INNOVATIONS

What are the most important innovations for you in your daily life? Think about the followings areas?

Communication:

A mobile phone is the most practical innovation in the daily life.

You could call the mother of your daughter’s friend after watching Ratatouille, if she does not find the way to the right cinema.

Transport:

The railjet train. It is a high speed train adapted for the curvaceous rails in Austria. It will launch in March next year.

Home entertainment:

I think the DVD-Player makes the life much easier. It was horrible to find a good scene in movie with the old video recorder. I can not count how often I had to press the forward and the rewind button to find the correct position. Unbelievable.

Food:

The innovator of the microwave has earned the Nobel price from my point of view. The microwave has saved my life as I moved out from the hotel “mother.”

Other:

We should not forget the contact lenses.

Which was the most important innovation for the last century?

1923 – Traffic signal

Which was the most useful?

1956 - TV remote control

Which was the most controversial innovation?

1997 – Dolly the sheep (The first mammal cloned form an adult cell)

And which was the most unpopular?

1994 – GM (genetically-modified) tomatoes.

Vienna. Friday at 20:00, at the Heurigen.

Two Business men are sitting at a shop-worn table. You can recognize that both men are relaxing after a hard business day. The ties are loosening and the Armani jackets are hanging casual up the chair.

Business man No. 1 is an Austrian. The man opposite to him, business man No.2, is his business partner from New Zealand and has never seen a Heurigen before.

Business man No.1 (BM1): “Well man, I think we have made a good deal today. It was hard but fair. Let us enjoy the evening with traditionally Austrian Food and”, BM1 is coming closer to his opponent and is whispering,” Austrian drinks, of course”. He smiles.

Business man No.2(BM2) is laughing: “You be kidding. Fair!? I was a rich man, yesterday. Now, I am poor man with many things what nobody requires. I hope you will pay the bill. I can not do this anymore.”

BM1:”Of course. You are my guest tonight.”

The waiter is coming to the table and is asking: “Was darf ich den Herren kredenzen?”

BM1 (smiling):”Please in English. My guest comes from New Zealand and his German is… äh… a bit rusty.”

The waiter: ”Aha… Okay. What want the Herr from New Seeland eaten? The bloody sausage is very good, today”.

BM2(astonished): “Bloody what???”

BM1: “Black pudding. You take an intestinal from the pork and fill it with some stuff like bacon, lard, onions and other vegetables and many blood of pork. You can enjoy it as a smoked, a fried or a crude alternative.”

BM2:”Oh… I think that is not so my cup of tea or do I look like a vampire?”

BM2 is looking to the waiter: “Do you offer bloodless things, as well!?”

The waiter:” Of course. I can offer eine breadljause.”

BM2 is looking very desperate to this laughing partner.

BM1: “Different cold meat pieces, like bacon, ham and so on. It will be served with some vegetables like tomatoes, onion, horseradish and hot chilli peppers.

BM2: “This sounds nice. Or rather better as the bloody sausage.

BM1 to the waiter:”2mal Bretteljausen bitte! Für meinen Gast extra scharf.

BM1 to BM2: „What do you prefer to drink? Wine, beer, sparkling wine, water???

BM2:”Water???? First I look like a vampire. Now, I look like a horse. In New Zealand just fishes and horses would drink water!? I take a beer, one of these famous Austrian beers.

BM1:”You know, the Austrian beers are very strong and I hope you will not get a hangover tomorrow morning. You have to catch an aeroplane early in the morning.”

BM2:”Do not worry. I can sleep in the plane, let us enjoy the evening. Or better, let us have a nice night on the town.”

Leadership by IKEA

WEALTH

Mr. Kamprad is worth $13.4 bn. He is the 17th richest person in world, according to Frobes.

PERSONALITY

Mr Kamprad is a very charismatic, humble and private man. And he has also a distinct cost-consciousness.

LIFESTYLE
He drives an old car. His dress-code is very informal. From time to time he is not reluctant to some luxuries like Swedish caviar.

LEADERSHIP STYLE
He is informal to his employees and he expresses the feeling of "togetherness" physically which is very uncharacteristic of Sweden.
He walks around in his the group' s stores and is clasping and hugging the employees.

Vocs:

honest
you observe not only the written law but also the unwritten law and social rules for a peaceful coexistence.

dishonest
the opposite of honest.

heir
If the king die will his son or daughter heir the throne.

petty cash box
a small cashier box

whistleblower
An informant. Who uncovers hidden scandals.

law-abiding
to respect all laws and regulations.

bribe
An illegal benefit

a slush fund
Often the fund what is covering the financial bribe.

a con artist
a thief who steals in support of disreputable tricks.

a fraudster
A con artist whith more money.

