O título já diz tudo, eu estou feliz com essa notícia, os blogs estão sendo, cada vez mais, levados a sério. Leia o que Dave Sifry, Founder & CEO da Technorati, disse sobre o assunto:

Today was a pretty busy day! Technorati was selected by the World Economic Forum (yeah, the one that meets in Davos, Switzerland every year!) as a Technology Pioneer. I was blown away by this, as it is a pretty high honor - only 47 companies worldwide were selected, and it means that I’ll be heading for Davos early next year for the conference.

I’m eager to learn more about what the actual conference is like and to meet up with other folks who are going [...]

Pois é meu amigo(a), tudo em Inglês, o idioma global. So, open your eyes.

Take care!

Fonte: technorati

Se você conversa muito ao telefone, com clientes, amigos e até mesmo realizando entrevistas, um phrasal verb muito útil é o get back to. Ele é utilizado para informar quando você irá entrar em contato novamente com a pessoa do outro lado da linha (se estamos falando de telefone, não é linha de trem ;-)). Veja este exemplo:

I’ll get back to you next Monday with my answer.
Eu voltarei a me comunicar com você na próxima segunda-feira com a minha resposta.

Can I get back to you later? I’m really busy now.
Eu posso entrar em contato com você mais tarde? Eu estou realmente ocupado agora.

Existe ainda uma outra forma de utilização do get back to. Quando o assunto de reunião mudou e você quer voltar à pauta. Veja:

Let’s get back to the point of this meeting.
Vamos voltar ao assunto principal da reunião.

That’s all folks,

See you.

Oi pessoal, nada melhor do que um Americano para falar sobre o seu idioma pátrio. Hoje a nossa “correspondente Internacional” Mary Ziller, fala sobre as Expressões Idiomáticas (Idioms) 1. O texto como não poderia deixar de ser, está em Inglês. No final Wolfgang que é marido de Mary e professor (doutor em Matemática) da Universidade da Pensilvânia expõe sua opinião sobre o artigo. Vale a pena conferir! So, enjoy it!

Essential American Idioms

The question arose how essential are idioms in everyday life?

My supposition was that they are not so important in business dealings and journalism, but research showed that there is a whole site devoted to business idioms .

Apparently in business, sports idioms are very relevant to separate the men from the boys (distinguish between mature, experienced individuals and novices, or between competent and incompetent people)2.

An idiom is defined as a manner of speaking that is natural to native speakers of a language. I am going to go out on a limb (take a risk)3 here and suggest that that is probably why I never took much notice of them before. If you think there is something fishy about (questionable, strange, untrustworthy or surprising)4 my supposition, just ask anyone who is learning to speak English as a second language. He will tell you idiomatic English is very hard to figure out (understand)5.

An idiom is an expression whose meaning cannot be inferred from the meanings of the words that make it up. The standard example that comes to mind is ~It is raining cats and dogs (raining torrentially, a downpour).

Websites such as English Experts, with its dedicated and prolific author, Alessandro, raise the bar(set a higher standard)6, in excellence in online learning. He pushes the envelope (to move beyond the limit of what has usually been done or was the accepted standard)7 and surpasses what is offered by most wanna-bes (a person who likes to imitate, or even wishes to be, another)8. He thinks outside the box9 and is very innovative in his approach to learning English. A site of the caliber of his English Experts comes along only once in a blue moon (rarely, very seldom).

My husband has the following reaction to this article: “the end is over the top” (exaggerated and not believable). He thought I must be pulling your leg, (putting you on), but really, it was a piece of cake (easy as pie, very easy, simple) to write this about your blog, because I really feel like that.

Fontes:
1-http://www.peakenglish.com/slang/dailybiz.jsp
2-http://www.answers.com/topic/separate-the-men-from-the-boys
3-http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=632406
4-http://bits.westhost.com/idioms/id625.htm
5-http://bits.westhost.com/idioms/id204.htm
6-http://bits.westhost.com/idioms/id497.htm
7-http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/push+the+envelope
8-http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Wanna-be
9-http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/think+outside+the+box

Oi pessoal, esses dias eu estava estudando sobre o Thanksgiving Day e me deparei com a palavra Turkey. Observe que Turkey significa Peru, ou seja, a mesma associação que nós(nativos do idioma Português) fazemos com o país Peru quem fala Inglês faz com a Turquia. Aliás, esta é uma forma muito eficiente de aprender um idioma, através de associações. Vou abordar esse tema em breve.

By the way, observe com atenção a dica retirada do livro do Prof. Michael Jacobs.

“If I’d had the opportunities that you had I wouldn’t have done what you did”
(Se eu tivesse tido as oportunidades que você teve, eu não teria feito o que você fez).

Um executivo que fala 7 idiomas e morou em vários países disse que toda vez que precisa aprender um novo idioma ele estuda primeiro esta frase. Segundo ele, quem domina os tempos verbais contidos nela aprenderá com mais facilidade o que virá depois. Esta frase contém os seguintes tempos verbais:

Had had (past perfect)
Had (past simple)
Wouldn’t have done (present perfect conditional)
Did (past simple)

Até a próxima.