You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October, 2007.
J: ‘What does ‘well done’ mean?’
StudentB: ‘If I do my homework, you tell me it’s well done.’
J: ‘Wrong.’
*laughter from all the students – I clue in after the laughter starts and join in, trying to look slightly embarrassed.*
That actually was a slip of the tongue on my part, not an attempt at a joke. We were talking about meat.
Here’s the video I took last year at this time of the Parade of Villains at Disneyland Paris. I’ll warn you in advance that the tune is very catchy and you’ll probably find yourself singing it all day.
I left my flat at 12h45 and pedalled to the shopping mall (yes, we have one). Upon arrival, I saw this sign:
GREAT, I thought. Music! What did I see (and hear)? A concert band!
After browsing Saturn for a bit, I headed to the main shopping street (across the road from the shopping mall) and the same bratwurst stand that is there for every kind of celebration was, of course, there.
1/2 meter bratwurst? Is that really necessary?
I road through Old Town and listened to a sax quartet for a bit.
Look at all the people out! Everyone wants to shop on Sundays!
Apparently there was some kind of bagpipe and drum group strolling around, but I couldn’t find them – which was fine with me because I hate the bagpipes. All in all, the event was overhyped but that’s normal here. They get people interested in things only for them to be disappointed when the event happens.
I did contribute to the economy, though. I bought two flannel shirts for €3.99 each, a pair of gloves for €2.99 and a black knit hat for €1.99. That €12.96 was my way of letting the powers that be know that I am firmly for shops being allowed to be open on Sundays if they want.
Finally, what Shopping Sunday (or any other day, for that matter) would be complete without seeing Herbie?
I don’t like shopping, but I’ll be joining the hoards of people looking for bargains today (13h00 – 18h00).
Why am I going to subject myself to that torture when I hate shopping?
Because I can!
Shops are only allowed to be open four weekends a year maximum (my town usually does it two or three times per year) in Germany and the people here go absolutely berserk!
Never is there more traffic in this town than on a Shopping Sundays. People come from the mountaineous regions around the city and this place chock full of vehicles. Apparently my town is making a small party out of it again and will be having live music (and probably bratwurst stands) in many of the squares.
A full report will follow.
Is today Shopping Sunday where others in Germany live?
Some of my students are taking a fluency exam in a few weeks and had to fill out registration forms last week, which included their date of birth.
After looking at the forms to make sure they were complete, here’s how the conversation went:
J: ‘Student B, your birthday is the day after mine.’
StudentB: ‘Is it?;
J: ‘Yes.’
StudentS: ‘The same year?’ [even though she knew it wasn't]
J: ‘Yes! HIS year!’
Laughs from all because he’s 10 years younger than me.
which prompted my last post, another thing many Germans love to do is tailgate on the highway/motorway/freeway.
For more than a year now I’ve had to drive about 40km to a company for classes three times a week – all but the last 12km or so motorway and mostly early in the morning when it’s dark, and I’m frequently tailgated.
I drive the speed limit and 130kph when there’s no limit. The car is small and 130 kph suits it fine. When I’m in the left (fast) lane about to pass another car and someone pulls up behind me, they usually tailgate me until I pass the other car and move to the right lane.
But there’s more.
As soon as the tailgating car sees me reach the rear of the car I’m passing, the driver accelerates and moves even closer (!) like they’re going to drive right through my car in an attempt to intimidate me to move over – even though I haven’t finished passing the other car yet! I understand what they’re doing, so I continue on passing at the same speed and then move over, and the tailgater then goes racing by.
I’ve talked to others about this and they’ve noticed it too. Quite frankly, it annoys the heck outta me and is quite dangerous. It’s not uncommon to see a car tailgating another at very high speeds in Germany, even thought he law dictates that there should be a distance of 3 seconds between them.
momentum
• noun (pl. momenta) 1 impetus gained by movement or progress. 2 Physics the quantity of motion of a moving body, equal to the product of its mass and velocity.
While I was driving back into the city yesterday, a guy signaled and started to pull into my lane. Normally that wouldn’t be a problem, as turn signals are respected here. Germans are great about letting people that signal into their lanes and I respect and do that too.
Except when there’s not enough distance.
I was within the speed limit, but too close to him to allow him to enter my lane without hitting him, so I sounded the horn as a warning. He still tried to come over, so I swerved around him, just about going up on the curb and then went back into the center of the lane.
He was furious and flashed his lights at me several times and also raised his fist in anger (flipping someone off is illegal but raising a hand/fist isn’t).
It was obvious to any seasoned driver (he was older than me) that there wasn’t enough room, but he most likely figured that since he had his indicator on, he could switch lanes anyway.
This isn’t the first time this has happened to me, and no, the company car I drive from time to time isn’t invisible.
This got me thinking about a few other things.
