What was life in the East really like? And what happened after the Wall came down?
Paula Kirby, who left the UK in the mid 1980s to live and work in Dresden, talks about her personal experience of living in socialist East Germany, in a fascinating interview on blogtalkradio.
You can also follow Paula on Twitter @PaulaSKirby for more discussions and opinions on the GDR – not to mention more photos!
With the free German courses from Deutsche Welle, you can choose the learning style that suits you best: e-learning at the computer, with short videos, audio courses or podcasts, or with texts and worksheets you can print out. Select from courses for beginners, intermediate learners, and advanced learners. German language teachers are welcome to use our multimedia material in their lessons. The Course Finder helps you choose the best format for each level.
In the ‘Deutsche Welle NEWSFEED’ section on the right hand of our German at Aston Blog, you can find latest topics about Germany.
On March 6th, Julia Bindrich from ICUnet.AG came to Aston and gave us a great insight into her work as an intercultural consultant. ICUnet.AG offers not only consultancy but takes care of all the aspects involved in leaving one’s country to work in a brand new environment: From finding a flat to how to deal with your new surrondings and how to make the most of your time in a foreign country.
Julia specialized in Mainland China and this year opened an ICUnet.AG office in Shanghai. She taught two workshops where she was able to give us a lot of information on how Germans, Brits and Chinese may have to conquer a lot of differences in order to successfully work together. Maybe we Germans can be a bit direct when we want an information or something done. But does that mean we are rude know-alls? And if you ever thought Germans are no fun at all – how about checking out this awesome VW commercial? We dare you not to burst out laughing. At the end of the day, we learned a great deal about what we can do to become a more competent person in an intercultural environment and had a lot of fun doing it.
Are you interested in a career as an intercultural consultant? Why not take a look at the placements ICUnet offers or contact the Aston’s International Placement Team.
Stefan’s latest offering is a co-edited book entitled ‘Refugees and Cultural Transfer to Britain’. It deals with individuals or groups of refugees who have enriched British culture over the last 200 years. Those fleeing Nazism, but also the failed German revolutions in the nineteenth century, figure prominently. The book launch took place at the Cultural Exchanges Festival in Leicester and was organised by de Montfort University. The photograph includes Stefan (middle) and co-editor Prof. Panikos Panayi (2nd from right).
Mar 10
As university lecturers, most of our time and effort goes into ensuring that our students have a positive and beneficial learning experience – at least that’s what we would like to be able to say as another mind-numbing admin task rears its ugly head. But in all seriousness, lecturing is a wonderful and rewarding job that allows us to share our knowledge and interact with enthusiastic young people.
Most days, every new lecture gives us a good idea whether we are succeeding at what we are trying to achieve, namely educate the next generation, or if, as may well sometimes be the case, we “must do better”. But even when we are quite certain we’re doing well, it’s always nice to see that subjective impression confirmed. True, there are student evaluation questionnaires that form part of regular quality assurance processes, but that doesn’t mean that we’re not happy to see our work acknowledged in other ways. We therefore very much welcomed the “My Astonishing Aston Academic” awards which were launched by the Aston Students’ Union this year.
They provide a chance for students to nominate and celebrate their favourite academics in the following student elected categories:
- Most motivational academic
- Best personal tutor
- Academic who made the most difference
- Academic who inspired your career choice
- Outstanding feedback
- Most engaging use of learning technology
At the awards ceremony, held on 1 March, the winners were announced, and German at Aston is very proud to say that our sessional lecturer Dr Simone Schroth was presented with the award for Most Motivational Academic in the School of Languages and Social Sciences.
Simone, whose background is in comparative literature and translation studies, has only been with us since the beginning of the academic year. An accomplished translator, she is currently working on translations from English and Dutch into German, including writings by world-famous diarist Anne Frank. But above all, she is a very experienced lecturer who has previously taught at universities in Dublin and Newcastle. Simone was delighted to receive the award last night and to see her work appreciated in this way. She says: “Being nominated was a lovely surprise, as was being presented with the award. Now I feel even more motivated myself – thank you very much and my best wishes to you all!”
A full list of winners and nominees from all four Schools at Aston can be accessed here.
Thank you all for coming and turning this ordinary quiz night into a special event!
Would you have been able to answer our questions? Take a look and try:
Kartoffel; Tomate; Topfen; Obers; Erdapfel; Pfifferling; Brötchen; Karotte; Karfiol; Möhre; Semmel; Quark; Sahne; Paradeiser; Blumenkohl; Eierschwammerl
And for those of you who missed the pubquiz this year – a couple of pictures to give you an idea of the great time we had.
In the end, all that’s left to say is: See you next year for the pubquiz 2014 – We can’t wait!
Everybody is excited to get to work on those questions!
Yes, the questions weren't too easy... The staff teams, too, had think hard
The staff teams, too, had think hard
A big thank you to our two student presenters who did a wonderful job!
And of course - the winning team! They certainly had their thinking caps on!
As you know, at Aston you can take up German even as a non-German undergrad. The University Wide Language Programme (UWLP) offers everybody a chance to get to know a foreign language or further existing knowledge.
This study year, the new programme Languages For All (LFA) came into existence: Free language tuition for all freshers in 6 languages (German, Arabic, Chinese, French, Portugese and Spanish)! This has prompted over 800 new students to further their foreign language skills. LFA has now been recognized widely as the great programme it is. Yesterday (27.2.), it became runner up for the 2013 Guardian University Awards in the category “Student Experience”.
So, why not take advantage of this great opportunity and dip your metaphorical toes in a new language, culture and world?
See here for more information about LFA and UWLP. From next year on there will be 7 languages to choose from as Japanese will be offered as well!
Feb 27
Even if we missed the chance to take some photos during the 1,2 oder 3 quiz last Tuesday, we don’t want to be late to thank you all for taking part! It was a very funny evening and we were very pleased that so many of you found the time to jump, know and guess with us. We are looking forward to seeing you tonight at Gosta Green for the German Pub Quiz or at the latest in the conversation lessons or other upcoming events. Thanks and best regards,
Kira & Ben
Feb 24
It’s almost here: The annual German Pub Quiz between Aston University and University of Birmingham.
It will be held
on Thursday 28th February
at 7pm
at Gosta Green Pub!
You are all welcome to come, play with up to 5 team mates and win great German, Austrian and Swiss prizes!
All questions will be held in German AND English – so you can bring your smartest friends even they do not (yet) know German!
Hope to see you all for a fun night out!
