tokeshu

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Posts posted by tokeshu

  2. Posted

    On 10/16/2020, 2:23:56, maxie said:

    I was just about to bring that up, though I know it as "net gschennt ist g'nug g'lobt". - Not scolding is praise enough. Had a boss who was utterly Swabian once. Miserable git! 

     

    I wasn't about to try to write that out in pure Schwäbisch!

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  3. Posted

    Thanks for the responses so far..so, it seems a bit mixed? 

    My wife's family is quite dour though - they're not prone to spontaneous displays of affection and they're very (VERY) Swabian in the 'nichts gesagt ist genug gelobt" sense.

    Maybe it's her upbringing...

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  4. Posted

    Hi All

    Just had an interesting discussion with my German who was telling me that using the word 'stolz' in German is more often than not seen as negative and somewhat egocentric. Like, if someone says they're 'proud of their children', the connotation is that they're claiming some recognition/glory by association.

     

    However, after much back and forth, she conceded (never happens :lol:) that it could be a family thing because in her family nobody would use the word 'stolz' as a positive. They may say 'gut gemacht' instead for example. She grew up in an area where the Protestant church had tendrils everywhere, and to be proud was a terrible sin.

     

    I was saying that in English (at least, the English I speak!), 'proud' can accommodate a feeling of happiness for someone based on the hard work that led to their achievement. It doesn't necessarily convey the idea that that person achieved because of something I did with them along the way. If I say I'm proud of my nephew for getting selected for the national football team in his age group, I'm acknowledging that he worked his tail off to get selected and I'm super happy for him.

     

    She said this isn't how 'stolz' works in German. 

     

    Can someone clarify this for me?

     

    muchos Danke!

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  6. Posted

    On 10/5/2020, 3:54:52, MadAxeMurderer said:

     

    I'm very interested to read this. I always felt that if somebody wasn't "fixed" or at least well on the way to recovery after 10 session, then the psychiatric sessions couldn't be doing much good.

     

    But I've known quite a few women who seem to have been going to their therapist for years even 20 years. They seem almost proud of having a therapist.

     

    If I had a broken leg and the doctor hadn't fixed it after 3 sessions I'd look for a new doctor. Even a physiotherapist rarely takes more than 20 sessions.

     

    There is a school of therapy called Brief Therapy. At its most extreme/enthusiastic, the claim made by these guys was that you'd be feeling a lot better after the first session. Quite a few different orientations derived from this school of thought.

     

    As others have said, sometimes it does take awhile. The cognitive restructuring that the CBT professionals do can often be a year long process - but I would shy away from anyone who wasn't at least helping their patient see they're making progress earlier than this. My humble opinion as a former professional - if there's zero change after 6 months, that person isn't the right therapist. Again, my humble opinion, there's no reason to expect change to come from a long drawn out process. Just depends where you place the focus and how the therapist helps to educate the client/patient about what they're experiencing.

     

    Having said that, after some years counselling and teaching, I turned my back on the whole profession and I'm happy to have done so. I had so many ethical misgivings about the way psychology is practised in our society I didn't care to be a part of it any longer.

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  7. Posted

    Can anyone tell me how seriously this day is taken? I was planning to get together with some people to play music, but one of them has suggested moving the day or cancelling in case we get in trouble.

     

    What is the likelihood of this happening? (I live in a small regional area, not a big city. Very religious, but I don't know that Volkstrauertag has any religious connection.)

     

    many thanks in advance.

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  8. Posted

    On 9/29/2020, 10:46:05, camlough said:

    6 sessions!!!!!!!!!!!!:blink: That is not even funny anymore. What the fuck can you do within 6 sessions??

     

    In fairness, 80 is the max and you do need a damn good reason for that.

     

    CBT can be helpful to learn new strategies, such as coping with stress so I get that, being at Uni and all, but for people with proper issues, it won't do anything.

     

    Is there a handy hint guide on here with mental health resources, explanations, etc? Don't think I've ever seen it...Mods? @dessa_dangerous, I know you're a Mod, does such a thing exist? I'm currently putting together a guide for the company I work at, I'd be willing to share it here for anyone who needs to have a first base of "where do I go"

     

    Former clinical psych/therapist here (but not for a looong time!). Don't be mistaken - you can achieve an enormous amount in 6 sessions. Honestly, when I was practising, if I didn't feel as though I'd made significant progress with a patient within 6-10 sessions, I would begin questioning how effective I was being.  A lot depends on your therapeutic orientation. Psychoanalytic therapists for example will normally engage for much longer periods. Most good therapists, at least back when I was practising, would say that if they're good, they're working to put themselves out of a job.