Lecture:
Ethics was the topic in the 2nd English lecture after the very short summer break, again.

To classify the “world” into honest and dishonest was our first exercise.

After them we discuss the headline of an Austrian newspaper: “The conservative Austrian governing party starts an ethic debate”. The cause of this ethic debate was the demonstration against a build-up of an Islamic centre in the 20. district of Vienna. The demonstration was planned from a civil initiative but as the demonstration took place, has it taken over by a xenophobic political party, which stands on the very right political side. The leader of this party was very close to groups which have been endorsed the Nazi ideology as he was young.

This demonstration and the slogans which there sung from a group was big shame for Austria.

The weekly presentation was hold by Werner and dealt with “Homos”.

It dealt with English homophones and homographs words more precisely.

Homographs are words which have the same spelling but the meaning is also different. Werner has brought up the example of the word “live”. “I live in vienna" and “Guns and Roses WAS the best live band ever”, but this is a myth. Metallica was better on live stage. Another example was "bathing the baby" and "No bathing".

Homophones are words which have same pronunciation but a different meaning. Werner has shown us the example "break" and "brake".
Other examples are “night” and “knight”, “son” and “sun”, “sail” and “sale”, “air” and “heir”.

Homework: Page 96 / Exercise A,B,C,D

A) (Without listening)

e) The R&D department tested the product.
d) We launched the product.
h) The product sold well.
g) People started to complain.
a) The newspapers asked questions.
f) The number of complaints doubled.
b) We recalled the product.
c) The company lost a lot of money

B) (With listening)

e) The R&D department tested the product.
d) We launched the product.
h) The product sold well.
g) People started to complain.
a) The newspapers asked questions.
f) The number of complaints doubled.
b) We recalled the product.
c) The company lost a lot of money

C)

1) A Face cleaning product
2) The product was burning the Skin, caused red marks on face.

D)

a) (Past simple) Well, so what was the problem?
b) (Past continuous) I mean, it was going really well.
c) (Past perfect) You see, we’d tested it for over six months, and, you know, there’d been no bad reaction to it.
d) (Present perfect) Since then, we’ve kept away from skin-care products.

Weekly outside classroom activity:

I am reading the comic-book “The Dark Tower”, based on a novel by Stephen King.

What does you mean?

The first English lesson after the very short summer break dealt with the issue of "Ethics".
What does ethic mean?
It is a very difficult question. I guess, everyone knows what ethic is but to find a perfectly description is not so easy.
In my opinion are ethics are social rules which depends on education, standard of living and gender. And the line between ethic, law and religious standard is blurred.

After this basic discussion we should find a typical Austrian ethic standard and to answer the question if Austria more ethical than other countries.

The “DreamTeam”; Werner, Mr. Lutz and I have not found a typical Austrian ethical code. Also we could not answer the question if Austria more ethical than other countries. It is depend which country you will compare with Austria was our opinion. Well, the “DreamTeam” has failed in the face of this difficult question. :o(.

I want remind me of some vocabulary before the mainly homework begins.

The Ten Commandments

The base for the law and ethic. Dictated by god; forwarded by Moses and bedded at the ark of covenant.

Termination gratuity

You get money if you will fire by your boss without legal cause. The amount depends on the duration of your employment.

Civil servant

Mr. Breitfuß and Mr. Weber are typical representatives for this species.

Estate agent

This is a house and apartment seller.

Starting as apprentice

Begin with your first job and you have no ideas what you should do.

Obesity

If you eat and eat and eat and do no sports you will be very fat. This word means the same but it is more sophisticated and will often use in medical context.

Litigation

A trial

Sue

For instance: To sue for money or to sue for damages means you fight for your right with all power of the law.

Is it ethical for President Verzetnitsch to claim termination gratuity?

According to the law have President V. the right on his side, but for the point of view of moral and ethic he is to adjudge. The point is you can not compare a normal labour with the President of a labour union. The President is responsible for the all heavy labours and not for stock jobbers.

The labours have trust him. With his decision to protect the wrong people he abused this trust. If he has a spark of decency he should abandon his claim.

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You find my answer to the "Ethical Orientation Questionnaire" above. You can also find this questionaire if you click this link.

1. Which is worse?

X hurting someone's feelings by telling the truth

• telling a lie and protecting their feelings

Sweet little lies do not hurt and you will get more friends if you consider the feelings of other persons.

