Matthew Youlden speaks nine languages fluently and understands more than a dozen more. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} When I told Matthew how I've been working hard to only pick up a second language, he had the following advice for me.

    Know why you are doing it

    This might sound easy , but if you don't have a good reason to learn a language, you are less likely to stay interested over the long-run. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Wanting to get to know a French person in his or her own language is another matter entirely. No matter what your reason is, once you've decided on a language, it's important to carry out .

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    Matthew learned several languages together with his twin brother Michael. They learned their first foreign language, Greek, when they were only eight years old! Even if you can't get a sister or brother to join you on your language adventure, having any kind of partner will push both of you to always try just a little bit harder and stay with it.

    Have fun with it

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Think of some fun ways to practice your new language: make a radio play with a friend, draw a comic strip, write a poem, or simply talk to whomever you can. If you can't find a way to have fun with the new language, chances are you aren't following step four.

    Act like a child

    We learn by making mistakes. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}But as adults, mistakes become taboo(禁忌). Think how an adult is more likely to say, “I can't”, rather than, “I haven't learned that yet” (I can't swim, I can't drive, I can't speak Spanish). When it comes to learning a language, admitting that you don't know everything is the key to growth and freedom.

A. Find a partner

B. Leave your comfort place

C. We work in the same office in Berlin.

D. As kids, we are expected to make mistakes.

E. You are learning a language to be able to use it.

F. Using your new language in any way is a creative act.

G. Wanting to impress English-speakers with your French is not a very good reason.

    Creativity is a skill that you can work on with time, training, and effort. There are many areas you can focus on to improve your overall creativity.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

     Doodle(信手涂鸦) in your spare time. Doodling can increase creativity by increasing your engagement with the world and attention span.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}The more information you're able to absorb, the more creative you will be.

    Listen to music. Simply playing music in the background can inspire you creatively. It can help you focus better and increase your overall concentration. Classical music tends to work particularly well for creativity and concentration.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}While classical music has beneficial effects for many, experiment a little to find the music that best helps you concentrate and feel creative.

    Play video games.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}Interactive games that require movement help with creative thinking as they stimulate multiple senses. Things like Wii Tennis or Dance Dance Revolution would work well. Avoid games that require you to sit for long periods.

    Read more. Make a habit of reading regularly. Pick books from multiple types and styles of writing to expand your horizons and really cultivate your creativity. Try to make time to read every day.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}This will help direct your reading if you're unsure what kinds of books to start with.

A. Try joining a book club.

B. Not every type of music works for everyone.

C. Some video games are actually good for the creative mind.

D. Creativity is really important to your life as well as to society.

E. Video games do harm to our creativity instead of helping with it.

F. The following are some creative approaches you can involving yourself in.

G. It helps you stay engaged during activities where you would otherwise zone out.

    Most successful people attach importance to why learning from mistakes is important. Every unsuccessful attempt can help you gain important experience. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. Here are some of the top reasons why mistakes are valuable.

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    Do you remember your first bad grade for a test? Do you remember an embarrassing moment when a teacher caught you cheating during an exam?

    These are common struggles but they are actually a great way to build good future habits. Once you have the experience, you will no longer make the mistakes you did before. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}.

    Encourage different thinking

    As we make mistakes, we remove certain ways of reaching our goal. When an approach is proven wrong, people immediately start looking for different ways to resolve a situation. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. If your initial idea did not work, you are more likely to take a different stand and think of ideas you wouldn't have thought if that didn't happen.

    Build characters

    This is quite the tricky benefit since people can go either way when it comes to building characters. Very often, too many mistakes make people depressed. Too many failures convince them to just give up on their dreams. However, once you start learning from mistakes, you'll gain confidence from them. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. And they will help you become a more passionate, successful person.

A. Give us experience

B. Reveal weaknesses

C. As we make mistakes, we learn from them

D. We have to practice, fail and rise up again

E. They will help you build a stronger character

F. Basically, mistakes encourage you to find a new solution

G. And mistakes can even be more valuable than achievements

How to save a friendship

    Friends are like stars. Even if you don't see them, you know they are there. And while a shooting star is a beautiful thing to observe, a dying friendship is one of the most painful things to experience. However, if you believe that it is worth trying to save it, then it is worth it. So if you are still moved by a friendship that has given you priceless moments and treasured memories, at least try to save it. While problems are unavoidable, if both of you see the value in saving what you have, focusing on fixing things may just be effective, and your connection may even come through this test stronger than before.

