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We can help you improve your English

• "GlobalOffice"

  This course is specifically aimed at administrative staff who are often in contact with non-English speaking customers and partners and who want to expand their comfort zone when speaking and writing English.

  You'll practice everything you might find difficult in English - managing a difficult phone call, writing short and clear emails and small talk with foreign guests. You will also build your vocabulary in your field of work and incorporate some good strategies for how to continue working on your English after the course is over.

  The course runs over 4 half days with a week between each session, so you have the opportunity to practice the techniques we work with from time to time.

  In my experience, one of the most important things for learning is to have the belief that you can. That's why I focus on creating a safe space with a maximum of 8 participants, where there is room to dare a little and to laugh together.

  Read more about our "GlobalOffice" course.

• "EnglishPlus"

  This course is aimed at those who work in an international environment and who sometimes experience misunderstandings when communicating in English.

  You learn to communicate accurately and with nuance in English. We work with linguistic and cultural issues that affect whether your message is understood by international colleagues, customers or business partners.

  During the course, we include topics relevant to the participants' work areas, and you will therefore build up a toolbox of relevant words and expressions that you can use at the end of the course.

  The course runs over 4 half days with a week between each session, so you have the opportunity to practice the techniques we work with from time to time.

  Read more about our "EnglishPlus" course.

• Tailor-made training in English

  Our translation agency can always plan a course that suits you (and your colleagues).

  Do you need some sparring in connection with, for example, giving a presentation in English at a conference or planning a course in English?

  Have you become chair of a working group where the common language is English and are unsure how best to fulfil that role - in English?

  Are you an international workplace where the common language is English and where misunderstandings often arise due to language challenges?

  Do you often write reports or emails in English and find you spend too much time doing so?

  Over the years, we have planned many different kinds of tailor-made courses. Please contact me if you would like help communicating clearly in English.

  Read more about our tailor-made English training.

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When we write an important text that's going to be seen by a wider audience or just a small but important target group, then we'll usually want a fresh pair of eyes to go over it and catch any grammar mistakes we've made or other irregularities. Because whether we're writing in our mother tongue or a second language, we will have made mistakes.

Most people use the word 'proofread' when asking someone to review their text. If you were to ask someone working here at GlobalDenmark, they'd ask for clarification; do you need a proofreading or an editing?

Aren't they the same thing? Not at all.

What is proofreading?

Simply put, when we proofread a text, we correct grammar, punctuation and spelling errors. We also make sure that your tables are labelled and numbered correctly, and we check concordance between headings and the index.

In other words, it's the process of finding and correcting mistakes in a text before it's printed or put online.

Editing a text takes things a bit further.

What is editing?

An editor of course looks at the "surface" level issues of a text (spelling, grammar, etc.), i.e. all the issues that are included in a proofreading. However, they will also take a deeper look at the content of a text, its structure and context.

An editor will typically

ensure readability and stylistic consistency - this can include splitting long sentences, deleting unnecessary words and rephrasing sentences, without changing their substance.

make sure paragraphs and sentences stay focused and have a logical flow

identify ambiguities or inconsistencies in the use of terms

A good editor will spot the common pitfalls that obstruct your argumentation and will suggest rewordings or restructurings that can improve the text's readability.

So, which should you choose?

Whether the text needs to be proofread or edited depends on a number of factors, for example: What kind of text is it? What will it be used for? Were several authors involved in writing it? How do you rate your own ability or the abilities of your co-authors to write and structure a text?

And finally, the choice between proofreading and editing will also depend on your budget and deadline since an editing will often take longer and thus be more expensive.

Regardless, it can be hard to assess how much work your text is going to need. If you send your text to an experienced proofreader/editor, they'll be able to quickly gauge it and recommend one of the two options.

In the end though, it's always up to you to decide the level of revision you want and can afford.

Click here for more information about GlobalDenmark's proofreading and editing services.

What is the difference between proofreading and editing?

How to give a good presentation to an international audience? Here you can get concrete advice for better presentations. You can also sign up for one of our presentation skills courses. Have you ever given a presentation where you were unsure whether the audience found the topic interesting? Whether they got the main points? Where the discussion didn't really get going when you finished your presentation? Where it fell flat when you tried to say something funny? Or where you felt limited because your presentation had to be in English? Then you're not alone! And luckily, there are some concrete things you can do to improve your presentation skills. Below, we've put together 7 tips for better presentations.

7 tips for better presentations 

1. Make personal contact with your audience before you start
2. Start by being yourself
3. Then be your professional self
4. Take yourself and your audience seriously and avoid irony and jokes
5. Start your presentation with your main message
6. End the presentation with your main message
7. Let the final slide open the dialogue 

1. Make personal contact with your audience before you start

A presentation is a social event. It is an interaction between you and your audience. Therefore, it is important that you show interest in your audience by linking your topic to something they know from their own lives. Talk to your audience before you go on, during the breaks, or when the presentation is over. Ask who they are and what interests them. 

2. Start by being yourself 

Start your presentation by telling a short story or sharing a personal experience that is relevant to the topic you are going to talk about. This creates a relaxed and personal atmosphere, while maintaining your authority and having a professional conversation with your audience.

3. Then be your professional self

After you have made a personal connection with your audience at the beginning of your presentation, you can turn up the formality: Raise your voice and use body language and gestures in a way that exudes professionalism and engagement. This will make your audience listen to you.

4. Take yourself and your audience seriously and avoid irony and jokes

As Danes, we often tend to be very informal, even in professional contexts. But you have to be careful with that. Jokes and irony can work well in a Danish context, but when you are facing an international and multicultural audience, the informal style can do more harm than good. So if in doubt, the best advice is to keep the formal tone when giving a presentation.

5. Start your presentation with your main message

Start by presenting your main message or points. What specifically do you want to tell your audience? Be focused and professional and formulate clearly and precisely.

6. End the presentation with your main message

Round off your presentation by repeating your main message and relating it to what you have presented. Again, be focused and professional, and articulate clearly and concisely.

7. Let the final slide open up a dialogue 

Make sure your closing slide inspires a conversation with the audience. Instead of writing 'Thank you for today' or 'Questions', use the final slide to summarise and underline your main points and let them be the starting point for questions and discussion. 

Do you want to strengthen your presentation skills in English with the help of a course? Then read more about our presentation skills in English course here.

Perhaps you already have experience with using professional translators? Maybe it's the first time you've had to have a text translated by an ageny? Either way, you may have considered whether to use a professional translation agency or contact a freelancer. And what the difference really is.

What are the benefits of using a freelancer?

One advantage of working with a freelance translator can be that the cost of a translation can be lower because the freelancer is usually 'only' required to earn their own salary - unlike a translation agency, which has to cover a range of other overheads. However, the price of a translation depends on many different factors and can also vary greatly from one freelancer to another, so it's hard to say anything very specific about the cost of a translation - whether you use a freelancer or a translation agency.

Another advantage can be that you, as a client, build up a relationship with one particular translator who gets to know your company and your texts well - unlike some types of translation agencies that use many different freelancers and where, in principle, you risk having a new person assigned to the task every time you send a text for translation. 

What are the benefits of using a translation agency?

The advantage of working with a professional translation agency is that you, the client, can experience greater flexibility. This is because the translation agency has several employees or subcontractors who can take on a given task at a given time. This means that when you work with a translation agency, it is more likely that there will be the resources to complete your assignment by the deadline you want.

