Latest news with #fluency
SBS Australia
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- SBS Australia
Bonus Practice: #92 Asking for donations (Med
Speaking out loud will help to improve your English speaking fluency and will make it easier for you to remember new vocabulary. This bonus episode provides interactive speaking practice for the words and phrases you learnt in #92 Asking for donations (Med). Allan: Hey Claire, do you have a minute? Claire: Allan: I'm running a charity cake stall this Friday to raise money for a children's hospital. It's part of a community fundraiser I've joined. Would you be open to making a small donation? Claire: Oh, that sounds lovely, Allan… but I've already donated to another charity appeal this week. Sorry! Allan: Totally understand — no pressure at all. But if you've got a coin or two to spare, it'll go straight to a good cause. Every bit counts. And hey — I'll save you the best cupcake. Claire: (Laughs) Alright, you got me. I can't say no to a cupcake! Learn the meanings of the phrases used in this dialogue: Credit: Paul Nicholson and Lily O'Sullivan voiced the characters of Allan and Claire and Professor Lynda Yates was our educational consultant.
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- General
- Yahoo
The acronym cheat sheet for milspouses
Acronyms are the military's coping mechanism and cultural shorthand. They take massive, messy systems (logistics, pay, assignments, housing, healthcare) and compress them into three- or four-letter codes you're expected to absorb without blinking. It started as a tool for clarity. Now it's just… the way things are, dominated by acronyms everywhere. But acronyms aren't just about efficiency. They're about fluency. They signal who gets it and who's still texting a friend under the table. They aren't explained because they're not meant to be explained—at least not in real time. You're supposed to just know the meaning behind every acronym. And when you don't? You get left behind in a conversation, a form, a policy update, or a benefit change you didn't realize affected you until it already had. Here's the part nobody says out loud: acronyms aren't only for the service member. They're for you. Acronyms show up in your inbox, your pharmacy record, your clinic app, and your spouse's LES. You'll hear them in briefings where no one pauses to check if you understand, and on the phone when you're trying to sort out housing or figure out why you haven't been reimbursed for something they swore would be automatic. Knowing what those acronyms mean doesn't just make you look competent. It makes you effective. It's the difference between waiting three months for something you could've pushed through in three days—or being able to say, 'No, actually, I checked the JTR and according to regulation…' You don't have to memorize the whole alphabet soup of acronyms. You just need to understand enough to recognize what matters in your lane and where to look when it doesn't make sense. No one hands you a decoder ring. But once you start learning the language, it gets easier to ask questions, catch errors, advocate for yourself, and show up without feeling like you're faking your way through it. PCS – Permanent Change of StationTranslation: A move. Maybe across the country, maybe overseas. Expect stress, cardboard, and someone forgetting to forward your mail. TDY – Temporary DutyTranslation: A short-term assignment that might be two days or four months. Usually accompanied by a suitcase half-packed on the floor and vague answers about when they're coming back. BAH – Basic Allowance for HousingTranslation: The part of their paycheck that covers your rent or mortgage. Based on zip code, rank, and whether you're 'with dependents.' Changes yearly. LES – Leave and Earnings StatementTranslation: The military pay stub. Comes out monthly. Filled with codes. Critical for catching errors in pay, benefits, or leave. Learn how to read this before you need to argue about it. OPSEC – Operational SecurityTranslation: The reason your spouse side-eyes your Instagram story. Don't post travel dates, unit info, or deployment details. Just because it seems harmless doesn't mean it is. DFAS – Defense Finance and Accounting ServiceTranslation: The people who handle military pay. Also the people you'll probably want to scream at one day. If your money's missing, this is the dragon you have to slay. CAC – Common Access CardTranslation: Their military ID. Unlocks base access, computer systems, and basically their ability to function. If they forget it, their whole day falls apart. If you lose yours, start by blocking off four hours for replacement paperwork. TRICARE – Military Health InsuranceTranslation: The insurance you'll use to book appointments, get prescriptions, and try not to cry on hold with customer service. Comes in multiple versions (Prime, Select, etc.). Confusing but critical. FRG – Family Readiness GroupTranslation: The unit's official spouse/family network. Sometimes helpful. Sometimes chaotic. Often your best source of real-time info—if you can figure out how to get looped in. Start by paying attention to the acronyms that affect your life. The ones that show up in appointment reminders, housing emails, finance briefings, pharmacy scripts. You don't need to learn everything at once—you just need to learn the ones that show up often enough to confuse you. Keep a running list of acronyms. Ask when you don't know. Don't apologize for not speaking fluent MIL on day one, or day 600. This language isn't intuitive. it's inherited. Most people only learn it by messing up a few times and asking a lot of follow-up questions. You're allowed to do the same. And when someone rattles off a full sentence that sounds like a typo, you're allowed to pause and say, 'Hey, sorry. I'm not familiar with that one. What does that mean?' You don't need to become an acronym robot or use the lingo to prove you belong. But if you can translate it into action, decisions, and boundaries? That's where your power is. We Are The Mighty is a celebration of military service, with a mission to entertain, inform, and inspire those who serve and those who support them. We are made by and for current service members, veterans, spouses, family members, and civilians who want to be part of this community. Keep up with the best in military culture and entertainment: subscribe to the We Are The Mighty newsletter. How to explain commissary etiquette to your civvie bestie 4 secret skills milspouses have but don't realize How to budget when everything is temporary
