Okinoerabujima and Yoron-tō. Each day, there's one ferry heading south — Kagoshima to Naha — and one ferry heading north — Naha to Kagoshima. Outside of the Japanese holiday seasons — Golden Week (late April to early May) and summer holidays (July 20 to the end of August) — you can pretty much turn up an hour before a sailing and get the cheapest ticket to ride to the next island. You'll want to pre-book a spot in Japanese holiday periods. If you want to go the whole hog, a 14-day norihōdai (ride as much as you like!) pass costs ¥30,000 yen (about $NZ344) and you could ride the ferry from Kagoshima to Naha and back (or vice versa) over two weeks. One thing to keep in the back of your mind — June to October is typhoon season in Japan and typhoons tend to play havoc with ferry schedules. Think of it as part of the adventure! On this trip, Yuriko and I opted to take the ferry from Kagoshima and spend two nights each on Tokunoshima, Okinoerabujima and Yoron-tō, then a few nights in Naha, before flying back to Osaka. It's just as easy to fly to Naha from any number of mainland cities, then ride the ferry north to Kagoshima. Leaving Kagoshima We were surprised at the number of schoolkids in uniform milling around at Kagoshima port. It was spring holidays in Japan. The new school year starts in early April each year and school was out. If all those kids were getting on the ferry it would be a very crowded ship, indeed. Once we boarded the ferry and looked back, however, all became clear. The crowd of students had come to farewell a beloved teacher who was being transferred to one of the Amami Islands for a year or two. About 200 waving students lined the railings at the port, with unfurled banners wishing the teacher good luck. Equally, when we arrived on Tokunoshima, a group of students and parents was there to greet and welcome their new teacher with much excitement to the island. Both the Kagoshima departure and Tokunoshima arrival were moving sights, testament to the value of a good teacher. Tokunoshima The first island we hopped off the ferry at, Tokunoshima, proudly claims a couple of remarkable records. This tiny dot on the ocean, with a population of around 22,000, has had not one, but two Guinness World Record-holders for the world's oldest person. Shigechiyo Izumi got the big prize in 1979, then lived another seven years before dying aged 120 years and 237 days. Kamata Hongo became the world's oldest person in 1999 and lived to 116 years and 45 days. Dubbed "the island of longevity", Tokunoshima also hit amazing highs at the other end of the scale, recording Japan's highest total fertility rate of 2.25 (the number of children a woman has in her lifetime), in figures released last year. That's an interesting number, considering that Aotearoa's total fertility rate is 1.66 births per woman and Japan, as a whole, is at 1.26 (both 2022). Unfortunately, despite this encouraging figure, the island's population is still declining, with young people leaving Tokunoshima for work and opportunities on the mainland. We loved our time on Tokunoshima, staying in Kametsu, the largest town on the island, by the port of Kametoku. The only way to really see what the island has to offer is with a set of wheels and rental cars are available in the port. There is a great passion on the island for tōgyū, a kind of bovine sumō, that has a 400-year history on Tokunoshima. The best English translation of tōgyū is bullfighting, but this is nothing like the Spanish version that pits man against bull. In tōgyū, it's bull against bull, the two locking horns and trying to force each other backwards. The bout is decided when one bull tires, retreats and runs away. The bulls are ranked, much like in sumō, given inspiring "fighting names" and are much loved and cared for by their owners. There are three big tournaments on Tokunoshima each year, and while there is prize money, we were told that it is minimal when compared with the costs of keeping and training a bull. It's all about pride on the island. Owners tend and train their bulls like pets and after 5pm each day, once owners have finished work, huge 800kg-1000kg bulls can be seen being led down roads and along beaches as part of their training. We were taken to meet Kokuhō, whose proud owner spends from 5pm-8pm daily with him — feeding, exercising and even massaging his giant pet. When I asked more about tōgyū at the Tourist Information Office, the manager swiftly brought out his smartphone to show us photos of his two bulls. Okinoerabujima Next island down the line, Okinoerabujima is a raised coral atoll, about 20km long, with a population of 14,000 people. Its main industry is agriculture, and it was potato and sugar cane harvesting season when we turned up. There aren't enough hands available during harvesting season and a number of young Japanese show up from around the country to