Urgent announcement: Do not draw on after-death avatars!!

The death of a loved one is a tough, if not excruciating experience. It can completely paralyze you. Yet there are options that help you deal with it in a sensible way.

The creation of an after-death avatar is not one of them.

Don’t be tempted by these products, because ultimately, that’s what they are! They won’t bring your father, mother, sister, brother, daughter, son, boyfriend or girlfriend back – not in a virtual way and certainly not for real!

Let your loved ones rest in peace and move on with your own life.

 

A day in the life of…myself:)

The day before an exam can be tough. That is especially true when the exam happens to take place on a Monday. Whenever this is the case, I try to spend the Sunday at my parents’ since it’s just much more relaxing for me to recharge my batteries in the quiet countryside where they live than in the noisy city. These days usually begin with a nice cup of hot chocolate. (I only drink coffee when I’m extremely tired or exhausted because I simply can’t stand the taste of it.) Afterwards, I get ready in order to join the breakfast table which involves me getting dressed and picking out some earrings, while reading the ÖH students’ magazine “Libelle”.



Following a substantial brunch, the whole family takes the obligatory walk – these are usually the most beautiful when the landscape is winter wonderland-like. I really enjoy these walks because they distract me from the upcoming exam madness on the next day.
 

 

After a fun afternoon, I tend to go over the material one last time (yeah, I’m an avid member of the study-in-the-last-minute group) before I head off to Graz again – and hope for the best.

 

 

(200 words)

 

 

 

Text Project Part 4_Final Version

Here's the link to our awesome final essay on why "Joining the EU would be disadvantageous for Switzerland in many ways.":

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

Enjoy reading it:)

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)