I was contemplating writing a blog entry around how it would be better to be a poor person here in Austria versus the USA. Then this BBC Panorama program aired entitled "Poor America."
Sunday, February 26, 2012
I would rather be poor in Austria.
Dear readers,
I was contemplating writing a blog entry around how it would be better to be a poor person here in Austria versus the USA. Then this BBC Panorama program aired entitled "Poor America."
I was contemplating writing a blog entry around how it would be better to be a poor person here in Austria versus the USA. Then this BBC Panorama program aired entitled "Poor America."
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Restaurants we like --- updated
Note to reader: Sorry for the unintentional highlighting, that's what happens when you cut and paste while the Spellcheck feature is enabled...
As
my wife, Rachel, is a vegetarian, it can at times be challenging to find good
Veggie-friendly options in this meat eater's paradise.
So,
for your knowledge and mine, I am dedicating this post to good places to find
Veggie options.
1. Der Wiener Deewan- Pakistani Food. This
is definitely not a romantic setting for an important occasion. Instead,
it's buffet style all you can eat with an interesting catch, you pay what you
want- for the food. There are usually six buffet options, half
vegetarian. The fare is similar to Indian with lentil based
dishes, potatoes and vegetables eaten over rice and with a special
bread. You can also order drinks here (Beer, wine, etc.) off the menu
which lists drinks' prices. Situated near the Vienna University, this place
gets a lot of patronage from students and it can be difficult to find a booth.
2. Bankok Vienna- Thai food. Here is a
restaurant with beautiful decor complementing good Thai cuisine. We've
eaten here twice without a reservation around 6 pm (18:00) and had no problems
getting a table. However, we've noticed it starts to get busy as we're
leaving so reservations are recommended. Typical Thai fare with good Pad
Thai and a delicious Red Curry with Vegetables under the Vegetarian
offerings. For four people with drinks, expect to pay around 60 Euros---
pretty reasonable from our experiences. This would be an appropriate
venue for a special evening out!
3.
Colombo Hoppers- Sri Lanka food. The cuisine is similar
to Indian. We've been there twice. The first time, we went for
dinner, it was good but a bit pricey. This place is definitely not dining
on the cheap. The second time, we showed up for a lunch buffet (on
weekdays only?).
If
you have the chance, the lunch buffet was a good value and there were
vegetarian as well as meat options.
4.
Rachel's colleague took us to this cool Italian place specializing in thin
crust individual serving pizzas. It's called Pizza Mari in the 2nd district.
We wholeheartedly recommend the buffalo mozzarella pizza.
Enjoy!
5.
A cool place in our neighborhood that we've discovered is called Gelbmann's Gaststube (Wilhelminenstraße 62,
1160 Wien). This places serves more local Viennese
cuisine. There's not much on offer for Vegetarians but I had some Speck Knodel with
Sauerkraut there that was amazing. Speck Knodel are two
large Matzoh ball looking dumplings stuffed with bacon in this case.
Sometimes they are also stuffed with Spinach. I like this place
because it serves traditional Viennese food in a traditional setting
surrounded by locals!
6.
The last place I'll list here serves Nepali cuisine. It's called
"Yakundyeti" and it's located
on Hofmühlgasse 21, 1060 Wien. This place is a must for
Vegetarians. There are some dishes on the menu which give a sampler of
their specialities. The cuisine is characterized by lentils, potatoes,
and other staples. What sets it apart is the seasonings and sauces!
7.
Finally, if you like a big bowl of Pho (Vietnamese
soup), I'd recommend checking out Saigon Restaurant located in the Naschmarkt. http://www.saigon.at/home.php
I
have ordered the Pho with
chicken and glass noodles twice and have not been disappointed. They also
have a small market attached to the back of the restaurant which offers
imported Asian food products. I was able to buy a small bottle of this
red spicy sauce called Sriracha there.
One
warning: this place is really small and usually packed. If you are
a party of two, they'll seat you at a four person table but if another couple
comes in, they'll pull the table a millimeter apart and seat that couple next
to you. It is not an intimate environment but might be a good opportunity
to enjoy lunch with some strangers!
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Learning a foreign language
Learning a foreign language is one of those things on everyone's bucket list. “Before I die, I'd like to learn German/Italian/Farsi/Hindi...” Learning a language can be daunting, but success depends on one’s ultimate goal.
I remember going to college, being surrounded by international students and feeling truly amazed and jealous at their ability to switch effortlessly between two languages. At that time, I had four years of high school French under my belt along with several semesters in college. I was somewhat proud of my ability in a foreign language, but nobody would have mistaken me for a native French speaker.