2. Which is the worse mistake?

• to make exceptions too freely
  
  X to apply rules too rigidly

Some rules do not make sense. But the best will be the happy medium in this case.

3. Which is it worse to be?

• unmerciful

X unfair

This is a difficult decision, but after due consideration I have selected unfair. The reason why I have took unfair is not so easy to explain. I think in some case is it justifiable to be unmerciful. Unfair is never justifiable.

4. Which is worse?

X stealing something valuable from someone for no good reason

• breaking a promise to a friend for no good reason

Stealing is a crime. It does not matter whether you have a good reason or not. And a good friend will forgiven a broken promise if it is not happen all too often.

5. Which is it better to be?

• just and fair

X sympathetic and feeling

An unfair person can not be sympathetic and felling. From my point of view the above mentioned personal attributes complement another.

6. Which is worse?

X not helping someone in trouble

• being unfair to someone by playing favorites

It depends on the situation. But if is anybody seriously in danger for life and lamb it is your obligation to help.

7. In making a decision you rely more on

• hard facts

X personal feelings and intuition

The last decisions that I made were just a result of personal feelings and intuition and have not regretted one of them.

8. Your boss orders you to do something that will hurt someone. If you carry out the order, have you actually done anything wrong?

X yes

• no
  

You have the right to challenge the orders by your boss. In particular in such situations as above described. (Except you are a soldier.)

9. Which is more important in determining whether an action is right or wrong?

X whether anyone actually gets hurt

• whether a rule, law, commandment, or moral principle is broken

There are no excuses if you hurt anybody. Except for your life is in danger.

My Score was:

• Care Score: 6
• Justice Score: 3

Let us take a concord -dance

Status: 19.05.2007

Come on babe, let us concord-dance.

You do not know this dance. Oh, babe you must be an alien. Everyone knows the concordance.

Come on baby, let's do the concord-dance.

Okay, I see many lack of comprehension. I try to explain what" concordance" is meaning.

If you do not trust your teacher (in private - never trust the teachers) , use the concordance. A tool what help you to check if the (English-) teacher observe the rules.
If you want know more of this tool, please call the phone number - 0900/666666 - Our Swedish female student Brigitta will help you (7€/minute).

Okay, let us get down to buisness.
Bob - you know Bob? You have to know Bob. Everyone knows Bob, even my mother.
Also Bob have made a presentation. This presentations has been concerning how do you formulate a question in English.
If you want know more of this presentation, please call the phone number - 0900/666669 - Our Spanish female student Estela will help you (7€/minute).

After them we read an article from our school book. The same article was homework one week before. The article describes the powerful help of "Fair Trade". This idea was start in the 60's from nice Dutchmen to help several poor farmers of Nicaragua. Up to date is "Fair Trade" a important branche of trade with a high economic growth.
If you want know more of this topic, please call the phone number - 0900/666696 - Our female student from the Netherlands, Gurda will help you (7€/minute).

Oh - yes. Some new vocs as following have we also learned:
commodity:
are this things like gold, silver and so before machining.

poverty:
the people in Iraq lives in poverty

prosperity:
hm... If you call the above mentioned phone numbers, I will leave in prosperity.

And last but not least - we discuss about the different between. unfilled, uncomplete, incomplete, blank, empty.

Now, my bottle is blank so have to come to the end.

See you soon!

How are' ya mate

Stauts: 12.05.2007

Interviewer: Hello Ladies and Gentlemen in the front of the monitor. We are visit Mr. RR again. And we will ask him - I think you know what we would ask him - "WHAT DID YOU THE LAST ENGLISH LECTURE"
Unfortunately is Mr. RR in the bathroom and take a bath. But as we are waiting for Mr. RR I have the honor to talk with his nice girlfriend, Ms SL.
Hello Ms. SL - How are' ya mate?

Ms. SL: ???

Interviewer: Just kidding. How are you?

Ms. SL: Oh, thank you for your concern. I'm fine.

Interviewer: Can you say what Mr. RR did last English lecture?

Ms. SL: Sorry. Indeed he speaks very often about the English lecture, but not so in details. More about the jokes and fun what he or his colleagues made. I guess the English lecture is one of his likeable lectures at the school of applied sciences. And I am in the know about the required outclass activities. I'm often taking a part of them.

Interviewer: And you do not enjoy these activities?

Ms. SL: Oh, no. I like it - most of the time.

Interviewer: Most of the time?

