culture - Now that's worth thinking about!

CHRISTMAS IS ILLEGAL!

Published on December 21 2015

CHRISTMAS IS ILLEGAL! If you decide to eat a Christmas pudding this year, you'll be committing a criminal offence. Fact! Oliver Cromwell's Long Parliament of 1664 passed an ordinance stating that everyone must "observe the monthly fast on the day which...

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WORD OF THE DAY

Published on November 13 2015

WORD OF THE DAY How about this for a word - paraskevidekatriaphobia. It comes from Greek and means “fear of Friday the 13th”! Perhaps not easy to place in a conversation, except, for example, today! And I managed to do it; I was visiting a training centre...

THE THREE PILLARS OF COMMUNICATION One of the stories making the news in France right now concerns the strange story of this year’s winner of the national scrabble tournament in French. It was won by a New Zealander! http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33606449 The...

ANOTHER AVOIDABLE MISUNDERSTANDING! It seems as though a week cannot go by without yet another example of somebody somewhere getting something horribly wrong and being forced to clean up a mess, apologize and/or lose credibility. And why do these things...

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HER STORY

Published on March 8 2015

HER STORY (First published March 6th 2014; updated March 3rd 2015) It is often said that history is written by the victors, and the losers’ point of view is often neglected and forgotten. The same often applies to the role of women in history as they...

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HAPPY NEW YEAR ... IN MARCH?

Published on March 2 2015

HAPPY NEW YEAR ... IN MARCH? Don’t worry – I haven’t gone mad…far from it! I’d often wondered why the origin of names of the months from September to December indicate, the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth months. So, in a year of twelve months, that...

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CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Published on February 17 2015

CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION People often assume that when we talk about cross cultural communication it means talking to somebody from a different country. This often raises a whole series of issues about national stereotypes – the Americans do business...

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WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Published on August 14 2014

WHAT'S IN A NAME? A lot of French people complain when they come back from England – either because they claim the food and coffee are bad, it rains all the time and because they drive on the wrong side of the road… While it’s true that home cooking is...

A GREAT PLAY AND A GREAT PERFORMANCE I frequently complain about life in Paris - the overcrowding on public transport, pollution and the rude behaviour of many of the inhabitants - but one thing I really like is the cultural side. The museums are fantastic,...

A GREAT PLAY AND A GREAT PERFORMANCE I frequently complain about life in Paris - the overcrowding on public transport, pollution and the rude behaviour of many of the inhabitants - but one thing I really like is the cultural side. The museums are fantastic,...