Remember, remember...
the 5th of November.
Right, so it's no longer Guy Fawkes day, but it was this week. Attempts to blow up Parliament? Perhaps my brain needs a charge instead.
OK so it's not quite that bad :)
But it's been one of those weekends. Today, I'm sure my body is telling me that it's been involved a huge train crash (perhaps an ICE train...they're quite fast). I picked up speed last weekend and hit a wall last night/today. Today, the wall is still thick, and dang it hurts. But I suppose I'll manage to climb over that wall soon enough.You know, since it's the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, I suppose I can rip down my own small walls as well. :)
Also, I am sick again, boo. Silly sore throats. God forbid I ever get any real work done!
A few good things happened this week. My class went really well this week as I got them talking about the drinking age in the USA. We actually had a debate about it...it was pretty awesome! I gave them the two sides (one, college presidents for lowering the age to 18, and two, MADD for keeping it at 21). As Germans, they were naturally all FOR the idea of a change to 18, but in a debate, sides must be taken.
Well, a few of them played the part VERY well. Convincing. My one student on the "no change" side started out passionately (hand motion and all) "statistics show that the law is on our side. And, we have a moral obligation to protect our children from the perils of drinking and driving." HAHA! This coming from someone who can't understand the law to begin with...aren't debates fun! There was much laughter during it. I think they enjoyed it.
As a side note, I'm sure I am speaking foreigner talk when I'm teaching. I am SO bad with that...I always "dumb down" my English, that I sometimes find myself doing it for Americans and they're like "uh, hello, unnecessary". But I am trying really hard to avoid that in class - they need to hear the real deal! Half the time I speak the English I know that Germans will understand....*sank yoo for trafelling vis za deutsche bahn, good bye*, which I definitely should also not do. Old habits die hard, I guess. I blame my good friend Peter. We created our own mixed language - Denglisch (Deutsch/English). It is this language that contributes to my speaking English "like a German"... oops :)
As for trips, Saturday was a little day trip to Eisenach with 3 other people. We went to die Wartburg, a UNESCO world heritage site. Beautiful. Also got to see where Bach was born, and go through the house which is now a museum. I also ate another Thüringer Bratwurst, which is clearly a highlight in and of itself. Perhaps one of the highlights was that we were almost on German TV. Yes, a well known German TV host was at the castle for some broadcast and decided we should be interviewed - no thanks!!! We kindly explained to him that we were not German and thus our language capabilities might be a hindrance. And, furthermore, we had NOTHING to say about the topic. Pretty sure that interview would have consisted of one hell of a lot of "ich weiß nicht".
Well that's it, my stuffy nose and sore throat are telling me it's bedtime.
mach's gut, meine lieben...
kopf hoch (more for me than you :)
zzz
Right, so it's no longer Guy Fawkes day, but it was this week. Attempts to blow up Parliament? Perhaps my brain needs a charge instead.
OK so it's not quite that bad :)
But it's been one of those weekends. Today, I'm sure my body is telling me that it's been involved a huge train crash (perhaps an ICE train...they're quite fast). I picked up speed last weekend and hit a wall last night/today. Today, the wall is still thick, and dang it hurts. But I suppose I'll manage to climb over that wall soon enough.You know, since it's the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, I suppose I can rip down my own small walls as well. :)
Also, I am sick again, boo. Silly sore throats. God forbid I ever get any real work done!
A few good things happened this week. My class went really well this week as I got them talking about the drinking age in the USA. We actually had a debate about it...it was pretty awesome! I gave them the two sides (one, college presidents for lowering the age to 18, and two, MADD for keeping it at 21). As Germans, they were naturally all FOR the idea of a change to 18, but in a debate, sides must be taken.
Well, a few of them played the part VERY well. Convincing. My one student on the "no change" side started out passionately (hand motion and all) "statistics show that the law is on our side. And, we have a moral obligation to protect our children from the perils of drinking and driving." HAHA! This coming from someone who can't understand the law to begin with...aren't debates fun! There was much laughter during it. I think they enjoyed it.
As a side note, I'm sure I am speaking foreigner talk when I'm teaching. I am SO bad with that...I always "dumb down" my English, that I sometimes find myself doing it for Americans and they're like "uh, hello, unnecessary". But I am trying really hard to avoid that in class - they need to hear the real deal! Half the time I speak the English I know that Germans will understand....*sank yoo for trafelling vis za deutsche bahn, good bye*, which I definitely should also not do. Old habits die hard, I guess. I blame my good friend Peter. We created our own mixed language - Denglisch (Deutsch/English). It is this language that contributes to my speaking English "like a German"... oops :)
As for trips, Saturday was a little day trip to Eisenach with 3 other people. We went to die Wartburg, a UNESCO world heritage site. Beautiful. Also got to see where Bach was born, and go through the house which is now a museum. I also ate another Thüringer Bratwurst, which is clearly a highlight in and of itself. Perhaps one of the highlights was that we were almost on German TV. Yes, a well known German TV host was at the castle for some broadcast and decided we should be interviewed - no thanks!!! We kindly explained to him that we were not German and thus our language capabilities might be a hindrance. And, furthermore, we had NOTHING to say about the topic. Pretty sure that interview would have consisted of one hell of a lot of "ich weiß nicht".
Well that's it, my stuffy nose and sore throat are telling me it's bedtime.
mach's gut, meine lieben...
kopf hoch (more for me than you :)
zzz
posted by Janice | 3:46 PM
1 Comments:
*sank yoo for trafelling vis za deutsche bahn, good bye*
This brings back some good DB memories. :)
Hope you feel better soon!
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