Forbes
16-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
10 Ways To Build AI Skills And Stay Irreplaceable At Work
Building AI skills positions you as an indispensable asset in today's tech-driven environment. While executives are pouring billions into AI and pushing for company-wide adoption, most employees are being left behind. According to Gallup, two-thirds of workers report never using AI on the job, and only 4% use it daily. The result is a widening gap in AI skills between those keeping pace with change and those at risk of falling behind. Developing AI fluency is no longer optional. It's a career necessity. The good news is that it's not too late to catch up. Here are ten ways to build your AI skills, no matter your current role or technical background. The barrier to building AI skills has never been lower, thanks to comprehensive free courses from leading AI companies. OpenAI Academy offers expert-led workshops, online tutorials and community engagement designed for real-world applications. Meanwhile, Anthropic has launched AI Fluency: Framework & Foundations, a course developed in partnership with Prof. Joseph Feller (University College Cork) and Prof. Rick Dakan (Ringling College of Art and Design). As Prof. Rick Dakan explains, "We created this framework because people need more than better prompts. They need practical skills for knowing when to delegate to AI, how to evaluate its output, and when to maintain human judgment. The students and professionals who thrive will be those who master these collaboration skills." You don't need to understand machine learning algorithms to develop AI skills. Instead, concentrate on how AI can solve problems in your specific role: This data becomes invaluable when discussing your AI skills with managers or during performance reviews. OpenAI Academy's community groups facilitate peer-to-peer learning through local and interest-based networks. Look for industry-specific AI groups on LinkedIn, Discord or specialized platforms where professionals share real-world use cases, troubleshoot challenges and discuss emerging tools. These communities often provide more practical insights than formal training programs and can accelerate your AI skills development. You can even start an AI discussion group at work to help co-workers share information and normalize AI usage. Effective AI interaction requires learning how to communicate clearly with AI systems. That's why prompt engineering, the art of crafting effective instructions for AI tools, is a crucial skill. Practice writing specific, context-rich AI prompts: The more specific your input, the more useful the AI's output: Prompt engineering is a skill that improves with practice, so focus on iterating and refining your approach with each interaction. Rather than overhauling your entire work process, introduce AI tools incrementally. Start with one specific task per week to reduce overwhelm while building confidence through small wins. Begin with low-stakes applications. Use AI to generate meeting agenda templates, summarize lengthy documents or create first drafts of routine communications. As you become comfortable with these applications, gradually tackle more complex challenges. The AI landscape evolves rapidly, with new tools and features launching regularly. Stay ahead by: This keeps you ahead of colleagues while revealing practical applications before they become mainstream. True AI skills include communicating AI's value to colleagues, managers, and clients. Develop simple, jargon-free explanations that focus on business outcomes rather than technical features. Instead of explaining how natural language processing works, describe how AI helped you reduce report preparation time by 40%. Volunteer to share AI discoveries with your team. Teaching others reinforces your learning while positioning you as a knowledgeable resource, leading to opportunities to lead AI initiatives or training programs. Explore AI's creative potential by using tools to generate multiple solutions to complex challenges or brainstorm innovative approaches. Ask AI to approach a budget constraint from five different perspectives or generate creative alternatives to standard processes. This experimentation builds confidence in AI's versatility while developing your ability to think creatively with AI as a partner. Document breakthrough moments when AI helps you see problems differently—these insights demonstrate advanced AI skills beyond basic task automation. Track concrete metrics that demonstrate your AI skills value: Quantified AI impact makes your skills tangible and positions you as someone who can drive measurable business value through technology adoption. Develop judgment to use AI responsibly by learning when AI output needs human verification, understanding bias limitations, and recognizing tasks requiring human insight. Practice evaluating AI recommendations critically rather than accepting them blindly. Study your industry's emerging AI ethics guidelines and best practices to stay informed. This critical thinking component becomes increasingly valuable as organizations seek employees who can thoughtfully navigate AI's capabilities and limitations. Your ability to use AI wisely, not just frequently, will distinguish you as a trusted AI practitioner. While many professionals remain on the sidelines, those who proactively develop AI skills will become indispensable to their organizations. By embracing these strategies, you can turn AI from an intimidating technology into a powerful professional ally. Remember, developing AI skills doesn't require you to become a technical expert. It's about thinking strategically, solving problems and knowing how to leverage the latest tools to drive results. In an increasingly AI-driven workplace, your willingness to learn, experiment and adapt will set you apart and give you a decisive career edge.
