language learning blog

Vocab A-Z

2007-07-03T01:43:00.000-07:00

This my very last entry about vocab, I promise! I have just uploaded the documents "Vocab A-Z" directly to my blog and I am going to put a link to our wiki! That´s it for the next two month, I think, because today I am starting to work and I don't think that I'll have much time for English (or for studying in general).

However, I am still not quite sure if this is my very last blog entry. At first, I wasn't convinced of this project, but in the end it turned out to be rather interesting. So, we'll see what is going to happen with this language learning blog... the future will show! Have a nice summer and enjoy your holidays! Bye!!!!

No wetbacks any more...

2007-06-26T23:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I read a couple of very interesting NYT-articles, most of them on the topic of immigration. This seems to be a never-ending issue in the USA. One article, however, especially caught my attention, because it reminded me of Kathi’s presentation about illegal immigration in the U.S.. Kathi mentioned that they were trying to build a fence along the Mexican-American border in order to make it harder for illegal immigrants to cross it.

Now the Homeland Security Department is building a virtual fence in Arizona, which consits of nine towers with radar and high-definition cameras to scan 28 miles of border. Known as Project 28, for the 28 miles of border, the virtual fence is part of the Secure Border Initiative, a mix of technology, manpower and fencing intended to control illegal border crossings. Thousands of agents will be hired and officials expect to have about 600 kilometers of physical fencing by the end of 2008. After the system is fully functioning, the net will be very tight. Officials estimate total cost of the initiative at $7.6 billion. If successful, hundreds of such towers could be installed along the Mexican and Canadian borders.

But problems with the equipment have forced the project to miss its starting date and Boeing, which has a million contract to develop the project, is not providing a new completion date. They said that they would prefer a delay over starting the project with malfunctioning equipment. The Congress, however, is questioning why the problems were not disclosed at a hearing on the project, it was only afterward that the delays came to light.

The cameras, activated by radar, beam high-quality images of targets miles away, making it possible to determine whether they are watching a family or a group of illegal immigrants. The information then flows over a wireless network into laptops and the officials are able to respond quicker to criminals. With much of the Mexican border, officials consider virtual fencing an improvement to distant agents and physical fences that illegal immigrants knock down.

However, residents near the towers have raised concerns, questioning why most towers are miles from the border and whether they will allow unscrupulous agents to peer into their bedrooms. People value their privacy, and are not used to being observed.

Fair is foul, and foul is fair

2007-06-21T11:32:00.000-07:00

Hello again! I am sorry that I didn´t write anything recently, but I was very busy studying for my other courses. The last few weeks were extremely stressful and I am glad that this semester is soon (very soon indeed) over. I am really looking forward to finally going back home. Do you know what I missed most, especially in the last couple of weeks? My lovely air-conditioned room back in Carinthia. I really can´t stand this heat here in Graz any longer.

However, I still managed to write something for English today, although I am not quite sure about the quality of this entry as I am not really able to concentrate that well. So, what is this entry all about? Well, I don’t know if you are interested in this topic, but today I would like to tell you something about “witches”. You will probably wonder why I decided to write something about these legendary creatures. In fact, I was inspired by the presentations on Wednesday, which were all very interesting and interactive. To my mind, my fellow students chose great topics, but unfortunately we didn´t have enough time to discuss all of them in greater detail. That´s why I decided to write something about ‘the myth of the witch’, as this topic is somehow related to Sabine’s presentation, isn’t it ?!?

THE MYTH OF THE WITCH

“When shall we three meet again?
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
When the hurly-burly’s done.
When the battle’s lost and won.
That will be ere the set of sun…
Fair is foul, and foul is fair
Hover through the fog and filthy air.”

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 1

According to the Dictionary of Word Origins by Joseph T. Shipley, the word “witch” has its origins in the ancient Anglo-Saxon word wicca, which could mean “witch” or “wizard”.

The witch, in one form or another, whether in a positive or negative sense, has been an important part of humanity for a long, long time. Some say the origins of the witch date back thousands of years to human pre-history, to the days when the Goddess was worshiped and humanity had great reverence for the powers of Nature and for women as creators of new life.

Prior to the 14th century witchcraft was popular among various European peoples, and it was more or less tolerated by the hierarchy of the Church. It is important to remember, however, that witchcraft didn’t mean demon-worship, as it was later branded. Rather, witchcraft came to mean a collection of beliefs and practices including healing through spells, mixing unguents, doing magic and forecasting the future. The witch functioned more like a priestess than an evil sorceress.

From the late 14th century to the early 18th, the hierarchy of Christianity essentially turned its back on the peaceful and compassionate message of Jesus and substituted instead a fanatical rage of intolerance and paranoia aimed at anyone suspected of being a witch. Almost anyone could be accused of being a witch or a devil worshiper during this reign of terror, often referred to as ‘The Burning Times’. At that time of extreme suspicion, women were the most vulnerable to these wild accusations. Needless to say, a woman who practiced herbal medicine was in a severly precarious position.

A societal contempt for the status of women eventually led to the belief on behalf of Church authorities that the devil could easily seduce women to join him. This explained why most of the accused witches were female. It was believed that witches would travel to sabbats where they would consort with the devil and even engage in sexual relations with Satan.

By the late 14th century and certainly by the 15th, the persecution of witches began in earnest. The Church had gone from a somewhat tolerant disbelief in witches to a fanatical doctrine toward the existence of witches and their alleged alliance with Satan. Accused witches were burned to death, hanged, drowned or crushed to death under heavy stones. Many would die under torture during the inquisitor’s attempt to extract a confession of witchcraft.

Although there were many witch hunters over the centuries, one of the most notorious was a traveling lawyer called Matthew Hopkins from Protestant England. He was a fraudulent inquisitor who made a nice business for himself killing innocent people in the name of God, of course. Like many other witch hunters he used a witch pricker, a sharp needle-like device to stick at the “witches’ mark” on the witch’s body. One test to prove the accused was a witch was the lack of pain if the mark was stabbed slightly. Another insane method used for hunting witches was the ‘Water Test’. Women bound were thrown into pools of water and if they sank, they were innocent. But if they floated, they were presumed guilty of witchcraft and murdered.

The ‘Burning Times’ was one of the foulest periods in the history of Western Civilization- a time when compassion gave way to prejudice, when simply being different could result in the most sadistic and brutal tortures and eventually death.

Sources:
- Dictionary of Word Origins by Joseph T. Shipley
- World Book Encyclopedia
- http://www.parascope.com

Tales of Life Abroad

2007-06-13T12:46:00.000-07:00

Hello my fellow sufferers! So, many English students tend to get nervous on the eve of the final, but I´m not planning to do this today. I will stay calm and concentrated and I will just go over my notes again to summarise what I have learned so far. But I would also like to upload an interesting blog entry, so I thought why not writing about the second book I had to read for English. I guess you are all very interested in my personal thoughts about “A House Somwhere”, aren’t you?

To begin with, I would like to quote from the introduction, which was written by Don George and Anthony Sattin, the two editors of this collection of travel stories.

“It’s a potent scenario: you´re on a trip somewhere […] and suddenly you see a place that exerts a kind of mysterious attraction on you. […] It’s not logical, but you’re irresistibly drawn there, and after you return to wherever you came from, you spend all your time thinking about how to get back to that enchanted place. This chance encounter will change your life forever.”

Visiting a place that has an outstanding pull on your heart and then wanting to establish some sort of residence there is not an uncommon travel experience. In fact, that is the main theme that all the pieces share: settling down in a foreign country. This book has selections from twenty-six different authors on this theme. Eight essays are original works by authors who include Isabel Allende, Simon Winchester, and Jan Morris. Others come from well-known books such as Mayle’s A Year in Provence, Mayes’s Under the Tuscan Sun, Emma Tennant’s A House in Corfu, Niall Williams and Christine Breen’s O Come Ye Back to Ireland, and Tim Parks’s Italian Neighbors. There’s a delightful variation, with stories from all over the world. The stories are set in the Philippines, Paris, Provence, the USA, Italy, Kenya, Singapore, Mexico, Ireland, Morocco, Japan, China, Egypt, Thailand, Turkey and Greece.

There´s one thing this book proves: the nicest way to get to know a place is to live there for a while, having enough time to catch the rhythm of the place and to get to know the local people. The mood is mostly light-hearted and humorous and the essays provide both entertaining and enlightening anecdotes about overseas living experiences. I enjoyed them all, because they made me appreciate electricity, paved roads, and being able to turn on a faucet and drink the water. I love such stories about people living in a cross-cultural situation, because they remind me how lucky I am to get to live in Austria. Don´t get me wrong, I really love travelling. It so much fun getting to know different people, visiting fascinating places and exploring a new culture. However, I don´t think that I will ever be able to find a place somewhere else that convinces me of leaving Austria forever. To my mind, Jan Morris puts it well in the opening essay, “Home Thoughts from Abroad:”

“And I know well, too, the delectable thrill of moving into a new house somewhere altogether else, in somebody else’s country, where the climate is different, the food is different, the light is different, where the mundane preoccupations of life at home don’t seem to apply and it is even fun to go shopping. […] However, I never felt entirely comfortable, entirely natural, in those delectable foreign homes.”

As I have already mentioned, reading this book was a real pleasure, because sometimes I even had the feeling that I was travelling the world myself. Yes, I think that´s what I liked most about this book, namely that it offered me the possibility to visit all those exciting and beautiful places without leaving my own little dull room. I also enjoyed the fact that there is no direct connection between the different chapters, they are arranged independently. That’s great because it allows you to start reading wherever you want without missing anything that has happened before. As far as vocab is concerned, there was one thing that really surprised me. You cannot even imagine how many words from the “Jaywalking with the Irish” glossary were also used in this book. It was amazing and it really lightened my mood, because now I know that trying hard to memorise all those new words was not for nothing. Sometimes, however, I still had difficulties with reading this book above all when I came across all those expressions written in a foreign language I am not at all able to understand.

My favourite story

If I were to choose my favourite story (which is very hard indeed) it would probably be “Digging Mr Benny´s Dead Uncle” by Rolf Potts. Potts’ first book, “Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term Travel” was written in Ranong, Thailand. In fact, the story I chose tells about the process of writing this book and I decided to pick it because it´s hilarious (it really is!), but it also reveals a lot about what it is like to live in a foreign country.
So, as I´ve already mentioned, Potts moves to this sleepy town in Thailand not to get to know the local culture or to explore the beauty of the landscape but to write this book. So, in the beginning he lives in total isolation and just focuses on his work. Then one day, however, he goes to a local barbershop to have his hair cut and gets to know Mr Benny, a thin old barber with a moustache, thick spectacles and some faded crucifix tattoos. This odd character tells Potts a tale about how he had to travel to the USA in 1993 to digg out the bones of his uncle Benedict, who had already died fourty years ago.

I have just been told in class that Kathi has already written about the same story and I think she did a great job. So, if you would like to know more about Mr Benny´s amusing anecdote, just have a look at her blog.
What I would like to mention, however, is how this experience influences Potts’ opinion about Thailand in general and the local people in particular. The fact is that after his first visit to this dusty and outmoded barbershop, Potts isn´t able to concentrate on his work anymore. It is somehow impossible for him not to reflect on this quirky encounter as he was only told the first part of the story and many questions keep lingering in his head. That´s why he makes a habit of visiting Mr Benny`s barbershop whenever he passes through central Ranong. He also starts to enjoy conversations with other local people and as time flies he begins to feel more a part of this little southern Thailand border town. In sharing the bizzare tale of his dead uncle, Mr Benny has broken through his tunnel vision and allowed him to glimpse a piece of Ranong for the first time.

Desperate Houswife....... no, not really!

2007-06-11T13:57:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody! I have to admit that the last few entries weren’t that thrilling and I wonder if there is still anybody reading my blog. In case there is still someone left, I would like to proudly present an expat blog I absolutely enjoyed reading. Now some of you might ask, “Why did she ENJOYED (past tense) reading it?” Well, I didn’t give up reading this amazing blog, in fact I read every single entry. However, the women writing it left the foreign country she was living in and so now she doesn’t have anything to write about…. What a pity! I am serious now, you have to believe me. It really was a pleasure to read this blog and I even became kind of addicted to it.

By the way, those of you who regularly read Birgit Böck´s entries might notice that my blog report has a familiar ring. It is true, I am guilty of choosing the same expat blog. But in order to understand my motivation, I have to inform you about my tedious search for a good blog in my second foreign language, BKS. So, you would think that finding such blog is child´s play, especially if you have three diffrenet countries and languages to choose from. However, quite the contraty seems to be true. Please, believe me, I tried hard to find a different blog, but I couldn’t. I had a look at a vast number of blogs about Croatia as this is the country I am interested in most. However, the majority of them were of poor quality when it comes to content or style and sometimes I couldn´t even identify if they were really written in English. Moreover, most of the time I couldn´t even find a single entry that seemed to be culturally relevant. It is obvious that a lot of people don´t care much about the style and content of their blog, they just try to stay in contact with their family and friends back home. From time to time, however, I came across a blog that seemed be interesting and worth mentioning. For example, for a while I read a blog about the whole area of southeast Europe and it really seemed to be promising at first. It was called “Balkan Baby” and what I liked most was the great variety of different topics, which ranged from sports to politics. In addition to that, there were many entries about Croatia and its most popular tourist attractions. However, didn´t like the style, sometimes it was rather informal and not amusing at all. So, despite my qualms I decided to tell you about the blog “Desperate Serbwife”.

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To begin with, the blog was written by Brooke, an American moving to Belgrad, Serbia, not because of any particular connection to this country, but because her husband was offered a job there. She kept this blog for about fifteen months until she returned to the USA to accept a job offer there. (As you can see, Americans are very likely to move somewhere else for better job prospects) So, blogging really seemed to be a cure for her expat blues as she mainly used her blog for telling her friends and family about what it is like to live abroad in a country that is vastly different from her own when it comes to culture and language.

Because of her difficulties to learn the new language and to find her way around in a new culture, she was sometimes rather frustrated at the beginning of her stay. For example, she was totally disgruntled, because she wasn´t even able to read the street signs or the instructions on food packages as they were all written in cyrillic. That´s why she had a few hilarious encounters with some local people in Serbia. Her maid, for example, had to explain to her that the powder she had identified as dishwashing powder was actually tub and tile cleaner. Or the only answer she was able to give when a salesperson asked how much she wanted of something was “pola kilo”, meaning half a kilo. That was fine for things like meat or potatoes, but when it came to red peppers, for example, it was a bit of a problem. She was also annoyed by the fact that taxi drivers always charged her too much just because she wasn´t able to speak the local language. They seemed to hear an accent and decided that she had to be rich and wouldn’t mind or even notice paying twice as much as people without an accent. So she was eager to learn Serbian in order to understand what people are saying to her and what is going on. And she quickly realized that by learning Serbian, she would be able to speak Bosnian and Croatian too. To be perfectly honest, that´s also why I chose Croatian as my second foreign language although I also had to start from scratch.

However, even if she had been able to speak the local language perfectly well, she would have still faced many problems that cannot be avoided when moving to a foreign country. Generally speaking, it is always difficult having to get used to a different lifestyle and this process of adapting always needs some time no matter where you go. That´s why she also had some bad experiences while acclimatising herself to this different culture. For example, she was very annoyed having to buy adapters and converters for every single appliance as the voltage used in Serbia is twice as high as in America. She also mentioned that streets were a serious problem as there were scores of potholes, sometimes even sections were missing, but the streets never received any repairs. Sometimes she complained about the high gas prices or about the huge amount of disgusting cars that polluted the environment and made the lungs of Belgrade residents black by emitting thick black clouds of exhaust fumes. In addition to that, it was very difficult for her to understand the Serbian way of living. For instance, one thing that she surely won’t miss is the smoking. It drove her crazy to sit in smoke filled cafés, ride in taxis while the driver was smoking or walk behind people who blew that disgusting filth from their lungs. And she was shocked by the driving habit of the local people, who seemed to be speed-addicted maniacs without any regard for the rules. The incessant horn honking upset her most as people even tended to honk at drivers in front of them who couldn’t turn right because of an old lady crossing the street. She also pointed out the bad bus etiquette. Not that people only refused to scoot in towards the window, they also refused to let you off. So you had to get ready to immediately jump off the bus when the doors opened. Sometimes Brooke even made fun of the Serbian belief that cold weather was making you sick. People there think that if you walk outside with wet hair, you will get a headache and if you sit on a cold surface, you won't be able to have children. I am not quite sure what other students in our course think about this topic (as we are quite international), but I was told exactly the same when I was a little girl.
Brooke also had a hard time finding a job at first as she was rejected without being talked to or even considered for positions. Finally, however, she got a volunteer position as an advocacy advisor. To my mind, her reaction to this job offer was typically American, because even though she wasn´t paid for her job, it still fulfilled her need to do something productive with her time.

Overall, however, she had many more successes than failures and after a while life became quite comfortable and happy in Serbia. She adored her apartmant which was just huge and beautiful and the neighbourhood they were living in was just perfect. They lived just outside the city center, not far away from a traditional open-air market and a small park and there were tons of cute restaurants and stores all around. In addition to that, it did not take her long to make many new friends as people were disarmingly friendly, helpful, very kind and welcoming. She was also relieved to find out that Belgrad was an amazingly safe city! All in all, she really seemed to have a high opinion about this country. For example, she thought that after all the problems of the 1990's, Serbia had started to blossom in so many ways - in business, in tourism, in democratic government. She was fascinated by the amount of determination she had seen in this country's young people. There were also a million other little things that Brooke loved, like the beautiful countryside or the fact that everything was just unbelievably cheap (except for gas). However, the thing that she loved (and talked about) most was the high quality of Serbian food, with a special emphasis on fresh vegetables.

So, I think that is enough information about Brooke, because now I would like to explain to you why I chose this particular blog. Well, this decision was rather easy. In fact, as soon as I read the first couple of entries, I knew that this would be the right one. I am fond of Brooke´s style and if I had to choose a single word to describe her blog, it would probably be ADDICTIVE. It really is, because most of her stories are just hilarious and make you laugh out loud. I am very well aware of the fact that Mr Newman doesn´t want us to copy what other people have written, but you should really get the feeling of what it was like for me to read her blog. So here´s an entry of Brooke´s blog:

"It burns, it burns!"

Alright boys and girls, today's lesson will be on the importance of using SOAP when washing your hands. I know that many of you have heard me harp about the importance of washing your hands WITH SOAP in order to protect yourself from the cold and flu, but today's example should drive that message home. Word of caution: Do not try this yourself, it is not fun.

So last night Mike came home early from work (YAY) and so we decided to make Chili for dinner. I had bought all the ingredients at the market, including jalepenos pepper for Mike's portion (I'm too wimpy to eat jalapeno peppers). Mike tried a bit of the pepper to see how hot it was. After a small bite, his face turned bright red and he dove for the fridge to get some beer to cool his tastebuds. He decided to cut out the seeds (the hottest part) and eat only the outside part. ´

So we made a very yummy chili and Mike enjoyed his portion with the jalepenos. After dinner I rinsed off all the dishes and put them in the dishwasher. One of the last things that I cleaned was the cutting board with the jalepeno seeds and remanents on it. First I brushed the seeds and stuff off in the the garbage and then I rinsed the cutting board and placed it in the dishwasher. I then rinsed my hands, dryed them and went to sit on the couch with Mike. A few minutes later I wiped in the corner my eye because I had an itch.....and then immediately my eye started to burn, and I realized that I HAD NOT WASHED MY HANDS WITH SOAP AND NOW THERE WAS JALEPENO IN MY EYE AND IT WAS BUUUUUUUUUURNING!!!!!!

AHHHHH, MY EYE, MY EYE!!! I ran to our bathroom to rip out my contact lens but I didn't even have time to open my contact case and so I just crouched on the floor next to the tub, holding my eye with one hand and the contact up for Mike to deal with in the other. OOOOOUCH!!! IT BURNED!!!! I couldn't even open it, it burned too bad!!! We thought about putting beer in my eye to take away the burning, be decided against it (and Mike didn't want to waste good beer, haha). I couldn't even open it to flush it out with water, so I just sat there with my hand over my eye, WAAAAAAAAAAA! After about a minute, with my eye still burning, I just couldn't stop laughing at the absurdity of the situation. I can't even take jalepeno in my food, and now it was in my eye!!! I have got to be the world's biggest idiot!

After a few minutes, it started to feel better and I was able to flush my eye with some water and then Mike put a bunch of Visine drops in it. My eye is fine now. Today´s lesson: If you don’t wash with soap, it´s like you didn´t wash at all- that, and, never put a jalapeno in your eye.

