Category: Reading

Are you a morning, daytime, evening or night person? What sort of bio-rhythm do you have? Are you so full of pep and energy that you wake up and manage all day long without a sigh or yawn? Or are you a time taking breakfast-in-bed person who then can stay up into the wee hours of the night?

There’s an expression in English that says

The early bird catches the worm.”

The same thought or idea exists in French in these words:

Le monde appartient à ceux qui se lèvent tôt.”

I don’t see any worms or birds in that one, but no matter: until the opening of the tunnel under the “English Channel” as the English call it and the “Manche” as the French do, the French and the English had been separated by that body of water. This, as you know,  hasn’t prevented mutual attraction, jealousy, respect nor conflict over the years. Not to mention migration!

Or … the French-American trans-Atlantic connections!

So, you ask, what do “reports and delays” have to do with all this? The answer lies in the word which shapes our lives: time. And the inter-human relationships called meetings, dates, and appointments!

The English word “delay” means “being late, or being put off until later” and is most often used as a verb like this:
“The flight to Chicago is delayed. EDT is now 1:58.”

The French word “délai” means a time frame or a period of time and can be used in the singular or in the plural:

Il faudrait compter sur un délai de 10 jours.”
“Les délais de livraison sont indéterminés.”

Put those on hold for a moment while we think of the French verb “reporter”:  this verb can generally be translated into English as “to postpone” or “to put off.” In English, the identically spelled verb  “to report” might designate signaling something, usually negative, suspicious or illegal to an authority.

Beware of and be wary of these look-alikes.These sentences, written with English words by native French speakers could confuse or even upset you:

“I must report the date.”
“Could we report our appointment?”
“Excuse me for reporting this.
“It’s only a delay.”

All of these really intend to mean “temporary cancellation.” What might be called a “rain check.”

“Please forgive me … but I’ve had a change in schedule and need to postpone the meeting we planned for next Tuesday. Could we plan it for the following week? Just let me know.”

The early bird may indeed catch the worm … but only if the weather’s right!

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What’s a donut? or is it a doughnut? Both spellings exist and if you’d like to know much more about these sweet things, here a link to the article in Wikipedia. i was surprised to learn that they’re not only dunkin’ … but exist in culinary cultures all over the world. Often topped with with glazed sugar or colorful fruity, rich toppings.

Now the big question is this: Why are doughnuts in the news? Of course, if you’re in finance in the City, you’d know this right away but for the rest of us, it may bring a smile. Because it’s all in the shape … and I suppose in the airy weight. But essentially, traditional doughnuts look like … the letter “O” or in numerical terms … the zero (0) or nought.

Which is what this sentence from the International Herald Tribune this weekend taught us:

“From Wall Street to the City of London, so-called doughnuts are on the menu this season. While the carbohydrate-packed variety may damage their health, it is the wealth hit from the zero bonus – known colloquially as a doughnut – that investment bankers increasingly fear.”

Oh dear! Do I hear a sigh? About to cry? No need to fear. Just persevere. This is what a wise banker will advise.

Our languages are alive with metaphors, with images and if the single doughnut is all some will get with their coffee this year, they ought to be thankful for that but I suspect that …  next year some of them will get half a dozen bagels for breakfast …with poppy seeds, sesame or even just plain!

Keep smiling … and keep your eyes open. You’ll see metaphors by day, meteors by night.

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Sometimes, we need a little crash course in accents….and vocabulary.Even if we don’t need to cross borders or go very far to discover that nowadays almost everyone speaks some sort of “English.”

I spent a few days at a professional event in London last week entitled Learning Technologies. There were two floors at Olympia 2. Roughly speaking, downstairs were the people providing coaching and training services and upstairs were the people promoting their technological know-how.

Many of the “products” have similar goals. They are like packagings for corportate content. As with shelf space, elearning has its visual limits defined by the space of a screen and the designers, graphic or instructional, promote their techniques for making the screens as attractive, efficient and as captivating as possible.

I met some very interesting people and discovered some valuable services. Among them, The RADA, (The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) offers executive training. I’m firmly convinced that this would help more than one of my readers … and not just those in Europe!

As for instantaneous coaching … I thought that a company called Coaching On Call was quite innovative. Call a coach? Get your ideas clear!

Others offered short courses in cross-cultural training: getting to know how to do business around the globe: Russia, Japan, the USA … even the UK and … France. If you’re interested in knowing more, you know what to do.

BTW, before I forget, this letter was going to be about accents. London has so many! There’s the occasional British one, frequent Irish ones, not to mention Polish, Russian, Ukranian, Middle Eastern, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Italian and Korean plus some … Canadian, American and French.

All of which are now documented at the British Library’s exhibition called Evolving English...right next to where the Eurostar pulls in … at St. Pacras.

Enjoy it. There were mostly Britons at the Library. And there’s a wonderful bookstore there … as well…where English is spoken with a beautiful English accent.

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Every single language coaching session is unique. Year after year, I’ve been working with professionals who need, or who feel the need, to be more fluent in English.

Whether they need to improve their pronunciation so that it’s not too taxing for their listeners or whether they need to brush up on syntax and grammar or whether they need to improve their vocabularies, one thing is true: no two individuals are identical. Language is just that: individual.

When you look at others in your daily environment or in public, you’d be pretty surprised to see any two people look exactly alike, dressed exactly alike, walking and talking exactly alike … if you did, you’d think they were robots!

