Trick or treat

When I was a child, we used to go trick-or-treating on Halloween night. This meant getting dressed up in costumes and going from house to house, knocking on the doors and saying "trick or treat!"
People would usually put some kind of decoration on the house to show that they were ready for trick-or-treaters, like a jack-o-lantern, one of those pumpkins with a face and a candle inside.
Trick or treat means: choose between giving us a treat (candy) or having us do something mean (a trick). Of course, everyone chose to give a treat! But there were some tricks in the neighborhood too, like teenage boys who would decorate someone's house in toilet paper. in general, though, the kids who went trick-or-treating received a plenty of candy and had a good time seeing neighbors and friends with their decorated houses...

Use your English to learn something!

When you can communicate in English, one of the greatest things is to start using your English to learn something! You could take a course, or you could read about something you're really interested in; you could get a group together to have wine tastings and learn the vocabulary in English; you could form a book or film group; you could have some friends over to watch a TV series together. There are soooooo many things you could do to start using your English! And this is the whole point, right? To be able to use your English! Of course you may want to continue studying English in order to improve. But imagine how much you could learn if you started cooking or learning about a sport or reading about things you really love!

Seven years in Barcelona

This weekend will mark the seventh anniversary of my arrival in Barcelona!

Since the original idea was to stay for one year, I think you can imagine that it's been a wonderful experience, full of surprises along the way.

For example, I never expected to meet the marvelous people I've met here.

They have been worth coming here for, and worth staying for!

Expression: Play it by ear

If you play it by ear, it means that you don't have a plan of action, you improvise as you go along.
What do you think of this way of doing things? For some people, preparing a plan and folllowing it are important or necessary. Others like to play it by ear. Some prefer a mix of the two approaches, and I think I fall into this category. When I plan a class or presentation, I prepare an outline and some resources, but I try to be present enough in the moment to play it by ear if the situation seems to ask for it. Sometimes the best classes are the ones which deviate the most from the plan!
What about you? Do you like to play it by ear?

Best web resources: Presentation Zen

Presentation Zen is a marvelous website created by Garr Reynolds. It concerns the art and craft of giving great presentations, and I always find it excellent; written with care and creativity. Garr puts a huge number of resources there, and if you like the site, you might also enjoy his personal blog. I admire Garr's creativity, constancy, sense of humor and Zen aesthetic. Also, if you're interested in Steve Jobs, there are some wonderful posts there with some of his presentations. I hope you enjoy!

Best web resources: Khan Academy

Have you discovered Khan Academy yet? It's a truly remarkable web resource. About the site:
With a library of over 2,600 videos covering everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and 215 practice exercises, we're on a mission to help you learn what you want, when you want, at your own pace.
A free world-class education for anyone anywhere.The Khan Academy is an organization on a mission. We're a not-for-profit with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education to anyone anywhere.
All of the site's resources are available to anyone. It doesn't matter if you are a student, teacher, home-schooler, principal, adult returning to the classroom after 20 years, or a friendly alien just trying to get a leg up in earthly biology. The Khan Academy's materials and resources are available to you completely free of charge.
Click on the image to go to the site!

Expression: From scratch

From scratch works like an adverb, and it describes making or doing something from the beginning; starting with no advantage or prior preparation. For example, if you bake a cake from scratch, it means you don't have a packaged cake mix; you make it with flour and eggs, etc. Here are a few other examples:
There were so many errors in the program that the programmer decided to rewrite it from scratch.
When I was a child, my parents and I used to bake Christmas cookies from scratch.
We started from scratch on the project; now I realize that we could have had more help at the beginning.

Did you communicate?

