Did you cheat?

Wise Words: cheat

Is it really true that nobody likes a cheat? Tiger Woods and the Greeks have both been criticized for cheating in their own unique ways. However, the Greeks appear to have got off lightly as they’ve got the bailout they wanted and Tiger Woods has already returned to golfing. So, does it pay to cheat?

Not when it comes to learning languages. Carol Scheunemann looks at how people learn in Business Spotlight 3/2010. She talks to teaching experts and outlines the latest teaching trends. She also focuses on different learning styles. She has lots of interesting ideas, useful tips and fun suggestions on how you can learn business English. One of them stands out. Which one? “No cheating.”

If you want to become fluent in English, there’s no point in cheating:

• Don’t look at the answers before you do the exercises!
  
• Don’t mark a word as correct in an exercise if you really got it wrong!
  
• Don’t say you’ll spend ten minutes learning — only to stop after five.
  
• Don’t rely on other people to speak English for you at work.
• Don’t rely on other people to write emails for you at work.

The title of Carol’s article is “Be your own teacher”. Teachers don’t like cheats, so don’t cheat! The only person you’ll be cheating is yourself.

I do recommend “cheat sheets”, however. These are lists of words or phrases that you need to know, for example for writing emails or telephoning, but that you find hard to memorize. If you create your own cheat sheets for different purposes, you may find that you remember the expressions after all. The action of creating a cheat sheet can go a long way to helping you to remember difficult words. Cheat sheets aren’t normally allowed in exams, but they are at work. Our Essential Skills booklets are in a way a special kind of cheat sheet — take a look at them here .

For more learning tips, see our new series: Learning styles and tips.

The meanings and uses of cheat

cheat on sb. = jmdn. (sexuell) betrügen
Sandra Bullock’s husband was cheating on her!

tax cheats = Steuerbetrüger(innen)
Tax cheats should be sent to prison!

cheats = Cheats (Tricks, um ein Computerspiel zu beeinflussen)
I couldn’t get past the dragon so I looked up some cheats on the internet.

feel cheated = sich hintergangen fühlen
I felt cheated when I heard that the boss had got a pay rise — when I had taken a pay cut!