Culture matters 10: ATTITUDE TOWARDS FORMALITY

There are many differences between American and Austrian attitudes towards formality and it would take too long to go into every detail. Therefore I decided that I will pick only one part of this field, namely “Using first names with people you’ve just met”. The Peace Corps article says that in America people tend to do this, however, this isn’t true in Austria. There are many unwritten rules concerning how to address people and that is why I would like to tell everybody who’s not from a German-speaking culture more about those rules.

Background information: German does separate the personal pronoun “you” into a formal “Sie” (goes with the last name) and a more informal “du” (goes with the first name).

Adult +adult
An adult would use the polite and distanced “Sie”-form to address another adult he/she doesn’t know too well. At some point one of the two might offer the other person the more informal “Du”, unless they only meet because of occupational interests. For example, parents are unlikely to call a teacher “du” and especially higher ranked teachers (like “Professoren”) are unlikely to ever offer the “du”.

How to offer the informal “Du”: If you’re not used to the customs you better wait until the other person offers the informal pronoun, since you have to have a feeling for how long it takes to do that. If you offer the “du” to early, Austrians might think you’re too intrusive and if you ask later than usual here, people might assume you’re cagey. If you’re confident that you already know when to do so then you can use many different ways to ask. The most common way is to reintroduce yourself by using the first name only. It’s common to start with a small introduction (one sentence is sufficient) in which you explain why you find it appropriate to use the “du” now. For example, you could say, “Jetzt kennen wir uns schon so lange und siezen uns immer noch. Ich bin die Eva/…”. However, as I told you before, don’t do that if you’re not familiar with the customs.

Adult + teenager
Adults normally use the informal pronoun to address teenagers, but legally they would have to say “Sie” to them as soon as they are 14 or older. Therefore, teachers in Austria ask them at that age which form they prefer, but most classes agree that they want to stay with the “du”. At the university, however, all lecturers use the impersonal form.

Adult+child
All children are addressed with “du”, of course, even if those adults don’t know the child.

Teenager and adult
Teenagers are supposed to use the “Sie”-form with adults they don’t know well. And yet, many teenagers say “du” to adults unless they are their teachers or in other jobs of high hierarchAll young people use the informal pronoun to refer to each other. y. For example, I noticed that sales clerks are often addressed with “du”, even if they are much older, which is, of course, highly impolite.

Teenager/child+ child/teenager
All young people use the informal pronoun to refer to each other.

Anyone + pet
Since many people who have pets speak to their darlings, I thought it might also be worth mentioning that Austrians use the "du"-form to do so.

To sum up, there are much more rules concerning formality in Austria than in America- this is just one example. Just think of the importance of titels in Austria or of the way people visit each other (you need at least an oral invitation). That, however doesn't mean people are not as open as in America, that we don't want to see our friends etc. There are just more rituals around all those actions, which we consider normal.

Under the Tuscan Sun- movie reviews

Yesterday I told you about my personal feelings towards “Under the Tuscan Sun”. Today I would like to compare and contrast two reviews on the movie.

The first one I would like to examine was written by San Francisco Chronicle writer Mick LaSalle. He praises the beautiful pictures of Italy and especially of charming Diane Lane. In his opinion she not only is strikingly beautiful, but also a great actress. Due to some changes to the original book, the movie is not only about the wonderful Tuscan landscape, but even more about the search of love. Though admitting that the movie sometimes seems to use too many clichés and from time to time even seems to be the Italian version of “Sex and the City” LaSalle seems to like it, overall.

The second review by Elvis Mitchell “Restoring a Villa While Repairing the Heart” was published in the New York Times. To him, the movie is “eminently superficial” and predictable as a movie can be. Basically, the movie is about the desperate protagonist Frances, who doesn’t find happiness, if it wasn’t for the abrupt end where suddenly her current partner Ed appears.

To sum up, both reviewers seemed to be stunned by the Diane Lane’s facial expressions. Whereas the one mostly liked the romantic story, the other one was more critical and claimed the whole story is superficial. The homepage “Rotten Tomatoes” sums up all the reviews giving it 62% from 100%. That certainly is not bad, however, not staggering, too. So if you are into romantic movies and love Italy the movie might be worth watching. However, don’t expect too much.

Under the Tuscan Sun- the movie

I started the long weekend with watching the movie adaptation of Frances Mayes’ “Under the Tuscan Sun”. Well, to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t too optimistic, since I wasn’t quite sure if a movie based on the renovation of a holiday house in Italy could possibly be interesting. My doubts proved to be well-founded.

After Frances Mayes, an American writer in her thirtysomethings, learns that her husband is unfaithful, she feels absolutely devastated. The divorce is a hard and expensive process and Frances seems to be at the end of her rope. That’s why her worried friends (a lesbian couple, by the way) send her to a trip to Italy. There she immediately falls in love with the wonderful house called Bramasole and buys it right away. With the help of three Polish workers she renovates the old house and even manages to find a new love, the Italian Marcello. When the pregnant Patti, one of her friends who made her go to Italy, arrives to stay a little everything seems to be perfect. Unluckily, once again love disappoints her when she finds out that Marcello, too, is unfaithful. Simultaneously, one of the Polish workers, who by this time are close friends of Frances, falls in love with a young Italian girl. Frances helps them to convince the girl's parents to allow them to marry and at this wedding she gets to know her future partner Ed, which is the happy end.

Everyone who has read the book might wonder, where the lesbian couple comes from, why Frances seems to live in Italy permanently and why poor Ed appears so late? Maybe a happy couple who is looking for a holiday residence in Italy isn’t too thrilling for the audience. However, that leads me to the question why someone would make a film of that very book, if the content doesn’t seem to be interesting enough for a movie version. Also, now I understand Pam Mandel’s comment, that she wonders how Frances financed her living in Italy. I mean in the book it’s clear that she works most time of the year, but in the movie she seems to be unemployed.

So although I really liked Diane Lane’s acting, the movie wasn’t too captivating. The book, as usually, is much better!

Culture matters 9: CONCEPT OF EQUALITY

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

For all who do not know these lines: It is the opening of the American Declaration of Independence. Nowadays all people from the leading industrial nations agree that egalitarianism has to be a political and moral priority, though many people, especially minorities realize that there is still a long way to go. However, it is obvious that some nations have managed better than others to create an equal society. So let us compare, once again the American and the Austrian culture when it comes to this concept of equality.

