Thinking in English

Jason Fried, in his TED talk Why Work Doesn't Happen at Work (posted below), compares doing serious work to sleeping, in the sense that interruptions make both activities very difficult. He talks about sleep phases or stages, and how you have to pass through them in order to get to the deepest and most valuable sleep.

Thinking about this over the weekend, I realized that thinking in a foreign language is probably the same. A person needs time to go through the stages of speaking and understanding in order to really start thinking in another language. One of my favorite students recently requested a two hour class, so that she would start thinking in English.

For me to think in Spanish takes time, but I notice that it starts to happen during a film, a long conversation, or while I'm reading a book or long article. Then it lasts for a while after, and I really enjoy that. Also, sometimes I dream in Spanish!

To increase your ability to think in English, reading, watching films, listening to the radio and talking with people are all great methods. The key seems to be to give yourself enough time, and the amount of time needed will be different for everyone. Also, if you try to limit interruptions from your native language, the effect will be greater.

Image from Lost in Translation, courtesy of http://www.fanpop.com/

Commuter

A commuter is someone who has to travel to get to work, usually by car, bus, train or metro. Walking to work isn't commuting, because the concept is that some distance is involved. Some people have short commutes, others have quite long ones, even travelling between cities every day or every week. What about you? How do you commute? How long does it take? What do you do with your commute time?

Job vs. work

There are some differences between job and work. For example, when we're talking about business, job is countable and work is uncountable. We can talk about jobs with a number, for example, 100,000 jobs were created last year. Usually when we talk about work, we can't use a number, but we can say a lot of work or not very much work.
A job can be a position, like software developer. The work is software development.
To do a good job is to do something well, and we usually use it to talk about a single project, for example, the team did a great job on that campaign.
Work can also mean the place where we work. We say "I go to work at 9am every day." Right now, I'm writing this post at work.

TED Talk: Why Work Doesn't Happen at Work

This is a somewhat long presentation and it may take you a few minutes to get used to Jason Fried's accent. But I think he's saying some interesting things here...

Also, here's a bio for him with a link to his new book, in case you're interested:

Jason Fried is the co-founder and President of 37signals, a privately-held Chicago-based company committed to building the best web-based tools possible with the least number of features necessary.
Jason co-wrote all of 37signals books, including their latest “Rework.”, and is invited to speak on entrepreneurship, design, management, and software all around the globe.
37signals’ products include Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack, Campfire, Ta-da List, and Writeboard. 37signals also developed and open-sourced the Ruby on Rails programming framework. 37signals’ products do less than the competition – intentionally.
37signals weblog, Signal vs. Noise, is read by over 100,000 people every day.
Jason believes there’s real value and beauty in the basics. Elegance, respect for people’s desire to simply get stuff done, and honest ease of use are the hallmarks of 37signals products.

What to say when you're ill

We have a lot of ways to describe the condition of being ill or of not feeling well.

I'm a bit under the weather = I don't feel well but it isn't serious

I don't feel well

I have a cold = I'm coughing and sneezing

I have the flu

I have a sore throat = My throat hurts

I have a headache = My head hurts

I have a stomach ache

I'm sick/I'm ill = Nonspecific but more serious than "I'm not feeling well."

I hurt my back/arm/shoulder, etc.

When you call your workplace to tell them that you can't come in, this is calling in sick. For example "Bob called in sick today becuase he has the flu."

When you hear that someone is ill, you can say, "I hope you feel better soon!"

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving and the 4th of July are truly American holidays, in the sense that they don’t have a religious connection.
As kids in school, many Americans are taught a story about “the first Thanksgiving” which is a mythological meal that the Pilgrims and the “Indians” shared in Massachusetts. It’s customary to make crafts or dress up as Pilgrims and “Indians.” The standard images of Thanksgiving include turkeys and corn, autumn leaves, etc.
Currently, Thanksgiving is a family holiday in the US, and it’s a big time for traveling. Lots of people fly to visit family and have a feast together.
The traditional Thanksgiving meal includes roast turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing (often a combination of bread and vegetables), mashed potatoes and gravy (a sauce made from the turkey). For dessert, pumpkin pie is a classic. Most families only cook these foods for Thanksgiving, so there can be some stress involved!
One trend with regard to Thanksgiving is to incorporate foods from other cultures because extended families often include recent immigrants. So a dinner might have some American elements and some Vietnamese dishes, for example.
Another Thanksgiving tradition in some families is to watch American football. And then to fall asleep on the sofa…
Hopefully, Thanksgiving is also an opportunity to reflect on what we’re thankful for. This year I feel especially thankful for the wonderful life I have, and for everyone who has been so generous and inspiring to me.
So, Happy Thanksgiving and thank you for everything!

Mindset

My word of the day is mindset. The American Heritage Dictionary defines this as "a fixed mental attitude or disposition that predetermines a person's responses to and interpretations of situations." Mindset is different from mood, because it changes less. We use it to talk about a person's general attitude, his or her way of thinking or way of seeing things. You will often see this word with an adjective describing the attitude, for example "environmental mindset," which means that the person or entity is in the habit of thinking about the environment.