The QWERTY layout dates back to 1868. Until then, some letters that were frequently used were too close to one other on the typewriter keyboard, and, when typed in rapid succession, the keys sometimes stuck together.

Jasmin and his colleague Daniel Casasanto, a social psychologist at The New School for Social Research, knew from previous research that the difficulty of using an object affected how positively or negatively people viewed it. The effect is called fluency, and it even seems to affect abstractions such as people’s names. The more difficult it is to pronounce a person’s name, for example, the less likely it is that they will advance in their career. To know more, read Personal Names, Such Important Words!

Cook talked about the iPad as “the poster child of the post-PC era.” Technology is rapidly changing and iPads are becoming increasingly important in education, as we have already blogged about. Apple has in fact sold 15.5 million iPads during the last quarter. Cook said: “We’re talking about a world where the PC is no longer at the centre of your digital world but rather just a device. We’re talking about a new world where the devices you use the most need to be more portable… and dramatically easier to use than ever before.”

Spanish? It’s the second most natively spoken language in the world, the second most studied and the third most commonly used on the Internet, after English and Mandarin. This is still not the journalist’s choice.

Mr. Greene picked French. The Francophonie is an organisation which brings together 56 member states and governments that have a French-speaking heritage, which means almost one third of the world’s countries. Moreover, France attracts more tourists than any other country—76.8m in 2010, according to the World Tourism Organisation.

ABC News wrote that the top three most useful languages for business after English are Mandarin, French and Arabic, with Spanish ranking fourth.

English native speakers don’t learn foreign languages: after all English is not only the first language of some countries, but it is also the rest of the world’s second language. Nonetheless, learning a foreign language produces a cultural awareness that can be useful in business as well as in personal affairs. For example, a capable linguist makes a huge difference when negotiating.