Grammar Guru: Similar, but different: appointment, date, meeting

They’re similar, but different: * meeting  * appointment  * date Can you schedule a/an _________________ for the project team? ɯɐǝʇ ɐ ɥʇıʍ ƃuıʇǝǝɯ ɐ ǝlnpǝɥɔs I want to make a/an ___________________ with Mr Hoss to discuss the CERT project. ǝuoǝɯos ɥʇıʍ ʇuǝɯʇuıoddɐ uɐ ǝʞɐɯ Can we fix a/an ______________________ for the next meeting? ʇuǝʌǝ ʎuɐ […]

The challenge of compacts

My last two-day compact for PAs didn’t go quite as well as they usually do, leaving me pondering what went wrong. As I’m teaching quite a number of similar ones in the upcoming weeks, I need to pause and think things through in depth, because I want the next ones to go better. The conditions […]

Pigeon: Impossible

Pigeon Impossible, the silent animated film by Lucas Martell released on 9 November that took 4 years to make, passed the 1 million views mark on YouTube after less than 2 weeks online. The film is set in the neighborhood of the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., where two of my nieces and I […]

Goodbye to “one best way” solutions

Marvin Minsky of the MIT Media Lab and MIT AI Lab has a very pragmatic approach to robotic engineering and artificial intelligence based on systematic redundancy. “I’ve never seen any mechanical device that actually shows any thought about reliability,” he says (4:40) and goes on to explain his approach (from 4:45): “My theory is that […]

Agile one to one. Progress, step by step

This is how I teach. Aiming too high can cause negative stress. I’ve learned to break learning down into small, productive, rewarding steps. I was thrilled and very priviledged to be sponsored by Cornelsen to present this at BESIG, the Business English Special Interest Group, in Poznan last weekend. It was a great event. This […]

One-upmanship

Just rereading a chapter in Peter Wilberg’s great book, One to One, entitled “Your basic attitude – one-upmanship?” Is this you?

Grammar guru: change jobs/ change the job?

Thanks to Markus’ very kind recommendation on Der Englisch Blog, last week’s Grammar guru question went off like a rocket: What’s the best alternative to “You don’t really need to register for the event”? “You don’t necessarily have to register for the event.” (86%, 36 Votes) “You mustn’t register for the event.” (14%, 6 Votes) […]