The Challenge

As you might already know, part of my final English exam will be about pronunciation. I have started putting together a glossary with all the words we have to study and, of course, their pronunciation. As you can see, I am using the IPA symbols that I talked about in my last post.

Sometimes, I was quite surprised by how much the pronunciation differed from what I thought! English is really an unpredictable language when it comes to pronunciation. As if to prove this assumption, a few days later I found out about a poem called "The Chaos".

There are many archaic words in it, which of course I didn't know how to pronounce, but suddenly I also realized how unsure I am about some words I have seen before and thought I knew!  My plan for the next few days is to work my way through this poem, learn some new (or rather old?) words and be surprised by the unpredictability of English pronunciation.

Isn't it wonderful to study a language that is so irregular? New surprises are awaiting you every day! :-)

Dearest creature in creation, 

Study English pronunciation. 

I will teach you in my verse 

Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse. 

I will keep you, Suzy, busy, 

Make your head with heat grow dizzy. 

Tear in eye, your dress will tear. 

So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard, 

Dies and diet, lord and word, 

Sword and sward, retain and Britain. 

(Mind the latter, how it's written.) 

Now I surely will not plague you 

With such words as plaque and ague. 

But be careful how you speak: 

Say break and steak, but bleak and streak; 

Cloven, oven, how and low, 

Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery, 

Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore, 

Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles, 

Exiles, similes, and reviles; 

Scholar, vicar, and cigar, 

Solar, mica, war and far; 

One, anemone, Balmoral, 

Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel; 

Gertrude, German, wind and mind, 

Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet, 

Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet. 

Blood and flood are not like food, 

Nor is mould like should and would. 

Viscous, viscount, load and broad, 

Toward, to forward, to reward. 

And your pronunciation's OK 

When you correctly say croquet, 

Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve, 

Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour 

And enamour rhyme with hammer. 

River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb, 

Doll and roll and some and home. 

Stranger does not rhyme with anger, 

Neither does devour with clangour. 

Souls but foul, haunt but aunt, 

Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant, 

Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger, 

And then singer, ginger, linger, 

Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge, 

Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very, 

Nor does fury sound like bury. 

Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth. 

Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath. 

Though the differences seem little, 

We say actual but victual. 

Refer does not rhyme with deafer. 

Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer. 

Mint, pint, senate and sedate; 

Dull, bull, and George ate late. 

Scenic, Arabic, Pacific, 

Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven, 

Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven. 

We say hallowed, but allowed, 

People, leopard, towed, but vowed. 

Mark the differences, moreover, 

Between mover, cover, clover; 

Leeches, breeches, wise, precise, 

Chalice, but police and lice; 

Camel, constable, unstable, 

Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal, 

Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal. 

Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair, 

Senator, spectator, mayor. 

Tour, but our and succour, four. 

Gas, alas, and Arkansas. 

Sea, idea, Korea, area, 

Psalm, Maria, but malaria. 

Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean. 

Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian, 

Dandelion and battalion. 

Sally with ally, yea, ye, 

Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key. 

Say aver, but ever, fever, 

Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver. 

Heron, granary, canary. 

Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface. 

Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass. 

Large, but target, gin, give, verging, 

Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging. 

Ear, but earn and wear and tear 

Do not rhyme with here but ere. 

Seven is right, but so is even, 

Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen, 

Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk, 

Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation -- think of Psyche! 

Is a paling stout and spikey? 

Won't it make you lose your wits, 

Writing groats and saying grits? 

It's a dark abyss or tunnel: 

Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale, 

Islington and Isle of Wight, 

Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough -- 

Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough? 

Hiccough has the sound of cup. 

My advice is to give up!!! 

 

IPA

IPA? Isn't that what the Simpsons' grandpa is shouting in the movie when he becomes mad and has visions in the middle of a mass?

Not quite...although in a way "IIIIIPAAAAA" has become my mantra for improving my English pronunciation.

IPA stands for International Phonetic Alphabet. It is supposed to represent the sounds of spoken language in a way that is more accurate than the roughly 25 letters we use in the Latin alphabet. You might have seen those funny signs in online dictionaries, and you might have noticed that some look like normal letters or are very similar. That is because IPA is based on the Latin alphabet, but like I mentioned, it adds more "shades" to it.

I decided to learn the IPA some years ago, mainly because I was bored, I think, and only now have I realised how helpful it can be. For our final exam, we have to study a list with hundreds of words, and of course I did not know how to pronounce all of them. I can listen to their pronunciation in an online dictionary, but maybe I also want to study "offline", away from the Internet and its distractions (don't tell me you've never "just wanted to check this and that social network real quick" and then ended up staying on the page for an hour). For studying "offline" it is helpful to know the IPA because I can add the transcription to my glossary and print it. Another advantage is that IPA is relatively abstract and universal. It is supposed to represent the "ideal" pronunciation of the word and is free from a particular speaker's accent (though, of course, different transcriptions are sometimes necessary for BrE and AmE).

