Last Blog

Well I think this was it now. The semester is over and SUK as well.
Although first I dindn't really favour the whole blogging think, I eventually got used to it and got the most out of it. But now that it's not compulsory anymore I prefer reading to writing (-:

Bye bye and have a great summer!

another awesome girls evening

Once more we spent a fantastic evening together, eating, drinking and most importantly chatting in English. This time we decided to go "Thomawirt" which is located in the Leonhardstraße. I can honestly reccomend this bar to everybody who is looking for a yammie dinner (try the mexican chicken wings with wedges - but beware-it's spicy) in a terrific ambience. Its nice basement vault makes this place quite romantic, if you're into a romantic dinner. But that's for sure not what the 5 of us were looking for (-:

This time I took a pen and paper with me but surprisingly we didn't really need it. What has happend? Did we improve our spoken English so much recently, or did we just talk about topics we felt more familiar with? Well, I tend to the latter.

Someone wanted to know what's "es faust dick hinter den Ohren haben" and Leo suggests: "to be a sly old dog", which in my opinion isn't a good translation at all.
"vertiefen" was very difficult too, since I've forgotten the context in which we wanted to use it. Maybe we could just use specialize. sorry girls for my bad notes.

I really enjoyed this evening. Having fun with my friends while at the same time doing something useful for university is fantastic, don't you think. Shouldn't it always be like that? (-:

Rebel Music

A friend of us promised to lend us several music dvd's. Being a musician, Grex was immediately enthusiastic and so we have a dozen cool dvd's at home now, most of them about reggea music.

At first I wasn't really fascinated by the idea of watching tons of concerts, but after putting the first one in I realized that these movies not only include concerts but also the stories of the musicians. So two days ago we watched the life story of Bob Marley, the Reggea leggend. I was absolutely fascinated by his life. Did you know that he was only 36 years old when he died? It was in spring 1981 so I was not even born. He suffered from skin cancer but didn't combat the diseas because of his Rastafari beliefes and one day, jogging in Central Park in New York, he suddenly collapsed and died a few months after. Another unbelievable fact is that officially he has 12 legitimate children, but some claim there must be between 22 and 46 little Marleys around!!! Isn't this unbelievable! But the thing that strikes me even more is that he was married the whole time and his wife was one of his three background singers and even had to sing songs he had written for his mistresses - poor wife!

Bob Marley commited his whole life to send a political message and became the spokesman for the people of Jamaica. The music was his power and he knew like nowbody else how to use this powerful weapon. The dvd also portrays how miserable life was back then in Kingston and how he tried to change it with his revolutionary music. It also shows what Rasta or Rastafari really means. It is a religion or philosophy, depends how you like to see it, which accepts Haile Selassie as God incarnate. He was the emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974, who is remembered especially for having modernized the country.

Luckily subtitels were available, because you can't imagine how hard it is to understad a real Rastafari.
check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmIJQusogqw
to see how difficult it is.

Well, I think he was a genius and considering how young he died and how many famous famous hits he wrote he definitely is legendary reggae superstar.

Spiderman 3

Yesterday evening we (Julia, Alex, Susanne and I) were at the English cinema watching Spiderman 3. Although I usually don't really like this typical exaggerated Hollywood movies, I actually really enjoyed all three spidey movies. To be honest I think the 3ed part was even the best as it was very varied. Peter Parker the good boy and Peter Parker the bad boy. It was hilarious when he suddenly changed into that irresistible man (at least for the girls in the movie), who had a totally different appearance and character.

What I liked most were the special effects. It's amazing how they did the scenes with the Sandman and you really have the feeling to be in the movie - that's awesome. Apart from that it was like I've imagined it to be: lots of fighting scenes (too much for my taste) and romantic kitsch throughout the movie (see above). But when you're prepared for that, it is worth watching this movie. Another positive experience was that I wasn't even conscious most of the time to be in an English cinema since this movie was very good to understand, not even the jokes were a problem.

I was really taken aback and also pleased how many people are going to the English cinema. There were a couple of young Austrian boys, maybe around 12 years old, coming out of the cinema when we entered. That's fantastic.

