Raising awareness for the situation of non-native speakers
Native English speakers often lack the experience of working in a foreign language. So they aren’t familiar with the difficulties involved. They hear you speaking English and are genuinely impressed by your language skills. But, unlike you, they don’t know that you would in fact like to say much more, but lack the vocabulary. And they […]
When colleagues want more information than you can give
Are you sometimes asked at work for information you’re not in a position to provide (yet)? It can be a tricky situation. On the one hand, you don’t want to come across as uncooperative or overly secretive. On the other hand, if you don’t make it very clear that the matter really isn’t up […]
Now we have the salad ;-)
One lunchtime, I was standing behind two women – a German and her English visitor – in the canteen queue. I heard the German say: “Oh, you’re a vegetarian.” She studied the menu for the day and then said: “You could have rice and green bones.” The English woman looked absolutely horrified: “Oh no, I […]
