Business Spotlight

05/08/2024

If something goes wrong, it’s easy to get angry. However, emotions are usually counterproductive. Learn from these exercises to help you make — and deal with — a complaint.

Im Folgenden können Sie Formulierungen rund um das Thema Beschwerden üben.

01/08/2024

🙋🏼 When a business trains a new employee, is it fair if that same employee leaves to work for a competitor? This situation led to the rise of noncompete clauses in work contracts. These force a skilled employee to wait, often for a year or more, before taking another job or starting a business in the same market.

“Noncompetes” are common in the 🇺🇸 U.S. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) estimates that 20 per cent of American workers, about 30 million people, are affected by them.

Noncompetes have become so common that they can limit job mobility. So, in 2024, the FTC decided that most of them cannot be enforced.

VOCABULARY
📌 noncompete clause (US): Wettbewerbsklausel
📌 work contract: Arbeitsvertrag
📌 Federal Trade Commission (US): Bundeshandelskommission
📌 affected: betroffen
📌 enforced sth.: etw. durchsetzen

Image: © iStock.com

30/07/2024

⚡ Can you spot the mistake in this sentence? Let us know in the comments section below!

Graphic: © chatchai issariya via canva.com

29/07/2024

Do you sometimes go out with colleagues for a beer after work? In our new “Opinions” section, two ZEIT Sprachen editors discuss their thoughts on after-work drinking. 🍻

Ist es okay, mit Kollegen nach der Arbeit etwas trinken zu gehen? Hören Sie sich das Audio an, und versuchen Sie anschließend, die Frage selbst zu beantworten.

26/07/2024

Sometimes, it’s not possible to solve problems alone. You need the support of your team. And career coach Frank Peters believes that it can help teams work more closely together. Here are some phrases that make asking for help easier.

Puckung, Monographik, limastudioicons, Muhammad Waqas, Wingzky via canva.com

25/07/2024

Learn how to protect your smartphone from cyberattacks! Read our top tips.

Ob Onlinebanking oder das private Fotoarchiv: Unsere Smartphones sind voller sensibler Daten. Dass sie ein beliebtes Ziel von Cyberattacken sind, ist eigentlich kein Geheimnis. Aber wie lassen sie sich wirklich schützen?

24/07/2024

Do you wish this would happen where you live? What do you think your town/city could do to reclaim nature?

VOCABULARY
📌 concrete: Beton
📌 hard landscaping: Geländebearbeitung mit festen Materialien
📌 flooding: Überschwemmung, Überflutung

21/07/2024

Practise your language skills! This month, learn how to deal with — and make — complaints, find out what a scientific diver does and practise language on problem-solving.

• BUSINESS SKILLS: How complaining customers can be good for business
• READING: Scientific diver: a job underwater
• CAREER COACH: Problem-solving as a team

© Dgdesigns via Canva.com

20/07/2024

Do you want to improve your English listening skills? Here are our topics to help you on your way!

• BUSINESS SKILLS: Making and dealing with complaints
• BUSINESS JARGON: How to avoid using buzzwords
• METROPOLITAN MAYHEM: Is drinking alcohol with colleagues really OK?

© Amin Nur Rochman's Images; Billion Photos via Canva.com

19/07/2024

👏 The new issue of Business Spotlight is out today! 👏

📱 Smartphone safety! Is your smartphone up-to-date? Do you install all security updates? Do you know how to protect your phone from a SIM swap attack? Find out how to maximize smartphone security in this month’s magazine.

Plus:
• How to make — and deal with — complaints
• Drought in America’s Southwest
• Business travel: Edinburgh

17/07/2024

Dominik Karl was shocked to see so much plastic on the beach when he was on holiday in Sri Lanka. 🏖️ He returned to Germany and decided to do something about it, founding Oceanmata — to make a biodegradable phone case — while working with clean-up organizations to remove plastic from the seas.

VOCABULARY
📌 found sth.: etw. gründen
📌 biodegradable: biologisch abbaubar
📌 phone case: Handyhülle

Photo: © Oceanmata

15/07/2024

Practise speaking about company changes with our exercises on recruitment, downsizing and expansion.

In einer dynamischen Arbeitswelt müssen Arbeitnehmer ihre Karriere mit individuellen Bedürfnissen in Einklang bringen. Auf dieser Seite können Sie Begriffe rund um das Thema Veränderungen im Unternehmen üben.

10/07/2024

🧳🛫 Travelling for work? Here’s some useful business accommodation vocabulary to help make check-in a smooth and simple process!

Photo: © Jacob Lund via canva.com
Illustrations: © Mike Ellis

09/07/2024

Have you invested in ETFs? The asset management company expects ETF investments on European digital platforms to reach half a trillion euros by 2026. Check out business-spotlight.de (link in bio) to read our explainer on the ABCs of ETFs!

VOCABULARY
📌 asset management: Vermögensverwaltung
📌 trillion: Billion
📌 ABCs: hier: Einmaleins

08/07/2024

Have you ever wondered who prepares plates of food in films and on TV shows? Business Spotlight correspondent Melita Cameron-Wood interviews a food stylist — listen to our interview now and see how much you understood!

Business Spotlight-Korrespondentin Melita Cameron-Wood sprach mit der in New Orleans tätigen Food-Stylistin Kendall Gensler über ihren einzigartigen Beruf, wie anstrengend er sein kann und welche Tricks sie anwendet. Hinterher testen wir Ihr Textverständnis.

