The progress of my academic paper

I have to admit that I have not written a lot so far but I have collected a lot of useful sources and also made an outline of how I am going to structure my academic paper. I have to say that these steps have been easier than I had imagined. I was a little bit afraid that I would not find useful information for my topic or, more precisely, my concern was that there would not be academic sources that are suitable for my topic. I was really relieved, when I realized that there is actually exactly that information on the internet that I needed. One problem that I came across while looking for sources was that I did not find any academic sources for my chapter regarding Denmark and its relationship to the euro. By now, I have found some sources that could be useful for me but I am still looking for better options. So in case you come across an academic paper or something similar on this topic, I would be really thankful if you let me know (:  Regarding the structure of my paper, I enjoyed making an outline and planning how my paper should be organized. I am confident that my plan will help me a lot when I turn my bits and pieces of information into well written paragraphs. I am looking forward to doing this and hope that the choice of language won’t be too much of a challenge.  

Pronunciation diary part 1

Our task for this week was to try out some exercises from our Pronunciation Practice Page and write about our experiences with them. I, personally, enjoyed these exercises very much since I like listening to native speakers and I have always been fascinated by the different accents of British and American English. This is why I started with the pronunciation practice page “antimoon.com”. This site provides a subpage called "Choosing between American and British pronunciation" that is really helpful to decide if you want to speak British or American English. I, for my part, prefer American English and therefore I focused on the American English pronunciation exercises.

I started with the pronunciation website “Rachel’s English”. I have to say I really enjoyed her videos called “Real life” because the focus of these videos is everyday communication and they also give an insight in the American Culture. Her perfect AE pronunciation was the reason I got stuck on her page for quite some time. After that, I watched the videos from Amy Walker. I really liked her accent tutorial because she’s a likeable person and, in my opinion, she explains the way how AE pronunciation works really well. Particularly her first video about the vowel sounds was really useful for me. It’s a lot easier to pronounce a sound if know how to do it concerning mouth, teeth and tongue. I think practicing pronunciation in front of a mirror is a really good idea! Another video that appealed to me was the one about consonants and letter combination. Since a lot of German native speakers have a problem with the “th” and “f/v” sounds I had a closer look at these exercises.

To sum up, I think that the exercises from our Pronunciation Practice Page are really helpful and I am planning on improving my pronunciation, in particular my “th” and “v/f” sound, by doing a lot more of these exercises.

Comment on anonymous summary

Summary: "Europe already has one foot in 'Japanese' deflation grave"

The article “Europe already is one foot in Japanese’ deflation grave” by ‛
Ambrose-Evans-Pritchard, that was published on October 23, 2013 is about the European
Debt crisis.
At the moment the percentage of debts in the European Union is increasing. With the
exceeding debt rates, deflation is also rising. Over the past few months prices within the
EU have been falling, increasing the risk of deflation. France, Spain, Greece, Portugal
Cyprus, Slovenia, Latvia and in particular Italy for example have especially faced this
problem.
One of the reasons for the problem the EU is currently facing has its origin in politics.
Evans-Pritchard argues that because of poor policy, like imposing high taxes on the wrong
countries and giving too much money to countries, as Germany, the specter of deflation
rises.
The author states that one possible solution for this problem would be, if European
countries like Spain, France and Italy started to work together, putting through a reflation
policy that would stop the inflation fall.

My feedback:
First of all I have to say that it really impressed me that the author managed to compose a summary of 165 words mentioning the main ideas of the original text. In my opinion the summary is well written and clearly describes the complicated topic.
However, although it was impressing that the author did not need more words he did not fulfill the task because we were asked to write a summary of 200 +/- 5 words.
I like the topic sentence but unfortunately the author got the title wrong: "Europe already HAS one foot in 'Japanese' deflation grave"
One thing that I personally don't really like is that the author mentions a lot of countries in the first paragraph. I think one or two would have been enough as examples.
Apart from that I really liked the summary because it manages to give an insight in the difficult topic of the original text and expresses it in a way that is easier to understand.

