I’ve received a few e-mails from readers over the past few months asking for more information about what exactly the program is that I study, what the atmosphere of the University of Vienna is like, and just generally wanting to know what it’s really like to study here. So even though I have admittedly not been the model student in the past few semesters (I’m working on it!) I thought I’d write a post sharing what knowledge I have acquired about studying in Vienna as a foreign student.

I study Transkulturelle Kommunikation (Transcultural Communication) with the working languages of English, German and Spanish. As a student of Transkulturelle Kommunikation you get to choose three working languages, your “A, B and C” languages. If your A-language (native language) is not German, you must select German as your “B” language, and have the choice of the following languages for your “C” language:

Serbo-Croatian
English
French
Italian
Polish
Portuguese
Romanian
Russian
Spanish
Czech
Hungarian

The program is a bachelor program and lasts for 6 semesters.The majority of my lectures are in German. I have had two lectures in English so far (“Global English and International Communication” and “Kultur und Kommunikation: Englisch”) I have also had a few lectures in Spanish.

I had learned German for a few years before starting to study here, and so far I haven’t had any major problems following my lectures (except on the days where my head feels particularly heavy and I start to drift off, but I had that problem when I studied in English too!)

My classes are currently a mixture of grammar classes relevant to each of my three working languages, culture classes that are all currently focusing on the history of some of the countries where my three languages are spoken, and a few classes dealing with “transcultural communication” itself.

The students’ council has a very informative website with pretty much all of the information you could ever want about the program (mostly in German).

If you have any more questions, leave me a comment and I’d be glad to help out if I can, but for now I need to sleep so that I can be at work for 6:15am! The Viennese need their coffee!

It’s a beautiful day here in Vienna – which is a huge change from how it’s been for the past few months. The winter here is honestly pretty depressing. It’s cold, grey, and just.. blah. Nothing happens! No snowstorms, no deep freezes, no snowfall up to your waist… As a Canadian I need a little action in my winter! When the weather is so constantly grey and depressing it makes it hard to do just about anything except for stay in your warm bed.

One of my absolute favourite things about Austria is the spring time weather. It’s April 3rd and it’s already t-shirt weather. From now until June it is usually constantly sunny and warm, apart from a few mandatory “April showers bring may flowers” days.

Since the sun is shining bright, it makes it a lot easier to get up and out of bed and get things done! I’m spending the few hours I have before work with a giant mug of green tea and some school work.

What about you guys, do you find the weather effects your study habits and/or your ability to simply get out of bed and get stuff done?

It’s almost time… My books are on their way from Amazon.de, my computer is slowly but surely getting organized, my timetable is made (and even posted on unilang!) it’s almost time for my first week at the University of Vienna! I am really excited! My documents are still being processed but luckily I can start attending classes before I am officially registered. My first class is a Spanish grammar class on Tuesday at 8am, followed by linguistics class, a language technology class, and then a translation theory and practice class.

I think all of my classes sound really interesting (yes even grammar, but that’s mostly because I love that the class is taught in Spanish), but it’s not just the classes themselves that I am looking forward to. I am also looking forward to the following opportunities that studying abroad are going to offer:

- Daily immersion in German (unfortunately Spanish is only once a week) in situations where I will have to focus completely. I will be exposed to different accents (not all professors are Austrian), different topics, and I will have to take notes and remember things! It will be like hours of hardcore input.

- I will be able to meet a whole bunch of (German-speaking!) people in my classes who are also interested in languages! Finding people to practice with is a huge part of language learning so I will definitely be taking advantage of this.

- My homework will always be language practice since all of my classes are in a foreign language!

There’s not much I can say on any of this since I have no idea how it is going to be, but at around this time next week I will be able to offer some insight on studying abroad or attending class in a foreign language and will definitely write a blog post about it!

Hello readers! Just wanted to write a quick update on why there hasn’t been very many updates for awhile! I usually don’t really like it when people write blog posts about why they’ve been away and how they’ll be back soon but it’s all language related, and I really do want you to know that I will be updating soon!

