funny language comparison!

Having found a hilarious picture on the internet I feel obliged to share it with you :DIt is about "language differences" and the fact that the German language sounds horrible to people who cannot understand it. 
As I was abroad a couple of times I have heard it quite often that non-German speakers don't like the language as it sounds very harsh as well as they always think Germans are fighting with each other when they are talking! 

The picture just supports this fact and I have to admit that several words do have a nicer pronunciation in other languages like French, Italian, Spanish or English. Not only is the sound of the words better the words in those other languages are also very similar to each other. 
A good example is the word AIRPLANE (English). In Italian it is aereo, avión in Spanish and avion in French. The German word of airplane is FLUGZEUG. You can easily understand the word airplane in Italian when you are speaking French or Spanish. If an Italian is in Germany or Austria he wouldn't even be able to guess the word without knowing any German.

So just enjoy the picture(s) and have a big laugh like I had!


 

Correction of the English homework

Getting back our first homework was a bit of a shocking moment! It was our first homework so I didn't expect it to be perfect but neither did I expect it to be this bad. However, I rewrote the letter and this is the result:

Dear Fiona,

First of all I think English is one of the most important languages in the world! Nowadays we are faced with this language daily by using the internet, watching television, reading newspapers or books and by listening to music. One reason why I chose to study English was to be able to keep up with the world of technology, because I think the English language will get more and more important in it.

What else I love about the English language? The opportunity to communicate with people from all over the world. Meeting a large number of people from different parts of the world, I found it quite surprising that Scandinavians are much better in talking English than middle Europeans. A girl from Sweden told me they don’t translate any of the English films, which I think is a big privilege.

One of my strengths as a language learner is remembering new vocabulary very quickly. This strength was definitely an advantage when I was in Australia. I learned plenty of new words.

One of my weaknesses is probably meeting word-count requirements, as I intend to write more than I am allowed to.

A big advantage that we have is you, Fiona. Learning a language with a native speaker is a fantastic opportunity. I got the chance to experience this opportunity when I was working in Spain, Italy and Australia.

My aim for this semester is, to pass all the exams as well as to be able to say at the end of the semester that I can see a definite improvement in my language skills.

Kind Regards,

Alissa

What I learned from this homework is that I have to be careful with the register and the collocation. BUT I felt a bit more confident writing the new version of the letter which showed me that I am already imroving my skills :) My aim for the next homework - A BETTER GRADE! ;)

Dictionary review transcription

Guess who's back? Today I have to write a special post about a video we did in English class last week. I have to tell that we had quite a lot of fun recording our voices and filming the computer screen :D In a group of four we had to make a presentation of an online dictionary. We actually got very lucky with the OALD (Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary). I did not know this dictionary before but I have to admit that it is really helpful and I started to use it nearly every day. 
However, as I am not a perfect English speaking person (yet) I unfortunately found a couple of mistakes as I was listening to my part. 
My part was about the disadvantages,(almost none), and the special features of the monolingual OALD. The first thing I immediately recognized was the word order of the third sentence. I said "So if you are searching for a word which you only know in German it probably is not the best choice to use this dictionary". If I could correct myself I would say "So if you are searching for a word that you only know in German using this dictionary is probably not the best choice". I would also change the sentence "And it also has some good features.." into "It offers some good features as well..". So if I would be able to write everything down before I am talking, it would probably sound a little more professional ;)
All in all I realized that I have to work on my vocabulary when I am speaking. It is always easier to express yourself in a written text than in a spoken one. I also heard that I was using the word "dictionary" very often as well as "so" at the beginning of a lot of sentences. 
According to this my aim is to expand my vocabulary and try to use it also in the spoken language. But to mention a positive thing as well, I have to say that I think I am talking quite fluently and without many "ums" :) 

do things you never did before and make amazing memories

Beeing back with a new post, I was thinking a lot about what I could tell you all out there! Then I came across some absolutely great memories. So I thought I am gonna tell you what I did today, exactly one year ago when I was in down under.. :) 

 

Once upon a time, when I was in a land far far away, I spend an amazing weekend in a town which has this awesome name called "Surfer's Paradise". So guess what you are doing in Surfer's paradise? Right, SURFING!! Well, at least we tried to :D We were a group of seven girls from different parts of the world. There were these two amazing Dutch girls, who we had a lot of fun with. One of them even had her birthday that weekend. Then there was a French girl, two German girls and of course my friend, who also had her birthday that weekend, and me from beautiful Austria. 

It's not a secret, that surfing is incredibly hard! But we had a fantastic day, even though the weather was very windy and cold. More waves - more fun - but harder to surf.

 

After we all showed our great surfing skills, we went to celebrate the two birthday girls.

And we all lived happily ever after.. ready for our next surfing lesson! 

SURFS UP!

getting to know the Norwegian speaking, half English girl from Styria - KATRINA!

Talking to Katrina was really interesting. Actually we found out that we have quite a few things in common :)
For example, we both have been to Australia. But compared to me, she has some family members there, which is pretty awesome!! 
But her family residents not only in Australia. She has relatives all over the world! Her dad is from Manchester and her granddad is from Glasgow. That's where she's got that nice British accent from :D 
Quite amazing is, that she was an Au pair in NORWAY for ten months and speaks some Norwegian!