EU group paragraph

The European Council

The European Council plays an important role in setting a general political direction for the European Union. This institution, which meets at least four times a year, is composed of the Heads of State or Government of the Member States, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council. The President of the European Council, currently Herman Van Rompuy, is elected for two and a half years and can be re-elected once. He is responsible for coordinating the work of the European Council and ensures that decisions are put into practice. The decisions are made by consensus: a concept or an idea has to be accepted by every voter or by the qualified majority depending on the nature of the treaty. In some cases decisions are reached by unanimity, which means that every Head of State or Government needs to agree.  If someone does not approve, the change cannot come into force. Although the European Council is not a legislative body, thus not allowed to pass laws, it is still very important since it sets priorities and debates sensitive issues.

EU individual paragraph

Brainstorming

Happened mainly in class while discussing in groups: content of the text, understandable, cohesive without linking words, headings, register, long sentences, "but" and "so" at beginning of sentence

Original paragraph

When I read the text “What the EU is for” the first time I found it rather impressing and well structured. The author did not need any linking words to connect one sentence with another and the usage of different headings for each paragraph made it easy to follow.  The choice of register also appealed to me, since the Author used beautiful but easily understandable language. “For want of a better word” and “reluctant to be disadvantaged” are expressions which caught my eye. However, after reading the text again more carefully there were also some negative aspects. The quite frequent use of the conjunctions “but” and “so” at the beginning of a sentence do not really agree with the rather high register used in the rest of the text.  The usage of very long sentences had better been avoided, since in English, it is better to write shorter sentences as it is linguistically more beautiful and easier for the reader to follow the text. Apart from the slightly inconsequent use of register, the text “What the EU is for” is, in my opinion, well written and really informative.

Feedback summary 1 (Topic Sentence, Register)

My classmates thought that my topic sentence and concluding sentence go well with each other and that they are referring to the same statement. They did also agree with the register but they advised me to find another adjective instead of "beautiful" in order to describe the language.

Feedback summary 2 (coherence, cohesion, vocab)

Overall, my colleagues agreed that my paragraph was cohesive and coherent. Nevertheless, they gave me some helpful advice how to improve it. They pointed out, that in my text are a lot of "the" and that I could leave some of them out. In addition to this, the thought that I should change the sentence abouth the negative aspects and make it clear that this is just my opinion.

Final paragraph

When I read the text "What the EU is for" the first time I found it rather impressing and well structured. The author did not use many linking words to connect one sentence with another. The different headings for each paragraph made it easy to follow. The choice of register also appealed to me, since the author used sophisticated but understandable language. "For want of a better word" and "reluctant to be disadvantaged" are expressions which caught my eye. However, after reading the text again more carefully there were also some aspects I did not agree with. The quite frequent use of the conjunctions "but" and "so" at the beginning of a sentence are not appropriate for the high register used in the rest of the text. The usage of very long sentences had better been avoided, since in English, it is advisable to write shorter sentences as it is linguistically more aesthetic and easier for the reader to follow. Apart from the slightly inconsequent use of register, the text "What the EU is for" is, in my opinion, well written and really informative.


Second final paragraph

When I read the text "What the EU is for" the first time I found it rather impressive and well structured. The author did not need many linking words to connect one sentence to the next and the different headings for each paragraph made it easy to follow. The choice of register also appealed to me, since the author used sophisticated but understandable language. "For want of a better word" and "reluctant to be disadvantaged" are expressions which particularly caught my eye. However, after reading the text again more carefully, there were also some aspects I did not agree with. The quite frequent use of the conjunctions "but" and "so" at the beginning of a sentence are not appropriate for the high register used in the rest of the text. The use of very long sentences should have been avoided since in English it is advisable to write shorter sentences as it is linguistically more competent and easier for the reader to follow. Apart from the slightly inconsistent use of register, the text "What the EU is for" is, in my opinion, well written and highly informative.

My top five

Welcome to my blog for this semester! My first post is going to be about my choice of 5 EU-related topics. Our task was to decide on 5 topics which are in some way related to the EU and explain why we think they are interesting. This should help us to decide on one topic we want to write our SUK3 paper about. Since the EU is a very complex topic I think this is a great idea and will help us to find one aspect of the EU we are really interested in.

