The "Friendly Alien"

No, I did not meet a very gentle extraterrestrial being - "Friendly Alien" is simply the nickname of the Kunsthaus, the most peculiar building in Graz when it comes to architecture.

It was built in 2003, when Graz was the European Capital of Culture. The Kunsthaus is an art gallery dedicated to contemporary and modern art. There are no permanent exhibitions so every few months you can see completely new works of art that have never been displayed in the Kunsthaus before.

I visited the Kunsthaus last weekend with an exchange student from Canada because she was curious what it was like inside and I had never been inside before either, which is quite a shame since I have been living not too far away from this special building all my life. 

On the first floor there was a modern art exhibition from local artists and I have to say, the charm of modern art will forever remain a mystery to me... On the second floor there was an exhibition from two Russian artists, which I found more fascinating. You could see the whole process of creating a work of art, from the first sketches to the actual painting or even a 3D model of a fantasy building. We could tell from the dates that it sometimes took the artist years to finish a painting or model, and that many changes were made in the process. The effort the artists had put into their work really fascinated me, especially because art is something done for the sake of it, and not primarily for profit or approval. The artist cannot know whether his work of art will be accepted or liked, yet he spends years on one.

I would like to share one picture that I took with you:

This mirror was mounted in the staircase, and at first I wondered why you would need a mirror there. After all, people are not likely to crash into one another in a big staircase like this. I found it a nice idea, though, until I realized that I was fooled - the "mirror" was not a mirror at all, but a painting! :-)

What's the word for...?

Huh, I haven't been blogging for a while. :-(

My first semester at university is over, all the exams are written and I can finally lean back and relax...or not? Unfortunately, the information saved in our brains tends to be forgotten faster than we would like to imagine if we don't revise regularly, so I decided to revise all the vocabulary I studied in the course of the semester. A friend of mine and I are also going to try and enforce a "no German" policy when we are meeting friends that are all English students.

When we were trying to hold a conversation only in English, and by conversation I mean one covering more more substantial subjects than the weather, we soon realized that we are lacking English words for everyday items that surround us. Something had to be done about this circumstance!

Our solution: We labelled many of the items in my apartment with Post-Its on which we wrote the correct English expression (both the American and British version, where there is an option). On the picture you can see some of the kitchen utensils we labelled. 

Then we walked through the apartment, reading all the words out loud in order to remember them, and when we were convinced that we know most of them, we played the game "I spy with my little eye [something that is green/made of plastic/soft...]".

It was a fun way to learn new vocabulary and I think I'm going to label all the items in my apartment again in the near future, but this time in Italian, my second language. If you have any other ideas how to learn new words in a playful way, let me know :-)

PC2 writing task correction

I compared the influence of the Vikings and the Plantation settlers in Ireland.

While there is an obvious connection between these two items, there are also a number of significant differences. The Vikings as well as the Plantation settlers came to Ireland from the outside, but their reasons for this were different. While the Vikings came because they were seeking wealthy places with food and artefacts to take, the Plantation settlers were strategically placed in Ireland. Their purpose was to spread Protestantism in order to strengthen the link to Britain. Both groups brought with them their own cultural backgrounds, but the assimilation process could not have been more different. The Viking settlers not only influenced Ireland by building settlements but also assimilated for instance by becoming Catholic. The Protestant settlers that had been brought to Ireland during the Plantation period, on the other hand, only imposed their views and beliefs on the Irish people. They were only successful inthe county of Ulster, which is now mainly Protestant, while the Vikings influenced a much greater part of Ireland. The settlers' and the Vikings' reasons for coming to Ireland and their ways of dealing with the culture they were confronted with may be poles apart, but it cannot be denied that both groups greatly shaped today's Ireland.

I am glad that I achieved such a high percentage for my text, but the Major No-No and the syntax problem I had annoy me. I was unsure of both of them while writing and proofreading but decided not to change them. While writing PC3 I am going to rephrase anything that seems odd right away.

Register

For my post about register, I am going to quote a scene from Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream", taken from the "No Fear Shakespeare" website. On this wonderful website we can find many digitalised versions of Shakespeare's works, along with a "translation" into relatively simple modern English.

Of course, English speakers at Shakespeare's time used different vocabulary and sentence structures, which makes his works difficult to understand. Many of the words he uses can still be found in contemporary English, although we would not use them in an informal letter or phone call. They belong to a high register, which is used in formal letters and sometimes formal conversations.

The upper paragraph of the following dialogue is Shakespeare's original work, the other one is "No Fear Shakepeare's" translation. The words makred in bold in the origingal paragraphs can still be used today, but would be considered rather formal. The bold words in the translated paragraphs are less formal options for the words Shakespeare used.

BOTTOM

Masters, you ought to consider with yourselves. To bring in—God shield us!—a lion among ladies is a most dreadful thing. For there is not a more fearful wildfowl than your lion living. And we ought to look to ’t. 

Sirs, you ought to think to yourself, bringing in—God forbid!—a lion amongst ladies is really terrible. There’s no scarier wild bird than the living lion, and we should remember that.