This summer is the summer of the third parts. I'm looking forward to shrek3 and of course Pirates of the Carribean - The worl's end.

Nova Rock Festival

Sometimes you have to post privat stuff to keep the blog interesting (-:

Yippee! We're going to the Nova Rock festival which takes place on the 15.-17. of June somewhere in Lower Austria. So it is immediately after our Final exam. I guess you can imagine how relaxed I will celebrate there. I only hope that don't I mess up entirely and be frustrated then.

Ok, here are some bands I'm extremely looking forward to:
Incubus, The Killers, Mando Diao, Smashing Pumpkins, The Hives, Pearl Jam,...
I'm also looking forward to the definitely extreme and terrific shows of some rather strange bands like Marilyn Manson or Lordi. Well, I can't say I'm a real fan but it's definitely a unique experience. (-:

We're already quite a nice little group of young people who can't wait anymore to go to another crazy, unforgettable festival. Is anybody of you going there too? I think it's the best festival this year in Austria, well, as long as you like this kind of music, of course. Two years ago we were at the Nuke Festival in Burgenland which was absolutely awsome, even though it was raining half the time. It was particularely cool because Jovanotti was playing and I'm a huge fan of him and he really did such a great and unforgettable show.

Well, I will keep you up to date how the festival will turn out to be.

Oral exam

Yesterday I had my oral exam together with Julia and yuchuhh, it was all easy peasy and we got both a 1. Wow, I think this is the first 1 I've got in English at university. That sounds really pathetic, I know, but those who are studying English with me know how hard it is.

Anyway, at the weekend I practiced a little bit with my sister and before the exam I got togehter with Julia to go through the topics. It turned out that this wasn't really essential, since the exam was conducted, thanks to Lisa, in a very relaxed and chatty way. Practicing before was a good speaking activity though.

So for all those who still have the exam upcoming on Thursday, don't freak out, it's not worth being nervous (-:

Almost French

Finally I've finished this book. I know I haven't written a lot about the books I currently read but you know, I'm more into reading than writing (-;

Anyway, I really liked the book, since it portrays these two totally different cultures (Australian-French) in a very authentic and charming way.

The plot, in a nutshell, is that Sarah is backpacking through Europe, meets a French guy, visits him in France, falls in love with him, stays in Paris and finally marries him. That's that (-:

I hate writing summaries as you can see (-;

No, honestly, it's a delightful book, which describes the culture clashes Sahra experiences in a humorous yet authentic way.

What struck me most was that I could kind of identify with Sarah's character. I would describe her as a outgoing, open-minded, straightforward and uncomplicated person and that makes her situation in France very difficult. France is a country where discretion is highly valued and asking personal questions like, what someone does for a living or whether they have children, may be considered inappropriate or even rude. Besides, they are very restrained towards newcomers and have special rules for everything. So it is apparently very very hard for expats to find their way there and to adapt to this totally different culture. France would be just too formal and strict for me. What's more, is the battle among women. They always see each other as rivals and not as potentially new friends. That's something I absolutely despise.

Living in Australia for some time, on the other hand, is something I can imagine quite clearly. It is a great dream of Grex mine to live abroad for a longer periode and Australia is defenitely one of the prefered countries.

I'm happy, though, not to be an expat, since I know from friends that it's no bed of roses and I'm not sure if I could cope with it. You are torn between two nationalities, two cultures, two lives.

Sarah had to adapt to her new life and she has changed a lot during her stay in Paris. She is a warm hearted person but had to learn to be bold and insistant to survive in this big city. I'm not sure if I want to give up my habits and traits to fit into another culture, but that's exactly what you have to do. Well, maybe not give up your identity, but adjust to the situation.

It made me start thinking and I came to the conclusion that for my part travelling is the greatest thing in the world, but I always want to come back home, where my family, my friends and my heart is.

Sorry, once more I got too sentimental. (-:

But it's a topic I'm very into and it interests me a lot.