However, that is not the only reason why I chose this blog. To my mind, Brooke’s blog isn´t only amusing, it is also very philosophical and her entries are full of detailed descriptions of the local people, of the Serbian life style and even of other European countries. I don´t think that her style is too informal, far from it! Most of the time it is obvious that she picked her words very carefully and that her intention was to publish well-written, thoughtful entries. To my mind, she definitely has a talent for writing. Most importantly, I think it helped me a lot to read this blog as I even picked up some useful words and phrases and in English. In addition to that, there are even some entries about the Serbian grammar which remided me how it was like for me to learn this language. She mainly talked about how hard it is to get used to the case system of the Serbian language (there are SEVEN cases) and although this grammatical chapter wasn´t new for me, it was still useful to read the explanations in English.

What is more, this blog is great as Brooke provides great insights into many different cultures, she doesn’t only focus on Serbia as one might expect. Together with her husband she explores many different parts of Europe like Hungary, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria, Germany, Luxenbourg and Slovenia and I´m pleased to say that she loves Slovenia as much as I do. That´s why I could also learn a lot about other European countries, but I don´t want to bore you to death with a summary of what she liked and what not. As this blog was written by an American moving to Serbia, I would like to focus on those two cultures.

So what did I learn about the Serbian culture? Well, I have to admit that I didn´t really know a lot about Serbian culture before as we are mainly focusing on Croatia in most of our courses at university (it is such a shame, I know!!!) However, maybe that is why I consider her descriptions of this country so informative and interesting. One thing that really shocked me was her entry about the inflation in the 1990´s when many people lost all their savings and all commerce was stopped. By the time people were paid in local currency at the end of the month, the amount was only enough money for a liter of milk and one loaf of bread. Amazingly enough, Serbia even holds the world record for the largest banknote ever printed at 500,000,000,000 Dinars. It was also interesting to read about the Serbian tradition of “slava”. Every family in Serbia has a patron saint which they honor on that saint's feast day and this day of celebration is known as their "slava." Most interestingly, everyone's saint celebration is on a different day of the year. I would also like to mention her entry about the “Montenegrin Referendum”. Well, I have heard about that important election before (I am not that stupid or uneducated as you might think), but it was especially interesting to read about the first-hand experiences of someone living in that particular area at that time. For those of you how are not informed about the outcome of this election: Serbia and Montenegro, two “countries” which share a common language, history and ethnicity, decided to brake up and form independent countries.

Because Brooke is from the USA ( from Washington DC, to be more precisely), she also included useful information about American culture in her blog. Living abroad and talking to people from all over the globe has given her an interesting insight into they way the world views America. And she is rather shocked when she realizes that, for the most part, the world hates America. However, she also seems to be very critical about American politics in general. For example, she mentions that Americans should rather pay more attention to the crisis in Sudan or the US's inhumane and immoral treatment of "enemy combatants" from the Iraq war and not to sending more and more troops into the Iraq. To her mind, America's foreign policy can mainly be described as “two-faced, hypocritical and arrogant”. And she even tries to convince her fellow Americans to stop to this nonesense by voting against Bush and the Republican Party.

So, what else do I have to say about this blog? Well, reading through my detailed description you will have probaly noticed that I liked this blog and I can only recommend it to all of you. So if you have time, just have a look- it really isn’t a waste of time.

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BTW (By the way): I didn´t forget to look at a second blog and I also listended to many “Here on Earth” podcasts, but I haven’t had enough time to write a summary so far.

HOORAY! I´ve made it!!!!!!

2007-06-09T03:20:00.000-07:00

I still can't believe it, but I have really made it, I have finished my tedious and exhausting vocab project!! There were many times when I just wanted to give up and there were many times when I nearly did it..... but now I'm really glad that I brought this project to an end. I just relieved and happy!!! So, now I finally have time for studying for the exam.... great!

By the way, you can access the last FEW words as usual when you look at My files: Vocab Round 31-40 and Last Words B, C, D, P and S.

However, I'm quite sure that there are some typos in these documents.... I mean, it wasn't my purpose to make any mistakes, but I spent the last three days in front of my computer and so I think that I might have overlooked some mistakes. So, that's why I would like to ask those of you who are actually using my documents for their studies to tell me if there are any typos or any other mistakes in them.

Just one last thing that I wanted to mention: THIS IS DEFINITELY MY VERY LAST ENTRY ABOUT VOCAB!!!

words, words, and more words

2007-06-07T14:04:00.001-07:00

Again just a short post to let you know that I have just uploaded new vocab lists.... round 21-30. Still many left, but as the exam is next week, I will try to bring my vocab project to an end as soon as possible. Bye

..... more words

2007-06-06T13:16:00.000-07:00

So, my presentation is finally over now and I´m glad that you could answer all my questions... In fact, I was very impressed that you had no problems with those questions.... Do you think that they were too easy?

By the way, I went on with the vocab project, so just have a look at My Files. Sorry for the short entry..... I´m tired now and I really need some sleep.

I love it here!!!

2007-06-03T02:43:00.000-07:00

No more vocab, at least not for today.

So, here it comes…. My second expat interview with another American living in my dorm. His name is David Rye and he is also from Arkansas. David is 22 years old and he has been living in Austria since this Semptember. He studies German and Communications in the U.S., but the courses he takes here are also very interesting: Basics of Ethics, Languages of the World, Documentary Film Class or Current Events.

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1. Why did you decide to study in Austria?

Obviously because of the language. Originally, I was planning to go and study in Germany, but then one of my teachers recommended Graz to me. He said,” If you cannot make up your mind, I would highly recommend Graz. I lived there for a few years and I loved it.” So, when it came down to decision time, I still didn’t really know where to go and so I just picked Graz. I definitely made the right decision, because I love it here in Austria.

2. What other parts of Austria or Europe did you visit? And which country did you like most?

Outside of Austria I visited Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Slovenia. I also stayed in Malta, but only for a few days. Then I just travelled through other countries by train, never really stopping anywhere.
I love Berlin and Munich, both of those cities are really nice. There are a lot of really beautiful places to go and visit like, for example, many cultural and social centers. In Berlin, one has to see “the Berlinale”. Poland is also really nice, although what I saw there was kind of tragic. As you can imagine, we visited Krakau and also went to Auschwitz. Nevertheless, it was an interesting place to visit.
I also visited other parts of Austria, of course. I went to Vienna three times now, and to Innsbruck, Salzburg and then just to a few small places around Graz. As far as beauty goes, Innsbruck is amazing and incredibly beautiful.

3. What are the major differences between Europe and the USA?

In Austria everything is much more expensive, without a doubt, but that´s just in comparison to Arkansas. There are, of course, many expensive places in America too. Culturally, it´s vastly different. The only people that you meet back home are mainly American, or maybe of Asian ancestry and also some people coming from Centeral and Southern America. Here in Europe you have got twenty different languages surrounding you and I think that´s probably one of the biggest differences. You are sorrounded by more cultural differences and many more people with different backgrounds.
Another big difference is that Europeans have a better knowledge of the world and they are much more interested in the environment. And it seems that advertising or marketing in general is a lot more reserved, it´s not so globalised.

4. Do you think it is important to speak the local language when visiting a foreign country?

I think this is extremely important, because it shows that you are interested in the culture of the country you are visiting. At the minimum, you have to be able to say “Thank you” and “You´re welcome”. And you should at least learn the most important phrases in order to be able to communicate with people in a grocery store or a bank, for example.

5. Was it hard for you to learn German? And what have you been doing so far to improve your language skills?

Actually, it came quite easily, a lot easier than it did when I first started learning Spanish. I took Spanish courses for two years in high school and struggled my way through it. With German it was extremely natural. I think that´s because German is also a Germanic language like English, but Spanish is a Romance language. For that it was easier to learn German and it was like taking a step back and learn a language where ours came from. That’s why I had no problems with learning it so far, but learning the Austrian dialects is a little bit more tricky. ‘Voralbergerisch’, for example, is just almost another language, because people in Vorarlberg do not even use the same words, they change nearly everything.
TV helps to learn a language, although I´m not too much of a TV watcher. I think what helps me the most is reading. Really, reading helps a great deal, so I read anything that I can get my hands on. I have to admit that I haven´t read an incredible amount of German literature, but I had three German literature classes so far. There I had to read about fifteen to twenty books − anything from Dürrenmatt to Kafka. The book that I have to read for this semester is “Der Besuch der alten Dame” by Dürrenmatt. Yes, literature helps a good deal.
However, without a doubt, what helps many people most is speaking. The only chance when I really get to do this is when I am involved in a situation with people that I don´t already know or when I meet people´s family members. Parents usually want to speak in German and I think that´s always really interesting and helps a lot. Because then you are locked in an hour or two hours of conversation and speaking German starts to become more and more comfortable. It also helps to find a good speaking partner to take yourself out of your natural language element. Here in Austria it´s rather hard not to get tempted by others to speak English. That’s because a lot of Austrians, especially people at our age, can speak English pretty well.

6. What do you think about Austrians? How would you describe them in general?

Austrians are extremely nice and everybody seems to get along very well. Austrians are willing to help and a couple of the really close Austrian friends that I´ve made over here are very active and they are trying to get me involved in anything. They are often showing me around and they also often pay for everything, which I really don´t want. So, now we have agreed that whenever they invite me for a drink or a pizza, the next time it´s my turn to pay. The generosity of Austrian people is very flattering for me and it was almost overwhelming when I first came here. Everybody was just so helpful. At the beginning, a man from the exchange programme showed me and all the other Americans around the town and helped us to figure out what we needed to do. That was amazing and back in the States I didn´t even know that this was going to happen. I thought I would just move in and then figuring things out on my own. The university has also been very helpful.

7. Do you think that a lot of Austrians have prejudices against Americans?

Well, I think sometimes they have and a lot of people bring up political reasons. Many people here want to know whether or not I voted for Bush. I think this is because we have a different political system. ‘It’s just one guy over another guy, we don’t have multiple parties.’ In America it is very easy to talk about political believes when you are around your friends. If you around people you don’t know that well, however, it is very hard and it is more polite just to keep your mouth shut about it. I mean, politics always somehow get brought up in conversation, it doesn’t really matter who you are around. However, in America you always try to be as neutral as you can around people that you don’t know.
Another stereotyp is that Americans don’t really know much about the rest of the world. I mean, there is an awful lot of Americans that do not know a lot about the rest of the world, that´s true. But on the other hand, there also many that do.

8. Do you think your experience would have been different if you had a different nationality of origin?

Without a doubt. I think if I was maybe from Poland or from any other European country, a lot of this would be more comfortable, because I would be very used to the European system.
Then I would probably also know the best way to get around. You have to know that in America car is travel, we do not often travel by train or bus. And in the U.S. everything is the same. You go across the borders of the different states and people talk a little bit differently, but that’s it. It doesn’t really matter where you come from, everything is very much the same everywhere you go.
So, I think it would definitely be different. I would probably also have a better knowledge of other languages. And if I had a different nationality of origin I think that I wouldn’t suffer from such a culture shock.

9. Was it hard for you to make friends here?

No, it wasn’t really hard to make friends in Austria. I think that this has something to do with living in a dorm. For meeting people it really is the best way to do it. In my freshman year in college, I met an uncountable number of people just because I was living in a dorm. So, for a first year anywhere living in a dorm is a good thing, because you are forced to speak with a bunch of people all the time.

10. What difficulties did you come across at the beginning of your stay?

First of all, the biggest difficulty was to figure out exactly how things work. I knew that I can buy groceries at ‘Spar’, but I didn´t really know where I could go beyond that. I was even worried about walking away from the dorm and not figuring out how to find my way back.
And then it was hard to figure out how to spend my time. I was really worried about having to rely on sitting at my computer, reading and killing time that way, but it turned out to be totally different. At the beginning, everybody was trying to get me involved in so many different things, but now I know how to spend my freetime. I often go to the Stammtisch, for example. And this ‘Joint Study Programme’ also helped me to get along, to find people to hang out with and I learned how to find my way around the city and what to do.

11. What are the positive and negative aspects of living here?

Positive aspects? I guess meeting a whole lot of people from different countries, becoming more acquainted with how other people see my country and getting a first-hand experience of what I have only read about in books or seen on TV. I´m seeing a lot of really historical places here and I think the best of this whole experience is that I´m visiting a place that I sort of come from.
Negatives? In some ways it´s kind of frustrating to abandon what I have grown up with, which is service for anything all day long. In America, you can go to get food any time of the day and you also have access to so many more things back home than you have here at any time of the day. That’s the only thing that I found negative.
You have to know that I just wanted to come here for so long and still this is kind of a dream for me. Here I have the opportunity to explore how I would like to live my life and I think the Austrian way of life suits me perfectly well. In Austria I see the world working right, because it is a very peaceful place, very environmentally friendly, very structured. In fact, it seems that everything is a lot more structured than it is back home. I think I would really prefer to live in a smaller country such as Austria. That´s why I would really like to come back and live here for a longer period of time− everything feels a lot more comfortable here.

12. What have you learned from this whole experience?

Well, I definitely learned a lot. Now I can explain my friends at home how other people live and I also have a lot of interesting stories to tell about the social life in Europe and Austria. And I’ll be able to explain to them a bit more about how small town places work in Austria or Germany. More importantly, I think I have also changed.

13. Have you been homesick so far? And what do you miss most about the USA?

I have been homesick only once, but most of the time I just enjoy this experience of living abroad. Sometimes I just miss my friends and the people I grew up with. I miss going and hanging out with them. Back home, we often spend time at a place called “Dixon Street”, a street that goes right through the heart of downtown Fayetteville. It is kind of a party center, because there are many places to go and see concerts and places to hang out with friends. Most importantly, Dixon Street offers amazing restaurants. That is another thing that I miss about the States− the vast variety of ethnic foods. Small towns won’t have it, but most of the average towns have a pretty vast variety of restaurants and the food usually comes from all over the world. I also miss a little bit of routine back home like having a job. Well, I guess I miss my family too.

I know it's getting boring....

2007-06-02T13:28:00.001-07:00

I don´t think that I have to explain a lot...... new files uploaded, but I think you knew that I was talking about vocab! So, if you are interested, have a look at my files, there you can find the Vocab Rounds 16-18.

I´m so sorry that I´m not writing about anything else and that my posts are always very, very short, but I really would like to bring this tedious vocab project to an end asap! Enjoy your weekend, bye!

... and even more

2007-06-01T12:48:00.000-07:00

Hi! I´m back again with my second post for today just to let you know that I have even more new words for you. Vocab Round 14 and 15 are available, but by now you should really know where you can find them..... Don´t you? I guess that's it for now. I promise to post a longer entry this weekend, really!!!! Have a nice evening.

Going on with my Vocab Project

2007-06-01T06:33:00.000-07:00

Again, a short message to let you know that I´ve just uploaded Round 13. Look at MY FILES, the document is called "Vocab Round 13".

There are only two weeks left to study for the Final, so I think I´m going to do more vocab work this and next week. Well, I know that it is maybe more interesting to read about the latest news or about book opinions, but I guess I won't have enough time to write about these things. Have fun studying and bye!!!

Obesity

2007-05-30T11:31:00.001-07:00

Hello everybody! Our class is just over now and now I want to use my blog to comment on a presentation we have just heard. Maja, I really enjoyed your presentation, it was very very interesting. And it reminded me of an article I read last semester. It was called, “For a world of woes, we blame cookie monsters”. And I thought that it fits so perfectly well into this topic that I don’t want you deprive of it.

So, here is the link if you want to read the whole article (and you should really do it as it is indeed very interesting and sometimes even amusing):

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/weekinreview/29kolata.html?ex=1180670400&en=c1c3565a2eb3c9dd&ei=5070

And here is a short summary:

FOR A WORLD OF WOES, WE BLAME COOKIE MONSTERS

This is a New York Times article by Gina Kolata and it´s about a common problem of western society: obesity.

At the beginning, the author mentions the so-called blame-obesity approach. People search for things that make overweight individuals look bad. The reader is informed, for example, about a theory that fat people cause global warming. In brief, more fuel is used to transport fatter human beings and this leads to a higher expulsion of carbon dioxid. The author points out that such arguments often get wide attention, because it´s important to persuade obese people to lose weight.

In the next part, the journalist tells about the position of obese people in modern society. Basically, they are more hated than ever, even as more people put on weight. In addition to that, obesity is highly stigmatized and no one likes fat persons, not even someone with the same problem. Besides, Gina Kolata mentions that the only way fat people can deal with discrimination is to eat even more. As a result, they get caught in a vicious circle.

In the final part of the article, the author explains why particularly overweight people are discriminated most. This is because many associate obesity with personal failing. Nowadays it´s a common believe that everybody can be thin as long as he tries hard enough. However, this is not true according to scientists. As a rule, you have limited personal control over your weight, because genes play an important role.

Last but not least, here are some useful new words……

woes [plural] formal
the problems and troubles affecting someone

repulsive
extremely unpleasant, in a way that almost makes you feel sick

incentive [uncountable and countable]
something that encourages you to work harder, start a new activity etc:
- create/provide/give somebody an
incentive
- incentive to do something
- economic/financial/tax etc incentives

sedentary formal
spending a lot of time sitting down, and not moving or exercising very much

scapegoat
someone who is blamed for something bad that happens, even if it is not their fault

wry
a wry expression or wry humour shows that you know a situation is bad, but you also think it is slightly amusing

revile
to express hatred of someone or something [=hate]

pariah
someone who everyone hates and avoids [=outcast]

stigma [countable usually singular, uncountable]
a strong feeling in society that being in a particular situation or having a particular illness is something to be ashamed of
- the stigma of alcoholism/mental illness etc

And, guess what I´m going to do now... yes, I´m planning to watch the movie "Moscow on the Hudson" (it works, thank you very much Mr.Newman) and I´m going to eat potato crisps, not because I don't have time to cook or because healthy food is more expensive.... No, I'm going to eat potato crisps and watch this film, because I had an exhausting day and I need some FAT!!! That´s it, bye!

Carinthia- the most beautiful place on Earth

2007-05-29T10:03:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody! Let me briefly summarise what I did this weekend.

On Saturday, my boyfriend and I visited the “Obir dripstone caves” in Bad Eisenkappel, a small town in southern Carinthia. These caves were discovered in 1870 when miners were looking for lead and zinc. All the pitmen were interested in then was the underground tunnels created by nature, because they eased the entry into the mountain. Three natural caves and numerous mining passages with a total length of about five kilometer are today called Obir Caves. They are located in a very complex and interesting geologic situation with limestone, greenstone, granite and many more.
The “Obir dripstone caves” can only be reached by cave shuttle busses that run regularly between the ticket office on the main square of Bad Eisenkappel and the premises on the mountain. After reaching the alp, there will be a tour through the cave. The visitors are equipped with helmets and if necessary with a warm jacket, because the temperature in the cave is a constant 8°C both in summer and winter.

The tour starts with “Glück auf”, the traditional Austrian miner greeting. The entrance area is dedicated to the mining history, so you can find mining equipment like drills, lorries and mining lamps there. You can also watch little scenes about the daily life of a miner, including sound installations. The tour takes about an hour and most of the time you are walking through the horizontal tunnels of the old mine. There is a multimedia presentation at each stop, including movies, slide shows with sound and music, and light at various places all over the caverns. Unfortunately all this effort is just for entertainment without any content. Probably a great experience for children, but kind of annoying for adults.
The true highlight is the last natural cave. Here a wealth of stalactites and stalagmites can be seen and all of them are pure white without any visible destructions. The reason for this is obviously the recent opening of the cave, and it might change during the next years. The most impressive treasure is much smaller than expected from the photographs. Located in a side passage there is turquoise lake and pure white dripstone that is only 40cm high.

On Sunday and Monday we both had to work, so we didn´t really do anything interesting.

However, today we visited the “Hochosterwitz Castle”, another popular landmark of Carinthia. Did you know that it is considered to be one of Austria’s most impressive medieval castles? It was built into a steep rocky hill within a gorgeous green valley and was first mentioned in a document dating back to 860. Over the course of the centuries, the well conserved castle experienced an eventful history. Since Baron Georg Khevenhüller had an armoury and fourteen gates built in 1570 due to the danger of an invasion by the Turks, there have been no structural changes made on the castle. By the way, according to the local legend the Turks couldn´t conquer the castle, because they never managed to get to the top!!

There are two ways to get to the top of the castle. The first way is to walk the 620 meter trail to the top by going though the fourteen guard gates. Each of these gates were made at different times during the 16th century. The second way is to the take the cable car that is located on the back side of the castle on the cliff side to the top. At first, we wanted to take the table car, but then we thought that it would be an excellent idea to walk and do something for our health. And we didn´t regret it, because it's a lovely walk up to the top and the view of the surrounding hills and valleys when you reach the top is marvelous and impressive as well.

The castle is open in the spring to early fall. Today there is a museum inside the castle which displays collections of arms and armour from the 16th century as well as historical documents and paintings. At the top of the castle there is also a restaurant, a coffee shop, a gift shop and a church.

Here are some pictures and I also found a short video (in English).

http://www.travelistic.com/video/show/2258/Hochosterwitz-Castle

Oops, I did it again!