     

    My first impression when I came here was that German psychologists/therapists seemed to take an (for me) inordinately long time in treating their patients.

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  9. Posted

    Just putting this out there in case anyone knows of a suitable candidate.

     

    I've been recruited into doing the marketing for a learning skills/preparation programme at the uni I teach at. It's all free but we require candidates to have German language skills at the B1 level and be eligible to study at a German uni.

     

    Our programme is called PrepTec - an initiative offered by the Hochschule Furtwangen University. Our main focus is students looking to enter a STEM field. The programme will provide intensive language training (to C1 level), intercultural classes, learning skills workshops as well as mathematics and laboratory skills so that participants are exposed to subject specific German in these areas.

    We're happy to help anyone and there's no obligation to remain at our uni once the course is complete (although that's cool too). Winter semester isn't far away and we're hoping to get a few more enrolments before we start.

     

    If you can think of anyone who might be interested and/or eligible, please drop me a PM for more information.

     

    Thanks for taking the time to read this.

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  10. Posted

    Just putting this out there in case anyone knows of a suitable candidate.

     

    I've been recruited into doing the marketing for a learning skills/preparation programme at the uni I teach at. It's all free but we require candidates to have German language skills at the B1 level and be eligible to study at a German uni.

     

    Our programme is called PrepTec - an initiative offered by the Hochschule Furtwangen University. Our main focus is students looking to enter a STEM field. The programme will provide intensive language training (to C1 level), intercultural classes, learning skills workshops as well as mathematics and laboratory skills so that participants are exposed to subject specific German in these areas.

    We're happy to help anyone and there's no obligation to remain at our uni once the course is complete (although that's cool too). Winter semester isn't far away and we're hoping to get a few more enrolments before we start.

     

    If you can think of anyone who might be interested and/or eligible, please drop me a PM for more information.

     

    Thanks for taking the time to read this.

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  11. Posted

    On 27/06/2020, 16:18:40, JN53 said:

     

    I haven't actually taught any of these to English learners, but is this your complete lesson or did you brainstorm first what kinds of things a person could say? Did you ask students to explain what a simile and what a metaphor is to make sure they know? Did they have examples from an English text-article, newspaper, website, etc.? Why do they need to know these? Have you thought of that? If they only need to recognize them, then coming up with them cold turkey may not be necessary. 

     

    Maybe someone else has actually taught these things and can help, but these are just some questions that I would think about.

    Thanks JN53

    This is a uni level class and I'm trying to get them to understand the value in having metaphoric speech when explaining concepts/things to someone who may not have the same background they do.

     

    We did indeed work our way through German similes and metaphors first, then we looked at English examples, listened to some music that had similes in the lyrics, before moving it into the academic sphere. When I referenced the German examples we'd looked at they told me that that was just 'part of the language' and nothing they needed to actually learn or come up with themselves. I am personally, very much oriented this way. My normal mode of speech if I'm teaching something is often metaphoric/simile based, so I have a bit of disconnect from the outset because it's always been very easy for me.

     

    I did try and encourage them by saying nothing they came up with would be wrong so long as I was able to understand the connection - but they struggled mightily.

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  12. Posted

    Has anyone had any luck teaching simile and metaphor to advanced learners?

     

    It seems to be something that causes considerable issue - despite German having some fantastic examples itself.

     

    Me - "Flossie - can you use a simile to describe someone who is very slow?"

    Flossie - "Errr...he's as slow as a....slow person?"

     

    This was basically my whole class recently. One of the students just said "We are not creative and this is stupid" and that was that as far as he was concerned. I don't get it. I think "so dumm wie Brot" is one of the best similes I've ever come across. It's not an unknown concept here.

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  13. Posted

    On 10/11/2019, 7:54:51, TurMech said:

     

    Do you still stick to this thought, even after reaching the C1 level, or was it a moment of frustration and you went on speaking German after a while?

     

     

    I still have my moments, let's put it this way!

    I still live a mainly English life here. Still only speak English with my wife, still work in English for the most part. I think my has dropped since that exam but I can hold my own well enough if it's just chatting or socialising.