Scotland is reaching for independence

The Scots are voting today for their new government. For the first time in Scotland the SNP is leading in the survey. Well, if they really win the poll, this could have a crucial effect, because the SNP has a strong tendency towards an independent Scotland. They want to conduct a referendum in three years whether scotland should be independent from Britain. It is pretty amazing when you consider that the so called "Act of Union" was 300 years ago, in 1707 and since then Scotland was part of Great Britain. But there have always been opponents which fight for independence since then.
In the article they claim that one of the most popular supporters of the SNP, namely Sean Connery, has promised to move from the Bahamas back to his homecountry if his party wins. We'll see if he keeps his promise (-:

Almost French

We had to read parts of the chapter six of Almost French of the script. Although I've read it already in the book I went over it again and did some vocab-work. I can remember that I liked that chapter a lot because Sarah struggled the first time with the rather strange seeming behaviour of the French. I can totally understand her embarrassement when she is at this dinner party, since I'm too a very outgoing person and hate it when people at a party are very restrained. Getting to know new, interesting people is a great thing - I really can't fathom the French. But more about it in my next blog about the book - almost french - almost finished (-:
Here is the vocab-list of this chapter.

inhibited	gehemmt	I felt very inhibited when I first joined the new group.
ill at ease	Not relaxed	You always seem ill at ease in your suit. Antonym: at ease
to bridge	überbrücken	The differences between our two cultures can be bridged if we continue to communicate.
dauntless	unerschrocken	When I was young I was dauntless and wanted to explore the world.
inane	dumm, sinnlos	Most pop lyrics are pretty inane.
to take the plunge	den Sprung wagen	We took the plunge and set up our own business. Syn: to take a risk
bourgeois	spießig	She rejected her parents' conventional bourgeois lifestyle.
gaffe	Fauxpas	My champagne gaffe had been far too assertive.
intrusion	Einmischung	My attempts to start a conversation might have seemed to them like an intrusion.
a tinge of	a very small amount of a colour, emotion, or quality Farbton	There was a tinge of sadness in her voice. This glass has a greenish tinge.
to discern	wahrnehmen	I don’t know how he discerned who was a real friend and who not.
to mingle	-In Kontakt kommen -mischen	She was eager to mingle with the other guests. Her excitement was mingled with a slight feeling of fear.
to dispel	beseitigen	To dispel the self-doubt I had, I tried to concentrate on other things.
restrained	verhalten sein	The French people I’ve met so far seemed rather restrained.

Euroeans and their Languages

Mr. Newman provided an interesting Link about Europeans and their Languages at yahoo groups. It is a summary of a fieldwork conducted from November-December 2005 of the European Commission. I think the three main themes focused, are incredibly important in our multilingual society nowadays. They are:

• The long-term objective for all EU citizens to speak two languages in addition to their mother tongue
• Lifelong language learining starting from a very early age
• The importance of education

Being a language learner I feel that these aims are the starting point for a well working multicultural and multilingual Europa.
Some of the results the survey provided were very informative, some even sobering. For example 44 % admit not knowing any other language than their mother tongue. That's quite a high number, don't you think?
English is the most commonly used language in the EU, followed by German, French and Italian. So I guess studying English and Italian was a good choice, at least when I remain in Europe.
It is also mentioned that education is the key and in this point I think Austria is still miles behind. There must be a lot more done in the educational sector to achieve the goal of mother tongue+two. I hope that my children will once have the opportunity to study as many languages as they want. (But to be honest, that will still take a while - with the children I mean (-;

All in all, it's a very informative article and if you haven't read it yet, go for it and see why you are studying languages and why you made the right desicion.

national traits in technology

This week I came across an article in the NY-Times which is about stereotypes of countries concerning technology. It wasn't a very interesting article - at least not for me - I'm not so into technology, but because stereotypes is one of our topics this semester I thought it's worth mention it.

It was called "National Traits and the Nature of Innovation". The author claims that every country has its stereotypes when it comes to technology. Like, for instance, the French lead in technologies that require large government subsidies, so it was clear that the fastes train, with astonishing 575 kilometers per hour, was designed by the French. (It's not designed for transport though - well, what purpose does it have then? I guess the French only want to boast (-: )
The Chinese are only imitators but nevertheless make a very good living from making the products of others. So why change? Finland and Ireland, once agricultural countries, are now booming in the electronic and pharmaceutical sectors.