2007-05-26T07:39:00.001-07:00

Sorry, but I couldn´t resist! Here is another short (extremely short) enrty just to let you know that I´ve just uploaded another two documents containing loads of new words. Just have a look at 'My Files' (Vocab Round 11 and 12). Bye!

American Way of Life

2007-05-23T12:35:00.000-07:00

Last week I wrote an article about the American Way of Life that I would also like to upload to my blog. So here it is.

Americans and the American Way of Life

America maybe a relatively young country, but she cherishes her traditions, her history and the men and women who made her what she is today. However, what is it that sets this nation apart from others? And what is the “American way of life” anyway? If we really want to understand the Americans, we must know a little about their history.

The first European settlers who arrived at the end of the 15th century were mostly adventureres or religious and political refugees. They were all courageous people, willing to brave the dangers of the New World in order to live free and better lives. This spirit of independence later led the colonists to break ties with Great Britain and form the United States of America, because they were not willing to be dictated to by a distant parliament.
It is only about hundred years ago since the American West was conquered by the white man, since the first trail blazers crossed the Appalachian mountains and the pioneers braved the lonliness of the prairie. The pioneer spirit is therefore still much admired by the Americans and the time of the “Wild West” is glorified in many flims and books.
The trails through the vast West had hardly been blazed when a new type of pioneer began to open up the hidden treasures of America´s raw materials. In the nineteenth century new opportunities of power were opened to a new type of man – the self-made man like John D. Rockefeller or Andrew Carnegie. The Americans now had a new ideal – the poor boy who became a millionaire in the land of unlimited opportunities.

That was when the American Dream, a significant feature of American culture, was born. It is the idea that anyone, regardless of the circumstances of his or her birth, can significantly increase his or her standard of living through determination, hard work, and natural ability. In the employment sector, this concept is expressed in the belief that a competitive market fosters individual talent and in a renewed interest in entrepreneurship. Politically, it takes the form of a belief in the superiority of a free democracy, founded on a productive and economic expansion.

When Europeans hear the word ”America”, most of them think of sky-scrapers in New York City, of Chicago or San Francisco, or of the ‘dream factory’ called Hollywood. But it´s also a country of thousands of small towns, with pretty houses lining Main Street, some drugstores, a movie-theater, a super-market and a department store. There is still a great deal of running to and fro between neighbours– a relic of the old days when the pioneer families helped one another and when the small town was a real community. Especially in the smaller towns in the Midwest, a man is still confident of his position as a good father to his family and a public-spirited citizen. He worships personal success, judges a man by the size of his income and believes in progress. He supports the idea of the family, the basic foundation of his civilization, and he is very patriotic, believing the U.S. to be the greatest and most important country in the world. Such a man is a member of America´s silent majority.

But America´s image today has been badly damaged by the war in Vietnam and Iraq, Watergate and many other scandals. Large sections of the American population are no longer sure of the ideal– of the “American way of life”. Disillusioned, they feel that there is no real equality of opportunity in America, although the Declaration of Independence declares that “all men are created equal”. Especially minority gropus like blacks or Native Americans feel that they are discriminated against and that they don´t have the same chances in life as the whites. Furthermore, there have been cold-blooded assassinations of popular leaders, there have also been race riots and protest demonstrations. In addition to that, the expression “American Dream” has come to be associated with over-consumption, crass materialism, the exploitation of natural resources and other negative trends. In contrast to the lofty ideals once represented by Lady Liberty in NY harbour, in many parts of our globalised world, it now has negative connotations.

Wednesday´s Class

2007-05-23T11:58:00.000-07:00

So, our English lesson is just over now, so let me reflect a little bit on what we did. Claire´s presentation about politics and music was very interesting. She mainly tried to show that there is a link between these two topics and that musicians are able to strongly influence the way we think (Well, at least they can influence Claire´s opinion about politics and current events). To my mind, Claire did an excellent job and I really enjoyed her presentation. She was well prepared, she didn´t seem to be nervous and she spoke very clearly and, more importantly, freely. Furthermore, she managed to get us speaking. Isn´t that incredible? It must be very difficult to get us, the shiest SUK4 class ever, to talk. What do you think?

Then Tina presented the film "Moscow on the Hudson" and her approach was very different. She was kind of a real teacher, not a student presenting any topic. She also did a good job, although she had to struggle with some technical problems. However, she really convinced me with her presentation and the next thing I´m going to do tomorrow is to borrow this movie. No seriously, I´m really planning to watch "Moscow on the Hudson" as I have always been interested in Robin Williams anyway.

So, I would also like to shortly mention what I am going to blog about in the few remaining lessons of this semester. Here´s a list of the most important topics:

- second (maybe even third) expat interview
- two expat blog reports
- discussion of my second book, "A House Somewhere"
- Here on Earth
- and I would like to continue with my vocab project, of course

Thank God, it´s over now!

2007-05-22T11:33:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody! The 2nd Progress Test is over now, so I would like to briefly summarise my feelings and thoughts. First of all, I would like to point out that this test was definitely easier than the first one, because there was no time pressure and the questions (of the writing part) weren´t that hard. The vocab part was sometimes quite tricky and rather challenging as we had to know a lot of synonyms. But on the whole, one has to admit that this test was doable! However, I still don´t know if I have made it or if I´ll get a good grade, I don´t have a sense of achievement. Well, maybe I was a little too nervous this time (I really don´t know why, this test only counts 10%), but I have the feeling that I couldn´t express my thoughts clearly enough. We will see!

So, I´m not quite sure what I should blog about today, but I promise not to upload any more entries about vocab, at least not this week. Maybe I should just upload what I have done last week, namely two listening comprehensions. Here are the summaries:

UN - We can control Global Warming

http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0705/070505-global_warming.html

This article is about a study on global warming conducted by the UN committee on climate change.
The report shows that global warming can be controlled and provides governments with different options how to prevent the oncoming apocalypse predicted by scientists. In order to counteract the dreadful consequences of rising temperatures, namely increased floods or rising sea levels, we have to use technology and develop strategies to protect the ozone layer. In addition to that, the way energy is used has to be changed, more fuel-efficient vehicles must be introduced and individuals have to change their lifestyles.

Healthier Pizza

http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0703/070330-pizza.html

The article informs about new ways to make a healthier pizza. Food scientists discovered that doubling the baking time increases the levels of antioxidants, useful substances that effectivly fight illnesses, and a higher cooking temperature also makes the dough healthier to eat. This new research may increase pizza sales around the world and is good news for pizza lovers. However, some diet experts pointed out that it is still better to eat fruit and vegetables. In addition, pizza that is baked longer is only healthy if people are able to do without unhealthy toppings or sugary drinks.

Today I also spoke to Devin, an American living in my dorm. Well, our conversation was mostly small talk, so I am not going to summarise what we have talked about. I´m sure you are know sitting in front of your computers, trying to find out why I have mentioned this. First of all, because you should know that I´m trying hard to get as much speaking practice as possible, as speaking is obviously my biggest weakness. More importantly, however, I realised that I really have to refresh my knowledge of American Geography. So I decided to have a look at all those little quizzes that I collected when I was learning for the FDE oral exam. Isn´t it a good idea to upload the list of links so that you can also try to find out how much you know about American Culture? I think it is and so here they are....

Geography links:

http://www.funbrain.com/where/
http://www.addictinggames.com/geographygameusa.html
http://www.jayzeebear.com/map/usa_2.html
http://www.maps.com/games/jigsaw.html
http://quizhub.com/quiz/quizhub.cfm
http://www.lizardpoint.com/fun/geoquiz/usaquiz.html
http://sf.factmonster.com/states.html#games
http://www.usa.learningtogether.net/
http://sickflash.com/usa_education.html

That´s enough geography for today and that´s also the end of this entry. I´m sorry, but I also have to study Croatian from time to time. See you tomorrow!

Guess what- more words!

2007-05-18T02:06:00.000-07:00

Ok, here they are- the last words for the progress test. I´m sorry for publishing only entries about vocab, but I don´t have enough time now to write something additional for my blog. See you in class. Bye

Documents are available at My Files and they are called "Vocab Round 9" and "Vocab Round 10".

Vocab, vocab, vocab.... what a wonderful word!!!

2007-05-15T23:30:00.000-07:00

Ok! Here´s one more document full of new words that would like to be studied until next week. Just see: My Files- Vocab Round 8 ! Tomorrow I´m going to upload the rest..... see you in class tonight. Bye!

New Words!!!

2007-05-15T06:38:00.000-07:00

Hello! Yesterday I went on with the Vocab project, so here is the 7th round I think. Well, not here exactly, but it´s available at MY FILES and it´s called "Words Round 7". Have fun studying!!!

Europe is great!

2007-05-14T08:28:00.000-07:00

Hello guys! Today I had a look at the calendar on the wall opposite my bed and what I saw totally knocked me for a loop…. Our second progress test is scheduled for NEXT WEEK. Didn´t we just write the first one? Oh, it´s terrible how time flies! Let´s hope that I still have enough time for studying. It´s definitely going to be a busy and stressful week.

By the way, I wanted to tell you that I have finally made it- I interviewed the first American exchange student living in my dorm! So, here is my first expat interview with Devin Brent Pettigrew from Rogers, Arkansas. Devin is 23 years old and he has been living in Austria since September. He studies art and archaeology, but this semester he focuses on language and history courses.

****************************************

1. Why did you decide to study in Austria and not in any other English-speaking country?

I just wanted to learn another language. In high school I had to take a language course and I thought that German sounded cool. So I took it just for the heck of it. In college I had to take language courses again, so I kept up with German. However, after three years of studying that language, my German was still very bad, so I decided to go on an exchange programme. I chose Austria, because it was the cheapest place for me to come. Well, there was also the possibility to go to Germany, but this would have been far more expensive.

2. What other parts of Austria or Europe did you visit? And which country did you like most?

I´ve went to Innsbruck and Vienna and I´ve been hiking around here on the Bärenklamm and in the Hochschwabgebiet. Unfortunately, I´ve never been in Salzburg so far, but I would really like to go there.
What other parts of Europe? Well, I made a trip around Germany for two weeks over Christmas. I´ve been in Norway, Bosnia, Malta, Greece, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland… I think that´s it, but I´m not quite sure.
However, I can´t tell you which country I like most. I like Norway, for example, because the people there are very nice, clean and smart. I am also fascinated by the countryside, because it´s so rugged. And I like the language too. I also enjoyed my trip to Greece, because of the Mediterranean climate and the people are so relaxed. Bosnia also has a Mediterranean climate since it´s very close to the coast. I like France too, especially Paris, although it was hard for me to find the Eiffel Tower.

3. What are the major differences between Europe and the USA?

First of all, the distances are tremendous. I´m living right on the corner of Arkansas, but it´s still an hour drive to Oklahoma. Well, Missouri is a little bit closer I guess.
Another difference is transportation. Daily travel is huge in the USA and nobody ever walks, we always drive with the car. Probably because you can´t even walk, the sidewalks are dangerous places and sometimes they are not even there. Even when you are in the middle of a city, you have to drive from one point to another, because it´s not made for walking. And we don´t ride bikes unless we are doing it for sport – it´s not a practical thing. Nearly everybody has a car, probably because gas prices are lower. Actually, there are four people in my family and we have five cars.
I would also dare to say that Americans are more uptight, but that´s not necessarily true.
Working is also different. In the States the smaller jobs are more looked down upon than they are here. For example, in Europe it´s easier for an ordinary person to have a small job, like working in a grocery store, and still maintain a decent level in society. When you work in a grocery store in the USA, however, you are automatically considered lower class.
Living costs are about the same. Maybe it´s a little bit more expensive in Austria, but I don´t have a problem with that. Taxes here are more accepted, because the money goes to good things, for example keeping up the infrastucture. We really hate taxes in the States.

4. Was it hard for you to learn German? And what have you been doing so far to improve your language skills?

It was extremely hard to learn German, because it´s such a difficult language. But I read a lot of books, I watch TV very often and I talk to people as much as possible. Yesterday, for example, I went to a party and I was the only English speaker there, so that was really good practice.
I think the biggest mistake a lot of people make when they are on an exchange programme is that they are searching for people who are able to speak their mother tongue. If I came back here for another year, I would definitely avoid other Americans. In fact, that´s what I started to do now and that´s why a lot of American friends are really angry with me. But I have to do it, because I want to improve my language skills while I´m here.

5. What do you think about Austrians? How would you describe them in general?

Austrians are friendly, much more open-minded than Americans, funny, more relaxed. Sometimes you guys talk kind of funny, it´s quite hard to understand what you want to say. And I don´t think that Austrians are unfriendly towards foreigners, at least that is what I can tell from my own experience.
But one think I really don´t like is that they always ask me about my president. That makes me very angry as I don´t have to do anything with Mr Bush – I didn´t vote for him, I don´t admire him, I don´t even like him. In my opinion, it´s very rude when a random person that I have never seen before comes up to me and starts asking me questions about why Bush is in office. In the States we never go up to a random person and ask them about their political stand. Maybe my experience would be different if I had a different nationality of origin, people would probably treat me different.

6. Was it hard for you to make friends here?

No, it wasn´t hard, because I automatically made American friends. I was quite fortunate. I also got to know many people from Austria, Germany and Bosnia. My roommate, for example, is a Bosnian too and he is a very good guy. However, it would have been far more difficult if I lived in my own flat and not in a student dorm. So I´m better off in the dorm, because you get to know more people and you automatically make friends.

7. What difficulties did you come across at the beginning of your stay?

Apart from language problems it was hard to find my way around here in Graz. Simple things like buying groceries can be very tricky if you are in a foreign country.
When you go to a grocery store in the States, you put all of your food on a checkout and they bag it for you right there. They put the goods into a bag and the bag is also for free. So when I first went down to the Spar, I didn´t realize that you have to pay for the bag here. Well, and I had all this food and didn´t know what to do with it. So I took this cardboard box and asked if I could use it and everybody was just staring at me. That was really funny.

8. What are the positive and negative aspects of living here?

What I really like about Europe is that it´s very multicultural and there are so many different languages. I also like the Austrian landscape. Among positive aspects is also public transportation, because in the USA there is no public transportation. There is a bus system for our university, but it doesn´t go all over town.
I don´t have anything negative to say, living here is just different. There are some things that I´m not used to, but that doesn´t mean that they are better or worse. I really love Austria and I´m definitely planning to come back sometime.

9. What have you learned from this whole experience?

Tons of things. For example, some rules of learning another language when you go to a foreign country. And I learned a lot about travelling and now I know that getting lost can be very amusing In fact, it´s quite an experience. I also learned how to get around in a new city and what to do when you don´t speak the language. I think I just got used to it and now I´m not worried about this any longer. For example, when I was in France, I was automatically speaking to the people in English. Only once or twice I encountered people that didn´t speak English and they would just shake their heads and walk away.

10. Have you been homesick so far? And what do you miss most about the USA?

I haven´t really been homesick, I guess I have been enjoying myself. However, I sometimes do think about home and how different everything it is going to be when I go back. But I´m not really excited about going home, because I don´t think that I´m going to enjoy it as much as being in another country. Learning a new language and finding your way round is far more exciting.
What I really miss about America is going camping, being in the woods and making things out of wood. I can´t do that here. I think that´s what I´m going to do when I come back – go camping for a very long time. And I miss my dog.

Watery eyes

2007-05-12T07:54:00.001-07:00

Hello everybody! What a terrible weekend, I´m really glad that it is soon over now…..have you ever heard a student saying something like this? I guess not very often, right? Anyway, let´s start at the beginning of the whole painful story.

Do you remember how I looked like on Wednesday when we met with the other two groups to introduce our little baby, the wiki/bliki? You don´t? Then you must have stayed at home that particular day, because otherwise you would still know it, that´s for sure. My right eye looked rather appalling, because it was quite red, watery, itchy and swollen. Minute by minute it became worse and worse and at the end of the lesson I couldn´t even drive my bike as I couldn´t see anything. Back at home (or better to say back at the student dorm) I decided to take a shower, but when I came back into my room I literally couldn´t believe my eyes. My right eye wasn´t just swollen and red, it was also filled with a yellow slimy substance that looked like pus. How terrible!!! I couldn´t stand this situation any longer, so I drove to the next chemist´s to get some eye drops. However, they didn´t really help, at least not much, that´s why I spent a sleepless night wondering what to do.

The next day I woke up early in the morning and to my surprise I couldn´t open my right eye. I´m not kidding you, it seemed as if my eyelashes were glued together with strong adhesive. I was very worried because everything seemed to be getting worse rather than better. To make matters worse, my left eye also became red and started to get itchy and in the evening, I was nearly sightless. However, it didn´t make me angry that my eyes hurt, the reason why I was really upset was this tedious boredom. I couldn´t do anything but staying in bed all day long. I couldn´t go outside, because my eyes were extremely sensitive to light and wind. I couldn´t watch TV or read a book, because this was too exhausting. And I really didn´t want to speak to anyone else. No, that´s not the truth! I would have liked to talk to other people, but I didn´t want anybody else to see me. Can you imagine such a bothersome situation?

On Friday I still didn´t notice any sign of recovery, so I decided to consult a local doctor. He told me that I should have come earlier as this could be a serious illness (I can´t remember the exact name of this illness, but it really sounded serious and scary). I was given three different medicaments and a referral to a specialist. There I was examined again and then I had to wait for nearly two hours until I was told that it was only an infection. Oh, thank God!! Next time I swear I´ll visit a doctor as soon as I notice the very first alarming symptoms.

So, why do I write an entry about all the ugly and disgusting details of my weekend? Just to show that I wasn´t just lying around doing nothing …. Well, in fact, I did nothing but lying around, but I had a good reason for it. I´m just glad that I feel a little bit better every day and I hope that I can do something meaningful tomorrow…. We´ll see!!!!

Bible College

2007-05-09T08:40:00.001-07:00

Ok, now here is an entry with more serious content. As you can see, I´m not just interested in jokes and comic strips (although it´s difficult to concentrate on anything else if you find some really good ones that make you laugh until your stomach starts to hurt....). Anyway, I found an article that attracted my attention and so I decided to write a short summary. If you would like to read the whole article (and I have to say that I can only recommend this), you just have to click on the link below. Have fun reading. See you!!!!

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0421-09.htm

THE BIBLE COLLEGE THAT LEADS TO THE WHITE HOUSE

This article by Andrew Buncombe is about the Patrick Henry College, a right-wing Christian college which was established in Virginia in 2000.

Like many other Christian institution, this university is known for a strict behaviour and dress code. Approximately 300 students, all of them white, have to obey a curfew, alcohol and parties are taboo and students are not allowed to become intimate with a member of the opposite sex. In addition to that, the students as well as the teachers have to sign a statement of faith confirming that they believe in the teachings of the Bible. Surprisingly enough, the students on this campus don´t feel constricted, because they are extremely focused and only concentrate on their studies.

The Patrick Henry College isn´t an ordinary Bible college, however. It is indeed very special because of its alarmingly close links with the Bush administration and the Republican Party. For instance, many students get an internship in the White House and Michael Farris, the founder of this college, knows the president himself. This can´t be a coincidence as the students at this university, which has an excellent academic reputation, are educated to change the world and to spread biblical values.

However, critics claim that this institution produces clean-cut but narrow-minded students with very limited ideological and political view. Most importantly, it´s obvious that the Patrick Henry College is devoted to spreading a fundamentalist doctrine and helping its students in positions of power and influence.

Just fun!

2007-05-09T08:12:00.000-07:00

I have to admit, this is not a very serious entry, but I just came across a hilarious joke that I really want to share with you. Somehow it is even related to our course (as we have talked about Irish drinking habits several times, haven´t we?)

Three pints of Guinness

An Irishman walks into a pub, orders three pints of Guinness and sits at the back of the room, drinking a sip out of each one in turn. When he has finished all three, he comes back to the bar and orders three more. The barman says to him, "You know, they would taste better if you bought one at a time." The Irishman replies, "Well, you see, I have two brothers. One´s in America, the other´s in Australia, and I´m here in Dublin. When we all left home, we promised that we´d drink this way to remember the days when we all drank together." The barman admits that this is a nice idea and leaves it at that.

The Irishman goes into the pub regularly and always drinks the same way: he orders three pints and drinks from each of them in turn. One day, he comes in and only orders two pints. Everybody in the pub falls silent. When he comes back to the bar for the second round, the barman says, "I don´t want to intrude, but I offer my condolences on your great loss." The Irishman looks confused for a moment, then laughs. "Oh, no," he says. "Everyone is fine. I´ve just stopped drinking."

here´s another one.....not related to this topic, but short and sweet!

Humour at work?
Boss (to employee): Experts say that in this time of downsizing, humour relieves tension at work. Knock, knock!
Employee: Who´s there?
Boss: Not you any more.

and last but not least...

Sorry!!!! I know that I shouldn´t post such entries without any serious content, but I couldn´t resist. I promise not to do it again....