There are probably hundreds of different IPA symbols, but if you only use them to study English vocabulary and pronunciation, it is enough to recognise 44 of them. Here is an interactive chart giving you an overview of what these 44 sounds are.

I also found a website with example sentences to each of the 44 sounds and audio files of a British speaker reading these sentences. The sentences do not always make a lot of sense and sometimes resemble tongue twisters, but they are fun to repeat! Unfortunatley, I found the site on my phone and took a very bad screenshot that cut off the IPA symbols. Now I cannot find the website anymore, but here are the 44 sentences: 

On the other hand, why not make it a quiz in which you have to recognise the IPA symbol that goes with each sentence?

I recorded myself reading all 44 sentences and listened to it afterwards. I picked the sentences I was not yet happy with, wrote them on colourful sheets of paper, underlined the problem sounds and added some cute drawings. Then I put them on a magnetic board in my flat so that I will look at them and repeat them every day. I'm planning to record another audio file after a few weeks and compare it with the first one to see if and how I improved.

I know that forcing yourself to listen to your own voice recordings is a difficult step, but as Emma Watson says in this interview: "How do you expect to get better if you don't watch your performances?"

Connections, connections everywhere

Connections are important, not only on the job market ;-), but also when you're studying vocabulary. Your head really is a lot like a sieve, and the new words are grains of sugar poured through it. When you read through new words for the first time, almost all of them (= all the grains of sugar) except for a few lucky ones will fall through the sieve that is your memory. In order to make them stay in your sieve, or your memory, you have to collect the sugar and pour it through the sieve many, many times. In other words, it is essential to start studying early enough and repeat the words many, many times. But that is not enough: You also have to find connections. Between the new words and words you already know, books you've read, pictures you've seen...anything, really. When several words or grains of sugar "connect", they form a lump that won't fall through the sieve anymore, no matter how hard you shake. What is annoying the kitchen, is very useful when studying vocabulary!

I'm not going to talk about finding collocations or example sentences here. They are already part of my vocab learning strategy and you can read about them in my other vocabulary post. So which other connections are there?

Word family

By "word family", I mean all the words that are "related" because they share a common root. An example could be "compulsion, compulsive, compulsory". But be careful! Sometimes words that seem very similar can have very different meanings. I can help you to try and pack all of these words into one sentence (even better if it is a funny one!) to show their different meanings. Here is one example from my glossary:

"Having a commodious (spacious) house with a commode (a thing that looks like a chair but is a toilet) is a valuable commodity (quality)."

Pictures

I'm sure we all know the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words". Sometimes it's enough when it's worth one. For example, while I was creating the glossary, I was looking for words that are "related" to atom, and I found the word "atomizer". The description I found was: "a device that changes a liquid into small drops by forcing it out through a very small hole" (Cambridge Learner's Dictionary). Sounds very technical, doesn't it? I decided to do a Google picture search, and voilà, an atomizer is actually this simple object: 

Another example, and a question for you: Why do you think there is this picture of the Avengers in my glossary?

Answer: because I like the Avengers? Also, but mainly to remember the meaning of the word "assemble"! :-)

I hope my additional vocab learning strategies inspired you. If you have anything to add, or any more suggestions, feel free to leave a comment!

Summary writing: before and after

It may seem that I'm a bit lazy this year because I'm not blogging on a regular basis (unless once a month is a "regular basis"). In fact, I had a lot to do for university and I was quite productive. For example, I wrote some beautiful summaries of texts and videos that I have to present now. 

This is supposed to be a "Before and After" comparison, but I will spare you the joy of reading all of my summaries twice because most of the changes are simple and short. I will just write the changes in Italics and do the comparison afterwards.

Text No.1: Great Profits during the Great War

In their article “Great profits during the Great War”, published in the Guardian on 28 October 2013, Elizabeth Bruton and Graeme Gooday discuss whether innovators during the First World War acted only out of patriotism or whether they did so with a view to profiting from warfare.

Following the German example, Great Britain ceased to send scientists to the front and started to invest in research early in the First World War by establishing the DSIR, the Department of Scientific Industrial Research. Without this co-operation between state and industry, the war could not have continued for four years. Some companies such as the Marconi Company seemed to offer their services voluntarily, without requesting payment: a seemingly patriotic and altruistic act. However, Bruton and Gooday point out that the Marconi Company was richly rewarded after the war, when a Royal Commission acknowledged numerous wartime innovations. The Marconi Company received even more money by accusing the state of patent infringement. On the other hand, less crucial innovations such as Fuller’s interception-proof phone were only poorly rewarded.

Bruton and Gooday conclude by implying that certain companies, however altruistic their motives seemed at first, might have taken advantage of warfare in order to make a profit.

In this summary, the exact source was missing. It was also too short, so I decided to add the piece about sending scientists to the front in order to get exactly 200 words.