Well, not very captivating, hu? Next time it will be more interesting or funny, I promise.

The butterfly effect

Yesterday we've watched a fantastic, thrilling movie called the Butterfly Effect with Ashton Kutcher. It's a terrific thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

It's about a young man (Ashton) who suffers from memory blackouts when he finds himself in harmful situations. Since he was seven he kept a diary about his blackouts and many years later he finds out how to remember what has happend back then and is able to kind of travel back in time and change the future. As he uses his powers to try to fix his past and present, the effect escalates, creating alternate realities, many of which are worse than the past that he is trying to change.
Although it is a fiction story it still has a lot of truth in it, which is simply creepy. The title "The butterfly effect" is out of a chaos theory. The phrase refers to the idea that a butterfly's wings might create tiny changes in the atmpsphere that ultimately cause a tornado to appear (or prevent a tornado from appearing).

It's one of the best movies I've watched lately and if you haven't seen it yet - go for it. We've watched it in English with English subtitels which was just fine to understand everything.

Little Britain

As I've mentioned in my last blog I'm absolutely keen on the serial "Little Britain. It's shown on ORF1 every Thursday at around 11 pm. Usually that's bed time for me, I'm not joking (I have to get up almost every day at 7), but Thursday is an exception.
They show exaggerated but hilarious scetches with the same characters every week.
I've just checked out the homepage:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/littlebritain/

My favourites are:

Daffyd - the only guy in the village, at least that's what he dreams of


Vicky: yes but, no but, yes but, no but.... It's hilarious, the only problem is you can hardly understand her (or him) because she/he is talking soooo fast. I can't even manage to read the subtitles (-:

And finally Sebastian and Michael. The prime minister Micheal with his guy aid Sebastian who adores him and is always jealous when another man approaches.

You can also watch some of the sketches online at the above address.
Enjoy some great laughters!

Week 16

• Grammar/Vocab: This week we had our first progress test, so I had a look at everything we've done during this semester so far. I studied vocabs from Jaywalking, "and now" text, ... Looked at the phrases and collocations in the script, the stereotypes of the Irish ect.
• Speaking: We met at Propeller for a funny, informative English evening (see entry)
• Reading: almost finished "Almost French". I hope then I will finally concentrate on Jaywalking, it's just that I don't really feel like it. But next week it's supposed to be another splendid week with lots of sunshine and I'll try to read the book in the park, maybe that helps (-:
• Listening: I forgot to mention that I watch "Little Britain" every Thursday evening. I just love it. If you like the British humour it will be the right thing for you, I promise!
  

Kleine Zeitung Crash-Kurs

I forgot to mention my morning crash-lessons in English (-:

We have a subscription of the "Kleine Zeitung" and in every release there is a sentence in German you have to translate in English. So my day already starts with tiny translation practice. Unfortunately almost every morning I'm very annoyed because I always think, oh that's so easy, and then when I look at the solution it's not quite right. But now, after having attended a few lectures about translation science, I know there is not only one trantslation and I'm happy again (-:

I will write down some morning examples here, when I come across some nice ones (-:

Here is one:

• Ich möchte einen Plan von der Umgebung.

solution:Could I have a map of the area.
"of" not "from" the area (-; In which of Rebecca's table does it fit? Maybe "Relation to"?

Another one:

• Ich hätte gerne einen Termin für Schneiden, Washen und Föhnen.

solution: Could I have an appointment for cut and blow-dry, please.

Would you have translated it like that? For my part blow-dry is really a bit strange, but never mind.
I know the sentences are always a bit weird but it's because they concern everyday life communication, I guess. Anyway, it's fun though.

girls "meeting"

On tuesday evening we (hot chicks from SUK4 (-: ) had a so called "meeting" at the propeller. We confinded ourselfs to only speaking English. At first, I feared that it might not work out, because in this bar we were not forced to speak English, but my doubts were unfounded. We were all eager to discuss the weirdest topics in English and tried to help each other when somebody was lost for words. I think it was a good practice for our oral in May and above all we had a real craig, blast or whatever.