In my company, we sometimes have the great opportunity to travel and go to conferences or other kinds of events. Sometimes we're presenting, but often simply participating in these events. We meet people from many places, and the majority of them are communicating in English, which is a second or third (or even fourth or fifth) language for them. In my opinion, what's really important at these events is communication, and usually people do well with it! So, if your goal is to communicate, how do you know you're successful? Here are a few questions you could ask:
Did people understand me in general?
Did people ask me questions?
Did I understand the others in general?
Could I ask questions and pay attention to the answers?
Was I able to do the things I needed and wanted to do, like order food and drinks, find my way around, buy things, etc.?

If you can answer yes to most of these questions, I think you communicated! Even if you made mistakes, you were able to make contact with people, and do the things you needed to do. It's important to reflect on how well you did, and not only on the things you'd like to improve. Of course you can always improve, and you will! But if you're communicating, you're doing the most important thing right now!

Expression: Dim bulb

A dim bulb is a person who is not very intelligent. Since bright is another word for intelligent, and dim is the opposite of bright, you can see how this expression emerged. A bulb is a lightbulb.

This is not a very nice thing to say about somebody, so I'm not putting it here for you to say, but for you to recognize!

A variation on this is "She's not the brightest bulb on the string." The meaning is the same, and the image is of a string of lights with one dim bulb.

Phrasal verb: Touch base

To touch base with someone is to communicate with them about the status of a project or other question. Here are some examples:

• Voicemail message: Hi! This is Miriam. I'm just calling to touch base with you about the meeting next week. Do you have everything you need? If not, just call me back.


• In a meeting: I want to touch base with everyone about the new provider and make sure that we're getting the service we need. Do you have any feedback?


• An email: Hi Bob, I want to touch base with you about the training for the new staff. How is everything going?

Gregarious

My word for today is gregarious.

A gregarious person likes to be with people, and generally meets new people easily.

Are you gregarious?

Odd numbers and even numbers

We call 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, etc. odd numbers.

We call 2, 4, 6, 8, etc. even numbers.

Expression: At sixes and sevens

To be at sixes and sevens is to be confused or badly organized.
Where does this expression come from? I don't know, but I like it! Here are a few examples:

The whole office was at sixes and sevens before Mary came.
We're at sixes and sevens this morning; could we call you back in a few hours?
She always seemed to be at sixes and sevens and her agenda was out of control!

Goodbye, Steve Jobs

...And thanks for everything.

"Steve was among the greatest of American innovators - brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it."

President Barack Obama

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

Steve Jobs

Hacked off

Hacked off is an adjective that means angry. Here are some examples:

Sue: "What are you so hacked off about?"

James: "I accidentally deleted my report and now I have to rewrite the whole thing!"

John was hacked off about the increase in his rent, so he decided to look for another flat.

Bob: "I'm a little hacked off about the new policy, how about you?"

Phoebe: "Yeah, I know what you mean!"

As you can see, we usually put about after hacked off and before the cause of the anger. But if you're angry at a person, you could put at: "I'm hacked off at Jennifer because she cancelled our meeting again!"

How to read more

Leo Babauta has a very nice post on zenhabits about how to read more.

Do you have enough time to read? I'm not sure that I do. I've pretty much given up on reading in bed, at least during the week, because it seems to make it difficult for me to sleep. So I do most of my reading on the weekends.

I really agree with Leo, though, that reading is a great, great pleasure, and one that deserves time and attention. He also recommends a cup of tea...

This image is a cartoon of Gromit reading, based on the claymation film A Grand Day Out. You can see more about Gromit and his friend Wallace here.

Aware

To be aware of something is to know about it. Here are some examples:
"Are you aware of the new rules about smoking in the building?"
He wasn't aware that Jane had left the company.
It's important to be aware of changes in the market.
The noun form is awareness. You can also make a negative adejective: unaware. So you could say: "He was unaware that Jane had left the company."

Chockablock

Chockablock is an adjective which means extremely full; crowded; jammed; for example: a room chockablock with furniture and plants.
I don't really like things that are crowded or full, unless they are chockablock with something wonderful, like books, interesting people, etc.
Fortunately, I work in a company which is chockablock with cool colleagues!