I’ve been called a control freak by people who actually call themselves my friends. So what do my enemies call me? I think it’s a teacher thing, wanting to be prepared for all eventualities. Yet I’m fascinated by teachers who “teach barefoot”, taking nothing but a smile and a good night’s sleep. I know that will get you far, and I do it too, quite a lot, actually. But I only do it when I know the terrain, when I figure that I have enough tricks up my sleeve to handle pretty much anything that can happen. So while I hate taking blind risks, I love taking calculated ones.

bloggers, podcast | 8 Comments »

We generally have more than one kind of task to do at work or at college. For instance, we might need to write up our research and then make a presentation, which are two entirely different kettles of fish (“2 versch. Töpfe mit Fischen” = 2 Paar Stiefel). Or we might need to manage a [...]

bloggers, business, podcast | 6 Comments »

The summer break is coming to an end for us. We’re packing up and going home after our very long holiday. This picture summarizes what was nicest about the summer for me. Have you got a summer picture to share?

Was ist das Blogprojekt? Mehr dazu unter Englischlernen mit Anne! Subscribe to the Island Weekly [...]

bloggers, podcast | No Comments »

Think back to the earliest thing you can remember: Where were you? What were your surroundings like? What do you remember most about the situation? Were you doing anything? Did you see, smell, taste, hear, feel anything? How did you feel about yourself and the world around you? Can you estimate approximately how old you [...]

bloggers, language, podcast | 5 Comments »

If you are practicing English online by yourself, here are three lovely blogs written especially for you to start with. Each one is special in its own way:
1. Der Englisch-Blog
Dieser Blog von Markus Brendel ist auf Deutsch geschrieben und erklärt täglich entweder einen Ausdruck oder eine Frage aus der Grammatik. Gestern hat Markus beispielsweise das [...]

book review | 4 Comments »

Found on Gavin Dudeney’s blog.
These kids are a lot more technophile than my adult students. And they have a lot more time on their hands to play with technology. And yet here I am, repeating my invitation to you, hoping to find adults learning English who are willing to share their thoughts online in blogs [...]

other | No Comments »

Perhaps it’s a sign of the times, but several magazines here in Germany (Spiegel and Focus) have featured “happiness” as their title story. Well, it’s clearly a good thing to think about and discuss. The Beatles sang “Happiness is a warm gun”, with more than a touch of irony. For me, happiness is a wet [...]

bloggers, podcast | 3 Comments »