SNOUT

Therefore another prologue must tell he is not a lion. 

So we need another prologue to tell everyone he’s not a real lion.

BOTTOM

Nay, you must name his name, and half his face must be seen through the lion’s neck. And he himself must speak through, saying thus—or to the same defect—“Ladies,” or “Fair ladies,” “I would wish you” or “I would request you” or “I would entreat you” “not to fear, not to tremble, my life for yours. If you think I come hither as a lion, it were pity of my life. No, I am no such thing. I am a man as other men are.” And there indeed let him name his name, and tell them plainly he is Snug the joiner. 

No, we can just announce the actor’s name, and let his face show through the lion costume, and have him say something himself. He should say the following, or something else to the same effect —“Ladies,” or “Lovely ladies,” “I would like to ask you” [...] or “I would like to beg you” “not to be afraid, and not to tremble with fear. I value your lives as highly as my own. If you thought I was a real lion, I would be risking my life. But no, I am not at all a lion. I am a man, just like other men.” And then he should say his name, and tell them plainly that he’s Snug the carpenter.

QUINCE

Well, it shall be so. But there is two hard things: that is, to bring the moonlight into a chamber. For, you know, Pyramus and Thisbe meet by moonlight. 

All right, that’s what we’ll do then. But there are two things we still have to figure out. How are we going to bring moonlight into a room? Because, you know, Pyramus and Thisbe meet by moonlight.

(Crowther, John, ed. “No Fear A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” SparkNotes LLC. 2005.)

This was only a short example, but maybe you want to have a look at more of Shakespeare's work and find differences in register between the original and the modern translation?

The Story of Ireland

Another corrected piece of homework:

The most fascinating aspect of Irish culture that I learned about by watching the Story of Ireland was the tension between Northern and Southern Ireland that culminated in the Easter Rising. Basically, it was a concept called Home Rule that triggered the debate whether Ireland should be part of the British monarchy or a state on its own. Most Northern Irishmen were in favour of the union, while the Southerners were not. The latter eventually plotted a strike against the British rule in Ireland by taking over the General Post Office in Dublin and declaring the Republic of Ireland. This incident, now better known as the Easter Rising, was certainly not the end of tensions between North and South, but it marks an important milestone on the way to the Republic of Ireland as we know it today. Even though it took me quite a long time and many additional sources to understand all the information given in the documentary, I found it to be intriguing work because I am interested in recent history.

In the original version, I had written too much about the way the information was presented in the documentary. I also had made some silly logical mistakes. In the future, I should proofread my texts more carefully and make sure that every sentence corresponds to the topic sentence.

PC1 writing task

Apparently I have forgotten to publish the correction of my writing task from PC1...

Studying at the Department of Translation can be very challenging. Many of us are now far away from our family and most of our friends for the first time. In addition to the self-consciousness this causes, like many others I was not prepared for the vast differences between school and university. The mass of information I was given in every course overwhelmed me at first. When I finally thought I had found a way of dealing with all the information – and studying it – we got back out first piece of homework. The bad marks we were given seemed devastating and I realised that I needed to work even harder. With PC1 coming closer, I decided to study English for an hour every day. This did not seem difficult to manage until I became aware of the fact that I must not lose track of the other subjects. I now try to revise less recent subjects and learn the new ones after every course, not only in English, but in all my courses. It is a challenge which requires a great deal of commitment and self-motivation, but one I am more than willing to take on.

We are one?

America is a land of immigration. Over time, there have been different theories how all the different cultures and identities would relate to each other.

"Where do you come from?" "What's the difference, I'm here now."

(from the 1986 movie And the Pursuit of Happiness)

The earliest and most famous theory is the Theory of Assimilation, better known as "Melting Pot". The idea behind the Melting Pot was that, once the migrants had arrived in America, they would deny their ethnic difference and forget their cultural practices. The result would be a homogeneous American society.

One big problem with the Melting Pot theory was that it is a theory created to explain only identity changes of immigrants. Native Americans, however, are technically speaking not immigrants. They were seen as too different to be easily assimilated. In order to teach them the American way of live, the reservation policy was introduced. Native Americans children were taken away from their parents and educated in boarding schools. They were not allowed to use their native language and they were taught Western values such as ownership and punctuality.

In the 1960s, a  new theory was established - the Mosaic or Salad Bowl Theory. In a salad, the single ingredients keep their form, but together they form something completely new and delicious. Similarly, a mosaic cosists of single pieces that together form something new and beautiful. Unlike the Melting Pot, where everything is mixed into a homogeneous pulp, the Salad Bowl Theory does not deny ethnic differences. Even though this is a progress, the Salad Bowl Theory has its issues. Pieces of a mosaic are "closed" objects, they never change their form. Even though a mosaic piece, in other words a culture, touches another piece, another culture, it would never interact or be changed by the contact, according to this theory.

The most recent theory is the Theory of Hybridity, a theory from postcolonial critic Homi Bhabha. Hybridity allows difference, but pulls towards sameness and fusion. According to this theory, the relation with another culture, another identity, always changes something in ourselves.