at last ...

At last, christmas holidays are here, two weeks without work and fh :-) so I take the chance and update my blog.
To improve my english out of class I started a new computer game in english yesterday. The game is called The Witcher, and is based on the stories of the witcher Geralt of Rivia. It's a game where black and white is not really clear, and your decisions have great impact on the game world. The first chapter was really fantastic (and good to improve listening skills ;-) - and, thanks to the subtitles, easy to understand).
But now, I have to dive into the pre-christmas shopping mania and get some last minute christmas presents.

so long, I wish you all a merry christmas,
Werner

what is a "heuriger"?

well, it's sort of
1) a pub
2) a mixture of a pub and restaurant

which only serves
1) home-made wine and food
2) traditional Austrian food

and sometimes there is live music.

Maybe you are asking yourself: what the heck is he trying to tell us? Well, the sentence above is an attempt to explain what a "heuriger" is. Especially when asked by a foreigner who is not familiar with the Austrian culture.

That leads us to the question: what exactly is "home-made food"?

Home-made food served at a "heuriger" (2 examples):
- black (or blood) pudding
- different sort of ham, bacon and meat served with horseradish (Krenn), black bread and some sort of spicy cream cheese spread. This type of meal is called "Brettljausn"

And, can you explain to me what a black pudding is?
Well, it's sort of a sausage. It consists of meat, little roll-pieces, salt and other spices, mixed with coagulated blood and filled in a pork gut. Sounds delicious, doesn't it? And indeed, it IS delicous, really. Here are some recipes using black pudding Blunznkaiser-Rezepte [german]

One last word: If you drink to much sparkling wine (usually not at a "heuriger" - but, who knows), wine or cider, you will get a hangover the next day. But don't panic, eat some pickled herrings, drink a lot of water (alcohol causes you to dehydrate), take an aspirin/a headache pill and you will soon be fit to eat a new serving of our fabulous black pudding (or should I say coagulated blood sausage? ;-) )

So long,
Werner

Lesson #2 (10/09/2007)

Listening to songs (and reading the lyric) is a good way to improve your English. Therefore we had to post some lyrics as part of our homework from lesson 2. Now, with 1 week delay ;-) , I post my chosen song. The song is called Mad world, performed by Gary Jules (cover of Tears for Fears).

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere
Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow
And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very, very
Mad World
Mad world

Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday
And I feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen, sit and listen
Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, no one knew me
Hello teacher tell me what's my lesson
Look right through me, look right through me
And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very, very
Mad World
Mad World
Enlarging your world
Mad World.

For those of you who don't know this song:


Gary Jules Lyrics

enjoy it, so long,
werner

Lesson #3 (17/09/2007)

Today we went through the various tenses used when narrating a story. A good way to learn when and how to use these tenses is reading stories. Listening to a song which tells a story is also very useful. Martin asked us to go through the following song lyric, locate the verbs and their different tenses:

"She Hates Me" (PUDDLE OF MUDD LYRICS)

Met a girl, thought she was grand [past simple, past simple, past simple]
fell in love, found out first hand [past simple, past simple]
went well for a week or two [past simple]
then it all came unglued [past simple]

in a trapped trip I can't grip [present simple]
never thought I'd be the one who'd slip [past simple, past simple, past simple]
then I started to realize [past simple]
I was living one big lie [past continuous]

She fucking hates me [present simple]
trust
she fucking hates me [present simple]
la la la love
I tried too hard [past simple]
and she tore my feelings like I had none [past simple, past simple]
and ripped them away [past simple]

She was queen for about an hour [past simple]
after that shit got sour [past simple]
she took all I ever had [past simple, past simple]
no sign of guilt
no feeling of bad, no

In a trapped trip I can't grip [present simple]
never thought i'd be the one who'd slip [past simple, past simple, past simple]
then I started to realize [past simple]
I was living one big lie [past continuous]

[Chorus]

that's my story, as you see
learned my lesson and so did she [past simple, past simple]
now it's over and i'm glad [present simple, present simple]
'cause i'm a fool for all i've said [present simple, present perfect]

[Chorus]

la la la la la la la la la love
Trust
la la la la la la la la la love
Trust
and she tore my feelings like I had none [past simple, past simple]
she fucking hates me [present simple]

8. September 2007 - first lesson after summer break - part #3

The last part of our homework is to answer the following question:

Is it ethical for president Verzetnitsch to claim termination gratuity?

To be honest, a very difficult question. In principle, every employee has the right to claim termination gratuity (if not resigned by themself). In Mr. Verzetnitsch case the situation is a little bit more complicated. To fully understand the dimension of this question I am going to explain who Mr. Verzetnitsch was in the past, namely the president of the labour union in Austria and therefore the representative of thousands of ordinary Austrian labour force. Due to some troubles in the past Mr. Verzetnitsch was dismissed from his job.
Today the litigation between Mr. Verzetnitsch and the Austrian labour union regarding the claim of termination gratuity of about 850.000 euros dominates the headlines. In that special case the question about ethics is not the question about the right to claim but the question about the amount of the claim. Anyhow, 850.000 euros is mostly more than the lifetime-earning of an ordinary labour force (which was represented by Mr. Verzetnitsch in the past!).

