Steve's sandbox

Tag: Munich

  • Oktoberfest – Jonathan Saad: Germany, October 2018

    The entrance to Oktoberfest

    Hallo! Noch ein Monat schon vorbei und deshalb ist jetzt die Zeit für noch ein Bericht! Da ich jetzt den Großteil der Administration hinter mir hatte, konnte ich diesen Monat mehr von Deutschland erleben. Und wo wäre den besser anzufangen, als beim Oktoberfest?

    Vom Oktoberfest hat fast jeder etwas gehört. Jedes Jahr findet es in München für ungefähr 2,5 Wochen statt. Viele sind traditionell bayerisch verkleidet und alle trinken Bier, es ist nämlich das internationale Bier Festival. Jedes Jahr kommen Millionen von Leuten aus ganz Deutschland und der ganzen Welt zu München, um das Fest zu besuchen. Dieses Jahr waren 6,3 Millionen Besuchern! Das ganze Fest war sehr beeindruckend – die Größe von dem Event habe ich (obwohl ich es wusste) nicht erwartet und die 1 Liter Bier Maßkrüge waren viel größer und schwerer als erwartet! Obwohl Oktoberfest München das originelle Oktoberfest ist, wird es in der ganzen Welt nachgemacht. Dieses Wochenende hat sogar Darmstadt ein Oktoberfest! Ich gehe bestimmt dahin um es mit dem originellen Oktoberfest in München zu vergleichen.

    Außer Oktoberfest sind auch andere Sachen in diesem Monat passiert, diesen Monat ist nämlich auch das Studium angefangen. Da gibt es auch natürlich viel zu tun, von Kurse wählen über Sport und Studentenvereine. Ein Verein, das mich sehr interessieren würde dabei mitzumachen, wäre „Dart“. Dies ist nämlich die Motorrennen Mannschaft von der TU Darmstadt, wo Studierende jedes Jahr ein neues Elektroauto bauen, mit dem sie dann gegen andere Universitäten um die Wette rennen. Ich kenne diesen Wettbewerb aus meiner Englischen Universität, allerdings scheinen die Mannschaften in Deutschland größer zu sein, und mehr Arbeit hereinzustecken. Es gibt sogar einige Studenten die ein ganzes Jahr, nur am Auto arbeiten, statt zu studieren!

    Ich freue mich ihnen nächsten Monat noch mehr über meine ersten Monate in Darmstadt zu erzählen!

    Enjoying the Masskruge at Oktoberfest

    ENGLISH:

    Hello! Another month has already flown by, so it’s time for another report! Because most of the admin has now been done, this month I had a lot more time to explore Germany, so would be better to start than with Oktoberfest?

    Almost everyone has heard something about Oktoberfest. It occurs in Munich for about 2.5 weeks every year. Many are dressed in the traditional clothing of Bayern, and everyone drinks Beer – after all, Oktoberfest is the international Beer festival. Millions of people come every year from all over Germany and all over the World to experience the festival. This year, there were 6.3 million visitors! The entire festival was very impressive. The size (although I knew how big it was) was surprising, and the 1L Beers glasses were much larger and heavier than expected! Although Oktoberfest Munich is the original, cities all over the world do their own small versions. In fact, Darmstadt too does an Oktoberfest, which will be taking place this weekend. I will definitely be going, and comparing it with the original in Munich.

    Other things have also happened this month, for example my course has finally started! This of course means there is a lot to do, from choosing courses, to sports, and other clubs. One club I would be very interested in participating in, would be “Dart”. This is the motor racing team of TU Darmstadt, where every year students build an electric car that is raced against other universities. I know about this competition from my UK university, however I get the impression that German teams are larger and invest more time in their cars. There are even students that spend a whole year working on the car, instead of studying!

    I’m looking forward to sharing my experience of Darmstadt with you next month!

  • Eleanor Winstanley – Case Study: Berlin, Germany 2015

    My name’s Ellie Winstanley and I am a 21 year old language student in Manchester, although following my period abroad I am currently living in my home town of Worcester. For the German side of my year abroad I spent 4 months in Berlin working in a nursery.