I hope that we'll repeat such an evening asap.

Here are some words we (or I) weren't sure of, which I looked up at home:

• Betrug: fraud - She was found guilty of fraud.
• unverbindlich: without obligation, non binding - The industry has signed a non-binding agreement to reduce pollution.
• Bürstenschnitt: crew cut - without an "s" (-:
• to have a crush on someone: to have a feeling of romantic love for someone, especially someone you do not know well
• Blase: bladder (don't ask what we were talking about)
• Blasenentzündung: cystitis (see above)
  

That's all I can remember at the moment. Next time I will take a notebook and a pencil (-:

ROM TRIP

Ok folks, here comes a little description with some nice pictures of our unfortunately very short trip to the ancient, absolutely wonderful and fascinating city of Rome.



Well, for all those who don't know my boyfriend yet: that's Grex, Gregor, Has (only I'm allowed to say that (-: )

Where should I start? Let's say I was absolutely fascinated from the very beginning on, altough at the beginning we were walking around like zombies, since we haven't really slept the first night. We went by night train from Bruck directly to Rom and didn't have a sleeper car and as if that wouldn't be enough, there were not 6 people in our compartment but 8, cause there were 2 children sitting on the lap of there adults. Well, to cut a long story short, we didn't get much sleep on this train.

But now let's move on to the sights of the city. Grex gave us the nice title of "sightseeing warriors", which wasn't really justified, since we actually avoided the crowds of tourists. If you're one of those crazy people who love mass tourism then go to Rom between Easter and the 80th's birthday of the Pope and I promise you, you won't be disappointed by too less people. No, honestly I've never seen so many tourist in one place and the queue were so long that you always thought there is something great for free - but as you can imagine there wasn't.

Anyway, I still enjoyed it a lot and here are now some pics:


It's a puzzle picture of the Spanish steps - where am I? Found me?
















The Peter's quere taken from the cupula. And in case you wonder: no, there are chairs in the middle of the square not people.



This is the Colloseum which was one of my highlights. We shared an audio guide and so it was even more interesting since we were informed about the background of this phenomenal building.


And may I introduce you the emperor Gregor the great. (-:



This was the only beer you could afford buying in Rom. Peroni, the great Italian beer since 1846. If you just ordered a draught beer you paid Eur 5,-- for a pint.
As you can imagine the big one was for the great emperor and the small for his little girlfriend.

And here am I throwing a coin into the Trevi Fountain to make sure to return one time to Rome.

All in all, I was not only fascinated by the unbelievable historical sights of Rome but. above all, by the life style of the city. I liked the bustling squares and the vivid manner of the Romans. I tried whenever it was possible to comunicate in Italien and they appreciated it a lot. When I was not trying to stammer Italian phrases, I spoke English, even with Grex. So at this trip I practiced my Italian as well as my English. How wonderful (-;

other blogs I'm checking out

I've added now a list of other blogs I'm checking out regularely (see blog links on the left hand). Two of them, the ones about Ireland, are compulsory, the other ones are blogs of my frieds etc.

I've choses Georg's blog since in my opinion it's a very interesting, varied, vivid and good written blog, I can learn a lot from. On his website i also found the blog-link of an American woman who is living in Italy. Since I'm very interested in the Italian culture, I'm glad I came across this interesting blog. I will add some more blog links asap.

Week 15

Since I've been in Rome this week there is not a lot I've done for improving my English this week. Well, actually that's not totally true:

• Speaking:

Given the fact that Grex doesn't speak a word of Italian, except for ordering cappuccino, we decided to speak English instead for our whole stay. We got used to it very quickly and after a while it was nothing special anymore. It was even strange when, on our train back to Bruck, people started talking German (Vienna dialect - even worse) to us.

• Reading:

I continued reading Almost French on the train. Until now I've read about three quaters of the book. I hope I find time to finish it soon, so that I can concentrate on Jaywalking. However, it's going to be quite hard, since I've bought a lot of Italian book, newspapers and so on, I'm very eager to read (-:

stereotypes Austria

Since I only copied the interview last time I will comment it now.