Vocab

2007-05-06T12:02:00.001-07:00

Hi! Today I went on with my vocab project and I decided that it would be better to upload the new words of the 6th round as a word document. To my mind, it will be easier for you to print them out.... don´t you agree. So, have a look at MY FILES, because there you´ll find the document "NEW WORDS". Have fun studying. Bye

Grammar Quizzes are so much fun!

2007-05-05T09:00:00.001-07:00

Hello everybody! Today I decided that it would be a good idea to do some grammar exercises. Therefore, I had a look at cyberopps:

Advanced English Grammar Review Quiz
http://esl.about.com/library/quiz/bl_advancedreview.htm

Well, seems to be a little bit too difficult as my score was only 89%. Let´s try an easier one….

Lower Intermediate English Grammar Review Quiz
http://esl.about.com/library/quiz/bl_lowreview.htm

Wow! 97% is not bad, don´t you think? Ok, maybe a little bit too easy….. let´s try another one….

Intermediate English Grammar Review Quiz
http://esl.about.com/library/quiz/bl_intermediatereview.htm

Ok, now I´m getting used to the structure of these quizzes. My score is 100%!!!!

Advanced Sentence Structure
http://esl.about.com/library/quiz/bl_transform1.htm
http://esl.about.com/library/quiz/bl_transform2.htm

Try these exercises, they are very interesting and the phrases are quite useful!!! My score? Well, I have to admit only 94%. I should really go over them again! I really like this website and I´m going to do more of those short exercises to practice tenses, prepositions or reported speech.

http://www.test-your-english-now.net/

My score was 94%. Here are some questions:

- The president made him come/ to come.
- I am not used to come/ to coming so early.
- I am staying at Mr and Mrs Olsons/ Olson´s.
- A/An MP is a member of parliament.
- Is Jean a/ - French?
- Jim didn´t look all that much slow/ slower.

If you are interested in the answers? If so, let me know and I will upload them immediately. That´s it for today. Have a nice weekend…..

Entrepreneurs

2007-05-02T11:18:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody!!! I´m very busy studying and although I would really like to work more on the blogging project, I don´t have enough time to do so. You have to understand me….. please, show compassion…. I am a hard-working student, you have to believe me!!!!

So, today I would only like to upload a text that I wrote for homework.
( WARNING: Only for people interested in business topics!!!!)

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What is it that makes a good entrepreneur?

Entrepreneurs come in all shapes and sizes– the dynamic, the cautious and the greedy. No matter what form they take they all fascinate us in some way. Wouldn´t we all like to know how they do it and what their secret is? Some of the world´s biggest corporations would surely like to know this, that´s for sure. Let´s face it, entrepreneurism is in and these days everyone wants to be an entrepreneur.

An entrepreneur is not what you are, it is what you become. Therefore, real entrepreneurs exist only in retrospect. At first, nobody takes them seriously; they are crackpots, dreamers, simply unemployable. And by the time they have finally earned the respect of the business community, they´ve already made it. So cancel the classes on entrepreneurship and throw out your business plan, because the road to entrepreneurial success cannot be mapped out in advance. You only get there one sale at a time.

In the beginning only the entrepreneur needs to see the goal, nobody else. And the goal is quite simple: you get an idea, you identify your customer and you make a sale. Then you make another and another and another until your office in the spare bedroom has turned into the tower block in Manhattan you always wanted. Forget about marketing strategy at this stage, what you need first is a steady cash flow. You should bide your time and wait for a good opportunity. It´s also important to focus on the little things, that´s how it works.

Take Richard Branson, for instance. For the founder of the Virgin brand, the first ten years were a real struggle, with his company suffering severe financial problems until as late as 1980. By then the Virgin Group was running eighty different operations, none of them making large amounts of money and some of them losing money hand over fist. Yet in 1992 Branson´s music business alone had a turnover of 800 million euros.

Or take Nicolas Hayek, the man who invented the Swatch and single- handedly brought the Swiss watch-making industry back from the dead. Hayek took on Japanese market leaders and beat them on both quality and price. Today he sells 28 million Swatches a year and the Swatch turned out to be a 20th century icon. And, incredibly, though the price of a new one has never increased, some of the highly collectable early designs are now classed as art and fetch about 30,000 euros– not bad for a plastic watch!

So what is it then that makes a good entrepreneur? Clearly, not the same thing that makes a good manager as good managers tend to come from fairly conventional backgrounds. They are the bright kids everyone knew would do well, born organisers, who rise through the ranks to reach the higher echelons of large corporations. The budding entrepreneur, however, is more likely to be an outsider, a troublemaker, a rebel who drops out of college to get a job, discovers a flair for building companies from nothing, gets bored quickly and moves on. Most of all, they´ll be masters of risk-management. Risk does not mean the same thing to the entrepreneur as it does to the rest of us.

I would like to end my article by quoting Sir James Goldsmith, a British billionaire and businessman, because he sums it up best: “The ultimate risk,” he says “is not taking a risk”. And that probably has a lot to do with how he became a billionaire.
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However, I am also trying hard to memorise all the new JWI words and I am going to upload some of them very soon!!!!! So, have fun studying and see you in class. Bye!

Dead Poets Society

2007-04-30T08:31:00.000-07:00

So, today I would like to tell you something about my favourite book "Dead Poets Society".

”Dead Poets Society” is a novel by N.H. Kleinbaum. This is the story of students at the respected Welton Academy, a preparatory school in Vermont. This school is a very conservative, straightly organised institution with its four pillars Tradition, Honour, Excellence and Discipline. It serves as high school for parents who insist on sending their children to the best universities.

The plot centers on the influence of Mr. Keating, a young and exciting English and poetry teacher, who is determined to teach his students to live life with absolute passion. Mr. Keating, using poetry as his vehicle, teaches his students to challenge the institutions around them.

Inspired by Mr. Keating's philosophy of life, many of his students recreate the "Dead Poet's Society," a secret club which meets in a cave in order to discuss poetry, philosophy and other topics. The club, which Mr. Keating had created many years earlier when he was a student at Welton, would be completely unacceptable to the conservative school, which discourages students from "thinking for themselves." Indeed, Welton students should be in their rooms, studying only the prescribed materials that their teachers assign.

This book is about what happens when these students decide to pursue their own desires, and to live life with the passion that Mr. Keating encouraged. Ultimately, it is about what happens when a few idealistic students find themselves confronted against conservative forces that resist all change, including the drive for personal self-determination.

For further information have a look at wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Poets_Society

Here you can find a very detailed plot summary of the film “Dead Poets Society”, which doesn´t differ a lot from the book. I also still have the book at home in case anyone would like to borrow it.

MY FAVOURITE CHARACTERS

My favourite student

Neil Perry personifies the Ivy League image, because he is both handsome and an excellent student. However, he is also under constant pressure as his father expects too much of him. He suffers a lot from that, because he isn´t allowed to express his own opinion or live out his dreams.

Neil Perry is one of the most important members of the Dead Poets Society and he also is a very talented actor. In acting he finds a way to express himself and to feel independent and free. When his father finds out about his secret passion for acting, he is very furious and decides to send him to a military academy. This is too much for Neil and so he commits suicide.

My favourite teacher

Mr. John Keating, a honours graduate of Welton Academy, is the replacement for Welton´s former English teacher. His teaching methods, as the boys soon recognise, are really different from those of the other teachers.

Mr. Keating wants to educate his students to become free thinkers and individuals, which makes him a real danger for the conservative administration. After Neil Perry´s suicide, Mr. Keating is made responsible for encouraging the boys to organise the “Dead Poets Society” and for abusing his position as a teacher. These accusations finally lead to his expulsion from Welton.

Mr. Keating could be considered as a revolutionary in a conservative and cold system. For him, one reads poetry because he is a member of the human race, and the human race is filled with passion. Medicine, law and banking, for example, are necessary to sustain life, but poetry, love, romance and beauty are what we stay alive for. Mr. Keating also encourages his students to ‘seize the day’ and think about the things they really want to do, and not only live their parents´ dreams. He also considers them to ‘contribute a verse’ in the powerful play ‘life’.

To my mind, these thoughts are not at all meaningless. Probably one could say that Mr. Keating is a dreamer and that his opinions have nothing to do with reality, but I suppose that this isn´t true. He only tries to show his students a different way of living, although he knows that this is going to lead into trouble.

However, I also have to admit that not everything he did was good. Students at the age of sixteen can sometimes be impressed too easily, at least when they are normally surpressed by their parents and teachers. Mr. Keating´s impulsive behaviour made the boys feel free to make their dreams come true, but also to break rules and act against their parents´strict orders.

The negative aspects of Keating´s teaching methods, however, can´t be compared to all the positive consequences of his achievements: he was able to make the boys think differently, and he made them aware of the fact that we all have to die once and that life is precious.

In conclusion, I really do think that Mr. Keating is a gifted teacher who is able to influence his students in the best possible way.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

On the first day of class, Mr. Keating tells his students to call him “Oh Captain! My Captain!”. This is the title of a famous poem by Walt Whitman.

************************************************************************************

O CAPTAIN! My Captain! our fearful trip is done;

The ship has weather'ed every rack, the prize we sought is won;

The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,

While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:

But, O heart! heart! heart!

O the bleeding drops of red,

Where on the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

O CAPTAIN! My Captain! rise up and hear the bells;

Rise up- for you the flag is flung - for you the bugle trills;

For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths-for you the shores a-crowding;

For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

Here Captain! dear father!

This arm beneath your head;

It is some dream that on the deck,

You've fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;

my father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;

This ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;

From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;

Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!

But I, with mournful tread,

Walk the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

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Who is Walt Whitman talking about? Does anyone of you know the answer? In fact, it´s very easy…. I´ll give you a hint: The “Captain” mentioned in this poem was Whitman´s contemporary….. he was one of the most revered presidents of the USA… he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth…. an American holiday commemorates his birthday…

You don´t know it? Come on, you have to know the name of the 16th president of the USA, of the commander-in-chief during the Civil War, of the man who delivered the Gettysburg Address! If you still don´t know it, then …. Well, then you really have a problem.

So, here´s the answer: Walt Whitman dedicated this famous poem “Oh Captain! My Captain” to Abraham Lincoln. But I´m sure that´s not news to you.

And here´s the German translation…

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O KAPITÄN! Mein Kapitän! Gefahr und Fahrt ist aus;

Das Schiff besiegte Sturm und Riff und bringt den Sieg nach Haus;

Vom Hafen, nah schon, Glockenschall und Jubelüberschwang,

Empfängt den Kiel, den grimmen, dem die kühne Fahrt gelang:

Doch, O Herz! Herz! Herz!

O Blutstropfen rot,

Wo auf dem Deck mein Kapitän liegt,

Gefallen, kalt und tot.

O KAPITÄN! Mein Kapitän! Steh auf, vernimm die Glocken;

Steh auf - für dich Trompetenschall, der Fahnen frohes Locken!

Für dich Girland' und Kranzgewind'; für dich belebt der Strand!

Dir jauchzt das Volk; die Blicke all, dir sind sie zugewandt!

Hör, teurer Vater, Kapitän!

Mein Arm, er gibt dir Halt!

Ein Trug ist's ja, dass hier auf Deck

du hinsankst tot und kalt.

Mein Kapitän gibt Antwort nicht, sein Mund ist fahl und stille;

Mein Vater fühlt nicht meinen Arm, ihm stocken Puls und Wille.

Das Schiff vor Anker gut und fest; die Fahrt getan und aus.

Trotz Not und Sturm, das Siegerschiff bringt den Preis nach Haus.

Ach, jauchzt nur, Ufer! Glocken schallt!

Doch ich, in Schmerz und Not,

Geh noch auf Deck, wo mein Kapitän liegt,

Gefallen kalt und tot.

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I really have to stop writing now as I also have to do something for my second foreign language. Oh, I nearly forgot to mention that you can watch the film “Dead Poets Society” ( or “Der Club der toten Dichter” as it is called in German) tomorrow on Kabel 1… if I remember correctly. And try to find out what “Carpe diem” means and then DO IT!!!

Butterflies are free

2007-04-26T09:41:00.001-07:00

Hello my dear readers! (I assume that someone is still reading my blog… Is there anyone still interested in my blog? ) Today I would like to tell you something about my favourite play.

“I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free.”

Do you know the play “Butterflies are free”? It was written in the 1960´s by Leonard Gershe and the title was inspired by a passage in Charles Dickens´ Bleak House: "I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free.” This Broadway production, directed by Milton Katselas, opened in 1969 at the Booth Theatre and was a great success because of the ideal blend of humorous and serious elements. A blind man´s attempt at self-reliance, a young woman´s fear of commitment, and a loving mother´s struggle with letting her son go are the main themes of the play.

Plot summary:
In the centre of the action stands Don Baker, a blind man and a talented musician. When Don was a lad, his mother encouraged him in every way and tried to strenghten his self-confidence. She even wrote a series of children books about a blind kid named Little Donny Dark. Whenever Don was at rock bottom, those books, in which the main character can drive cars, fly planes or even hear a bank being robbed a mile away, helped him to overcome any problem.

However, the life of this self-conscious young man changed completely when Linda Fletcher, a rather attractive young woman, moved into his neighbourhood. She used to come by to read to him and was the first friend Don had after his father died. Linda really changed the way he lived- all of a sudden Don felt confident and even decided to move out and live on his own. However, organising an apartment for Don was the last thing Linda did, because then she broke up with him and moved to Chicago.

So, that´s where the play takes place- in Don Baker´s one room apartment on the top floor of a walk-up on the lower east side of Manhattan. Don seems well-adjusted in his grungy loft with walls as thin as paper. Then, one day, he gets to know Jill Tanner, his next-door neighbour. Jill, a struggling wannabe actress from Los Angeles, invites herself to his flat. Don quickly falls in love with her and shows that opposites really attract, as the old saying goes. Well, there´s Don, a very courageous, cheerful and intelligent man with an optimistic attitude towards life despite being visually impaired. He considers his blindness to be a handicap, not a hindrance, and uses self-irony and humour as defence against his mother´s reproach. On the other hand, there´s Jill, a surprisingly direct, curious, self-confident but naïve young woman. Jill is emotionally retarded and incapable of a relationship as she always wants to be free, as free as a butterfly.

Be that as it may, Mrs. Baker doesn´t accept Don´s departure and although they both agreed that she wouldn´t visit him for two months, she comes to visit him all the same. Don´s over-protective mother is appalled firstly by the strange young woman being in almost intimate contact with her son and secondly by the shabby flat. That´s why she immediately forces her son to come back home and tries to convince Jill to leave her son before hurting him too much. After a conversation with Jill, however, Mrs. Baker realizes that she should trust in the choice of her son and that she has made the terrible mistake of not giving him enough confidence.

Later that day, however, Jill informs Don that she was offered a new job and that she is going to move out. Within minutes, Don- now discouraged, self-concious and defeated- asks his mother to take him home again as he can´t stand this situation. But Mrs. Baker doesn´t want her son to feel sorry for himself just because a girl has left him. So she tells him, “Girls walk out on sighted men too!”

The story does have a happy ending, however, because Jill decides to stay with Don as she realizes that they are both handicapped in a certain way.

So, now it´s your turn. What do you think of this play? Do you like the story or not? I would be very pleased about comments, as usual! That´s it for today. Bye!!

If I Had My Life To Life Over

2007-04-25T08:45:00.000-07:00

You say yes, I say no.

You say stop and I say go go go, oh no.

You say goodbye and I say hello

Hello hello

Well, hello again my dear fellow students! Today´s entry is about my favourite poem, and the next time I´m going to talk about my favourite play and my favourite book. So, have a great time reading……

If I Had My Life To Live Over (by Frank Dickey)

I'd dare to make more mistakes next time.
I'd relax.
I would limber up.
I would be sillier than I have been this trip.
I would take fewer things seriously.

I would take more chances.
I would take more trips.
I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers.
I would eat more ice cream and less beans.

I would perhaps have more actual troubles, but I'd have fewer imaginary ones. You see, I am one of those people who live sensibly and sanely hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I've had my moments and if I had it to do over again, I'd have more of them. In fact, I'd try to have nothing else. Just moments. One after another, instead of living so many years ahead of each day.

I've been one of those people who never go anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a raincoat and a parachute. If I had it to do over again, I would travel lighter next time.

If I had my life to live over, I would start barefooted earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall.
I would go to more dances.
I would ride more merry-go-rounds.

I would pick more daisies.

So, what would you do if you had your life to live over? Would you also relax more? Or would you take more trips and climb more mountains?
Well, I´m quite sure what Birgit would do (and that is going to more dances *gg*. Just kidding!), but do I also know what I would do? Yes, I think I know it- I would definitely take fewer things seriously and that is also the reason why I fell in love with this poem.

I can still remember the day when I heard it the very first time. It was our last English lesson before the Matura (should I say A-levels instead? Or is school leaving examination better?) and everybody was nervous, thrilled and even sad at the same time. We all new that an important period of our life would soon come to an end and we weren´t only happy about this. I´m sure you all know what I mean, don´t you.

So, where was I? Yes, then our English teacher Mr. Benke ( or just “Hanno” as I like to call him) came into the classroom and his eyes were filled with tears. He told us that he really enjoyed every single day with us and that we were the best class he had ever had. Oh, this moment was so deeply moving that I was also close to tears. Well, you have to know that for me my English teacher wasn´t just another teacher, he was a real friend indeed. Don´t get me wrong, there was nothing illicit about our relationship, we just got on really well together. To be honest, we still meet from time to time to talk about this and that, but this is a different kettle of fish!

So, in our very last English lesson Mr. Benke read this poem to us and then he said something that I will never forget. He said, “I know that you are all very hard-working students and I really appreciate that. But sometimes being too ambitious isn´t good. You should all 'dream as if you´ll live forever, and live as if you´ll die today'. Don´t take things too seriously- seize the day!!!”

Again, I´m close to tears now when I think about this moment, because after the lesson he told me that he had chosen this poem just to remind ME that I shouldn´t be too earnest all the time and that I should really enjoy my life a little bit more. Well, I guess that´s right! That´s probably my biggest problem, namely that I´m sometimes too ambitious and that I don´t know how to relax. I´m sure you don´t hear this very often, do you?

If you are interested in other poems of this type, please have a look at this website.
http://www.laurasmidiheaven.com/card/pages/ermaframe.shtml

Virginia Tech

2007-04-24T10:45:00.001-07:00

Hello dear readers! I just want to let you know that I´m still alive- I´ve survived our English class today and I´m still eager to upload something to my blog. Well, I don´t think that this entry is going to be very long, but at least….. at least what? Yes, at least I´m adding something to prove that I´m a hard-working student.

To be perfectly honest, originally I didn´t write this text for my blog, but as a homework for our English course. Nevertheless, I´m convinced that it´s about a very interesting and rather shocking topic:

Mass shooting at Virginia Tech

On Monday evening when I turned on the TV to listen to the news, I was very shocked to hear about the latest bloodbath in the USA. In the deadliest shooting rampage in American history thirty-two people were killed and about fifteen were injured at Virginia Tech. Although the course of events is still vague as I write, some facts have already been confirmed.

The attacks started early in the morning in a freshman dormitory when a gunman went room to room looking for his ex-girlfriend and killed two people. The shootings at Norris Hallon the other side of the campus began two hours later when a gunman stalked through the halls of an engineering building, shooting at professors and students. Some students even leaped from second story windows in order to escape this gruesome massacre. After the second round of killings, the gunman shot himself so badly in the face that he could not be identified. Police officials can´t even say at the moment whether one person was behind both attacks.

Questions were immediately raised about whether university officials had responded adequately to the shootings. Why was the campus, which has more than 26,000 students, not shut down after the first shooting? Mainly because officials had assumed the first attack was an isolated event. In fact, the campus police believed that it was a “domestic” dispute and therefore, had no reason to suspect any other incident was going to occur. And yet many people think that a more aggressive response could have prevented the later and deadlier attack.

Speaking of wrong decisions, one also has to consider the following facts. Firstly, the university did not send a campuswide alert until the second attack had begun, even though the gunman responsible for the first one had not been apprehended. Students also complain that only an automated e-mail alert system was activated, because in the midst of the massacre many unsuspecting victims were still walking around the campus with little sense of alarm. Maybe all campuses should implement a cell phone text message alert system, because it´s the quickest way to reach every student. If you use e-mail to notify people, not everyone is going to get the message in time.

To sum up, it is hard to put into words how I feel now. I´m sure that I´m not the only student who was deeply disturbed by this unbelievable tragedy. I cannot even imagine that such a bloodbath could ever happen at an Austrian university. Although President Bush and millions of other Americans still believe in the right to bear arms, I would like to call into question this basic right and the ridiculously lax gun laws in the U.S.. Virginia’s gun laws, for instance, are some of the weakest state laws in the country, because very few restrictions are imposed on the purchase of handguns and there are no requirements for any kind of licensing or training. Indeed, this virtually open access to weapons designed to kill people is also a reason that this tragic incident will probably not be the last of its kind.

