Autumn Update

It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post and I had intended the next one to be detailing some Austrian/Viennese quirks I’ve observed, but I believe that will have to wait. Now it’s almost the end of October, the clocks have changed, the darkness is setting in, winter is looming and this month

Picture: The Autumn view over Vienna from Kahlenberg.

has flown in! 

This is the first time ever that my parents are dealing with an empty nest – now both my brothers and I have all flown the nest; flown rather far in fact. I’m the only one remaining in Europe. It’s weird to think that next time I’ll be home neither of my brothers will be there. Still, this makes for interesting conversations with them now that we can share travel stories!

Between my days in the school, my German course, tandem meetings, tutoring and my actual, social life, it’s not really surprising that October seems to have flown by so quickly! I have had a few hiccups with the school regarding the contrasting expectations of my mentor and the school, and I have found the situation rather complicated and confusing. I won’t go into details but, briefly-speaking, it complicates matters that the Comenius application was made on behalf of the school by a parent. As a result, an agreement was made between the parent and the school that half of my Comenius hours would be spent in the class of the daughter of the parent. It is confusing for me as I get the impression that the school are indifferent with regard to my presence there and have just accepted it as a compromise with this particular parent.

Picture: Enjoying time outside of school!

After a Comenius Induction Meeting this week at the Austrian National Agency, I realised while listening to the experiences of other Comenius Assistants and mentors, that my situation is not normal. I came away with the energy and optimism to improve it. I have ideas and if the teachers manage to find time to discuss them with me, I hope I will have a chance to implement them. At the moment, time is not in my favour but with any luck, I will find a way.

However, I have established that the school is not my priority for my time as a Comenius Assistant. Since I have already trained as a teacher, much of the experience in the school is not shockingly new for me. Rather, I find the language is the main priority here. That, as well as culture and travel. And of course addressing something of a crossroads in my career: to teach or not to teach – that is the question. A question I have not yet found the answer to.

Picture: Venue of World Press Photo.

 In the meantime, I have been enjoying the endless possibilities of Vienna by exploring the vineyards of Kahlenberg; admiring the night view of the city from the 12^th floor of the hospital (an unexpected treat!); availing of Thomas’s idea to check out the World Press Photo 2013 exhibition with the prize-winning journalist photos of the year (the first prize picture taken in Syria); as well as

Picture: Belvedere Palace and beyond with Laura.

wandering the streets of the city centre, the gardens of Belvedere Palace and taking advantage of a weekend-only offer of free entrance to the Belvedere Winter Palace. Vienna sometimes oozes extravagance but with an aura of antiquity from a joined history with Hungary.

Speaking of Hungary, it has also been great to catch up with my au pair family this month – once

Picture: With two thirds of my au pair family in Laxenburg.

for Hanga’s birthday, she turned 4, and once for a spontaneous meeting in Laxenburg. I never even knew Laxenburg existed until I jumped at the opportunity to meet them there, 45 minutes after receiving a call about it. It is a beautiful place, just south of Vienna with stunning gardens and an impressive castle. I hope I can return again, perhaps in the spring and really spend a whole day there.

Now I have just returned to Vienna after spending a long weekend back in Finland. I had already planned prior to my acceptance for Comenius to return to Finland for the Turku Open 2013 debating tournament, as a member of the organising committee. First, I flew to Helsinki and spent a magical evening catching up with my gorgeous friend Eni, treating ourselves to some delicious cakes from

Picture: Heavenly cake treats.

a top patisserie where Eni is training to become a chef. That’s a lifestyle I could get used to!

After that, two days where spent in Turku for the tournament – two crazy days when things didn’t really go to plan but we rolled with it anyway! I was so glad to also have Thomas there as he has the incredible ability to remain calm in otherwise stressful situations. It was a short time to spend in Turku, and jam-packed with activity without much time to devote to those I really wanted to see, but it was absolutely worth it. It was like I had never been

away and confirms in my heart and mind that I definitely made the right decision to study my Master’s there, judging by the amazing people I met during that time.