These are my top five:

Currencies of the EU

When we talked about what the first thing is that comes to mind when you think about the EU, a lot of people said the euro and as a reason that it is the currency of the EU. But that is not exactly true, is it? The euro is the principal currency since it is adopted by 17 EU members as their common currency but there are 12 other currencies within the EU. However, all of the remaining states have to adopt the euro too once they meet the criteria to do so. Except for the United Kingdom and Denmark, which have a de facto permission to keep their currencies. And that is where it is getting interesting. Why are the UK and Denmark allowed to keep their own currencies and what is the advantage of it?

The Erasmus Program

This is probably a topic all of us are interested in since a lot of us are planning on spending a semester abroad. Thanks to the Erasmus program it is less complicated to study abroad since you do not have to pay fees to the foreign university and you even receive financial aid. For these and a lot more reasons I would like to find out more about Erasmus, its history and how it is working exactly.

Schengen Treaty and Schengen Area

This is also one topic we came across while talking in class. I think it is a really interesting topic because probably all of us have already heard about the Schengen Treaty but only a few really know what it is about. It is the same with the states that signed the treaty and are therefore members of the Schengen Area. When I think about the EU member states I am not exactly sure which ones are in the Schengen Area. That is why I am interested in finding out more about the Schengen Treaty and its members.

The EU youth conference

A friend told me about this topic and I instantly thought that it is really interesting and that I would like to know more about it. I have heard about it before but I never concerned myself with it. That is why I choose it as one of my topics. The idea of teenagers between the age of 15 and 28 who are attending at a meeting once a year and discussing serious issues about the youth in the EU really appeals to me. I think it would be fascinating to get deeper into this topic.

EU Nobel Peace Prize

In 2012 the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This was a sensation within the EU countries. But what were the reasons that the EU was honored with it? It goes without saying that the EU plays an important role for the long period of peace but why exactly is the EU that important? I am sure that a lot of research would be necessary to really understand what the EU achieved to earn the Nobel Peace Prize but it would certainly pay off.

Culture days (:

Hey guys (:

On our culture days I went to see even more than the ten presentations we were asked to see and I've to say that it was really interesting and I learned a lot of new things about the culture of Ireland and America. The three American culture presentations I listened to were about three very different topics but I liked all of them: the presentations "Comic books and superheroes", "Two Heroines of American Aviation: Amelia Earheart and Bessie Coleman" and "Huricane Preparedness" were all well prepared and well presented topics.

As much as I liked the American presentations - the Irish ones appealed even more to me. I listened to the presentations "Languages of Irish Travellers", "This is Friz!", "Witchcraft of Ireland", "Abortion Law in Ireland - A Pro-Choice View", "The history of ISL", "Hill of Tara - Historical and spiritual at the same time", "Poetry in Irish schools", "Hero or Enemy? How the World sees Bobby Sands", "The Integration of Islam in Ireland", "Homophobic Bullying in Irish schools", "The St. Magdalene Laundries in Ireland". When I say that I liked all of them I really mean that because they had all interesting aspects and I learned things I hadn't known before. One thing I really liked was to see how different the topics were presented and how well everyone hid their nervousness. Let's admit it - we were all really nervous ;)

Altough I liked all of the presentations about Ireland I managed to decide on the five which I liked most and chose these five for my KGP:

My first topic is "Homophobic Bullying in Irish schools" because I liked Shirin's presentations and I'm generally interested in this topic because I think every kind of bullying is awful and to tyrannise someone because of his or her sexual orientation is gruesome and abhorrent. This is why I chose this presentations because I think it is important to talk about topics like that.

The second presentation is "The St. Magdalene Laundries in Ireland". At first, I didn't think that this was a topic I would choose but Theresa's presentation awoke my interest. The topic was touching and the injustice which happened to these women didn't leave me cold.

"Hero or Enemy? How the world sees Bobby Sands" is the next topic I decided to choose. The main reason is because we already heard about Bobby Sands in the CLI's and I found it that interesting that I wanted to choose him myself for my culture presentation. In addition to that, I liked the way Alex organised her presentation.