Text No.2: Why we should give everyone a basic income

During his TED talk in Maastricht, Rutger Bregman presents the concept of basic income as a means to eradicate poverty and solve the welfare mess.

Basic income is a universal monthly grant for everyone, regardless of their social status. The idea is that states could combat poverty and save billions currently spent on welfare by replacing these services with basic income. Experiments, conducted mainly in the Southern hemisphere but also among the homeless in London, have proven the effectiveness of a basic income. However, there are three main points of criticism. The major concern are the costs, but Bregman sees basic income as an investment in the future. By combatting poverty effectively, the state will eventually save billions. Secondly, critics bevlieve that with a guaranteed monthly income, many would stop working. However, Bregman's argument is that the majority of people wants to contribute to society. Thirdly, the idea of basic income may resemble a utopia, something that is too big to be realised, but in fact, it was almost implemented in the USA under Nixon.

Bregman encourages his audience to read more on the topic. He believes that with enough patience and ambition, the idea of basic income can become reality.

The problem here was that I had written "millions", making it seem like I wanted to downplay the positive effects of a basic income.

Text No.3 (hold on, we're almost done!): The Crisis of Credit Visualized

The video "The Crisis of Credit Visualized" by Jonathan Jarvis explains the underlying causes and possible future impacts on the 2008 Credit Crisis.

When the Federal Reserve Bank stopped paying high interest rates after 9/11 and the dot.com crash in order to encourage spending, investors were seeking new possibilities for investing money. Lenders such as banks, who profit from low interest rates, start to connect investors with homeowners. Investors can profit from buying packs of martgages ranging from safe to risky. Due to a high demand for mortgages, eventually the conditions for receiving a mortgage are neglected and so-called subprime mortgages are given to unreliable homeowners. When a homeowner defaults, the lender receives the house and tries to sell it. This poses no problem until too many homeowners default. With too much supply and no demand, houses lose their value and house prices fall. Even solvent homeowners choose to leave their house since their mortgage is higher than the actual value of the house. Investors are not interested in acquiring unprofitable mortgages, leaving the lender with valueless mortgages and houses.

In a financial system where no one is interested in buying and selling mortgages or borrowing and lending money, a standstill is imminent.

Here I removed the explanation of what the Credit Crisis is and inserted more information on why there were low interest rates.

To sum up, I did not have to change a lot about my summaries. I have to pay attention to name the source and I should make sure to condense my sentences enough so that I don't have to leave out any information just because I'm over the word count.

Out of sight, out of mind? Vocab learning Strategies

I am sure everyone knows the dreadful days before vocabulary tests, when we try to memorise lists of words and their translations, but every time we repeat them it feels like we have never heard these words before. If our brain is made for learning, why is it so time-consuming to remember new vocabulary? The main reason for this is that our brain only remembers what it finds important. Whatever happens more than once or appears in a specific context is more likely to be remembered. We can use these strategies to our advantage when it comes to learning vocabulary.

This year, we are using a book from David Porter to become familiar with vocabulary typically used in academic writing. The main advantage of this book is that it collects a great deal of useful vocabulary on just a few pages. Instead of providing a list of words without context, the book consists of different types of exercises. They show you how the new words are used in a context and sometimes the exercises even provide you with synoyms or collocations that can later be studied as one chunk.

However, it is important not to be fooled by the feeling of accomplishment you get once you have completed the exercises. Filling out the exercises was just the first part of a long remembering process. The main disadvantage of using the Porter book could be that you neglect certain words or phrases because they seemed clear in that specific exercise, even though you would not recognise them in another context. There is a big difference between deducing the meaning of a word from its context and truly knowing a word. Knowing a word also includes knowledge about the correct pronunciation, possible collocations and the correct use in different contexts - often a word can have more than one meaning and can therefore occur in different contexts. The lack of information about other possible meanings of a word is another disadvantage of working only with the Porter book.

For whoever wants to know new words, the Porter book can provide a useful starting point, but it is definitely not enough to work with the book alone. I personally enjoy studying anything clearly structured, so I found last year's glossary very helpful. That is why I decided to create my own glossary again this year. Typing the words into a spreadsheet is the first step of my learning process because I need to pay attention to their spelling. However, this year's glossary will need to be an improved and more extensive version compared to last year's. Studying just a collection of words with their respective definitions and example sentences will not be enough to get me through this semester anymore.

Since we will have an oral exam at the end of the semester, we will have to know how to pronounce the new words correctly. For this reason I look up every word in at least two different monolingual dictionaries, e.g. the Cambridge Learner's Dictionary or MacMillan, and listen to their pronunciation. Whenever the pronunciation differs from what I thought, I add the phonetic transcription to my glossary or underline the stressed syllable.

I also try to add synoyms or antonyms of the new words. Sometimes they can be found in the Porter book exercises. Unfortunately, a list will all the synonyms and antonyms would be too long to study successfully in a short time and we also have to consider that most "synonyms" are actually only near synonyms. So for now, I only see them as a possibility to give me a better idea of the meaning of a word.