help. A young guy running a bar in Wadomari, the main port, told us he originally came from Osaka five years ago to help with the potato harvest and never left. You'll also want to rent some wheels on Okinoerabujima to see the sights. Some 200 limestone caves are dotted around the island, the easiest to visit being Shōryūdō, with 600m of the 3.5km-long cave system open to visitors. It takes about 30 minutes to walk through these truly remarkable caverns. The island is also renowned for the Erabu lily. The large, white trumpet-shaped lilies bloom in April and May and were just coming into bloom when we were there. Bulbs are cultivated and sent to the Japanese mainland as a major earner for the island. They have also been exported overseas, due to being introduced to Europe through World Expos from 1870 onwards, to become known as "Easter lilies", their white petals being a symbol of purity for Christian events around the globe. Yoron-tō My favourite island, though, was the speck that is Yoron-tō, home to 6000 people. This raised coral island, surrounded by reef, is home to some 60 magnificent beaches, with Yurigahama, a sandy islet that appears at low tide, being Yoron-tō's renowned highlight. Only 23km in circumference, this is an island to ride around on a bike. Rentals are readily available. Kiwis will be surprised to find the island's museum and information building is called the Southern Cross Centre. Did you know that the Southern Cross could be seen in the northern hemisphere? At 27° 22' north of the equator, Yoron-tō is the most northerly point in Japan from which you can view the Southern Cross, though the guy in the museum admitted it was hard to spot, more or less right on the horizon. I was overjoyed to hear something that has largely disappeared from most parts of regional Japan. At noon, loudspeakers around the island cranked up with tropical Yoron island music, then announced to everyone working in their fields that it was lunchtime. At 5pm, the music was followed by an announcement thanking everyone for their hard work, saying that it was time to go home, and telling workers to be careful of children playing — and not to drink and drive! Our island-hopping adventure through the Amami Islands happened all too fast and suddenly it was time to hop on the ferry to the final stop and one of my favourite cities, vibrant Naha, the capital of Okinawa. I've flown there many times, but this time, it was about the journey, not the destination. — Craig McLachlan is a Queenstown-based "freelance anything" who has been writing Lonely Planet guidebooks for over 25 years.
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Montreal Gazette
3 days ago
- Politics
- Montreal Gazette
Karl Blackburn on how Quebec Liberals can beat the CAQ
The Corner Booth Before the Quebec Liberals can have any hope of unseating the CAQ government in the 2026 provincial election, first they need to elect a new leader. Party members will choose one on June 14 in Quebec City. A late entry into the contest is Karl Blackburn, former MNA for Roberval from 2003 to 2007, and a chief organizer for the party. Blackburn also served as the president and CEO of the Conseil du patronat du Québec (CPQ), the province's largest employers' group. The Quebec Liberal leadership candidate joined hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand on this week's episode of The Corner Booth at Snowdon Deli to lay out his vision for uniting the Liberal base in Montreal with the vote-rich regions of the province. Blackburn feels his Lac-St-Jean bonafides will serve the party well outside of the 514-416. 'Mr. Legault in 2022 showed to everybody that he can form a government without Montreal, but we can't form a government without the regions,' Blackburn said. He added appealing to the regions doesn't have to come at the expense of alienating the province's English-speakers. 'It's interesting to see the guy from Saguenay–Lac-St-Jean defend the anglophone community,' Blackburn said. 'This is exactly what I'm doing. I don't want the closed leadership of Mr. Legault, dividing francophones against anglophones.' Blackburn talked about his opposition to the CAQ government's language, education and health-care bills. He also commented on the 'anyone but Rodriguez' sentiment brewing in the race against the early front-runner, former Montreal-area federal minister Pablo Rodriguez. 'The PLQ are not going to be a government anymore if we're not able to reconnect with the regions, and this is my strength,' Blackburn said in response to what would make him a more attractive candidate than Rodriguez. The trio also paid tribute to astronaut and politician Marc Garneau, who passed away this week at the age of 76. Garneau most recently appeared on The Corner Booth in January.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
AI Is Destroying a Generation of Students
