The Asks of Bjorn

Recently, a new colleague tripped over a word in the text she was editing. “Upskill?” she asked aloud skeptically. “Let it go,” I hollered from my corner. “It’s okay, it’s a word.”

I remembered the first time I heard the word. From the managing director of an SAP office. A native speaker of English. Someone who knows what he is talking about. He said that one of his goals was to upskill his staff. “Aha,” I responded knowingly. To train them, to improve their skills.

But this week I had an upskilled moment of my own. I received an e-mail from an American colleague in which she used the word “asks” as a noun: “Thanks to everyone for getting back to me on the asks of Bjorn for our upcoming event.” (All names have been changed to protect the innocent).

Only now, after several days, have I discovered that the writer didn’t even mean “needs” as I initially suspected. She means our requests of Bjorn’s time. Our “asks” of him. A friend of mine argues that American English is exciting because it is always alive and changing, is the open source of language – open to influences from music, politics, and now from new media. Of course, he is right. Although purists would reject such words out of hand, corporate-speak, as ugly as it can be, is always evolving and often exciting.

 

TV or Not TV – Is That the Question?

It is Sunday night and several million viewers in Germany are watching their iconic detective series, Tatort. I wish I were watching Tatort too. I love Tatort. I love its cheesy 70s theme music and the Sunday night ritual it could be. I even learned German by watching Tatorts. (Back in the late 1980s when we lived in Beijing, our friends Michael and Andrea received videotapes of the weekly Tatort via diplomatic pouch from family in Germany and the four of us would stretch on their giantic bed in the Friendship Hotel compound for our own private viewing).

But if I went downstairs right now and looked around the living room, I would not find a TV. If I searched in my husband’s study I would not locate a set. I would have no luck looking for a TV in our bedroom, or our childrens’ bedrooms, or in our kitchen. We belong to that unusual breed of people who have no TV.

It wasn’t always this way. Whenever we lived in rented flats, we had a TV. And I watched a lot. In fact, I get addicted. When we first came to Germany, I even watched the “Vorabendserien” – the harmless, early evening shows about doctors and teachers, arguing that it was a good way to learn German. Whenever we go on vacation, we gorge on TV in our hotel rooms. Forget the bar or the dancing when I am traveling on business – I watch CNN or HBO or BBC. I am probably one of the few people on the planet who saw only one or two episodes of Sex and the City – once in a hotel in Hanoi, and once in a hotel in Barcelona. But did I need more? No. The magazines and newspapers with their celebrity adoration and analysis and how to get Carrie’s look told me all I need to know. (And I consume a lot of magazines and newspapers).

We have just never been able to bring ourselves to hike down to Media Markt and pick out a wide screen, flat panel, high definition Sony. And yet there is nothing more I would love than a home cinema with a gigantic screen, and blu-ray disc player. My boys would cheer. My husband not.

The Blogfather

Time to express my thanks to two colleagues and one former colleague without whose interference this blog would never have been published.

First my thanks to former colleague Thomas Otter, who spent the better part of a morning with me in his last days at SAP talking posts, clouds, flickr, igoogle etc. Thomas was supposed to give me the Blogging for Beginners lesson, but instead I got Advanced Blogging. He is an avid supporter and we miss him at SAP. Thomas blogs irreverently on Chucks and lapel width at Dedicated Followers of Fashion and more seriously on technology at Vendorprisy.

Mike Prosceno took time to chat with me from New York about blogging several weeks ago. Mike is a social media expert, and is responsible for the topic within the company’s Global Communication’s department. His blog, Accidentally on Purpose, is a place where experts meet and exchange opinions and ideas.

Finally, I owe acknowledgements to James Farrar, whose blog Wisdom of Clouds, is a collection of penetrating and thoughtful essays on transparency and sustainability. James gave me some good advice about blogging in the bar of the Rey Juan Carlos hotel during SAP’S Field Kick-Off Meeting in Barcelona in January and has been pestering me to publish since then.

Thanks to all three blogfathers for their support!

The Weekend of a Working Mother

The list of things I wanted to do this weekend was the same as the list of things I wanted to do last weekend but never got done.

• Clean up sewing corner and move to ?
• Mending
• Garden!
• Remove junk from laundry room to trash
• Make or hang curtains for two bedrooms

I didn’t get any of these things done. Instead I:

• Made macaroni and cheese
• Cooked a big Chinese meal
• Spent 349 euros at IKEA on bright, colorful sheets and rugs
• Spent Saturday afternoon in a cafe with my husband and son as the latter played Battleships on scraps of paper with his friend
• Rose at 7:00 AM on Sunday and ironed for an hour
• Went for a power walk with three girlfriends
• Watched a movie with my son
• Helped my other son learn French verbs
• Prepared a briefing for work
• Surfed the Internet
• Read but did not finish my novel