Another advantage is that a translation agency can call on different translators with different specialisations and skills. If you need a legal contract translated one week, a technical description of a product the next, and a text for your website the following week, the translation agency can assign different translators with different strengths and specialisations to different tasks.

However, it is often an advantage to have the same translator, or a few translators, always working on your texts. Clients should be aware that some translation agencies work with many different freelance translators, and that there is a risk that a new translator will be appointed each time something needs translating. 

At GlobalDenmark Translations we have a permanent staff of in-house translators with different specialisations, and as a client you will always have contact with the same translator who has special knowledge of your field and the types of text you need translated. 

We specialise in Danish to English and English to Danish translation, but we work with other translation agencies and freelance translators, so if our clients need translation into or from other languages, we can help with that too.

How much does a translation cost at a professional translation agency?

The price of a translation from a professional translation agency varies greatly and can depend on, for example, how quickly you need the translation, how extensive the task is, etc, 

The translation market is a 'mixed' one, and a good rule of thumb is to be wary of very cheap translations. You may receive a translation that has not been proofread and quality checked, the translator may not have the relevant training, and you may not have the opportunity to speak directly to the translator about any questions or requests for adjustments to the translation.

Read more here about how we work with translation at GlobalDenmark, a well-established professional translation agency in Copenhagen, and click here if you would like a quote for a translation.

The four roles of the translator and how to work well with your translator

The invisible translator...

It has always been a mantra in translation - both in practice and as an academic discipline - that a successful translation is one that does not sound translated. The reader of the translated text must not be struck by awkward phrasing and word choice or otherwise sense the original language behind the words in the translated text. You may be familiar with the irritation - or pleasure - of guessing what has been said in English when reading an English text.

The paradox of the translator's role is that the better you do your job, the less you get noticed. In a way, you could say that a translator's most important task is to be invisible.

It may sound like a thankless task, but there is great satisfaction and professional pride in (re)creating a text that seems as valid and credible to the target language reader as the original text does to the source language reader. This is true of fiction, where the translator's task is, somewhat simplistically, to give the reader of a translated novel or short story the same experience as the original language reader.

And this is true of specialist texts, where the translator's task is to hit on the specialist terminology and jargon that seems natural and recognisable in the target language within a specialist community. If the translator fails to do this, the technical text loses its credibility and therefore its value.

Most professional translators specialise in translating technical language, and their main focus is to create texts that are written in natural language, using the correct technical terminology - in other words, texts that don't "stand out". In this way, the professional translator takes pride in being "invisible".

... and the visible contribution

However, when it comes to the translation process, a skilled translator with a good overview can take on a much more visible and constructive role than "just" delivering a linguistically correct text with the right terminology. 

1) the translator as a sparring partner

A successful translation requires that the translator understands the text he or she is working with - if not down to the last detail, then at least enough to be able to see through errors and ambiguities, or lack of coherence. The skilled translator will draw the client's attention to such ambiguities in the original text, and in this way the translation process will lead to a better original text.

2) the translator as co-producer

A translator who has built up a special competence in a particular subject area becomes a kind of 'semi-expert' in the field, and this can benefit the client in many contexts. For example, the translator can help proofread texts that the client has written himself, for example in English. In addition to making linguistic corrections, the translator can provide input on rewrites and improvements to make the message clearer.

3) the translator as cultural mediator

The translator has an in-depth knowledge of the culture in which the translation will be used, and in some cases it may be necessary to make extensive adaptations to a text in order to reach the target audience in a particular culture.

4) the translator as terminological expert

An important element of technical language translation is finding the correct technical terminology, and translators spend a lot of time searching for terminology. The terminology is stored in a database and this database can be made available to the client as a kind of dictionary. In this way, the translator helps to ensure consistency of language and terminology for the client, in both the source and target languages (e.g. Danish and English).

Read more about the benefits of a translation agency.

Danes are good at English. A few years ago, we were world champions according to the EF English Proficiency Index, which ranks the English proficiency of 100 countries every year, and right now we are in third place behind the Netherlands and Austria.

We can be proud of this ranking, and we Danes are right to pride ourselves on our English language skills. But we can also shoot at each other if we think the others are not so sharp. 'That sounds a bit Danglish' we say when someone uses an expression that seems to be directly translated from Danish.

It shows that many have an impressively good sense of good, natural English - and that they are sensitive to what might be called 'Danish contagion'. But perhaps we are sometimes almost over-sensitive, and judge phrases and expressions out of hand, even though they are actually, well, perfectly alright.

At GlobalDenmark, we help our clients make English flow - either by editing texts that the client has written in English, or by translating Danish texts from scratch. Sometimes we find that a client asks: 'Can you really say that in English? It's directly translated from Danish'. And when we explain that yes, you do use exactly the same expression or metaphor in English, it can come as a surprise. A few examples:

We're confident that the new project will act as a springboard for more contracts. Yes, 'springboard' can be translated with 'springboard'. Check any English dictionary online and you'll find that the explanation is the same as in English - something that helps to set an activity in motion (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

With her outstanding research background, she was a great sparring partner in developing my ideas. Sparring partner can be used in English as well as in Danish either as a box term or in a figurative sense to refer to a person with whom one has serious but friendly discussions, explains the Cambridge Dictionary.

Work on the project is in full swing. Perhaps a hair-raising phrase for some Danes, but it is as correct in English as it is in Danish, and the meaning is the same, namely that something is at a high level of activity (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).

The three examples are what can be called 'idiomatic' expressions, i.e. phrases that use an image to express a certain meaning. And the list of such coinciding expressions in English and Danish is longer than you might think. That's because we've borrowed and exchanged expressions with each other for hundreds of years - and still do. But it's probably also because the linguistic images stem from something cultural, and Danish and English cultures are no further apart than many of the images are the same.

For example, both languages use the term 'hot potato', but this is probably not the case in Chinese, where potatoes are a rarer item on the menu. 'Springboard' and 'sparring partner' in the examples above use images from the world of sport, and here it is assumed that there is a common cultural starting point, with gymnastics and boxing being well-known sports disciplines.

To sum up: sometimes you shouldn't make things more difficult for yourself than necessary when translating, but simply use the term that comes to mind. The problem, of course, is that this is far from always a sure-fire strategy. If it were, translation would be no art at all. The challenge with fixed expressions and metaphors is that they often differ from language to language. And if you translate an expression directly from Danish into English that doesn't exist, you can get it horribly wrong. Just think of Bertel Haarder, who told his ministerial colleagues in the EU that "Normally I say, early to bed and up with the cock". Or former culture minister Jytte Hilden, who put "The prick over the i". Not to mention former national coach Ricard Møller Nielsen, who delivered several legendary quotes, for example when he explained to the press that you had to "screw down the expectations" and that he had changed tactics so that now you would "play with long balls!"

Do you feel confident in your role when negotiating abroad? Or do you sometimes have doubts about how to behave in an unfamiliar culture? Which rules apply in the negotiating room and especially outside? And whether your English skills are up to scratch?

Here are five things to consider when negotiating abroad

1) Start by negotiating with yourself.

Every good negotiation starts with negotiating with yourself - what can you achieve from the negotiation, where are your uncertainties and what could the outcome of the negotiation mean for your own career. Once you have these things in place, you'll be better able to make quick decisions when the negotiation itself gets underway - and you'll have a good starting point for the next phase, the negotiation with your team.

2) Control your backing.

Create a strategy with your team and define your goals. Decide how far you can go in the negotiation so that you all agree on what your mandate is. Well-defined objectives and agreements make you more confident in the negotiation situation and prevent subsequent disagreements within the team.

