My pronunciation diary – Part 1

With English-speaking people having so many different accents, it’s not easy to choose which one you like best and which one you want to adapt yourself, respectively. We were always taught in school that the Brits speak the most beautiful and most correct English of all the English-speaking countries in the world. The thing is that to me, British English often sounds a bit posh, so that’s not really an option for me. Since I’ve always wanted to sound like an American and more specifically like one from California, I’ve been looking for some good pronunciation videos made by people with a Californian background. I found this interesting video starring a girl named Katy pronouncing a row of words in a Californian accent:


 

Words:

Garage

herb (I find it weird that she prounces the "h", but apparently Californians pronounce the "h")

schedule

figure

jaguar

lieutenant

water

advertisement (Katy points out that the first d normally shouldn't be pronounced too harsh, but she says that she does it anyway)

vase

route

ballet

tomato

leisure (She never pronounces it the British way, always in the American way)

address

ate

buoy

aluminium

aunt

wash

oil

theater

iron

salmon

caramel (It's pronounced carmel, like the small town in California Clint Eastwood was the mayor of for a few years;))

fire

sure

data

ruin

crayon

toilet

New Orleans

pecan

both

again

probably

spitting image

Alabama

lawyer

coupon

mayonnaise

syrup

pajamas

caught

 

I'm pretty surprised that this accent sounds exactly like the one you always hear in the American TV shows set in Beverly Hills or Orange County in general. Listening to the video again, I realized that this is the accent I'd like to have.

 
 

Joining the EU would be disadvantageous for the EU in many ways.

Link to our text: http://sparklybirgit.blogspot.co.at/2013/12/text-project-part-4.html

Progress on Academic Paper: A Report

Even though I now know more exactly what I want to focus on in my paper, I’m not going to pretend that I’m making good progress. That is because I changed my topic from “Refugees in the EU” to “Refugees in the EU – focusing on Austria” due to some good advice in the Office Hour. I realized that describing the situation of refugees in the whole of Europe was way too big for a topic, so I decided to put the emphasis on the situation of refugees in Austria.

Although I’m still not quite sure on what sources to use or how to cut it down, I’m positive that I will have an outline soon. Besides, we have the upcoming Christmas holidays to write on our papers (something to look forward to in our spare time – hurrah;)).

Happy Holidays everybody:)

Picture: dialogueseriesnew.blogspot.com

The EU’s focus for 2014: European Year for Reconciling Work and Family Life

Paragraph brainstorming






Original paragraph

The “European Year for Reconciling Work and Family Life“ is a campaign brought into being by COFACE (The Confederation of Family Organisations in the European Union) and is supported by the European Parliament itself. It puts the main emphasis on supporting families, how to make having a family and a job more compatible and gender equality. The latter is seen as the key to a successfully converted work-life-balance because it allows women to lead a working life as successful and well-paid as men do. As a result, women’s lives become more flexible and time-arrangements are easier to keep. The confederation understands devices such as care services, satisfactory wages, job security and working conditions which acknowledge family life as being the basis to a financially secure family life. Through this campaign, COFACE wants to promote family friendly policies within all of the member states of the European Union. While this year’s campaign exclusively revolves around families, it is also closely related to 2010’s focus The  European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion and 2012’s The European Year of Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations. Consequently, the confederation hopes to be able to directly follow these campaigns.

                                                                                                                                                         
                                                                                                                                                             (196 words)


Feedback and reflection from class this week 

Since I was absent from last week's class, I was only given feedback on my paragraph in this week's class. Although my classmates were fine with the paragraph's topic sentence and register, they agreed on me using the word "campaign" way too often. As far as vocabulary in general is concerned, they found that it is suitable for the topic.


Final version of the paragraph


The “European Year for Reconciling Work and Family Life“ is a campaign brought into being by COFACE (The Confederation of Family Organisations in the European Union) and is supported by the European Parliament itself. It puts the main emphasis on supporting families, how to make having a family and a job more compatible and gender equality. The latter is seen as the key to a successfully converted work-life-balance because it allows women to lead a working life as successfully and well-paid as men. As a result, women’s lives become more flexible and time-arrangements are easier to keep. The confederation understands devices such as care services, satisfactory wages, job security and working conditions which acknowledge family life as being the basis for a financially secure family life. Through this campaign, COFACE wants to promote family friendly policies within all of the member states of the European Union. While this year’s project exclusively revolves around families, it is also closely related to 2010’s focus The European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion and 2012’s The European Year of Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations. Consequently, the confederation hopes to be able to directly follow these initiatives.

