On how to find yourself
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” Mahatma Gandhi
Breakfast in Germany
“How to eat breakfast like a weltmeister“? That’s the title of this Deutsche Welle video clip.
Learn what Germans eat for breakfast. And how breakfast at the weekends might differ.
(You’ll also learn how to pronounce the name of that famous Dutch cheese – “Gouda”!)
A limerick
Did you know that a limerick is a humorous poem with five lines?
The first, second and fifth lines generally have seven to ten syllables and rhyme with each other. The third and fourth lines are shorter and only have five to seven syllables and have to rhyme with each other, too.
Here’s an example:
“There once was a farmer from Leeds,
Who swallowed a packet of seeds.
It soon came to pass,
He was covered with grass,
But has all the tomatoes he needs.”
The acronyms quiz
I’m not an expert in text messaging. And I’m not a friend of abbreviations and acronyms because they’re not understandable for everyone.
That’s why I was surprised to get 8 out of 12 right (as you can see in the picture above). More luck than judgement perhaps?
If you’re under 30, you might use them a lot. But do you know your acronyms in English?
Do the BBC quiz to find out.
How would you translate this?
When I first came to Germany and was asked to translate a letter into English, I came across the German word beziehungsweise or the short form bzw. and had absolutely no idea how to translate it in an adequate way.
So let’s form a sentence with the German word:
Martin und Lisa sind seit 6 beziehungsweise 9 Jahren bei der Firma.
This means that Martin has been working in the company for six years and Lisa for nine.
So we could say:
Martin and Lisa have been working in the company for six and nine years, respectively.
But I still prefer my first sentence! It should be clear for everybody!
Get the coloured pencils out of the cupboard
If you’re a lover of to-do lists, you might like the idea of drawing them in future, rather than writing them.
According to this article in greatist.com, researchers believe that drawing pictures can help you to remember things better.
So there’s really no excuse for forgetting things on your list! 😉
