what a relief...

...I've chosen a book which is perfect for me (after the first chapters of jaywalking I'm a bit frustrated). Almost French is funny, not too hard to read and yet it contains a lots of nice phrases and idioms I can use for my own writing. I just like the way the author is writing.

I've already read the first chapters. Sarah (27) is travelling around Europe and meets a Frenchman who invites her to come to Paris for a couple of days. Well, and I guess that's were she ends up forever. So, obviously it's a love story, but not a typical one. It's a lot about cultural clashes and and the struggle to adapt to her new home.

Ok, I keep you posted.

sound of music

Finally I've watched "sound of music". The movie which shows how the rest of the world sees Austria. That's at least what I experienced when I was in Australia. They couldn't believe that I've never seen this movie. Now I know why in Austria this movie is widly unknown. It is an exaggerated "Heimatfilm"with a lot of kitschy scenes and simply too much singing and also too lengthy (3 hours!). It was a very funny evening though, because we fast-forward at the musical scenes and the dancing part looked very funny then.

"Sound of music" was a very successful Broadway musical in the 1960s. The plot is about the singing Trapp family. I've heard that it's based on a true story but lots of details are made up.

Nevertheless, I think you should've once watched it to know what it's about. The movie not only depicts the beautiful countryside but also the situation before the 2nd world war in Austria. Certainly there are a lot of stereotypes shown in this movie, but everybody who is a bit open-minded will realise that this is just an overstated hollywood movie and not real Austria.

Nerd's eye view

I just had a glimpse at nerd's eye view. wow, this is nothing you can compare with my miserable blog. I need more time to check out the entire (ok, maybe not entire, entire) blog. I've already read the info in our script and so I already know who she is and what it's about and I will not tell you again.

more about it when I find some interesting entries.

Almost French

Finally I've decides which second book to read besides Jaywalking: Almost French by Sarah Turnbull.

I've already read "a year in the merde" by Stephen Clark and it was really fun. I liked the way he portrayed the stereotypes of France. I know that you can't take this serious because you should never generalize and yet it's funny.
If somebody likes that kind of books too, I have to reccomend this one:

"Keiner ist so toll wie wir" Blöde Briten, frustrierte Franzosen und 36 weitere hoffnungslose Fälle (die schönsten Vorurteile Österreichs auf einen Blick) von Markus Huber/Robert Treischler

I know it's in German (sorry Lisa) but sometimes you need to read a German book again AND it's simply sooooo hilarious but only if you don't take it serious.

Anyway, I've ordered "Almost French" at the English bookshop and hope it's fun to read and not so challenging like Jaywalking.

Oh, by the way, I've also read "round irland with a fridge" by Tony Hawks and can reccomend this one too, if you're into strange, yet funny books.

You want to win the lottery?

I found this "odd" statistic in the NYT today:

What are the Odds?

Lottery officials put the odds of winning the next Mega Millions jackpot at
1 in 175,711,536

The odds of someone in the U.S. being hit by lightning during a year are much better. Experts put them at about
1 in 280,000

The odds of dying in a lightning strike are about
1 in 3,000,000


So what does this tell us? Don't spend your money on buying lottery tickets, watch out instead for lightnings (the odds here are much bigger)

For nostalgic Irish, soil is available by the bag

This is the headline of an article I've just read in the NYT. There is a company in Irland which ships Irish dirt to the States. It's crazy, but the business is growing. I have to quote some statements of this article:
"If only I had a bit of dirt, just to have the feel of the old country, just a little bit of Ireland to throw on the casket.
casket (AE) = Sarg
The founder of the company said that the soil was often tossed atop coffins or sprinkled on grass over graves. wow
The customers are also attracted by the legend of Irish luck. And there are a few unbelievable stories, like a native of Country Cork spent $148.000 on Irish soil to spread it under his ous in Massachusetts.
Isn't this ridiculous. Well, some people don't know what to do with their money, I guess.

Here is the link in case you don't believe me. I've already checked it out: 4 bags of Irish dirt cost about $20. Not too bad, hm?

Rom-Trip

Yippieh, I'm going to Rom during the easter break for a couple of days.

I know this has nothing to do with studying English in particular, but I thought it's a good idea to write about my short trip (only 4 days) and use it as an opportunity to improve my written English. Grex and I are going by train, since this is the cheapest possibility. Since Italian is my second language and I've never been to Rome before, I can't wait to explore this ancient city.

Well, more about it when we're back, that means after the easter break, with a lot of new, wonderful and unforgettable impressions that I'd like to share with you.