3) Create a relationship with your counterpart.

Be aware that the negotiation with your counterpart is already in full swing long before you sit down at the negotiating table. The informal chats in the taxi or over morning coffee help to build trust and goodwill. Show that you are interested in the other party, for example by learning some polite phrases in their language or checking up on the latest news in the country they come from.

4) Understand your counterpart's culture.

Understand the cultural background of the other person. As Danes, we tend to think we can get away with our humour and informal style, but it's very easy to fall short. A humorous remark that falls flat, or a lack of respect for the other person's status and internal hierarchy, can be embarrassing at best and a showstopper at worst. If you are unsure about the other person's cultural rules, ask - this way you are also showing interest and respect for his or her culture and conventions.

5) Speak English you can understand - and forget your linguistic vanity.

English is usually 'the language of negotiations', but it is rarely the mother tongue of (both) negotiating parties. This can easily lead to misunderstandings. So make sure you mean the same thing when you use the same words. And think less about how elegant it sounds when you speak English and more about whether the other party understands what you are saying. As we say to our students: 'You're not attending a language beauty contest!' At GlobalDenmark we have many years of experience in training people to participate in international negotiations. Do you want to be a sharper international negotiator? And maybe also become wiser about what not to do? Then click in and read more about our courses in negotiation skills, and how they've helped others succeed at the negotiating table.

Even a seasoned speaker can get nervous - and that's okay

Peter goes on stage to talk about his experiences in the Chinese market. His audience is business people, mainly middle-aged men and women, all exuding control and confidence. Peter feels the audience's eyes following him on his way up to the podium, a hike of about 8 metres. Without being very nervous, Peter can feel his pulse rising a little - he's given many talks before, but can still enjoy the little rush of standing in front of an audience. In fact, he knows from experience that a little nervousness is good for him, because it makes him a little sharper. And he'll need that today, because this is a demanding audience: they want to be stimulated, inspired and informed.

Good contact with the audience strengthens self-confidence and interaction with the audience

Peter's gaze catches a member of the audience he was talking to before the doors to the auditorium opened. They nod briefly at each other. Peter takes a deep breath and feels his body straighten. The room falls silent. Peter smiles, another listener smiles back. Peter delivers his lecture. Instinctively he keeps an eye on his listeners. Is anyone bored? He sees one nod thoughtfully, another smile attentively - yes, it's going very well, Peter thinks.

Notice how much is going on between Peter and his listeners. Eye contact, nods, smiles, seriousness - all communication that has nothing to do with the content of the talk, but is crucial to what the audience gets out of it.

Leave the main points on the last slide

Peter ends his talk with his five main points, followed by five simple bullets on the PowerPoint - they stay on the wall as he finishes. After his brief, slightly insistent summary, he pauses for a moment to do some art, after which he says thank you. Peter receives raucous applause. And the slide with the five pointers is still on the wall when he thanks the applause and invites questions. The audience looks up at the slide and there are some good, interesting questions and comments. It was a good talk.

Connect with the audience even before the talk starts

Peter is aware that he is "on" already at the reception, where participants drink coffee before the lecture starts. Here he had a brief chat with several of the waiting listeners. When he caught their eye during the talk, they nodded back.

In this way, Peter had already made a good connection with some of the audience before the talk itself, and this helped to boost both his confidence and the interaction with the audience when he went on.

To sum up: a lecture can be excellent in terms of content, but if there is no attention to communication and contact between the speaker and the audience, good and important points can be lost. Peter benefited from the subtle communication that happens between the speaker and the audience. It helped to make the talk a good experience for the audience and himself.

Do you also want to strengthen your presentation skills? Read more about our presentation skills courses here.

GlobalDenmark had to convert its courses to online learning in record time when it shut down on 11 March. Now, about six months later, teachers are feeling at home in the new virtual environment. Here, three of them give their take on how to give students the same good experience and academic benefit online as when they meet in person.

"All good teaching is about being present. So for me the big question was: 'Can you be present in the virtual?' And the revelation was that you can!", says Claus Adam Jarløv, Director of GlobalDenmark, who has taught business leaders, researchers and politicians in communication and international negotiation for more than 30 years.

It requires a conscious effort to give students the same experience of presence when they can only see the teacher and each other on the screen. But if the course is planned to allow for social interaction, much can be done to compensate for the social loss that comes with physical distance. This is one of the most important lessons learned at GlobalDenmark, says Claus Adam Jarløv.

An equally important point is that the same professional value can be created for participants in an online course. But this requires the trainer to be very explicit in their instructions and to give even more of themselves - so that participants can feel the engagement right through the screen.

Social gathering on the programme

"We have strict rules about how we have fun. We sometimes say to the students, 'Let's have fun and talk about something that's not relevant,'" explains Claus Adam Jarløv.

That's why time is set aside during the day for breaks where the floor is open - just like a regular course where you chat over the coffee table or lunch buffet.

Mark Simpson, who teaches written academic communication and presentation techniques at GlobalDenmark, emphasises the importance of the social and human aspect, as does Claus Adam Jarløv:

"My job as a teacher is to create intimacy and community among the participants. And one of the most interesting things I've learned is how important it is to frame the process to create a social community. I always start by saying to the students: 'What we lack online is presence. So let's commit to being present with each other. And then I can see in people's faces that they have such an aha experience."

New physical setting - but the content is basically the same

Although the physical setting is different, the essence of the teaching is the same. That's a key point," says Mark Simpson:

"The most important thing for me when I teach is that every second of the participant's time with me is relevant. And basically, it's exactly the same questions you ask yourself online as offline: is it working for you? Is my message getting through? Are you learning anything?"

The three teachers agree that it is always the content that counts, and when teaching moves online, you have to try to adapt the physical environment as best you can to give participants the same academic benefit. And the experience so far is that it is actually possible to deliver the same content and create the same value for students in the virtual space as in the physical one.

More difficult to read participants' reactions

The online format makes it more difficult to sense how students are responding to the teaching. But if you take your time and are aware of it, you can feel people's reactions even if you're not physically in the same room - at least when you're dealing with a smaller group, says Mark Simpson.

Specifically, he always asks participants - technology permitting - to turn on video in Zoom so he can see their faces, and then he continuously monitors their facial expressions. Does anyone look like they have something on their mind? Anyone who looks away or seems absent? If so, he might engage them by asking a question or asking them to give their opinion - just like in a regular physical course.

If you're dealing with a large group, it's particularly difficult to read people, says Ann Britt Donovan, who teaches academic communication and English for administrative staff:

"When you are physically present in the same room, you can almost always see if someone wants to get in touch with you, because then you have a kind of panoramic view of the room. It's difficult when you're online with a large group of 20 or more students, because you can't keep an eye on everyone on the screen at once - and there's a lot of other stuff you have to keep track of as a teacher."

A good way to alleviate this problem is to always have at least two trainers, at least if you have a lot of students. Then one can keep an eye on the participants (both the pictures on the screen and the comments in the chat), answer their questions, help with any technical problems and give the floor to those who want to chime in, while the other teacher can concentrate on the teaching itself.

Opportunities for interaction in teaching

"Normally when I teach, I can suddenly find myself asking someone a question, even if they haven't marked it", says Claus Adam Jarløv.

