It’s not unusual to come across words we can’t find in a dictionary.

But there’s an easy way you might not have thought of—use bilingual websites.

Neuland has a website in both German and English, for example.

Imagine you want to talk about Bewertungspunkte, Lochverstärker and Pastellkreiden.

Go over to Neuland’s English site and you’ll find marking dots, reinforcement stickers and chalk pastels.

There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel!

 

 

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.
Marcus Aurelius

Take a moment to reflect on your own life and the things you are grateful for.

Some food for thought

What are some of the simple pleasures that bring you joy each day?

How can you cultivate a greater sense of appreciation for the small things in life?

How can we share our appreciation for life with those around us, and help them to see the beauty and value in their own lives?

It can be very frustrating when we can’t sleep, and we might feel as if we need help.

Some companies even try to scare us into buying expensive gadgets to help us sleep better by saying that not getting enough sleep can harm our health.

In this 4-minute TED Talk, Dr Jen Gunter says that we shouldn’t worry too much about not getting enough sleep. We should instead focus on things like creating a relaxing routine for going to bed and making our sleeping space comfortable.

Her advice: We shouldn’t lose sleep over sleep!

Chronophoto is a fun little game that shows you a historical photo and challenges you to guess the year it was taken.

The closer you get to the year in which the photo was taken, the more points you score.

Give it a try and see how well you can do.

Enjoy!

Punctuation is a very important part of writing. 

According to the Oxford Dictionary, punctuation marks “show the reader where sentences start and finish, and if they are used correctly, they make your writing easy to understand”. 

But how good are you?

Can you tell the difference between a colon and a semicolon? And what about a hyphen and an en dash?

This punctuation guide can help.

Click on the individual punctuation marks and see whether you’re using them correctly.

Have fun!

 

Words have a lot of power.

When we use certain words, we can make people think and feel different things.

The tricky word “but”

Most of the time, the word “but” is used to link two phrases in a sentence.

However, it can have a negative effect on the first phrase. It can make the first phrase seem unimportant or even like it doesn’t matter at all.

This is especially true when the first phrase includes praise, agreement or an important point.

An example

Let’s say a business partner tells you, “I like your idea, but I think we need to do more research before we can move forward”.

The word “but” can make you feel as if your business partner doesn’t fully agree with the idea and that the need for more research is more important than the positive feedback.

By replacing “but” with “and,” the speaker is able to give both positive and constructive feedback in a more balanced way:

“I like your idea, and I think we need to do more research before we can move forward.”

Of course, there are still times and places to use “but,” but I’ve found that swapping it for “and” makes feedback much easier to give and receive almost every time.

Give it a try and see if it works for you.