This is the last week of my hardcore, intensive, ridiculous C1 level German class at the Sprachenzentrum of the University of Vienna. We have our final test tomorrow and I’m sad to say, I’m not sure how well I will do because I think it will be REALLY hard. Oh well, I have definitely learned a lot these past three weeks! If someone had told me two years ago that I’d be reading original texts by Immanuel Kant and Sigmund Freud I wouldn’t have believed them!

This week has also been the apartment hunting week. My boyfriend and I are staying at a friend’s house in Vienna so we can (hopefully!) find an apartment by the end of the week! We tried this last September without any luck (everyone and their dog were also looking for a one-bedroom apartment in Vienna…) but it seems to be better this time. Wish me luck!

I had the great opportunity this week of being interviewed by Mark from Radio Lingua over Skype. I offered some tips on language blogging and language learning and the interview will be available in a few weeks through the Radio Lingua club!

I’ve also been working on my schedule for University which is incredibly exciting! Even though I’m having more and more setbacks with my application, I still think I can manage to start studying this semester because the deadline is only on April 30th and I can attend classes without registering (you only register for the end exams)
So far the classes I will be taking are:

- Sprachtechnologien, Informations- und Wissensmanagement
Language technology, Information and knowledge management.

- Transkulturelle Kommunikation: Theorie und Praxis
Transcultural Communication: theory and practice

-Translationsrelevante Sprachwissenschaft
Translation relevant linguistics

- Transkulturelle Kommunikation: Probleme und Lösungsansätze
Transcultural Communication: Problems and solution approaches

- Grammatik im Kontext: Deutsch
Grammar in context: German

- Grammatik im Kontext: Spanisch
Grammar in context: Spanish (this class is taught entirely in Spanish, so exciting!!)

This list may or may not change, I’m still not exactly sure how many classes I should take on at once!

During the next few days as I finish up the things that are making my life a bit busy I will be doing something along the lines of what Fiona from Baby Steps to Fluency did last week: a short break to collect thoughts, ideas, and inspiration for this blog. I will hopefully come up with some good stuff!

Bis dann!

My least favourite word right now is beglaubigen. It means “to legalize”, “to certify” or “to notarize”. Why is it my least favourite word right now? Because it is standing in the way of my University entrance! Let me explain…

So I received my B2 level Österreichisches Sprachdiplom Deutsch the other day and was extremely happy! It was the final piece missing from my University application kit which is comprised of my UK Passport (which I received thanks to my Scottish father and it lets me study for only 16 Euros!), High School Diploma, High School transcripts, Unversity transcripts, application forum, passport copy, etc. etc.
So I was doing one final check on the Unversity of Vienna website the other day and found this.

Documents from countries with which Austria has no agreement have to be fully legalised. A certification from the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from the issuing country is necessary for the required document.

What. What?!? Why??? My documents are all official! and signed! and stamped! and dated!

So I e-mailed the University of Vienna and asked if this could possibly be true and they told me I wouldn’t have to do this if the documents were originals (check!) and in English (double check!!)

This morning I went and waited in line at the Admissions office, super excited about finally being registered at the University of Vienna, only to be told that, well, I do need to go through the month long process of getting my already official documents legalized. I have to start by sending them back to Canada with a courier and then hoping for the best.

I’m really angry about this! I’ve been in contact with the University and they’ve never mentioned this! Maybe I just missed it, but still! I think I can still start studying this semester, but this whole thing really bugs me! Oh well. I guess I should’ve expected an eventual hiccup in the foreign University application process, but I just wanted to vent a little, and what better place than on here.

For over a year now my sights have been set on studying Transkulturelle Kommunikation (Translation and Interpretation) at the University of Vienna. You study in three languages: your native language, and two working languages, one of which has to be German if your native language is not German.

Now that it’s nearly a month before I start studying and I am finishing up the application process, when it came to filling out my “Angaben zum beabsichtigtem Studium” (Proposed field of study) I started to write the “T” of “Transkulturelle Kommunikation”, but then stopped. Don’t get me wrong, I would be VERY happy to study Transkulturelle Kommunikation, but I just want to make sure there isn’t anything else I would be REALLY REALLY happy to study. (or maybe I am just afraid of the entry test I would have to take in March that appears to be incredibly hard!)

One thing I know is that I absolutely want to study something to do with languages. When I took my first German class in University nearly three years ago, it was the first thing to really spark my interest and motivate me. It made me excited to go to class. My “problem” now is, there are a few interesting options at the University of Vienna, and I am not sure exactly what is the absolute best for me!

