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| Ihre 10 Minuten Englisch pro Woche |
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Dear email,
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Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day! I’m not someone who partakes in consumerism on holidays, but I must say I do enjoy going out for a nice meal with my spouse, maybe giving or getting a single rose. It’s an excuse for doing something romantic, and that’s nice. I married rather late in life, and I am all the more appreciative of what I have now. Having been single for a long time, I know what that’s like. And I also know: It can be expensive. (That’s never a reason to marry, though!) Below, you can read about the cost of being single and how industries are discovering and beginning to market to individual households. You can also listen to a clip about Galentine’s Day, a variant of the above holiday when women celebrate female friendship.
Whatever you celebrate or don’t, I wish you all a great day.
Oh, and PS (I’m changing the topic now): Check out our Business Boost course on our ZEIT Sprachen app. It’s great for your English at work.
Next week, my colleague Inez Sharp will be back with some more entertaining stories for you.
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Judith Gilbert
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Editor-in-chief, Business Spotlight
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partake in sth.: an etw. teilnehmen | spouse: Ehepartner(in) | appreciative: be ~ of sth.: etw. schätzen | market sth.: etw. vermarkten, zum Verkauf anbieten | check sth. out: etw. testen
Note: Judith's editorial is written in US English.
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Word of the Week
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NER
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Did you know...? This stands for “neither employed nor retired”. It refers to people who are considered too old to get a job but still too young for retirement.
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retired: pensioniert, im Ruhestand | retirement: Pension, Rente
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© Illustration: Georg Lechner
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Anzeige
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Weiterlernen im eigenen Tempo: Englischprogramme für Erwachsene, die neugierig bleiben wollen
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Es ist ein eigenartiges Geschenk des Erwachsenseins: zu wissen, dass Entwicklung nie abgeschlossen ist. Die 30+ Programme von Kaplan vereinen Menschen, die genau das erleben möchten. Nicht in jugendlicher Eile, sondern mit der Ruhe, Neues bewusst aufzunehmen. Entscheidend ist nicht, wer am schnellsten lernt, sondern wer bereit ist, wieder Fragen zu stellen und den eigenen Horizont zu erweitern.
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© Bild: Kaplan
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Economy
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The cost of being single
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In the current issue of Business Spotlight, Vincent Suppé writes about the growing number of single-person households – and how marketers are adapting to their needs.
From single-portion meals to accommodation or holidays – living alone can be expensive, and single people often have higher costs per person than couples or families. At the same time, more and more people are living alone. Marketers, always quick to see new trends, have been taking an interest in this target group. As their numbers grow, singles are becoming more important for businesses and the economy.
To succeed in this new market, companies are adapting their products to the needs of individuals. “Smaller quantities, flexible offers and products that adapt to the everyday life of single-person households are in demand,” says Oliver Kaul, professor of marketing and international management at the Mainz University of Applied Sciences.
The trend is spreading. “The tourism industry has also discovered singles – with offers for single travellers who are not included in the classic package holiday,” says Kaul. Tour operators are specifically targeting single travellers who don’t want to miss out on anything. Group trips with other singles, for example, are increasingly common, allowing people to explore the world together and socialize without a long-term partner. Even the financial sector, which has long focused on the stability of families, has discovered singles as a potential target group with its own needs.
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accommodation: Unterkunft | miss out on sth.: etw. verpassen, sich etw. entgehen lassen
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© Image: Stocksy United
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Quiz
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Wedding cakes
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1. The tradition of wedding cake figurines originated:
A) in the court of Queen Victoria
B) in the court of Louis XIV
C) in ancient Rome
2. The world’s most expensive cake:
A) cost $75 million, contained 4,000 diamonds, was 1.8 metres long and weighed 450 kg
B) cost $2 million, was covered entirely in gold leaf and weighed 450 kg
C) cost $250,000 because it was flown from London on a private jet to the UAE
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wedding cake figurine: Hochzeitstortenfigur | ancient: antik | UAE (United Arab Emirates): VAE (Vereinigte Arabische Emirate)
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© Illustration: Georg Lechner
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| Answers: 1. C); 2. A) It was created by British designer Debbie Wingham
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Ihr Gutschein für Business Spotlight
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Sie erhalten die erste Ausgabe unseres Abonnements gratis
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Language
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Galentine’s Day
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It’s Galentine’s Day today! The event was invented in 2010 by Leslie Knope (played by Amy Poehler), the main character in the US sitcom Parks and Recreation. Held on 13 February every year, it’s a way for women to honour female friendships. Listen to our audio to find out more about the event and how Americans celebrate it.
