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When Feedback Helps Learning — and When It Interrupts Thinking A student begins speaking in a foreign language. The first sentence contains an incorrect preposition. The teacher interrupts and corrects it. The student continues. A verb ending is wrong. Another correction. The student starts a third sentence, hesitates over word order and receives another explanation. […]

Why accepting a deliverable, settling financial obligations, transferring project materials, and formally closing an assignment are different events. The client reviews your work. Everything looks good. The client writes: “Approved. Thank you.” You consider the project finished. A week later, you discover that the invoice remains unpaid. Or the client asks for access to the […]

Why finishing a task, delivering its result, confirming receipt, and accepting the work are four different events in professional communication. You finish a translation. You check the terminology, review the formatting, save the final document, and close the file. The work is complete. The next morning, the client sends a message: “Where is my translation? […]

Why receiving information, understanding a request, agreeing to an action, and actually completing it are four different events. You send a message to a colleague. The colleague replies: “Understood.” You assume the matter is settled. Two days later, nothing has happened. You ask why. The colleague responds: “I understood what you said. I never said […]

Checking an answer, testing a machine, inspecting a process, investigating a problem and verifying a claim are not the same action. German makes these distinctions visible through different verbs. By Tymur Levitin | Levitin Language School 1. “I checked it.” What exactly did you do? Imagine six people reporting that they have checked something. A […]

Why identifying what cannot be determined is sometimes the most important part of solving a problem. By Tymur Levitin | Levitin Language School A student reads a mathematics problem: A rectangle has a perimeter of 40 centimetres. What is its area? The student remembers the formula for the perimeter: [P=2(a+b)] Then the formula for the […]

Working on something, processing it, developing it and revising it are not the same action. Six German verbs reveal how language distinguishes activity, transformation, effort and results. By Tymur Levitin | Levitin Language School 1. “I worked on the document.” But what did you actually do? Imagine a manager asking six employees what they have […]

“A school problem becomes easier to solve when we stop asking who is responsible for the result and start identifying what produced it.” — Tymur Levitin Your child comes home from school in Switzerland. Something is wrong. Perhaps the grades are lower than expected. Perhaps the teacher says the child needs to improve their German. […]

Why error-free writing can still confuse readers, weaken professional relationships, and fail to produce the intended result. You write an email. You check the grammar, correct the punctuation, and make sure every sentence is properly constructed. There are no obvious mistakes. You send it. But the recipient does not understand what you want. Or understands […]