Week 12

READING:

• Jaywalking: Chapter 4
• New York Times: various articles
• Text "About Nerd´s Eye View as well as the appropriate homepage
• various homepages about volunteer work (project Welland)
• 2 texts about "Chinglish" and "Indian English"

LISTENING:

• Columbo (see entry)

VOCAB:

• vocab from the "Chinglish" and the "Indian English" texts (I prepared a synonym quizz)
• vocab Jaywalking (picked out some worth learining words)

Columbo episodes

Explanation why I was watching a lot of Columbo series lately:

My boyfriend is an absolutely Columbo fan (I know this sounds weird, but to be honest I like it too, since this character played by Peter Falk is just "terriffic" - like Columbo always uses to say). Anyway, Grex got the first season as a present and so we`re watching every now and then an episode in English. I hate it when the music starts and the first charachter shows up and Grex shouts out:" Oh, I know this one, it`s the one where....." But, never mind, it`s obvious anyway in every episode who is the murder, so it`s still fun to watch.
Language wise I observed that the first episodes are more challenging, since there is the original tone (later on it`s dubbed) and so the side noises are very loud. Explanation again: Grex studies sound engineering, that means I`m well informed about that kind of technique.

Well, if anybody wants to borrow a Columbo series, just tell me and if you need any further information on Peter Falk, you know who`s the expert (-:

week 11

Reading:

• I read the first two chapters of Jaywalking with the Irish
• I went through some reviews for the tiny book presentation
• "Proseminar" an English scientific text by Munday with some new words (see below)

Writing:

• e-mail to my friend in California
• blog writing (I know this doesn't belong in here, but otherwise this writing entry looks so pathetic (-;

Listening:

• I watched the documentary Super Size Me from Morgan Spurlock (I've seen it already, but it's worth watching it another time - just sooo shocking!)

• Yesterday we watched the movie "Walk the Line". I really like those music movies (I loved the film "Ray"). At the beginning it was incredibly hard to understand the young boys but after a while it a was okay. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon are acting brilliant.

Speaking:

• okay, next week!!!
  

article New York Times

Last week I've read in the New York Times an interesting article called " Reaching for a better life". It was about young Vietnamese women seeking Korean husbands. Since there is a lack of marriageable female Koreans, also due to the rising social status of women, the Korean men are looking for female partners in other countries, especially poorer countries like Vietnam.

It was a very shoking article, which made me start thinking of just how different the western and eastern cultures are. Those young women, some of them barely 18, go to Korea voluntarely to have a better life there and to marry a man who they've never seen before. Inconceivable for me.

Chapter 1-2

Up to now I'v read the first two chapters of David Monagan's book "Jaywalking with the Irish". I have to admit that it's very challanging to read, since there are heaps of words I don't know. For me it's simple too descriptive. What I like, though, is the humor of the writer (as far as I can understand it)

It starts with the scene where the protagonist is at a barber and feels very uneasy since the hairdresser is an Iraqui and didn't hide his contempt towards Americans. He said: "we are at war" and his siccors suddenly appeard dangerous (-:

Then, there are a lot of Brithsh words he (damn, what's his name?) encounters and compares it with American English, e.g.

• First floor (AE) - ground floor (BE)
• potato chips (AE) - crisps (BE)
• ...
  

Although I can remember that we said "crisps" when we were in America.

Anyway, the family settled down in a very charming house, the children have found friends immediately and everything seemed almost perfect, despite some unexpacted incidents, at which point he considered if this adventure was the right step or simply an imprudent dullness.

Tom Wolfe

Before I started reading "Jaywalking with the Irish", I was reading "Bonfire of the vanities" by Tom Wolfe.
Last year I read his new bestseller "I am Charlotte Simmons", which was a very hilarious yet challenging book to read. I can reccomend it to everybody who likes funny books but you have to be a bookworm, since it has 770 pages!!!.
Anyway, this other book, Bonfires of the vanities, is so challenging that I already considered to give up. It's not only difficult to read but also very lengthy. The plot, though, sounds interesting. A wealthy man working in the wall street, considers himself as "master of the universe" and is absolutely full of himself. But then he gets lost in the getthos of the Bronx and he runs over a black man and his whole life changes in a few seconds. So it's about the clash of the very rich and the very poor in New York.
Well, I intend to continue perhaps in the easter holidays when I'll have more time. Tell you more about it then.

little tiny book-presentation

Today we have to present a book from the booklist. We, or better I, have accidentally chosen "Driving over Lemens" by Chris Stewart. Actually we wanted to take "On a shoestring to Coorg" but I signed in the wrong line. Never mind! This book we present now sounds great.

During my research I also came across some new expressions:

• peasant = bäuerlich Bauer (a peasant farm in Spain)
• thrive = gedeihen, blühen (watching his baby daughter Chloe grow and trive there)
• darn = verflixt (the book is so darn good that...)
• folly = Torheit, Narrheit (He persuades his wife to take part in this folly)
• idyll - pronunciation /'idil/

I haven't decided yet which second book I'm going to read. I will listen to the presentations today and make my decision afterwards.

First entry

This is my learning blog for SUK4 where I will record "my week in English" as well as other more or less interesting events or whatsoever concerning English.

Admittedly, I haven't any clue how this is working. The only thing I' able to do so far is posting, which is anyway the most important fact.

I'm confident, however, that I will find out soon how to use this tool properly.