Vad är kostigt i Sverige? - Jag tycker att det är kostigt att många svenska personer säger "aaww" i stället för "ja!". I Tyskland säger man mer en llud som "mmh!" Det är jätteintressant att min dotter säger "aaww" när hon pratar svenska men "mmh!" när hon pratar tysk. - När man måste vänta i några svenska butiker, till exempel apotek, behöver man först rita en notera med en nummer. Sedan måste man vänta och titta på en visning. När man se sin nummer på displayen får man gå och prata med säljare.

Studera i Sverige Jag har varit i Sverige nästan fem månader för att studera. Det har varit en roligt och intressant tid! Innan veckarna gjorde jag en praktik eller studerade jag på universitetet och på helgenar reste jag med min pojkvän och våra dotter genom Sverige. Vi besökte många stader till exempel Gotenburg och Stockholm och vandrade i många vackra naturreservater. Sverige är åtminstone precis så vacker som alla resehandboker beskrivar. Man måste ser det med sina egena ögon!

Berätta om mat Jag tycker om nästan allt mat. Jag försöka äta friska mat med vitaminer, till exempel frukt och grönsaker. I min familj finns det köt bara en eller två gånger per vecka eftersom det är mycket dyr och inte så bra för ekologien och våra hälsa. Min favorit rätt är pasta med tomatsås med räkor eller sushi. Jag inte laga sushi för min själv men jag älskar gå ut på en japanisk restaurang. I Tyskland man äter rätter från olika lander men vi har också traditioneller rätter, till exempel Bratwurst, Sauerkraut och Schweinebraten. Jag äter det ibland men dom är inte mina favoriter rätter. Jag älska svenska mat, särskilt svenska tårtor och kanelbullar. Jag ska sakner dom mycket när jag är tillbaka i Tyskland.

Daily conversation in English I've had daily conversations in English for the last three days in a row because I want to become an advanced speaker of English. On the one hand, it gives me a good feeling because I know that I finally got around starting to make English a part of my everyday live. On the other hand, I cannot feel I have improven during that time which is frustrating me. Depending on my daily mood, I am either pessimistic or realistic about it and at times I rather see the negative things I can't stop thinking that I should be much more fluent and I compare my current English level with the level of my fellow students and I think that I will never be a proficient speaker. Particularly, when I take into account how proficient some of my language partners are at German, my native language, even though German is a much harder language and most of them have had fewer exposure to the language than I had to English. However, I know that I need to set aside these negative thoughts and that it doesn't help to compare oneself to other people.

How do you use the word "quixotic" in a sentence? I've just learned a new vocabulary: "quixotic" while watching the TV series "Castle". I've got a rough idea what it means but could someone give me an example sentence with "quixotic"?

How I discovered my passion for English I started learning English at the age of 10. At the times when I went to school, most students in Germany did not have English as a subject at primary school but after they changed school and got into the fifth grade. During my first years of English I was neither a very good English student nor a very enthusiastic one. I still remember how much grammar the teacher tried to put in our small heads during the first years of English. For me, there was no way to understand the difference between simple past and present perfect (in German we don't differentiate between the two). I was just not ready for this big step, and I no one in our class could really talk freely at that time which would have been more important. However, I've always loved travelling which was the reason why I decided to go on a language vacation in Torquay, UK after I finished the 10th grade. It has been one of the best decisions of my life! It was my first holiday that I spent apart from my parents and it has been one of my favorites! What a huge difference it makes to use a foreign language in a natural context! I lived together with a host family and another language student from Spain! Although I was still shy and probably it was not that much I actually talked. But - I began to love English and everything that has to do with it. I immediately fell in love with the British accent, I started watching British films without the German synchronization and I read almost all of Agatha Christie's novels. And I'll give you three guesses from which Ms Christie comes. ;)

Fak ju Göhte (part I- summary) Having missed the most successful German movie of the last decade, I've finally got around to watching "Fak ju Göhte". Even though it is a comedy and is not meant to be taken too seriously, for me as a future teacher it was interesting as to how the filmmakers portrayed school and discussed different teacher styles. --- "Fak ju Göhte" is a misspelling of "F*ck you, Goethe!" which already hints at the poor orthographic skills of the main character and former criminal Zeki Müller. Having been just released from prison, Zeki wants to find the place where his ex-girlfriend once buried the money he got from bank robberies to pay off debts from his criminal past. After he determines the position of the money with a GPS device, he discovers that a new gym of a high school nearby was built on that exact spot. He decides to apply for a job as the school’s caretaker to gain regular access to the school’s basement. Due to some misunderstandings he ends up being employed as a substitute teacher instead. At first, Zeki does not show interest in his students and does not know what and how he should teach them. However, the students respect him because of his authoritative leading style which even includes threatening the children with violence. As opposed to Zeki’s attitude, we get to know Elisabeth ‘Lisi’ Schnabelstedt, a teacher trainee with high ambitions but low assertiveness. She does not manage to be the class teacher of a rather challenging group of teenagers and nearly despairs because the students do not listen to her and keep playing tricks on her.

Fak ju Göhte (part II- review) After watching the film I felt that the money and time spent on it was a complete waste of time. Everything was so much over the top which is okay for a comedy I suppose. However, I did not like the way typical stereotypes and prejudices were drawn on, for example the way students were presented as lazy and dumb because they did not want to do anything with their lives. Many students in the film stated that all they wanted to do with their lives is to receive unemployment pay. On account of that, Zeki decided to visit some unemployed families with his students to scare them off and make them change their minds. These unemployed people were portrayed as antisocial, alcoholic jerks. Don’t get me wrong – if these stereotypes were used for a satire, I could have laughed about it- but the way they were used in the film was just superficial and made me feel empathically embarrassed. Another thing which I found even worse was the way teaching styles were discussed. I remember a teenager girl once saying to me - and she was very serious about it- that she wishes more teachers would be like Zeki Müller. That's why I thought the ptroagonist would have been someone pedagogically untrained but with a good heart and intuition but now that I know better... Well- seriously? You want to have teachers who are neither interested in you nor believe in your potentials? Teachers who follow only one teaching principle that is 'the strongest always wins' meaning to push kids’ head under water and things like that? Well, hopefully she was just blended by the handsomeness of main character’s actor Elyas M’Barek.