The paragraph above is my private opinion.

so long,
werner

8. September 2007 - first lesson after summer break - part #2

Martin asked us to do the "Ethical Orientation Questionnaire" [http://www.ethicsandbusiness.org/stylequiz.htm]. Here is my result including comments on my decisions:


1. Which is worse?
hurting someone's feelings by telling the truth
telling a lie and protecting their feelings

Comment: Telling the truth is not always the easiest way, but I prefer the truth. Even if it hurts, I would see it as a chance to possibly change my attitudes.


2. Which is the worse mistake?
to make exceptions too freely
to apply rules too rigidly

Comment: Rules are the death of any innovation.


3. Which is it worse to be?
unmerciful
unfair

Comment: One can treat you unmerciful, but mustn't be unfair.


4. Which is worse?
stealing something valuable from someone for no good reason
breaking a promise to a friend for no good reason

Comment: Impossible to answer. I would do neither of them. But, to follow my gut feeling, I took the 2nd.


5. Which is it better to be?
just and fair
sympathetic and feeling

Comment: I expect to be treated just and fair, and so I hope my behaviuor is also just and fair :-)


6. Which is worse?
not helping someone in trouble
being unfair to someone by playing favorites

Comment: Same as point 5.


7. In making a decision you rely more on
hard facts
personal feelings and intuition

Comment: I rely on hard facts too, but if they are almost equal my decisions depend on my gut feeling. (see point 4. :-))


8. Your boss orders you to do something that will hurt someone. If you carry out the order, have you actually done anything wrong?
yes
no

Comment: In my opinion yes. I would never go out and hurt someone if someone else told me to do so, even if it was my boss.


9. Which is more important in determining whether an action is right or wrong?
whether anyone actually gets hurt
whether a rule, law, commandment, or moral principle is broken

Comment: There is nothing that legitimates actions which hurt other people. If an action doesn't hurt anyone but possibly breaks some rules or laws, then that action can't be wrong :-).


My score:
C Score: 5
J Score: 4


so long,
Werner

8. September 2007 - first lesson after summer break - part #1

The topic of our first english lesson, after a 3 month pause, was Ethics. First we had to discuss what ethics is. It turned out that it's quite difficult to describe ethics. Here are some ideas that came up during the discussion about the meaning of ethics:

- social rules/responsibilities
- outside of law
- depends on the standard of living, education, religion

During the lesson we read an article about ethical behaviour. Following are some words from the article I didn't know (descriptions taken from dictionary.com [http://dictionary.reference.com/]):


obesity, noun of the verb obese


obese [oh-bees]
- adjective
very fat or overweight; corpulent.


litigation [lit-i-gey-shuhn]
- noun
1. the act or process of litigating: a matter that is still in litigation.
2. a lawsuit.

- german: der Rechtsstreit


sue [soo]
- verb
1. to institute a process in law against; bring a civil action against: to sue someone for damages.


secretive [see-kri-tiv]
- adjective
having or showing a disposition to secrecy; reticent: He seems secretive about his new job.


civil servant
a member of the civil service

- german: der Beamte


There is more to come, so stay tuned, so long,
Werner

2 June 2007

Discussion about high-performers:

High performers are very competend in soft and/or technical skills.
However, it depends on the definition of "high performance" who counts as a high performer.
Above all, high performers are very important to an organisation and should be kept motivated.

26 May 2007

short overview of todays lesson:

today Julia took over Martins part of (trying to) teach(ing) us English.

the topic was "employment" and "application" and we learned some important vocab. Julia also focused on the correct pronunciation of the used words and how dictionaries often mark the syllable which has to be stressed.

examples:
dis-tri-'bu-tion
dis-'tri-bu-tor


Vocab:

job ad
advertisment
job vacancy ['va-can-cy]
an unoccupied position
application letter [app-li-'ca-tion]['lett-er]
a written request or appeal for employment
resumé
American English for CV
to be shortlisted
to be invited to an interview
applicant ['app-li-cant]
a person who applies for or requests something
candidate ['can-di-date]
an applicant for a position
reference ['ref-er-ence]
a statement, usually written, as to a person's abilities,
etc.
probationary [pro-ba-tion-ary]
under terms not final or fully worked out or agreed upon


Roland gave a very good presentation concerning if-clauses:

Type 1: Used when expected outcome is very likely

if + simple present + .... will ....

Type 2: Used when outcome is less likely or imaginary

if + simple past + .... would + infinitive ....