Most of us wear the same types of clothes from head to foot – yet with an infinity of styles, textures, materials, colours, shapes and sizes. Some neat, formal, fine, high fashion … some very original, others more casual, sometimes we wear unidentified “uniforms”: syles according to our jobs, our professions. Some fit … others don’t or are out of place for the occasion.

Your language is like the clothes you wear. It’s YOUR language. Your words, put together coherently … or casually, formally, young or not-so young, attractively, sexy or mysterious! Your stye. Changing according to your mood, yet constant from one season to the next.

Your vocabulary is your wardrobe.
Your grammar is your style.
Your pronunciation is how you appear to others.

Right now, clothes are on sale all over Paris. Time to restock your wardrobe!

Once you’ve done that … I can help you with the rest.
Coaching you in YOUR style … of English.
You are unique. So …
Go for it!

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Newletter November 18, 2010

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Bristish engineer and inventor James Dyson wasn’t so happy about his own vacuum cleaner … so he designed a better one. And opened up an entirely new market.

Knighted by the Queen … Engineer James became … Sir James!

A story worth reading:

James Dyson, and building a better vacuum: newyorker.com.

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Here is a link to one of the best and most famous cheese sellers in France. Savour.

In English … and other languages!

androuet.com

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Some mornings the tide brings in lots of sand dollars. This is what it brought in this morning!

by Catherine Rendon,

This past weekend we went sailing on an old wooden boat, a 30ft Morris, named “Joy”.  The captain, Michael Richter, is the first mate of the R(esearch) V(essel) “Savannah” –Skidaway Oceanographic Institute’s boat.  Michael and Paul are diving buddies and friends.  “Joy” is heavy and slow and her teak deck is weathered.  I started and finished the last of Larsen’s Millenium trilogy, my feet overhanging the bow occasionally being splashed or having the water cover my feet. The water like wall paper with a design of random cannonball jellyfish patterned here and there.  On our first day out we saw four big old turtles swimming out at sea.  They saw us too, big and heavy and quiet.

In the evening when we anchored we were surrounded by dolphin and were so close we could hear them breathing.  They sound just like people.  It was odd, looking at the night sky up on deck and hearing these familiar sighs and breaths so close by and not know them. They probably felt almost at home with our similar noises just above them. Yesterday we sailed back at a steady six knots from Hilton Head. We saw dolphins,pelicans diving and terns sitting on an old floating log, plus plenty of fish jumping. We sailed into a late summer squall/  It was beautiful.  Turner would have liked all the greys.  Then it was sunny again and we docked. We got back and jumped into the pool and got all the salt off ourselves.  We had swum in the sea off of “Joy” but the current was ripping. We  anchored near a shrimper whose anchor dragged all night and by morning he
was a distant silhouette.

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A couple of nights ago while I was watching the sun setting from the Back River pier, I could see flashes of lightning far off in the distance and once in a while hear the deep low  sound of rumbling, grumbling thunder. Those are both powerful phenomena. Light against dark; sound against silence. In fact, threatening phenomena … so powerful … so beyond our control.

It took some time for the winds to bring the clouds as far as the ocean but, once the sun had gone down – I almost wrote ‘had gone into hiding for the night’ – the clouds did come and fast and then the flashes of lightning seemed to come quicker and quicker, the thunder louder.

A torrential downpour begins with a single drop of rain … then another and another and another until you can’t count them anymore and you certainly can’t escape the drama … you can only take it in, experience it, live it, and marvel at it.

There was a deafening loud, booming clap of thunder; lightning like fireworks and flashes showed who was in charge and then STOP. The lights went out. The ceiling fans stopped. Darkness took over. The rain was coming down in torrents. The storm had taken over. I thought about the story of Jonah on the boat before he jumped overboard.

… The rain continued … and continued … and continued …

I fell asleep. And you don’t know what happens while you’re asleep, do you? Remember the story of Rip Van Winkle?

Well, a sound woke me up … the ceiling fan started to turn again … a light went on somewhere … I must have hear the refrigerator start up again … Signs that the electricity had come back on. I looked at my watch: 3:31 am. I went outside. Pools of water on the ground. Stars, a universe of stars above.

I thought for a moment: This is one of the reasons I’m here. Even if I didn’t know it, even if I hadn’t been aware of it until then: The Connection.

The back in time connection. The connection to real places and events, sources. The connection to people you know … even when you meet them for the first time.

There’s a saying that says: There’s no place like home.”  Well, I’d say …

“There’s no place like Tybee.”

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Good news!

Isn’t that what we live for? When things finally happen for the best? When hopes and dreams come true … and not just by good luck.

Like health:

• all systems are working the way they’re supposed to … or you’re getting better … feeling better … getting some exercise … and you’re not such a great client at the pharmacist’s;

Like … achievement:

• being successful; meeting your goals; getting accepted to the school you were hoping for;

Like money:

• finding out you’ve got a promotion, a bonus, new revenue, new contracts, your investments are on the rise;

Like love:

• you are on the same wavelength as … your other half …. or at least going in the right direction! And the future is full of promise;

Like friendship:

• someone can count on you as much as you can count on them

Like encounters

• full of potential.

Add to these a background, however chaotic like the sea, that allows you the freedom to do, to believe, to say

and … with one little smile, there you are, you’ve got a good-news day!

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