But when you're on Zoom, be careful not to 'unintentionally' draw participants into the discussion without warning, he warns, because when people are sitting relaxed at home at the kitchen table, it can seem overwhelming to suddenly be 'singled out' - more so than if you're sitting in a classroom and out of your private sphere. So those who don't speak up themselves can be harder to bring into the discussion when teaching has moved online, he believes.

A good way to activate students is to ask them to take part in a poll on Zoom (GlobalDenmark's preferred platform), where they have to take a stand on a particular issue, says Ann Britt Donovan. It should preferably be something very concrete, which the participants can then discuss afterwards.

And group work works at least as well online as offline, the three trainers have found. In Zoom, which they have chosen to use at GlobalDenmark, it is quick and easy to set up virtual group rooms where participants can meet and discuss a topic or work together on an assignment or text.

New requirements for the teacher

The transition to online learning has been a challenge for both teachers and students. Both parties had to get used to the new technology very quickly and it has not been without teething problems.

"It was a completely new medium for me, so at the beginning I was always worried whether I was doing it right and had remembered everything. There are many more things to keep track of than when you are in a classroom and can have your full attention on the course participants," says Ann Britt Donovan.

At the same time, she feels the need to be even more present in order to capture and hold participants' attention in the virtual space:

"You have to be up close and personal. Literally be close to the camera. What often works well on people is a live face. And you have to give a lot of yourself so that the participants can feel that you are committed to the subject," she says.

Another thing to be aware of as a teacher is to be extremely clear in your instructions. All the things that are self-explanatory or easily clarified when you are physically together need to be said out loud or stated in writing when the course is online. Therefore, before the course, participants receive very detailed descriptions of the framework of the course, and during the course the trainers are careful to be explicit about everything that happens and is going to happen:

"It's no good just saying, 'Let's take a little break. You have to say, 'Let's take a 10-minute break and then we'll meet in this online room at 10.25'," says Claus Adam Jarløv. And then you must never be quiet, adds Mark Simpson:

"For example, if you have to switch between different slideshows or find a file on your computer, you have to say out loud that that's what's happening, otherwise the students might think the connection's gone or there's something wrong with the sound."  

On the other hand, you have to be able to handle the fact that it's completely quiet at the other end, and that can be a challenge, says Claus Adam Jarløv:

"It's a strange feeling to sit and give a webinar to a large group and talk with passion and interest about a topic without knowing if anyone is listening to a word you say. And if you do come up with something that's a little bit funny, you don't know if anyone's laughing. So in that way I can sometimes feel a bit awkward in the virtual."

Good things we can take with us

Despite the various bumps and unfamiliar situations, the trainers agree that online learning is here to stay at GlobalDenmark.

"Even before corona, we had been working on offering distance-based training, for example to researchers or business people abroad. With the shutdown in March, the plans suddenly got a boost and there is no doubt that we will continue with online courses, even in a world without corona restrictions," says Claus Adam Jarløv, pointing to three main reasons:

• There are no geographical restrictions
• You can give your students the same professional benefit and also restore the social value to a large extent
• The technology offers many flexible possibilities for e.g. group work and interaction with and between participants

So, to return to the question in the headline - 'Can you do as good a job of teaching online as you do face-to-face?', the answer is a long way, yes you can, according to the three trainers.

However, some subjects are more suitable for online teaching than others, and a general rule of thumb is that the more concrete the course content, the more suitable it is for virtual teaching.

The individual student's experience of an online course can depend on how you are put together as a person, says Claus Adam Jarløv. If you're a bit introverted, you might be fine following a course from home, but if you're very extroverted, you might miss the social physical interaction you normally experience on a course. Overall, however, the feedback from course participants has been overwhelmingly positive.

Despite the many positive experiences, online training will in future be a complement to - and not a substitute for - physical courses at GlobalDenmark, and the trainers look forward to meeting more students face-to-face again as the situation allows.

5 tips for your online teaching:

• Put socialising on the agenda.
  That way, you can recreate some of what's lost when you don't meet physically. For many, a good chat during the coffee break is an important part of being on a course, and you can actually maintain this if you plan it. At the same time, it is important for participants to have a break and rest their heads in between.
• Always have more than one teacher.
  This way, the main teacher can concentrate on the content itself and interact with the participants, while another teacher can keep an eye on the chat, help with any technical problems, etc.
• Ask participants to be on video (if technology allows).
  This way you can see people's facial expressions, sense if they seem absent, and possibly ask a question to engage people.
• Be explicit about everything that is going on.
  In this way you avoid uncertainty and confusion among the participants. Send out detailed instructions before the course and be clear during the course so that participants are never in doubt about what is going on and what is about to happen. Also ask participants to make themselves clear if there is anything they do not understand.
• Get close to the camera.
  That way, participants have a live face to look at, and when they can feel your engagement, it helps increase theirs.

How to make feedback a powerful learning tool, even during a corona epidemic

Feedback can be an invaluable tool, and at the same time a process that is rife with hypocrisy, gullibility and a dangerous presumption that we have a common understanding of our shared world. Feedback is either brutal ("here we say things straight") or vague, sugary sweet talk ("here we have a culture of praise") - which is why feedback as a constructive and systematic learning tool is all too rarely used. I have three tips for good feedback:

1. Create a formal feedback framework that both parties understand
2. Make feedback a common concern as a basis for discussion and reflection
3. Be aware that uninvited feedback can be an abuse

In January, MandagMorgen published an excellent article on feedback entitled "How to avoid your feedback turning into a feedbank", written by business psychologists Mathias Hovind and Susanne Clausager Dalgaard. 

The article focuses on three things managers should avoid when giving feedback. Very interesting and a nice distraction from the corona tumult. The article has inspired me to make a few observations about feedback.

As I said, feedback can be associated with forgetfulness and hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is largely due to the fact that we are social individuals who want to do "the right thing" to become an accepted member of the group we identify with. We will go to great lengths to maintain our membership in the group. We use a common language, laugh at the same jokes, listen to the same music, etc. We say things we don't mean and willingly compromise our own well-being. This is not necessarily for the good, either personally or professionally.

When the boss has to give feedback to an employee, or when a colleague gives feedback to another colleague, feelings can be hurt and uncertainty can arise about what the feedback was really about. It's a bit of a minefield if you're not aware of what's at stake.

Let's imagine that Peter, who gave a speech in the department yesterday, is approached this morning by Birgitte, who says, "Peter, if I could just give you some feedback on your speech yesterday". Peter, who was not very enthusiastic about yesterday's performance and is today suffering from a headache, lies and says "yes please", even though he would prefer to be free.

Birgitte mentions with a smile that "you were very nervous and missed some points, but otherwise it was OK". Peter feels a lot worse for the smiling feedback and when Birgitte is done, he says "thank you". But inside he's frustrated and maybe even a little vengeful. He hadn't felt very nervous at all. What does she think she's doing? All wrapped up in gratitude and smiles. Birgitte has a clear sense that Peter welcomed her feedback. He did say thank you, but behind Peter's facade there is turmoil and irritation.

Birgitte probably meant well, and assumed that Peter was as ready to receive feedback as she was to give it. Without knowing it, Birgitte was abusing Peter. How could Birgitte have avoided it? Even by asking if she could give Peter feedback, Birgitte is committing an abuse. Because Peter will always say yes, whether he means it or not. If he said no, his belonging in the group would be threatened.

Feedback is, as the authors of the Monday Morning article also conclude, a common concern. Giving and receiving feedback is equally valuable for both parties if there is a common goal. If we are to steer clear of hypocrisy, pretence and dangerous preconceptions, there needs to be a common understanding of how and when we give each other feedback, whether we are managers or colleagues.

