14 Email Do's and Dont's

Ways to make your messages more efficient and effective

by Amit Asaravala

Anyone who regularly uses email to communicate with coworkers or other professional contacts has probably noticed that, despite its many positives, email can also be incredibly inefficient.

Think about it: How many times have you volleyed a half-dozen messages with a coworker over the course of two days just to schedule a meeting? How many hours of your life have you wasted trying to decipher messages missing one key word? And how many tasks did you interrupt today alone so you could respond to a note that just arrived in your inbox? When you consider how many issues email can pose — and how many of your nonprofit's staff members use it to communicate on a daily basis — you can begin to see just how much this tool can actually hinder your organization's ability to get things done.

The good news is that you can get back to a state of efficiency without giving up email altogether; you just have to get rid of some bad email habits — and convince your coworkers to do the same.

Online Forum Membership – Is It For You? 

by  Heather Pears

Are you lonely because you don’t know anyone else who collects pet rocks? You don’t need to be alone; chances are there is an internet forum for people who love to talk about pet rocks.

That might seem a silly example but on the internet there is a forum, or discussion board, for almost any topic you can think of. People like to talk about things and share ideas and an internet forum is one of the places that allows you to do that.

November's Culture Article

Get in Touch With the Hippie Culture

by Jay Brandley edited by Lynne Hand

The term hippie is often misunderstood by many. When thinking of the word or term hippie, many people often picture a bunch of people with beards, headbands, peace signs and bell-bottom jeans (see above).  Well, there is much more to the concept of what a hippie or the hippie movement is.

False Friends

by Margaret Watson

Years ago I studied Spanish at Queen’s University in Belfast. The class was very intense, getting you from beginner to translator level in 10 months, or that at least was the theory. We weren’t the usual bunch of students in that each of us had pressing, but different reasons for learning the language – two priests were taking up posts in Spain, I was supposed to be taking over a Bolivian hospital, one lady had a Spanish boyfriend, another wanted to be able to talk to her Mexican daughter-in-law and grandchildren. So we all tried hard and our tutor was excellent.

The problem was that, like English, Spanish has many ‘false friends’ i.e. words we think we recognise and know, but which can actually mean something very different. A friend of mine once introduced a very important Bolivian lady in Argentina. The Argentineans understood him to say ‘Venerable lady’, but unfortunately where she came from the words meant ’Old Cow!’

The Remarkable Rocket

by Oscar Wilde 

The King's son was going to be married, so there was general rejoicing. He had waited a whole year for his bride, and at last she had arrived. She was a Russian princess, and had driven all the way from Finland in a sledge drawn by six reindeer. The sledge was shaped like a great golden swan, and between the swan's wings lay the little princess herself. Her long ermine-cloak reached right down to her feet, on her head was a tiny cap of silver tissue, and she was as pale as the Snow Palace in which she had always lived. So pale was she that as she drove through the streets all the people wondered. "She is like a white rose!" they cried, and they threw down flowers on her from the balconies.

November's Travel Article

Photo  by Your Teacher

Oh I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside

by Patrick O’Connor

MY first overseas holiday was to the quiet, almost sleepy (well it was way back then) French seaside resort of Hendaye Plage.

It was a school trip for a bunch of 15 year olds who for the most part were venturing outside Britain for the very first time.

November's photo of the month.

Every month I choose a photograph from Flickr to appear here.  Hopefully something interesting and informative.

This month's seasonal photo is from Dominic's pics.  It's called "Lewes Bonfire Night 2007 - Bonfire Flames and Leaf Silhouettes"  It shows some leaves silhouetted against a bonfire.

November's Blog of the month

Ramsey Daily Photo is a photo blog dedicated to the Isle of Man.   It's well written and gives you a very personal insight into this little known area, which is actually at the geographical centre of the British Isles. Well worth leaving a comment or a question.

November's English Book of the Month

Stories for Parents, Children and Grandchildren - Volume 1

by Paulo Coelho

You can buy this book online, or download it as a pdf file for free here.

November's Advert of the Month

Holland & Barrett

Click "Read More" for the transcript, but click on the link below to watch the ad first.

Watch it here:-

Holland & Barrett

English Song Lyrics - November

He GetsThat From Me

Reba McEntire

His early mornin' (morning) attitude:
You have to drag him out of bed.
Only frosted flakes will do,
He gets that from me ...
Yeah (Yes), he gets that from me.

November's English Joke of the Month

Thanks to Hermine

 
A young monk arrives at a monastery. He is assigned to helping the other monks in copying the old canons and laws of the church by hand.
He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript. So, the new monk goes to the head abbot to question this, pointing out that if someone made even a small error in the first copy, it would never be picked up! In fact, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies.

Go On, What's Your Favourite English Word?

By Del Boy (edited by Lynne Hand)

What is the most popular word in the English language?  There have been several polls over the years, remarkably (which is a nice word), it all depends, it would appear, on your personal experiences.   Mother is the most beautiful word in the English language, according to a survey of non-English speakers.

More than 40,000 people in 102 countries were polled by the British Council to mark its 70th anniversary in 2002.

November's Poem of the Month

November

by Thomas Hood

Listen Here

Silly Poems and Rhymes # 28

Listen Here

A sleeper is one who sleeps.
A sleeper is that in which the sleeper sleeps.

November's English Film of the Month  

Quantum of Solace

Based on a short story of the same name by Ian Fleming, it's a sequel to the 2006 film Casino Royale.  In fact it starts only an hour after the conclusion to Casino Royale, where Bond is involved in a car chase in Siena, Italy.   They discover that there are agents in Her Majesty's Government and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).  This leads Bond to Haiti, and eventually Austria and South America to uncover aplot to control a nation's water supply.  All the time Bond has to stay one step ahead of the CIA, terrorists, and his own organisation, all the time trying to keep his desire for retribution over Vesper Lynd's death in check.

More here

November's Site of the Month

Face your Manga -  Ever wondered what you would look like in a mango (sorry manga) comic?  Well now you can find out. 

November's quote of the month.

Every month I choose a quote from people far wiser than me to appear here.

The English Magazine cartoon of the week

Another great cartoon, this time from Bird Breath. You'll have to come back every week, but it's worth it.