    In late August I travelled to Berlin. My first week in Berlin was spent doing a German language course and my accommodation a homestay, which meant that as soon as I arrived in Germany I had to speak German. The language course itself didn’t provide new information that I hadn’t learnt in University, but it meant that my brain adjusted to hearing and thinking in German, and it allowed me to ask people currently living in Berlin for advice on things such as transport.  I also made friends from across Europe who stayed in Berlin for a while, with whom I could practice my German.

    In my first week I was under pressure from work to find a flat (as I couldn’t sign my work contract without a German address), so I frantically looked for a flat using “WG-Gesucht”. Luckily after four days, I found a flat in a central location in Berlin with two girls and one boy (all German speaking). Living with German speakers was at first very difficult, and in some ways isolating, as I found it very hard to understand quick speech, and was lacking in everyday vocabulary. However, after a few weeks I became friends with my male flatmate, who was very patient with my German, and often invited me to do things with him and his friends (real Berliners).  I also became friends with my flatmate’s cousin, a Syrian refugee. As he didn’t speak any English, and me no Arabic, we had to communicate in German, which helped us both a lot.

    During the seventeen weeks of my John Speak Trust Scholarship I volunteered in a nursery, in which there were kids aged 1-6. My task was to play with the children and assist the nursery nurses with everyday tasks, such as food time, changing time and sleep time. Although this isn’t a career path I’d like to pursue in the future, I feel it was perfect for learning the language, as the children could not yet speak any English and all of my co-workers were German, I could experience how they communicated together. It was also very interesting to work with the younger children and see how their language was starting to develop, and how they would often make grammatical mistakes as they were learning. I would say most of the barriers that I encountered were at work, at first I felt very out of my depth as I was not only lacking in basic vocabulary, but the specific vocabulary needed for a nursery. One particular situation I remember was when a child vomited in their sleep and I had to tell a senior member of staff, but I didn’t know how to say this, so I just used hand gestures to express this! I often found that it would help to make hand gestures, and people would repeat the words back to me, which was an excellent way to learn.  In the last few weeks of my placement I found it much easier to express myself, and I could communicate much more without thinking.

    The money from the John Speak Trust Scholarship allowed me to travel to Hamburg, Munich, Cologne and Switzerland.  Not only was it fun to travel to these places, but also I was able to practice German and experience the different accents and dialects in Germany.

    I currently have one and a half years left of study at the University of Manchester, six months of which I will spend studying in the south of Spain, and one year of which studying back in Manchester. I hope to pursue a career in translation when I’m older, living in the United Kingdom. Since returning home, I have used my German as I have been in contact with people that I met in Germany, but I have also been reading in German, which is noticeably a lot easier following my time abroad.

    I would definitely recommend the John Speak Language Trust to anyone wanting to spend a period of time studying abroad.  The Scholarship allowed me to volunteer in Germany, as I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford to pay rent, which significantly improved my language. I also found writing my monthly report very useful, as I was able to practice my German writing skills, which I unfortunately didn’t often have to opportunity to do whilst in Germany.  I noticed that with each report that it became easier to write in German.

     

    Eleanor Winstanley

     

     

  • Schloss Nymphenburg Castle and Grounds, Munich, Germany

    The palace is beautiful both outside and inside. A visit to the gardens in the summer is a must in Munich. They are beautiful and a nice and quite spot just outside the city centre.

  • Schloss Nymphenburg, Munich, Germany

    The palace itself is quite opulent and beautiful. When you walk into the main room upon beginning the tour, you will be amazed at the over-the-top decorations – cherubs, cherubs, everywhere!

  • Allianz Arena

    The Allianz Arena  is a football stadium in Munich, Bavaria, Germany with a 69,901 seating capacity. Widely known for its exterior of inflated ETFE plastic panels, it is the first stadium in the world with a full color-changing color exterior. Located at 25 Werner-Heisenberg-Allee at the northern edge of Munich’s Schwabing-Freimann borough on the Fröttmaning Heath, it is the third largest arena in Germany behind Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund and the Olympiastadion in Berlin.