I like grammar-monster.com‘s definition.

An analogy is a comparison of two things to highlight their similarities. The things being compared are often physically different, but an analogy highlights how they are alike.

Here’s an example of one that is often used. It’s from the film Forrest Gump.

“Life is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re gonna get.”

It’s true, isn’t it?

Life is unpredictable and full of surprises. Of course, we never know what will happen next.

Now over to you. Would you like to complete the following sentence?

Reading an exciting book is like ….

“Let go of certainty.

The opposite isn’t uncertainty.

It’s openness, curiosity and a willingness to embrace paradox, rather than choose up sides.

The ultimate challenge is to accept ourselves exactly as we are, but never stop trying to learn and grow.”
Tony Schwartz

Some thoughts for you before the weekend!

Practise making small talk!

Steer the conversation to something interesting. Learn how to ask good questions that show a real interest in the other person. A good question can keep them talking for several minutes.

And a few decent questions will leave the other person thinking you’re a brilliant conversationalist.

If you need some practise, you know where to go: https://english-trainer.de/angebote/

You’ve probably experienced ‘neuroplasticity‘ many times.

But what exactly is it?

‘Neuroplasticity’ is the ability we all have to rewire our brains by forming new connections and by weakening old ones.

This animation illustrates it well.

And what does it mean?

1. Anyone can learn new information or new skills.
2. We learn by repeating what we’ve learnt over and over again.

So age is no barrier to learning a language. Yes, there’s no excuse.

Do you sometimes find yourself giving advice?

I know, it happens to the best of us. We know that we should only give advice if someone asks for it. And even then, we need to be careful.

In this humorous TEDx presentation, Michael Bungay Stanier talks about the challenges we face when giving advice:

1. We’re busy solving the wrong problem. The first challenge is rarely the real challenge.

2. Our advice is not nearly as good as we think it is. Especially if we believe we always give good advice.

3. Our advice can be disempowering. The person receiving it might feel that they can’t figure their problem out themselves.

We can replace our advice-giving habit with a new habit which is to stay curious a little bit longer. And Michael tells us how we can do that.