Well, I also have to admit that I wrote this text last week, therefore it isn´t really up-to-date. If you are interested in the latest information, and I´m pretty sure that you are curious about what is going on in the world, you should definitely have a look at this website:

http://www.vt.edu/tragedy/

So, that´s it for today. I´m very tired now and I really need some sleep. Goodnight!!

Slovenia- A Paradise for English Students

2007-04-23T05:58:00.001-07:00

Isn´t that hilarious?

Hello everybody!! I´m sure that you are all very curious to hear about my weekend activities. In fact, I didn´t do anything except studying for the progress test. Well, to be perfectly honest, I also pampered myself with some hours of sleep. Hopefully you don´t think that I´m a lazy person, but studying until the wee small hours is really exhausting…… Did you notice how I used the new words, I´m so proud of myself….. Where was I? I really should stay with the topic and not go off at a tangent! So, what did I really do this weekend? Well, I was at home (the most beautiful place on earth) and I was very busy doing the chores.

Oh, there´s one thing I forgot to tell you. After six years of doing odd jobs, my mother received a lucrative job offer that she couldn´t turn down. A complete disaster!!! Don´t get me wrong, I´m happy for her, but you don´t know what´s going on at our house whenever my mother isn´t at home. You cannot even imagine, believe me. To begin with, my father is rather independent. No, that´s not true. Actually, he can be rather independent, but only if he wants to- and most of the time he doesn´t want to. I mean, he could do the washing-up, he could clean the house, he could do the ironing, he could dress himself, he could go to bed on his own, but this never happens except for very rare occasions. I´m not kidding you, I´m in deadly earnest! He is really totally dependend on my mother and therefore, I don´t think that he is going to accept the fact that now he is married to a working wife and not to a self-sacrificing housewife any longer. My sister is even worse. She wouldn´t even get out of her bed on her own, because she tends to ignore every single alarm clock and only the loving yells of my caring mother wake her up. Isn´t that unbelievable? My family has no chance of survival without the constant support of my mother.

Now, I´m sure that you´re are sitting in front of your computers and you are asking yourselves, “Why the hell is she talking about her poor family? What does she want to tell us?”. The answer to these questions is simple and short. Well, maybe not really short, but still simple. There´s only one person left who is now responsible for everything- guess what, that´s me!!! So, to continue with my original topic (my weekend activities), that´s what I did the whole weekend: I scrubbed the floor, I cleaned the windows, I prepared the dinner and, most importantly, I studied English. Well, maybe I shouldn´t forget to mention the few minutes per day that I spent lying in the sun, enjoying the warm and sunny weather. However, I don´t think that you would notice that I did some sunbathing, because unfortunately I am still as white as a sheet…. Oh, poor little pale Betty!

Besides, I also spent a day in Slovenia, but this time we (my boyfriend and I) didn´t do anything exciting- we just visited my boyfriend´s parents ( or my “future in-laws” as I like to call them, but that´s a different kettle of fish!!). To my mind, Slovenia is such a beautiful country and I am really fascinated by the Slovenian mentality. Well, a foreigner would probably not notice the difference between an Austrian or a Slovenian except for the language, but I really do think that those two peoples differ from one another. From what I have observed so far, I can tell you that the Slovenians are much more relaxed and open-minded, less formal and noticeably hospitable. They are still quite humble, not very materialistic and also more flexible compared to Austrians. I don´t know if this is just my own personal opinion, but I hope that I could judge them properly.

Again, I got side-tracked as you will have probably noticed. Why do I talk about Slovenians in an entry for my ENGLISH learning blog. Well, I only wanted to mention that whenever I visit this tiny little country with a population of only two million, I always have the possibility to practice both languages that I study- English and Croatian. As curious language learning students, you would surely like to know how, wouldn´t you? To be perfectly honest, it is very easy to study those two languages there, you just have to turn on the TV. And although it always costs me quite an effort to sit in front of the TV, I am doing it for my own good. You know that I´m not serious, don´t you? What I mean is that I really enjoy watching movies in English and in Slovenia it´s even as easy as pie. Therefore, I would strongly recommend English students not to borrow DVD´s in a videostore, but to travel to Slovenia in order to watch TV. And if you are studying Croatian too, you can kill two birds with a stone by watching the movies with Croatian subtitles. Isn´t that a great idea.

So, I really have to come to an end as I we have a test tomorrow. However, don´t forget to think about my idea and if enough people were interested, I would even organise a trip…. Just kidding again!! Ok, goodbye.

PS: Looking at other blogs I noticed that a lot of my fellow students like to write about their favourite whatever (book, film, actor etc.). Therefore, my next entry ( if I´m not totally exhausted by the test, it will be tomorrow´s entry) will be about my favourite play and my favourite poem.

PUB QUIZ/ BLOGGING

2007-04-20T07:46:00.000-07:00

Dear reader,

How are you today? Are you also as busy studying for the progress test as I am? Unfortunately, I don´t think that I will be able to upload any new entries this weekend as I really have to focus on studying!! But I´m sure that everybody of you (at least every SUK 4 STUDENT) understands this, don´t you agree?

Well, first I would like to sum up what I did the last two days. Well, how to put it.... I didn´t have much time to sleep.

First of all, I had a quick look at all the other blogs ( maybe you´ve already noticed it, because I wrote many new comments).

Then I went through my very detailed vocab list and I realised that my time-consuming vocab project was worth it!!! I mean, you shouldn´t forget that it was a lot of work and sometimes it even drove me crazy, but in the end it really helped me to memorise most of the new words. However, I don´t know if I have time to go on with this project for two reasons. First, I think it must be tiring for you to read mainly entries dealing with vocab. Secondly, this project, as I´ve already mentioned several times, is very very time-consuming. Well, we will see what the future brings. Maybe I´m motivated enough to go on until the last page, who knows?

In addition to that, I also had a look at Nerd´s Eye View and I copied all of Pam´s entries about Austria into a word document. So, now guess how many pages I got...... 20..... 50..... more? In fact, the result was more than 70 pages. Unbelievable, don´t you think? Well, I had a quick look at most of her entries and she really seems to be fascinated by the weather. There are many entries about snow (More than you would probably guess), but sometimes she is also quite critical when it comes to Austrian politics or customs. You have to read her blog on your own, then you´ll know what I mean.

Finally, I wanted to mention something that I almost forgot. On Tuesday, Birgit, Maya and I went to the office pub in order to support our beloved English teacher. Well, support is maybe the wrong word ( as we nearly knew any answer to all those extremely challenging questions). You can say that we were sort of a fan club. If you are interested in the Pub Quiz or if you would like to know what it´s all about, just ask me!!! Sorry, I am really in a hurry and I have to go know.

But not to forget... here´s another cartoon:

Vocab of the final (5th) round

2007-04-19T09:14:00.000-07:00

So, finally I´ve finished my vocab project for the first progress test. Now I am going to focus on other topics like listening, reading or grammar. And I´m going to have a look at other blog as I´m sure that they are very inspiring too. There are so many things to blog about, I don´t want to only concentrate on vocab. However, here are the new words:

AD HOC

Definition:
not planned, but arranged or done only when necessary

Collocation:
ad hoc committee/group etc

Phrase:
on an ad hoc basis

Examples:
-An ad hoc committee has been set up to deal with the problem.
-In contrast to the Lisa approach, the Macintosh team implemented its interface issues on an ad hoc basis.
-A lot of decisions are made on an ad hoc basis.

BARGAIN

Definition:
- something you buy cheaply or for less than its usual price
- an agreement, made between two people or groups to do something in return for something else

Phrases:
-into the bargain : in addition to everything else
-at bargain prices
-drive/strike a hard bargain: to demand a lot or refuse to give too much when you are making an agreement
-sb's side of a bargain: what someone agrees to do as part of an agreement

Collocations:
-make, strike, buy, drive, find, offer, pick, seal a bargain
-bargain hunters, basement, plea, price
-a good, great, hard, real bargain

Examples:
-There are no bargains in the clothes shops at the moment.
-It's an attractive little home, and I think it's a bargain.
-Management and unions have struck a bargain over wage increases.
-I am now tired, cold, and hungry, with a headache into the bargain.

AI:
to bargain, verb

CANVAS

Definition:
-strong cloth used to make bags, tents, shoes etc
-a painting done with oil paints, or the piece of cloth it is painted on

Phrases:
-a broader/wider/larger canvas: the whole of a situation, and not just a part of it
-under canvas: in a tent

Prepositions:
On / on to canvas, through the canvas

Collocations:
-large, white canvas
-canvas bag, chair, sheet, shoe
-paint a canvas

Examples:
-I was comforted by the little natural light that seeped through the canvas.
-The gallery has a canvas by Paul Cézanne.
-These questions must be considered on a broader canvas.
-A white towel hung over its back and on the seat rested a brown canvas bag, its zip open.

TO DAWDLE

Definition:
to take a long time to do something or walk somewhere

Phrase:
To dawdle over something

Examples:
-Don't dawdle - we're late already!
-We'll never get all the shopping done today if you dawdle like this.
- I dawdled over a second cup of coffee.

AI:
Dawdler, noun

TO EGG SOMEBODY ON

Definition:
to encourage someone to do something, especially something that they do not want to do or should not do

Examples:
-Bob didn't want to jump, but his friends kept egging him on.
-And frankly, as activists, she and I egg each other on.
-They are egging these kids on.

AI:
To egg somebody on is a phrasal verb

TO FATHOM

Definition:
to understand what something means after thinking about it carefully

Synonym:
To work out

Phrases:
-fathom how/why/where etc
-fathom out something

Examples:
-I still can't fathom out what she meant.
-Mark couldn't fathom why she resented him so much.
-The jury had difficulty fathoming the technical details.

GEAR

Definition:
-the machinery in a vehicle such as a car, truck, or bicycle that you use to go comfortably at different speeds
-used to talk about the amount of effort and energy that someone is using in a situation
-a set of equipment or tools you need for a particular activity
-a set of clothes that you wear for a particular occasion or activity
-a word meaning illegal drugs, used by people who take drugs

Phrases:
-step up a gear: increase the level of effort
-change gear: to start doing something in a different way, using more or less energy
-get your ass in gear: used to tell someone to hurry

Prepositions:
-in/into gear : with a gear connecting the engine to the wheels
-out of gear : with the engine not connected to the wheels

Collocations:
-crunch/grind the gears: change gear in a way that makes an unpleasant noise
-to change, buy, carry, don, dress, engage, get, grind, kick, land, move, pack, put, slip, step, wear a gear
-first/second/third, high/low, top/bottom, reverse gear
-electronic, full gear
-gear box, change, lever, ratio, shift, stick
-combat, control, landing, riot gear

Examples:
-Andy drove cautiously along in third gear.
-Don't turn off the engine while you're still in gear.
-The Republican's propaganda machine moved into high gear.
-He's crazy about photography - he's got all the gear.
-Bring your rain gear.
-In London the chaos took three seconds to get into full gear.

HARNESS

Definition:
- a set of leather bands used to control a horse or to attach it to a vehicle it is pulling
- a set of bands used to hold someone in a place or to stop them from falling

Phrases:
- in harness: doing your usual work
- in harness (with somebody): working closely with another person or group

Collocations:
safety, shoulder, climbing harness

Examples:
- An essential piece of rock-climbing equipment is a climbing harness.
- So with borrowed gear, no harness and a stranger I set off.
- The sound of a horse in harness, of its hoof idly striking a stone!
- Morin's book is a helpful guide to surviving the first few months in harness.

IMPENETRABLE

Definition:
- impossible to get through, see through, or get into
- very difficult or impossible to understand

Examples:
- The trees formed a dark and impenetrable barrier.
- An impenetrable fog halted traffic.
- Feminist organizations and the media appeared almost impenetrable to us.

AI:
- impenetrably, adverb
- impenetrability, noun

JOLLY

Definition:
- happy and enjoying yourself
- very pleasant and enjoyable

Synonym:
Cheerful

Examples:
- Everybody was in a very relaxed and jolly mood.
- We had a jolly time with the family.
- My uncle was a jolly man with a loud laugh.

AI:
- to jolly, verb
- jolly, adverb
- jolly is especially used in British English

TO KNEAD

Definition:
- to press a mixture of flour and water many times with your hands
- to press someone's muscles many times to help cure pain or to help someone relax

Examples:
- Knead the dough for three minutes.
- He began kneading my sore shoulder muscles.
- The clay should be kneaded thoroughly to remove any bubbles of air.

LATERAL

Definition:
- relating to the sides of something, or movement to the side
- relating to positions, jobs, relationships etc that are at the same level or rank

Collocations:
- lateral thinking: a way of thinking in which you use your imagination to see relationships between things that are not normally thought of together
- line, movement, vein, view

Examples:
- The wall is weak and requires lateral support.
- Employees can expect lateral moves to different departments, to gain experience.
- Fossils do throw light on the history of the lateral line and tail.
- It appeared that these offsets marked some kind of lateral movement between adjacent sections of oceanic crust.

MANURE

Definition:
waste matter from animals that is mixed with soil to improve the soil and help plants grow

Preposition:
With manure

Collocations:
- horse manure
- to spread manure

Examples:
- An alternative to digging in the green manure in spring is to cut and add the material to the compost heap.
- We go find a farmer with some manure laying around.
- In addition, it may no longer spread horse manure along Ramona Oaks Road.

AI:
Manure, verb

NIGHTCAP

Definition:
- an alcoholic drink that you have at the end of the evening, just before you go to bed
- a soft hat that people used to wear in bed

Examples:
- As the party was breaking up, Joe quietly invited young Franklin and Harry Hopkins home for a nightcap.
- I had suggested that some of our guests might enjoy a post-wedding, post-reception, post-dinner nightcap in our hotel room.
- Then he slipped under the bedcovers dressed in her gown and nightcap.

ODOR/ ODOUR

Definition:
a smell, especially an unpleasant one

Synonyms:
Stench, stink

Preposition:
The odour of

Collocations:
- strong/unpleasant/pungent/offensive/lingering /rank/ heavy etc odour
- body odour
- odour emission, problem

Examples:
- It is an invaluable source of information to those attempting to prevent or seeking to abate odour problems.
- We immediately noticed the heavy odour of opium in the room.
- Aroma preference is also largely influenced by our body odour.

AI:
Odor is American English, odour is British English

PARCHED

Definition:
very dry, especially because of hot weather

Phrases:
to be parched: to be very thirsty

Examples:
- He raised the water bottle to his parched lips.
- Give me a sip of that, I'm parched.
- Strong winds and high temperatures fueled dozens of fires in parched Oregon.
- The earth was so parched that there were huge cracks in it.

QUEASY

Definition:
- feeling that you are going to vomit
- feeling uncomfortable because an action seems morally wrong

Synonym:
To feel sick

Phrases:
- to feel queasy
- to feel queasy about

Examples:
- But when I looked straight down I felt queasy.
- The sway of the boat made passengers queasy.
- Many Democrats felt queasy about the issue.

RANK AND FILE

Definition:
- The rank and file: the ordinary members of an organization rather than the leaders
- Rank and file: ordinary, average

Examples:
- The rank and file of the party had lost confidence in the leadership.
- While I have no special bond with the rank and file, I do sometimes have one with the officers.
- The rank-and-file members of the trade union were unsure about the contract.

TO SAUNTER

Definition:
to walk in a slow relaxed way, especially so that you look confident or proud

Synonyms:
To stroll, to amble

Preposition:
To saunter into

Phrases:
To saunter along/around/in/back/out/over

Examples:
- He came sauntering down the road with his hands in his pockets.
- Dana sauntered into Claudia's office during the afternoon.
- He pulled himself gingerly from the pool and sauntered back to his lane.

AI:
Saunter, noun

TO TANTALIZE

Definition:
to show or promise something that someone really wants, but then not allow them to have it

Examples:
- It goes as far as it can and waits there for a while, its big eyes staring up, tantalized.
- It was wiser not to tantalize oneself.
- What were her many mysteries, she tantalized herself, replaying all the loves she'd ever known.

AI:
Tantalize is American English, tantalise is British English

UNDERHAND

Definition:
dishonest and done secretly

Synonyms:
Devious, sneaky, sly

Examples:
- They did it all in such an underhand way.
- He's been involved in some underhand dealings.
- In a series of very smart, underhand moves, Browne gradually gained control of the company.

VENUE

Definition:
a place where an organized meeting, concert etc takes place

Synonym:
Location

Prepositions:
- as, at a venue
- a venue for

Collocations:
- book, change, choose, hold, perform, provide a venue
- play venues : to perform at venues
- sporting/conference/concert/entertainment etc venue
- big, different, good, ideal, large, major, new, olympic, popular, various venue

Examples:
- The first thing to do is book a venue.
- The band will play as many venues as possible.
- For a new act, I would have to pitch them at the right venue for their type of music.
- Seating 500 it provides a centre of services of all denominations and a concert venue.

TO WEEP

Definition:
-to cry, especially because you feel very sad
-if a wound weeps, liquid comes out of it

Synonyms:
To cry, to sob, to bawl, to sniffle

Prepositions:
To weep at, for, into, with

Phrases:
-I could have wept: used to say that you felt very disappointed about something
-to weep buckets: to cry a lot

Collocations:
-weep bitterly, openly, quietly
-weep tears

Examples:
-She wept for the loss of her mother.
-I could have wept thinking what I'd missed.
-She had wept at the death of her father, but for her mother she felt no grief.
-One night he wept with rage in the desert cold.

AI:
-the past tense (the past participle) of weep is wept
-weep, noun

Assumptions

2007-04-18T09:51:00.000-07:00

Today I read quite an interesting article about false assumptions. Most of you will probably know what an assumption is, but for those who aren´t sure, I´m going to provide a definition. The dictionary defines an assumption as something we "take for granted" or "suppose to be true". Assumptions are essential to logical thinking and decision making, but woe betide us if they are false.

For example, try this brainteaser. A black man, dressed completely in black is sitting at a bar in an English country pub. He is drinking one whisky after another. After three hours the black man in black leaves the pub and stumbles drunkenly down a narrow, winding country lane. There are no streetlights and there is no moon. A car without headlights approaches at speed. Despite this, the car driver notices the black man and is able to brake in time to avoid an accident. How could the driver see the black man? Think about this before checking the answer at the end of my entry.

Here´s another example:
In the 1980s, WHO (The World Health Organisation) launched an expensive public health campaign in Pakistan. The objective was to educate mothers to feed milk to their newborn babies. Because of numerous regional languages, WHO adopted a visual approach depicting the main message in a 3-part cartoon format.

The first picture on the left-hand side showed a sick and crying baby. The second, middle picture showed the baby drinking milk. And the third and right-hand picture a healthy and happy baby.

The problem was that in Pakistan, people read from right to left! The poster was effectively saying "Take a healthy baby, give it milk, make it sick." The designers at WHO had made the fatal assumption that Pakistanis read from left to right, as we do in the West.

Sometimes false assumptions can result in amusing consequences. A translator had the assignment to coach the minister of employment of a major European country. Arriving at the ministry on a Saturday morning, he was greeted by a young lady dressed in jeans and pullover. She led him to a conference room, made him coffee and started to make small talk. Being pressed for time, our partner politely asked "When will the minister arrive?" Her answer was "I am the minister!" This was an interesting mistake, especially as the coaching was meant to involve communication and gender issues. Fortunately for the translator, the young minister had a sense of humour, and his faux pas turned into a nice ice-breaker.

However, false assumptions can also lead to a disaster. On January 8, 1989, a British Boeing took off from Heathrow for Belfast. The number-two (right) engine, which had caused trouble on the previous flight, had been cleared. Twenty minutes after take-off, the plane began to shake violently. The flight recorder later showed what had happened. The captain asked the co-pilot what the problem was. “It´s the right engine again”, he replied. The captain ordered no. 2 engine to be shut down, and the left-hand (no.1) engine to be throttled up for an emergency landing. The 737 crashed on the edge of a motorway. The cause of the crash? The captain and the co-pilot made a false assumption and shut down the wrong engine. Of the 118 passengers, 39 died and 74 suffered serious injury.

And now, for all of you who are curiously waiting, here´s the answer to the first example: The incident happened during the afternoon, in broad daylight.

If you read this entry, could you please comment if you knew the answer to brainteaser? That would be very interesting for me as I wasn´t smart enough….. :-(

Besides, have a look at this link- it´s quite amusing:

http://www.clipfish.de/player.php?saf=1&videoid=MjUyMzU2fDU2NjYwMA%3D%3D
Do you speak English???

Studying for the Progress Test

2007-04-16T12:50:00.001-07:00

Vocab, Vocab, Vocab.... Isn´t that the most beautiful word on earth!!!

TANGENT

Definition:
- go off at a tangent ( British English), go off on a tangent (American English): to suddenly start thinking or talking about a subject that is only slightly related, or not related at all, to the original subject
- tangent is a straight line that touches the outside of a curve but does not cut across it

Examples:
-Let's stay with the topic and not go off at a tangent.
- Within the box it is possible to describe slopes and turns as numerical ratios, as tangents.
-Loretta's mind went off at a tangent.

