adhunika blog

As the month of July draws to a close, many of you are beginning to think of various standardized test requirements for college admissions, particulalry if you are applying to colleges and universities in the US.

The first step would be to gather information regarding each type of test, and find out what your college admissions requirements are. Most colleges would require the TOEFL and the SAT I and II. The US Information Services, USIS, located in Banani, Dhaka, is a very resourceful place to turn for registration booklets and information regarding these tests.

Once you’ve determined which tests you need to take, and the possible test dates, it’s recommended that you register as soon as possible. Registration deadlines might be as early as 4 to 6 weeks before the actual testing date, so you need to keep that in mind. The websites and the registration booklets will have the information available for your reference.

For specific testing questions, leave us your comments. I will take each of the tests separately in the coming weeks and discuss possible test taking strategies, in addition to the general discussion of what the test entails and what test-takers are expected to deliver. In the meantime, please go through the websites carefully and leave us your questions and comments.

Even though, every interview is different, there are some basic questions that are more likely to appear in any interview and job seekers should prepare to answer those questions properly.  We will discuss 5 basic questions today.  While answering any question, we always need to remember the following key points.

• Highlight your skills, knowledge and expertise.
• Try to give real world examples, whenever possible, to talk about your success from that example.
• Always be positive.  Attitude is everything.

Here are some common interview questions and sample answers.

Question #1. Tell me about yourself.

This is a very open question and a great opportunity to showcase your ability.  After introducing yourself with very minimal personal information, you may talk about your professional/educational achievements, your qualifications, strengths, etc.  (more…)

When I think about my group of Bangladeshi acquaintances and friends, it appears that the number of Bangladeshi men who are involved with women of other racial backgrounds is quite large. These men are not merely dating the women on a casual basis- more often than not, they are in serious long term relationships that sometimes leads to marriage. On the flip side, the number of Bangladeshi women that I know, who are dating men of other races, is very small.

I don’t know if there is any one reason behind this phenomenon. Perhaps we as Bangladeshi women are so conditioned to be the “perfect daughter,” who follows all the set societal norms and rules that even when we are interested in dating men from other racial backgrounds, we automatically limit ourselves. Maybe we consider it a stigma, it is not something that we proudly acknowledge, fearing that we are violating the societal norms and veering away from the definition of a Bangladeshi woman that we have been inculcated with. (more…)

Imagine a day you are not having a good appetite, two people hold you tight and put a spoonful of your not-so-favorite food in your mouth, and they continue this for half an hour!

Sounds ridiculous, right? Replace yourself with an 18 month old toddler and  those two people by her parents. Now you can see a more familiar scene. The parents are “feeding” their child! (more…)