Do you have a goal?

Wise Words: goal

A goal can be a personal ambition, as well as the target on a football pitch. Do you have a goal for learning business English?

We’re constantly on the lookout for new ways to help you to reach any business English goal you may have (see Twitter and Language & Skills for our most recent additions). One unique Business Spotlight service, however, has been around since long before Twitter became a trend.

It’s our translation service.

You’ll find German translations of the most difficult words for every article in our magazine in a special word box. Online, if you move your mouse over any word in green, you’ll get a German translation, too.

What’s so special about our translations? Well, they’re in context — which means they are specific translations of words, expressions or idioms for the meaning they have in the sentences in question. They’re not just any possible translation — they’re the best translation!

What happens if you find a word on our website that hasn’t been glossed, and you don't know its meaning? You can look it up in a dictionary. Using a dictionary isn’t exactly new, but there are now new types of dictionaries available online that make language learning more fun — and interactive.

As the words we haven’t glossed are usually less difficult, we suggest that you look up the meaning in a monolingual dictionary. This will help you to get used to using such a dictionary for more difficult words.

But don’t just look up the word in any online dictionary — look it up in the best online dictionary.

If you look to the right of this page, you’ll see the Macmillan Widget. This is a translation tool that you can use if you find a word on our pages that you don’t know. (You can, of course, use it for any word you don’t know from anywhere!) All you have to do is type the word into the box and click on “Search”. A new page will open in the Macmillan Dictionary with a list of possible definitions. It’s up to you to decide which one is correct in the given context, as you would with any dictionary.

Why do we like the Macmillan Dictionary so much? The features it offers will help you to reach your goal. Watch out for any words in red — these are words that occur most frequently in English — and are therefore useful to know. If you see a “T” icon next to the definition of a word, click on it. The "T" stands for thesaurus. Macmillan will provide you with a list of synonyms for this particular meaning of the word. It’s very useful if you’re trying to improve your active vocabulary.

Using the Macmillan Dictionary will make you think. Eventually, we hope, you won’t find any words you don't know on our pages that haven’t been glossed.

So, that’s another goal for you — we hope the Macmillan Dictionary can help you to reach it. Good luck!