Can you remember a face?
How good are you at remembering faces? Do the BBC’s “Face Memory Test” (there are three parts to it) to test your skills.
Do you do this to the corners?
You want to explain to a colleague that you hate those folded down corners of a book page? Of course, you know the German word ‘Eselsohren’ but don’t know the English word. Well, we call them ‘dog ears’.
Read this short text here to find out what Deutsche Welle has to say about them.
Preparing for an interview
Perhaps one of the most difficult questions to answer in an interview is: “What is your greatest weakness?” Watch this slideshow and learn Bernard Marr’s four strategies on what to say.
“Enclosed …
… herewith please find a photo.” “Please find enclosed our catalogue for your reference”. “Attached please find the report.”
These are old-fashioned phrases. Of course, you can use them if you want to. But why not modernise your language and say something like:
- I am enclosing our latest catalogue.
- I have enclosed the photocopy.
- I am attaching a photo of …
- Here is the new report …
Please note: We ‘enclose’ something in a letter (which means that it’s inside the envelope). We ‘attach’ something to an email (which means it’s connected using staples or paper clips). That’s why we use the symbol of the paper clip in email messages when we want to send an attachment!
On friendship
Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends.
Oscar Wilde
What foreigners don’t know
So what do foreigners not know about the Germans? Read Deutsche Welle’s article to find out.
I very quickly learned that you shouldn’t wash your car on Sundays or mow the lawn. And that you can’t say ‘Happy Birthday’ before the big day. And that Germans probably won’t offer you tap water. They love their bottled water.