This year we also talked about corpora. They are useful for finding collocations and example sentences. I like "Just the Word" because it is simple to use, but unfortunately it does not contain all of the academic writing words and the site crashes often. Another site I use to find collocations is GLOWBE, the Corpus of Global Web Based English. This corpus allows you to search for specific types of collocations, e.g. only nouns, and it lets you compare different varieties of English. Sometimes, certain collocations are more common or have a unique meaning in one variety. Since we have to aim for one variety of English, this corpus can help us sound more natural by using typical collocations for our chosen standard, while remaining congnisant of other standards.

Once I have more or less finished my glossary, the actual study process begins. I am a fan of the flashcard system that makes you repeat words that you haven't remembered on a regular basis, but I prefer collecting my words on a digital spreadsheet rather than on paper cards. However, instead of using a programme for creating online flashcards, I am trying to find a way to incorporate the idea of flashcards into my Google Docs glossary.

When I am studying, i can hide certain colums of my spreadsheet, for example the pronunciation or the example sentences in order to test myself and see whether I would be able to pronounce the word correctly or come up with an appropriate sentence including the word. Whenever I have problems with a word, I highlight that row in red. The next time I study, I look specifically at the rows in red. If I know the solution this time, I highlight the row in yellow, and the third time I give a correct answer I highlight it in green. Naturally, after a while I also repeat the words in not highlighted columns. Ideally, eventually none of the rows will be highlighted anymore.

I hope I could give you some ideas on how to study a great deal of vocabulary effectively. Most importantly, however, is to use what you have learned in as many situations as possible. This is obviously more difficult with vocabulary for academic writing, but we will have the chance to prove what we have learned in our academic paper later this semester.

Mindmap

This is the mindmap I produced from the Robinson Crusoe text we had to read at home last week. I am sure it could be improved or made more compact, but I still need to practice.

I never used mind maps before because I found it more confusing to produce a mind map than to simply write down key words, but I am starting to like them!

Mind the Gap!

This warning will be familiar to anyone who has used the London Underground, the oldest underground railway in the world. However, since its opening in 1863 the network has changed almost completely. The first passengers were transported in steam-powered trains instead of the electric trains we know today. This meant that tunnels had to be close to the surface and have many openings for the steam to escape. Bit by bit, the old steam trains were replaced by electricity-powered trains, more and deeper tunnels were built and lines were extended far into the suburbs of London.

The constant network changes also meant that many stations were closed, relocated or used for different purposes. During the Second World War, for example, some stations served as air raid shelters during bomb attacks. An underground branch leading to a station called Aldwych in Westminster was closed and used to store precious items from the British Museum.

Even though it is called “Underground”, only 45% of all the rails are actually underground. If you want to visit the deepest point of the Underground, go to Hampstead, which runs down to more than 58 metres – nothing for people suffering from claustrophobia! Another useless fact: Smoking on the tube was allowed until 1987, when a fire broke out due to a discarded match in King’s Cross station, killing 31 people. 

 

The next time you feel like complaining about cramped carriages or slow connections, think about the beginnings of the “Tube” and be thankful for non-smoking regulations, lifts and carriages more modern than this “padded cell” without windows:

studying history where it was made

Nowadays Hastings is a popular seaside resort in East Sussex, the South-East of Great Britian. You will find an amusement park for children, gaming arcades and a lively old town with cramped souvenir shops and cafés. But if you lift your head you will see the ruins of a castle standing proudly on a steep hill, reminding you that the city is steeped in history. In fact, there is one important event of English history that took place near this town almost a thousand years ago: the Battle of Hastings (1066).

After visiting the city last weekend I did some research on the Battle of Hastings and I will try to summarize what happened.

In January 1066, King Edward III had died. He left no heirs and there were no strict rules as to who was to become the new king in such a case. There were four people who claimed to be a worthy new king:

• Edgar the Atheling
• Harald Hardrada, a Viking king
• Harold Godwinson
• William, Duke of Normandy

Harold Godwinson

Harold did not have royal origins, but he was popular among the citizens and the Witan, a council of wise men, decided that he should be the new king. William was a distant relative of the deceased king Edward. Allegedly Edward and Harold had promised to make him king of England, which would make Harold's claim illegal.

In September, Harald the Viking king tried to invade England and claim the throne for himself. His men were defeated by Harold's army in the Battle of Stamford Bridge in the North-East of what is now Great Britian.

At the same time, the Normans under the command of Duke William invaded the South of the island. There was no one to stop them as the military was busy in the North-East. Harold's men raced back to the South to fight the Norman invasion. The Saxons (Harold's army) built a massive shield wall and at first it seemed that they would win, but the Normans played a trick on them: they pretended to retreat, which caused the Saxons to give up their formation and chase after the invaders. Now the Normans could easily attack the Saxons and eventually won the battle. According to a legend, Harold was killed by an arrow in his eye, but the evidence is not clear.