If the testimony of beleaguered teachers is anything to go by — as gathered in this extensive roundup of educator opinions by 404 Media — it sure sounds like the explosion of the homeworking-cheating machines also known as AI models is obliterating the up and coming generation of students. "I think generative AI is incredibly destructive to our teaching of university students," Robert W. Gehl, Ontario research chair of digital governance for social justice at York University in Toronto, told 404. Gehl noted how institutions collaborate with companies like Google and Microsoft to push their AI tools on students, undermining teachers who try to limit its use in the classroom. "A student might hear 'don't use generative AI' from a prof but then log on to the university's Microsoft suite, which then suggests using Copilot to sum up readings or help draft writing." "Honestly, if we ejected all the genAI tools into the Sun," Gehl concluded, "I would be quite pleased." Hearing the horror stories they have to share, it's not hard to see why Gehl and other educators feel that way. A Los Angeles-based teacher grimly estimated that 40 percent of the work that came across their desk "is touched by the hand of AI." Another who teaches postgrads was appalled that their students in a doctoral program about responsible AI gave in to lazily using the tech. And as it turns out, teaching English-speakers how to speak Spanish is pretty difficult when the AI-addled learners barely have a grasp on the written language of their native tongue. "Even my brightest students often don't know the English word that is the direct translation for the Spanish they are supposed to be learning," a high school Spanish teacher in Oklahoma told 404. In several cases, the Spanish teacher said they caught students using AI for assignments "because they can't read what they submit to me and so don't know to delete the sentence that says something to the effect of 'This summary meets the requirements of the prompt, I hope it is helpful to you!'" A Philadelphia English teacher who conducts lessons virtually shared her ghastly suspicion that some of her students are using AI chatbots to pretty much outsource thinking itself. "In response to follow up questions, students regularly will — in the course of conversation — use AI to respond on the spot," they told 404. "Just yesterday, a student who couldn't explain her response asked for a second to think. She went on mute and, I have to assume, Googled the question I just asked out loud. The effect was not seamless, or convincing." Trying to crack down on AI usage just made things worse, pushing many of the students to stop participating. "I am often left with a choice between soliciting participation where students are merely the deadpan voice boxes of hallucinatory AI slop, or silence," the Philadelphia teacher despaired. "Which am I supposed to choose?" There's research to back up the idea that extensive AI usage could be making us dumber — part of a broader phenomenon known as cognitive offloading. In an academic setting, some research has found a link between ChatGPT use and tanking grades — and even memory loss in students. And one study from Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon found that the more that people trust in AI responses, the more their critical thinking skills turn to mush. But some pedagogues aren't quite prepared to declare that the AI apocalypse is fully upon them yet — or that the kids are beyond saving. "LLM use is rampant, but I don't think it's ubiquitous," Ben Prytherch, a statistics professor at Colorado State University, told 404. After moving to in-class writing assignments, Prytherch found that the students' performance improved remarkably. "It turns out most of them can write after all," Phyrtherch said. "For all the talk about how kids can't write anymore, I don't see it." And that brings us to our next point. If we're going to be a little critical of some of the teachers here, some of their complaints make them sound a little out of touch: "My kids don't think anymore. They don't have interests," fumed a 12th grade English teacher. "Literally, when I ask them what they're interested in, so many of them can't name anything for me… They don't have original thoughts. They just parrot back what they've heard in TikToks." We have to remember we're talking about human beings that just happen to be younger here, and not some impenetrably exotic species of extraterrestrial. Granted, the teacher's frustration is more than justified. They're dealing with a massive problem inflicted on them by moneyed interests totally beyond their control. "ChatGPT isn't its own, unique problem. It's a symptom of a totalizing cultural paradigm in which passive consumption and regurgitation of content becomes the status quo," Nathan Schmidt, a university lecturer and managing editor at Gamers With Glasses, told 404. More on AI: AI Is Destroying Gen Z's Chances at a Stable Career