 

The last full day was spent back in Helsinki for Thomas’s birthday and it was just the kind of day we needed. Time to be together and relax. And finally, to take advantage of the best part of Finnish culture that we miss the most – sauna! How I will make it through the Austrian winter without this, I have no idea. The Finns know how to cope with winter and I maintain that the day I have my own place, it is certain that it has to have a sauna. That's it for now - I hope in the next post I can reflect on those promised Austrian/Viennese quirks!

Deutsch: Leicht oder schwer?

Natürlich (one of my favourite words in German), being immersed in a new language is the best way to learn, but also overwhelming. It surrounds me everywhere, every day. Some of it is conscious, some of it isn’t. I work with German-speaking primary school classes for 16 hours a week. I spend 9 hours per week in a Deutsch Integrationskurs spread over three evenings. For the time in between I am influenced by the German language everywhere I go, I send some messages in German, I’m finding German movies to watch and I have spent the last two weeks setting up tandem meetings with many different people.

I’m not particularly used to teaching or speaking English to absolute beginners. The children in the classes I'm with tend not to respond, or at least not as quickly, to instructions and can become restless very easily if they don’t understand. These are completely understandable reactions when listening to a language they don’t really know. Managing a class with this kind of language barrier can be a challenge. But some of them, mainly the younger ones, are clearly eager and interested to learn and with them it is a joy to tap into their enthusiasm. For the others, I can only try through movements, gestures, songs and visuals to connect with them, and work together with the teacher when translation is necessary.

Meanwhile, I attend a German course to add some structure to my own learning. As it is an A1+ course, I’m not starting from the absolute beginning but have some basics in mind that need refreshing. The first class started straight in with the perfect tense and I was glad that I found the level to be rather suitable for me. I was also relieved not to be the worst in the class! I find myself gaining more confidence to try to speak and caring less about the mistakes I inevitably make (especially with the articles: der, die, das… ein, eine, einem, einen…ahh!)  To supplement the course, I have also taken up language tandems.

I knew from living in Finland the possibility of using Tandem meetings to improve language learning. I had never availed of the opportunity there but here I decided to give it a chance, not only to practise some German but also to meet new people. It serves the purpose well. I posted a short message on the bulletin board of the language centre of the University of Vienna stating that I would be interested in a “language swap” – I can offer English in exchange for German. Surprisingly, I received many, many responses and have a list of possible Tandem partners reaching double figures. Apparently many people want to improve their English speaking skills!

Each tandem meeting I’ve had so far has been in a different café in Vienna. I truly believe that I could spend every day here in a different café and I still wouldn’t make it through them all – it is astounding and it’s easy to enjoy exploring the Viennese café culture. The meetings are very informal, usually just meeting for a chat or taking a walk around the city. Some of the conversation is in English and some in German. In the situations where our speaking skills are of a similar match then I’m forced to speak more German, which can be frustrating when I can’t find the words I want to say but it helps me improve by practising. Most people will understand this feeling.

Recently, I met with a Tandem couple (Austrian guy, Lithuanian lady) to experience the Lange Nacht der Museen together. This was a special cultural evening in the city when all of the museums are open from 6pm to 1am and you can gain entry to all of them with just one ticket costing 11€ (student price – I’m still managing to take advantage of my Finnish student card.) Although the possibilities seemed endless with so many different kinds of museums in Vienna, we spent most of the hours in the National History Museum. It is an incredibly huge, impressive, old building with millions of items; you could easily spend the whole day there!

As an added extra on this particular evening, we took advantage of the guided tour to the rooftop of this magnificent building where we could admire the night-time view of Vienna with a “love cocktail.” The tour was only offered in German so for most of the time the guide was speaking too fast for me to understand everything. Nevertheless, I at least picked up some information as we stood in a storage room for skulls (where normal visitors do not have access) – there were 40,000 skulls there! A little bit creepy if you ask me… 

With all of these experiences with the German language I sincerely hope that the improvement will continue. I’m well aware though that I need to keep practising as much as I can in order not to lose it. And I have a fragile memory, given that I have many temporary influences in my life, never staying in one place too long, always meeting new people … learning a new language is a delicate process that I hope to nurture. Ist Deutsch leicht oder schwer? Is German easy or difficult? What do you think?