Strange, but I don’t know anyone who plays skat, although the Deutsche Welle says that more Germans play it than football.

My father used to play, although it wasn’t easy finding two other players in England! 

I really can’t remember if he played with those German-suited playing cards—with acorns, leaves, hearts and bells—or whether he used the French-suited ones we all know so well.

I have just read that to play skat, you need a good memory and to be able to calculate in your head, and that a good skat player counts the cards passing in every round.

Now I know why I was never interested in learning to play the game!

What about you? Do you play skat or do any of your family members play the game?

“Conversation is the most powerful learning technology ever invented.

Conversations carry news, create meaning, foster cooperation, and spark innovation.

Encouraging open, honest conversation through workspace design, setting ground rules for conversing productively, and baking conversation into the corporate culture spread intellectual capital, improve cooperation, and strengthen personal relationships.”
Jay Cross

If you like the idea of open and honest conversations with like-minded professionals, you’ll love our Colourful Conversations!

Getting started with a new project is difficult and always the most uncomfortable part. It’s a matter of overcoming fear and breaking out of our comfort zone. Would you agree?

If we want our project to be successful, Josh Spector recommends that we ask ourselves 5 questions:

1. How much time and effort will you commit to the project?
2. What is your key success metric?
3. What do you want people to do when they discover your project?
4. What value will your project provide and to who?
5. What can you learn from initial feedback?

When I started working on my ‘Chilipepper Your English’ programme, I thought it had to be perfect before I launched. It took me a few months to realise that I needed very little to put it out into the world.

If you’re starting a new project now, listen to Josh Spector’s words. Don’t try to figure out every little detail. Just get the bare minimum you need to launch. And get going!

Trying to improve your grammar can be rather boring. That’s why I like Martin Samuels’ interactive Quiz42.

To get started:
1. Log in.
2. Start a new game.
3. Select ‘Take the level test’,  ‘Single player’ or ‘Multiplayer’. 
4. You’re ready to go.

If you need help, take a look at this video here.

It’s so important to pronounce names correctly.

But what can we do when we come across a name we aren’t familiar with, and we’re unable to ask the person (as this happened to me in my Instagram Live today)?

We can give pronouncenames.com or howtopronounce.com a try!