Indispensable - Absolutely necessary

Germany: Europe's indispensable power

For years it has been the German creed: a European Germany and not a German Europe.

And yet Germany, with its Wirtschaftswunder - its economic miracle - now finds itself Europe's indispensable power.

Its political class did not seek this role, but in Europe today no major decision can be taken without reference to Germany.

It is one of the great ironies of the eurozone crisis that the single currency, which was designed to bind Germany more closely into Europe, has ended up confirming Germany's strength. For many Germans this remains an uncomfortable truth.

The Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle, recently told his compatriots: "I warn us against any form of Teutonic snootiness."

The Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, said the German economy was "a source of pride" - but he felt compelled to add "not smugness".

For decades Germany had pretended to be less influential than it was. Some wanted the country to be a kind of Greater Switzerland.

All of that disappeared with the eurozone crisis.

As one German paper said: "They're suddenly realising that the world is relying on them to save the euro and avert a disaster for the global economy."

The article continued: "The Germans are going through a crash course in being a leading power."

It has been a painful process. Initially the Germans were criticised for acting too slowly.

They were accused of putting the interests of German taxpayers above the rest of Europe, of lacking solidarity.

Then events - and American pressure - nudged Chancellor Angela Merkel into action.

BBC Ideas

Persuasive Technique
https://www.bbc.com/ideas/videos/the-subtle-art-of-persuasion/p07mbll0

Structural Framework with sample

BBC Example Social media

Structure Steps	Start with	Form It
Problem	Have you ever felt that	Have you ever felt that Social media is hard to resist than cigarettes and alcohol. Social media addiction is in a way contributes to our mental disorder. Without thinking much we end up sharing our personal information therefore the consequence of which is far damaging and inevitable.
Metaphor-Understanding	I have found that	I have found that 3 billion people, around 40% of the world’s population, use online social media – and we’re spending an average of two hours every day sharing, liking, tweeting and updating on these platforms, according to some reports. That breaks down to around half a million tweets and Snapchat photos shared every minute. It is a kind of distraction and non productive. With social media playing such a big part in our lives, could we be sacrificing our mental health and well-being as well as our time? What does the evidence actually suggest?
Statistics and facts	The research tells us that	The research tells us that Social Media isn't so great for our mental health. Today, 70 percent of teens report using social media more than once a day. In 2012, that number was 34 percent. The number of teens with a smartphone more than doubled since 2012, from 41 percent up to 89 percent.
Solution-Call to action	It is now clear	It’s clear that in many areas, not enough is known yet to draw many strong conclusions. However, the evidence does point one way: social media affects people differently, depending on pre-existing conditions and personality traits. Depression, sleep, relationship, stress, envy, addiction, self-esteem, well-being, cyber bullying and hate speech evidently confiscated human behavior in a very bad ways. As with food, gambling and many other temptations of the modern age, excessive use for some individuals is probably inadvisable. But at the same time, it would be wrong to say social media is a universally bad thing, because clearly it brings myriad benefits to our lives. It is wise call we may need to understand the sentiments to what extend we are dealing with. Anything in control and sensible use of it should be acknowledged.

Effect vs Affect

https://www.dailywritingtips.com/affect-vs-effect/

What’s the difference between affect and effect?

Affect is usually a verb, meaning to influence or act upon. Example:

The loss of his father affected him profoundly.

Effect is usually a noun, meaning the result of an action. Example:

What will be the effect of closing Main Street?

Advice None vs Advise verb

When you advise someone, you give advice. One is a verb, the other is a noun. And where does advice come from? Good advice is offered by advisers/advisors. The spelling is the only difference between those two words, and usually adviser and advisor mean the same thing. Spelling it with an e is more common, but either spelling is correct. The spellchecker in my computer marks advisor as incorrect.

Advise vs Advice

caught me off guard

Should I bring this up during an interview or afterwards? I don’t want to catch someone off guard and surprise them

Brett: I have something important to tell you. I love you.

Carrie: Wow.

Brett: What, don’t you love me too?

Carrie: Of course I do. It just caught me off guard.

It may feel a bit out of the blue to the person who receives it. That’s okay. In fact, it’s good. Your goal is to catch someone off guard with a signal that you care, and that you’re thinking about them.

Some connecting words

Up until now, in C# we allow references to be null, but we also allow them to be dereferenced without checks. This leads to what is by far the most common exception 

https://www.smart-words.org/quotes-sayings/english-idioms-commonly-used.pdf

Resistance to change will only hamper the company’s growth and success, likely resulting in other changes such as restructuring and layoffs.

The agency is still considering allowing users to voluntarily self-declare to designated authorities.

The practitioner should obtain the patient’s written permission before forwarding health records that contain sensitive information. 

https://www.dailywritingtips.com/best-apps-to-learn-english/
https://www.dailywritingtips.com/70-dialogue-writing-prompts/

1. unless I’m telling someone they’re cute or beautiful.)
2. hunky-dory – Used lightly, not necessarily ironically, but not seriously. Rarely used in a leader’s speech to the nation in troubled times. First appeared in print in America in 1866, and popularized by a Christy Minstrel song from which I will not quote. The word may have Dutch origins via New York City, originally a Dutch colony, perhaps from hunkey meaning “okay” (1861), which has roots in the Middle Dutch word honc: “hiding place.” The word survives in the practice of “hunkering,” which was the center of a 1959 fad, and later “hunker down” (1965), something meteorologists encourage their listeners to do during a snowstorm. An 19th century children’s Bible song about Noah and his ark says, “This is the end of my story, everything is hunky dory.” (It sounds like something a hipster mammal would say in Finding Dory.) Our professor friend says this word belongs to her mom’s generation.
3. nifty – This dated word has the meaning of spiffy, fashionable or clever: “You found a nifty solution to that problem.” It was first used in the 1860s, such as in an 1865 poem by American Western writer Bret Harte, The Tale of a Pony, describing a fancy horse-drawn carriage:
4. dandy – Good-looking, fashionable. First used before 1800, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary says it was probably short for jack-a-dandy. By the later 1800s, a dandy was a man who cared too much about his looks, always wanted to be seen in the latest fashions, and perhaps wasn’t known for anything else. Like other outdated words, it is often used sarcastically. Though if someone asks you how you are doing, you can say, “Fine and dandy” without sounding facetious. (I like the way an older friend says, ‘Isn’t that dandy? You got a bike for your 13th birthday.’)

https://www.dailywritingtips.com/prepositional-phrases/
https://www.dailywritingtips.com/26-feel-good-words/
https://www.dailywritingtips.com/list-50-compliments/
https://www.dailywritingtips.com/30-sports-idioms/
https://www.dailywritingtips.com/how-the-three-types-of-conjunctions-connect-ideas/