UNCHARTED

Definition:
not marked on any maps

Phrase:
uncharted waters/territory/area etc: a situation that you have never experienced before

Examples:
- This new project will take us into uncharted territory.
- Space is filled with unknown stars and uncharted galaxies.
- Clearly the 49ers are sailing in uncharted waters.

TO VEER

Definition:
- to change direction
- if opinions, ideas, attitudes etc veer in a particular direction, they gradually change and become quite different

Phrase:
To veer off course

Prepositions:
to veer away from, between, from, into, to, towards

Examples:
- A tanker driver died when his lorry veered off the motorway.
- The plane veered off course.
- This latest proposal appears to veer in the direction of Democratic ideals.
- The conversation veered back to politics.

WEE

Definition:
- very small (used especially in Scottish English)
- a wee bit: to a small degree
- the wee (small) hours : early hours of the morning, just after 12 o'clock at night

Examples:
- My wee boy is three.
- She looked a wee bit confused.
- The party continued into the wee small hours.

TO ADHERE

Definition:
to stick firmly to something

Synonyms:
To stick, to grip

Collocations:
-Adhere to a policy, a principle, a rule, standards
-Strictly adhere

Examples:
-The eggs of these fish adhere to plant leaves.
-I have adhered strictly to the rules.
-New manufacturing must adhere to world standards.
- The closing dates were strictly adhered to by the Office of Works

AI:
adhere to something (phrasal verb): to continue to behave according to a particular rule, agreement, or belief

BANSHEE

Definition:
a female spirit whose loud cry is believed to be heard when someone is going to die

Examples:
- She was screaming like a banshee.
- The train was still inside the tunnel, the wind howling like a mad banshee through the open windows.
- When she makes love she screams like a banshee, and things are inclined to get knocked over.

CALF

Definition:
- the part of the back of your leg between your knee and your ankle
- the baby of a cow, or of some other large animals, such as an elephant

Phrase:
- be in/with calf: if a cow is in or with calf, it is going to have a baby
- kill the fatted calf: to welcome someone home with a big meal etc after they have been away for a long time

Collocations:
- fetal, golden, right, young calf
- bull calf, calf injury, muscle, serum, strain

Examples:
- Any exercises which use the calf muscles, such as heel raises, hopping, standing on one leg would be beneficial.
- Thus farmers sell milk and young calves, as well as wool and lambs which are fattened on nearby lowland farms.

DANDELION

Definition:
- a wild plant with a bright yellow flower which later becomes a white ball of seeds that are blown away in the wind
- dandelion clock: the soft ball of white seeds that grows on the dandelion plant

Examples:
- At the moment it looks more like a bit of rough pasture full of dandelions and clover patches.
- This is similar to the way the down on a dandelion clock seed increases drag.

TO EAVESDROP

Definition:
to deliberately listen secretly to other people's conversations

Synonyms:
To listen in, to bug

Phrase:
to eavesdrop on a conversation

Examples:
- There was Helena eavesdropping outside the door.
- How did you know I was going? You've been eavesdropping, haven't you!
- I began eavesdropping on my parents conversations.

AI:
Eavesdropper, noun

FATALITY

Definition:
- a death in an accident or a violent attack
- the fact that a disease is certain to cause death
- the feeling that you cannot control what happens to you

Collocation:
Fatality rate

Examples:
- The most serious form of skin cancer has a 30 percent fatality rate.
- New drugs have reduced the fatality of the disease.
- This year there have been 15% fewer traffic fatalities.

AI:
- Fatal, verb
- Fatally, adverb

TO GAWK

Definition:
to look at something for a long time, in a way that looks stupid

Synonyms:
To stare, to gaze

Preposition:
To gawk at

Examples:
- Don't just stand there gawking at those girls!
- Tourists walked around gawking at the people in traditional costumes.
- Despite the excellent snow, I spent at least half my time on each run standing still, gawking at the view.

HARDSHIP

Definition:
something that makes your life difficult or unpleasant, especially a lack of money, or the condition of having a difficult life

Preposition:
Hardship of/ for/ to

Collocations:
- To cause, suffer, endure, experience, face, impose hardship
- A hardship fund/ case
- considerable, economic, extreme, financial, great, physical, real, severe, undue hardship

Phrases:
Impose a hardship on somebody

Examples:
- Many students are suffering severe financial hardship.
- Suddenly, I needed witnesses, including hardship cases, those who had suffered.
- The winter just ending had been exceptionally severe, causing great hardship to the poorer people.
- It was no hardship for him to give up what she called sinning.

TO IMPEDE

Definition:
to make it difficult for someone or something to move forward or make progress

Synonyms:
To hamper, to hinder

Preposition:
Impeded by

Collocations:
Impede development, flow, progress

Examples:
- Storms at sea impeded our progress.
- If the adventurers run, their movement is impeded by claws and faces erupting from the floor.
- This review is intended to serve essentially as a background to how science and technology can impede or promote development.

AI:
Impediment, noun

JIG

Definition:
- a type of quick dance, or a piece of music for this dance
- a piece of equipment for holding a tool, a piece of wood etc in position

Collocation:
To dance a jig

Examples:
- Sometimes one of them would leap to his feet and dance a jig before falling over.
- Also, you can use this jig if you are taking your posts down and placing them on sawhorses.

AI:
To jig, verb

KNACK

Definition:
a natural skill or ability

Synonyms:
Talent

Phrase:
- have a knack for doing something
- have a knack of doing something: to have a tendency to do something

Collocations:
- get, lose the knack
- an uncanny knack

Examples:
- He has a knack of saying the wrong thing.
- Some people seem to have a knack for making money.
- It may take time for you to get the knack.
- Basically, I just seem to have lost the knack with men.

LASS

Definition:
a girl or young woman - used especially in Scotland and the north of England

Examples:
- Photographs indicate that she was a bonny young lass likely to stir the emotions of any number of local young men.
- Things were different when I was a lass.

TO MANGLE

Definition:
- to damage or injure something badly by crushing or twisting it
- to spoil something such as a speech or piece of music, by saying or playing it badly

Examples:
- The trap closed round her leg, badly mangling her ankle.
- The orchestra had mangled Bach's music.
- A mangled bicycle lay by the railroad tracks.

AI:
Mangled, adjective

NIFTY

Definition:
something that is nifty is good because it is clever, skilful, or effective

Collocation:
Nifty footwork

Examples:
- It's a nifty computer game that teaches math skills.
- Nifty postcards of the planet are available at every convenience store, tourism agency and souvenir shop.
- Still, I think I would have endured it to use those nifty pompons just once.

AI:
Nifty is informal

ODD

Definition:
- different from what is normal or expected, especially in a way that you cannot understand
- separated from a pair or set
- odd number: a number that cannot be divided exactly by two
- 20-odd: a little more than 20

Synonyms:
Strange, weird, bizzare, peculiar

Phrases:
- the odd occasion/day/moment/drink etc: a few occasions that happen at various times but not often and not regularly
- odd socks/gloves etc: not a matching pair of socks
- it strikes somebody as odd that

Collocations:
Odd angle, assortment, bit, couple, day, fish, job, look, man, sensation, things, way, years

Examples:
- It seemed odd that he wanted a picture of me.
- There was something odd about him.
- I like the odd glass of wine with my dinner.
- There was something odd about her too-a slight stumble in her walk, a lopsided look to her face.

AI:
Oddness, noun

PARALYSIS

Definition:
- the loss of the ability to move all or part of your body or feel things in it
- a state of being unable to take action, make decisions, or operate normally

Collocations:
- to cause paralysis
- infantile paralysis: old-fashioned expression for polio

Examples:
- The snake's poison causes paralysis.
- Such injuries can cause permanent paralysis.
- They did not, as hoped, prevent or cure paralysis.

AI:
To paralyse, verb

QUARRY

Definition:
- a place where large amounts of stone or sand are dug out of the ground
- the person or animal that you are hunting or chasing

Collocations:
- disused, old quarry
- the slate quarry
- a quarry title : a clay tile that has not been glazed and is used to cover floors.

Examples:
- Briefly, the hunter and his quarry glared at each other.
- They looked down into the big disused quarry.
- There was a truck parked in front of the quarry.
- From directly above them came a noise like an explosion in a slate quarry.

RAMPANT

Definition:
- if something bad, such as crime or disease, is rampant, there is a lot of it and it is very difficult to control
- a plant that is rampant grows and spreads quickly, in a way that is difficult to control

Collocations:
Rampant corruption, inflation

Examples:
- Pickpocketing is rampant in the downtown area.
- Inflation running at 57 %, record unemployment, rampant corruption and real threats to democracy.
- The scourge of unemployment was added to that of rampant inflation.

TO SATURATE

Definition:
- to make something very wet
- to put a lot of something into a particular place, especially so that you could not add any more

Phrases:
- saturate sth with sth
- saturate the market: to offer so much of a product for sale that there is more than people want to buy

Examples:
- Water poured through the hole, saturating the carpet.
- Our culture is saturated with television and advertising.
- Saturate the label with vinegar and let it sit before you try to scrape it off the bottle.

TANGIBLE

Definition:
- clear enough or definite enough to be easily seen or noticed
- if something is tangible, you can touch or feel it

Collocations:
tangible asset, benefit, evidence, form, object, proof, property, result, reward

Examples:
- The scheme must have tangible benefits for the unemployed.
- He has no tangible evidence of John's guilt.
- The words would hang in the air; they were almost tangible on the day after a row.
- He left the house, his only tangible asset, jointly to my aunt and myself.

AI:
- tangibly, adverb
- tangibility, noun

UNDERCURRENT

Definition:
- a feeling, especially of anger or dissatisfaction, that people do not express openly
- a hidden and often dangerous current of water that flows under the surface of the sea or a river

Prepositions:
Undercurrent in/ with/ of

Examples:
- He sensed an undercurrent of resentment among the crowd.
- But there were troubling undercurrents in the family.
- But with every initiative, they encountered an undercurrent of resistance.

VEIL

Definition:
- a thin piece of material that women wear to cover their faces at formal occasions or for religious reasons
- the veil: the system in Islamic countries in which women must cover their hair and faces in public

Phrases:
- draw a veil over something: to avoid talking about something that happened in the past because it is unpleasant or embarrassing
- veil of secrecy/deceit/silence : something that hides the truth about a situation
- veil of mist/cloud/smoke : a thin layer of mist, cloud etc that makes it difficult to see clearly
- take the veil: to become a nun

Collocations:
- Behind, through, under the veil
- Over the veil
- black, white veil
- draw, lift, wear a veil

Examples:
- She lifted her veil with both hands.
- I think it best to draw a veil over the whole incident.
- Watson deserves credit for lifting the veil of secrecy surrounding Brenda's death.
- The moon was hidden behind a veil of clouds.
- Whose light retires behind its veil of cloud.

AI:
Veiled, adjective

WEED

Definition:
- a wild plant growing where it is not wanted that prevents crops or garden flowers from growing properly
- a plant without flowers that grows on water in a large green floating mass
- someone who is weak (British English)
- the weed: cigarettes or tobacco

Collocations:
- like weeds: in large numbers
- (widow's) weeds: black clothes worn by a woman whose husband has died
- perennial weed
- weed control, weed killer
- clear, kill, pull a weed

Examples:
- Cars clogged the roads like weeds.
- First dig out all the perennial weeds.
- It also proved that mistakes with weed control were expensive to rectify later.
- However, although there was no damage to the crop, the herbicide was almost totally ineffective in killing the weeds.

AI:
To weed, verb

A day in Slovenia

2007-04-15T11:47:00.001-07:00

Hello everybody!!! What are you doing? Are you enjoying the last day of the Easter holidays? No?? Why not??

Let me tell you what I did : My boyfriend and I spent the day in Postojna, a small town in southern Slovenia.

Its prime importance is as a tourist centre for its Postojna Cave, an internationally famous cave system considered to be Europe's best example of karst phenomena— limestone structures and underground streams.

The cave, which had been explored from the 17th century, has 20 kilometers of corridors and grottoes containing spectacular stalactite and stalagmite formations.

In parts of the system is found a remarkable eyeless, colourless, snakelike subterranean amphibian, the so-called human fish. Never fear, it isn´t called human fish because it eats humans, but because of the color of its skin. This species is unique to the cave and grows to 30 centimeters in length, lives on snails and worms, and has both lungs and gills. Surprisingly enough, the human fish can grow a hundred years old and it can even survive 10 years without food. Isn´t that amazing?

For further information visit this website:
http://www.postojnska-jama.si/?lang=en

By the way, you wouldn´t believe how many foreigners we met in Postojna. There were people from all over the world- Great Britain, America, Japan, China, Italy, Croatia and, of course, Austria :-) . And because guided tours were offered in five languages- German, English, Italian, French and Slovenian- I also had the possibility to practice English. First of all, we joined the Italian group and I talked to some people from Trieste. However, after a while we got tired of these noisy people and joined the English group instead. This was much more interesting as I have a better command of English too. So we met Susan and Tom, a nice couple from England. They told us that they had some rooms for rent and invited us to visit them whenever we would have time. Well, Susan and Tom, now you have a problem, because we are definitely going to accept this offer!!!

And I also don´t want to deprive you of today´s cartoons....

Jaywalking finally finished!!!!

2007-04-14T07:49:00.000-07:00

Warum bin ich so fröhlich, so fröhlich, so fröhlich? The answer to this question is quite easy- I´m finally done with "Jaywalking with the Irish" and now I´m going to enjoy the last two days of the Easter holidays. Today I´m going to the cinema and for tomorrow I´ve planned a trip to Slovenia before going back to Graz again. Oh, you cannot even imagine how much I´m going to miss my home, sweet home.

The last few days were just amazing- it was really hot and the sun was shining all day long. It really is a pity that my boyfriend had both big toes operated on Monday, because therefore we had to stay at home most of the time. Even so we enjoyed the beautiful weather. However, now he feels a little bit better and so I´m really looking forward to our trip tomorrow.....

By the way, I also went on with the glossary:

TO LASH

Definition:
- to tie something tightly to something else with a rope
- if the wind, sea etc lashes something, it hits it with violent force
- to hit a person or animal very hard with a whip, stick etc
- if an animal lashes its tail or its tail lashes, it moves it from side to side quickly and strongly, especially because it is angry
- to criticize someone angrily - used especially in newspapers

Synonyms:
To bind, to tie

Phrases:
- lash against/down/across
- lash back
- lash sth to sth

Examples:
- The oars were lashed to the sides of the boat.
- The wind lashed violently against the door.
- Oliver lashed the horses to go faster.
- Democrats lashed Republican plans, calling them extreme.

AI:
Lash out is a phrasal verb:
- to suddenly speak angrily to someone or criticize someone angrily
- to try to hit someone, with a series of violent, uncontrolled movements

MANDATORY

Definition:
if something is mandatory, the law says it must be done

Synonym:
Compulsory

Collocations:
- Make something mandatory
- Mandatory offer, retirement, sentence

Preposition:
Mandatory for

Examples:
- Crash helmets are mandatory for motorcyclists.
- Murder carries a mandatory life sentence.
- The Council has made it mandatory for all nurses to attend a refresher course every three years.

NAPPY

Definition:
a piece of soft cloth or paper worn by a baby between its legs and fastened around its waist to hold its liquid and solid waste

Collocations:
- change nappy
- dirty/ disposable nappy
- nappy rash (sore skin caused by wet nappies)

Examples:
- Excuse me while I change the baby's nappy.
- In short, Sangenic is the most modern, most environmentally friendly and most economic way to dispose of disposable nappies!

AI:
Nappy is British English, diaper is American English

TO OBTAIN

Definition:
- to get something that you want, especially through your own effort, skill, or work
- if a situation, system, or rule obtains, it continues to exist

Synonyms:
To get, to acquire

Phrases:
- obtain sth from/ through/ by something

Collocations:
obtain advice, approval, benefit, consent, copy, data, deception, degree, detail, difficulty, document, evidence, form, information, injunction, order, patient, permission, price, result, sample, service, signature, solution, value

Examples:
- You will need to obtain permission from the principal.
- These conditions no longer obtain.
- However, most employers feel that the best training is obtained by working through one complete budget cycle.

PARACHUTE

Definition:
a piece of equipment fastened to the back of people who jump out of planes, which makes them fall slowly and safely to the ground

Collocations:
- parachute jumb
- golden parachute (part of a business person's contract which states that they will be paid a large amount of money if they lose their job, for example if the company is sold)

Examples:
- During the usual paramilitary, parachute, and security training it emerged that she was an admirable shot.
- In the same year he made his first parachute jump from an airship.
- He bailed out at just the right time and floated the short distance to earth in a golden parachute.

QUALM

Definition:
a feeling of slight worry or doubt because you are not sure that what you are doing is right

Phrases:
- Have qualms about
- Without a qualm

Examples:
- Despite my qualms, I took the job.
- The manager has no qualms about dropping players who do not perform well.
- To destroy his diseased psychic kin without a qualm?

RAMPAGE

Definition:
on the rampage: rushing about in a wild and violent way, often causing damage

Examples:
- Rioters went on the rampage through the town.
- Financially secure for the first time, Gamble and Huff went on a creative rampage.
- Until his rampage, Hamilton operated a club for elementary schoolboys in space rented at Dunblane High School.

AI:
Rampage, verb

SALVAGE

Definition:
- when you save things from a situation in which other things have already been damaged, destroyed, or lost
- things that have been saved from an accident, especially when a ship has sunk

Collocations:
Salvage operation

Examples:
- The developers have planned for the salvage and reuse of the building's decorations.
- A massive salvage operation was undertaken.

AI:
Salvage, verb

..... And here´s another cartoon....

American Culture

2007-04-11T09:56:00.000-07:00

Today I had a look at this link:

http://www.uku.fi/~paganuzz/xcult/values/Amer_values.htm

Dr. L. Robert Kohls has developed a list of 13 values which help explain why Americans act as they do, and I´m going to summarize this list.

1. PERSONAL CONTROL OVER THE ENVIRONMENT / RESPONSIBILITY

Americans do not believe in the power of fate. Everyone should have control over the environment. The problems of one's life are seen as having come from one's unwillingness to take responsibility in pursuing a better life.

2. CHANGE IS NATURAL AND POSITIVE

In the American mind, change is seen as good, leading to development, improvement, progress. Stability and tradition aren´t considered very important in the United States.

3. TIME AND ITS CONTROL

Time is very important to Americans. They are more concerned with getting things accomplished on time than they are with developing interpersonal relations. This philosophy has enabled Americans to be extremely productive.

4. EQUALITY / FAIRNESS

Equality is cherished in the U.S.. Americans believe that all people are created equal and that all should have an equal opportunity to succeed.

5. INDIVIDUALISM / INDEPENDENCE

Americans view themselves as highly individualistic. In the U.S. you will find people freely expressing a variety of opinions anywhere and anytime. Individualism leads to privacy, which Americans see as desirable.

6. SELF-HELP INITIATIVE

Americans take credit only for what they accomplish as individuals. They get no credit for having been born into a rich family but pride themselves in having climbed the ladder of success all by themselves.

7. COMPETITION

Americans believe that competition brings out the best in any individual and in any system. This value is reflected in the American economic system of free enterprise.

8. FUTURE ORIENTATION

Americans value the improvements the future will surely bring. Even a happy present goes unnoticed because Americans are hopeful that the future will bring even greater happiness. Since Americans believe that humans, not fate, can control the environment, they are good at planning short-term projects.

9. ACTION / WORK ORIENTATION

Action - any action - is seen as superior to inaction. Americans routinely schedule an extremely active day. Such an attitude toward life has created a class of people known as "workaholics". The first question people often ask when they meet each other in the U.S. is related to work.

10. INFORMALITY

Americans are very informal and casual. For example, American bosses often urge their employees to call them by their first names and feel uncomfortable with the title "Mr." or "Ms.". Informality is also apparent in Americans' greetings. The more formal "How are you?" has been replaced with an informal "Hi".

11. DIRECTNESS / OPENNESS / HONESTY

Americans prefer the direct approach. They are likely to be completely honest in delivering their negative evaluations, and to consider, anything other than the most direct and open approach to be "dishonest" and "insincere".

12. PRACTICALITY / EFFICIENCY

Americans have a reputation for being realistic, practical, and efficient. Americans pride themselves in not being very philosophically oriented. If Americans would even admit to having a philosophy, it would probably be that of pragmatism. This pragmatic orientation has caused Americans to contribute more inventions to the world than any other country.

13. MATERIALISM / ACQUISITIVENESS

Americans think that their material objects are the "natural benefits" that result from hard work and serious intent - a reward which all people could enjoy were they as hard-working as Americans. They give a high priority to obtaining, maintaining, and protecting material objects. Since Americans value newness and innovation, they frequently replace their possessions with newer ones.

And here are some cartoons. Hopefully they make you laugh out loud!!!