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honour sth.: etw. ehren
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© Image: Shutterstock.com
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ZEIT SPRACHEN
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Business boost
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Do you want to enjoy more efficient meetings? Sign up to our new, 10-week course, which comes with weekly mails that help you stay on track. You’ll learn to improve your vocabulary, pick up phrases that help you keep control of agendas and, in just a couple of months, you’ll see how you have improved your intercultural communication.
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stay on track: beim Thema bleiben | pick sth. up: etw. aufgreifen
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© Image: Olia Danilevich / Pexels.com
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Interview
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The Chinese takeaway owner
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Ahead of Chinese New Year on 17 February, Spotlight’s Vanessa Clark talks to Kitty Chen, whose family owns a Chinese takeaway.
Is your takeaway a family business?
Yes, it is. My parents opened it when they came to the UK from Hong Kong. I started helping in the shop when I was little. I put the prawn crackers into bags.
What do you do in the business now?
I do the accounts and I work in the shop two evenings a week. I take the orders. Some customers come in and order in person, some order on the phone and then collect the food, and we get online orders for delivery.
What are the most popular dishes?
Sweet-and-sour chicken, salt-and-pepper chicken, beef in black-bean sauce, chow mein (fried noodles), egg fried rice and spring rolls.
Do you eat those dishes yourself?
No. Those dishes are “British Cantonese”-style cooking, for our English customers. At home, we eat real Cantonese food. It’s fresher, lighter, with more vegetables and more fish. Our sweet-and-sour sauce doesn’t have tomato ketchup and pineapple juice in it!
How are you going to celebrate Chinese New Year?
We always decorate the shop with red paper lanterns and dragons, but we can’t celebrate much because we’ll be working!
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takeaway (UK): Imbiss(Laden) | prawn cracker (UK): Krabbenchips | accounts: Buchhaltung | spring roll: Frühlingsrolle | pineapple: Ananas | lantern: Laterne, Windlicht
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© Image: Martin Haake
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Im aktuellen Magazin
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How we see the Germans
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What international business partners think of working with you | 10 tips to boost self-confidence | The cost of being single
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Around the World
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Sad horses
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Recently, a plush toy meant to celebrate the Lunar New Year went viral in China after a production mistake gave it a droopy, sad expression. Nicknamed the “sad horse” or “crying horse”, it spread quickly on social media, with people joking that it captured their own exhaustion and work stress. What started as a factory error turned into a sell-out trend and a symbol of ironic, “ugly-cute” humour.
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plush toy: Plüschtier
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© Image: picture-alliance / Reuters
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Quiz
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Silicon Valley
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The term “Silicon Valley” was coined in 1971 by journalist Don Hoefler to describe the rapid growth of semiconductor companies in the Santa Clara Valley. Now, Silicon Valley is home to an estimated 40,000 start-ups. Test your knowledge of Silicon Valley in our quiz.
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coin sth.: etw. ins Leben rufen
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© Image: Hardik Pandya / Unsplash.com
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Mitarbeit: Dennis Draber, Judith Gilbert, Susanne Krause, Mae McCreary, Richard Mote, Rachel Preece, Inez Sharp.
Sie haben diesen Newsletter zurzeit an die Adresse subs@emailshot.io bestellt. Eine Abmeldung ist jederzeit über Newsletter-Abmeldung möglich. Bitte antworten Sie nicht auf diese E-Mail. Bitte wenden Sie sich an abo@zeit-sprachen.de.
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USt-IdNr.: DE -265 -973 -410 Datenschutz | AGB | Impressum | Kontakt © ZEIT SPRACHEN GmbH 2026
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