Those shiny glass balls that we hang on the Christmas tree are called “baubles” (in German: Weihnachtskugeln). We don’t call them “And, the 26th of December (known in Germany as the “2. Weihnachtstag” is called “Boxing Day” (and not “the 2nd Christmas Day“). 😉
December means that Christmas will soon be upon us. And, I’ll be posting an A – Z of Christmas vocabulary you might need when speaking to foreign customers and colleagues. So let’s get going with A ….
The time before Christmas, what we call the season of Advent, is a bit different in England. And, of course, every family has its own traditions. Our family, for example, has a mix of English and German traditions.
There are advent calendars (which are used to keep track of how many days are left until Christmas) and wreaths (though they are often without candles and hung on the front doors) in England. And people also have Christmas trees, but these are often set up indoors at the beginning of the Advent season. Quite different to what people do here in Germany.
If you do business with the Portuguese or are thinking of travelling to Portugal, you might like to look at this free Kindle edition I found on Amazon.de called “The Xenophobe’s  Guide to the Portuguese“. It covers all kinds of topics from attitudes and values to culture, humour and customs – and a lot more.
Joke of the day …
Boss to employee: You should have been here at 9 am.
Employee to boss: Why what happened?
(So you know how to react on a Monday morning!) 😉
Take a look at this nice little slideshow (link to www.inc.com) giving you 23 ways to be happier at work. It’s clear that we shouldn’t compare ourselves to others, that we all have the same amount of time and that we should smile and laugh more often. But it’s nice to be reminded now and again! 🙂
Okay, you might not need this word too often, however I do have a group of clients who work with this product. We’re talking here about ‘enamel’, which can be translated as ‘Lack’. Follow this link and click on the loudspeaker icon to hear how the word is pronounced correctly!