Ms. SL: Well, once in a while he goes over the top. It was really funny at the zoo - he asked for the English zoo guide and we made a really nice discovery tour. But the whole time at the zoo, he spoke only English. The problem was that he mixed English with German. If he did not know the correct English word - he replaced it with the German word. This is okay - we speak in this form often at home. But the information guides believe he would them taken for a fool as he as ask for instance: " Can you tell me how and at which time you fütterst this großen hässlichen bird"

Interviewer: This sounds funny.

Ms SL: Well, you have not seen the facial expression of the information guides. They looked not so funny. Or a further example. We were went out for diner last sunday... in our favourite resteraunt. The waitress knows us very well. But he spoke only English. Ask for the English Menue and so on. And when she had spoken in German, he was just pretending that he did not understand. The waitress looks was very similar to the looks of the zoo guides. It was embarrassed, I will never go in this resteraunt again. It is a great pity, the salad taste really good.

Interviewer: Do you thing Mr. RR have improved his English due to outclass activities?

Ms SL: Definitely! I do not know if this only the outclass activities but he had improved his English since last year. For instance, we watch the U.S. TV-Series "Friends" in the original language. As we start with season 1, he asks me very often what about the people talk. Now, we are at season 4 and sometimes I have to ask him what they talk.
Hm... I think... hm... yes, he understand almost everything. But as mentioned before, he had still problems with speaking.

Interviewer: And writing!?

Ms. SL: Buh... read this BLOG and decide for yourself.

Interviewer: Ohhh.. I see Mr. RR is leaving the bath room.

....will be contiuned....

I don't pull my finger out - I will pull ten fingers out

Status:05.05.2007

Interviewer: Welcome! We are sitting here at the living room of Mr. RR. He will tell us something about the last english lecture.
Mr. RR - Let us start with a simple question. What did you last english lecture?

RR: This is not so simple. Let us start 3 weeks ago.
Oh, no let us start from the beginning. I think, it was one of the first english lecture. Martin - he is the man who has the rewarding task to teach us.
Well! Martin had the idea that we all start a BLOG - like this.
In this BLOG we should we wrote, what we did last lecture. Similar the topic by this interview. Therefore we should take notes of the lecture.

Interviewer: Yes! I think this is an good idea. How does it work?

RR: Hmm... It works. More or less. But I think less than more. And I suppose Martin has the same opinion.
This bring us back to actual question; the last english lecture.
Martin ask us what we did last leture at the beginning. The last lecture was 3 weeks ago. Succinctly, It was not so sucessfull. As a result of... hm... I would say as a result of too less notes.
And of my point of view was this the reason for a new idea from martin. We have to write a book entitled as "ENGLISH". And this book is the BLOG in writen Form.

Interviewer: And you have only discussed about this book?

RR: Oh, No way. We spent approximately an half an hour at this topic. Afterwards we got a very good presention that deals with the difference between "have to" / "must" and "doesn't have to" / "must not", respectivetly. The presenter was our collegue Martin - the ohter Martin.

Interviewer: And now you know what is the difference beetween the mention phrases.?

RR: Of course. Or let me rephrase that. I know it now better than before the presentation.

Interviewer: And how long takes it?

RR: What? The presentation? 20 minutes, I guess.

Interviewer: And then?

RR: Ohhhh!? Wait a minute. I have to get my notes.

Interviewer: Okay.

RR: Sorry. I hope you havn`t wait too long.

Interviewer: No, it was okay.

RR: Where did we stop? Oh, yeah - I know it already. After the presentation, we made some exercises from our course book. Cultures was the topic. Especially the right words in daily business situation depends from the country where you are.

Interviewer: The book is okay?

RR: Yeah. The books that we use are quite okay.

Interviewer: Oh, I see it is time to go now. Anything else?

RR: Well! Finally, we got the Homework and really nice explanation about the correct use of phrases. :o)

Interviewer: Thank Mr. RR for this nice interview.

Feels like a child - One day at the Zoo.

Yesterday, I was at Zoo Schönbrunn in Vienna. At the information centre I ask for a zoo guide in English to improve my English apart the usual business English.
It was really nice to see, which animals were hide under the unknown English vocabulary.
Okay, the surprise kept within a limit for some animals like lion, tiger, panda, giraffe or African elephant.
But I was quite surprised to see that meerkats aren’t a species of monkeys. Meerkats are the lovely animals well-know from the Walt Disney Movie “Lion King”. In this movie is the name of one of this animal “Pumba”.
A Mountain hare is a snow-rabbit :o).
Lynx is a smaller version of a tiger and you can find this animal also in Europe. The big cat is also rare domiciled in Austria according the information plate at the enclosure.
Or an Egyptian vulture is one of these ugly birds, which lives mainly on carrion.
These are just few examples of my discovery tour.

