Methods & strategies: Using the English version of Google & changing your language settings English is everywhere When it comes to consumer electronics and technology, English is everywhere. It is easy and useful to change the language settings of some of your devices and apps to English – temporarily or permanently. This will make the language a bigger part of your everyday life, and it will feel more natural to speak it. At the moment, there is no more powerful search engine than Google. It can help you boost your language skills enormously if you use it well. However, you may have to change your habits a bit. ■■ On your computer, it’s relatively easy. Normally, you use a browser – such as Firefox, Chrome, or Edge – to search for information on the internet. The question is, how exactly do you do that? Do you type your search term directly into the address bar of your browser? That’s not always the best way to do it. ■■ We recommend the following method: 1 Enter the following URL (internet address) into your browser and press Enter: www.google.com/webhp?hl=en This will take you to the English Google Search home page. 2 Always search content from there. (Of course, you should turn off AutoTranslate to see the original English results by default.) You will get much better results this way. ■■ You can and should use this method on your phone, too. It’s not much harder to use the browser on your phone (usually Safari or Chrome) to google something than it is to use the search bar (app, widget) directly. Scan this page with the QuickMedia app for a direct link to the Google search home page in English. Of course, you can also change the language settings (“Einstellungen”) of your phone to English very easily, which is another great way to get some extra exposure to the language! Along the same line, it makes a lot of sense to change the language to English (if you haven’t set it to English by default!) whenever you watch a series or movie on a streaming platform, at least if it was made in an English-speaking country. Methods & strategies: Adding emphasis Emphasising important points Few things are more boring than listening to a speaker who rambles on1 and on without making it clear what the essential aspects are in their speech or presentation. Do not make that mistake. Rather, signal to your audience that something particularly relevant is coming up whenever you are approaching a key element of your talk. There is more than one way of doing this. For example, you can simply pause briefly (1 4.13) or go with the “Believe it or not” approach (1 3.2). However, it is also highly recommendable to use the phrases below in these situations. This will help your listeners take in your central message. Phrases to emphasise an important point ■■ … and there are two elements here that I would consider particularly relevant … ■■ Let me emphasise one thing: The … ■■ So far, so good. Now allow me to shed light on one specific aspect of this issue that is sometimes overlooked … ■■ It is often assumed that this is all quite straightforward. Actually, however, there are some pretty unusual things to be observed, if you look closely … ■■ What certainly warrants special attention is the fact that … ■■ OK – this is all well and good, but did you notice that … ■■ Now, I am convinced that one aspect here deserves to be investigated in greater detail. ■■ You may ask yourself now: Why is this significant? Well – let me tell you why. For one thing, there is no other sector of the economy that … How-to 5.6 How-to [A] [B] [J] 5.7 1 to ramble on: schwafeln Phrases & structures [A] [B] [J] 5.8 50 Key aspects Strategies Sample task 5 Marketing & advertising Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentu des Verlags öbv
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