Blog

Father Christmas would also like a smartphone.

22.12.2011

Long gone are the days when Father Christmas would travel through the snow covered woods with the help of the stars, look up postal codes in the yellow pages, or use his eagle owl to help with the wish lists sent to him. It’s a lot easier, and lighter nowadays, provided you’ve got a smartphone.
However, here‘s where Father Christmas has to ask himself: an iPhone or an Android Smartphone? And which app serves which purpose? Choosing alone isn’t an easy task. Anyway, he can ask around in the fairytale forest or ask the wise owl or Mother Fulda, because she sees everything when the bed has been shaken. However, they both decline – he has to deal with this on his own. Indeed, it’s a question of faith and everyone has their own preference. At the end of the day what is important though, is which app(s) you’ve uploaded onto your phone, and there’s always a few more you can get on iTunes at the App Store. Most of them can also be found on Android Market. They’re not as elaborately packed, just as good nonetheless.
So what exactly does Father Christmas need?
To start off with, definitely a GPS with the right navigation app. He also needn’t worry anymore about having to find his way back through the snow covered wood as, thanks to the “Bring Me Back” app, he can get back home in no time. Beforehand, he will travel around using different city guides, checking out the highlights of the city and recover in a cosy bar which would lure him in by app with a special deal for Christmas punch. And, for the perfect send off for the presents, he’s already got the correct post code from the relevant app before they’ve even been wrapped.
Our Father Christmas must also be in tip-top shape. With countless fitness apps and altimeters available he can already start working out so he can carry that huge sack of his.

During his break – a break that Father Christmas is well entitled to – he’s also got a few game apps on his smartphone to keep him busy. And, just so he knows that his snack doesn’t contain too many calories, he can test it by using the relevant app. Mother Fulda has recommended a few weather apps and the owl has given him some travel tips. Spain, Italy, France, Poland, China, Japan, wherever. What truly matters for the journey is that it is equipped with the new travel dictionary from iSayHello. Here, Father Christmas can find all sorts of phrases that he’ll need for when he’s away. Not only at customs will he breeze through, but also at the restaurant and the hotel he’ll have everything in the palm of his hand. He doesn’t even need to pronounce the sentences – the app can do that. Thanks to the iSayHello app he doesn’t need to bother his eagle owl anymore. Anything that isn’t covered in the lessons can be done quickly with the translator and sent by email, whenever he wants.
However, one problem still remains. What happens if Father Christmas loses his brand new Smartphone with all the amazing new apps in the snow? Will there be any presents at all under the tree this year? Tearful adults waiting for their iPhone or Android Smartphone? No, even this sinister scenario can be spared from us all. All we have to do is locate it and we’ll bring it back to Father Christmas.
We can only just hope that it won’t end up stolen; otherwise it’ll all be over.

We wish you all a very h-APP-y Christmas!

Should I use “Du” or “Sie”?

31.05.2011

Should I use “Du” or “Sie”..? Germans sometimes make or do things slightly more complicated than people from other countries. This is probably no problem at all for the average backpacker who just wants to go out for a few beers with that nice Australian guy from the hostel, but especially for business people on an appointment in Germany this can cause problems. Suddenly questions like “Who introduces whom?”, “Who shakes whose hand?”, or all the little unwritten rules and culture in German organizations DO matter.

The iSayHello phrasebooks may help you out for a while – but although they can help you a lot with language, they just provide a little help when it comes to the right situation. Here “More than Manners“, the Business Professional’s guide to success in Germany comes into the game. “More than Manners” is a learning software, which is based on the successful book by Gretchen Schaupp & Joachim Graff (two classic German names by the way ) with the same title. This will hopefully solve the “Du” or “Sie” question, next time you’re in the land of the “masters of planning“.