How do native speakers tell I’m foreign based on my English alone?
I’m a 19-year-old student from Malaysia. I’ve been introduced to the language at a very young age and I’m capable of conducting any type of conversation. However, some of my English-speaking friends on the internet didn’t take too long to figure I’m not a native speaker. Why is that?
Why are the British confused about us calling bread rolls “biscuits” when they call bread rolls “puddings”?
(Why I darest say, they darest not get offended when they so indeed have examples that violate their own use and nomenclature!) IE: pudding as a specific dessert, puddings as a general term for desserts. Calling something a Yorkshire pudding that is not a pudding and not a dessert.
Is this statement, “i see him last night” can be understood as “I saw him last night”?
In my local language (Bahasa Indonesia) there are no verb-2 or past tense form as time tracker. So, I often forget to use the past form of verb when speaking english. I saw him last night (correct) I see him last night (incorrect) But i think both has the same meaning and are understandable, Isn’t […]
Google Analytics reads like a seismic chart lately
Anyone else seeing dramatic ranking shakeups lately? Thankfully, this client is the blue line, but that’s a serious drop and recovery. We don’t operate at all in the black hat world, so our links and content should be in good shape. Anyone else seeing this kind of traffic dance lately?
What are your thoughts on Google Analytics vs other analytics platforms?
Recently heard about Heap which seems pretty cool, but I’m not sure if it would really be valuable, or simply another tool that I need to check. We are not at the point of using HubSpot/Marketo yet so Heap’s free plan could be a useful stopgap tool. Do you use Heap? If so, what do […]
What is a nice way to end an interview that is clearly going badly?
As an interviewer, I occasionally conduct interviews that become painful as time goes on because the candidate is doing so poorly. I have the impression that, in these cases, the candidate internally knows they are not getting the job, and would just like to end things as soon as possible (as would I). In the […]
Does Google force employees who have offers from Facebook to leave immediately?
If a Google employee reveals that he or she intends to leave because they have *accepted*–not received–an offer from a talent competitor like Facebook, in some cases they will be “walked off” so that they will no longer have access to Google’s proprietary information. More important than having that employee leave the physical building is […]
Is there an English equivalent to the French expression: “il faut d’abord apprendre à marcher avant de courir”?
I know this means “one must learn to walk before running”, but is there a less literal translation that is perhaps more appealing to an English-speaking audience?
I keep getting tasks that are above my skill level. How can I address this without coming accross as grossly incompetent?
I’m 6 months into a new job that uses a technology I’ve had no experience in (but am trying really hard to learn). Often I get tasks that I have real difficulty with. I flag this: I say that I’ve never done that before and I’ll have difficulty. I get some help, but the task […]
Dealing with an employee that went over my head
I manage a small team and recently hired for a new position. In the job posting it clearly stated that the work hours are from 8:00-4:30. No concerns about these hours were mentioned during the interview process at all. Recently after accepting the job offer, the new hire expressed an issue with the hours of […]