SBS Australia
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- SBS Australia
Bonus Practice: #88 Celebrating an anniversary (Med)
Speaking out loud will help to improve your English speaking fluency and will make it easier for you to remember new vocabulary. This bonus episode provides interactive speaking practice for the words and phrases you learnt in Episode #88 Celebrating an anniversary (Med). Claire Can you believe it's been two years since we started here? Allan Wow, has it already been that long? Time really flies. Claire Yeah, it's been quite a ride! We've come so far since that day. Allan And we're only getting started! Speaking of anniversaries, my sister and her husband just celebrated their silver wedding anniversary last week. Claire Wow! What a milestone! Are they having a celebration? Allan Yep. They'll have a party soon so we can wish them a happy anniversary. Learn the meanings of the phrases used in this dialogue: SBS English 10/06/2025 15:46 Credit: Paul Nicholson and Lily O'Sullivan voiced the characters of Allan and Claire and Professor Lynda Yates was our educational consultant.
The Guardian
09-06-2025
- The Guardian
Ohio university says all students will be required to train and ‘be fluent' in AI
Ohio State University has announced that all of its students will be using artificial intelligence later this year, requiring them to become fluent in combining conventional learning with AI. 'Ohio State has an opportunity and responsibility to prepare students to not just keep up, but lead in this workforce of the future,' said the university's president, Walter 'Ted' Carter Jr. He added: 'Artificial intelligence is transforming the way we live, work, teach and learn. In the not-so-distant future, every job, in every industry, is going to be [affected] in some way by AI.' Ohio State's provost, Ravi Bellamkonda, added that its AI fluency initiative will embed education about the technology throughout the undergraduate curriculum. 'Through AI Fluency, Ohio State students will be 'bilingual' – fluent in both their major field of study and the application of AI in that area,' he said. The university said its program will prioritize the incoming freshman class and onward, in order to make every Ohio State graduate 'fluent in AI and how it can be responsibly applied to advance their field'. The novel embrace of AI in higher education comes as a recent study by the Pew Research Center found 26% of of teenagers used ChatGPT for schoolwork in 2024 – twice as many as in 2023. But with AI rapidly becoming mainstream, students will not be allowed to use generative AI to pass off assignments as their own work – and faculty staff will be advised on how to maintain academic integrity. Steven Brown, an associate professor of philosophy at the university, told NBC News that after students turned in the first batch of AI-assisted papers he found 'a lot of really creative ideas'. 'My favorite one is still a paper on karma and the practice of returning shopping carts,' Brown said. Sign up to Headlines US Get the most important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion Brown said that banning AI from classwork is 'shortsighted', and he encouraged his students to discuss ethics and philosophy with AI chatbots. 'It would be a disaster for our students to have no idea how to effectively use one of the most powerful tools that humanity has ever created,' Brown said. 'AI is such a powerful tool for self-education that we must rapidly adapt our pedagogy or be left in the dust.' Separately, Ohio's AI in Education Coalition is working to develop a comprehensive strategy to ensure that the state's K-12 education system, encompassing the years of formal schooling from kindergarten through 12th grade in high school, is prepared for and can help lead the AI revolution. 'AI technology is here to stay,' then lieutenant governor Jon Husted said last year while announcing an AI toolkit for Ohio's K-12 school districts that he added would ensure the state 'is a leader in responding to the challenges and opportunities made possible by artificial intelligence'.
