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.