Tag: business

English

Germish, also referred to as Denglisch, Engleutsch, Genglish or Ginglish is a jumble of English terms embedded within a grammatically German sentence (or vice versa). It is spoken in all German-speaking countries and owes its existence in part to the cultural predominance of English language pop music and international computer slang.

How can you not love a free encyclopedia?
2008-04-19: Nerdic catches on

~100 new words are added to the language of technology, dubbed ‘Nerdic‘, every year – 3x as many as make it into the Oxford English Dictionary.

2008-09-14: France learning English

I’ve had enough of hearing that the French do not learn English. It’s a big disadvantage for international competition. Yet in the globalized, internet age, the French seem to realize that the losers from a refusal to learn English are themselves—and that speaking it need not make them less French.

2009-05-30: Wow. 1000s of Chinese school kids shouting english in a stadium, to learn.

2010-03-30: The world language is coming, globish

More than a lingua franca, the rapid adoption of ‘decaffeinated English’ makes it the world’s most widely spoken language.

2014-02-04: Other languages may exist

The Coca-Cola Company ignited a firestorm of controversy on Sunday with a Super Bowl ad that appeared to make the inflammatory claim that other languages besides English exist. “Last night, Coke assaulted millions of Americans with its misguided and inappropriate view that other languages exist. In the future, we strongly hope that Coke will keep its crazy theories to itself.”

2015-07-19: Everything is becoming english. Many languages borrow not just words but grammar from english.

GERMANS joke about their bad English. In Berlin, you can buy fridge magnets with German expressions over-literally translated into English, like “It is me sausage”—a word-for-word rendering of Es ist mir Wurst, or “it’s all the same to me”. “German Quatsch” on Twitter has many more. But educated Germans usually speak English quite well. The reality is that, to a deeper extent than commonly realized, German is changing under constant influence from English.

2017-01-07: Many countries would benefit from this. I’m always embarrassed for companies that can’t communicate.

Japan continues to work inside a linguistic bubble – not least because many firms in Japan are oriented towards the domestic market and pay little heed to global trends. But this approach is becoming increasingly difficult to justify. Switching to English makes Japanese firms more competitive, while opening employees’ eyes to the outside world. There is another benefit to using English in business: The language has few power markers. Its use can therefore help to break down the hierarchical, bureaucratic barriers that are entrenched in Japanese society and reflected in Japanese conversation, which could boost efficiency.

Also, Education Ministry to begin using English. Reminds me of the lonely guy in the us government who has been responsible for metrication since 1970.

the Japanese Ministry of Education will soon begin conducting their meetings in the language. As using English in meetings is highly unusual in the country, the ministry will start implementing it slowly, beginning with high-level officials in their department.

2023-05-04: LLMs will accelerate the winner takes all dynamics. The proposed countermeasures are ineffective and weak.

A tool like ChatGPT has yet to be trained on a massive amount of high-quality, diverse and representative Arabic written data. Its lack of data makes the tool’s results in Arabic unable to distinguish the nuances, accuracy and depth needed to generate quality content. Arabic-speaking users of AI tools face profound consequences of the language divide. At the top of the list is the limited access to information, as the vast majority of references and big data these tools scan to generate their results are mainly available in English.

This discrepancy hinders the ability of Arabic-speaking users to leverage AI for professional and personal growth and perpetuates a digital divide with long-lasting repercussions.

goofing off meets always on

Since people are connected 24/7, and are expected to be doing work at 22:00, they see no good reason why they can’t play a quick game at 15:00. In fact, many argue, by letting employees work on their own time, they can be even more productive. This view contrasts greatly with the top-down management style that is still in place in many companies.

this is totally me. granted i find these fuzzy lines between work and play sometimes hard to adjust to, but they also give me a level of leeway i did not have before.

2nd law of numbness

An increase in the bed capacity of a licensed skilled or intermediate care nursing facility shall be exempt from certificate of need review provided:
the increase does not exceed 10% of the total nursing home beds of the applying facility, rounded to the nearest whole number, or 10 beds, whichever is greater

that’s a snippet from one of the sample documents i’m working with. nightmarish. it makes me wonder if numbness is as bound to increase as entropy? i’m almost having a libertarian fit over this 🙂

Hiring passion-driven people

You can’t really buy passion-driven people. You have to pay for them, of course, but they have to choose you. Passion-driven people are attracted by many things, but one of the biggest attractions is the desire to work with other passion-driven people who can challenge and appreciate them. As an organization grows, the challenge is to keep the bar high enough that critical mass can be maintained and new people will still continue to be attracted. It’s like running a nuclear reactor — if your fuel rods aren’t pure enough, you won’t be able to get/keep the reaction going; but if you enrich and purify the material, the reaction is self-perpetuating.

back at kpmg consulting, i tried to follow this rule of thumb as well. i only wanted to hire people that actually cared. as it turned out later, these people are rare. when the climate for innovation at kpmg consulting became hostile, i started to work on open source projects, which eventually led me to my current employer. all projects i’m involved in have to pass the radioactivity test. some are on the verge of no longer passing.

Switzerland is going down the toilet

prediction: within 5 years, switzerland will be in dire straits, and will resemble the japan of today. economic growth will screech to a halt, and may even hit a deflation. within 10 years, switzerland will have a significantly lower standard of living in relation to other countries.

there are several reasons for this:

  • a failure to attract low wage immigrants by closing the borders
  • a failure to provide funding for new companies
  • misguided gov spending that emphasizes obsolete industries (military, agriculture)
  • a reluctance to push painful reform through
  • a belief that “swiss quality” will always reign supreme while failing to innovate
  • failing to train the next generation of an excellent workforce

thriving in the downturn

i saved over a 1000 franks annually by switching my insurance company. my new one has a philosophy of saving money wherever possible and fighting against the explosion of cost in healthcare. i like their stance very much, such as: “use generics whenever possible”, “pay annually to save recurring costs” etc. as people get more aware of the wasteful way of doing business of many companies, companies that save money for their customers will thrive. clueless companies like viseca that insist on spamming me with unwanted “customer magazines” in a helpless effort to build a brand (how 90s is that?) will get emails from me like this one:

ich möchte sie bitten, mir ihr “kundenmagazin” nicht mehr zuzustellen. sie werfen mit diesem magazin mein geld zum fenster hinaus. ihre aufgabe als firma ist es, meine transaktionen so kostengünstig wie möglich durchzuführen, und mir dies via internet seite anzuzeigen. jegliche andere korrespondenz ist nicht von interesse, besonders nicht im bemühen einen “brand” aufzubauen.