For me, everything Pam claimes in her interview is true in some way. I too, hold the opinion that the formality in Austria is not bearable. I mean this title madness and also the formal way of greeting doen't cast a positive light on Austria. It's even horrible for us not knowing how to greet remote acquaintances, isnt't it? How bad must the situation be for foreigners?

The point that Austrians can be xenophobic at times, I agree with, too. It's a shame, but that's unfortunately how the situation is. And parties like the FPÖ for instance don't help either to improve this outdated attitude of some patriotic, stubborn Austrians. - sorry, but this is something that annoys me a lot. I experienced that Austria isn't really a travel country . I've never met any Austrians on my journies. Well, this could naturally also be due the shape of my small hometown (-: . But still, I think some Austrians are not interested in other cultures and are therefor not open-minded. What's a pitty, since you miss a lot when you do not explore the world.

The positive aspects she mentions are food, art and nature and all of them are definitely the treasures of Austria. I think this is something we can really be proud of or at least we should be thankful to live in such a safe and secure country. When friends from overseas visited me on the countryside in upper styria they were highly impressed and jelaous by the breathtaking beauty of my homeland. They simply loved it - and I love it too. Just yesterday I was hiking with a couple of friends in the area around the Hochschwab where I live. It was absolutely beautiful and I can recommend this to everybody who loves our nature because it's good for body and soul.
Okay, enough for today. (-:

Nerd's eye view - next try

To be honest I'm not really fond of this blog, but we have to check it out, though. I couldn't really find any entries which were remotely interesting for me. The only thing I found worth reading I want to share with you now. It's an interview about expats Pam recently took part in. I picked out the most interesting aspacts concerning culture and oppinions about Austria. I have to appologize for copying this part, but I don't have too much time today - it's Easter sunday and the Easter meal is waiting (-:

Here we go - enjoy:

-What do you think about the Austrians?
I find Austrians are friendly in a formal sort of way. They are absolutely willing to make the effort to communicate with you, and they can be quite a cheerful lot. But I also find their formality stifling. One doesn’t just drop by an Austrian’s home, one is invited. I also find them a bit disinterested in the new, and if you’re a foreigner, that means you. They can be very hierarchical and bogged down in titles – I find it odd that my mother-in-law will say hello from her front gate to Mrs. Lady with Dog even though they have known each other for 50 years. I am sometimes introduced as “Mrs. Husband’s Name” and I never get used to it. I don’t even use my husband’s name, so I have to look around and see who they’re talking about!
I once met a baker who had traveled a lot in the US. He said that he was stunned by how the people he met would invite him home to stay and MEAN it. Strangers he’d met in campgrounds would open their homes to him, let him sleep in their spare room, feed him, and show him around. “It takes an Austrian 10 years to invite you to stay in their home!” he said.

-What are the positive and negative aspects of living in Austria?
Ah, the nature (where we live) in Austria is stunning. The snowy winters, the clean sparkling rivers, it is an outdoor lover’s playground almost all of the year. The food is outstanding, not just the meals you get in restaurants, but the quality of the ingredients you can get in the markets – there is so much less weird chemical stuff in the food. Austria isn’t a particularly challenging place to live, there are no deprivations, and it’s clean and stable and very safe. Austria is the land of Mozart, opera, high culture and art, and there’s plenty to enjoy.
On the downside, in spite of its updated appearance, Austria is old Europe. It’s bureaucratic, painfully slow to adapt to change, xenophobic at times. I dislike the cultural homogeneity and the isolation of nonwhite, non-Christian populations. Austrians dislike change and for this American, accustomed to embracing the new, it’s very frustrating at times.

-Do you have any tips for our readers about living in Austria?
Learn the language, learn the language, learn the language. That’s huge. Embrace nature – it’s one of Austria’s finest resources – I learned to XC ski there and love it. Expect bureaucracy and be patient with it. Things will get done even if it takes nine times as long as you’d expect. Eat cake and plenty of it because cake is high art in Austria. Traditionalists are likely to feel very much at home almost anywhere in Austria – less conventional types should make a beeline for Vienna.