I have been thinking for the last year that I want to be a translator or interpreter, which I would still very much enjoy and has the benefit of being a mobile job that has to do with languages (living in three countries in the past three years has made me realize that my life is a bit unpredictable, and it seems to be working quite well for Benny!), but I am also thinking I would like to be a language teacher, or write books about languages and language learning, or write for a magazine like Deutsch Perfekt, or work at a company like Hueber or Langenscheidt and make language learning materials, or get a PhD and be a professor of languages or linguistics. (Maybe I could do it all?)

I was thinking earlier that I was going to do a double major of Transkulturelle Kommunikation and Romanistik, which is the study of the romance languages. I posted on the student council forum of the Translation department asking if this was a good idea, and someone recommended that I not do that because it might be like studying the same thing twice. (Well, someone else wrote that it would be find because the more language study the better, haha.) But they mentioned that to improve my future job outlook as a translator or interpreter that I should pick a second major in a specific field like medicine or engineering so that I could be a specialized translator and be more desirable to employers. While this does sound reasonable, I don’t really have any other interests besides languages right now which is making me think that I should study something other than translation? Or maybe not? Or maybe pick a different language other than Spanish because every translator and their mother uses English, German or Spanish? Argh.

But I also think I would like to stay here in Austria for as long as possible, and something is telling me that trying to work as a non-native German teacher in a German-speaking country might not exactly go so well! While being a translator would work out better…

Here are my options:

- Deutsche Philologie (German Philology – study of German language and literature)
- Romanistik (Romance studies – study of Romance languages and cultures)
- Transkulturelle Kommunikation (Translation and Interpretation)
- Sprachwissenschaft (Linguistics)
- Bildungswissenschaft (Education science)

Possible combos:
- Deutsche Philologie und Sprachwissenschaft
- Transkulturelle Kommunikation und Sprachwissenschaft
- Romanistik und Sprachwissenschaft
- Deutsche Philologie und Pädagogik

Translation and Linguistics could be cool?

This post is mostly just for me to get my thoughts out of my brain and to actually see the pssible combinations on “paper” and think about which is best for me, but if anyone has any imput or experience with studying something language related then please leave a comment!

I love languages and language learning. I love reading about language learning. I love sitting at my desk and reviewing vocabulary. I love taking language courses and meeting people who are also learning languages. I am going to study a language degree and will hopefully end up in a language related profession, be it teaching or translating. My boyfriend speaks three languages and I live in a foreign country. I have the opportunity of a lifetime here and I waste so much of it by simply speaking too much English. I am improving all the time by speaking more and more German in more and more situations but I could be doing much better. Therefore I have decided that my biggest and most important New Year’s resolution will be to stop speaking English.

I have figured out the main reason why I have a hard time speaking German in social situations. I first came to Austria nearly three years ago to be with my boyfriend who could speak English extremely well, my German was limited to Auf Wiedersehen and Danke schön. We had spent years talking in English prior to me coming to Austria. When I met all of his friends we spoke English together. I even spoke English to his parents who can’t even speak English! Everyone had gotten so used to speaking English with me that it is now a very hard habit to break. It is extremely nice of them to speak English with me, because of course it makes it easier for me to participate in conversations, and I really appreciate their effort, but I’m going to have to start telling everyone that they’d be doing me even more of a favour to strictly speak only German with me!

I have met two other people who live in Austria who are in situations similar to mine. A guy from England with an Austrian fiancée, and a girl from England with an Austrian boyfriend. The guy speaks nearly only English to his fiancée and has from the beginning of their relationship because he couldn’t speak German when they met but he can now. The girl from England speaks nearly only German with her boyfriend, and has done so from the beginning. Years of speaking English with your foreign friends or boyfriend is a hard habit to break! The guy from England said that it feels weird to speak German with his fiancée, while the girl from England says it feels weird to speak English with her boyfriend!

I am lucky to have a boyfriend who is very supportive and willing to speak German with me, even if it feels a little awkward and frustrating for me because I can’t always express myself fully, but I have to realize that everyone who speaks a foreign language to a near-fluent level has pushed through this phase! Whenever I manage to keep up a conversation in German for a few minutes, it’s a great feeling. I can honestly say it gives me a rush! Unfortunately it is usually me who gets worn out and switches back to English, but I’m going to push through this time.