The fourth topic that really appealed to me was "Witchcraft of Ireland". Sabrina's way of presenting really appealed to me and the topic is also very interesting and exciting. When she told me the idea of choosing this topic it was immediately clear that I would choose it for my KGP.

Last but not least, the last topic I decided on was "Abortion Law in Ireland - A Pro-Choice View". I wasn't able to see the presentation on the culture day but Andrina told me a lot about her topic and therefore I am sure that I've all the details I've to know about. This topic is probably one that interesets every woman and it is always a current topic and which is worth knowing about.

These are the topics I chose for my KGP and whichever I'll have to talk about I'm sure if there are any problems it won't be because of the topics I chose since I'm looking forward to learning them ;)

Save your planet!

Hey guys (:

I'm sure that everyone of you knows this organisation and their aim to save our environment. But what comes to mind if you hear the word GREENPEACE? For some of you it sure is the situation when you're walking through the city and someone bothers you and want to persuade you to listen to them and then even spend your money that you've earned on your own. As all students you probably don't have an abundance of money and you sure can imagine better ways to spend it than to donate it to an random organisation especially since there are a lot of these. I totally unterstand this attitude but nevertheless I strongly believe that  Greenpeace is an organisation worth supporting. The organisation was founded in 1971 by peace activists in Vancouver and evolved from the peace movement and anti-nuclear protests. Since then Greenpeace has prevented a lot of things that without doubt would have harmed our environment. Apart from their campaign against nuclear weapons they also fought against the pollution of the ocean and were jointly responsible for a ban on burning poisonous waste. If you want to look deeper and know more facts there are some links that could interest you:

http://www.greenpeace.de/
http://gruppen.greenpeace.de/wuppertal/ueber_uns_files/greenpeace_chronik_und_erfolge_info.pdf
http://www.greenpeace.de/ueber_uns/jahresrueckblick/

What might be interesting for those of you who like fast food - thanks to Greenpeace McDonald's signed in 2001 to not use any genetically modified animal feed.

Violence as far as the eye can see ...

Today I want to talk about a topic that I get really angry about. Has anyone of you seen the film "Cloud Atlas"? I don't know if you noticed but the television rating for this film is 12 years. In case you haven't seen the film and you don't know what I'm talking about ... in this film you can see how one man shoots another in the head, how cannibals eat people, how a man is thrown from the roof-deck of a skyscraper (and you see his landing) and a lot of other really brutal scenes. I don't want to criticise the film itself - quite the contrary, I found it really extraordinary and interesting but I think that it's just awful what kids are allowed to see. This is not the only film where the television rating isn't age-based. Once I started to pay attention I realised that 12 year old kids are allowed to see nearly everthing. I'm not telling you this because I want to discuss if vionlent video games and films give rise to violent behaviour by kids and teenagers I just want to say that it's shocking what kind of films you get if you want to buy a "children's film". I am sensitive when it comes to violence so I give films which are x-rated a wide berth and watch mainly ones which 12 year olds are allowed to watch but nowadays this strategy doesn't work anymore because also this film are too brutal for my liking. If you ask me, there's something going wrong!

Brown Eyed Baker

After looking at a lot of food blogs I didn't really like I came across this fabulous blog : It's called brown eyed baker and written by a woman who loves to bake. She tries out recipes and shares her experiences with her readers. What really appeales to me about this blog is that she doesn't just post the recipes but also explains why she chose it and what's so special about it. One post I particularly liked was the one about hummingbird cupcakes. It attracted my attention because of the extraordinary name and after reading the recipe I can imagine that the name isn't the only great thing about it. These cupcakes and hummingbird cakes in general are famous in the South of the United states. The ingredients include pineapple chunks, banana, coconut and either walnuts or pecans. The dot on the i is the topping, made of cream cheese frosting. The hummingbird cupcake is comparable to a carrot cake. You can imagine it like a tropical version of it. Since carrot cake is my favourite cake I'll definitely try out this recipe - as soon as I've found out what the right austrian measurement for "cup" is ;))

One last thing that I found really interessting is how the hummingbird cake/cupcake got its name. It is said that that the cake got its name because it makes you hum with delight (which it does according to the writer of the blog). Others say that it's because it's as sweet as the sugared water which hummingbirds love.