Week 14

This is always an overview what I've done every single week. The longer, more detailed entries can be found under the various labels.

READING:

• other student's blogs
• Krystian's blog (Polish guy)
• NY-times article
• text "and now"
• Jaywalking (until chapter 7)
• Almost French

WRITING:

• text about our fair we had in Rebecca's last class (homework)

GRAMMAR/VOCAB:

• I worked through the chapter "Developing an argument" of our script
• I went through the exercises "do - make" once more and created my own sentences etc.
• vocab work: Jaywalking, Almost French, "and now..."

Gaelic as official language of Ireland

Today I checked out the blog of the Polish expat who moved to Ireland (Krystian Kozerawski)

http://www.drakkart.com/eire2/


The most interesting entry I could find is called: Language as a national identity.

http://www.drakkart.com/eire2/2006/07/18/language-as-a-national-identity/

Since I'm very interested in language related facts and figures I was captivated by this enty.


Last time in class when we discussed the Irish identity I was wondering why only a few per cent in Irland are able to communicate in their official language, Irish (Gaeilge). Well, he has an explanation for this phenomenon.

Given the fact that Ireland faced many invasions, it was very hard to keep their own language alive. Besides, the famine and the emigration didn't help either. Only because of the symbolic meaning Irish has become the official language.

It is still told in school, but hardly anybody is really capable of speaking it. Only in the remotest areas of Irland Gaelic is spoken in every day life. I was surprised to find out at Wikipedia that Irish is an official language of the European Union. That fact seems rather strange to me as English (the second official language) is spoken throughout the country.

Krystian wrote that he wants to learn Irish but he couldn't find anybody who was able to teach him the language. Only some people he met could sing songs or could communicate in Irish. In addition to that he wrote that some of them find Irish cool and sexy, which can be helpful in attracting women or men. ??? Very strange, but obviously that's what he experienced.

I think this decline of Gaelic is also due to the difficulty to study the language. Lisa wrote down some words in Gaelic last class and nobody could pronounce it the right way. It's an exraordinary language, with a lot of letters unpronounced and therefor extremely hard to learn. It's not at all resembling English, like I thought first. (totally different grammar, structure...)

Here is the map where Gealic is spoken:




Not really widly spoken for an official language (-:

The Year in Manhatten without toilet paper

Iiiih, disgusting.
Well, that's the title of an article in the NYT this week. I love those crazy articles. They always make me chuckle. Anyway, this article is about Colin Beavan who is a writer of historical nonfiction and his wife Michelle Colin, a writer at Business Week. They take part in a yearlong lifestyle experiment they call "No Impact". That means that their life should have no impact on the environment. Therefor they are not allowed to produce any rubbish whatsoever, expect organic garbage. In detail this means only eating organic food, using no paper (no newspapers and no toilet paper , of course), using no transportation (no elevator either)...
You might ask yourself, why are they doing this? Well, the only reason is to write a book about it and earn money.
But honestly, is this worth living a year without virtually everything? Beavan sais: "Like all writers, I'm a megalomaniac (Größenwahnisinniger) and I'm just trying to put that energy to good use." Okay, that explains everything (-:

vocab "and now..."

Here are some words or phrases from the text which are, in my opinion, worth learning:

exuberant: happy and full of energy and excitement (überschwenglich)
He is an energetic and exuberant person.
She needs to try and control her natural exuberance.

embellish: to make something more beautiful by adding decorations to it
My sister couldn't help embellishing the story.
She wore a beautiful dress embellished with golden stripes.

to fragment/fragmentation: to break something, or be broken into a lot of small separate parts
The more English spreads, the more it diversifies, the more it could tned towards fragmentation.

hold sway: to have a lot of influence or power
Just as Latin, which once held sway over a great linguistic empire, split into French, Italien, Spanish portuguese and Romanian.
Our traditions in Austria still hold sway.

ponderous: - slow or awkward because of being very big and heavy (schwerfällig)
an elephant's ponderous walk
- boring, very serious, and seeming to progress very slowly
The system, though ponderous, works.

And Now...?

