As our site grows every day we want to share some information with you on the way we are operating the project. We call this section «Business Blog» as it is similar to doing a log book where data is recorded in a chronological order. «Blogging» is gaining popularity with more and more people picking up the habit of publishing their experiences and thoughts on the Internet. Our Blog covers various topics — from TOEFL, TOEIC, MBA, GMAT, ESL/EFL test preperation to cultural traditions and current political events.
There will also be some Internet marketing terminology and if you have any questions regarding the information simply let us know.

The Business Blog is written by Torsten Daerr and edited by Alan Townend.

2004 — October 20
Reading interviews is a good way to improve your English because they consist of questions and answers. That's the whole point of learning a language because you want to communicate with other people and communication means asking questions and giving answers. Now, you can read another short interview with Jack Pillemer who has been working as an English teacher for his entire life. He was born in South Africa and his mother tongue is English. Jack has created a wealth of useful material for his students and you can access all his resources for free on his website. I wanted to know why he is sharing his experiences and expertise with people from all around the world and I like his answer to this question very much. To read the first part of the interview with Jack please click here: Interview with Jack Pillemer

2004 — October 19
As of now you can read some information on how to prepare for the TOEFL test How to Score High Marks on the TOEFL? here. It's the first of a series of articles that cover various aspects of learning English and the importance of English language exams such as the TOEFL of the TOEIC. The idea is to make people learn rather than trying to teach them. Based on my own experiences I know that every person is capable of acquiring a second or third language in addition to their mother tongue. There are a lot of parallels between learning English and doing a sport — you have to practise on a regular basis and you have to change your habits. Try thinking in different ways, start listening to authentic English audio resources and you will some results. Anybody can do it. But the truth is that only a small percentage of those people who pretend to be willing to learn English actually take these basic steps. The vast majority spend a lot of time looking for excuses such as «I haven't the time» or «I have no talent for languages» or «I don't understand all those complicated grammar rules» etc. What you should do is find a person whose English is at least a bit better than yours and ask them how they achieved their success. Then try to emulate them and share the outcome with us here on our Forum

2004 — October 13
One of our current clients is a company that leads the field in the German Mystery Shopping industry. For many of you the term «mystery shopping» is probably new because in Europe this type of service is still in its infancy. That's why we want to develop an individual English language coaching program. The idea is to share learning techniques rather than trying to teach. Most of the team members have a very sound basis and they are very capable of absorbing new information and expressing their ideas in English. Here is what we are going to do with them: First, everyone on the team will get a copy Napoleon Hill's audio program «The Science of Personal Achievement». This course will be the hub of our activities as it concentrates on developing personal strenghts that are absolutely essential when you want to succeed. The program serves two purposes: It contains highly valuable information on how to set and achieve goals and listening to it increases our participants' level of comprehension as well as their vocabulary. So, every team member can listen to the audio materials individually whenever they want and then they have to write down a certain amount of keywords contained in the recordings and submit them to the forum where we will discuss the materials. This way we can combine both — individual training and exchange of experiences. A substantial amount of the communication will take place on the forum so that the coaching program can be intergrated into the company's daily operations.

2004 — October 12
Slava has been investing a lot of thought and energy into english-test.net and as a result it has become even easier for you to use our system. Often people have asked us why there are no explanations to the tests written by Alan. We think that if you want to get more information on a particular sentence or phrase you can tell us on the forum. Slava has introduced a new feature that enables you to request an explanation on any of the test questions simply by clicking on the «ask an english teacher» link which appears on the right hand upper corner next to each single question. Within first 24 hours after implementing the new system we have received a dozen new posts one of which came from a person with the nickname Tomas. He was referring to the expression «to tell a white lie» asking why there is the phrase «a black lie» doesn't exist. Well, that's a good question, isn't it? If you like you can read more about white lies here: Telling white lies?