Some of the information known about the Battle of Hastings today comes from the Bayeux Tapestry, an embroidery that shows battle scenes. On this embroidery we can see a man with an arrow in his eye who was believed to be Harold. Newer interpretations suppose that it was another soldier, as people standing are usually survivors, while people lying on the ground are those killed in battle.

I love London

Over the last one or two weeks there were a lot of hellos and goodbyes - many people left, but new ones arrived, and I did not have the time to write a new blog post. I also spent one weekend in London with my roommate, and I want to tell you about this wonderful weekend and my new favourite spot in London, Camden Market:

Saturday was mainly spent on travelling to London. We took the National Express bus because it was only half the price compared to the train, but it also took twice as long. We wanted to go directly to our hotel, but unfortunately the tube we were in was stuck because of a broken signal. It was a slightly disturbing experience, and unfortunately only the beginning of a streak of bad luck regarding public transport.

Two hours too late, we finally arrived at the Warner Brother studios outside of London - after a very relaxed train assistant had charged us £4.50 for who knows what...I am not the biggest Harry Potter fan, but the studios were very interesting because they offer an insight into the world of movie-making. It was astonishing to see how many of the sets had been built in real life instead of being computer-generated, and how many hours of work there are behind each and every one of them. After browsing through the souvenir shop, we cancelled our plans of going to a club because we were both too tired and wanted to rest our feet.

The next day we set out for Camden Market - and public transport messed up our plans once again. First, we stopped inside a tunnel a second time, but luckily only for a short time because we had to let another train pass. Then we could not change to the line we had planned because its trains did not stop at that particular station on that particular day...

After finally escaping the maze of the London Underground, we were greeted by a crowd of people bustling through the streets in Camden. The shopkeepers were only just setting up their displays for the day, but the place was already crowded with tourists and locals alike. It is very tempting to buy something at the next best stand, but I advise you to stroll further and always try to negotiate - eventually you will find what you like at a reasonable price. The market unbelievably big, so many only follow the main road in order not to get lost. They definitely miss out on something! In the very last corner of the market, we found a tiny shop that sells home-made mini cupcakes that looked almost too beautiful to eat. All the sales huts and many walls around Camden Market are covered in artistic graffiti that are far from being vandalism. Do not miss the part called Horse Market, where the architecture is wonderful and you can find many stands that sell exotic dishes at a low price.

If you come to London, the Camden Market is a must-see, not only if you like shopping. Take your time to stroll through this lively and multicultural place and dare to step away from the main street in order to explore its hidden treasures.

Cliffs and English weather

Hello again - it has been two weeks since I arrived here in England.

Finally, there is something like a comforting routine. I know what to do and where to go - most of the time, at least. I have gotten to know some of the people here - some better than others, of course, but we are at least 40 people, so this is only natural.

Last weekend, I spontaneously decided to get away and visit the White Cliffs of Dover together with some other interns. It had been hot and sunny all week, so we had almost forgotten about the "typical English weather"...until we arrived in Dover. It was so foggy that you could hardly see anything, but the bus journey had taken us almost two hours, so we decided to go to the cliffs anyway. We asked some locals for directions. When we asked, "Do we get to the cliffs if we go this way?" one of them only laughed and answered, "Yes, if you can find them at all with all this fog." We did find them, but the longer we walked, the worse everyone's mood was. The paths were muddy, and we had to be careful not to slip and fall. Also, we couldn't enjoy any great view from the top of the cliffs because we didn't even see where the cliffs ended. After what felt like hours we came to a small lighthouse. Actually we had brought everything for a picnic, but by then it was raining cats and dogs (and it was still foggy, I didn't know this was possible!). Part of our group was discouraged by the weather, went inside the lighthouse that is a café to get something to drink and then took the bus back. The rest of us was brave and even had a picnic outside in the pouring rain.

On our way back we were lucky because it brightened up a bit and we could finally get some views from the top of the cliffs!

This weekend, many people are going out because there are many people leaving this and next week and they are having "thank-you parties", but since I don't know the people who are leaving very well I would not feel comfortable there. I will probably just stay here and maybe pay the New Romney County Fayre tomorrow a visit.

First impressions

Three days ago I arrived here in New Romney, a small town on the South-East coast of the British island, where I will be spending the next two and a half months. Why, you ask? For an internship! 

I chose an internship instead of going abroad with Erasmus because this way I can make good use of the three months of summer holidays we have at university. I only applied for this one internship and kept my fingers crossed - and I was not disappointed :) Unfortunately, it is all voluntary, which means I don't get paid to work here.

When I arrived at the train station, a British girl came to pick me up with her car. She brought me to the hotel where I'm staying. On the drive, I asked her to recommend some places to see, which she gladly did :-) When I arrived at the hotel, there were three or four people in the lobby, and as soon as they saw me, they all exclaimed, "You're the new one!" - something I would hear another 50 times or so in the next few days. Our house manager, a guy called maxime, gave me a short tour through the building and afterwards I carried my suitcases to my bedroom.