People in the North America always depended a great deal on teamwork and in successful teams everyone has to be respected equally. When the first British settlers came to America everyone had to make their contribution to create that target “city upon a hill”. Of course, it was not easy to keep up this ideal, since in a community it is likely that there are people who feel superior to others. Just think of the witch trials, slavery and other social evils that took place in the US. But people seem to have overcome those difficulties, to put it euphemistically. Was not the Revolutionary war some kind of struggle against the monarchical structures prevalent in Europe? They wanted to have a more democratic system and what else is democracy than giving all people the right to be heard. That history may explain why Americans emphasize the importance of egalitarianism so much.

Compared to America, Europe has a tradition of monarchies, totalitarian states etc. Europe’s history was always a history of conquering, ruling and suppression, but that just means that we may had to struggle a little harder. People in Europe, too, always longed for egalitarianism, which especially shows in all the revolutions there were. That is why, despite Europe’s cruel history, we also managed to create states in which people are considered to be equal.

However, both concepts are very idealistic ones. There are still people who are discriminated, there are still people who are not heard and there are still people who are assumed to be inferior. Even whole countries are assumed to be below our wonderful industrial nations. When it comes to America such nations are to be found in the Axis of Evil, while Austrians (and let’s be honest here) regard east European countries to be inferior.

Certainly no one would put it like that, but you can see such attitudes every day. Just think of people talking to immigrants or, to give another example, look at some attorney who buys something in a supermarket chain. They speak with the sales clerks as if they were kind of nuts. The reason why I’m getting a bit emotional here is that I also do such blue-collar jobs from time to time and I experienced that some well-off people not even notice what hard work it is to do such jobs.

As you can see there are still many problems in both systems, although it could be so easy if we all just believed in the simple and, according to Jefferson, self-evident phrase “all men are created equal”.

"Knowing Right and Wrong" by Alex Byrne

"Throwing good taste out with the bathwater for the sake of a clear example, everyone knows that boiling babies for fun is wrong."

____________________________________

Based on this morbid example, the philosopher Byrne analyses different theories on moral law. Undoubtedly everyone has some kind of sense of morality, but those ideas often differ greatly. Some say, for example, eating meat is ok, others reject this idea. That is why Byrne, like many people before him, started wondering where we know from what we ought to do or ought not to do? Are there biological causes for this patterns of thinking, comes this knowledge from God or do these ethic rules don’t exist at all?

One theory assumes moral to be natural feature. Byrne explains there are a lot of natural facts that lead logically to moral behavior (e.g.: the water is hot> hot water hurts the baby> I do not want to hurt the baby) Unluckily, this theory does not always work in practise, since facts do not necessarily motivate people to do or to not do something. Smokers, for instance, know the fact that they will die earlier because of that unhealthy habit, which does not convince many of them to quit smoking. Therefore, the assumption moral laws just haven’t been described by scientists can’t be right.

I, personally, was very fascinated by John Mackie’s theory that there are no moral rules. People just believe there are, which is why they behave accordingly. That, of course, is highly agreeable, since those imaginary rules make people better and improve the social life in general.

I loved reading this article, since I am absolutely interested in philosophy and even more on the existence of moral laws. He sums up a lot of ideas about moral and comments on them, that is, sometimes in a very confusing way. What made his text a little hard to understand is that he uses language like mathematicians use numbers and formulas. That is whyI had to reread some passages to get the meaning, but nevertheless I was impressed by all those sophisticated ideas.

Culture matters 8: SOURCE OF SELF-ESTEEM/ WORTH

According to the LDOCE self-esteem can be understood as “the feeling of being satisfied with your own abilities, and that you deserve to be liked or respected”. However, this is not a complete explanation, since self-esteem is not only being proud of your abilities, but even more how one uses those talents. So what is it exactly that builds our sense of self-esteem? Are there differences between America and Austria?

Once more I consulted the Peace Corps website on the American vantage point. It says- unsurprisingly- that Americans tend to build their self-esteem on the jobs they have and the money they earn. The self-worth of a person is not received “by virtue of birth, position, seniority, or longevity”, though I suppose there are exceptions. Just think of Paris Hilton, who is just famous for partying, or world’s oldest people, who are also treated with respect just for being old. In addition, I think Americans are actually not only after money, like the website claims, but merely want a job that is satisfying even if it is badly paid and laborious. At least, that is what I have learned from the book “Gig”.

Austrians also tend to judge people on what they are doing, that is, a doctor is certainly ranked higher than some Spar-employee. However, the self-esteem is also build on the friends one has, which is especially true for younger people. The more acquaintances/ friends the better! And yet, self-worth has not always to be created by oneself. In Austria, for example, the wives of doctors are also called doctor and people in higher positions surely respect others more if they, too, come from affluent families. People with a low-income, on the other hand, do not respect people more just for having more money, but tend to judge them more on the basis of their character, friends and so on.

By and large, I came to the conclusion that there are many causes for self-esteem and self-worth. It depends on your social class, on education, job etc. Being an American, however, certainly means emphazising jobs

"Spaghetti sauces" or "How Howard Moskowitz changed the food industry"

I’ve just had a look at the TED homepage Mr. Newman talked about in his blog. And while I was browsing the various themes, one special talk captured my attention- a man talking about spaghetti sauces. Considering that spaghetti are my main source of nourishment I HAD to listen to this talk named “What we can learn from spaghetti sauce”.

Malcolm Gladwell, a man with a haircut similar to Einstein’s, is a writer, who has published two best-sellers and also writes for the “New Yorker”. In this 17 minutes long monologue he talks about Howard Moskowitz, a psycho-physicist, who revolutionized food industry.

Howard Moskowitz was the first one to realize that it’s not enough to produce food in one style. There have to be many flavours of one product to please all American people. Gladwell tells how Moskowitz came to this idea, about his struggle to spread it and about his success. Gladwell says, not only did Moskowitz enriched the market with many sorts of product variations, but he also taught us three very important lessons:

• Firstly, Moskowitz claims that the consumers don’t exactly know what they want.



• Secondly, he tried to show that products aren’t better just because they are more expensive or mainstream products. People should choose the products that suit them, no matter how cheap or unpopular they are.



• And lastly, he made the food industry realize that they have to try to please the individual people and not only the majority.

Gladwell seems to be deeply impressed by Moskowitz’ doings and by the way he managed to make people happier with industrial food. In my opinion, this topic is a little too trivial to name it an "idea worth spreading", however, I loved listening to Gladwell. He obviously has excellent rhetorical skills and, in addition, is funny, too.

Have fun checking out the site!

Collocations- Studying them and looking them up

Language learners like us know that studying the translation of foreign words is not enough. As long as one does not know how to use those words, they are merely in one’s passive vocabulary. Therefore one has to study the words that go with the newly acquired term, namely the collocations. Being so important for every language learner, I’d like to devote an entry to looking up and studying collocations.