(196 words)

 

Second final version of the paragraph

The “European Year for Reconciling Work and Family Life” is part of the “European Year” campaign brought into being by the EU. The campaign is led on many fronts by The Confederation of Family Organisations in the European Union (COFACE) and is supported by the European Parliament. It puts the main emphasis of its efforts on supporting families, reconciling work and family life, and gender equality. The latter is seen as the key to a successful work-life-balance because it allows women to lead a working life as successfully and well-paid as men. This results in women’s lives becoming more flexible and makes it easier to keep appointments. The confederation is convinced that care services, satisfactory wages, job security and working conditions which acknowledge family life are the basis for a financially secure family life. Through the EU’s focus for 2014, COFACE wants to promote family friendly policies within all of the member states of the European Union. While this year’s project exclusively revolves around families, it is also closely related to 2010’s focus The European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion and 2012’s The European Year of Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations. The confederation hopes to be able to directly follow the success of last year’s campaign.

(209 words)

 

 

 

Suggestions for academic papers - 5 EU topics worth writing about

Interpreters working for the EU

I’m sure that many of us dream about being an interpreter for the EU as it certainly is a thrilling but also very challenging job. In doing so, it would be advisable to know more about it: What are the requirements for getting such a demanding job? Which languages are most in demand? How do interpreters cope with the time pressure at press conferences and what happens if they make a mistake?

Erasmus

Erasmus is an EU program that enables more than 200000 students every year to spend some time in another EU country. As I would like to go on Erasmus, I figured that getting in on it a bit more certainly wouldn’t hurtJ  Although I really look forward to a semester abroad, I think that I’m not the only one who is a bit deterred by the enormous amounts of bureaucracy stuff you have to fill in. So I think that we could all use some information about that.

Refugees in the EU

When asylum seekers try to cross into the European Union, they know they are putting their lives at risk. Yet thousands of African refugees are stranded somewhere on the European coasts, not knowing if there will be enough compassion for them to be admitted to the European Union. Keyword Lampedusa: How is the EU helping refugees?

Identification with the EU

When I sometimes ride on a bus and I hear people talking about various current events including whether or not Austria should resign its EU membership, I wonder if Austrians identify with the EU at all. I guess that a lot of people in Austria can’t really see the advantages from which they benefit through living in the EU. I think it would be interesting to hear what’s stopping them to do so and how inhabitants of other EU countries feel about living in this European community.

Health care in the EU

Even though it’s an interesting topic, I barely know what the European Union does in terms of health care, because it’s not really something that is in the news on a daily basis. I know that the EU offers its citizens the European Health Insurance Card, but to get beyond that further research would have to be done – best to be done so in an academic paperJ

 

The 5 Culture Presentations I would like to choose for the KGP

So the culture presentations took place on Wednesday and Thursday last week!
I think that was a big day for all of us, since this project was a big part of this semester. Eagerly and maybe nervously awaiting our big moment in the spotlight, I think everybody did a pretty good job. I also had the impression that the audience really paid attention.


These were the presentations I listened to:

1. The Columbian exchange
2. Why on earth would anyone live in Tornado Alley?!
3. Racial Segregation as Depicted in 2 Movies
4. Delta Blues
5. Deaf Art
6. Scientology
7. The Amish country
8. Recent gun discussion
9. Painted America
10. Harlem, NYC

And the 3 Irish ones:

1. Culture Connects
2. Patrick Nee
3. Operation Demetrius

It was a tough choice, but the 5 presentations I chose for the KGP are:

1. Racial Segregation as Depicted in 2 Movies
2. The Amish country
3. Painted America
4. Harlem, NYC
5. Ellen DeGeneres

To all of you: Good luck for the KGP!!:)

The end of a semester can be a new beginning...

I know I've been neglecting my duties as a blogger way too long, but I'm really willing to change for the better concerning a more consistant way of blogging in SUK3. (I hope I'm going to make it there :))

Lately, I've been thinking about what I really liked about my first year at university, what I didn't like and what went really wrong. While reflecting on my actions concerning last semester, I realized that there are a few things that I should do in order to enjoy university more:

• Stop doing homework assignments in the nick of time
• Going to bed earlier than I usually do (I guess going to bed at midnight isn't a good idea, is it?)
• "The early bird catches the worm" - This proverb suggesting waking up early clearly has a deeper meaning:)
• Get organized (arranging things really shouldn't be underestimated)
• Join a study group, which is especially in my case a good idea, since studying with other "fellow-sufferers" sometimes really motivates me

We'll see if I can live up to that:)