Today is the first United Nations International Happiness Day. The 193 member countries have adopted a resolution to prioritize happiness, and they want your contribution. Today is a good day to start. The UN sees a global attitude change: “People are now recognising that ‘progress’ should be about increasing human happiness and wellbeing, not just […]
Bilingualism sharpens your brain
12/03/2013 by 1 Comment
Tiny Luxembourg can hardly be seen on a world map, yet illustrates perfectly the world today with more people speaking two or more languages than one. Expats arriving in Luxembourg quickly discover how well they can get by in English, French or German, and they marvel at how easily Luxembourgers switch between three or four languages […]
Bilingual babies
16/02/2013 by 4 Comments
Are you worried that your little one has too many languages to cope with? A recent study on bilingualism in babies might reassure you. Many of us have been asked questions about grammatical rules in our own language to which our immediate answer has been: “I don’t really know, it’s just the way it is…”
Young girl in a cyber world
05/02/2013 by 1 Comment
Sexting. Slut shaming. Familiar words? To many young girls they are, and the Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4 recently had a look at these words and their broader context. “Girls are in trouble” psychologist Steve Biddulph says on the show. Sexting: Send sexually explicit photographs or messages via mobile phone (source: Oxford Dictionaries). Slut […]
Light on smart cities
18/01/2013 by Leave a Comment
In an urban picture of globalization, movement of people and economic and technological changes, cities have to think smart to keep up. Luxembourg is really smart for its size, and the city of Aalborg, Denmark gives Nordic light a new meaning. A team from universities in Vienna, Delft and Ljubljana compared the competitiveness and sustainable […]
Cocteau cocktail
11/01/2013 by Leave a Comment
For the 50th anniversary of Jean Cocteau’s death, CLEW mixes a Cocteau cocktail in his honour. “Since the day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying.” His birth was in 1889 outside of Paris, and he was right, death was in no particular hurry. The two met in […]
The multitasking myth
01/01/2013 by Leave a Comment
Women are better at multitasking than men. Researchers put this popular belief to the test, and the results were surprising. The word multitasking easily conjures up an image of a woman cooking while breastfeeding and sorting out expat bureaucracy on the phone. Or that of a man stopping whatever it is he’s doing because you […]
European Year of Citizens
01/01/2013 by Leave a Comment
2013 is designated by the European Commission as the European Year of Citizens. National, regional and local events across the EU, often at a grassroot level, will aim to inform EU citizens about their rights and opportunities. “I am European”, Steven Weinberg said in our portrait of him in this issue. He appreciates what he calls […]
Appy New Year
01/01/2013 by Leave a Comment
No, appy is not French for “happy”, it’s all about a few free expat apps and a couple of Lux apps that might come in handy in the new year.
CLEW 