Looking up collocations:
Looking up collocations sounds easy, since we all have our monolingual dictionaries at home, which normally give a lot useful collocations to each word. If you have the LDOCE CD-ROM it’s even easier, since in the right top corner there’s the so-called phrase bank, where you can see phrases containing the word or, at the bottom of the phrase bank, you can see single words that go with the term. They are arranged in lexical categories, namely adjectives, adverbs, nouns, verbs and prepositions. If you want to see examples or an explanation for a collocation you just click on the word and the according part on the main screen will be highlighted.

Then, of course, you could use a collocation workbook, like “English Collocations in Use”. This book enables you not only to look up single words in the index, but also words that relate to a semantic field (weather, eating and drinking, work, taste and smell etc.) The beauty of this system is that when you write about, let’s say, the topic crime, the book gives you many words and collocations to the whole topic and not merely to one word.

And last but not least, you could buy a collocations dictionary, like the “Oxford Collocations Dictionary for Students of English”. Though it does not cover all the words a normal dictionary covers, it certainly gives more collocations than the LDOCE or the workbook. The words are also organized in lexical categories:

• adj
• adv.
• verb + word
• word + verb
• prep.
• phrases
• nouns + word
• word + noun

For some structures there are example sentences or notes. However, the words are not explained, that is, the learner is expected to know the words.

How to study collocations?
Both the LDOCE and the Collocations Dictionary are helpful if you have to learn new words and want to study the words that go with them. Furthermore, the Collocations Dictionary has special “study pages” with exercises. However, if you just want to learn ANY useful collocations and not collocations for particular words, I’d recommend the workbook. There are many interesting chapters, each consisting of two pages. The left page always explains the words (sometimes using pictures) and the right consists of several exercises, so you really won’t forget them.

************************************************************************************
Here is an example for looking up words:

Let's look up a word from the reduced glossary, since we have to learn those words, anyway. What about "adjacent"?

_________________________

LDOCE:

1. Dictionary phrases:
   adjacent to
2. Words used with: adjacent

• PREPOSITION:
  to
• NOUNS:
  area,
  building,
  cell,
  field,
  needle,
  room
• ADVERB:
  immediately

_________________________

OXFORD COLLOCATIONS:

adjacent adj.

• VERBS be, be situated, lie, stand The vineyards of Verzy lie adjacent to those of Verzenay.
• ADJ. directly, immediately There is a row of houses immediately adjacent to the factory.
• PREP. to The miller's house stands adjacent to the mill.
  

__________________________

ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS IN USE:

There's no entry for adjacent.

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

Obviously all of those learning items can be helpful. You just have to know when to use which of those books (or the CD-ROM version of the LDOCE).

So, have fun studying!

Just do it!

Hi everybody!

Do you like sports? I for one love all sorts of sports, except running. That’s because I’m inexplicably slow and after five minutes of running I feel like vomiting. Considering all this, paradoxically, I thought it might be a good idea to take part at the “Wasserkruglauf”.

The Wasserkruglauf is a two kilometres long relay in Bad Gleichenberg (2.5 kilometres if you’re a man). Thank goodness, the route was quite flat and so I at least stood a chance to make it to the finish. I was on a team of four people- two of them are really fast runners.

I was the third one to start and so I accelerated enthusiastically, but soon (meaning after a minute or so) I realized that I could never keep up that speed. So, after about 800 kilometres that felt like an eternity, I struggled to keep on running. I was exhausted as if I took part in a marathon, but still I didn’t give up until I reached the finish line.

And what did that event teach me? Firstly, I learned that my physical condition is not too satisfactory. Secondly, I realized once again that I really don’t like running. And lastly, I will take part next year again if I get such a cool shirt again ;)



Enjoy the weekend!

Culture matters 7: CONCEPT OF FACE

A little shocked I realized today that the semester draws to the close. So let’s get on with the cultural categories, since I don’t want to deprive you of the last seven ones.

Today I’d like to discuss the concept of face. How direct are Americans/ Austrians? What if we know that such honesty will lead to arguments? Are we still that honest or do we accept a white lie in this case?

According to the Peace Corps website, Americans tend to be baffling frank with each other. They assume that one should be always straight with people, even if that causes disagreement- at least that will clear the air. Living in an individualist culture, what other people think is not so vital, since everybody can take care of himself/herself. Hence, honesty is the best policy for Americans.

In Austria honesty is officially regarded as being absolutely important. However, in practice it depends on who you are talking to. Sure, Austrians are frank with their friends and family. We tell them what we like and don’t like about them, even if that involves an argument. All the same, we are not always honest, especially when we think the truth would unnecessarily hurt the people we love. In this case we’d resort to a white lie.

And yet, Austrians tend to talk in a very roundabout way with strangers or people they don’t know well. Therefore, one sometimes has to read between the lines to find out what people try to express. For example, if a shopkeeper asks you, “May I help you?” most people think, “No! And now leave me alone and let me shop in peace!” Instead, they say, “Thanks, I’ll just have a look around.” Still, when provoked, Austrians are not that polite anymore. Just listen to an Austrian who tries to get rid of pushy promoters and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

In short, I think Austrians are honest as long as they feel they are not being rude. I just can take a guess here, since the Peace Corps website does not go into it, but Americans are probably similar. I don’t think they absolutely refuse to tell a white lie if that means not hurting someone.

Here on Earth summary- Is Peace a Dirty Word?

The topic of debate is why the word peace recently acquired such a bad reputation. The discussion is based on a report by Daniel Zwerdling, an NPR Weekend Edition commentator, who is also guest in the show. He explains that people in Fairmont, Minnesota try to support the passing of a bill that would create a Department for Peace and Non-Violence. Interestingly, a lot of people question the value of such an agency. Therefore, the moderator Jean Feraca, her guests and listeners discuss the issue of peace and try to figure out the pros and cons of such a Department.

Morton Perlmutter, emeritus professor in the School of Social Work, points out that there is no clear definition of the word “peace”. Most people would describe it saying what peace does not mean, but still they hold a strong opinion about the term. Permutter claims that the word “peace” triggers certain memories and associations in everyone of us and although those memories might be irrational we consider them to be true and trustworthy. That shows especially in the fact that much more people would support the very same Department if it had a name not containing the word “peace”.

According to Daniel Zwerdling and Morton Perlmutter, there were many highly respected people in society who supported proposals for a Peace Office, like the founding fathers. Even the Independence Declaration displays the priority peace had over war. Neil Breitbarth, the Republican leader in Fairmont, responded that the Declaration primarily meant war and was never assumed as a pro-peace statement. His claim, however, was refuted by Perlmutter, who stressed that the content of the document wasn’t meant to create war.

