When in Rome …
British etiquette expert, William Hanson, talks about his trip to Italy, how different the food was, the service and the children in the restaurants! Read William’s “Italian Thoughts” here.
The difficulty of plurals
A zookeeper wants to order new animals. Filling in the forms, he types “two mongeese.” As that doesn’t look right to him, he writes “two mongoose” and then “two mongooses”. Not knowing what the correct plural is, he types, “One mongoose, and while you’re at it, please send us another one.”
Please note: According to Dictionary.com, the plural of “mongoose” is “mongooses”. It’s a small and very fast animal from India that eats snakes and rodents.
How to stop overeating
Richard Wiseman’s video explains some truly amazing ways to stop overeating. Find out how a mirror in the kitchen can help or chewing gum or serving snacks on a red plate. If you want to lose weight, there’s really no excuse now! 😉
More euphemisms
Do you remember that we spoke about euphemisms (in German: ‘beschönigende Umschreibungen’) some time ago? And why we use them?
Here’s a quick a reminder. There are certain topics we often don’t like talking about, because they make us feel uncomfortable. And to avoid using these rather harsh-sounding words, we choose to use more positive and polite-sounding ones.
So instead of saying that someone is “homeless”, one can say that he or she is “on the streets”. And instead of saying that someone has “died”, you might say someone has “kicked the bucket”.
Even if you don’t use these expressions yourself, and I suggest you don’t if you want to be understood internationally, you might hear them and not know what is meant.
Change your communication
Are you looking for some quick and easy ways to improve your communication so that you don’t waste other people’s time? In this article (link to: inc.com) you’ll learn how.
- Reduce the number of words you use.
- Make your content scannable by using bullet points and lists.
- Use more photos and illustrations.
- Organise shorter meetings.
- Discard anything that is out of date (old intranet pages, posters etc.)
Please reply
Have you ever come across the abbreviation R.S.V.P.? You’ll find it on invitations to parties and special events. It’s the shortened form of the French phrase “Répondez s’il vous plait” and means “Please reply” or, in rather formal terms, “Respond if you please”. All you need to do is to inform the writer whether you are going to attend or not.
