Man sagt einfach: Hello Professor Smith. -oder- Hello Dr. Smith. Glad to meet you.

Expressing myself in English is hard

I don't have much confidence in my English skills, especially in my writing and speaking skills, despite the fact that English is my first foreign language. Expressing myself in English is very difficult and unnatural for me. It always feels as if my pronunciation of English words and sounds is very weird. It's hard to pronounce sounds like "th" as in "third" and "r" as in "writing". Combining words with "th" and words with "z"/"s"-sounds in one sentence knots my tongue: "That's the first zero in this progression of digits."
On the other hand, depending on the <strike>matter</strike> material, it's not very hard for me to read English texts <strike>for me</strike>. I read lots of programming related books. So my vocabulary related to that <strike>theme</strike> field is pretty decent. But then again, there are lots of very common and easy words which I don't know or which I cannot recall when I need them.
Probably I just have to practice speaking and writing English a lot more. And this one is my first attempt.

<font color="#104a5a">Theme is the central idea or message that a writer wants to convey.</font><strike></strike>

<font color="#104a5a">Wie man manche Wörter auf Deutsch ausspricht, ist auch eine Herausforderung für mich. Die Kombination von "pf", zum Beispiel, </font><font color="#104a5a">ist immer noch ein Zungenbrecher oder eigentlich ein Lippenbrecher. :-)  </font><font color="#104a5a">Wenn mein Deutsch so gut wie dein Englisch wäre, würde ich im siebten Himmel sein. Weiter so!
</font>

<font color="#104a5a">
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flight plan or what? (my writing challenge - day 18)

“Imaging a day… when the edge of the map is only the beginning of what we can explore.” (words next the picture)

I want to invite you to the blue room of Rob Gonsalves. It looks like a class room for geography. In the middle of the room a man sits <strike>on</strike> in his chair and  <strike>concentrated to</strike> concentrates on the large map in his hand.
It is a map <strike>of</strike> with nice landscapes <strike>with</strike> of small towns, a lake with sailboats, and a river which flows to the ocean.

The door opens and children run into the room. They seem very happy with spread-out arms, ready to take off. The first boy flies over a town with an interesting city <strike>planning</strike> design. The <strike>next</strike> other children follow him.

Only the man sits and think about the map or maybe his travelling plans. He <strike>doesn’t</strike> isn't aware of the children. He sees the map as a street map; it isn’t a realistic representation of the landscape. In <strike>opposite</strike> contrast, the children <strike>seems</strike> seem to fly over a real world.
Why! Maybe children <strike>have</strike> experience a great fantasy. It is all a game for them. They can imagine their “own” fantasy world. And they seem very happy.

Let us fly like the children! Let us be curious about the world and foreign cultures. Let us go to the edge of the map. <strike>There</strike> That is the beginning of what we can explore.


Thanks for reading. It would be great, if you could correct it. Thanks!

<font color="#085294">Präpositionen sind immer schwierig, ob man Englisch oder Deutsch lernt.  Weiter so!
.....................................................................................................................</font>

<font color="#003163">Ah, es ist ziemlich traurig, keine Korrektur zu bekommen.  Für deine Mühe, ist das nicht fair.</font>

My challenge .. Day 7: 3 rules to spark learning

Hello! <strike>You are curious</strike> Are you curious? Today I want to write about a TED talk "3 rules to spark learning" with Ramsey Musallam.
Ramsey is a chemistry teacher. For him, chemistry is more than experiments and explosions. For him, the real question is, 'Why does it happen?' In his TED presentation, he <strike>shows</strike> demonstrates many chemical <strike>demonstrations</strike> reactions.

As a teacher, he could hold a boring lecture with <strike>mobile</strike> audio-visual devices, but in his opinion the greatest tools a teacher has are his student’s questions. As a teacher, he can confuse or perplex his students – so they <strike>get</strike> come up with real questions.

<font color="#003163">Hmm, "real questions"?  Meinst du Fragen, die nicht doof sind?  Wenn ja, "really good questions" würde ich wahrscheinlich sagen.</font>

I like his idea: The student’s questions are the seeds of real learning.