Feedback is a psychological minefield, where tone, body language, humour, irony, etc. can have a decisive impact on whether the message is understood. Cultural differences make special demands on the way we communicate. We may have the same working language, but we are likely to have very different views on values and concepts such as hierarchies, criticism, slang, etc. The risk of being misunderstood is imminent if we simply assume that we understand each other. Feedback should be clear, friendly and without subtlety.

The clear communication of constructive feedback takes on particular importance in these corona times, when we can expect a large proportion of our meetings to be increasingly digital. This may be by e-mail, Zoom, Skype, etc. This certainly applies to feedback as well. When we meet digitally, we are partly deprived of the important social signals we send and receive when we meet physically. If feedback through digital media is to succeed, focusing on clear, friendly communication is essential. There must therefore be a procedure that all parties are familiar with and can identify with.

The assumption that we have the same understanding of our world and its concepts is pure poison for constructive feedback. The shared understanding of why, when and how we give feedback, in turn, paves the way for an invaluable learning tool. The prerequisite for Birgitte's feedback to work is that both Peter and Birgitte agree that there is an expectation to give and receive feedback. And it is Peter who must invite feedback from his colleague Birgitte.

If Birgitte were Peter's boss, there would be an expectation that she would give Peter feedback without him inviting it. In any case, this is a shared concern. Peter and Birgitte both need to know in advance when and how the feedback will be formulated. Indeed, the recipient of feedback will always be vulnerable, and therefore the giver of feedback would do well to avoid speculating on feelings and assumptions that could cloud the constructive message. In my view, feedback is a formal process - a procedure - that creates a basis for shared reflection and deliberation.

In GlobalDenmark we work with feedback across cultures. Our model - DIDS - creates a shared safe learning environment across national, professional and personal cultures. 2600 PhD students worldwide have been introduced to our feedback methodology over the past 10 years, and several have returned with the remark "It works!".

Read more about GlobalDenmark's course on cross-cultural feedback here.

Here is an article about DIDS as a tool in the global research team.

Thanks to Mathias Hovind and Susanne Clausager Dalgaard for a little corona distraction!

This article is for anyone who engages in negotiating in general, and international, cross-cultural negotiations in particular. In the article, I explore theoretical aspects of negotiating coupled with my practical experience in the field.

The subject is the negotiation framework, i.e. the multitude of negotiations that are necessary for successful negotiation results. I was inspired by Daniel Kahneman's two systems of thinking: instincts and emotions versus logic and reflection. I introduce the concept GlobalCompetence® as an approach to couple multiple competences that constitute the basis for successful international negotiating in a cross-cultural environment.

The tips and insights presented in the article are derived from my more than 30 years' experience as a cross-cultural negotiation consultant and trainer. I firmly believe that establishing the negotiation framework is a prerequisite for sustainable negotiation results.

Truly successful international negotiators succeed not in spite of cultural differences, but because of them. That is what this article is about.

The layers of the negotiation framework: five tips

1st layer: Yourself

The tip: Be honest to yourself, loyal to your own interests and to your team

2nd layer: Your base

The tip: Make sure that your team is aligned before you negotiate

3rd layer: The personal relationship with your counterpart

The tip: Establish trust and rapport before the core negotiation

4th layer: Cross-cultural differences

The tip: Understand key characteristics of your counterpart's culture

5th layer: Language pitfalls

The tip: Focus on concepts, not words - avoid assumptions

Read more about each tip below.

The negotiation framework

Successful international negotiating requires a multitude of insights and techniques. For negotiators to succeed, they can't merely focus on "getting that deal". International negotiating consists of numerous aspects. Awareness of the complexity of international negotiations is a prerequisite for sustainable negotiation results. In this article, we make a distinction between the framework of negotiation and the core negotiation. The core negotiation - the "what" - which involves technical insights, negotiation strategy, management, etc. will be addressed in a later blog.

Here we offer five tips that address the framework of negotiation, or the competences required for successful international negotiation: The "how". The negotiation framework is the foundation for the successful cross-cultural negotiator. The negotiation framework comprises a hierarchy of five layers, each dependent on the other, and each subject to negotiation.

Fast and slow thinking

Mastering the five layers of the negotiation framework enables international negotiators - or any negotiator for that matter - to act promptly and relevantly in the core negotiation. In his book Thinking, Fast and Slow economist/psychologist Daniel Kahneman discusses how we may respond instinctively when under pressure: thinking fast. Fast thinking is sometimes necessary as a survival mechanism. The mechanism is associated with a simple, narrow focus. "I want my business to survive the Corona crisis"; "I am not interested in the global crisis, because I've got something in my eye". In negotiation, fast thinking could be triggered by the negotiator's desperate need to win that contract. Fast thinking only works if it's coupled with slow thinking: analysis, reflection, dilemmas, etc.

The negotiation framework enables negotiators to think fast on the basis of slow thinking. "I want my business to survive the Corona crisis, but first we must make sure that the spread of the virus is contained"; "Much as I need that contract now, perhaps we should look further into what we discussed yesterday over that cup of coffee." Successful international negotiations get the best of both worlds because their framework is generated by slow thinking, which enables them to think fast and appropriately.

The negotiator's framework: five layers

The first layer of negotiation: You

Successful negotiators know that it all starts with negotiating with themselves, the first layer: Take Peter, for example: he considers his situation, his doubts, gut feelings, his own career, etc. Peter negotiates with himself about his negotiation position, not forgetting his own career prospects. The first layer enables Peter to think fast when necessary, because he has given it due attention in advance. This makes him able to move to the next layer: negotiating with his team.

The second layer of negotiation: Your team

Peter negotiates with his team and superiors: They work out a strategy, define objectives and how far Peter can go, etc. For Peter to feel that he has his team behind him during the negotiation, and after it, is crucial. Negotiations that failed often end in internal blame games with a lot of energy being spent on whose fault it was. This may well have long-term implications for the future of the team. Peter is aware of it and makes sure that his team is on the same page when planning the negotiation. Negotiating team alignment is the second layer.

The third layer of negotiation: The relationship with the counterpart

When meeting his counterparts for the first time, Peter greets them, remembers not to shake hands with them in these Corona-ridden times, but remembers to exchange courteous remarks with them. Successful negotiators establish relationships - the third layer - knowing that the negotiation is already in full swing at the very moment they meet their counterpart. The informal conversation in the lobby, in the taxi or on the plane generates trust and goodwill. Peter will also have learned to say "Pleased to meet you" in his counterpart's language.

The fourth layer of negotiation: Understand the counterpart's cultural background

International negotiators are curious about their counterpart's cultural background, the fourth layer. They make an effort to understand the other side. The reason for Peter exploring the counterpart's cultural roots is for him to be aware of what to say - and what not to say - and how to behave in the best way possible.

Peter is used to working in very flat hierarchies where it can be difficult to see who is the intern, and who is the boss. Perhaps Peter's counterparts pay more attention to status and titles? Understanding the counterpart's culture, Peter is aware of what tone to use, how is own status is be demonstrated and whom to talk to talk to when things are becoming difficult. If Peter is in doubt about what to say or do, he may ask his counterpart for advice. Peter will almost invariably get a highly useful answer. He will have generated trust and respect because he has shown interest in his counterpart's culture.