In case some of you also want to try the recipe:

HUMMINGBIRD CUPCAKES

yield: 22 to 24 cupcakes prep time: 20 minutes cook time: 20 minutes total time: 40 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

Dried Pineapple Flowers (garnish):

1 whole fresh pineapple

Cupcakes:

2 cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon salt

¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 & 1/3 cups mashed banana (2 to 3 large bananas)

2/3 cup crushed pineapple, drained (about half of a 20-ounce can)

2/3 cup walnuts or pecans, toasted and chopped

2/3 cup shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened will work)

1 & 1/3 cups granulated sugar

11 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

2 eggs

Frosting:

12 ounces cream cheese

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

4 cups powdered sugar

DIRECTIONS:

1. Make the Dried Pineapple Flowers: Preheat oven to 225 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with nonstick baking mats or parchment paper. Cut the top and bottom off the pineapple, and slice off the outer rind. Using a small melon baller or measuring spoon, remove and discard the pineapple "eyes". Use a sharp knife to cut the pineapple crosswise into very thin slices. Place the slices on the baking sheets. Bake until the tops look dried, about 30 minutes. Flip slices; bake until completely dried, 25 to 30 minutes more (or longer, depending on their thickness). Pinch the center of each pineapple slice to shape into a cone; let cool in a clean muffin tin to form flowers. Let sit overnight so that they retain their shape. Once completely dried and shaped, the flowers can be stored (stacked) up to 3 days at room temperature in an airtight container.

2. Make the Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line standard-size muffin tins with paper liners; set aside.

3. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; set aside. In another bowl, stir together the banana, pineapple, walnuts, and coconut; set aside.

4. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat the butter, sugar, and vanilla until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Continue beating until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Add the banana mixture to the egg mixture, beating until combined. Stir in the flour mixture with a rubber spatula.

5. Divide the batter evenly among the lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. (Unfrosted cupcakes can be stored up to 3 days at room temperature in airtight containers.)

6. Make the Frosting: Using the whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese and butter at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed, about 5 minutes. Add the vanilla extract and mix to incorporate. Reduce the speed to medium-low and gradually add the powdered sugar, until it has all been incorporated. Scrape the sides of the bowl and increase the speed to medium-high and whip until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.

7. Assemble the Cupcakes: To finish, pipe frosting onto the top of each cupcake (or use an offset spatula to spread the frosting) and top with a dried pineapple flower. (Note: I used an Ateco #806 decorating tip to frost these cupcakes.)

Gaelic football and Hurling

hey guys (: 
I've been studying the culture topics and while reading the handout about Gaelic football and Hurling I realised that I didn't really get the rules while reading them so I decided to watch a youtube video to get a better insight. You should know that I've never been a fan of watching sport. I like to it but I never enjoyed watching it. I don't know why but I just think it's boring. But these two videos are really hilarious and I definetly enjoyed watching them. I know that both, Gaelic football and Hurling, shows elements of different kinds of sports but seeing it is way more fun than just reading about is and I think it's fascinating how well the different elements are combined (:
For them who haven't looked up this topic yet and don't know what I'm talking about: Gaelic football shows skills of soccer and rugby and is played with a round leather football which is comparable to a hard volleyball. Hurling shows elements of Lacrosse, Baseball and Hockey and is played with an axe-shaped stick similar to a hockey stick.
But I really recommend you just watch these videos yourself and see what I'm talking about ;)

Martin Luther King Day - 21st of january

One of the american CLI's we have to study is the one about Martin Luther King and his famous speech "I have a dream". Since you're all very well informed about this topic I don't have to fill you in but I just want to say that I think it's really great what Martin Luther King achieved and, most important, how he achieved it. I wanted to post about this already yesterday but since I had been busy all day long I didn't get a chance ;) but know I have time to share my opinion with you. Like I wrote before, I am really fascinated by MLK's achievements and I think we all should follow his lead and accept each other as we are, no matter where we're from and what we look like. In my opinion it's awful that there are still people who discriminate African Americans due to their skin colour and as long as it's that way there's still room for improvement. What I also really admired about him was that he fought for his dreams in a nonviolent way. More people should try this way ...