05/07/2024

Freelance journalist Ben Hindrichs reports from Brazil, where the country’s indigenous women are protesting against the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

VOCABULARY
📌 indigenous: indigen
📌 Amazon: Amazonas

03/07/2024

🤔 Did you know that in the context of accommodation, the German word “Pension” is “guest house” 🛏️ in English. It is not “pension”, which refers to the money paid to retired people 👵🏻 and is translated as “Rente” or “Pension”.

Graphics: © bsd studio, Liara Studio via canva.com

01/07/2024

The ABCs of ETFs! Read our step-by-step guide on investing in ETFs, practise vocabulary on financial matters and learn some insider tips from DIE ZEIT’s financial editor Nathanael Häfner!

ETFs sind der größte Investment-Trend der Gegenwart. Welche Chancen und Risiken bergen sie? Und wie gelingt der Einstieg?

28/06/2024

Do you know what it means to have your work cut out for you? If you’re very busy, it’s a useful phrase to know!

Graphic: © icons8 via canva.com

26/06/2024

Do you sometimes buy a product that makes you feel like you’re seven? It might be because of the “wackaging”.

VOCABULARY
📌 wacky: verrückt, abgefahren

25/06/2024

In mid-June, the G7 leaders met in Puglia. The Pope addressed them on the topic of AI, calling it "an exciting and fearsome tool". In an interview with Business Spotlight, Paolo Benanti, who advises the Pope and the Italian government on AI, explains what his job involves and why the Catholic Church has taken such an interest in artificial intelligence.

Read more in this month's magazine!

24/06/2024

Glastonbury starts this week, and summer is festival time all over Europe. While festivals may have begun as celebrations of counterculture in the 1960s, the big pop festivals of today have embraced corporate sponsorship and are key elements of “music tourism”, a lucrative industry that attracts more than 14 million tourists a year in the UK alone. And they’re becoming more popular — Europe’s music-event market is expected to exceed $10 billion in annual revenue for the first time in 2024.

Driving this growth is a trend among young consumers, who are more likely to spend money on experiences than on material goods. And they’ll need to be prepared to spend big. Tickets for Glastonbury, for example, which is the UK’s most expensive pop festival, cost £360 each — but the mud and the memories are free.

VOCABULARY
📌 counterculture: Gegenkultur
📌 embrace sth.: etw. annehmen, akzeptieren
📌 corporate: Unternehmens-
📌 exceed sth.: etw. überschreiten
📌 Billion: Milliarde(n)
📌 annual revenue: Jahresumsatz
📌 goods: Güter
📌 spend big (ifml.): viel Geld ausgeben

Photo: © Cesare Ferrari via canva.com

23/06/2024

Practise your language skills — learn how to speak about staff changes, discuss whether school prepares us for working life, and learn more about Brazil!

• SKILL UP! Recruitment, expansion and downsizing
• HEAD-TO-HEAD: Does school prepare children for work?
• INTERCULTURAL: Try our fun quiz on Brazil 🇧🇷

© Dgdesigns via Canva.com

22/06/2024

Do you want to improve your English listening skills? Here are our topics to help you on your way!

• BUSINESS SKILLS: How to make cold calls to win new customers!
• ODD JOBS: Preparing food for films and TV
• METROPOLITAN MAYHEM: Does school get us ready for a career?


© Amin Nur Rochman's Images; Billion Photos via Canva.com

21/06/2024

The new issue of Business Spotlight is out today!

WTF are ETFs? It seems as though everyone is talking about ETFs at the moment, and in our practical guide, you can learn more about how to invest, along with tips from DIE ZEIT’s financial editor Nathanael Häfner. Plus, we help you brush up on your finance vocabulary!

Plus:
• An interview with the Pope’s AI advisor
• The start-up saving the seas
• English for business travel

19/06/2024

In recent months, Germany has, at times, come to a standstill. Strikes have taken place at airports, buses and trains have come to a halt, and even supermarket employees stopped work to negotiate their pay. Practise your vocabulary on strikes!

Graphics: © Eucalyp von amethyststudio, Изображения пользователя mari.gisina., thidaratsuteeratatphotos, Vector Juice via canva.com

17/06/2024

Welcome, Steffi! We have a new production manager, someone to keep us in check and make sure we unruly editors stick to our deadlines 🥳

14/06/2024

“It was a bit of a shock to me when I was older that the football business was so unfair,” says Lise Klaveness, head of the Norwegian Football Federation. She’s vocal about inclusion in football, saying: “It doesn’t belong to men alone. It belongs to everyone who loves it.”



Image: © Stefano Oppo via canva.com

11/06/2024

Many words in German and English seem similar but have very different meanings. You don’t sit on a bank, for example (well you could, but there might be complaints).

Graphics: © Sketchify Education, Rikoicon via canva.com

10/06/2024

In the US, billions are spent on presidential election campaigns. But where does that money come from? In 2020, 22 per cent of donations came from everyday Americans. A great deal of money, however, came from PACs and super PACs. Find out what these are ...

VOCABULARY
📌 billion: Millarde(n)
📌 donation: Spende

Images: © TheaDesign, cmannphoto, CatLane, chickenonline, welcomia via canva.com