Peter once met a very angry counterpart, Mr Lee, who felt disrespectfully treated by the staff at a hotel in Denmark which Peter had recommended. Mr Lee's fury could have become a threat to Peter's negotiation. Rather than trying to sort it out himself (thinking fast!), he said "I fully understand that you find this unacceptable. I will immediately talk to the hotel manager, and I'm sure he will sort it out".

By showing empathy and taking the case to the highest level possible, the issue was quickly resolved to everybody's satisfaction. Mr Lee's background was rooted in a highly hierarchical culture - Peter was aware of this and acted accordingly.

The fifth layer of negotiation: The language

Negotiating is about arriving at an agreement with another party. For this to happen, we must communicate with each other. We use a shared language with which we assume we can express ourselves and be understood. This can be a language other than our mother tongue. Whereas Peter will have learned a few polite phrases in the counterpart's language, English is the language he generally uses as an international negotiator.

How can international negotiators be sure that they actually understand each other? Can Peter assume that his counterparts understand the words in the same way as he does? Successful international negotiators go beyond words and check what the words stand for as part of the negotiation. Peter does that through conversation and lots of interested questions. He knows that assuming sameness of understanding is poison for international negotiators. Negotiating language issues is the fifth layer of the negotiation framework.

The negotiator's "radar": From single focus to a broad outlook

The negotiator who has one objective in mind - "winning" - is likely to fail in the long term. Negotiators' tunnel vision - thinking fast with a single focus - makes them blind to possibilities and opportunities that could have turned mediocre results into sustainable, durable and valuable outcomes. The negotiator's tunnel vision generates blinkered and narrow-minded results - if any.

GlobalCompetence is an approach developed by GlobalDenmark that integrates multiple competences and disciplines: personal, linguistic, cultural and technical. A competence may be valuable in its own right; for it to generate sustainable results personally and professionally, it must be coupled with other competences.

GlobalCompetence is a holistic approach that ensures that Peter can work in many different negotiation environments, without losing his own authenticity - and, ultimately, nurturing his keen interest in learning from others. Peter is rarely pushed out of his comfort zone; rather, GlobalCompetence has extended his comfort zone.

Successful negotiating requires a "radar approach" that keeps an eye on the many layers of the negotiation process. Many layers of different competences playing together like a symphony orchestra. The musicians will have to act immediately, but on the basis of a lot of practice and knowledge about the music. GlobalCompetence paves the way for fast thinking on the basis of slow-thinking analysis and reflection. This approach makes durable and mutually valuable negotiation results in a cross-cultural environment much more likely. Drawing on his multilayer awareness of the negotiation framework makes Peter able to think fast on the basis of slow thinking.

Moving from the framework to the core negotiation

The literature on negotiating has long focused on the desirability of all sides winning: "win-win". You may ask yourself if negotiating is always about winning and losing? If we have once won, do we then stand to lose next time we meet? Do we stand to gain more than we initially expected?

In our experience over the past more than 30 years, many negotiations may appear to have succeeded without the negotiator's knowing why. The ostensible success may disguise a lot of potential opportunities that were never properly explored. An apparently "good" negotiation result may turn out to be a rather bad one.

Many of our clients have become brilliant negotiators through a "learning-by-doing process". This implies that these negotiators may well have done a lot of damage before they had ended up acquiring their skills. Others may be brilliant technically, but don't pay enough attention what's really going on in the minds of their counterparts. If their attitude towards the negotiation process focuses merely on "getting the deal", they go blind and deaf to better deals. They are victimised by fast thinking.

Successful international negotiators know how to identify potential opportunities through their ability to navigate in the many layers of negotiation. This broad outlook, which includes the five layers of negotiation, is made possible by our GlobalCompetence approach. Successful international negotiators benefit from fast thinking - because it is coupled to the analysis, reflection and dilemmas emanating from slow thinking.

We must integrate at least five layers in the negotiation framework before the international negotiator can engage in the "core negotiation": the contract, the deal. This happens at meetings, in telephone conversations, emails etc. Communication is a prerequisite for negotiation, which permeates the five layers of the negotiation framework.

Through various techniques, we seek to achieve a result that is as beneficial to us as possible. Whether we should actually work on ensuring equal benefits for the other side depends on our interests. If we aim at the best possible results, the five layers - encapsulated in GlobalCompetence® - in negotiating are inescapable. In a later article, we will discuss the core negotiation.

Five layers of the negotiation framework - five tips

Be honest about yourself as your own negotiation counterpart. What are your personal interests in the negotiation? Will the negotiation be affected by your career dreams, your ethical outlook or general identification with the process?

Negotiate properly with your team - they may not necessarily share your interests, even if they seem to. Your colleagues and superiors are your negotiation counterparts, too. Team alignment is essential!

Build relationships: In the cross-cultural setting, negotiating begins with building a relationship with your counterpart. A personal relationship opens the door to invaluable insights: at the restaurant, in the taxi, in the lobby, etc.

Understand the cultural background of your counterpart: hierarchies, dress code, politeness, etc. read about this in relevant textbooks and guides. If in doubt, ask!

Focus on concepts, not words: when negotiators communicate, they can never be completely sure that the counterpart understands a message as intended. Discuss what the words stand for - never assume sameness of understanding when the working language is not the parties' mother tongue!

What is GlobalDenmark?

Established in 1985, GlobalDenmark is a cross-cultural communication consultancy. Claus Adam Jarløv conceived an approach that bridges many competences in the same person, which was later to become known as GlobalCompetence. Researchers must couple their technical knowledge with communication and negotiation skills for their research to generate value in the world. Likewise, international negotiators use a cluster of skills, such as language, cross-cultural insights, psychological acumen etc. to achieve the best possible results. This is what GlobalCompetence is all about.

GlobalDenmark specialises in enabling professionals to communicate across borders: cultural, linguistic, technical or personal borders. Focal areas include cross-cultural negotiation, presentation techniques and cross-cultural management. GlobalDenmark is a regular provider of training courses, 1-1 coaching and consultancy programmes to a wide range of enterprises, research institutions and government bodies.

Claus Adam Jarløv, the founder of GlobalDenmark, has been a lead consultant in communication and negotiation projects in Ethiopia, Morocco, Sweden, Spain and Russia in addition to Denmark.

Recommended links and references

Negotiation cases. Harvard Law School

Daniel Kahneman: Thinking, Fast and Slow, 2011

Geert Hofstede: The 6-D model of national culture

Richard D Lewis: When Cultures Collide - Leading Across Cultures - 4th edition, 2018

Chester Karrass: The Negotiating Game, Give and Take, In Business as in Life, 1994

Claus Adam Jarløv: Communicating Across Borders, 2012

This article is for anyone who would like tips on how to give a great presentation in a multicultural environment.

The 7 tips

Be formal and avoid jokes and irony

Make personal contact with your audience before you start

Be yourself, first and foremost

Then be the professional

Start with your key message

End with your key message

Make your final slide a source of inspiration for your audience to encourage questions

Have you ever

Attended a talk or a presentation where you were struggling to keep your eyes open?

Seen slides full of numbers and text, impossible to digest?

Left a presentation not really being sure what the key message was?

Not really understood the speaker's "funny" remarks?

How can you make sure your audience doesn't think that way about you?

Or have you, as a presenter,

Delivered a presentation where you became doubtful about whether your subject was in fact interesting to the audience?

Prepared slides you knew were overloaded with data and text?

Rounded off your presentation without much dialogue with your listeners?

Felt uneasy with the English language and the jokes you made?

And how can you make sure this doesn't happen to you (again)?

