March 5 to March 9
This week was my first week of classes and I am pretty satisfied with how everything went.
On Monday, my first class was my German intensive course. Of course, I show up to class an hour early. The building is only a ten minute walk from my apartment. I am a bit scared but this is the class that I am most looking forward to. I really hope that I can improve my German. I have the class every day (Monday-Friday) for two and a half hours until June so I better see some improvement. My class has about 16 people in it. Student in age rage from me (age 20) to probably 60s. I sit next to a girl from Japan and another girl from the Philippines. Both are married. This just gives you an idea that I am not with college students. Most people have been living in Vienna for some period and want to learn the German language. I am the youngest in my class as well as the newest person to be in Vienna. However, I believe that I am at the same level as everyone else in the class. The professor is really nice but I wish he would do more teaching. Class consists of a lot of partner work, listening exercises, and reading. He doesn’t do much besides tell us what to work on. He occasionally gives little tips. I enjoy the class though. It’s an opportunity for me to speak in German and meet people. We had to introduce the person we were sitting next to and I made so many mistakes, the professor had to correct me and I felt a bit embarrassed. I was also the first person to go so other learned from my mistakes.
45 minutes after German class, I had Russian. Now I too, a placement test to get into this class since I have previous experience with Russian. I am in the 3rd level of A1. The class is in an elementary school which I find a bit odd. There are seven people in my class. All are older than me. We had to introduce ourselves in Russian and I felt better because everyone knew as little as I did. We had to work with a partner to review the past 8 chapters. These students all took the first two levels last semester. They all know one another and learned the same things. As we were reviewing, it was evident that they learned different material than I did and vice verse. This will be a challenge. Did I mention that this class is taught in German and we are learning Russian? Ya, sometimes I sat there and had no idea what the professor was saying. She would ask me a question and I just answered, ahhh. This professor is very nice though. She did my placement test so she knew before class started that I was an exchange student from America and my German is not perfect. She told me during class that if I ever need clarification in English, she would gladly do that for me. That is very kind of her. All of the other students seem to be understanding as well when I don’t get something. This class will be a challenge but I don’t think it will be horrible. Oh, this class is from 6:00-8:30. My German class ends at 5:15 so I only had time to eat a sandwich and a banana for dinner in between classes while traveling from one part of the city to the other. I don’t like getting home at 9:00. I can’t do anything about it though.
Tuesday morning: 8:00 AM- Arabic class. There are probably 14 people in this class. There is a mixture of adults and students. The professor was very nice and the beginning of class was very fun. She has an interesting teaching style. For example, we were learning to say hello. She had us walk around the room and told us to keep repeating the word to say hello. It probably looked silly but it helped. We did excercises like this for the first half of class. Then it came to writing and things changed. We got our names in Arabic and had to write them on a name tag. The professor yelled at me but I didn’t understand what she said. I asked the girl next to me and then the professor asked if I spoke German. I told her a little and then she said she could clarify in English if I needed. Apparently, I was supposed to start writing on the right side of the paper, not the left. She might have said that in German but I didn’t hear her. We began to learn vocabulary and learning how to write. It took me about a minute to write a simple word such as school. The professor would come around to watch us write and she would yell at me every time. I would go down with pencil instead of up, I would start on the right side of the page, not the left. She would say, “Andy, this isn’t English.” I was frustrated and embarrassed. I didn’t understand how to write and was scared to continue making mistakes. I don’t even know what some of the vocab terms meant when she said them in German. I was glad to leave this class. I also have no motivation to study the words or do my homework. Hopefully next class goes better. I want to talk to my professor about my difficulty in her class. After class, I went shopping, I finally found the best Hofer. It is very big and there is a huge selection of food. The street car by this Hofer also goes right back to my apartment. How convenient!
On Wednesday, I only had German. I have no issues in this class. I understand everything that is going on. I want to talk to more people in my class but I don’t want to just go up to them and say hi. We have usually four pages of homework every night. I spend about three hours doing German. I keep an extra vocabulary journal for new words I find in class and in my homework. I wish we did more grammar.
Thursday was my history class. This is a Seminar class intended for Masters Students. There are 11 people in my class and I’m the youngest as usual. Most people are working on their doctorate or masters. Finally I have a class with another Erasmus student. Two actually and they are both from Belgium. Since they are both from the same country, they only talked with another. I hope I can talk to them eventually. The professor is really nice. It seems as if I do all the work, then I should pass the class. We have to do readings every week. With those readings, we must submit a one page reflection with a brief summary of the provided texts as well as discussion questions for the next Seminar. One week, a student will have an additional text to read and they will give a 10 minute introduction about that text to the class. Not looking forward to this. I had over 100 pages to read for next week. Surprisingly, I understood what was going on and it was not too painful to read. At the end of class, we must give a 30 minute presentation. I chose to present about the textile industry in medieval Europe. I don’t want to give this presentation but I have to. The last requirement is a paper about the topic of your presentation. This is due July 31 so I might just write it when I am home. This class will have the most work for me. It is only once a week for an hour and a half and I only have ten classes so it’s not so bad. Later that day, I had German. I found out there is an Erasmus student from England in my German class. This was exciting and she was nice to talk to.
On Friday, I only had German. We had a substitute because our regular professor had a meeting. This professor was nice and I learned a lot from her, she actually taught us grammar. She did not do what was in the book but I kind of liked that. We had to introduce ourselves to her. I said I come from America and apparently that is wrong. I have to say USA because she doesn’t know what America is. It’s not a country. Whatever, you knew what I meant. Again, I felt embarrassed. I couldn’t even say where I was from correctly. Thank god it’s the weekend. It’s only been the first week of clssses and I am so ready for the weekend. I hope classes go well next week!
