London tips

“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford,” Samuel Johnson wrote about 240 years ago. It is still true: London is a city with a rich history, Europe's technology hubZentrum, Hotspothub, a multicultural megacity and so much more. In the July-August issueAusgabeissue of Business Spotlight, we to focus oneinen Schwerpunkt legen auffocus on Great Britain‘s multifacetedfacettenreich, vielfältigmultifaceted capital — and how Brexit will to affectbeeinträchtigenaffect it.

Here, we‘ve put together a few tips and stories about London: people who to shapeformenshape the city, books that to captureeinfangencapture its atmosphere, places you shouldn't miss.

London people

Dua Lipa’s Albanian parents left Kosovo for London, where she was born in 1995. She began her musical career at 14 uploading to YouTube coverhier: Coverversioncovers of her favourite songs by artists such as P!nk. Now, it’s her to be sb.’s turnjmdn. ist dranturn, and the video of her “New Rules” song has attracted more than a billionMilliarde(n)billion views on YouTube:
“One, don’t pick up the phone
You know he’s only calling ’cause he’s drunk and alone
Two, don’t let him in
You have to kick him out again
Three, don’t be his friend
You know you’re gonna (ifml.)going togonna wake up in his bed in the morning
And if you’re under him
You ain’t (ifml. )isn’t/aren’tain’t to get over sb.über jmdn. hinwegkommengetting over him”
Along with singing, Dua Lipa loves football, and she was selected to sing at the Champions League Final in Kiev on 26 May.
 

Sarah Mullally became the first female bishop of London, on 12 May. She is now one of the most seniorhochrangigsenior clericGeistliche(r)clerics in the Church of England, the mother church of the Anglican Communion, with some 85 million followers in more than 165 countries. In a powerful sermonPredigtsermon at St Paul’s Cathedral on International nurseKrankenpfleger(in)Nurses Day, Mullally, a former nurse, spoke of the challenge / to challengeschwierige Aufgabe; etw. entgegentretenchallenges to face sb./sth.jmdm./etw. gegenüberstehenfacing London, particularly knife crime. “We need to to speak upsich äußern, das Wort ergreifenspeak up for the whole of London, to work to challenge the violence and the crime that have led mothers to clean their own children’s blood from our pavement (UK)Gehsteigpavements,” she said.

London film

Bohemian Rhapsody. Rami Malek to star as sb.jmdn. spielen (in einer Hauptrolle)stars as Freddie Mercury in this film about the 15-year period from the formation of Queen up to one of the greatest shows in the history of rock music, the band’s performance at Live Aid in the summer of 1985 at Wembley Stadium. Freddy Mercury died of Aids at the age of 45 in his home in Kensington, West London, on 24 November 1991. release dateErscheinungsdatum; hier: KinostartRelease date: 2 November 2018
 

London books

A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond. A small bear arrives in London from Peru in 1958 to make a better life. The Brown family finds him sitting at Paddington Station and takes him to their home, near Portobello Road. The rest is book-selling history and Paddington has charmed millions of readers with his big-city adventures down the decadeJahrzehntdecades. In a 2012 story, Paddington board a busin einen Bus einsteigenboards a bus, only to be told by the driver that he needs “an oysterAusterOyster”. He goes to the fish market and buys two oysters (for a return trip (UK)Hin- und Rückfahrtreturn trip), reboards the bus and tries to put one into the electronic reader: “A moment later, all was chaos.” Paddington learns that an Oyster Card is a public transport card. London keeps changing and people need to change, too, says Paddington.

Our Kind of Cruelty by Araminta Hall. Today, only the super-rich — the .0010,001.001 per cent, not the one per cent — can hope to buy a homehier: Haus; Wohnunghome in some parts of London. These elite streets, where wealthy Russians, Arabs and Chinese invest in houses for political security, are the settingRahmen, Hintergrundsetting for Hall’s new erotic thriller. Mike and Verity, a well-offwohlhabendwell-off couple, enjoy sexual role-playing games and their favourite aphrodisiac involves Verity to allow oneself to…sich … lassenallowing herself to be almost to seduce sb.jmdn. verführenseduced in a nightclub before Mike appears at the last moment to save her. But when Verity decides to marry another man, Mike takes the game to a higher level, with dramatic results for everyone. (Get Our Kind of Cruelty in our Sprachenshop.)

London places

To get away from it all, take a walk up Primrose Hill. Although it is only 78 metres high, it offers a magnificent view of the whole of London. A sign points out the various landmarks. Primrose Hill is just north of Regent’s Park, between St John’s Wood and Camden Town.
 

The 22 Bishopsgate tower, also known as “the pinnacleGipfel, SpitzePinnacle”, with a planned height of 278 metres, will be the tallest skyscraperWolkenkratzerskyscraper in the City when completed in 2019. The original design, nicknamedmit (dem) Spitznamennicknamed “helter-skelterholterdiepolter, Hals über KopfHelter-Skelter” because of its twistedverdrehttwisted form, was to drop sth.etw. fallenlassendropped in favour of a simpler straight form. Of the 120,000 square metres of office space on 62 floors, 15 per cent will be made available for small businesses and start-ups. It will also include a public viewing gallery with free entry to the upper floors.

London language

Samuel Johnson spent nine years writing his Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1755. The hard work was made easier by the company of Hodge, his cat. Hodge is remembered outside the house he shared with the lexicographer and Barber, Johnson’s black manservant and heir. The bronze statue shows Hodge sitting on a copy of the dictionary, with the inscription “a very fine cat indeed”. 17 Gough Square, London EC4A

Oliver Kamm trained as an economist and spent 20 years in the City, where he was head of strategic researchForschungresearch at Commerzbank Global Equities. Following in the tradition of Johnson, Kamm became interested in English and now he’s a writer at The Times newspaper. He’s also the author of Accidence Will Happen: The Non-Pedantic Guide to English Usage. Kamm says: “English reflects what its users say and write.”

The language of Johnson and Kamm is continually changing, as an analysis of nearly one billion tweets shows. This was presented on 17 April at the Evolang International Conference on Language Evolution in Poland by Jack Grieve. Among the words he highlighted were “gainz”, which describes the increased muscle mass from working out at the gym; “baeless”, a synonym for single; “celfie”, an alternative spelling of selfie; “litt”, meaning “good”, and “yaaaas”, an alternative to “yes”.