register

Hey everybody!

In this post I would like to introduce you some information about register. You can’t just divide it in high or low register, there is a wide range of different register. There are a couple of words which are too formal to use in every-day life, but on the contrary there are also many words which are too informal to use in a formal letter or e-mail.

First of all, it is always important to consider which register to choose before you start writing a text. It is necessary to think about the person or people you are writing to, I mean, if they are your friends of if it is an authority. You wouldn’t, for example, write in a very low register if you’re writing to your teacher, using words and phrases like “what’s up” or “yo sister”; but on the other hand wouldn’t use too high register like “highly adored Mr....”.

If you’ve chosen which register you use, you have to keep the same register throughout the whole text. That means that you can’t have a very formal introduction and a very informal ending at the same time.

            E.g.: Dear Mr. XY,

                     I am writing in reference to your latest article posted in the magazine.

                     ....

                     Alright bro, see u soon.

                       

The phrases used in the text in bold are absolutely wrong. If you are writing to someone you don’t know very well or who is your boss, the beginning would be perfectly right but the ending would be more than rude. You could then use something like “kindest regards”. If you are writing to a friend it is the other way round. The beginning would be way too formal, whereas the ending is absolutely suitable.

Sometimes it is really hard to find the right register, especially for foreigners. That is why it is particularly important for students and pupils to study different greetings, introducing phrases, ending phrases, linking words etc. properly.

Talking/Writing in the right register is very important indeed, as it gives the other person an impression about you, shows your character and your social skills.

My longest, most impressive and awesome trip! Thailand part1 (northern Thailand)

Hey everybody!

I would like to introduce you to the culture and some places in Thailand!

Last summer I spent 5 weeks in Thailand with a friend of mine. After our Matura we had to make our decision between going to Turkey, which was a fully-organized trip in an all-inclusive resort, or organizing and choosing the trip ourselves at a place of our choice. Good luck we didn’t go to Turkey but preferred to go to Thailand!

We planned to stay there 5 weeks in total. The holiday should last for such a long time, because we wanted to explore the whole country and get a little bit into the countries culture. Our plan was to go from the very north of Thailand to the islands in the southeast.

We did hardly any per-organizing; we did neither book any hostels nor did we book any train tickets or ferry tickets. The only thing we did previously was to plan the route we would take by speaking to a friend who’s already been to Thailand twice and who recommended some interesting sights to see, the most beautiful places among Thailand and the most exciting activities to do in Thailand.

In the beginning we had a great problem with the tropical, hot climate, which caused tiredness and lack of appetite. But after a few days we got used to it. Good luck, we didn’t have a jet lack when we arrived in Thailand, quite the contrary – we had one when we came back home.

We arrived at Bangkok’s main airport on 18^th of August, 2013 by plane and actually wanted to directly take another plane to Chang Mai the same night. Unfortunately, the small, regional airport was already closed; and so we had to wait for the next day. We set the alarm for 6 o’clock in the morning to make sure, that we arrived at the airport early enough to get a ticket. When we finally came to the airport it was more than shocking when we heard that there were no tickets left to Chang Mai for another 3 days. Although we had 5 weeks to explore the country, we didn’t want to lose only one single day of that exciting time.

For that reason, we had to find another solution and bought two 3^rd class train tickets. This train left the same day (it’s the 19^th of august now) at 10pm. Unexpectedly, there were too many people for this small train, even though we had to reserve tickets previously. The condition of the train was horrible. The windows couldn’t be fully closed, which caused that loads of mosquitoes came into the wagons. The seats were supposed for two people, but the size of the seats was constructed for a person and a small kid (if you compare the size of the seats to Austrian standards).  Many people had to sit on the floor, because there weren’t enough seats at all.

The most frightening aspect, however, was that the train seemed to be/drive very unstable. It seemed as if there were stones on the tracks and the train would just go through them without decreasing speed.

Here are some pics to give you an impression to Thai standards:

Here are some pics of the picturesque landscape we could see while our weird traintrip:

 

After 17 crazy, exhausting but also exciting hours we finally arrived in Chang Mai. Via the web we had already booked a small room in one of the numerous hostels in Chang Mai. We took a TUKTUK to get us there.