I have to share the room with another intern, a girl from Germany - not very helpful in terms of speaking English... :-( The room is quite simple and still a bit chaotic - I haven't unpacked all of my things yet and Derya, my roommate, used to have the room to herself and so her things are still scattered everywhere. However, we are lucky because unlike others, we have our own fridge.

There is a kitchen downstairs from where we can take food at any time of the day as long as we eat it in the kitchen and don't carry it anywhere else. Theoretically, we have to cook all our meals on our own, but there is a "cooking team" of four or five interns that normally prepares lunch and dinner for everyone.

The office where all of us interns are working is in the same building where I'm sleeping - I only have to go downstairs and I'm at work! That means I can sleep longer than many others who stay in hotels that are further away, but it also means that working time and free time don't feel as separate as it should.

I usually work each day from 9 to 6, but the last hour consists of a workshop. In these workshops, we usually talk about ways to communicate more effectively, or there are teambuilding exercises. Today, for example, we had to think of a sketch that included 6 ping pong balls and a roll of black garbage bags...you can imagine how much creativity we  needed to include these requisites in a sketch!

Many interns spend their evening in the kitchen, cooking dinner and talking with each other, but I prefer to leave the house after work and go outside because I don't have a "second dinner" (the first one is prepared by the cooking team) and in the kitchen it feels too cramped and noisy to relax after a long working day. It is much more relaxing to take a long walk at the beach - today I even talked to some locals there :-)

So far, I feel very welcomed here and I like the international atmosphere - there are inters from many European and even African countries. One thing I have yet to get used to is that you are never alone here. I am used to living on my own and I am someone who needs time alone to relax and calm down, so it can be very exhausting to constantly be surrounded by people.

The end of a great year

Almost exactly one year ago, I arrived in Graz with a car full of tools and bags and we (that is, my dad and I) started to prepare what was to become my little student flat, my tiny refuge and a large piece of independence. Now I am packing all my things into suitcases and bags again - and a year ago I would never have thought that leaving this place would be so hard.

The last exam is written and my first year at university is over - a good time to reflect and resume.

I had never thought I would meet so many interesting people and find so many good friends in such a short time. We had the best times together - a more or less spontaneous trip to Stockholm, for example! -  and we are planning to make a dignified exit tomorrow, including a hiking tour and a dinner.

In the course of this last year I learned to budget, to deal with burocracy - and I finally learned how to cook. In fact, I even started to refer to cooking and baking as a new hobby!

As far as university is concerned, it was a challenge to get used to it at first. Suddenly, I had to make my own schedule, decide myself when and what I need to study and so on. The tasks and exams - especially in English - were often challenging and I saw too many of my colleagues fail or give up. I think the freedom and the challenges helped me to grow, and I realized how many hidden resources and how much self-motivation I can mobilise when it is needed. Most importantly, I have hardly ever been this eager to learn and I'm still convinced that studying languages is the right path for me.

Last year, I moved into this flat, with a suitcase in my hand and vague expectations on my mind. Now I'm leaving this flat that I've started to call "home" in order to go to the UK, where I will be living and working for the next three months. In less than two weeks, I will be standing at the airport in Vienna, with a suitcase in my hand and vague expectations on my mind - and the hope that this summer will be just as incredible as the last year as been.

Culture Days

This week we had our Culture Days, which means I went to see many, many presentations covering a variety of topics related to Irish and American culture, history and society. These are all the topics I heard about when I spent 80% of my waking time at university:

American Topics
Since I am not going to take Frank as my teacher for the KGP, I cannot choose American topics. However, I had a presentation on an American topic myself, so I simply watched the ones that were before and after my presentation. They were:

• The Kennedys: Jack and his brothers
  by Alissa Zwatz
• Livability in America
  by Beatrice Hofer
• Vietnam: Soldiers as Victims and Villains
  by Eva Egger
• Accusations of the Innocent: Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism
  by Tanja Erlacher
• The never-ending War on Terror
  by Helene Kortschak

Irish Topics
Whenever I didn't have another class or exam at university, I watched presentations on Irish topics so that I would have a wide range of presentations to choose from for the KGP ('Kommissionelle Gesamtprüfung', our oral final exam this year). 