I've just finished reading the text "And Now...? from our script. It was very interesting, even funny to read. It discuss the same topic we've already handled in Welland's class; how English is changing and "feeding other languages". In Rebecca's classed we talked about "Chinglish" and "Indian English".This text provides information about "Singlish (Singapore English) South African English and so on.

It's a matter of fact that pure English will be spoken only by a minority in the near future. And the new variations of English are not only a dialect of English but are getting more and more accepted, also in Europe.

The reason for this, according to scholars, is the growing number of L2 speakers, so for whom English is a second language. They form and shape the new varieties of English.

A new form of English, which has just appeard, is Text English. That's the form of English when writing a text message. Example: 2 mny wds & ltrs? (Too many words and letters), I luv u (I love you) and so on. Melvin Bragg, the author of this text, states that a texting dictionary is already on the streets. (-:

Another funny paragraph of this text discussed new words in the dictionary, or words which are queuing up to be admitted next. Here my favorites:

Zorse: an animal that's a hybrid of a zebra and a horse
Gaydar: an intuitive sense that enables someone to identify whether another person is gay
Earworm: a song or tune that repeats over and over inside a person's head (wow, I had a hard time to remember "catchy tune" and now there is now use for it anymore, because "earworm" exists now (-:
Gayby: a baby born to a surrogate mother on behalf of a gay couple
Uber-nerd: a person with exceptionally poor social skills (i think we should use "Über-nerd" in German too, it's super!)

make - do

I worked on the exercises concerning verbs and idioms with "make and do" today, which we did in class last time. Here are the ones I want to remember and use:

do a good/bad turn: ( to do something that is helpful or unhelpful for someone)
syn: to do a favor
You did me a good turn by driving Molly home last night.
She was only trying to do me a good turn.

be done for: (INF) ( to be in serious troubles or likely to fail)
If we get caught, we're done for.
Alone in the Ghettos of New York, I realised that I was done for.

make amends: syn: make up for, pay penance
He seized the chance to make amends for his behavior.
He tried to make amends for what he's done.

make off with: syn: to steal and take away
Thives broke into the house and made of with several sumptuous items.

do up:
- decorate: The appartment was done up in a special style.
- to fasten: Do up your coat or you'll get cold.
- repair, improve: They did up and old cottage in the outskirts of Graz.
- to be done (shoes): Your shoes need doing up (need to be done), otherwise you'll trip over the laces.

do away with: syn: get rid of, stop
Do you agree that all examinations should be done away with?
I thought the discussion would do away with preconseptions.

Vocab work - Almost French

Here a little excerpt of my vocab work I've just done. Maybe you can use some of them for your own writing.

• to immerse - The idea was to immerse myself in fascinating foreing cultures. (eintauchen)

• preconception - syn: prejudice

• haunt - The Cafe Vianna was a favourite haunt of journalists and actors. (a place that someone likes to go to often)

• conceal (F) - I couldn't conceal the doubt in my voice. syn: hide

• hurtle - All of a sudden, a car come hurtling round the corner. (rasen)

• peal of - We could hear peals of laughter. A loud peal of thunder. A sudden peal of bells.

• at odds - He found himself at odds with his colleagues. The two politicians were at odds over what was the truth.

• to be lost for words - For once in her life, she was lost for words.

I have to appologize for this rather chaotic list of words and phrases but I'm not yet totally familiar with blogging and making organized entries. I try my best to post maybe a table or something similar the next time.

Week 12

WRITING:

• essay: Austrians are... (We had to write a text about the stereotypes, attitudes and traits of Austrians. )
• I'm currently mailing with my sis almost every day. She wants to improve her English too and so we're telling each other what's happening in our daily life.

READING:

• Almost French
• Xenophobe guide (script)

SPEAKING:

• volunteer fair in Welland's class: This was a great opportunity to find out useful information about volunteering abroad and at the same time practice my spoken English. It seemed that everybody had enjoyed this class, me included and nobody was afraid to speak English. That was great.
  

VOCAB: (see Entries vocab)

• Xenophobe's guide
• Almost French
• Jaywalking
• studying vocabs, collocations, idioms and good sentences out of my old vocab book

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.