    The moment you realize that the two of you have started growing apart, do something about it. Waiting will only bring about an unavoidable permanency of the loss of your friendship. Be prepared to be the one who makes the first steps; your friend may be laboring under the belief that it is something you have done to harm the friendship, so you shouldn't wait around for them to solve things.

    As life changes around us, friendship change too. However, changes in your life don't mean that your life has to destroy your friendship. Talking openly about the changes is important, as well as accepting that the two of you have changed but still have space, love and respect for one another in your lives. If your friend has distanced himself or herself from you because of changes in your lives, take the chance to show that while life has changed, the importance of your friendship has not.

    Make sure your friend has talked and listened, and both of you have looked for ways to reach compromises（和解）on the things that have weakened your friendship and set the relationship back on track. If you mean as much to this person as they mean to you, you will have at least made some progress in the right direction through mutual（彼此的）compromises in the end.

    Once you have worked through the challenges facing your friendship and come to a shared solution, show your friend how much they mean to you. Start creating new memories and precious moments that will make the unpleasant page in your common history look insignificant and never worth mentioning again.

    Unless you think you're the smartest, who doesn't want to be smarter? Of course I want to be smarter too. So I try to find out who's the real smart guy that maybe I can learn from.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    ▲ They probably do social media. Not always, but probably.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} They also use this to ensure they can feed their brains with things they otherwise wouldn't have come across.

    ▲ {#blank#}3{#/blank#} They never bother their head about the problem of "work-life balance" and somehow manage to seem 100% engaged in what they're doing, on all fronts simultaneously(同时), even though you know they're taking appropriate steps behind the scenes to make sure their lives are well balanced.

    ▲ They know they are the smartest in the room, but they don't spend much time talking about that.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} That is, they challenge themselves to make everyone else in the room the smartest person too.

    ▲ They never, ever, under any circumstances, make you look stupid, even though it would be easy to do so. They've learned through bitter experience that the only thing that happens when you make someone look bad is that you look bad yourself.

    ▲ If they are managers, they will make every effort to get people more connected and more popular than them in their teams.{#blank#}5{#/blank#} They're not threatened because they know that smartness is synergistic.(相互促进的)

A. It is not only a chance to listen.

B. They know it is an advantage to them.

C. They take it as a personal challenge instead.

D. They will be smiling even when things go wrong.

E. Now I've got an answer about whether someone's smart.

F. They also ensure their smart people look smarter than them.

G. They deal with home, work and personal interests perfectly.

    Many of the most memorable ad campaigns nowadays tend to be funny. Advertisers use this strategy to attract customers to their products. Audiences like to be entertained not forced. People will pay more attention to a humorous commercial than a factual serious one opening themselves up to be influenced. The key to funny advertising is assuring the humor is appropriate to both the product and customers. The balance between being funny and being obnoxious can often be delicate, and a marketer must be certain the positive effects outweigh the negative before an advertisement can be introduced.

    The best products to sell using humor tend to be those that consumers think the least about. Products that are relatively inexpensive and often consumable can be represented without providing a lot of facts, and that's where there's room for humor. Candy, too, food, and entertainment-related products such as toys have got the most benefits from humor in their campaigns. One of the most important things to keep in mind is relevance to the product.

    Another point to consider when using humor in advertising is that different things are funny to different people. A commercial that may make one person burst into laughter may leave a bad taste in another's mouth. The target market must always be considered, what's funny in a client presentation may not be funny on an airplane, at a country club or in hospital.

    Humor in advertising tends to improve brand recognition but does not improve product recall message credibility, or buying intentions. In other words, consumers may be familiar with a good feeling towards the product, but their purchasing decisions will probably not be affected. One of the major keys to a successful humorous campaign is variety. Once a commercial start to wear out, it's impossible to save ii without some variation on the concept Humorous campaigns are often expensive because they have to be constantly changed. Advertisers must remember that while making customers laugh, they have to keep thing interesting because old jokes die along with their products.