Jaywalking with the Irish/ Vocab

2007-04-10T06:01:00.000-07:00

As I´ve already mentioned, I didn´t have the possibility to upload any new entries. However, I wasn´t that lazy as it seems- far from it! I read "Jaywalking with the Irish" and now I´m nearly done with this book. Then I went on with reading my second book and I worked with the glossary.

JAM

Definition:
- a thick sweet substance made from boiled fruit and sugar, eaten especially on bread
- a situation in which it is difficult or impossible to move because there are so many cars or people
- a situation in which a machine does not work because something is stopping a part from moving
- a difficult situation
- a song or piece of music, especially one by a rap or rock group

Examples:
- Sorry we're late. We got stuck in a traffic jam.
- It caused a jam in the printer.
- We became friends after he helped me out of a jam.
- Make no mistake - these guys know how to kick out the jams.
- There is an element of 'jam tomorrow' about some of the government's policies

Phrases:
- (be/get) in/out of/into a jam
- kick out the jams ( to play rock music loudly and with a lot of energy or emotion)
- jam tomorrow (good things someone promises you, which never happen)

AI:
- to jam, verb
- jam session (an occasion when jazz/ rock musicians play music together in an informal way)

KETTLE

Definition:
- a container with a lid, a handle, and a spout, used for boiling and pouring water (British English); teakettle (American English)
- a large pot, used for making soup (American English)

Phrases:
- another/a different kettle of fish (used to say that a situation is very different from one that you have just mentioned)
- put the kettle on (start boiling water in a kettle)

Collocations:
-boiling/ electric kettle
-to boil/ fill the kettle, put the kettle on

Examples:
-She filled the kettle and switched it on.
-The kettle is boiling.
-She enjoys public speaking but being on TV is a different kettle of fish.
-Please, put the kettle on.
-She put on the kettle, craving her morning cup of coffee.
-She filled the kettle from the freshwater tap, then took a box of chilled orange juice from the well-stocked ice-box.
-They boiled the kettle for coffee and cleared a space on the other end of Kenneth's desk.

LANDLUBBER

Definition:

-someone who does not have much experience of the sea or ships

AI:

- landlubber is oldfashioned

MALICIOUS

Definition:
-very unkind and cruel, and deliberately behaving in a way that is likely to upset or hurt someone

Synonyms:
-spiteful
-vindictive

Collocations:
- malicious gossip/rumour/ damage/ falsehood

Examples:
-Who is responsible for these malicious rumours?
-Miss Simms took a malicious pleasure in other people's misfortunes.
-And she specially enjoyed the extra malicious thrill of her husband's frustration.
-Jotan's daughter, the sister of Jehan, was the source of as much malicious gossip as he was himself.
-The possibility of malicious damage should be considered, i.e. computer hacking and viruses.
-Firstly, legal aid is not available for libel, but it may be granted for malicious falsehood.

AI:
-maliciously, adverb
-maliciousness, noun

NAMESAKE

Definition:
-somebody's namesake: another person, especially a more famous person, who has the same name as someone

Examples:
-Like his famous namesake, young Washington had a brave, adventurous spirit.

OBSTINATE

Definition:
- determined not to change your ideas, behaviour, opinions etc, even when other people think you are being unreasonable
-difficult to deal with or get rid of (British English)

Synonym:
stubborn

Collocations:
Obstinate stains, issue, refusal

Examples:
-He was the most obstinate man I've ever met.
-Don't be so obstinate!
-How do you deal with an obstinate teenager who always says she isn't hungry?
-The obstinate refusal of many males to support gun control is not chiefly a product of conditioning by the weapons industry.

AI:
- obstinately, adverb
- obstinacy, noun

TO PAMPER

Definition:
to look after someone very kindly, for example by giving them the things that they want and making them feel warm and comfortable

Synonym:
Spoil

Phrases:
To pamper yourself

Examples:
-She spent her childhood as the pampered daughter of a wealthy family.
-Pamper yourself with a stay in one of our luxury hotels.
-Beauty for boys is a growing business - it's not just the girls who enjoy pampering themselves.

QUAGMIRE

Definition:
-an area of soft wet muddy ground
-a difficult or complicated situation

Examples:
-In the rainy season the roads become a quagmire.
-The Balkan situation became a political and military quagmire.
-But the prospect of hostage-taking opens up a new quagmire.

RAMBUNCTIOUS

Definition:
noisy, full of energy, and behaving in a way that cannot be controlled

Collocations:
Rambunctious kid/ boy/ behaviour/ storm

Examples:
-Maybe he encouraged my rambunctious behavior.
-Mr Smith was a rambunctious retiree who lost his nose to an untended skin cancer.
-That collision of conflicting air masses usually causes particularly rambunctious storms to slam California.

SALMON

Definition:
- a large fish with silver skin and pink flesh that lives in the sea but swims up rivers to lay its eggs
-a pink-orange colour

Collocations:
-fresh, smoked, good, pink, wild, young salmon
-salmon farm/ fishing/ river
-catch, endanger, fish, serve, smoke salmon

Examples:
-Nina brought me a plate of smoked salmon and some sliced bread.
-They jumped like salmon in a landing-net but must have kept the taste.
-She says the actions are necessary to protect the endangered winter-run salmon.
-Local Activities: walks, trout and salmon fishing, caving, canoeing, boating, pony-trekking, horse-riding

TAME

Definition:
-a tame animal or bird is not wild any longer, because it has been trained to live with people
-dull and disappointing

Opposite:
Wild

Examples:
-Most of the criticism has been pretty tame.
-I decided that teaching was too tame for me.
-These little fishes become quite tame and will respond at feeding time by rushing to their food like a litter of puppies.

AI:
-tamely, adverb
-tameness, noun

UNCANNY

Definition:
very strange and difficult to explain

Collocations:
Uncanny ability, accuracy, knack, resemblance, experience

Examples:
-He has an uncanny ability to guess what you're thinking.
-In one of the tales of the Arabian Nights the sovereign has the uncanny experience of meeting himself.
-The rumors bore an uncanny resemblance to whatever people feared most.
-He had a deep knowledge of the habits of all the local wildlife and an uncanny knack of befriending them.

TO VACILLATE

Definition:
to continue to change your opinions, decisions, ideas

Synonym:
To waver

Prepositions:
To vacillate between

Examples:
-How often we vacillate back and forth, pro and conning things to death.
-She was decisive and she did not vacillate, and once committed she intended to win.
-The man I love has just destroyed us and I wake up, vacillating between suicide and murder.

AI:
-Vacillation, noun

TO WAVER

Definition:
-to become weaker or less certain
-to not make a decision because you have doubts
-to move gently in several different directions

Phrases:
waver in/ from/ between something and something

Examples:
-Her voice wavered uncertainly.
-Harris never wavered in his loyalty.
-We were determined not to waver from our goals.
-Shareholders who were wavering met the directors.
-The party wavered between free trade and protectionism
- The candle flame wavered, throwing shadows on the wall.

YIELD

Definition:
the amount of profits, crops etc that something produces

Synonym:
Quota

Collocations:
-annual, average, current, equivalent, gross, high, low, maximum yield
-calculate, drive, expect, fall, increase, produce, push, raise, reduce, rise the yield
-bond, crop, curve, dividend, milk, redemption

Prepositions:
Yield of

Examples:
-The average milk yield per cow has doubled.
-Shareholders are expecting a higher yield this year.
-But the yield curve is abnormally steep.

ACQUISITION

Definition:
-the process by which you gain knowledge or learn a skill
-the act of getting land, power, money etc
-something that you have obtained by buying it or being given it

Preposition:
Acquisition of/ by

Collocations:
-big, compulsory, major, new, possible, recent acquisition
-land, language acquisition
-announce, complete, finance, follow, include, involve, make, propose acquisition

Examples:
-The Art Society is holding an exhibition of recent acquisitions.
-Funds will be used for new museum acquisitions.
-The acquisition by schools would seem sensible as this forms a useful and accurate guide to vessel and organ location.
-The Act also settled a doubt concerning the legality of compulsory land acquisition for the purpose of disposal to a private developer.
-After announcing the acquisition in June 1994, Harvard encountered rough waters in bringing the deal to harbor.
'

TO BANISH

Definition:
-to not allow someone or something to stay in a particular place
-to send someone away permanently from their country or the area where they live, especially as an official punishment

Synonyms:
to expel, to deport, to send to exile

Phrases:
-banish somebody from/to
-banish the memory/thought/image etc

Examples:
-Napoleon was banished to the island of St Helena in 1815.
-They tried to banish the memory from their minds.
-He has been banished from the real world, we don't allow him to even glimpse at it any more.

AI:
Banishment, noun

CALDRON

Definition:
a large round metal pot for boiling liquids over a fire

Examples:
-Turn-of-the- century New Orleans was a caldron of cultures, equal parts poverty and wealth.
-An under-cook was supervising the cleaning of the stove around the cauldron and the preparation of fresh ingredients to replace those lost.
-And there was a witches' cauldron full of golden soup.

AI:
Caldron is American English, cauldron is British English

DAMP

Definition:
slightly wet, often in an unpleasant way

Synonyms:
Moist, clammy

Collocations:
damp air, cloth, earth, grass, hair, patch, proof, sand, squib, towel, wall, weather

Examples:
-Wipe the leather with a damp cloth.
-At first I hated the damp weather in Britain.
-She pushed the damp hair back from her forehead.

AI:
-dampness, noun
-damp squib (British English) : something that is intended to be exciting, effective etc, but which is disappointing

EASY STREET

Definition:
Be living on easy street- to be in a situation in which you have plenty of money

Examples:
-If I get this new job, we'll be living on easy street.
-By the time this Clinton-Dole thing is over, you and I could be living on Easy Street.

AI:
-‘be living on easy street’ is informal
-this phrase is especially used in American English

TO FAN OUT

Definition:
if a group of people fan out, they walk forwards while spreading over a wide area

Phrase:
fan something out (to spread out a group of things that you are holding so that they make a half-circle)

Examples:
-Fan the cards out, then pick one.
-Scores of FBI agents fanned out on Monday to interview potential witnesses.
-The men were told to fan out and begin the search.

GAUDY

Definition:
clothes, colours etc that are gaudy are too bright and look cheap - used to show disapproval

Examples:
-I didn't like the decorations - they looked rather gaudy.
-She smelled of cheap perfume and wore gaudy clothing and fake costume jewellery.
-On the walls, pictures of Mecca and General Zia mingle with gaudy Alpine scenes.

AI:
-gaudily, adverb
-gaudiness, noun

TO HARASS

Definition:
to make someone's life unpleasant, for example by frequently saying offensive things to them or threatening them

Preposition:
Harassed by

Collocations:
-sexually/racially harass somebody
-harassing phone call

Examples:
-A number of black youths have complained of being harassed by the police.
-One woman claimed that she had been sexually harassed by a male manager.
-She continued to receive harassing phone calls and threatening letters.

HARASSMENT

Definition:
when someone behaves in an unpleasant or threatening way towards you

Preposition:
harassment of, by, from

Collocations:
-sexual/racial harassment
-suffer/ subject to/ complain about harassment

Examples:
-African-Americans have been complaining about police harassment for years.
-Political parties are banned, and harassment of dissidents is commonplace.
-We need effective strategies to combat sexual harassment in the workplace.
-Widows living alone were not the only interviewees to complain of harassment by drunken foreign sailors.
-The workers complain of threats, intimidation and harassment from employers.

IMPECCABLE

Definition:
without any faults and impossible to criticize

Synonyms:
Perfect, unblemished

Examples:
-She has taught her children impeccable manners.
-On paper, her qualifications seemed to be impeccable.
-As I expected, her house was decorated with impeccable taste.

TO JEER

Definition:
to laugh at someone or shout unkind things at them in a way that shows you do not respect them

Preposition:
To jeer at

Examples:
-The President was booed and jeered by a crowd of protesters.
-Fans jeered at the referee.
-There were jeers and booing from the audience.
-Richardson was jeered at during a parade in his New Mexico district.

AI:
-jeer, noun
-jeering, noun

KIN

Definition:
- (also kinsfolk, kinfolk) your family
- next of kin : your most closely related family

Collocations:
-close, distant, wide kin
-kin group, network, relationship, selection, support

Examples:
-We'll have to notify the next of kin of his death.
-Usually, however, the day-to-day care of the elderly in particular, was a matter for the kin group.
-How important is the exchange element in structuring kin support?

AI:
Kith and kin (old-fashioned): family and friends

Stories

2007-04-05T11:55:00.001-07:00

04.04.2007

Today I read the short story “Death by Scrabble” by Charlie Fish. You can find it here:

http://www.short-stories.co.uk/

This story is about a married couple in the fourties that lives a really boring and depressing life. Over the years, they start to hate each other. Then, during a Scrabble game, the man is even trying to find a way how to kill his wife, because he is convinced that everything would be better without her. However, he tries to play words that would show her how he feels, but he only gets lousy letters. Suddenly he realizes that he can manipulate destiny, because the words are coming true. For example, when he plays “explodes”, the air conditioning unit fails. In the end, however, his wife plays “death” and he chokes on the letter B that he was chewing all the time.

In my opinion, this story is very amusing and I liked the idea that letters are able to choose their future.

I also found a very interesting and amusing text about how people perceive things differently. I can only recommend to read it through, sometimes it´s a bit challenging but on the whole it´s fun!

Why did the chicken cross the road?

KINDERGARTEN TEACHER: To get to the other side.

PLATO: For the greater good.

ARISTOTLE: It is in the nature of chickens to cross roads.

HIPPOCRATES: Because of an excess of phlegm in its pancreas.

MOSES: And God came down from the Heavens, and He said unto the chicken, “Thou shalt cross the road.” And the chicken crossed the road, and there was much rejoicing.

FOX MULDERC (X-Files): You saw it cross the road with your own eyes. How many more chickens have to cross the road before you believe it?

JERRY SEINFELD: Why does anyone cross a road? I mean, why doesn´t anyone ever think to ask, what the heck was this chicken doing walking around all over the place, anyway?

SIGMUND FREUD: The fact that you are at all concerned that the chicken crossed the road reveals your underlying sexual insecurity.

CHARLES DARWIN: Chickens, over great periods of time, have been naturally selected in such a way that they are now genetically diposed to cross roads.

ALBERT EINSTEIN: Whether the chicken crossed the road or the road moved beneath the chicken depends upon your frame of reference.

MARTI LUTHER KING, JR.: I envision a world where all chickens will be free to cross roads without having their motives called into question.

RICHARD M. NIXON: The chicken did not cross the road. I repeat, the chicken did NOT cross the road.

SADDAM HUSSEIN: This was an unprovoked act of rebellion and we were quite justified in dropping 50 tons of nerve gas on it.

CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK: To boldly go where no chicken has gone before.
BILL GATES: I have just released the new Chicken Office 2000, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die. In the rain.

COLONEL SANDERS (founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken): I missed one?

Are Americans stupid?

2007-04-05T11:52:00.000-07:00

03.04.2007

I´m back again and full of energy. So, what did I do today? I thought it would be a good idea to concentrate on American culture this time. Therefore, I had a quick look at the document “Exploring American Culture” and I have to admit that it was quite interesting.

1. Voices from the Mother Country

http://www.real-english.com/reo/13/unit13.html

Try out this link, it´s very informative. You can watch three videos in which Britons comment on their opinion about Americans. These rather short interviews are full of stereotypes, but they also contain some truth.
To sum up, Americans are very lively and outgoing, but they are also extremely loud and like to talk a lot. Others think that they are only self-centered, pushy, overpowering, bossy and overweight. However, they can also be warm-hearted, friendly, helpful, pleasant, generous, hospital and in general likeable. Even if they try, they are not as modest as the English, but less reserved and less inhibited. Finally, they are more confident or even over-confident and have a sense of duty and responsibility.

So what do you think about Americans? In my opinion, they forgot to mention a very important point: AMERICANS HAVE A GREAT SENSE OF HUMOUR!!!

2. From an Aussie perspective

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJuNgBkloFE

However, Americans also have a reputation for being stupid and if you look at this link, you´ll know why!! Although these interviews had been edited, I couldn´t stop laughing.
Here are some examples:

Question: What religion are Buddhist monks?
Answer: Buddhist monks? Buddhist monks? Islamic?

Question: Who won the Vietnam War?
Answer: We did!! Were we even in the Vietnam War?

Question: Who is Fidel Castro?
Answer: A singer?

Question: What is the currency used in the United Kingdom?
Answer 1: Probably American money!
Answer 2: Queen Elisabeth´s money?

Question: How many world wars have there been?
Answer: Three.

Question: What are Hiroshima and Nagasaki famous for?
Answer: Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Judo-wrestling.

Then I looked at some of the links available at CYBEROPPS.

Cyberopps< LINKS< FUN

http://gprime.net/video.php/tattooremover

http://gprime.net/video.php/therealsimpsons

http://gprime.net/video.php/littledancers

http://gprime.net/video.php/einsteinthebird

I also had a look at some hilarious comics and because I don´t want to deprive you of this fun, I´m going to upload one of my most favourite comics every day.

LINKS< LISTENING

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechabeautifulmind.html

The Swedish girls

2007-04-05T11:16:00.000-07:00

I´m so angry, you cannot even imagine how angry I am!! At the beginning of the Easter holidays I decided that I would make a blogging entry every single day. However, destiny thwarted my plans. Here´s my story: As usual, I´m spending my holidays in Obertauern (a skiing region in Salzburg), because my boyfriend is working there. Normally this is very convenient as I have enough time to study while he is working. I really enjoy being in this beautiful small town, because I don´t get disturbed by anyone or anything. Therefore, I quickly started with my blogging project, but just as quickly had to realize that it wouldn´t be as easy as I thought. The main problem was that my boyfriend only has mobile internet that didn´t support blogger.com. I really don´t know why, because I could open every other website, also cyberopps. However, although I tried several times, it was impossible to upload my entries. Every time I tried to do so, I couldn´t save my drafts and after a while, I just lost my patience. That´s why I decided to drive home in order to prove that I´m no lazy student.

By the way, yesterday I even had the chance to practice speaking. I was laying in my bed in Obertauern, reading “Jaywalking with the Irish”, when I suddenly heard someone talking. Well, it was about 5 pm and I knew that my boyfriend and his colleagues were working, so I wondered who was sitting in our kitchen. I also realized that those people had to be foreigners, because they didn´t speak German. I slowly and quietly opened my door and listened carefully. I couldn´t believe my eyes: three women were sitting there, smoking and drinking alcohol. However, most interestingly, they were speaking English. So I decided to listen for a while, because I wanted to know what they were doing here. I found out that they were from Sweden and that they were working here as skiing instructors. A few minutes later I went downstairs, because I wanted to take them to task. They told me that they were always sitting here to relax a bit after an exhausting working day and slowly but surely we had a very nice conversation. It was great and in the end we exchanged our e-mail addresses and they even suggested that I should visit them next year. I really hope that we are going to keep in touch.

Irish songs

2007-04-02T05:43:00.000-07:00

Today I continued with “Jaywalking with the Irish”, but I still don´t like reading it. It´s so frustrating!!! However, one thing I am interested in is Irish culture, so I tried to find out more about this topic.

1.
For example, do you know the song “If you had the luck of the Irish” by John Lennon and Yoko Ono? NO?? Then you should listen to it, because so you can learn more about the history of Ireland.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWqc1WSibqs

Here are the lyrics:

If you had the luck of the Irish
You'd be sorry and wish you were dead
You should have the luck of the Irish
And you'd wish you was English instead!

A thousand years of torture and hunger

Drove the people away from their land

A land full of beauty and wonder

Was raped by the British brigands

God damn! God damn!

If you could keep voices like flowers

There'd be shamrock all over the world

If you could drink dreams like Irish streams

Then the world would be high as the Mountains of Mourne

In the 'Pool they told us the story

How the English divided the land

Of the pain, the death and the glory

And the poets of auld Eireland

If we could make chains with the morning dew

The world would be like Galway Bay

Let's walk over rainbows like leprechauns

The world would be one big Blarney Stone

Why the hell are the English there anyway?

As they kill with God on their side

Blame it all on the kids the IRA

As the bastards commit genocide

Aye, aye.. genocide

If you had the luck of the Irish

You'd be sorry and wish you was dead

You should have the luck of the Irish

And you'd wish you was English instead!

Yes you'd wish you was English instead!

VOCAB:

Shamrock:
Type of clover used as the national symbol of Ireland

The ´Pool:
Liverpool

Leprechaun:
In old Irish stories a kind of fairy in the form of a little man

Blarney Stone:
A tourist attraction at Blarney Castle in southern Ireland. The story says that those who kiss this stone become eloquent
(Wouldn´t this be nice?)

Genocide:
The killing of a whole group of people

2.
Here´s another one that you know for sure. It is called “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” by U2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBMDcqGm3O4

Here are the lyrics:

I can't believe the news today

Oh, I can't close my eyes

And make it go away

How long...

How long must we sing this song

How long, how long...

'cause tonight...we can be as one

Tonight...