The audience: more demanding, still polite

When I started my career as an independent communications consultant 35 years ago, it was in many ways OK for audiences to be bombarded with incomprehensible details, exposed to speakers who mumbled and who were not in sync with their audience.

In academia and in business. Audiences were used to pretending to be interested and receptive, even if they had no clue about what was happening. This is not a thing of the past.

We may still attend boring, indigestible and unfocused presentations. TED talks / presentations and social media have made audiences more demanding over the years, true. Audiences even evaluate presentations sometimes.

On top of that, more and more presentations are expected to be delivered in English, often in multi-cultural environments. But we still put up with being bored, absent-minded and perhaps even bewildered. Nodding and smiling. Audiences are generally terribly polite. All over the world.

Mistakes can be a relief

To be quite honest, some the most memorable presentations I have experienced (both as a speaker and listener) were the ones that went wrong: the projector failed, or the hosts forgot to book a room. For some reason, these mishaps often contributed to the value of a presentation in that there was much dialogue between speaker and audience, and the speaker might - in a sweat - say: "Now, what I really wanted to tell you..." The presenter became a human being who had an important story to tell us.

Speaker and audience shared a wavelength where the speaker did not only speak to the audience but engaged in a conversation with them. Somehow cultural and linguistic barriers disappeared.

How can we make a presentation valuable and enjoyable?

I am not advocating that things must go wrong for the presentation to be successful. But perhaps we can learn a bit from what makes a talk or presentation a valuable and enjoyable experience?

How can we achieve this across cultural borders with English as the working language?

Here are the seven tips again:

Tip No 1

Formality is your protection: If you are Danish, you may want to be disarmingly informal. Don't! Formality is your protection - jokes and irony may do wonders in Denmark, but can do damage abroad. And nobody will tell you! So, if in doubt, be formal. You can adapt your behaviour towards more informality later.

Tip No 2

Your attitude counts: We are social creatures - and presentation s are social events. Show interest in your audience by making links to which they can identify. Make personal contact and talk to people in the lobby: before you go on stage, during breaks and afterwards. Ask questions, be curious - interest in other people always works!

Tip No 3

Be you first: Before you begin your presentation, share a short story or observation of relevance to the subject of your presentation. Your style is relaxed and personal, yet respectful and polite.

Tip No 4

Be the professional next: After the more informal start, change style and become more formal and professional. It will make your audience listen to you.

Tip No 5

Start with your key message: Start your presentation with your key message or key points ("What I really want to tell you"). Your style is focused, insistent and formal.

Tip No 6

End with your key message: Putting it into the context of your presentation. Again, be focused, insistent and formal. Use the final slide with your key message.

Tip No 7

Make your presentation a social affair: The final slide with your key points will work as a source of inspiration for the audience: they qualify comments and questions. The final slide is the most precious of them all. Treat it accordingly. It encourages interaction with your listeners. Across cultural borders - also in English.

Becoming a compelling presenter: plan and practise!

There is a lot more to it, of course.

Giving presentations in a multicultural setting with English as a foreign language can be quite a challenge. But with these 7 simple tips, you stand a good chance of delivering a valuable presentation at home and abroad - you might even enjoy it yourself!

If you are interested in becoming better at giving presentations in English, then join our course: "Presentation techniques in English"

Read the course description in Danish

Read the course description in English

Imagine you're at an international conference. Delegates come from all over the world and there's the usual buzz of conversation in the lobby during the morning coffee break. Today, those conversations are very probably in English, but imagine if everyone could speak their own mother tongue AND be understood by their foreign colleagues because they are wearing an earpiece that is interpreting the conversation in real time.

This is not as far away as you may think. You can already dictate a text message in Danish into your mobile via Siri; send the message to your French friend, who can then use Google Translate to translate the text into French. Your French friend can then have Siri read the page aloud.

It's not perfect, but the jump to the conference scenario doesn't seem that great, and of course there's technology around that is a little better at this than our smartphones.

If all this does transpire, then why learn a foreign language? Could this be the death of English as the lingua franca?

The future of English and machine translation

The future of English and machine translation (MT) was the subject of a recent TAUS (Translation Automation User Society) webinar. The webinar formed the basis of an internal workshop on the issue at GlobalDenmark.

There is no doubt that right now English is the dominant language of commerce, of science, and not least of the internet.

According to Lane Greene

According to Lane Greene, one of the expert panellists in the webinar, in northern Europe 80%-90% of the population can converse in English. In southern Europe the figure is less, but if we focus on the under 55s, then the figures again approach 90%. In Africa, where the population is expected to grow most over the next 50 years, English is the fourth most spoken language. The first three are Swahili, Amharic and Hausa, so when China invests in a new road or mining project in Africa, English is more than likely to be the language in which the stakeholders communicate.

So, according to Lane Greene such growth is proof that English will continue as the lingua franca.

According to Nicholas Ostler

The second expert, Nicholas Ostler, takes the opposite view. He thinks machines will take over translation and interpretation.

His primary argument is that if we don't have to learn a language we won't. Learning a language is a pain and we'll always take the easy way out.

He also argues that Lane Greene's perspective is based on relatively short-term data. In the long term, MT will get better and better and negate the need to learn another language. He believes the use of English will peak in the 21st century.

Nicholas Ostler continued that large countries like Japan and China, and countries in Latin America already have their 'lingua franca'; namely Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish and Portuguese. People from these countries are much happier with what they know rather than having to bother with a new language.

On the other hand

On the other hand, we're also converging on English through other channels.

Children today tweet, snap, watch movies and chat on computer games in English every day, no matter where they come from. They learn English at school from an ever-younger age. Perhaps all this will mean that the next generation will automatically grow up almost bilingual and they'll only need to make a minimal effort to hone their already acquired English skills to speak fluently and comfortably.

In other words, supply will feed demand. The more people who speak English the more useful it will be to speak English and thus the greater the demand.

So where does all this leave us?

What are the key elements for a successful balance between family life and the PhD study?

- lessons learned from Urd Bak's story

Dr. Bak's 3 tips to PhD students are:

Structure and plan your scientific work, and keep work and family life apart.

Accept your imperfections and get the help you need to tackle them - remember "completed" is better than "perfect",

Keep your supervisor updated so problems can be resolved before they become serious disturbances.

Meet Urd Bak, married, mother of two daughters, biologist and PhD on seaweeds.

In this blog post, Urd Bak shares her PhD story and the key elements that helped her to a successful balance between family life and work.

How to balance family life and a PhD

It all began when Urd was doing her BA. A senior researcher introduced her to the potential of seaweeds as a source of environmentally sustainable source of nutrition. Urd was fascinated and loved the hands-on aspects of studying these oceanic vegetables.

Moving on to her Master's degree, seaweeds still played a major role in Urd's academic work. Having earned her MSc, she was employed part time at the Food Institute, the Danish Technical University and part time at Ocean Rainforsts, a private company that specialises in making seaweed a viable business proposition. The idea of an industrial PhD was taking shape, in collaboration with the university.

Urd started her PhD abroad and brought the family with her

Urd decided to spend the first year as PhD student at Ocean Rainforsts on the Faroe Islands with her family: two young daughters and her husband. On the one hand, Urd was in paradise, being able to dig into her weeds. On the other hand, life was challenging for her and her family trying to make their everyday lives work in a foreign environment. Among other things, through Urd's structuring of her work, there was room for both science and the family.

