All around the world

I want to see the world! Stuck in Graz, studying all day I really started to miss travelling a lot. If you’ve read my posts, you know that I’ve already visited the one or the other place. And I don’t want to stop. When in my life will there be a better time for seeing the world than now? As I looked through all the pictures I took over the last years, I thought about where I’ll go next (or where I wish to go). Let me share my planned destinations with you…

#1 Bejing

During summer this year I will go there. Not for a week or two, but for 3-4 days only.

Sure, it sounds crazy, but hey – better a short trip than nothing. I am really looking forward to that one. My curiosity concerning the culture, the language and the people there rises every day! And there are just so many question on my mind…Will it be like on television? Do they really eat rice most of the time? Is the air that badly polluted? Will they understand me, if I try some phrases in Chinese? Is it easy to get lost? Is shopping really that cheap? Are the streets overcrowded? Do they eat dogs and cats? 

#2 Zambia

Last year a friend of mine, (all the pictures underneath are taken by him) was teaching, there instead of going to the army, in a 

school and built up a library. As he showed me pictures and told me about all his excursions, I’ve fallen in love with the idea of going there too one day.  I’m sure that the cultural experience would be great and to have the chance to see the beautiful nature would be a dream coming true! Many years ago I was in Kenya and already back then I

knew that I want to see much more of that continent. Maybe not the next few years, but a dream of mine is to go to Zambia and stay there for some weeks or even a longer period of time to get to know everything about the people and the culture there, as it for sure is not comparable to ours.

#3 Prague

Some friends of mine live in the Czech Republic and send me pictures when they

visited the University of Prague. Other friends of mine went to Prague with school and again showed me pictures. It looks awesome! Moreover I am studying Czech at the moment, so it would be a good occasion to use and improve my language skills.

#4 Scotland

Why? It looks nice on pictures, especially the landscape, and I’m curious about the

language, in how far it is different to the English spoken in London and Dublin. Just an example a friend gave me, when he suggested to maybe go there “Ah dinny ken wit yur talkin aboot” (I do not know what you are talking about) As I study English I want to get to know all different varieties of the language, and I have to start somewhere, so why not Scotland?

#5 New York

I already blogged about why I wish to go there, so just scroll down a bit :) 

All in all, I dream about making a long trip all around the world, and who knows, maybe one day I will be able to fulfill my dream.

Ladies and gentlemen!

It is my great honour and pleasure to welcome you most warmly at my blog... 
there we are: register :) Inappropriate and unusual beginning , isn't it ?

We all know that there’s a difference between how we talk with our friends, our parents, our boss at work, to the waiter, … and even worse, we have to learn those different varieties of speaking for every language, not only for our mother tongue. Why? Because knowing a language means to use the right register in every situation. Wait, what? Register? What is it? Definition: A variety of a language or a level of usage, as determined by degree of formality and choice of vocabulary, pronunciation, and syntax, according to the communicative purpose, social context, and standing of the user. As mentioned before, according to different situations and people we talk to, we change our choice of words, our voice and the loudness we speak in. Where for speeches, in school, at university the written, formal language is used most of the time, between friends and family colloquial language is common. Imagine talking to your teachers as you do with your friends or the other way round, wouldn’t that be weird and just strange? Think about that and you’ll see how important register really is. You just can’t talk to your boss as if he was your best friend.

Surveys show, that it doesn’t really matter what we say but HOW we say it. Something interesting I’ve read few times as I’ve worked on rhetoric a lot: there’s been a guy on a seminary with the best known doctors worldwide. He decided to speak about heart surgeries, without ever having studied medicine. All he did was research and preparing a speech. All doctors where impressed and no one realized that he wasn’t an expert at all. Now you surely ask yourself “But how is this possible?” Well, he chose the right register (some terms only used in medicine, the right serious voice,…) ! There is so much you can do with language, dare to try it and see what happens.

But all this makes it hard to really learn a language. I think, the best way to get to know foreign languages is to stay in the country where it is spoken for a certain time. If you are forced to use it you improve yourself, and hearing it all day enlarges your vocabulary. Of course it takes time, but at the end you’ll be glad to know a language with all its difficulties, and you’ll see connections as well as differences between different languages and cultures. And this might be useful for language studies.

Sightseeing weekend in London

„Within only 2 days you’ll never get to see London!“, was what everybody told me when I decided to fly there for not even 3 days. Still I booked my flight there for Friday afternoon and back on Sunday midday. Guess what, I managed to visit all

important sights. This weekend was great! Sure, more time would’ve been better, but I enjoyed every minute in London. As I arrived at my hostel, I changed and went out to start my sightseeing rally. The London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and the House of Parliament, China Town, Westminster Abbey, Tower Bridge and the Tower of London, St. Paul’s Cathedral and Piccadilly Circus within Friday night and all Saturday – you can imagine how exhausting that was, and it was worth it! There where so many impressions I caught up in a short time, taking pictures and being flashed by London’s beauty at the same time was fabulous! If you ever have the chance to visit London – do it! The city has so many different faces, from the biggest shopping malls to shabby shops around the corner, great bars to rather old-fashioned ones, nice parks and dirty streets, the flair is exceptional. When I’ve been there, the weather wasn’t as I thought (all rainy), it actually rained for some minutes only, lucky me :) There are no words to describe the feeling when you make a short trip like this for sightseeing, it is unbelievable and for sure a great experience.

What I have to add is the English spoken there – totally different from what I’ve heard in school before. The accent can be quite hard to understand sometimes, even though it is nearly clear, written English. They just pronounce words in a, for me, funny way, look up some youtube videos if you have time and just listen, it is strange! What I learned was, that the English language is not the same everywhere, ‘til then I was sure that only the Irish (read my next blog entry) had a weird way to speak English… Even when you think you are a good speaker of English it can happen that you don’t understand native speakers. Inform yourself a bit before going to Great Britain, America , Ireland or Australia :) 

The next time you don’t know what to do with your leisure time, 

visit London and : 

ENJOY YOUR JOURNEY !