Business_Spotlight_-_Nr.2_2020

82 Business Spotlight 2/2020 TRIBUTE

Fotos: Gert Krrautbauer; privat; ddp

soup to nuts

TRIBUTE

FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES

JARGON BUSTER

Understand the jargon — be careful how you use it

EASY

Please send your

feedback to:

Ian McMaster

Editor-in-chief

Email: i.mcmaster@

spotlight-verlag.de

We reserve the right

to edit comments for

clar ity or length.

Example

“Our customers can expect

excellent support, from soup

to nuts.”

➻ ➻Explanation

In US informal usage, “(from) soup to nuts” literally describes how a multiple-course

meal progresses from its first course, soup, to its last course, nuts. In modern business

English, the phrase is used quite generally to mean “(from) beginning to end”.

Solution: Who am I?

(p. 84)

Taylor Swift, US singer,

songwriter and actor

CLAUDINE WEBER-HOF (1970–2020)

On 16 January, we lost our

dear colleague and friend

Claudine Weber-Hof.

Extremely popular with

the Spotlight and Business

Spotlight teams, Claudine

was made deputy edi-

tor of Spotlight in March 2009, two years after

joining Spotlight Verlag. “Nobody could have

wished for a better person to fill that position,”

says editor-in-chief, Inez Sharp. “Claudine was

dedicated to her work both as a writer and an

editor, and this showed in the energy and con-

centration that she brought to her work.”

Claudine was born in the US and graduated

from Georgetown University with a bachelor

of science in foreign service (cum laude) in 1992.

She received a master’s in architectural history

from the University of Virginia in 1997. After

moving to Germany, Claudine worked at a

number of different publishing houses before

joining Spotlight Verlag as a staff writer and

editor in 2007. You will find her most recent

work here: http://www.spotlight-online.de/Claudine

NICK BRIEGER (1948–2020)

Nick Brieger passed away

on 21 January. For many

years, he was a director of

the training organization

York Associates and wrote

a number of seminal busi-

ness English coursebooks

with his fellow director, Jeremy Comfort. In to-

tal, Nick authored more than 30 books in the

field of language, communication and culture.

After receiving a degree in law and a master’s

in applied linguistics, Nick was a teacher and

teacher trainer in western, central and eastern

Europe — and later in Asia. His main areas of

focus were communication skills, intercultural

competence and high-performing teams.

Nick also wrote regularly on technical Eng-

lish for Business Spotlight. “He was a lovely man,

who combined attention to detail and a won-

derful sense of humour,” says Ian McMaster,

editor-in-chief of Business Spotlight. “Thousands

of business English teachers all around the

world are indebted to Nick for his expertise.

He was a true pioneer in our industry.”

Here we pay tribute to two dear friends and long-standing colleagues who died in January.