-

For anyone who has the same fear of speaking a foreign language, here are some resources to help:

- Benny the Irish polyglot’s great post on not speaking English abroad (this one inspired me the most!)
- An open thread on how-to-learn-any-language.com on the fear of speaking in front of others.

I registered for the Österreichisches Sprachdiplom Deutsch exam today. I need to pass the B2 level exam in order to get into the University of Vienna. It will be on January 16th (written test) and January 23rd (speaking test). I also signed up for a four day (two sets of Friday and Saturday, starting tomorrow) prep class. The preparation course wasn’t mandatory but since I am full of good ideas like signing up for courses in Vienna which require me to wake up at 6:40 on a Saturday morning to get the bus to Vienna for a course that starts at 10:00AM, I signed up for it anyway! Oh well, all for the love of language learning, right?

Tonight I went to see Zweiohrküken at the movie theatre with my boyfriend’s mother, and as I found myself laughing along with the crowd to one of the jokes in the movie and I just thought “Wow, I’m watching a German movie without subtitles in a small town in Austria and getting the jokes.” and I had to smile!

What moments have you guys had like this? It could be anything, from overhearing a conversation in your target language and understanding some of it, to finishing a novel in your target language. Sometimes its nice to stop and think of these little things that make language learning worth it. It can be very motivating to thinks of these little things that have made it worth it! Please share your “little things” in the comments!

Alright so I just got the idea that every Thursday (since I got the idea today and today happens to be Thursday!) I will write a post on cool little language-related things that I have discovered or am using this week. It will be called “Tidbit Thursday”. The things I post will either be pictures of actual things that I actually have in my possession, or internet resources I have stumbled upon during the week.

So here’s what I’ve got for you the first Tidbit Thursday:

It’s time for: Wheel of Irregular Spanish Verb Conjugation!
Die Hueber Unregelmäßige Verben Spanisch Sprachdrehscheibe

I found this neat little thing at Frick Buchhandlung on Kärntner Straße in Vienna today while I was passing time after my German class before my bus left. I was browsing around the language section and came across these little wheels! They are made up of three plastic circles with irregular Spanish verbs printed around the edge of the largest circle of both sides, the German translation of the infinitive verb directly under the Spanish one, and then through little cut-outs on the circle the conjugations are shown. It cost €3,90 and I think it was worth it. It will be handy to have nearby. They had a lot of other ones too, I may have to check back again one day!

Itty-bitty dictionary:  Österreichisch – Deutsch

Now this was an impulse buy at the checkout. I thought it was cute, but it will also be useful as there are a lot of words that are different in Austrian German. It’s super tiny too, so I can bring it around with me in my bag!

Grammar Girl helps you with your English grammar, and makes it fun!

Mignon Forgarty is Grammar Girl and I discovered her website and podcast through bab.la’s list of  Top 100 Language Blogs of 2009. I began following Grammar Girl on Twitter and noticed that she had a new book coming out so I decided to pick it up when I was at home in Canada. Well I accidently got the wrong book, but it doesn’t matter because it’s still good! Now that I am actually writing a blog, I figured I should be always trying to improve my writing. Also, I have my laptop set to German so the spellcheck is checking for German words, so I need to be extra careful about my writing, and it is likely that mistakes are slipping through! Grammar Girl makes complex grammar questions simple with short but informative podcasts. I have just begun reading this book but I look forward to reading it over the next week.

Grammar Girl on Twitter
Official Grammar Girl website

A light read for language lovers: Biting the Wax Tadpole: Confessions of a Language Fanatic

When I was visiting my parents I went with my mom to Chapters. I went off to the language section and ten minutes later I returned like a kid with her arms full of toys saying “Pleeease mom! Can I have them? Pleeease!” except replace toys with grammar and language books. :)
This is an extremely neat little book best described as a language scrapbook. It contains little anecdotes, illustrations, tidbits of information and much more on the world’s languages. You can find out more about this book and the author Elizabeth Little on her website.

That’s it for this Tidbit Thursday, I will continue next week!