After one year, the family moved back to Copenhagen. Life changed from wellies to a computer keyboard. Papers were to be written and presentations prepared for scientific conferences, and still she commuted between home and the wind battered Atlantic islands for more field work.

Accept your imperfections - you can communicate your science internationally without being strong at English

Urd knew that English - her working language - was not her key competence. At school, maths and natural sciences subjects were favourites, whereas foreign languages were not really her cup of tea. So, a language barrier in her scientific work was by no means a surprise.

How did Urd manage to write the scientific papers required? And how about speaking at international conferences? Well, first, Urd attended courses on academic writing and presentation techniques. She learnt to use some very tangible tools to help her build a scientific paper systematically and in correct English.

Secondly, she used speaking techniques that helped her deal with nerves and deliver well-structured, interesting talks. She discovered that using relevant writing and presentation techniques continuously made writing and public speaking less daunting. Practice makes perfect, or nearly so!

Finally, Urd benefited greatly from her natural self-discipline and ability to plan her academic activities.

"Being systematic and disciplined made me get things done and at the same time still have a family life."

From PhD student to full-blown researcher

One day not long ago, all the papers for her PhD had been finalised. And her thesis, too. It was time for the moment of truth: the PhD defence. An audience comprising friends and family, colleagues and supervisors and two outsiders ready to ask critical questions.

It all went well; very well, in fact. Urd felt intensely happy. And afterwards, a garden party at home: one her supervisors gave a moving speech as did a cousin who had helped her. For Urd, her PhD process was a positive experience - fancy now being a full-blown researcher, on a par with those a looked upon with awe not long ago. That day was a milestone in Urd's life, not least considering that five years earlier, Urd had no clue about pursuing an academic career.

Now that Urd is no longer a PhD student, she discovered that her academic life is different, almost intimidating; now, Urd is a scientific resource rather than a mere underling as some senior researchers tend to see PhD students.

Urd now works at Ocean Rainforests, who originally hired her as a PhD student. She is happy there but has no specific plans for the future. What Urd does know is that she wants to explore further the huge potential in seaweeds as a way of reducing CO2 emissions, ensuring food availability on the planet and protecting the oceans.

Urd's three tips:

Our conversation ends with Urd's three tips for PhD students:

Structure and plan your work!

Never allow your daily work to be distracted by activities in your life that are also important - and the other way around. Keeping things on track enabled Urd to engage in hardcore science and, at the same time, to have a happy family life.

Accept your imperfections!

Things can always be improved, but at some point in time you must deliver. No one is infallible, and you must learn to enjoy the relief of submitting something you have worked hard on. Getting help to deal with challenges can make your work more efficient and help ensure a good balance between work and private life.

Keep your supervisor updated!

Urd's supervisors were invaluable resources throughout her PhD. It was vital that Urd continuously kept them informed about how things were going so problems could be resolved before they became serious disturbances. Use your supervisors - they are your partners!

Urd (or Dr Bak) attended GlobalDenmark's two courses on scientific communication: "Academic Writing" and "Advanced Presentation Techniques".

Related Links

https://phdinahundredsteps.com/tag/balancing-phd-and-workfamily-life/

https://www.phdstudies.com/article/six-tips-for-pursuing-your-phd-with-a-family/

https://storiesinscience.org/2018/08/24/phd-or-family/

I have always maintained that English words only rarely mean exactly the same as their Danish equivalents. Style, usage, tone, connotations may vary even if the words look completely alike. This is what makes quality translation such a demanding craft. These days, the word "absurd" is being scrutinised as the Danish PM used the Danish word "absurd" in a comment on President Trump's wish to buy Greenland. This apparently offended the President to a degree that he cancelled a state visit to Denmark at very short notice. How can one word have such impact? Linguists are frantically searching for differences in the meaning of this word in English and in Danish. They are still searching. I would venture to say that "absurd" means almost the same in English and in Danish. It's a semantically powerful word and sounds like a nice version of "crazy". Calling a person's utterances absurd is offensive in either language if one wants to be offended.

The President's newly acquired sensitivity inspired him to call the Danish PM's use of the word "nasty", which is a powerful word, too. Quite offensive, in many people's minds. But the world leader kindly defined it as "not nice". The President seems to have a soft spot for very few powerful words and phrases, which he uses again and again. "The likes of which the world has never seen before" is an extremely powerful phrase when used once - used many times, it becomes ambiguous. "Incredible" and "awesome" are everyday examples of the same phenomenon. Big words whose meaning broadens when used frequently. The president frequently uses the word "nasty" about people he doesn't like. "Not nice" - or disgusting? Your choice.

The American President's cancellation of his visit to Denmark is a case of selective interpretation of the word "absurd": whereas the Danish PM said that it was an absurd discussion, the President decided to interpret it as offensive to him and, hence, to the United States of America. The President is crazy. That is offensive. The President used one semantically powerful word as a pretext for not coming to Denmark. He may have his reasons. One word triggers the cancellation of a state visit. May I use the word "absurd" here? Hats off to the Danish PM for not engaging in a war of words!

Claus Adam Jarløv, CEO

I am studying English with a profile in Translation and Communication in the 3rd semester of my Master's programme at the University of Copenhagen. I was lucky enough to meet Barbara from GlobalDenmark when she gave a presentation on technical translation at one of my courses a few months ago. It was incredibly exciting to hear about the career opportunities that a language degree offers, and it inspired me to look into the possibility of starting an internship with GlobalDenmark. Fortunately, they were willing to welcome (another) intern to their company and I am looking forward to an interesting and educational programme that will end in January. I will get to sniff a bit at all the company's task types in the different departments, as well as prepare content for the company's online profile. I hope you will read along.

Theory vs. practice

I'm not sure what I had in mind before I started my internship, but I didn't expect to be put on an equal footing with the rest of the company so quickly. On the second day of my internship, I was given my first "real" translation assignment. By "real" I mean an assignment that didn't just have to be read through once by a tutor, given a mark and then filed. No, it will actually be used out in the "real world" and it was quite a satisfying feeling to finish it, even though it was also very challenging. Fortunately, I wasn't completely left to my own devices, as one of the company's experienced translators read and proofread the translation with me, while we discussed the changes he made. This in itself is a very instructive process.

I've read all sorts of theory about translation, but putting theory into practice is easier said than done. Because (unfortunately) there is no recipe for perfect translation. Translation is a communicative tool that varies from task to task, so you need to combine your theoretical knowledge base with a lot of practical skills to become a good translator. And that's exactly what you do when you go on placement.

CAT Tools

These skills can be supported by different tools. GlobalDenmark uses a CAT (Computer-Assisted Translation) tool called MemoQ. This tool makes the job of a translator much easier, and I don't think many professional translators work without one. But they do at the University of Copenhagen. During my studies, I only had the opportunity to work with a CAT tool once. Otherwise, I did all my translation work 'manually', of course with the help of dictionaries and various databases. Of course, this has taught me a lot about translating, but it was an almost new world for me to solve a task using a CAT tool, which is an indispensable tool for most professional translators. This will undoubtedly strengthen my skills in using translation tools and benefit me in the future. Of course, my theoretical background will also help me a lot when I enter the job market as a graduate, but the job market often expects more than theoretical knowledge, and I am therefore very grateful to have had the opportunity to be part of GlobalDenmark for a while.

I am also very pleased to see that the Government's Entrepreneurship Panel is now focusing on the value of internships for university students, because as they state: "[t]hese companies need a workforce that hasn't just spent its education with its nose buried in books".

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