Quite often when Germans enter crosswalks, they don’t look – the just enter. It doesn’t matter what might be coming, by law they’re required to stop (and do), but what if a car is too close? Entering a crosswalk doesn’t automatically make a car stop, the driver has to do so and even if he brakes hard one meter before the crosswalk, it doesn’t mean the car stops at that time – it takes a meter or two for that to happen. Don’t their parents tell them to look both ways before crossing the road?
Another thing that makes me think that many Germans don’t understand momentum is parking lots. Many Germans walk right behind cars that are backing out of their spaces without a care in the world. Many don’t seem to realise that drivers don’t have 360 degree views of the world at all times and that there’s a slight chance that the pedestrian might be in the blind spot and might be hit. Of course, it’d be the driver’s fault if that happened, but it could have easily been prevented had the impatient idiots pedestrians had waited 10 seconds for the driver to safely back out.
Deutsche Bahn is going on strike again.
Strike action in regional train services and S-Bahn services from Thursday 02:00 a.m. until Friday 08:00 a.m. – Deutsche Bahn will offer alternative timetable.
The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) today has announced strikes for the time from Thursday 02:00 h until Friday 08:00 h. Deutsche Bahn will offer an alternative timetable for this period.
Customers can obtain here information on the alternative timetable from Wednesday afternoon.
The alternative timetable will apply until Friday 08:00 a.m. Trains will then gradually return to the normal timetable in the course of the day. No disturbances are expected for rail freight services and long-distance passenger services. For these, a court ban on strikes is still in force.
Latest travel information is available at www.bahn.de/ris
Round-the-clock toll-free information is available on the service hotline 08000 99 66 33.
A British colleague moved to another city and left our school about a month ago and American Colleague was assigned to teach his evening class of adults. After a few lessons, the office received a call from a couple of the students (they had obviously coordinated that) complaining about AC. It wasn’t about his teaching, it was about his accent:
‘He sounds too American’.
They went on to tell the office that they wanted to learn English, not American and insisted on a teacher from the UK, despite being told by the boss that it was all the same language. AC does have a very slight accent from the time he spent in the south (he’s originally from the west), but nothing that impairs learning. They are the customers, so they are getting what they want and will have a new teacher from the UK starting this evening.
This kind of ignorance is abundant in Germany and really annoys me.
at best. Borderline of atrocious. Rainy and cold all day – we might have hit 7C. Of course, I had plans to go to a fair in a nearby town but the crappy weather washed them away.
Unfortunately, it’s autumn now and there’s nothing to do in my city. Going to the cinema would have been nice, but the closest places that shows movies in English are in Frankfurt and Cologne (I hate watching dubbed movies) – making for an expensive day when I’m trying to save money for my Thailand trip (1 month and 29 days left!).
There’s nothing worse than a rainy Sunday in Germany due to the fact that everything is closed. If I lived in a real city instead of this sorry-ass provincial backwater, there would be something going on, and if there wasn’t I could go to a museum or exhibition (my town has (at most) 10 museums and I’ve been to all of them many times). I’d have even settled for going to the shopping mall for a walk and some window shopping, but that wasn’t even possible – leaving me bored out of my mind all day. Why do I stay in this sorry-excuse-for-a-city? Because I have a job that I (usually) enjoy and also like the people I work for. I also have something very rare for an English teacher in Germany: a full contract. Health benefits and all.
Onto babbling.
I had to work yesterday 9 – 12, but I had volunteered for it. The class meets Wednesday evenings and Saturdays and I teach it on Wednesdays. The Saturday lessons are handled by two teachers, both of which were out of town yesterday. The class was given to a colleague of mine, however there was a problem. This class is taking a fluency exam in November and ends at the end of October, so their last four classes have to be exam preparation classes.
The colleague the class was assigned to knows nothing about the exam. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a good teacher but has never had to prepare a class for any of the exams. So, I volunteered.
Afterwards, Ag met me outside the school and we cycled to Saturn to look for a laptop for her. She’s technologically impaired (she only got a mobile phone last year because a friend got a new one and gave her the old one) and asked me to help her find one. They had a good selection, but I insisted on going to Media Markt, so we borrowed a school car and drove out there (ours is 9km outside of town). They had a better selection and we found her one for only 549.99 Euros. She is a light computer user and doesn’t need much, so that one will suit her. She’ll probably need help setting it up, so I’ve told her that I would.
Afterwards, she took me to lunch at the Chinese place near the train station to thank me for my help. We had a very nice chat while eating and I was able to work on one of my goals for this year while doing so:
Learning to use chopsticks.
When I had lunch with the VD Ladies last year, I was the only one of us that couldn’t use chop sticks. I tried, but wasn’t very successful. When I was in Thailand last year, I noticed the number of westerners that were able to use them and felt a bit inadequate. I felt that I hadn’t done anything extra to respect the Thai culture, so I decided that I’d learn to use them before I went back to Thailand. However, due to the way life happens, the VD Ladies and I haven’t had lunch many times this year and I haven’t had many other opportunities to have Chinese food so I haven’t been able to practice. I did okay, but still need more practice.
That’s about it.