     

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  14. Posted

    Hi folks. Are there any Unitymedia users out there who’ve been experiencing problems with internet/telephone? I’m having a terrible time getting answers from the company itself.

    End of July we started having dropouts up to 6 hours at a time. This has only become worse since then although we were lucky enough to have 3 days of connection from Thursday last week. 

    Multiple calls to the Helpdesk have resulted in...

    - acknowledgement that there’s a systemwide failing which is being worked on

    - the suggestion that it’s our router and a tech guy would be sent out (never came)

    - straight up denial that there is any issue whatsoever

    - my wife, on saying she was ready to quit the contract, being told „dann machen Sie‘s, es ist mir egal..“

    We Must have made 10 calls since the beginning of August and it’s this mixed bag of answers.

    The one person who has been straight with us was the Telekom guy who told us, for where we live, there was nothing Telekom had that would match what we’re theoretically getting with Unitymedia.

    Unitymedia have given us a discount on our August and September bills but that’s not helping my work situation.

    Anyone else battling with Unitymedia right now? 

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  15. Posted

    I would miss the bread for sure.

    I would miss going to work in casual clothing a lot.

    I would miss goodness. I think people here are generally very good well meaning people.

    I would miss Swabian food. Probably more than I care to admit.

    I would miss Schwarzwald.

    I would miss environmental awareness and the appreciation that we belong to something larger.

    I would miss the social mindedness.

    I would miss the love of learning.

    I would miss the bookshops.

    I would miss living close to so many other countries.

    I would miss the regionalism and the attitude that not everything needs to be big or a spectacle to have value.

     

    I wouldn't miss the heaviness. There's nothing light about this place at all (where I live anyway).

    I wouldn't miss the horrifically limited choice in foods.

    I wouldn't miss the weather.

    I wouldn't miss the customer service.

    I wouldn't miss feeling like I'm walking through an ashtray wherever I am (even on a walk in the countryside the ground is littered with butts).

    I wouldn't miss the smokers.

    I wouldn't miss the tv or the badly dubbed films.

    I wouldn't miss the backwardness with so much technology.

    I wouldn't miss the impatience, perfectionism and inability to admit fault. At all.

     

    But I'm not going anywhere so it's all kind of moot.

     

     

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  18. Posted

    22 minutes ago, Auswanderer said:

    Someone needs to write a book on how to care for a German spouse in Australia. Some topics could include insulation, bread, denominating distance as time, skiing on frozen mud, etc

     

     

    ....spontaneous catch ups....

    1

  19. Posted

    I've been watching footage of the deep freeze hitting the NE United States, and have seen some posts on Reddit

    of people's houses icing up inside. Can anyone from that region tell me how good/bad the insulation is there

    compared to a German house?

     

    I have to admit, it wasn't until I moved here that I understood you could actually be warm inside in winter. My German

    would always complain bitterly in Australia in the winter, and I never understood why. She came from Germany, she

    must be used to colder temps than what we had, and it'll be summer again in 3 weeks anyway so stop whining and

    pull on another layer or turn the heater up a notch.

     

    I didn't know!

     

    A brick over wooden frame house with sheetrock/plasterboard interiors and single glazed windows was the standard.

    Even the posh houses were built like this. Australian climate isn't, for example, Chicago climate so i figured those guys

    would be better prepared for cold weather - just like here - but i was surprised to see the reddit thread with ice forming 

    on the interior walls in someone house.

    1

  21. Posted

    7 hours ago, Metall said:

    In other words, the package probably has been stolen and it's the lying delivery guy's fault.

     

     

    Metall - anything could have happened but that wouldn't come as a surprise. Apparently he was found and asked about the delivery - he 'couldn't remember'...

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  22. Posted

    7 hours ago, lisa13 said:

    ok - I really think you should just be dealing with the seller.

     

    tell them you want a refund or a replacement as GLS lost your stuff.  Sorted.

    I just heard from the seller in England, who tracked my parcel and told me tracking says it was delivered when the email said it was and it was signed for by "Abgestellt".

     

    I wonder if this is going to end....

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  24. Posted

    Thank you Sir Percy B

     

    Ok - the latest as of one hour ago was this email.

     

    Laut meinen Informationen konnte der Verbleib deiner Sendung im Nachhinein nicht mehr geklärt werden. Tut mir leid, dass ich keine besseren Neuigkeiten für dich habe.

     

    Wonderful...

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