I have to admit, I like the zoo and it is every time a pleasure to look at the animals.
I have bought an annual season ticket, of course. So I’m looking forward to my next visit at the Zoo. And I’m curious which animal is hidden under the name “Garganey“.

Helpful advices for the business trip in Austria.

Conversation

The Austrians like the causal conversation even in the business life. To get a joke is an important part of all conversation.

Popular is to rail against the Austrian or alternative the European government. It is also a common practice to mock actual Austrian soccer players and their coach of course. If you want talk about sports so do not forget to mention skiing.

Gift-giving

To give a business gift is not essential. But no one will to object to get a small gift. Wine, chocolates or sweeties are preferred. Expensive gifts could be deemed to be attempt at bribery. So it is better you present it private.

What is the problem?

Patient: Hello Doc.
Doctor: Hello! What is the problem?
Patient: I am ill. I have stomach ache.
Doctor: Oh, I'm sorry but I'm a dentist. Please open your mouth.

Okay, this short story should be an example for what we did last english lesson.
At the beginning we spent almost an hour to discus what can happen when you need a doctor abroad.
We talked about some problems with no english speaking repectionist when we need a doctor. Furthermore we discussed about the symptons that can be a sign of special illnesses, espeacially the symptoms of heart attacs.
For these cases some helpful vocabularies.

diarrhoea
This means you can not stop sitting on the bathroom thorne. OR
A condition in which faeces are discharged from the bowels frequently and in a liquid form.

vomiting
This means you enjoy your lunch twice. OR
Eject matter from the stomach through the mouth.

cold
Go out without clothes and jump into danube at this time and I'm sure you will get to know what a cold is. OR
A common infection in which the mucous membrane of the nose and throat becomes inflamed, causing running at the nose and sneezing.

trembling
Somebody call it dancing a call it trembling. OR
shake involuntarily, typically as a result of anxiety, excitement, or frailty

The symptomes for a "DOCTOR NOW!" call.

• Pressure on my chest
• Can't get enough air
• My arm is numb (or was it bum)
• A pain in the left arm

After this short intruction in the World of Medicine we listened to a presentation of the less-haired Dude, also know as Brad or Werner Pitt. The presentation dealed with "Compound Addectives"
We learned that a compound addectives is mostly used for the describtion of personal appearance or person's character.
Werner did a real good job. Well done, Dude.

Afterwards we had a look at the blogs that we wrote last week, especially Miris, Jürgen and mine.

Then we made some exercises form our course book.
And finally we got our homework.

Okay, I am going to bed now.

No Milk today.

What have I learned in the last english lecture on Saturday!?
First of all I have definite realised that my level of the knowledge of the English language is not so high than the level on the rest of my colleagues.
The conclusion of this lesson is I should try to find a way to reach the level of the class captains as soon as possible. HOW? – This is just the 1.000.000 Dollar question.

A another important point what I learned, was that “Unfortunately” will never use in a positive context (Exceptions proves the rule, but I think in minute :o) cases).

Last but not least, I have to mention the perfect presentation of suffixed nouns by my wonderful colleague Niki/Claudia.
Now I know that many suffixes exists and if you learn a new word don't forget the suffix and also the prefix, so you will expand (EXPANSION [noun]) your vocabulary faster and easier.

And now for something completely different. Not completely but almost completely
Outside Class-room English:
Yesterday, I attend a reading by one of the best thriller author all over the thriller world: Mr. Jeffery Deaver. He was reading from his new book – “The cold moon”.
I was very surprised from this man. He looks like a college professor and he showed us a big sense for humour.
By reading his books, I thought he is a smart serious ex-cop or something like that. Doesn’t matter, I bought the new book and he has signed it, of course. But, unfortunately I have no time to read it yet.

Hello Blog-World

I have no idea what I should do but I do it.

Well, let us start.
I'am newbie in the world of blogs and therefore I would like to apologise me for all lapses that I surely create.

I have to admit that the some blogs are really interesting.
So I found a blog about "Frank Miller", my favourit comic writer and illustrator respectively. There is a perfect summary of his work and also a foresight to coming project.
For me was absolutly interesting to see the man behind this marvellous drawings and storys.
The Url of this blog is:
http://www.geekinthecity.com/comics.php
Searching for Frank Miller.

Later on I will more report of me discovery journey in the world of blogs.