May the New Year be your best friend! With the begin of 2016 the trouble may end! May you always get off on the right foot! May all prospects be a ‘CAN’ and not ‘COULD’! May your sparkling health serve you good! And may your soul always find the right food! Take care, Helena Smole, author of: – a fantasy novel with romance Vivvy and Izzy the Dwarf: A series about relationships – Balancing the Beast, a book offering a bright view of schizoaffective disorder ˗ bipolar or manic-depressive type ...

A dear friend of mine got a project at work, where he is required to speak German. He was learning German in primary school for 8 years and in high school for 4 years. But he has not spoken or read German for almost 20 years now. He was afraid that he could not speak it anymore at all. We tried together. The first sentence he built wrong at least ten times. I told him the right version later. He had to make about 5 attempts at repeating it, before he did it right. Nevertheless, we were not discouraged. We went on, trying to make casual conversation in German. We also tried to translate some sentences...