Jaap GrollemanLearning Chinese has taught me about languageIn high school, I was never good at languages. Not in Dutch — learning advanced grammar — and not in French, German, or English. The…1 min read·Mar 31, 2021----
Jaap GrollemanJudo versus karateVegans have grown a bad reputation because (or so the stereotype goes) they’d call out anyone eating meat — citing that meat is bad for…1 min read·Jul 2, 2019----
Jaap GrollemanRecycling is a massive red herringPhilip Morris launched Mission Winnow for a smoke free world, even though it’s nothing but a sloppy website with pointless terms like…3 min read·Jun 19, 2019----
Jaap GrollemanLANGUAGE IS ABOUT PEOPLE AND ADVERTISING IS ABOUT LANGUAGEIt helps my job to see advertising as a language. Even if it’s not literally a dialogue, you are communicating to someone’s mind, tapping…3 min read·Jun 10, 2019----
Jaap GrollemanStrategy is specific, specifics are semanticsThere is a distinct difference between probability and possibility, between rationality and reason, empathy and sympathy, between dogma…2 min read·May 1, 2019----
Jaap GrollemanStrategy lessons from racingRacing is life under high pressure, and I think advertising (or any industry) can learn a lot from how racing cars are designed.5 min read·Feb 26, 2019----
Jaap GrollemanThe difference between “wangDIFFERENCE BETWEEN “WANG” AND “WOEF”I’ve now taken two months of Mandarin classes, and last week our teacher taught us the words for cat (māo) and dog (gǒu) — and as a sort…3 min read·Jan 2, 2019--1--1
Jaap GrollemanWedding rings bring worlds togetherLake Victoria is a huge fresh water basin that lies in between Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. For over 500,000 years, rainfall and thousands…6 min read·May 18, 2018----
Jaap GrollemanTrees of ShanghaiTwo out of three trees in Shanghai are London plane trees.14 min read·Feb 4, 2018----
Jaap GrollemanTuring TestsAs an individual, we’re never certain whether others have thoughts and inner workings just like our own, simply because we can never look…3 min read·Nov 17, 2017----