The opponents of a Peace Department, like Breitbarth and a listener named Bill, argue that such a department is pointless, since keeping peace is part of the State Department’s job. A new department would merely take away money from other departments and is too expensive, anyway. In addition, they point out that peace is a utopian idea, that doesn’t work in practice. There will always be war and enemies and the nation can’t stop them with a bunch of people asking for peace.

The supporters of a Peace Department, on the other hand, criticize the opponents for not having read the bill attentively enough. They say the bill highlights that the Department would only take 2 % of the budget and doesn’t do the same work as the State Department. Judi Poulson, chairwoman of the Women’s Peace Club in Fairmont, adds that such department could support the police on domestic level. She also reassures the opponents that the Department is a patriotic agency that definitely supports the American soldiers. It wouldn’t make America defenceless, but would try to seek a solution good for everybody. Accordingly, the Americans wouldn’t loose anything, but gain friends and allies they certainly need.

By and large, one got the sneaking feeling that the discussion was supposed to convince the people of the idea of a Peace Department. Otherwise there would have been the same number of opponents and supporters as guests and the moderator would have been far more neutral. There wasn’t an explicit outcome of the discussion and yet the listener understood that the supporters prevailed.

Bloggers U-Nite

Finally, Bloggers u-nite is over. Admittedly, our class didn't hear anything particularly new, since we just presented our work to the other classes. However, I'm really looking forward to their contributions. I guess our wiki will grow in no time and at the end of the semester we will have created something we can be really proud of.

Good night, blogger-mates ;)

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

I guess all of you know that movie, so I decided that -instead of a summary- I'll answer some questions from esl-notes. That's an interesting site which tries to support the learning progress by offering vocabulary, a summary and discussion questions for several DVDs. Though the vocab isn't too challenging, the questions are interesting to think about.

This movie seems to be about Greek-American culture; In fact, is it really about all kinds of ethnic Americans? How so?
The story about Toula and Ian is certainly a special one, though it’s overdrawn to some extent to make it a comedy. The story is neither complicated nor intellectually demanding, but still, I believe that the movie reveals some basic truths about the contact between any cultures.

It shows problems that might arise when different cultures meet, but also how those problems can be solved by trying to understand the other culture. The keyword in cross-cultural experiences is undoubtedly tolerance. One doesn’t have to adopt all the customs of a culture, but one should know a thing or two about them.

If you were Ian, would you have agreed to join another church in order to marry Toula?
Being not too religious myself, I am not keen on joining any church. Admittedly, I am Roman-Catholic on paper, but not because I decided to be, but because my parents baptized me when I was too young to raise objection.

However, if my boyfriend was really religious and it was so important to him or his family that we married in a church, why not do them the favour? As long as they don’t expect me to practise their religion I’m fine with that. Above all, I should somehow be able to relate to the religion, since I’m not willing to join some sect or a Church I don’t understand.

Has the United States largely succeeded in creating a great “melting pot” (in which people from all cultures have blended together), or is it more like a “salad bowl” (in which people from different cultures stick to their own groups)?
Personally, I think Americans aren’t the product of a melting pot culture anymore. In former days, people tried more eagerly to adapt to the new culture. That’s because they had turned their back on their old home countries and the values there.

Nowadays, however, American culture is an own culture just like British, Greek, Russian etc. As a result it’s criticized and praised just like any other culture. The ones who love the American culture will try to adopt American behaviour and values, whereas there are also people who prefer sticking to their own culture.

Accordingly, America is both a melting pot (for those who love American culture) and a salad bowl (for the ones who like America, but prefer to stick to their own culture).

Did you like this movie? Why or why not?
I really love that movie. I’ve already watched it three times and I dare to predict that it wasn’t the last time. It’s hilarious, especially the granny, who always runs about cursing out the Turks. (Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against Turks, but still, the granny always cracks me up!)

Not on the Label

Ever thought about what goes into your food? No matter if it’s chicken, bread, salad etc, there are always substances in it you probably prefer not to know about. However, ignoring the facts won’t change the horrible situation. In “Not on the Label” Felicity Lawrence provides an insight into food production, the worker’s lives and gives tips what to do about it.

For instance, she writes about that nicely bagged salad leaves a lot of people buy. It’s much more comfortable than buying a whole head of lettuce, which means you also have to wash and cut it yourself. For that reasons there are low-paid workers who do the chore for us. They separate the leaves, wash them in chlorine and lastly bag them. While natural salad wilts after few days, the MAP (modified atmosphere packaging) system makes the leaves look fresh much longer. That is, they only look fresh, though it’s as worthless as the drooping natural salad.

In addition, she tells about her discussions with the workers, who are incredibly poor. Many of them are even illegal workers, but legal ones would be too expensive, so that big supermarket chains wouldn’t buy the products anymore.

“Not on the Label” certainly makes you think about the quality you get for your money and how a little higher price could improve the life of many workers. So if you’re into critical thinking -and especially if you’re not- read this book!

Culture matters 6: CONCEPT OF SUFFERING AND MISFORTUNE

Today it’s dark and unfriendly outside. The chilly, rainy weather doesn’t make one especially cheerful, so why not writing about a topic that fits the weather? Let’s talk about the different opinions of Americans and Austrians when it comes to suffering and misfortune.

In America, people feel sorry for someone who is suffering and so they’d do everything to cheer this person up. That is, they’d only help as long as the depressed person tries to do something against their mood. If they keep moaning without getting active Americans would feel it’s their own fault. They could at least take a pill or see a psychiatrist, couldn’t they?

Austrians are similar concerning the cheer-up part. The difference is, in my opinion, that Austrians have more tolerance for complaints, since they love complaining themselves. Admittedly, at some point we are close to the end of our rope as well, but still we’d never advice someone to go to see a mental doctor. Backward as that may be, most Austrians assume that only absolute nutters would go to see a psychiatrist.

Here again, we can see that Americans are more active when gets to solving problems, whereas Austrians are more the passive one’s. Yeah, that’s our dear serene Austria, where people are strong enough to shrug problems off ;)

Still, I agree with the Austrian attitude that doctors can't cure everything. Moreover, isn't it everybody' s right to moan from time to time (especially when the weather is as lousy as today)? Phony happiness doesn't solve any problems!

No abortion in Ireland

I’ve just read the BBC article “Irish teen in court abortion plea”. It’s about a seventeen year old girl (she wants to stay anonymous), who’s in the fourth month of her pregnancy.

The teenager decided to have the abortion, because her fetus has anencephaly which leads to the baby’s death soon after birth. The pro-choice campaigners support this decision, saying it’s a cruel thing to let her have the baby just to see it die.

