FunTASTIC | Languages, communication and travel at their best

Best books to improve your English skills

30-January-2017 · by Verbalist

Get cozy this winter with some tea or coffee and a good book to help you improve your English skills. While it may seem intimidating to read an entire book in English, it is great for mastering fluency. You can even keep a notebook full of words you may not understand to help you with your vocabulary! Here are the top picks from the readers of Goodreads, a site which allows book fans to choose their top picks from each genre.

Best Fiction

Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty

A couple who share what seems to be a dream life with their two daughters have their lives turned upside down when they attend a neighbour’s barbecue. Two months later, they regret what happened that day and can’t stop wondering what would’ve happened if they had never gone.
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Which British accent will open the door to freedom

29-December-2016 · by Verbalist

Watch what happens when two Scottish men get trapped in a voice control elevator and cannot control it because of their Scottish accent. A great, hilarious sketch!

Can voice recognition technology replace good old buttons? Would our Scottish men have the same problem with automated, multiple choice phone systems? 🙂

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Brands illusion

29-September-2016 · by Verbalist

This brilliant infographic by Oxfam shows how only 10 companies own all the world’s food brands:

Out of the hundreds of products at our disposal, only ten major corporations manufacture the bulk of what we toss in our shopping carts. Massive corporations squash entrepreneurial diversity and make it nearly impossible for startups and small businesses to compete. According to Oxfam’s report, “The world’s largest food and beverage companies have a lot of power – but you have more. And because they’re not using theirs enough to help poor communities or the planet, you can use yours to change the way they do business.”

Image via Oxfam

The real realist searching for meaning, Viktor Frankl

03-September-2016 · by Verbalist

In this video, legendary psychiatrist and Holocaust-survivor Viktor Frankl delivers a powerful message about the human search for meaning — and the most important gift we can give others. Viktor talks about the importance of being an idealist, or what he called the real realist. As he shared, “If we take a man as he is, we make him worse, but if we take a man as he should be, we make him capable of becoming what he can be.”

Frankl’s theory-known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos (“meaning”), holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.

The clip we prepared for you today is from a speech he gave in 1972. The video starts with him just beginning to share the results of a survey related to United States teenagers.

About Viktor Frankl
Viktor Frankl was a world-renowned psychiatrist and professor who spent three years in a Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, during World War II. During this time he lost his entire immediate family — mother, father, brother, and pregnant wife – with the exception of one sister. Among the thirty-nine books he authored was a book Man’s Search for Meaning. In this book he detailed his experience in the concentration camps, and shared his philosophy around the importance of meaning and hope. At the time of Frankl’s death in 1997, Man’s Search for Meaning had sold more than 10 million copies in twenty four languages.

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Think Oxford is just dreaming spires and tradition? Think again! (VIDEO)

20-May-2016 · by Verbalist

Amsterdam, the European capital of innovation

Amsterdam is 2016 iCapital

Oxford was among the 9 finalists in the The European Commission competition, launched to find the next European Capital of Innovation for 2016. The “city of spires” was shortlisted for its vision to openly share the wealth of knowledge within its world-class innovation ecosystem.

On 8 April 2016, the European Commission awarded the title of European Capital of Innovation (“iCapital”) 2016 to Amsterdam for its holistic vision of innovation related to four areas of urban life: governance, economics, social inclusion, and quality of life.

Amsterdam was chosen by a panel of independent experts in a close competition with eight more finalists. Amsterdam’s € 950 000 first prize will be used to scale up and expand the city’s efforts on innovation. Turin and Paris were selected as runners-up, winning second and third prizes of €100,000 and €50,000 respectively.

Think Oxford’s just dreaming spires and tradition? Think again!

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Andrea Bocelli left the Foxes fans teary with a rendition of football favourite Nessun Dorma

17-May-2016 · by PRODIREKT

Andrea Bocelli sang Nessun Dorma to Claudio Ranieri and the Leicester fans before their game with Everton.

Rare Shakespeare First Folio, one of the most sought-after books in the world that was recently discovered, authenticated as genuine

02-May-2016 · by Verbalist

Shakespeare First Folio was discovered on Scottish island

A copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio, one of the most sought-after books in the world, was last month discovered in a stately home on a Scottish island. On April 7, Emma Smith, professor of Shakespeare Studies at Oxford University, travelled to Mount Stuart on the Isle of Butea and authenticated the First Folio as genuine. The discovery comes on the 400th anniversary of the playwright’s death.