The test of time

There is a growing debate across Europe about the usefulness of changing the time, adjusting the clocks by one hour, twice a year. At this time of year, we move the clocks back one hour and many people are grateful for the extra hour in bed. Of course, that hour has to be paid back in the Spring but we can cross that bridge when we come to it. Personally, I am undecided about the best way to manage this issue. Whatever we do, we will have dark mornings and dark evenings during the winter.
There is, however, one thing that I am sure of. People in different countries talk about the time in different ways so, when we...

What do you say between ‘Good morning’ and ‘Goodbye’?

You have a meeting with a client from another country and you don’t speak each other's languages so you’ll both use English as a common, shared language, although neither of you are native speakers. You are a professional in your field so it’s normal for you to prepare the information and documents that you’ll need and to have them ready in advance. Now, you just have to prepare yourself; what you want to say and what you expect to hear.

You know the topic of the meeting, of course, so you can prepare your welcome and introduction, a little small-talk perhaps and then, down to business. You write down some key words and phrases which you know you’ll need and...

Keeping records

Keeping records probably isn’t a new concept for you. You probably have files on your computer which have a record of correspondence with suppliers, clients, contacts, prospects, etc. You can probably get a statement from your bank showing records of your expenditure. Your telephone bill shows you who you called and when, how long the call was and the cost. Sometimes, we use these records to make changes, to reduce the costs, to improve systems or simply to remember what happened. So, are you keeping records of your English?

Sometimes, people tell me that they know they need to improve their English but they are not sure where to start. I usually recommend that they plan their next conversation, meeting...

A rhetorical question

I was recently asked a question which should have been rhetorical but it wasn’t. ‘Have I improved?’
We stopped training in April and it’s now the middle of August. There’s been lots of practice in the sense of work done and conversations held in English. However, the preparation and training have not been done beforehand. This is like playing the same tune on the piano again and again and hitting the same wrong note again and again. If you don’t know that the note is wrong how can you hope to play better next time?
If I buy a piano tomorrow and I sit at that piano and try to play music, it’s unlikely that I will get better...