However, abortion is illegal in Ireland as long as the mother’s health isn’t endangered. Since that’s not the case, the girl has no chance to end the pregnancy in Ireland. Still, it would be possible for her to go to the UK, where abortion was legalized in 1967.

In my opinion, it’s unreasonable to make her giving birth to a baby that has no chance to live. Isn’t it hard enough for a girl to find out that your baby is terminal sick? And isn’t it the point of laws to make life easier and more comfortable? I really can’t understand the decision of the Irish Court.

Initially I wanted to find photos of babies with anencephaly and add them. Well, believe me, you don't want to see such photos. I don't think I've ever seen such horrible and touching pictures and after looking at them I understand the girl's wish even more. Tip: Don't google for abortion either!!!

Culture matters 5: ATTITUDE TOWARDS TAKING RISKS

In order to produce a readable piece of writing for you, I googled both the terms “taking risks” and “Risikos eingehen”. Interestingly, in English I got much advice to take risks, since life won’t get better without taking risks. In German most headings had the phrase “Kein Risiko eingehen” in them, because this would end in a disaster. Why is that?

The Peace Corps website claims that Americans are very willing to take risks. They think it’s always possible to start all over again and even if they fail, there will be new chances to get happy again. Failure is assumed to be an important part of life you can learn from. That’s one of the reasons, why people don’t save too much and there is a high level of personal bankruptcies.

Austrians, on the other hand, love to save their money. I had my first encounter with a bank employee at elementary school. Every year at the “Weltspartag” a man would come to school, open our piggybanks and count the money in such a speed that we were truly impressed. Then he’d write the amount into our bankbook and give it back to us with a “Sparefroh” present. What a day! And since then I knew that I had to save money, because “Spare in der Zeit, dann hast du in der Not”, right mom?

Overall, taking risks just doesn’t seem appealing to Austrians. We prefer to have a secure working place, a nice brick house and a supporting family. I’ve already told you about the Austrians’ opinion about change, which is similar to this topic. To sum up, taking risks is a big no-no, change is a big no-no and if we’re not sure about something new it’s probably the biggest no-no ever. It’s not that Austrians were cowards, but we are definitely highly skeptical towards taking risks, since that can make things worse. Nothing ventured, nothing lost!

Don't chicken out and cross the road!!!

After reading Betty's "Why did the chicken cross the road" entry, I wondered why it's always the chicken crossing the road. Well, actually it is NOT only the chicken...

Why did the fox cross the road?
-To get the chicken.

Why did the chewing gum cross the road?
-It was on the chicken's foot.

Why did the deer cross the road?
-It was the chicken's day off.

Why did the T-Rex cross the road?
-The chicken hadn't evolved yet.

Why did the turkey cross the road twice?
To prove it was not a chicken.

:))))

More Sign Language

Normally, people majoring in translation studies don’t have to justify themselves for choosing that course of studies. It’s considered to be both challenging and interesting. However, Sign Language students even have to struggle making people believe Sign Language is actually a real language. Considering all those statements like “I didn’t know you could study THAT…”, or “Gosh! You have to learn vocabulary too?” and not to forget “But what exactly takes so long learning that Taubstummensprache?”, I decided to dedicate another blog entry to Sign Language.

Above all, I want to stress Sign Language is a real, natural language like German, English and all other oral languages. It’s not a lingo for disabled people that some social worker invented, as many people seem to think. However, Austrian Sign Language is quite different to spoken German. There are other grammatical rules, other types of words and other ways to express certain ideas. Sure, there are some words that are similar and many signs even go with the German word, though of course there’s no need to say it aloud. You’d just form the German word with the mouth without vocalizing it. Still, there are too many differences too overlook the fact that Sign language is an individual language and is not to be confused with signed German.

A major difference between spoken languages and Sign Languages is that there is no written form of Sign Language. Researchers wanted, nevertheless, to put it down somehow, since that’s the only way to examine a language properly. Many different notation systems arose, but some of them are just too difficult to learn and are used as research tools only. The HamNoSys, for example is, in my opinion, a really hard and complicated way of writing down signs, though it’s surely very accurate.

Here you can look up how you'd write down the word "Dolmetscher".


While here at university everyone can write down the word signs as they want, we do have to follow rules when transcribing entire texts.
> All words have to be written in capital letters.
> there is a special way of putting down agreement verbs
> special signs go in quotation marks
…

Here’s an example: (The link didn’t work, but the corresponding video can be found at this page. Look for “Gebärdensprachkurse für Kinder starten wieder”)

GEBÄRDEN+SPRACH KURS IX-nach vorne unten KINDER WIEDER “starten” DANN AB OKTOBER IX-da [hmm] VEREIN KINDER+HÄNDE WIEDER WAS GEBÄRDEN+SPRACHE KURS AUCH SPIEL GRUPPE etc.
(I do not guarantee for the correctness :P)

However, if there’s no written form, what’s our counterpart to written exams or homework? We simply film ourselves with the equipment available in the media room. For example, while all of you had to do two written First Diploma Exams, we only had one written and the other one had to be recorded.

Anyway, note that translation is a bit tricky when it comes to Sign Language. In English for example it’s ok to say deaf and Sign Language, but in Austria the political correct terms are “Gerhörlose” and “Gebärdensprache”. Saying “taub” or “Zeichensprache” is considered to be pejorative, so make sure in advance that you know the corresponding words in both of your languages.

Culture matters 4: ATTITUDE TOWARDS CHANGE

All things have to change to something new, to something strange.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet

_________________________________________________________

If we look back at the world’s history, the first thing we’ll notice is how everything has changed- not only the beings on Earth, but also the Earth itself. There is land where there wasn’t, there were plants that aren’t anymore… The world keeps changing and that’s also true for our whole lives. And although change is such a central part of life, not all people feel comfortable with it. Today I’ll examine the American and the Austrian attitudes towards change when it comes to changing things and people.

Changing things means mostly improving technologies and optics. The American point of view is according to the Peace Corps site “New is better”. I think the same is true for Austrians. We enjoy having smaller cell phones, new modern clothes, new cafeterias etc. As you see it’s not only about things, but about everything around us. If it’s new it’s considered to be better and sells like hotcakes. However not everyone is happy with the things around changing. The elderly, for example, keep moaning about the good old days, when they had their old washing machine that worked so much better than this new one their children bought for them. And it’s not only senior citizens who aren’t always content with changes. Just think about the new cover child of “Kinderschokolade”. I know so many people of my age who got so angry about it. Some even refuse to buy any more “Kinderschokolade”… So all in all, in Austria change is obviously assumed to be a mixed blessing.

