Hybrid courses

Die Grünen hybrider Kongress 2021

In the summer of 2021, I had the pleasure of attending a hybrid congress in Berlin: Die Grünen were kicking off their election campaign. The highlight of that day was to see Robert Harbeck speak, only a few meters away, of democracy and freedom for Eastern Europe. The speakers in the room stood to the […]

Relaunch

Relaunching

It’s the end of summer, we’re back home from long days in the sun and on the water, and it’s back to classes and many weeks full of interesting new challenges. The perfect  time to relaunch this website. Thank you to Gavin Dudeney for jumping in when the website crashed back in February. He built […]

Talk at BESIG 2021 for Cornelsen

Managing your hybrid course with Cornelsen’s Basis for Business Summary This 30-minute talk aimed to give Business English trainers an overview of lessons learned in the “two worlds” of online and presence training. Clients and learners are now requesting courses that some participants attend physically, while others log on using a conference interface. While this […]

The need for civic courage

Last Friday on the train in Erfurt there was a very ugly case of xenophobia and racism directed against a young Syrian. A German man with a bike hurled verbal abuse at the boy, and then physically attacked him, kicking him and smashing his phone on the ground. The man was later arrested, but I […]

Saturday Night Live Minnesota News Cold Open

Saturday Night Live has picked up on current political events in the USA. The comedy series opens this week’s episode with a fictional Minnesota morning show with two Black anchors, played by Ego Nwodim and Kenan Thompson, and two white anchors, played by Kate McKinnon and Alex Moffat. They begin their weekly news review by […]

What actually happened in the USA last night – and what do we call it?

It’s been quite a day/night, and indeed, quite a year in the USA. People have had to decide how to characterize widespread unrest. Are these events demonstrations? uprisings? rebellions? insurrection? riots? Were the people who came out for Black Lives Matter (BLM) last summer, or those who stormed the Capitol yesterday, protesters or a mob? Each term sends a very different message about what is going on in […]

Global dexterity

Andy Molinsky: Global Dexterity: How to Adapt Your Behavior Across Cultures without Losing Yourself in the Process. Harvard Business Review Press. 2013 So you want to be a true “citizen of the world”? You’ll need more than a knowledge of dos and don’ts in the many cultures you are moving into. There are large gaps […]