He speaks about his heart surgery some years <strike>before</strike> ago. In <strike>the</strike> <strike>talk</strike> a conversation with his doctor, he <strike>wondered</strike> was worried about his self-confidence, <strike>and</strike> so he asked the doctor about it. <strike>that</strike>. The doctor answered: There are 3 things that give me confidence:

1)<strike> the</strike> curiosity helps <strike>him to</strike> me ask questions about the procedure
2) <strike>He doesn’t</strike> Don't fear the process of trial and error
3) <strike>he</strike> reflect<strike>s</strike> and get<strike>s</strike> the information, which <strike>he</strike> is needed for the procedure


After these wise words <strike>of</strike> from the doctor, Ramsey wrote down his 3 rules to spark learning:
1) curiosity comes first
2) embrace the mess, that means trial and error
3) practice reflection

And he gives the same conclusion: What we are doing one day will be save lives <strike>like</strike> - the same as his doctor.
He shows photos of his daughters, 2 and 4 years old. All children love to ask “Why?”. Their curiosity makes it easy to teach them everything.

I hope that all teachers will cultivate<strike>s</strike> more curiosity and develop the student’s imagination. ;-)

<font color="#003163">Sehr gut!  Weiter so!</font>

<font color="#085294"></font><font color="#003163"></font>

My first picture (my writing challenge - day 9)

Hi, I want to write this evening about yesterday. It would be great, if you could correct it. Thanks!
Yesterday I <strike>was painting</strike> painted my first picture in a new class. I’ve never painted before with Acrylics. And I’ve never painted a picture <strike>on</strike> this way. I've only painted some flowers on small pieces of paper.

<font color="#085294">Da du am Ende sagst, dass du früher Blumen gemalt hast, kannst du nicht sagen, dass du gestern dein erstes Bild gemalt hast.</font>

<font color="#085294">"in a new class" musst du auch sagen.
</font>

<font color="#085294">Der letzte Satz hatte kein Verb, daher war er grammatikalisch falsch. Man kann das nur machen, wenn man redet.</font>

I read about an art workshop as a social <strike>event</strike> gathering. <strike>Their</strike> They promised <strike>is</strike> <strike>You can</strike> we could paint a picture in 2 hours, <strike>it doesn’t</strike> <strike>matter if you are</strike> whether we were a beginner or an expert. You only needed to choose an event or <strike>the</strike> <strike>motive</strike> a topic of the day. Wow, sounded great!

<font color="#085294">"event" klingt eher seltsam. Ein "event" ist normalerweise ein Wettbewerb. </font>

<font color="#085294">Sei bitte vorsichtig. Wenn du mit dem Präteritum beginnst, kannst du nicht hin und her zwischen dem Präteritum und dem Präsens schreiben. </font>

I was there with 20 other people. Our art <strike>guide</strike> teacher prepared our <strike>art</strike> desktop with a table easel, 3 brushes, 1 pencil, a plate with different acrylic colors, water and a canvas.
I was a little bit nervous, but <strike>our guide</strike> the teacher explained everything step by step. First, we needed a horizon, then the moon, <strike>the</strike> - a blue color mixed with white and later on with dark blue for the sky, green for the grass, black for trees and so on. She <strike>had</strike> explained it very <strike>easy</strike> simply. I was surprised. After only 2 hours <strike>and</strike> my picture showed a full moon, <strike>who is</strike> which was shining through a wooded area. <strike>with</strike> The trees had red leaves <strike>in</strike> <strike>the</strike> depicting the current fall season <strike>in fall</strike>.

<font color="#085294">who = people  which = things</font>

It was amazing and fun to paint in a group with inspiring music in the background. I look forward to my next painting <strike>event</strike> lesson. :)

My challenge .. Day 6: How to be Calm in a Busy World?

I was reading a n-tv interview with Haemin Sunim. Haemin is a Zen monk and <strike>he</strike> wrote the book “The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down: How to be Calm in a Busy World”.
It is well known that <strike>we</strike> our lives are very busy and slowing down can help us <strike>to</strike> solve many problems. He said it helps to bring out <strike>the</strike> wisdom <strike>to</strike> <strike>come out</strike>. We <strike>get</strike> come up with good ideas.
Many people know slowing down is helpful but they don’t know how <strike>can they change that</strike> to do it.

<font color="#085294">Von hier unter hatte ich viele Probleme mit dem Programm. Schussendlich habe ich mich entschieden, alles zu schreiben, als ob ich den Text geschrieben hatte. Tut mir leid!<strike>
</strike></font>
<strike>His suggestion are four things:</strike> The monk has four suggestions:

1. If you only have 10 seconds, then smile. Your heart rate will slow down, the muscles of the face will become relaxed and you will have a connection with the people around you.

