Taxes :: Hella

Handed in my tax return yesterday; even though the deadline was 31 May, the lady didn't mention anything but just processed my forms. She asked me whether I hadn't had any expenses for driving to and from work, and I said that I had but that they were below the €900 or so that are deducted anyway if you don't claim more expenses than that, so I didn't bother listing them. I also got in pretty quickly; I had to wait for maybe two minutes. Maybe I should always hand in my taxes after the deadline :) The tax program said we could expect about €850 back, so that would be nice.

In the evening, we went to Hella's; she had invited the missionaries for dinner but they preferred not to be alone with two women (mission rules, I believe) so we came along as well. It was pouring with rain, which was a bit surprising given that the sun had shone for most of the day, but oh well.

The missionaries talked about the signs of the end times, a topic Hella had wanted to hear more about.

After that, we had dinner together; Hella and Lara had set up a grill and there were grilled meat and sausages, as well as salads and bread. I could only eat a little bit before I set off home; trains only ran every hour and I wanted to be home by nine.

Stella stayed on, but I took Amy home (it was about an hour past her bed-time as it was); that went fairly well, except that getting into the first train with the stroller was a bit of a hassle since the door was so narrow that navigating the steps with a stroller in my arm was difficult. Fortunately, I had someone to help me the other times I got on or off trains.

Amy still seemed rather lively, but after reading her a couple of books and saying a prayer with her, she let me put her into her bed without any fuss at all; in fact, she seemed almost a bit relieved. So that went pretty well; I'm glad she went to bed so easily even though Mummy wasn't there.

Why you should get a native speaker to proofread your sales pitch

I came across the Pronunciation Patterns web site through a sponsored ad while reading Gmail.

I'm glad it promises only to reduce your accent, not teach you correct grammar... because if the program taught you the kind of grammar found in the site's FAQ page, even the most perfect accent wouldn't convince listeners that you were American. (Sure, even native speakers make errors when speaking or writing, but the kind of errors a native speaker makes are different from the ones learners make, and these are the latter kind.)

Constructions such as "I have trouble with the TH sounds. How can I solve it?", "Does Pronunciation Patterns provides step-by-step lessons to help me learn English Pronunciation?", "Can Pronunciation Patterns help me reduce accent to be more like American accent?", or "When does the letter T is pronounced as the D sound?" (that last one sounds the worst to me); or the (to me) stilted use of "shall" in "How shall I use Pronunciation Patterns and how often shall I use it?" or "Why shall I buy Pronunciation Patterns today?"—it all seems very "eek" and foreigner-speak.

I think it makes the site seem unprofessional; they're selling a product but they clearly couldn't afford to hire someone to proofread their website. Even if what they're selling is not advice on grammar, that page (for me) reflects poorly on the product.

(And I just noticed that the little flags at the top of the FAQ page link to… machine translations of the page via Google. Er. …and the one for German doesn't even work since they put a ? where a & belonged!)