What’s wrong with the following sentences?

1. You mustn’t stay in the building after 5pm if you don’t want to.
2. I work in my business since 10 years.
3. I have finished working on my website last week.
4. Could you please control the figures before signing the contract?
5. If I would have known, I would have told you.

Why not send me your corrections? To: cb@english-trainer.de And I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

Automation and digitisation are revolutionising the workplace and changing how employers and employees approach work.

New Work has been a buzzword for several years now. Together with working methods such as Scrum and Kanban.

If you’re feeling a bit lost with all these terms and words, you might like to take a look at Henkel’s New Work Glossary to learn more about the concept.

However, this “New Work Glossar” contains more terms—explained in a way that everyone understands them. But it’s in German!

Our to-do lists keep growing, but the number of hours we have available doesn’t change!

Here are some of my favourite productivity tips in a sentence (inspired by Josh Spector).

Perfection is productivity’s enemy.
It’s much easier to do something every day than only once in a while.
A finish is more valuable than 100 starts.
Work expands to fill the time you give it.
Productivity requires opposite skills: The ability
to pay attention and ignore.
You can’t make something better until you’ve made it.
Busy is not productive.
The 100th time you do something will be more productive than the first.
You don’t have to reinvent the  wheel—you can learn from the person who did.
The most effective productivity hack is to say no.

Do you have a favourite productivity tip to add to this list?

The man in the image is holding up his middle and index fingers in a V shape as a sign of victory or even peace. 

If he now turned his hands around, with his palms facing towards him, that V-sign would be considered rude in Britain. (Perhaps also in Australia and New Zealand?) It’s the British version of the German “Stinkefinger”.

So be careful when ordering two pints in the pub!

Before you speak, let your words pass through three gates:
At the first gate, ask yourself “Is it true?”
At the second gate ask, “Is it necessary?”
At the third gate ask, “Is it kind?
Credited to the 13th century poet Rumi

I wanted to share this quotation with you because it illustrates the importance of thinking before we speak. If we examine our words carefully before we say them, we can make sure that they’re not going to hurt anyone. 

I know it’s not easy. But it’s well worth thinking about—and practising!

My dream was to speak German without an accent.

But many years later I realised that this dream wasn’t going to come true. Try as I might!

I’ve now come to realise speaking with an accent doesn’t make us sound unprofessional.

Accents are wonderful. Accents are part of what we are and where we come from. They are a mark of what makes us different.

And just as there’s a difference between fluency and accuracy, there’s a difference between accents and pronunciation.

What is much more important than trying to lose one’s accent is focusing on being able to speak in English clearly. Because poor pronunciation can lead to serious misunderstandings.

So just focus on being understood, pronouncing clearly, speaking at a steady pace—and enjoy your accent.

I’ve learnt to live with my accent. I hope you can, too!