von Christine Burgmer | Okt. 30, 2026 | Sparks |
This is why I don’t use a level test This is why I don’t use a level test. In one session this week we covered a company presentation, technical products, transport, steel plants and mortar. Then wine tasting, football and school sports. That was the...
von Christine Burgmer | Okt. 29, 2026 | Sparks |
Je … desto auf Englisch: the … the You can hear it coming. Somewhere in the middle of the sentence the voice drops, and by the end it has almost gone. Je … desto. German speakers build that sentence without thinking and then lose it halfway through...
von Christine Burgmer | Okt. 28, 2026 | Sparks |
The ten minutes after the presentation Everyone I coach on presentations worries about the same ten minutes, and it’s the ten minutes after the presentation ends. The talk itself you can prepare. You know the words, you’ve said them out loud, you’ve...
von Christine Burgmer | Okt. 27, 2026 | Sparks |
Remind or remember? One German word, two English ones “Can you remember me on Friday?” I hear this one a lot. It always makes sense in the situation, so nobody corrects it, and people go on saying it for years. German keeps both ideas in one word. Sich...
von Christine Burgmer | Okt. 26, 2026 | Sparks |
Headquarters, even when there’s only one A client said headquarter in a session this week, and he’s in good company. Lots of Germans say headquarter. Hauptsitz is one word for one place, so the extra letter looks like somebody’s mistake. It’s...
von Christine Burgmer | Okt. 23, 2026 | Sparks |
I said it perfectly. That was the problem. My first week in Germany, on a student job in Stuttgart, I went to the greengrocer’s and asked for “ein Pfund Granny Smith”. The woman had no idea what I wanted. I pointed at the green apples. “Ach,...
