My Blog until 2018

Do this free vocabulary test and find out how many words you know: http://my.vocabularysize.com/.

Translating from one language to another is often tricky. Do you know how to translate the...

Do you use the same words again and again when closing an email? Why not be a little bit more...

"We rise to great heights by a winding staircase of small steps." Francis Bacon

To feel at home in Britain, I recommend that you drink tea with milk - and perhaps a little bit of...

A little boy was watching his mother gently rub cold cream on her face. "Why are you rubbing cold...

We talked about the concept of "chunking" two weeks ago. And today I'd like to introduce you to...

Do you sometimes confuse words like "borrow" and "lend" or "become" and "get" or "play" and...

I recommended The Economist's style guide recently. The BBC News also has a guide online. It might...

"Nature has given men one tongue and two ears, that we may hear twice as much as we speak."...

If you're planning a trip to the Oktoberfest in Munich this year, you might like to prepare...

An absent-minded professor stopped to chat to one of his students and then asked, “From which...

Do Spiegel Online's little test to find out! But beware! It's tricky ...

As I wrote last week, we all want to improve our productivity.  But we don't need things that are...

"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible." Dalai Lama

Before phoning someone in the US, it might be helpful to check whether they should be at work....

"An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets, the more interested he...

Worried that you are becoming a bit forgetful? Try these rather weird tips (link to: health...

Translating the menu for a foreign visitor is always tricky. Have you seen my German-English Food...

In the past, we used Miss (+ surname) for an unmarried woman and Mrs (+ surname) for a married...

"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names." John F. Kennedy

You've been invited out for a meal in the US and are not sure how to behave at the table. In this...

"There was an old man from Peru, Who dreamt he was eating his shoe. He awoke in a fright In the...

Do you know the colours of the rainbow? Here's an acronym I only learned recently: "ROYGBIV"....