Homework (by 2 June 2007)

Market Leader:
p70 read article and answer questions B
p71 C, B (top of page)

19th May 2007

Homework (by 26 May 200)

p85 A, B (Market Leader)

12th May 2007

We have started a new chapter "Employment". The first task was to choose the five most important factors out of a list of "Important factors for getting a job" (in a team of two). Here's how we ranked them:

- appearance
- contacts and connections
- experience
- qualifications
- references

Vocab:
- in order of importance
- how we ranked them
- rank
L---- "Captain"
L---- to order (e.g. according to importance)

After that, we took off to a meta-level and discussed the meaning of the word "meta"cognitive skills:
Maybe it can be described as: Doing something to reach something else (e.g. the way we learn vocab)

Cognitive	Metacognitive
e.g. learning vocab	e.g. how you learn new vocab e.g. in a book using colours

After we've reached the ground of mother earth again, Christian told us the use of SHOULD and Niki held a presentation about Countries, Nationalities & Languages.

General rule:
- All words for countries, nationalities and languages are written with a capital first letter

Articels:
- most country name without the
- except: the US, the UK
- or optional: (the) Lebanon, (the) Gambia

Adjectives:
- -ish: British, Danish, Irish
- -(i)an: American, Korean, Canadian, Austrian
- -ese: Chinese, Japanese
- -i: Pakistani, Iraqi
- -ic: Arabic, Islandic
Exceptions (what else ;)):
- Dutch, Greek, Swiss, Thai, Cypriot

homework (until 19.5.2007)
- p78 A, B, C

as I promised ...

here is the review of our last English class. Not exactly on time (it would be better to write it on the same weekend) but much better compared to my last entry :D

We started with an eye-opener: Martin (our teacher) asked us to write down the topics we can remember from our last lesson (which was 3 weeks before). And surprise, surprise, only one of us (Bob) was able to do what was asked.

And why?

Because Bob was the only one who has made notes of what we did during the last lesson.

What's the consequence?

Martins order: We have to buy a book, label it with the word "ENGLISH" (like in the primary shool) and make notes in it during the upcoming lessons - so we can remember the learned topics even after a few days and weeks.


After that, Martin (the pupil ;-)) held a very good presentation about HAVE TO, MUST, MUST NOT and DON'T HAVE TO. I think now it's clear to all of use when to use which form (hopefully - because otherwise it could be expensive).

During the last hour of the lesson we learned some useful techniques for successful "social english". But be careful: Successful "social english" largely depends on the culture of the involved people. So it's very important to know the cultural differences between the foreign country and yours.

Unfortunately we didn't have time left to play the "cultural game", it would have been much fun. But, maybe the next time.

So long, hope you didn't get bored, cu,
Werner

time is running by

nearly one month has gone by since I last updated my blog and now I sit here and try to remember what we did in our last english class - and I have to admit that it's not easy :-| The most important thing that I learn from this situation is: It will be much more easier to write down a review (at least in my notebook) if I do it directly after class (as Martin told us) - next time it will be better - I promise :-)

Last week I started to read the book "The Gunslinger" from Stephen King (in english of course). It's the first book of the "The Dark Tower"- series (7 books) - and I'm sure that the books will keep me busy a long time :) - I have chosen these book(s) because King has been my favorite writer since ages, although I know that they are not easy to read and there are many words I don't understand.

So long, I'll keep you updated, cu,
Werner

what we did in class today (24.3.2007)

1. We've learned very useful everyday English concerning illness, sickness and talking with medical doctors. We role-played the conversation between doctor and patient. A little uncomfortable at first it was getting better after a while. In my opinion a very useful way of learning new vocabulary and (more important to me) practice talking. But as I said before, we have to get used to that type of education.

2. After that I had to hold my presentation about compound adjectives. And to be honest, I was really, really nervous – holding a presentation is not my favourite task, even in German :-) But it could have been worse, and I’m sure I will never forget how to build a compound adjective.

3. After a short break we went back to our last discussed topic: culture. We learned some interesting facts about some foreign countries which are very useful to know when making business with companies from these countries.
   

Finally, after we got our homework, we went in our well-deserved English easter break.

So long, cu on Saturday the 14^th,

Werner

interesting site

While surfing thru the internet in search of some useful english pages I found an interesting site, like the one Yandra mentioned in one of her posts (One word a day - OWAD). The site is called "A phrase a week" and offers a free e-mail service which sends you - guess what - a phrase a week :). In addition to OWAD this site will help you to improve your english knowledge in an incredible fast way ;-)

So long,
Werner

I would like to say hello ....

to the blog-community :-).

I've thought about, almost meditated on what to write in my first blog-post for a very long time. Since this is the first blog I've ever had in my life, I thought I have to write something special, humorous, unique, but, let me say it in a gentle way - my attempt to be a good writer sucks.

So I ended up with some facts about the blog:

• This blog is part of our business english education at the University of Applied Sciences bfi Vienna - Project Management and Information
• From now on I will post my personal review of each english-class (Saturday) to share it with my colleagues
• I will also post my "out-of-class-english-learning" attempts and experiences

If you have any suggestions or criticism don't hesitate to throw in comments :-)

So long,
Werner