Brevity is the Soul of Wit: The Value of Very Short Stories
- Tuesday, 26 July 2016
“Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief.” So said Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Often we think that a long piece of writing is better; however quantity does not always trump quality. A short piece of writing means that the writer must get to the “nitty […]
How to Make Your Meetings Work for You!
- Tuesday, 19 July 2016
How often do we treat meetings as a necessary evil, as something taking us away from the important day-to-day work and tying us up in chit-chat and time-wasting?
When a Person Becomes a Noun, Adjective or Verb!
- Tuesday, 12 July 2016
An eponym is a person, real or imaginary, from whom something, as a tribe, nation, or place, takes or is said to take its name, for example “Romulus, the eponymous founder of Rome”. That is, the city of Rome was called after the legendary founder of Rome, Romulus.
A Friendly Tone of Voice – Good Voice Habits
- Tuesday, 05 July 2016
Varying pitch. To avoid talking in a monotone raise and lower your voice to emphasize or de-emphasize certain points in what you are saying. Soft volume. Speak just a little softer than you normally would, especially when talking to someone who is standing near you. Relaxed tone. If there is tension in your throat or […]
A Friendly Tone of Voice – Improve Your Friendly Tone
- Tuesday, 28 June 2016
Record yourself speaking. Find a paragraph in a book or newspaper you are reading, and speak as naturally as possible into some recording device. You can do this on your smart phone. Watch yourself speak. Do this by standing in front of a mirror while reading a text. Watch your face carefully, paying attention to […]
A Friendly Tone of Voice – How does it sound?
- Tuesday, 21 June 2016
Words alone don’t always convey the meaning of what we are trying to say. How we “sound” when we are speaking is also important. This means both that our voice and facial expressions must support our words. A friendly tone of voice will get us far in life!
Cute photos and Language Learning?
- Tuesday, 14 June 2016
Technology plays an important role of people’s lives nowadays; browsing the Internet, communicating with friends and learning new languages, etc. Sometimes people share cute photos through the Internet. Interestingly, research has shown that these cute photos can help to improve people’s memory when learning languages. In the last few years, many funny images with an […]
The Numbers Have It!
- Tuesday, 07 June 2016
It can be difficult for language learners to say big numbers out loud when they read about them in different situations. For example, 1989: Dates: 1986 (nineteen eighty six) Money, population, etc.: 1986 (one thousand nine hundred and eighty six) Mathematics: 1.986 (one point nine eight […]
Open Doors
- Tuesday, 31 May 2016
Confiding a sensitive issue takes courage. Each conversation needs private, alone time without interruption. The door is shut, the phone is off; the speaker is assured of undivided attention, and feels safe knowing there is nothing more important, at that moment, than the issue being discussed. It is a time of close eye contact and […]