Have you got any website words that set your teeth on edge? “Passionate” is one of mine, as in “we’re passionate about quality” (or about our work, our clients etc). First, it’s over-used and doesn’t do anything to distinguish company A from company B. If everybody’s passionate about their work and their clients, where’s the …
Category archives: Life and work and everything else
We have ways of making you pay (we wish)
If you run your own business, you surely know (and if you don’t, your accountant will soon tell you) that cash-flow is king. There’s no point having thousands of pounds/euros/dollars in the payment pipeline if your bank account’s empty and you can’t pay your suppliers (or, ultimately, the mortgage). I work a lot with Italian …
Bewitched, bothered and bewildered – and true glamour
The title of my post on “bamboozled” comes from the wonderful song “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered“, from the Rodgers and Hart musical Pal Joey. From a language perspective, here’s the Online Etymology Dictionary again, on “glamour”: glamour (n.) 1720, Scottish, “magic, enchantment” (especially in phrase to cast the glamor), a variant of Scottish gramarye “magic, enchantment, …
Continue reading “Bewitched, bothered and bewildered – and true glamour”
Humanising the quake: an internet gem
Back in October 2010 I wrote a post on Internet gems. One of the “gems” was DOSANKODEBBIE’S ETEGAMI NOTEBOOK, written by Deborah Davidson, an Etegami artist and Japanese to English translator. Since the earthquaki and tsunami of 11 March, Deborah has written a series of blog posts on “humanizing the quake”. They celebrate Japan’s people and customs, and …
Auguri! Italy and Ireland celebrate
Two celebrations today: Italy’s birthday (150th anniversary of Italian Unification) and St. Patrick’s Day. To continue the theme of my last two posts, Kate Smith suggests in the blog Live in Full Colour that St. Patrick’s colour is not green, but blue. Indeed, the emerald tones of the Chicago river and celebratory St. Patrick’s day beer are …
Yet another business case for teaching the language love
One of the messages I try to convey to school pupils when I talk to them about language learning is that languages are relevant and might actually help them in later life. So I was delighted to read about a study (by Panos Athanasopoulos of Newcastle University, and others) on how language affects the way we see …
Continue reading “Yet another business case for teaching the language love”
Plume
I wrote a post last June entitled “La plume de ma tante…”, about the associations of the word “plume”. In 2010 we had the ash plume from Eyjafjallajökull, in Iceland, and the plume produced by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. And now we’re hearing about a radioactive plume from Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear …
The book salon
At the hairdresser’s today, for a much-needed cut by the wonderful Carol, we got to talking about books. I don’t usually go to the hairdresser’s expecting literary chat (more fool me). However, I came away with some great recommendations, including the advice to stop off at the Oxfam bookshop nearby, which Carol said is really well-stocked. …
Fees: to raise or not to raise? Take our poll
Here in the UK inflation is still rising and the recent 2.5% increase in Value Added Tax will add to the upwards pressure on prices. Not to mention the mutterings about interest rate rises further down the line. If you’re self-employed and want to maintain your spending power your options are: Work smarter — make …
Continue reading “Fees: to raise or not to raise? Take our poll”
Resolutions for clients
Do our clients make New Year Resolutions? Or, given that as business owners we too are clients (to our accountants, designers, marketing advisers, lawyers, printers…), do we ever make resolutions wearing our client hats, rather than our “own business” hats? Here are some resolution suggestions for anyone wanting to be a better client. Resolution 1 …