We spent 5 great days with incredible, absolutely new experiences there and were impressed by that culture, which was hugely different to our own culture.

Good luck, we didn’t have a so-called jet lack. Still, we slept more than usually as we weren’t used the tropical, hot climate over there.

In Chang Mai it was the first time that we really ate Thai food (in Bangkok we only had fast food as we always stayed very close to either the airport or the train station). If you like it spicy, Thailand is perfect for you. If you rather prefer mild food you can always order a meal without spices – Thai food is never deep-frozen or prepared, but fresh and self-made!

My favourite meal was yellow curry with potatoes, which is neither spicy nor mild. It is available at any restaurant and street restaurant.

What you’ll for sure going to come across are lizards. (I don’t know what the exact term for those animals is, but down here is a photo):

As you can see on the photo, they are really everywhere. They are in sleeping rooms, in trains, behind windows, in menus etc.....

Still, you will basically see them sitting on the ceiling at night; and sometimes one of them might lose its balance and fall down on you ;-)

To explore northern Thailand we took part in 2 daytrips to different sights and cities. There was a group of 6-10 people who were taken to different sights, places or activities during one day. One of those trips costs around 1000 Baht (around 25€). I personally, would advise you against those trips, as it’s mainly money-making for the company. In further you can’t decide on your own when to move to another sight or how long to stay at a place.

One trip included elephant riding, which really upset me. Prior to booking this trip, I heard that there were special camps for elephants that very brutally domesticated. Those camps would help elephants by giving them more living space, healthier food and proper medical treatment. Of course we did not go to such a camp, even though we had asked before if it was one of those “rescue camps”, but went to one of those brutal camps, where elephants were tied all day long and couldn’t even make two steps forward or back. At first I didn’t recognize that this camp was one of the bad ones, as the stuff were very polite and the elephants were very calm. As soon as we started to ride the elephants the guide showed his real face. Every time the elephant didn’t immediately do what he wanted (e.g. crossing the river without drinking any water) he just shoot his legs with a stone. By the way, the leg of an elephant is the only part of his body where the skin isn’t as thick as at other parts.

From that day on, I’ve decided to not ever book such a trip again.

One good thing about the trip, however, was that the guide took us to a spring somewhere up a mountain. It was great there, because the water was really cool so you could refresh you after the walk up to the spring. It was also very picturesque up there, because you were swimming in the cool water while watching a landscape I’ve never seen in my life before: huge trees, green bushes everywhere and hardly any people anywhere! (except for those who were in our group)

Here are some pictures:

  Our guide (not the one who shoot the elephant!); on our way to the spring

 a sleeping dog (you see dogs everywhere!)

 finally the spring itself ;-)

What you really need to see when you go to Thailand is the “White temple”. It is not only a usual temple but a real piece of art! This temple is in Chang Rai, another famous town in northern Thailand. The construction started in 1997 is not fully done until today. I’m sorry that I don’t know the name of the architect/artist, but there was only his Thai name in Thai letters mentioned.

If you catch the right moment, when the sun’s rays are “touching” the temple, it seems to be made out of icing.

this is a carton copy of the architect:

Corrected version of the paragraph of PC1

In order to learn from my mistakes and do a better job in writing on PC2, I rewrote my paragraph. I really hope that I get a better mark in the second progress check and that I have improved my writing skills.

Here's my corrected version of the paragraph:

Studying at the Department of Translation can be very challenging. There is not only one difficulty student have to deal with – there are several. University is completely different to school as you need to work on your own at home very much. You have to rives grammar rules by yourself, acquire new vocabulary. Another new method to practice English is the blog we had to set up on G-mail. Before studying at the ITAT I have only very rarely used Facebook or other social networks. In the beginning it was very hard to work with the computer so much, find a suitable layout for the blog and find topics to write about. By now, I am convinced that this one of the best ways to practice writing and cohesion for the English language. As you can now probably see, studying at the ITAT is really a full-time job. You need to be hard-working, dynamic and well-organized and at the same time you should be highly motivated, open-minded and self-confident. I personally love trying to handle all those new challenges, having new experiences and see myself making progress. I am very passionate about languages, consequently I want and will keep on studying at the Department of Translation.