Now for changing people and their lifestyles, Americans think also very positive about any changes. They think by changing, they can become better people and improve their lives drastically. Things are not better, just because they’ve always been done like that. That shows for example in the high turn-over rate in American workplaces and also in their mobility. Austrians, in comparison, don’t like changing their lifestyles. They feel strong bonds with the place they where raised and don’t easily leave that places. I’m not sure, but I think very often that has to do with fear. People don’t think life could be better somewhere else, so what’s the point of moving? And why changing jobs if the one they have isn’t absolutely horrible. Maybe they hate what they’ve got to do every day and they’re miserably paid, but other jobs might be much worse. Don’t ask me about the logic behind this, but it’s the way a lot of Austrians think.

To sum up Americans are pro-change in nearly every way, whereas Austrians aren’t too fond of change. I guess our problem is that we start to like things too easily. I'm a perfect example for that behavior. When I moved into my new apartment I immediately noticed that odd door handle, that you have to turn upwards to open the door. At first I thought we’ll certainly fix that, but after a week or so I got used to it and now I really like it. In fact I absolutely adore our dear incorrectly assembled door handle. Here is it:

The strange behaviour of meat-eating people

Reading your blogs, my SUK4-mates, made me realize how little I've told you about my personal life. I'm always sticking to facts, mostly because I don't think my life is particularly interesting for you. True, I could tell you about my cool new i-pod (and it's REALLY cool) or about the huge Temmel ice I ate today or about that stupid "Vollmond Caffe" (yes, that's the way they spell it) next to my apartment, but then again I'm not sure if you'd really care. However, I really like your personal entries and I'm absolutely not bored by them, so let's try if I can do that as well. So here we go:







The strange behaviour of meat-eating people




I’ve been a vegetarian for three years now and I’m really content with that. I don’t eat animals, because I don’t like the thought of animals dying for me and eating their carcasses. That somehow seems weird to me. However, I’ve been a meat-eater for the better part of my life, so I find it absolutely understandable if people keep eating meat. I mean, it is tasty and we vegetarians know that and really don’t mind you eating it. However, most meat-eaters don’t seem to know that. When they find out that I’m a vegetarian after a nice chat, they suddenly start to behave in a very strange way and I’m not talking about individual cases here.

Firstly, there’d be a short silence, after which they’d say, “A vegetarian, are you? Don’t you like the flavor?” After I've explained my reasons to them and that I don’t care if other people eat meat they say, “Yeah, you’re right. Everyone has to decide that for himself/herself.” So far so good. However, after this nice introduction they normally go through the famous (at least among vegetarians) three meat-eater phases:

Phase one: I’ve got really good reasons to eat meat! Though I’ve made it clear that I couldn’t care less for their eating habits, they still try to justify why they eat meat. They tell me where they buy their food, that if they don’t eat meat they’ll get terribly sick, that one can’t live from vegetables only, that animals are created to be eaten and so on. After advising me to consult a doctor about my unhealthy vegetarian lifestyle they usually drift into phase two.

Phase two: Did you know you still eat meat? Whether I eat an apple with a worm inside, a beetle while I’m riding my bike, a spider in my sleep…I do eat animals and there’s hardly a meat-eater who didn’t enjoy telling me about it. I don’t deny I do all those things, but the point is that I don’t do it on purpose. I’m not lying in my bed trying to spot spiders I could eat for supper and I don’t open my mouth when I ride my bike to snack a few flies on my way to university. Things like that happen and although I’d prefer not to eat insects, I can’t help it.

Phase three: Don’t you pity the plants you’re eating? Here it gets really tiresome for me, because at this point my counterpart has obviously run out of ANY reasonable argument. Then I normally try to explain to them that animals consist of flesh and blood like we do and that they can also feel pain due to their nervous system plants just don’t have. We argue a bit about our opinions, but in the end we’re both happy when we finally change the subject.

So, can anyone out there explain that phenomenon to me? I mean, people always claim that vegetarians are so intolerant and then they are the ones who keep nagging on us. I’m not speaking of all meat- eaters here of course, but the majority definitely reacts the way I described.



Speaking of carnivores:

Culture matters 3: VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE

I do know that it’s not easy to generalize opinions about the human nature, since most people don’t agree on that. However, I think it’s possible to give a vague impression about the most common attitudes towards the human nature in Austria. That’s also what the Peace Corps culture site tried to do, with the difference that they described the American point of view.

According to the website, Americans strongly believe that men are basically good. If left alone, people will do the right thing and therefore can be trusted. Consequently, courts consider a person innocent until there are proves against him/her. If people don’t fit this pattern and do something evil, an explanation for that behavior is searched.

The official Austrian opinion is essentially the same, though in practice people certainly tend to mistrust others. People from other cultures and homeless are considered to be especially dangerous (not to mention homeless people from other cultures!). While pedagogues claim that there are certain influences that make people bad, the rest of us knows that they are just evil and should be locked up for eternity.

Broadly speaking Austrians are pretty suspicious, but if they get to know other people better and get to like them they behave differently, of course. If we can trust Peace Corps, Americans have a far better opinion about the human nature, but I’m not sure if they, too, aren’t only speaking of the official opinion. Mistrusting (Austrian) me…

Vocabulary books at Amazon

Reading books in a foreign language does always mean ignoring a lot of words you don't understand. I mean, of course, one would look up words that seem to be important, but reading isn't fun anymore if you have to look up every second word to get the content of the book.

Thanks God, Amazon provides remedies. They not only sell books, but for some of them there are even vocabulary books available. I, for example, read the book "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and bought also "Aschendorffs Vokabularien zu fremdsprachigen Taschenbüchern".

At first I was a bit disappointed, because there was only the German translation and there were also a lot of words I already knew. However, the book turned out to be really useful for many other words, expressions and abbreviations, like "ROTC", "shop talk"... It also explains slang expressions and gives information about phrases that refer to quotes or historical event. It's, at any rate, a good way to increase your passive vocabulary and it keeps you reading smoothly.

Culture matters 2: FATE AND DESTINY

The outlook on fate and destiny is a very interesting topic to examine, for it reveals a lot about people. Sure, it would also be fascinating to explore how people came to those opinions, but that would go back too far, since in America this way of thinking starts with the Puritans and in Austria probably even earlier. Interesting as this might be, it would be too time consuming to go deeper into that, so I’ll concentrate, again, on comparing and contrasting the American and the Austrian point of view.

Americans are quite optimistic about the future. They think they have every opportunity to become as successful as they want. It’s the, for America so characteristic, from rags-to-rich dream I’m talking about. The general opinion is that unsuccessful people only have themselves to blame. The motto of the Americans is undoubtedly “Where there’s a will there’s a way”. In short, the site obviously comes to the same conclusion as the book “Gig”, in which people talk about their jobs. Many of them didn’t like what they were doing, so they just changed their jobs or even moved until they felt comfortable with the way they lived.