2. If you have a minute, breathe deeply. You will feel a connection with your body and become relaxed. When we feel relaxed, we are able to better see what our next step should be.

3. When you come home, try to walk 15 minutes. It helps you to relax and puts you in a better mood. Before we can take care of our family or other people, we should take care of ourselves, otherwise we may feel that we are being controlled by outsiders.

<hr>

4. Write down three things for which you are grateful.
When we do this for a month we will become more optimistic.  

His suggestions sounds very simple and wise. Let’s get started with a smile. We only need 10 seconds.
Concerning unhappiness: The monk says we become unhappy about things we cannot change.
People try to control others, they want to change them, change their old habits. We should learn to accept their old habits and instead change ours.

When we are more self-confident and more careful, we will find the problems and the solutions.
The basis of many problems are thoughts and doubts. We can stop this carousel of thoughts with deep breathing and slowing down.

I think this is true and the correct pathway to a happy and secure life.

My challenge .. Day 5: "21 days to a big idea"

Today I want to write about a book with the great title “21 Days to a Big Idea!” by Bryan Mattimore
Bryan designed it more as an exercise program which we can practice 30-60 minutes a day.
It helps to understand and to learn creative thinking skills. They are useful to generate big ideas for individuals or corporate teams.
Bryan shows 5 big idea thinking strategies and 9 useful idea generation techniques.
This program has 4 parts. Behind the strategies and techniques <strike>there</strike> are part 1 “Discover<strike>y</strike> your passion” and <strike>the</strike> <strike>last</strike> part 2 “Choosing and developing the best ideas”.

<font color="#295218">Wenn man von Teil 1 spricht, muss man von Teil 2 sprechen. :-)</font>

<font color="#295218"></font>
<strike>On the way,</strike> I learned that many famous inventors have <strike>a</strike> plenty of new ideas. Thomas Edison, for example, wrote down <strike>on one day</strike> over 100 ideas one day.

<font color="#295218">Wenn man von einer Reise spricht, sagt man "On the way". On the way to Germany, I learned that there are 2 cities named Frankfurt.</font>

That is also our goal with these techniques... to <strike>create</strike> come up with many ideas. <strike>Typically we will create a plenty of ideas</strike>. <font color="#295218">Der letzte Satz is doppelt gemoppelt. Es klingt seltsam, da du das schon gesagt hast. Man kann keine Idee "create". Man kann eine Skulptur "create". "create" ist wie bauen, aber ist normalerweise etwas kuenstlerisch.</font>

About 10 % could be big ideas. One or two of them could be successful with a market potential.

He wrote about a NASA creativity test with children. This test <strike>were</strike> was repeated every 5 years. The <strike>five-years-old</strike> five year olds showed 100 % creativity at the highest level. 5 years later only 30 % of the children showed the same level of creativity. And only 12 % of 15-years-olds showed the high level of creativity. How can we <strike>re-find</strike> revitalize our creativity? Bryans answer is … by making wishes. … childlike wishes. And with our adult mind we can think about the realization of our wishes.

<font color="#295218">"creativity" hat auch mit dem Denkprozess zu tun, daher ist es in diesem Zusammenhang in Ordnung. Aber wie ich schon gesagt habe, kann man keine Idee "create". Die Idee kommt zuerst, dann kann man etwas "create".</font>

The “and-technique” is a very good method to generate ideas. It is very simple, we combine 2 random words and then we develop a new invention, for example “illuminated socks”. One of the words can be a fixed noun, which we combine then with many adjectives or nouns.
With these helpful strategies and techniques, we can <strike>learn to find</strike> develop our creative side and maybe to <strike>find</strike> come up with many ideas for our new business. ;-)

A book <strike>who</strike> which can change your <strike>live</strike> life

Hello,

I’m reading a book called “How to Win Friends & Influence People” by Dale Carnegie.

It has already changed my <strike>live</strike> life. It tells you to think more positively and to stop complaining about everything. I can really recommend that book, if you want to impress your friends or if you want to be more friendly to your fellow man. < <font color="#003163">Freundlichkeit ist immer gut!!!</font>

Greetings <font color="#083139">< Gleichfalls!</font>
Christian