• Irish influences on C.S. Lewis' work
  
  by Marlene Fischer
• Comparison of the Irish and Austrian educational system
  by Simone Wohlkinger
• Irish as an official EU language
  by Dolores Miskovic
• The Conspiracies about the Murder of Jean McConville
  by Alexandra Pasca
• Irish women: From Household to Gender Equality
  by Margarita Misihaev
• What did the Fenian Brotherhood achieve with their raids on Canada?
  by Theresa Steinwender
• Belfast - a city still split by the Troubles
  by Stefanie Schauer
• Gerry Adams and the IRA
  by Josepha Biebl
• Health problems of the Irish Travellers
  by Nina Nöst
• The Race around Ireland
  by Roman Sommersacher
• Is Irish a dying language?
  by Nina Mikusch
• David Norris & LGBT rights in the Republic of Ireland
  by Katharina Luttenberger
• The Vikings in Ireland
  by Verena Roßmann
• Oliver Cromwell in GB and Ireland
  by Verena Eisenköck
• Irish Intelligence at its peak
  by Julia Kölbl
• The popularised Leprechaun
  by Linda Zaufel

As you can see, I saw a large number of presentations, so I do not have the time or nerve to comment on each one separately. Some of them were excellent, some of them were not...
The three major criticisms I wrote on my feedback sheets - all of them criteria that make the difference between an okay and an overwhelming presentation -  were:

• that the presenter did not speak loudly enough - believe me, I am scared to death as well when I have to speak in front of others, but by speaking loudly you at least give people the impression of being confident. "Fake it 'til you make it" :-)
• that I had a hard time following your presentation AND filling out the handout, because there were a lot of open questions or because the questions were not in order
• that the presenter seemed rather bored - we all have been working on our topics for weeks and I see how you could be fed up with it by now, but this was your time to shine...

Now I am waiting for my feedback sheets to see how I can improve my presentation skills!

In the meantime, I have to decide which five topics I choose to be tested on at the KGP. I am someone who can be interested in almost anything if it is presented with enough enthusiasm, which made the choice tough. Here are the five topics I chose and why I chose them:

• The Vikings in IrelandI am generally interested in the Scandiavian culture. Also, I study Norwegian and the Vikings came from Norway - how could I not choose this topic, then? :-)
• Is Irish a dying language?I chose this topic because I think it is important to know about this minority language if you choose Irish culture for the final exam. The gradual dying out of Irish Gaelic can also be linked to many historical events, which makes studying easier for me.
• David Norris' contribution to LGBT rights in the Republic of IrelandA very unusual topic, but same-sex marriage and questions on its legislation always seem to be on the agenda nowadays. I had not heard about David Norris before, but after the presentation I was inspired to read more about him and to also investigate what the situation for same-sex couples is in Northern Ireland.
• The Role of Oliver Cromwell in Great Britian and Ireland
  This is another topic I chose because it can easily be linked to to other events in Irish history. I also liked this presentation because we can see two very different perspectives on the life and work of one man here.
• Irish Intelligence at its peak
  It was one of the most impressive presentations I saw, and even though there will be a large number of facts to learn I had the impression that this presentation is extraordinarily well-structured and well-researched. Since I had to watch the last part of a movie on Irish culture last sememster, The War of Independence was in my part and I had already heard about most of the people and organisations before.

M'athchomaroon!

If you are a Game of Thrones fan, you might already know what I'm talking about...if not, let me clarify this: M'athchomaroon is the equivalent for "hello" in the fictional language of Dothraki. Dothraki was created specifically for Game of Thrones by this guy:

David J. Peterson

David J. Peterson is a linguist who really likes to invent new languages - but not the kind of "oh, let's substitute each letter in the alphabet with a strange sign" kind of language most of us invented at some point when we were children. No, David puts a lot more effort into his work as you can best see on his homepage.

For each language, he explains all the rules from pronunciation to morphology to orthography for whoever has the will and nerve to read through it. Each language is more or less based on the grammar rules of a real language. For example, there is 'Kamakawi' (which means 'rainbow'), a language based on Hawai'ian. It is one of the more "evolved" languages on his homepage, and by evolved I mean that David provides more specific grammar rules and a larger vocabulary for Kamakawi than for some of the other languages. For example, he uploaded a list of Kamakawian names and their meaning!

Some other examples of languages David created are 'Gwedyr', a language based on the Finno-Ugric vowel harmony and noun cases, and KNSL, a sign language.

I think his work is pretty impressive, but it must also be quite sad to be the inventor of a language and therefore probably its only speaker. The meaning of language is to make communication easier, but if you cannot speak that language with anyone because nobody knows it, this is very frustrating. Also, if you are the creator of a language you know all its rules because you are the one who makes them. There is no one who knows the language better than you - so there is no one you can look up to and learn from.

Health Report Correction

Dentist's

This report provides a summary of the findings of a survey which was carried out during the week of 12th to 18th May. The survey consisted of 100 evaluation forms as well as 25 face-to-face interviews with patients after their dental visit. While the surgery was praised for its modern equipment, there were serious issues raised regarding the cleanliness of some of the facilities and the behaviour of the staff.

First impression

In general, the majority of the people interviewed expressed satisfaction with the overall impression of the surgery. They approved of the light-flooded premises and the quiet waiting room. There were similar results with regard to the extended opening hours, which make a dental visit possible even after a regular workday has ended.

