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As you may have noticed from the title of this post, we still have not opened the German book that we are supposed to be rigorously studying. (Please do not note how much time has passed since the post “Judging a Book by its Cover“) Nevertheless, the German book in our possession, German: A Self-Teaching Guide (Second Edition), possesses a back cover worthy of superfluous analysis. There are many reasons why our attention spans were derailed after flipping this book over…. And each of these reasons reveals much about life…. (Ok, maybe not…but you will certainly gain something from reading this rambling rant on the reverse of our German reference…or maybe you won’t…)
Be careful of the adjectives you use, you might just have to live up to them: Within the content found on the back cover of the above-mentioned book, numerous self-indulgent adjectives can be found. Does one really have a right to proclaim oneself as “clear,” “entertaining,” or “fresh”? Marketing is necessary both on book covers and in your own professional life, but what might exploration of a style of direct, no-nonsense marketing yield? For example, “This book has more than enough German vocabulary to successfully handle countless conversations, and we’ve tried to structure the lessons in a format that gives the illusion of order to the content. Now it is up to you to actually open this book and put in the necessary effort to not only read the information, but work with it until a level of conversational comfort is developed. Best wishes on your journey!” There are numerous practical applications for this straightforward tone.
You are not up-to-date: Of all adjectives that you might wish to apply to yourself, avoid “up-to-date.” If you truly believe in constant change and adapting to the times, this adjective becomes invalid the second after it is used. How’s this for irony? After seeing this adjective more than once on the back cover of above-mentioned German book, one looks below and sees prices for the USA, Canada, and UK. A quick glance at the exchange rate proves the futility of trying to be “up-to-date” (with the poor Canadians getting ripped off and those with British pounds saving a bit of money).
Enough of the back cover….no one looks at it anyway……
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