In Austria that’s absolutely different. People seem to be more serene here when it comes to changing their future. They don’t think everyone can do everything they want. Mind you, they wouldn’t tell a child explicitly that they can’t become everything, but they would certainly not encourage them if they dreamed about becoming famous, rich or anything. If Austrians are unsuccessful, though they have tried, the public opinion would be “Why…He/She is probably not meant for that…”. Actually, it doesn’t even matter a lot how hard they tried. Imagine for example an unemployed Austrian, who doesn’t get a job in or near his hometown. It’s very unlikely that this person would move in order to get hired. Our motto is more like “Do kau ma hoit nix doa…”

In comparison to the topic “age” I’ve already covered, there’s a great difference between the American and Austrian attitude towards fate and destiny. Americans are obviously more active in changing their future, although that certainly differs from region to region too. Just think of the first page of Bill Bryson’s book “The lost Continent”, where he writes about his hometown:

“When you come from Des Moines you either accept the fact without question and settle with a local girl named Bobbi and get a job at the firestone factory and live there for ever and ever, or you spend your adolescence moaning at length about what a dump it is and how you can’t wait to get out, and then you settle down with a local girl named Bobbi and get a job at the firestone factory and live there for ever and ever.”

Sign Language Vocabulary

A big part of learning a language is, of course, learning new words. In order to do so many students keep glossaries, buy vocabulary learning books and tons of different dictionaries, like collocation dictionaries, monolingual dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries, phrasal verbs dictionaries etc. Obviously there are many words to gain and there are many ways to store them, but we are speaking here about spoken languages. How would you store signed words? That’s one of the frequently asked questions Sign Language students hear, so I thought why not answer it here and share my experiences with you, my language-interested fellow students.

Let’s start with the question of learning new words. Learning Sign Language words is a rather time-consuming process. Our teacher, a native speaker, prepares a vocabulary list with all the new expressions. He hands out these lists of German words and expressions and then signs each one, pausing after every word for us to write the it down. Now you’ll probably ask: How would you write down a signed word? I’ll give you an example: Here you can watch the Styrian sign for “April”. (By the way, the person on the viedo is one of the teachers at our department) I wrote the sign down like this:




As you can see I use a lot of abbreviation, describing exactly where the hand is, where it goes and how this movement looks like. Of course, everybody has his/her own system to remember the words. For example, better equipped students might film themselves signing, drawing talents might put down the word this way… It really doesn’t matter as long as you remember the word accurately, since small changes could change the word's meaning. Also, the facial expression needs to be remembered, especially the mouth gesture. Although in most cases the mouth forms soundlessly the German word, there are also words and expressions that require a special mouth gesture.

Ok, that’s it for now… Much as I’d love to tell you more about this wonderful language, I’m too tired right now.

See you tomorrow…

Culture matters 1: AGE

The first cultural category discussed at the website is about age. In every culture people treat each other differently, which shows especially in the way people treat the elder generation. Native Americans, for instance, regard them as very wise, whereas other cultures don’t treat them that respectful. I’d like to examine the American behaviour, when it comes to senior citizens and compare it to Austrian behaviour.

According to the Peace Corps culture website, in America there is an emphasize on physical beauty and youth. The same is true for Austria, but there are certainly differences. For example, in most people won’t accept plastic surgery to look younger. I don’t think that Austrians are more self-confident, they are just more conservative. The only kind of plastic surgery we do accept is reconstructive surgery. So if a woman looses one breast due to cancer, no-one would mind her having such a surgery done. But when it comes to cosmetic surgery people would certainly backbite.

In addition, the site claims that for Americans physical activity plays a vital role, since that’s the key to work and therefore to production. Elder people aren’t so fit anymore and as a result less productive. That’s why they are fired and younger, in many cases even cheaper, people are hired. In Austria, work isn’t assumed to be that important. Elder people are supposed to retire and in fact most of them are looking forward to this time. However, problems occur, when older people are fired before they are in retirement. That happens for the same reasons as in America, namely because younger people are often cheaper and more productive.

The site continues, explaining that for Americans new is principally better, and the elderly aren’t too much concerned about what’s new. In Austria it’s not so much the problem that elder people aren’t in touch with what’s new, but they aren’t taken serious. I can’t say why, but there are those clichés of slow driving men -in the Austrian’s opinion they are always wearing a hat- and of old women, all having the same short haircut, usually a permanent made by Klipp (an Austrian hairdresser chain).

Overall, it’s a very negative vantage point the article reveals and it’s not better in Austria as I’ve pointed out. However, that’s only the general opinion about elder people. When it comes to real people, like our grannies, neighbours etc Austrians love elder people. In fact we love them so much, that we hire illegal east European caregivers to look after them. Well, I guess that’s another topic…

Peace Corps News

I’ve just read an interesting article at the “USA today” website that fits the Peace Corps topic. It’s about the probable kidnapping of a Peace Corps volunteer. Here’s a short summary:

According to “USA today”, the Peace Corps volunteer Julia Campbell, 40, is missed in the Philippines. She has been working there since March 2005 as a teacher. On April the 8th she planned to hike in a beautiful area North of Manila, though it’s known that the New People’s Army operate there. The last case the NPA seized a Peace Corps Volunteer in 1990 they released him unharmed thanks to the Roman Catholic Bishop Antonio Fortich.

The Peace Corps

The website I talked about in my last entry is set up by the so-called Peace Corps. But who are they and why do they bother to discuss cultural issues on a whole website? Since it’s important to know who and why people publish information I wanted to find out more about that governmental agency called Peace Corps. Here are my results.

The history is short and easy. In 1960 Senator John F Kennedy encouraged students at the University of Michigan to live and work in developing countries. That started the ball rolling and an agency working for world peace was founded. The Peace Corps Volunteers try to help people in 139 countries with issues like AIDS education or environmental preservation for example.

The Peace Corps mission statement consists of three aims. Firstly, They want to help willing countries and their people. Secondly, they want the people in the counties they serve to get a better understanding of Americans. And lastly, they want Americans to get a better understanding of the countries they work for.

So what’s the website about culture matters for? The Peace Corps Culture website is meant as a workbook for students, to realize what culture means and to compare the own, American culture to foreign ones. It’s an interesting project and in my opinion a valuable website for anyone interested in culture.

Introduction to my teeny weeny comparison project

At this website American culture is examined, using thirteen cultural categories. They deal with people's attitude towards

1. age,
2. fate and destiny,
3. the human nature,
4. change,
5. taking risks,
6. suffering and misfortune,
7. face,
8. self-esteem and self worth,
9. equality,
10. formality,
11. realism,
12. doing and
13. the natural world.