Cleanliness

One issue which emerged from customer responses was the flouting of health regulations. While many mentioned the surgery’s clean overall impression, it was pointed out that the dentist often did not disinfect his hands before turning to a new patient. Five percent of the patients surveyed voiced concerns that this posed a health risk. They also disliked the fact that patients are encouraged to use toothpaste from a common tube in the bathroom as this may accelerate the spread of infections.

Staff

In terms of friendliness and politeness, staff scored highly. However, it also emerged from the survey that communication among the staff is something that needs addressing. One patient expressed his dissatisfaction: ‘One dentist told me that my wisdom tooth needs to be extracted. The next time I came here, they didn’t mention the wisdom tooth but concluded I need brackets.’

Recommendations

It is clear that certain points, hygiene in particular, need to be addressed. I would strongly recommend organising training for the staff in order to make them familiar with the current health regulations. It is also essential to keep better records of all the procedures in order to improve customer satisfaction.

In this report, I made some silly and unnecessary mistakes concerning subject-verb agreement and articles. I suppose this is because I had realized too late that we had to print the report and did it in a hurry. In the end, I handed it in without having proofread the printed version. I hope these kind of mistakes will not happen on the next progress check, where we have to write by hand.

Honey, honey, honey...

...life is funny? Not for the bees anymore! It is not completely clear why so many of them die each year, but among the main reasons are definitely the pesticides used in today's agriculture and the Varroa mite, an insect that is a deadly hazard for the bees. Another cause could be monocultural farming, where farmers only plant one crop on a large area. It drastically reduces the variety of food available to the bees. Bees are essential for a healthy ecosystem though, because they pollinate plants and help them to reproduce. Without bees, plants wouldn't survive and we would have nothing to eat!

A few weeks ago I saw a documentary about bees and what happens now that so many of them die. If you are interested, you can follow this link and watch it yourselves. I had heard about the bee discussion before - an Austrian politician had brought it up, but he was often made fun of. I didn't know how grave the problem was until I saw the documentary. 

The most shocking scene was one where they show an apple tree plantation in China. The Chinese farmers had used so many pesticides that all the animals in the area basically became extinct, which means that there are no more bees that can pollinate the apple trees. A plantation doesn't work if the plants don't reproduce themselves, so the owners now hire humans to pollinate the apple trees! They collect pollen from healthy apple trees on a plantation far away, bring it to the chemical-infested plantation and climb every tree in order to put the pollen on the apple trees. It may be a funny sight, but in reality it is one of the most tragic things I have ever seen.

A few days later, I read a newspaper article about a 23-year-old Austrian girl who had a great business idea. The name of their company, 'Rent a bee', says it all. On their homepage, you can rent a beehive for two months. You don't need to know anything about bees or beekeeping, all you have to do is open the beehive door in the morning and close it at night, and you have to provide water for the bees. After two months, you return the beehive and you receive all the honey your bees produced in the last two months, which can be as much as five kilos! If you became interested in beekeeping, they also offer a tutorial and all the equipment needed for harvesting the honey yourself.

Unfortunately, the beehives are all delivered in April. If I could get you excited about having your own beehive, you'll have to wait until next year to get one, sorry. In the meantime, why not get an insect hotel like the one in the picture that provides shelter for different kinds of insects?

Science meets Comedy

You think science only involves boring equations, difficult formulas, numbers, data... - anything but fun? Read this post and think again!

Maybe some of you know poetry slams. After all, they have become quite popular recently. In a normal poetry slam, an artist has five minutes to present a text he or she has written themselves. Whispering, shouting, screaming - everything is allowed, but they must not sing (at least not during their whole performance) or use instruments. Also, artists are not allowed to use any requisites. In a poetry slam, the audience decides who wins by rating the performances with numbers or applause.

While in a normal poetry slam you should entertain your audience or make them re-evaluate their view of a topic, in a science slam the main goal is to inform the audience about your field of research. If you can entertain them at the same time, or change their views on your subject - even better! Performers of a science slam are apparently allowed to use requisites, and they have six minutes instead of five for their presentation.

In a science slam, it is less important to pay attention to the language you are using. Performers don't need to think of clever rhymes or puns, it is more important to explain their work in a simple way and show why they are fascinated by it. Most importantly, maybe, they are trying to convince the audience that research is not just something that happens far away from our daily lives in laboratories, but something that concerns us all and can make our lives easier and better.

In Austria, science slams take place approximately every three months, but the location changes, so it might take a while until there is one in a city near you. In the meantime, you can watch this video of Martin Moder, who was elected best Austrian science slammer and will take part in the European science slam finals later this year. Unfortunately, the video is in German. Generally, science slams don't seem to be popular in the English-speaking world yet. You can try your luck on youtube, where some of the videos have at least English subtitles.

Fans of the "real" poetry slam might denounce science slams because they differ too much from the original concept of a poetry slam, especially because they don't pay attention to linguistic aspects. However, I think they are a great way to bring various fields of scientific research closer to a large audience. Maybe they will encourage someone to study something scientific, or maybe it will change someone's mind about genetic modification and the like.