Christmas fairs in Austria

Christmas fairs in Austria.

It’s almost Christmas time!! That means that the streets are full of Christmas lights, people buying presents for their families and of course „Christmas fairs“. In Austria we love seeing our friends in the evening at a Christmas fair for a “Glühwein”, which is called hot mulled wine in English.

Christmas fairs are very traditional in Austria. The first time that Christmas fairs are mentioned in history was in 1722 in Vienna. From 1843 until the Second World War the Viennese Christmas fair took place in front of the Palace annually from the beginning of December until Christmas. In 1872 all markets in Vienna had to close down, despite the Christmas fair. Even in the hard times of the first and the Second World War the Christmas fair took place and gave the people the opportunity to relax and have a good time.

Today there are Christmas fairs in almost all cities and even villages among Austria. The biggest and most famous one is still the Viennese, which takes place close to the town hall.

In Graz there is one “main” Christmas fair at the Hauptplatz and many small ones all around the city. I personally prefer to visit the smaller ones as they often have very special kinds of mulled wine, such as “Orangenpunsch”. My friends and I love to stroll along the little cottages where you can find handmade jewellery, sweets, winter clothes, good tasting food and of course good tasting hot drinks.

I can really recommend those markets, as they are full of Christmas flair. You can really feel how Christmas is coming closer and closer and how relaxed people get during the advent.

Probably Christmas fairs in Austria aren’t as romantic and extravagant as in England or America. Still, I love to visit them as they show some kind of the Austrian tradition and culture.

Fun/Pub Quiz/Team O'Tuna

Yeeih – great fun at the Pub Quiz!

Our Team O’Tuna which consists of 8

people, took part at the pub quiz last Thursday (2013-11-12).

Sarah K., Sarah E., Marlene, Helene, Michaela, David, Sebastian, Magdalena and me decided to found a team that meets every Thursday to take part in the pub quiz in the English Pub „The Office“. As it was our first time taking part, we were a so-called “Virgin-Team”. Surprisingly we did the 34^th place out of 43 teams.

As big tables in pubs are very rare, we decided that two of us would always have to go to the pub earlier and oppose a big table. To find out who this unlucky people are, everybody has to pick one toothpick. Two of the toothpicks are shorter than the other ones, so the people who pick one of those have to go to the pub early.

First of all, we had to find a suitable name for our group. There were a couple of suggestions, from which I consider “Happy Hoagascht”, “Trunk Table” (you get the pun?) and of course “Team O’Tuna” as the best ones.

In the first part of the competition there were 10 pictures given and we had to find out which star was shown on each picture. The trick was that all stars were dressed up.

As you can see in the picture we had five correct answers which I consider a very good result for the first time.

Please, take a look in picture number 8 – how could we have found out who this is? You can only see his chin and that the person is male. You can neither see his hair, nor his whole body, nor his ears. Until today I haven’t found out who this is ;-) IMPOSSIBLE (at least it was for us)

The following two quiz parts were really hard as well. Questions were asked and we had to write the answer down on a sheet. We had 5 out of 20 correct answers which was not a perfect result. I think however, this isn’t a too bad outcome for a “Virgin-Team”.

The funniest exercise was the one, where we had to rank the most evil people in the world. I think you cannot ever answer this as all those people are incredibly evil and cruel! Man, they listed Stalin, Hussain, Bush and Bin Laden!

The following exercises had to do with music. In one exercise there were songs played that stopped at a certain point. We had to write down the following  2-4 words of the song – and this was especially funny because the whole pub started to sing the song. The question master was only shaking his head as he said, that we hadn’t got the point of the quiz – a team should never ever say the correct answer loudly so that another team could hear it :D

In the end we didn’t win, but we also didn’t lose! Still nobody was happy about our fail (well, almost nobody):