Broken bottles under children's feet

Bodies strewn across the dead end street

But I won't heed the battle call

It puts my back up

Puts my back up against the wall

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

And the battle's just begun

There's many lost, but tell me who has won

The trench is dug within our hearts

And mothers, children, brothers, sisters

Torn apart

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

How long...

How long must we sing this song

How long, how long...

'cause tonight...we can be as one

Tonight...tonight...

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

Wipe the tears from your eyes

Wipe your tears away

Oh, wipe your tears away

(Sunday, Bloody Sunday)

Oh, wipe your blood shot eyes

(Sunday, Bloody Sunday)

Sunday, Bloody Sunday (Sunday, Bloody Sunday)

And it's true we are immune

When fact is fiction and TV reality

And today the millions cry

We eat and drink while tomorrow they die

(Sunday, Bloody Sunday)

The real battle just begun

To claim the victory Jesus won

On...

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Sunday Bloody Sunday...

Information/ Bloody Sunday

On January 30, 1972, soldiers from the British Army's 1st Parachute Regiment opened fire on unarmed and peaceful civilian demonstrators in Derry, Ireland, killing 13 and wounding a number of others. The march, which was called to protest internment, was "illegal" according to British government authorities. Internment without trial was introduced by the British government on August 9, 1971.
The British-government-appointed Widgery Tribunal found soldiers were not guilty of shooting dead the 13 civilians in cold blood.

I´ve also found this hilarious video, in which Bush sings “Sunday, Bloody Sunday”. You have to watch it, it´s very amusing. Maybe he would have more success as singer, who knows?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6805063692754011230

Vocab

2007-04-01T05:05:00.000-07:00

Today I would like to go on with my vocab project, because there are still so many new words left.

ABYSMAL

Definition:
very bad or of bad quality

Synonym:
terrible

Examples:
- The reunion was an abysmal failure.

- Living conditions were abysmal.

TO BAFFLE

Definition:
if something baffles you, you cannot understand or explain it at all

Synonyms:
To confuse, to puzzle

Examples:
- The question baffled me completely
- The disease has baffled doctors, who are unable to treat it.
- The exact nature of black holes continues to baffle scientists.

AI:
- bafflement, noun
- baffling, adjective (a baffling mystery)

CAGEY

Definition:
unwilling to tell people about your plans, intentions, or opinions

Peposition:
cagey about

Examples:
- He was very cagey about the deal
- He gets very cagey whenever I ask him about his job.

AI:
- cagily, adverb
- caginess, noun

DAFFODIL

Definition:
a tall yellow spring flower with a tube-shaped part in the middle

Examples:
- Or boxes of writing paper with daffodils or roses on them.
- Behind the house was a wild garden with trees and lots of daffodils.

EASEL

Definition:
a wooden frame that you put a painting on while you paint it

Preposition:
On

Examples:
- The painting on the easel is a portrait.
- Surely, there was a different picture on the easel?

FACILITATE

Definition:
to make it easier for a process or activity to happen

Synonyms:
Simplify, ease

Preposition:
Facilitate by

Collocations:
Facilitate access, activity, change, communication, development, exchange, flow, growth, information, learning, management, movement, order, process, removal, structure, system, transfer, use, work

Examples:
- Computers can be used to facilitate language learning.
- Both centers are electronically linked to facilitate communication
- There were whole families who were infected, and transmission of the disease was facilitated by unhygienic conditions.
- The Internet international computer network system could facilitate efficient exchange of information.

AI:
- facilitate is formal
- facilitation, noun

GARGANTUAN

Definition:
extremely large

Synonym:
Gigantic

Examples:
- Yesterday I ate a meal of gargantuan proportions.
- Of all her mistakes, this was the most gargantuan.

HANKY-PANKY

Definition:
sexual activity (used humorously)

Examples:
- It was a control on monetary hanky-panky, otherwise known as inflation.
- Instead of a warm and fuzzy public relations tour during campaign season, she now faces endless questions about supposed hanky-panky.

AI:
hanky-panky is informal

IMMACULATE

Definition:
- very clean and tidy
- exactly correct or perfect in every detail

Opposite:
mssy

Synonyms:
nat, tidy

Collocations:
imaculate condition, conception, performance, precision, kitchen, house, lawn, suit, hair

Examples:
- He wore an immaculate dark-blue suit
- She was always elegantly dressed and absolutely immaculate.
- The following day, the feast of the immaculate conception, there was a closing ceremony in St Peter's Square.
- The stations and stock were in immaculate condition, and all the staff we met were welcoming and more than polite

To be continued....

Home, sweet home

2007-03-31T06:01:00.000-07:00

You know what? I´m really happy to be back at home again and that this month is finally over now. It was very exhausting and nerve-racking, because I had to spend the last weeks between the semester and easter break in Graz in order to study. Well, I could have driven home, of course, but to be perfectly honest, I am not able to concentrate on my studies if I´m constantly surrounded by my family and closest friends. So, because of the fact that Carinthia is full of distractions, I decided that it would be more effective to stay here in Graz.

By the way, it is not that bad, far from it! It´s also a lovely city that has very much to offer. One of the best aspects of Graz is that it has all the conveniences of a big city, but it does not really look like one. Graz is known for it´s ample parks that create a warm, inviting atmosphere. In my freetime I spend a lot of time in this green oasis, thinking about this and that. As you can see, I really feel comfortable here, it´s just that I don´t feel at home. I really miss my family and friends, but also Carinthia itself. You know this famous saying, "Home is where the heart is"? For me it is definitely true. Yesterday, on my way home, I was thinking about this topic. Now it is the second year that I´m living between two cities and nevertheless, I have not yet got used to this situation. Don´t get me wrong, I absolutely love travelling. It so much fun getting to know different people, visiting fascinating places and exploring a new culture. However, living inbetween two Austrian cities is nothing for me. I can´t please everybody and that often gnaws at my conscience. When I am in Graz I often neglect my Carinthian friends and when I am at home, I constantly have the feeling that I should be doing something for university. I am always caught between the devil and the deep blue sea!!

Talking of homesickness, yesterday I also started to read "A House Somewhere. Tales Of Life Abroad". It´s fascinating, because the book perfectly reflects my present feelings and controversial thoughts. For example, I could really identify with Jan Morris´ nostalgic and contemplative essay. She mentions that she knows "the delectable thrill of moving into a new house somewhere altogether else, in somebody else´s country, where the climate is different and the food is different". On the other side she has "never felt entirely comfortable, entirely natural, in those delectable foreign homes."
However, there are also many hilarious stories too. For instance, I really enjoyed Peter Mayle´s description of an unusual winter in the Provence, when the whole place was hidden under a blanket of snow. He tells about his dogs, who adapted to the snow like young bears and even learned to skate. "The pool, that just days before I had been planning to clean and make ready for some early spring swimming, was a block of blue-green ice, and it seemed to fascinate them. On to the ice would go the two front paws, then a tentative third paw, and finally the remaining leg would join the rest of the dog. There would be a moment or two of contemplation at the curiosity of a life in which you can drink something one day and stand on it the next before the tail would start whirring with excitement and a form of progress could be made. I had always thought that dogs were engineered on the principle of four-wheel drive vehicles, with equal propulsion coming from each leg, but the power appears to be concentrated in the back. Thus the front half of the skating dog may have the intention of proceeding in a straight line, but the rear half is wildly out of control, fishtailing from side to side and sometimes threatening to overtake".

More extracts will follow. That´s enough for today. Have a nice evening!

Looking at other blogs

2007-03-28T08:05:00.000-07:00

Today I had a quick look at all the other blogs and I really, really liked all of them. It´s interesting to see that everybody has his very own approach to blogging. In my opinion, it must be quite difficult to mark them- they couldn´t be more different!!!

By the way, there are some things I wanted to mention. Maja has a great sense of humour and her entries are so much fun. I just wonder how she has time for her studies if she has to save the world all day long. I always thought that being a powerranger must be very exhausting and time-consuming! Isn´t it? There is one thing I only wanted to tell Eva- I can´t agree with you. You can´t say anything against the Gilmore Girls- they are just great and that´s it!! Tina´s pictures are beautiful- she really is a talent. I wonder why she studies languages. Last but-by no means -least, I was so impressed by Claire´s blog. I can only think of a single word- WOW!!!

Now I would like to come to my own blog. I know that my vocab learning project is quite ambitious, but I really do think that I have many other weaknesses!! Therefore, I have to develop a plan that also includes areas such as writing, speaking and grammar. Maybe it would be a good idea to write 4 entries per week and, let´s say, every Monday an entry about vocab, every Wednesday about writing and so on and so forth. To be honestly true, I don´t know if this project will work, but at least I should try it out.

See you in class. Bye!

Jaywalking again!!!

2007-03-27T23:27:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody!
As I have already promised, here are the last letters- S to Z. I really have to admit that this is hard work and very time-consuming. However, as long as this project helps me to memorise all the new words, it´s worth it.

TO SAG

Definition:
- to hang down or bend in the middle, especially because of the weight of something
- to become weaker or less valuable

Synonym:
to droop

Collocations:
sagging economy/ roof

Prepositions:
sag against/ under

Examples:
- When he got her on to the pavement, she sagged against the school wall and would not move.
- The branch sagged under the weight of the apples.
- His whole body seemed to sag with relief.

AI:
sag, noun

TABLOID

Definition:
a newspaper that has small pages, a lot of photographs, and stories mainly about sex, famous people etc rather than serious news

Opposite:
broadsheet (a newspaper printed on large sheets of paper, especially a serious newspaper)

Examples:
- Most of them, however, had pulled copies of the Globe because the supermarkett tabloid published copies of grisly crime-scene photographs.
- She claimed that she had had an affair with the President, and sold her story to the tabloids.

AI:
tabloid, adjective (tabloid journalist)

UBIQUITOUS

Definition:
seeming to be everywhere (sometimes used humorously)

Examples:
- Plastic containers are ubiquitous nowadays.
- Yesterday I watched a great French film, starring the ubiquitous Gérard Depardieu.

AI:
- ubiquity, noun
- ubiquitous is formal

TO VACATE

Definition:
- to leave a job or position so that it is available for someone else to do
- to leave a seat, room etc so that someone else can use it

Preposition:
vacate by

Collocations:
office, premises, seat

Examples:
- Guests must vacate their rooms by 11:00.
- Guests are requested to vacate their rooms before 12 o'clock on the day of departure.
- The group that has used the old Cooking Centre has had to vacate the premises but so far nothing has happened

Synonym:
move out

TO WAGER

Definition:
to agree to win or lose an amount of money on the result of something such as a race

Synonym:
gamble

Phrases:

- wager something on something

- I'll wager (used to say that you are confident that something is true)

Examples:

- Stipes wagered all his money on an unknown horse
- I'll wager that boy's never worked in his life!

- And estimates are that players wager $ 8 billion a year at the tables, although no one knows for sure.

AI:

- wager is old-fashioned
- wager, noun

TO YAK

Definition:
to talk continuously about things that are not very serious, in a way that is annoying

Examples:
- Across the land, every night, teenagers are yakking online in chat rooms with friends and Net acquaintances.
- People head out, yakking about this or that shot.

AI:
- yak is informal
- a yak is an animal of central Asia that looks like a cow with long hair

ZEAL

Definition:
eagerness to do something, especially to achieve a particular religious or political aim

Collocations:
religious/revolutionary/missionary

Prepositions:
zeal for/ with zeal

Phrases:
in your zeal to do something

Examples:
- In their zeal to catch drug dealers, police have ignored citizens' basic civil rights.
- They had a zeal for seeing Christendom expand.
- Now we saw them very rarely, and they were not hunting with their previous zeal.
- Professor Papert deserves high marks for missionary zeal.

Even more new words.....

2007-03-25T01:23:00.000-07:00

Today I went on with reading the book "Jaywalking with the Irish" and I have to admit that it´s not my favourite book. In my opinion, the topic "expatriate life" is very interesting, but I just don´t like Monagan´s style. It´s too complicated and I really have to look up many words in the glossary. So I though it would be a good idea to go on with my illustrated glossary.

RAID

Definition:
- a short attack on a place by soldiers/planes/ships, intended to cause damage; not take control
- a surprise visit made to a place by the police to search for something illegal
- an attack by criminals on a building where they believe they can steal money or drugs

Prepositions:
against, on, over

Collocations and Phrases:
- armed, bombing, smash-and-grab raid
- launch/carry out/stage a raid
- air, bank, commando, dawn, ram, cross-border raid

Examples:
- The army launched several cross-border raids last night.
- Four people were arrested during a raid on a house in London.
- Yesterday two men carried out an armed raid on a shop in Glasgow.

Synonyms:
ambush; assault

AI:
to raid, verb

Q-TIP

Definition:
a short stick with cotton at each end, used especially for cleaning your ears (American English)

Example:
In the last few days, you may have seen a horrifying video of police armed with Q-tips instead of batons.

AI:
cotton bud (British Englsih)

PAGAN

Definition:
- someone who believes in a pagan religion
- someone with few or no religious beliefs (used humorously)

Examples:
- He also learned that Christians could be as evil as pagans.
- Like converted pagans, they were reluctant to give up their old gods.

AI:
- paganism; noun
- pagan, adjective ( pagan religious beliefs and customs do not belong to any of the main religions of the world, and may come from a time before these religions)

OAR

Definition:
a long pole with a wide flat blade at one end, used for rowing a boat

Other Phrases:

put/stick/get your oar in: to get involved in a conversation or situation when the other people do not want you to (British English, informal)

Examples:

- And when he took hold of the oars of a rowboat, the rowboat nearly jumped out of the water.
- Alan insisted upon managing the oars, which made it even worse.

Synonym:
paddle

TO NAG

Definition:
- to keep asking someone to do something, or to keep complaining to someone about their behaviour, in an annoying way
- to make someone feel continuously worried or uncomfortable

Prepositions:
nag at

Phrases:
- nag sb about sth
- nag sb to do sth
- nag somebody up one side and down the other (American English): to criticize someone, complain to them in an annoying way etc without worrying about how they feel

Examples:
- I wish you'd stop nagging!
- Nadia's been nagging me to fix the lamp.
- She keeps nagging me about my weight.
- He's always nagging at Paula for wearing too much makeup
- One question still nagged me.

AI:
- nag, noun
- nagging, adjective (nagging feeling/doubt/suspicion/ pain)

TO MAIM

Definition:
to wound or injure someone very seriously and often permanently

Examples:
- A five-year-old girl was maimed in the bombing.
- Surely terrorists cannot believe that killing and maiming ordinary people is an achievement?

Synonym:
to cripple

LAD

Definition:
A boy or young man (oldfashioned)

Collocations:
big, good, likely, little, local, nice, other, poor, stable, young

Other phrases:
- the lads (spoken): a group of male friends that a man works with or spends his free time with
- a bit of a lad (spoken): a man that people like even though he behaves rather badly
- lad culture (informal): the way in which some young men behave, involving typically male activities such as drinking a lot of alcohol, driving fast cars, and watching football

Examples:
- Things were different when I was a lad.
- That Chris is a bit of a lad, isn't he?

AI:
- Jack the Lad : a young man who enjoys drinking alcohol and going out with his male friends, and who thinks he is sexually attractive (British English, spoken)

Problems with blogger.com/ Chinese cannot speak English!!!

2007-03-23T13:28:00.000-07:00

First I thought that blogger.com would be so much better than yahoo 360´, but it isn´t. I don´t know why, but it always changes the layout of my entries. I am so angry and frustrated!!! I normally don´t swear, but if you could hear me know.....
The heck with it! It´s getting late and I´m just too tired to rack my brains.

By the way, I forgot to mention something. Yesterday a Chinese student contacted me via Skype and wanted to talk with me. What a nice idea, I thought to myself and we started to send each other short messages in English. However, this was a huge mistake. I mean, my English is not perfect (not at all!), but.... Let me put it this way: I always thought that all Chinese are able to speak English fluently, but know I know that this is definitely not true! Of course, I didn´t really belief in this cliché, I just thought... I don´t know what I thought!!! It was just stupid to think that all Chinese speak English.

So, that´s enough for today, I´m tired.

Alcohol- the Irish problem /vocab

2007-03-23T10:06:00.000-07:00

It´s so depressing! Today is such a cold and blustery day, it´s getting dark and it starts to drizzle! All in all, a perfect day for studying!!!

First of all, I would like to reflect on our Wednesday class with Lisa. I have to admit that it was really interesting and also quite hilarious. We began with a little quizz about Ireland and guess what- our group was not bad! Then we had time to ask questions and we basically talked about stereotypes. Lo and behold, the Irish have a prolem with alcohol! Irish people go and drink very fast and very much. Getting blind drunk once or twice a week is pretty normal. Isn´t that shocking? I mean, Austrians also like to drink a lot, but in Ireland it´s really all about binge drinking!!

That´s enough for that! Now I would like to go on with my illustrated glossary. It´s a pity that it is impossible to find a good picture for every single word. It´s especially hard for verbs and adjectives. But I´ll do my best to make the whole project as interesting as possible.

TO DABBLE

Definition:
to do something or be involved in something in a way that is not very serious

Prepositions:
dabble in/at/with

Examples:
- He dabbled in everything from bicycle exports to large-scale commodities purchases.
- She spent her girlhood in San Francisco, where her father dabbled in both journalism and the
theater.

AI:
to dabble also means to move your hands, feet etc about in water (British English)

EARNEST

Definition:
very serious and sincere

Collocations:
earnest expression/look/voice/ attempt/effort/ conversation/ desire

Examples:
- Matthews was in earnest conversation with a young girl.
- A group of earnest musicians dressed completely in black.

Synonyms:
sober, stuffy

AI:
- earnestness, noun
- be in dead/deadly/complete earnest

FABLED

Definition:
famous and often mentioned in traditional stories

Examples:
- Statues of fabled warriors stood in the city square.
- Not much of that fabled but very real gold has survived.

Synonyms:
legendary

AI:
fabled is literary

GARBLED

Definition:
a garbled statement or report is very unclear and confusing

Collocations:
garbled statement/ words/ message

Examples:
- The papers had some garbled version of the story.
- The voice on the tape was too garbled to understand.
- There were a few more garbled words, part of an argument, then a loud noise and a scream.

Synonyms:
confused, unclear, vague

AI:
to garble (verb), the garble (noun)

HALO

Definition:
a bright circle that is often shown above or around the heads of holy people in religious art

Preposition:
a halo of

Examples:
When shot from a special camera, the actor is seen on television with a halo.

AI:
- a halo is also a circle of light or something bright
- a halo of sunlight/ a halo of blonde curls

IGNITION

Definition:
-the electrical part of a vehicle's engine that makes it start working
- the place in a car where you put in a key to start the engine

Collocations:
- turn/switch off the ignition
- ignition source

Examples:
- Phil left his key in the ignition again.
- It caught on the second try, and after a minute's revving he switched off the ignition and let it die.

AI:
ignition is also the act of starting to burn or of making something start to burn (formal)

TO JAB

Definition:
to push something into or towards something else with short quick movements

Collocations/Phrases/Prepositions:
jab at / jab into/ jab somebody with something/ jab something into something/ jab a finger/

Examples:
- She jabbed at the elevator buttons.
- When I didn't respond, he jabbed a finger at me.
- Stop jabbing me with your elbow!
- The soldier jabbed a rifle into his ribs.

AI:
the noun is also jab (=injection, hard hit)

KEG

Definition:
a round wooden or metal container with a flat top and bottom, used for storing beer

Collocations:
keg beer/bitter, a powder keg

Synonym:
barrel

Examples:
- He was able to lift a keg of beer from the floor to the bar.
- Should they market keg beers under national brand names or should they return to localised brewing and brand names?
- Since the riot, the city has been a powder keg waiting to explode

That´s me!!!

2007-03-20T00:36:00.000-07:00

Today I was too tired to go on with my ambitious vocab learning project, but I really want to get used to blogging and I want to write something regularly. So I thought maybe it would be a good idea to introduce myself to all the curious people out there- at least to all the students of SUK4. So, let´s begin with some general stuff. My name is Bettina Krische ( but you can call me betty) and I´m 20 years old. I´m from Carinthia, Austria, but I´m strictly against Jörg Haider. If you are one of Mr. Newman´s students, you´ll know that for sure. I really love travelling and as soon as I have time enough, I´m going to upload some beautiful pictures of Croatia, Slovenia, Malta,... etc. By the way, this picture was also taken in Croatia (Dubrovnik). One thing you also have to know about me is that I´m fond of Italian and Chinese cuisine and of eating in general. However, since I moved to Graz, I don´t have much time for cooking. What else? Oh, I do have a boyfriend. His name is Felix and he´s from Slovenia, but he is soon going to obtain the Austrian citizenship. We both have something in common: We love languages! He is even able to speak three languages fluently: German, Slovenian and Croatian.( plus Bosnian and Serbian, but they don´t really count as different languages). Here is a photo of him and his little niece:

So, that´s enough for now.

TO BE CONTINUED!!