We always write country-related words with a capital letter. 

Languages are capitalised:

I learnt French and German at school and later Latin and Dutch.
One of my sons speaks Mandarin.

The people are capitalised:

They spoke about the Bosniaks, the Serbs and the Croats.

And the adjectives are capitalised:

I bought a new German book yesterday.
We love Indian curries.
She is Swiss.

I thought you might like to be reminded!

You might see the word  ‘alright’ in informal writing. But—surprise, surprise—it isn’t the accepted spelling for ‘all right’!

Perhaps it will become an accepted form one day, like ‘altogether’ and ‘already’. But until then, I suggest you use the two words. You won’t go wrong.

All right?

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” C.S.Lewis

Learning keeps us young. That’s why it’s important that we never stop. We want to stay flexible and curious as long as possible, don’t we?

I founded my language training business after having brought up four children. While working full-time, and at the age of 51, I started studying towards a master’s degree. And now, I’m reinventing my business, and working towards building a community of passion-driven business owners, service providers and entrepreneurs.

I have no idea where this journey is taking me. But I’m open and curious to learn new things. And I’m very proud to have readers who are on this journey with me.

Thank you for reading this—and thank you for being  there.

Have you set yourself new goals? Do you have a new dream? If so, I’d love to hear about it.

Imagine you’ve been invited to afternoon tea in Britain. Would you know how to behave?

In this very short video, etiquette consultant, William Hanson, shows us how to enjoy afternoon tea “the correct way”.

How should we place the napkin (not ‘serviette’, according to William) on our laps?
How should we stir our tea and eat our sandwiches?
How do we pronounce the word “scones” correctly, and how do we ‘open’ them?
Do we put the cream on first and the jam on last, or vice versa?
How should we hold the pastry fork?
And what should we do with the napkin once we’ve finished eating?

You might be surprised. I was!

Do you do things differently? If so, I’d love to hear from you.

Some of you might know that we moved house just over three years ago. We knew no-one here. But we met new people very quickly.

So how did we do it?

By being the first to make a connection.

We greeted people we met while out walking. We got talking to them about their children, their dogs, their front gardens—whatever sprang to mind. 

It doesn’t take a lot of courage to start a conversation. However, if you’re more of a reserved person, just think of confidence as a skill rather than a talent. That means that you can actually learn to build your confidence—one step at a time. 

Give it a try today! Go out and greet one person you’ve never spoken to before. And tell me if it works.

For me, one of the most difficult words to use correctly is the German word “doch”. After all these years!

Perhaps you struggle with the word “dabei”? It’s a tricky word to translate into English, because there are so many different ways to express it.

Let’s take a closer look.

Do you know the chorus, “Ich bin dabei, du bist dabei, wir sind dabei uns zu verlier’n”? (Good that you can’t hear me singing it.)

Here we could say, “I’m in the process of …” or “I’m in the middle of …“

So you might say that you are in the process/in the middle of writing a book. (Ich bin dabei ein Buch zu schreiben.)

Imagine I’m telling you about a concert I  went to recently. You might exclaim, “I was there, too!” (Ich war auch dabei!)

If I ask you if you would like to join me later, you might answer, “Count me in” or simply, “I’m in!” (Ich bin dabei!)

And now you would like to invite me for a coffee, but realise that you’ve forgotten your purse. You might say something like, “Christine, I don’t have any money with me!” (Ich habe kein Geld dabei.)

Do you have any other words that are tricky to translate?