Business Spotlight

21/02/2025

Here’s one way to practise sounding friendlier and more professional on the phone: Imagine that you have to record a message for your organization’s answering service. Read this message aloud, record it and listen to your voice. Try it several times in different ways to get used to varying your tone:
“You have reached [name of organization]. Our office hours are from 8 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. — Monday to Friday. Please leave a message after the tone, and we will return your call as soon as possible. Thank you.” More on how to sound friendly on the phone, in this month’s issue!

VOCABULARY
📌 return sb.’s call: jmdn. zurückrufen
Image: © Georg Lechner mit Leonardo AI

20/02/2025

Oops! 🙈

How do you handle food that’s fallen on the floor? Is it gone forever? Or does it still count as delicious if picked up within five seconds? ⏱️

❌ Unfortunately, there’s no science to back up the five-second rule. A 2016 study published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology found that no matter how fast you pick up food, you’ll still pick up bacteria with it... 🦠 So, hold on tight to those cookies!

📫 Read more about the science behind food on the floor in tomorrow’s edition of our newsletter, ZEIT für Englisch. Not a subscriber yet? Sign up here: www.spotlight-online.de/newsletter

© Image: Georg Lechner with AI

19/02/2025

Have you ever stayed late at work knowing you wouldn’t be paid for it? Or spent hours renovating your home? This is sweat equity.

VOCABULARY
📌 dedicated: engagiert
📌 Entrepreneur: Unternehmer(in)
📌 equity: Anteilskapital
📌 compensation: hier: Ausgleich

17/02/2025

Is AI changing the way we speak? Find out why AI seems to use some words more than others!

ChatGPT scheint Lieblingswörter zu haben, die immer wieder auftauchen. Woran das liegt und wie sich Sprache durch Künstliche Intelligenz verändert.

16/02/2025

If someone has an accident at work, it’s important to be able to react quickly — and to be able to explain what has happened. Practise your vocabulary on the topic in our exercises.

Plus:
• BUSINESS SKILLS: What do you sound like on the phone?
• READING: Work culture in Japan
• HEAD-TO-HEAD: Do you need a realtor to sell your house?

© Dgdesigns via Canva.com

15/02/2025

Some words are becoming more common thanks to AI. Find out which ones — and how AI is changing language — by listening to our audio.

Plus:
• INTERVIEW: Corporate social responsibility in practice
• SKILL UP: Accidents at work
• NAMES AND NEWS: The economics of entertaining

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

14/02/2025

The new issue of Business Spotlight is out today!

Do you use artificial intelligence? Perhaps you use LinkedIn and have noticed a similar style appearing in posts. Are they written by AI? Possibly. ChatGPT has 300 million weekly active users, according to the data insight company Demandsage. It’s changing the way we communicate. Find out more in our cover story in this month’s Business Spotlight!

Plus:
• Corporate activism: companies trying to do the right thing
• English on the phone: tips to sound friendly and professional
• Tanzania: crimes for conservation

13/02/2025

If people aren’t married when they conceive a child, some people might say they’re having a “love child”. It’s often used in a derogatory manner – so be careful if you use it!

Would you like to get our Word of the Week regularly? Sign up for our free newsletter “ZEIT für Englisch” – presented by Spotlight and Business Spotlight: www.business-spotlight.de/newsletter
GLOSSARY:
📌conceive: schwanger werden
📌 derogatory: herabwürdigen

© Illustration: Georg Lechner

07/02/2025

“I’ll buy you a drink next week”
“Deal!”

Did you know this expression?

Graphic: © Thanhloc123 via canva.com

06/02/2025

Thanks to feminism, women today have more choices than ever before. Some, known as “tradwives”, choose to focus on supporting their husbands, taking care of the kids and keeping the house clean. The word is especially common in social media, where some women advocate for this kind of lifestyle.

Would you like to get our Word of the Week regularly? Sign up for our free newsletter “ZEIT für Englisch” – presented by Spotlight and Business Spotlight : www.spotlight-online.de/newsletter

GLOSSARY:
📌 embrace sth.: etw. (begeistert) annehmen
📌 advocate for sth.: etw. verfechten, für etw. eintreten

© Illustration: Georg Lechner

04/02/2025

⚡ As the world heats up, there’s more moisture in the air, and this leads to more thunderstorms and more lightning strikes. Data from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that every degree of global warming produces 12 per cent more lightning activity. Extreme weather causes rising costs — in the EU between 1980 and 2023, the bill has been estimated at €738 billion. Lightning has negative effects on various sectors of the economy. Read more in the current issue of Business Spotlight.

VOCABULARY
📌 moisture: Feuchtigkeit
📌 lightning strike: Blitz(ein)schlag
📌 suggest sth.: etw. nahelegen
📌 cause sth.: etw. verursachen
📌 billion: Milliarde(n)



Image: © iStock.com

03/02/2025

February: the time of year when half of the company is off sick, and the rest are planning summer holidays. Practise talking about absences from work in our exercises.

Im Folgenden üben Sie nützliche Redewendungen zum Thema Abwesenheit von der Arbeit.

31/01/2025

Here’s a useful expression to learn!

Graphic: © TypeFairy’s Images via canva.com

30/01/2025

Do you want to improve the way you write emails? 📨 Here are some tips! Read more in this week's ZEIT für Englisch newsletter, a weekly newsletter by ZEIT Sprachen (Spotlight and Business Spotlight) with over 100,000 subscribers. Sign up at business-spotlight.de/newsletter today — the newsletter will land in your inbox tomorrow afternoon! 🙌

Graphics: © Georg Lechner; curvabezier, Cindy Mentari, juliars, agusraharj via canva.com

29/01/2025

Did you know that the pronouns “they”/“them” are not gendered. In standard English, they are plural. But today, some people wish to be referred to as “they”/”them”, to avoid designation of gender identity.

VOCABULARY
📌 refer to sb.: hier: von jmdm. sprechen; jmdn. Bezeichnen
📌 designation: Angabe, Benennung

Image: © Juan Moyano via canva.com

28/01/2025

Mauritania’s economy depends on the export of minerals, and the country has just one railway line. The train carries iron ore from the mining town of Zouérat to the port city of Nouadhibou, about 700 kilometres away. With hundreds of wagons and more than two kilometres in length, it is one of the longest trains in the world.

The train is also important to the local population. In a place with few roads, it is a lifeline between the inland settlements, such as Choum, and the larger coastal towns. Other goods and people regularly travel on the train. Their 14-hour journey, riding on top of the open wagons, is bitterly cold, filthy and exhausting — but free.

VOCABULARY
📌 iron ore: Eisenerz
📌 mining town: Bergarbeiterstadt
📌 lifeline: Lebensader; hier: wichtiger Verkehrsweg
📌 filthy: schmutzig
📌 exhausting: anstrengend

Image: © picture alliance/Westend61

27/01/2025

Want to get people to read your emails? We have some top tips!

Zu lang, zu kompliziert und mit verwirrendem Betreff: Jeder kennt E-Mails, die für Missverständnisse sorgen und Zeit fressen. Zehn Tipps für mehr Klarheit im Postfach.