As an Austrian I’ll try to compare the American vantage point with our vantage point in order to show, where the main differences and similarities lie. However, I think it’s to large a topic to write about in one essay, so I’ll analyse those categories one by one. But first of all, let's find out more about this website! (see next entry)

Irish English

For all people interested in Ireland and Irish culture (and we are interested in that, SUK4-mates, aren’t we?), here’s a short but funny quiz. Find about about terms like Taoiseach, snapper, gardai, rashers etc.

Traditions in Austria

In her entry “Austria 1923” Pam Mandel talks about the Schladminger Erntedank festival. It’s one of those typical Austrian traditions known for Dirndlkleider, Lederhosen etc. I don’t think there are typical Austrian customs, since it’s difficult to define what “Austrian” means. Austria is a very small country (83 871 square kilometres) with a population of only 8090000 people. Austrians are said, like many other people, to have special trades. They are conservative, religious, cling to their traditions, are able to yodel (I, for one, can’t do that) and so on. However, if you dig a little deeper and get to know Austrians from different regions you will find out that it’s not that easy. Austrians are very different indeed and are very proud of that. Try to call a Tyrolean a Viennese and you’ll understand what I’m saying.

Firstly, our language isn’t all the same. Foreigners might learn that we speak German, but that’s only the language we use for writing or in school. In fact in every Austrian region another German dialect is spoken. Even German people struggle to understand some of them, because they differ a great deal from standard German or “Hochdeutsch”, as we call it. We are very proud of that dialects and not seldom make fun of the way other Austrians speak, especially Viennese lingo is very unpopular. You have learned that “man” is “Mann in German? Right, but in Carinthia you’d say “Monn” and in Upper Austria you’d pronounce it “Mau”.

Secondly, traditions vary a lot in the different regions. Before I came to
Graz I knew festivals like the one Pam describes only from TV. Ok,
there are some remote areas, were people costume and behave like that, I thought, but I was sure that such tradition-loving behaviour wasn’t common in Austria. Well, it’s not common in Upper Austria, where I come from, but in southern parts of Austria people keep their traditions alive, even people at my age. My boyfriend, for example is from Carinthia. When he first told me that he has a traditional costume at home I though he was kidding me, but soon I learned that where he comes from that’s totally normal.

To sum up, the term “Austrian” isn’t a really adequate one, because there are many types of Austrians. However, there is a list of issues Austrians agree on: HC Strache is as embarrassing as a politican can be, Arnie shouldn’t kill people, there are no cangoroos in our entire country, so stop confusing us with Australia... So what can we learn from all this: Austrians may not be too similar, but they aren’t too different as well.



Greetings from Upper Austria,

Birgit

Deafblogs

Finding blogs in English is as easy as pie, but what about our second languages? Are there blogs written in Spanish, Russian, Croation etc. Certainly there are, but as you already know, my second language is Sign language. So, not too assured of success, I started to google the words “deaf” and “blog”. Surprisingly, I found a host of entries, waiting to be explored.

I browsed a bit through several blogs, but I haven’t found one about a deaf expat yet. However, there was one blog I really liked, since one can learn about deaf people’s every day problems. It’s written by Joseph Rainmound from New York, a young man who's -in my opinion- a very entertaining writer. Tip: The entry “served with hot milk”, for example, is about finding quickly a qualified interpreter.

Practice

(grammar: 10 min)
At this site you can test your grammar skills (advanced level). It takes about 10 minutes and you'll need paper and pen (or a new word document, if you prefer to work on the computer), since you can't paste your answers in. It's a great page to check which tenses you still need to work on.

Letters instead of names?!

Yesterday my friends and I watched the movie „Walk the Line“, a biography of Jonny Cash. Interested in the life of the famous American singer I did a little research and found out that Mr. Cash’s real first name is actually not John, but J R. And here’s the fascinating thing: J R stands for nothing. No kidding! His parents couldn’t agree on a name, so they just chose initials.

That seems ridiculous to Austrians, but in fact Cash is not an individual case, especially at his time (1940s). Sometimes it’s also the middle name that consisted of initials only. The probably most well-known example is Harry S Truman. Today this practice isn’t so common anymore, except for the Amish. They’d make the first letter of their mother’s maiden name their children’s middle name.

Since those letter-names are no abbreviations, it’s wrong to use a period after them.

Regards,
B Leonhardsberger

Prohibition in America

I’ve watched a video clip about prohibition in America. Unfortunately, the videos at this site are of poor quality, since they are very old. That’s why I also did a little research on the topic of prohibition.
http://www.history.com/media.do?action=listing&sortBy=1&sortOrder=A&topic=U.S.%20HISTORY


In January 1920 the 18th Amendment went into force, forbidding the trade, transport and possession of alcohol. This step was meant to create better people, but in fact it encouraged bootlegging, smuggling and the legendary Speakeasies, where liquors were sold illegally. Al Capone got mixed up in these activities and soon got the best known gangster in America. Soon it was clear that the so-called “Nobel Experiment” didn’t work and polls revealed that the Americans wanted back their right to drink whatever they chose. As a result, in 1933 the 21st Amendment went into effect and annulled the Prohibition law.

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/snpmech2.htm

Here you can find more information on Al Capone, or play Al Capone Jeopardy:
http://www.alcaponemuseum.com/

If you are interested in further information on prohibition, there is a whole book about it which is appropriately named: “The Long Thirst” http://www.amazon.com/Long-Thirst-Prohibition-America-1920-1933/dp/0393055574

Plan for this week

Grammar tenses 1.5 h

Reading jaywalking and two NYT articles 3 h

Listening euronews 15 min

Vocabulary collocations in use 1.5 h

Writing blog about expat blog 1 h

The Catcher in the Rye

I’ve just finished this classical book by J.D Salinger.
It's about a wayward teenager who retells some weeks of his life.

Holden Caufield is a 16-year-old boy, who obviously has serious problems adapting to his environment. More than once he has been thrown out of school, but he doesn’t seem to learn anything from it. He keeps blaming the school itself, the teachers and his –in his opinion phoney- classmates.

Holden has mixed feelings about nearly everything in his life. On the one hand, he wants to have a normal life, including family, friends and school education. But on the other hand, every time he is not successful he gives up and even stops trying. That leads to constant moaning, the way teenagers probably tend to do.

What I liked about the book is that Salinger captured the very picture of a frightened teenager. The lingo he uses makes this image even more complete and makes one think about teenagers, their feelings and needs.

Here we go...