At the French (conversational) meet-up last night, one participant stood out from the crowd (even outshone me if that was possible at all).   He was very enthusiastic and tried to make the language as interesting as possible for memorization.  For example, the word for “spokesperson” in French is “porte-parole”. “Porter” means to carry and “parole” means speech. He said “A spokesperson is someone who carries a speech!”
This echoes “Make the subject as interesting as possible” section (p.39-40) of my book. It does make a world of difference in learning if you find the subject interesting.

My weekend experience in Frankfurt reminded me of my 2 nieces’ favorite TV series called Once Upon A Time.
The basic plot is the characters in children’s story books came alive in reality. I had a bit of that feeling during my weekend trip (Yes, I am still talking about it). I have heard my German friend talk about his close German friends for over 10 years and some of them I met briefly 10 years ago in New York. This weekend I saw ALL of them at my friend’s party. Some of their children are in their teens now and my last recollection of them was more than 10 years ago. Of course, the children did not remember me, but I felt a special connection with them that I can’t explain. I felt a special kind of joy seeing that they all had grown into healthy and well-mannered “almost “ adults!
Before my departure, I said goodbye and gave them my warmest blessings individually. Not sure when or if I will see them again, but it does not matter.
My blessings are with them always :>

 

Last weekend I visited a good friend and his family in Frankfurt whom I have known for 15 years since my “golden” days in New York (“golden” not in terms of age but personal development). Despite our different views in the area of personal development, he has supported my book though outright promotion is out of the question which I understand and respect.
He and his wife bought the very first copy of my book via Amazon Germany when my book came out in Oct-2014. In addition, at the party at his house to celebrate the first holy communion of his son, he told me that he could not find my book in his book shelf and asked me to locate it. As a result, I sold the only copy that I carried with me to another guest at the party. All forms of support have not gone unnoticed :>

During my weekend trip to Frankfurt, I only brought one copy of my book with me for a couple of reasons. One reason is that most of the guests at the party are of an intellectual group armed with doctoral degree in Mathematics. I was not sure they would be interested in my book. However, to my surprise, I sold the only copy in my luggage and ran out of promotional postcards at the end of the trip (to be fair, it only happened at the last 15 minutes when I realized that either book sales NOW or never).

This weekend I am going to Frankfurt to attend the first holy communion celebration of the son of two good friends of mine.
As it is a weekend trip and 99% of the people are German speakers, I am not sure if I should carry some copies of my book there for potentials buyers.
My friends bought the very first copy of my book from Germany. I would not expect them to buy an extra copy.
Anyway, I am going to take one copy of the book and a few promotional postcards with me just in case.
I need to be ready at all times :>

I have been telling people that I am going through a “metamorphosis” to build up a more corporate image in public.
As part of this effort, I am in the process of clipping my wings of “eccentricity” which includes no off-the-chart outrageous jokes and comments. It is not to change myself into a completely different person, but to moderate some of more “extreme” behaviors so new people (people that don’t know me well) won’t be scared away :>

I was actually impressed by the broadcast of the final of The Voice France on 25-Apr-2015.  They invited one of the finalists from a previous year (but she did not win in her year of competition) as a guest.  After the competition, she went onto become a successful singer in her own right.  The program producers wanted to encourage all participants to continue to strive for their dreams even if they did not win this time.  Indeed, there are endless opportunities in life.  One should not give up even if he/she did not win yet.  Keep your chin up :>

By sheer chance I was in France to watch the final of The Voice France on TV. The winner Lilian Renaud was the one whose coach/judge Zaziesaid Lilian is an amateur in her concluding and final pitch for her protégée. Actually what she meant was Lilian’s passion for music. There were four established professional singers as guests on the programme. In my opinion, the main differences between an amateur and a professional are more practices and opportunities to excel.

Patience is actually more than a virtue in my opinion. In fact, it is a key element for success.
First of all, let me clarify that patience does not mean helplessly and passively waiting for something to happen.
For me, the latter is a mixture of laziness, wishful thinking and the like, but it is not patience at all.
Patience implies a certain stamina, self-control and persistence with a focus on the ultimate goal in mind and allowing time to achieve that goal.
For example, a farmer patiently waits for the harvest to come and in the meantime he/she needs to work very hard to cultivate the crops for that to happen.

Early this week on BBC Radio 2, Chris Evans reminded  listeners the importance of laying down a solid foundation through hard work and then reaping the fruit later. He said boredom before fun. It echoes with some of the key points of my book: “Hard work” (p.33-34) and “Invest the time to work on the basics” (p.34-35).