On Monday, my first class was my German intensive course. Of course, I show up to class an hour early. The building is only a ten minute walk from my apartment. I am a bit scared but this is the class that I am most looking forward to. I really hope that I can improve my German. I have the class every day (Monday-Friday) for two and a half hours until June so I better see some improvement. My class has about 16 people in it. Student in age rage from me (age 20) to probably 60s. I sit next to a girl from Japan and another girl from the Philippines. Both are married. This just gives you an idea that I am not with college students. Most people have been living in Vienna for some period and want to learn the German language. I am the youngest in my class as well as the newest person to be in Vienna. However, I believe that I am at the same level as everyone else in the class. The professor is really nice but I wish he would do more teaching. Class consists of a lot of partner work, listening exercises, and reading. He doesn’t do much besides tell us what to work on. He occasionally gives little tips. I enjoy the class though. It’s an opportunity for me to speak in German and meet people. We had to introduce the person we were sitting next to and I made so many mistakes, the professor had to correct me and I felt a bit embarrassed. I was also the first person to go so other learned from my mistakes.
45 minutes after German class, I had Russian. Now I too, a placement test to get into this class since I have previous experience with Russian. I am in the 3rd level of A1. The class is in an elementary school which I find a bit odd. There are seven people in my class. All are older than me. We had to introduce ourselves in Russian and I felt better because everyone knew as little as I did. We had to work with a partner to review the past 8 chapters. These students all took the first two levels last semester. They all know one another and learned the same things. As we were reviewing, it was evident that they learned different material than I did and vice verse. This will be a challenge. Did I mention that this class is taught in German and we are learning Russian? Ya, sometimes I sat there and had no idea what the professor was saying. She would ask me a question and I just answered, ahhh. This professor is very nice though. She did my placement test so she knew before class started that I was an exchange student from America and my German is not perfect. She told me during class that if I ever need clarification in English, she would gladly do that for me. That is very kind of her. All of the other students seem to be understanding as well when I don’t get something. This class will be a challenge but I don’t think it will be horrible. Oh, this class is from 6:00-8:30. My German class ends at 5:15 so I only had time to eat a sandwich and a banana for dinner in between classes while traveling from one part of the city to the other. I don’t like getting home at 9:00. I can’t do anything about it though.
Tuesday morning: 8:00 AM- Arabic class. There are probably 14 people in this class. There is a mixture of adults and students. The professor was very nice and the beginning of class was very fun. She has an interesting teaching style. For example, we were learning to say hello. She had us walk around the room and told us to keep repeating the word to say hello. It probably looked silly but it helped. We did excercises like this for the first half of class. Then it came to writing and things changed. We got our names in Arabic and had to write them on a name tag. The professor yelled at me but I didn’t understand what she said. I asked the girl next to me and then the professor asked if I spoke German. I told her a little and then she said she could clarify in English if I needed. Apparently, I was supposed to start writing on the right side of the paper, not the left. She might have said that in German but I didn’t hear her. We began to learn vocabulary and learning how to write. It took me about a minute to write a simple word such as school. The professor would come around to watch us write and she would yell at me every time. I would go down with pencil instead of up, I would start on the right side of the page, not the left. She would say, “Andy, this isn’t English.” I was frustrated and embarrassed. I didn’t understand how to write and was scared to continue making mistakes. I don’t even know what some of the vocab terms meant when she said them in German. I was glad to leave this class. I also have no motivation to study the words or do my homework. Hopefully next class goes better. I want to talk to my professor about my difficulty in her class. After class, I went shopping, I finally found the best Hofer. It is very big and there is a huge selection of food. The street car by this Hofer also goes right back to my apartment. How convenient!
On Wednesday, I only had German. I have no issues in this class. I understand everything that is going on. I want to talk to more people in my class but I don’t want to just go up to them and say hi. We have usually four pages of homework every night. I spend about three hours doing German. I keep an extra vocabulary journal for new words I find in class and in my homework. I wish we did more grammar.
Thursday was my history class. This is a Seminar class intended for Masters Students. There are 11 people in my class and I’m the youngest as usual. Most people are working on their doctorate or masters. Finally I have a class with another Erasmus student. Two actually and they are both from Belgium. Since they are both from the same country, they only talked with another. I hope I can talk to them eventually. The professor is really nice. It seems as if I do all the work, then I should pass the class. We have to do readings every week. With those readings, we must submit a one page reflection with a brief summary of the provided texts as well as discussion questions for the next Seminar. One week, a student will have an additional text to read and they will give a 10 minute introduction about that text to the class. Not looking forward to this. I had over 100 pages to read for next week. Surprisingly, I understood what was going on and it was not too painful to read. At the end of class, we must give a 30 minute presentation. I chose to present about the textile industry in medieval Europe. I don’t want to give this presentation but I have to. The last requirement is a paper about the topic of your presentation. This is due July 31 so I might just write it when I am home. This class will have the most work for me. It is only once a week for an hour and a half and I only have ten classes so it’s not so bad. Later that day, I had German. I found out there is an Erasmus student from England in my German class. This was exciting and she was nice to talk to.
On Friday, I only had German. We had a substitute because our regular professor had a meeting. This professor was nice and I learned a lot from her, she actually taught us grammar. She did not do what was in the book but I kind of liked that. We had to introduce ourselves to her. I said I come from America and apparently that is wrong. I have to say USA because she doesn’t know what America is. It’s not a country. Whatever, you knew what I meant. Again, I felt embarrassed. I couldn’t even say where I was from correctly. Thank god it’s the weekend. It’s only been the first week of clssses and I am so ready for the weekend. I hope classes go well next week!
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