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Police investigation into UK retail hacks focuses on English-speaking youths
Detectives investigating cyber attacks on UK retailers are focussing on a notorious cluster of cyber criminals known to be young English-speakers, some of them teenagers, police have revealed. For weeks speculation has mounted that disruptive attacks on M&S, Co-op, Harrods and some US retailers could be the work of a hacking community called Scattered Spider. Speaking about the hacks for the first time, the National Crime Agency (NCA) has told BBC News the group is a key part of its ongoing investigation to find the culprits. "We are looking at the group that is publicly known as Scattered Spider, but we've got a range of different hypotheses and we'll follow the evidence to get to the offenders," Paul Foster, head of the NCA's national cyber crime unit, said in a new BBC documentary. "In light of all the damage that we're seeing, catching whoever is behind these attacks is our top priority," he added. The wave of attacks, which began at Easter, have resulted in empty shelves in stores, the suspension of online ordering, and millions of people's private data being stolen. The hacks have been carried out using DragonForce, a platform that gives criminals the tools to carry out ransomware attacks. However, the hackers pulling the strings have still not been identified and no arrests have been made. Some cyber experts say the hackers display the traits of Scattered Spider, a loose community of often young individuals who organise across sites like Discord, Telegram and in forums, most likely located in the UK and US. Although the NCA says it is exploring all parts of the cyber crime ecosystem, it too is looking in the same direction. "We know that Scattered Spider are largely English-speaking but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're in the UK - we know that they communicate online amongst themselves in a range of different platforms and channels, which is, I guess, key to their ability to then be able to operate as a collective," Mr Foster said. M&S has been hit with ransomware, which has scrambled the company's servers rendering computer systems useless. The high street giant is still struggling to keep shelves stocked and has halted online shopping for weeks. Hackers have also stolen customer and employee data from the company. At Co-op, staff took systems offline to prevent a ransomware infection but a huge amount of customer and staff data was stolen and is being held to ransom. Operations at the firm's supermarkets, insurance offices and funeral services have been badly affected. It is not known what is happening at Harrods but the company admitted it had to pull computer systems offline because of an attempted cyber attack. When the hackers behind the M&S and Co-op attacks anonymously contacted the BBC last week, they declined to say whether or not they were Scattered Spider. Cyber security researchers at CrowdStrike formed the name "Scattered Spider" because of the group's sporadic nature, but other cyber companies have given the cluster nicknames including Octo Tempest and Muddled Libra. The group was also linked to high-profile attacks including on two US casinos in 2023 and Transport for London last year. And in November, the US charged five British and American men and boys in their twenties and teens for alleged Scattered Spider activity. One is 23-year-old Scottish man Tyler Buchanan, who has not made a plea, and the rest are US based. NCA investigators will not say how the retail hackers have managed to breach victim organisations but earlier this month, the National Cyber Security Centre issued guidance to organisations urging them to review their IT help desk password reset processes. "Calling up IT help desks is a tactic that Scattered Spider seems to favour and they use social engineering techniques to manipulate someone into doing something like clicking on a link or resetting someone's account to a password they can use," Lisa Forte, from cyber security firm Red Goat, explained. In the BBC documentary, a former teen hacker who was arrested nine years ago and now works in cyber security, said he was not surprised that teenagers could be behind the hacks. "It wouldn't surprise me - quite [the] opposite. The tools are readily available and it's very easy to jump online and search straight away. You can feel a bit untouchable but for what end? You're gonna be arrested 99% of the time," he said. A letter from the M&S hackers landed in my inbox - this is what happened next Cyber attack threat keeps me awake at night, bank boss says 'They yanked their own plug': How Co-op averted an even worse cyber attack Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here.