When living in Budapest for several years, I took a three-hour-per-day, five-day-per-week intensive course of study in Hungarian. I was 25 years old when I started learning Hungarian. It should be noted that Hungarian is my father's native tongue. However, also worth noting is that except for a few polite terms, I learned almost no Hungarian from my father.
So, at the age of 25, I started learning a language which most seem to think is one of the most difficult in the world. From that learning experience and others since, I have come to some conclusions about learning a foreign language.
First, anyone at any age can learn a foreign language. The simplest components of language are its basic sounds. Sounds combine to form words, words combine to form phrases, and phrases communicate meaning. But many find learning to create a new sound daunting as an adult. For instance, I had a difficult time rolling the letter ‘R’, and I don’t feel that I mastered it until my mid-20s. However, regardless of where we are born, we all have the same tools for creating sounds -- basically our tongues, teeth, mouth cavity, and throat. With proper instruction and practice, anyone can learn to make new sounds.
Second, when you start to learn a second language, you must define your end goal. Perhaps I differ from many in not viewing perfection as an end goal. Instead, I hope to communicate. This means if I want to order a Bratwurst in a roll with a little mustard in German, I have the words and syntactic structure to communicate my desire, even though I may not know whether Bratwurst and mustard are feminine, masculine, or neuter, or which corresponding article to use to express something more complicated about Bratwurst and mustard.
Here is why perfection is an unrealistic, even asinine goal: Now, in my 30s, if I want to be perfect in German, perhaps I will compare myself to my native speaking German peers. But this is unrealistic because they have been immersed in a Germa-only environment for 30+ years of their life. Just to compare it to American students, each year of schooling in the US equals something like 10,000 new words. I have met people who aim to overcome this vocabulary hurdle by learning 50 new words every day. I have rarely seen this as a successful strategy.
Furthermore, you don't need that many words if your goal is day-to-day communication. The vocabulary needed for daily spoken interaction amounts to far, far fewer than 10,000 words. Think of the many people around the world who manage to interact successfully and communicate effectively, even though they only completed five years of schooling. Still others have never completed even one full year, yet they speak a language sufficiently well to satisfy their daily needs.
So, when you start to learn a language, define your end goal realistically!
For example, I'm learning German now.
let's look at the verb 'gehen' which means to go.
I can now conjugate this verb in three tenses: Present, Perfekt, and Prateritum.
Ich gehe zu Hause. I go home. OR I am going home.
Sie geht zu Hause. She goes home. OR She is going home.
Perfekt is the past tense used for spoken interactions.
Ich bin zu Hause gegangen. I went home.
Prateritum is the past form used for writing and reading.
Ich ging zu Hause. I went home.
So, arguably, with just these three tenses, I can speak, read, and write in the Present and Past.
In many cases, one can also communicate in German in the future tense using the present tense construction.
Therefore, if my goal is being able to communicate day to day needs in spoken language, what more do I need than the ability to speak in past, present, and the future?
So, to sum it up --
You CAN learn a foreign language at any age.
You CAN learn to hear and make new sounds at any age.
You should BE REALISTIC about your goals. If your aim is to communicate via spoken language successfully with others, you don't need nearly as much vocabulary or grammatical training as you think.
Therefore, if learning another language is on your bucket list, recognize that if you are reading and understanding these words, you already have many skills in your first language which will help you succeed in a second.
AND THEN... you can even learn a third.
I remember going to college, being surrounded by international students and feeling truly amazed and jealous at their ability to switch effortlessly between two languages. At that time, I had four years of high school French under my belt along with several semesters in college. I was somewhat proud of my ability in a foreign language, but nobody would have mistaken me for a native French speaker.
When living in Budapest for several years, I took a three-hour-per-day, five-day-per-week intensive course of study in Hungarian. I was 25 years old when I started learning Hungarian. It should be noted that Hungarian is my father's native tongue. However, also worth noting is that except for a few polite terms, I learned almost no Hungarian from my father.
So, at the age of 25, I started learning a language which most seem to think is one of the most difficult in the world. From that learning experience and others since, I have come to some conclusions about learning a foreign language.
First, anyone at any age can learn a foreign language. The simplest components of language are its basic sounds. Sounds combine to form words, words combine to form phrases, and phrases communicate meaning. But many find learning to create a new sound daunting as an adult. For instance, I had a difficult time rolling the letter ‘R’, and I don’t feel that I mastered it until my mid-20s. However, regardless of where we are born, we all have the same tools for creating sounds -- basically our tongues, teeth, mouth cavity, and throat. With proper instruction and practice, anyone can learn to make new sounds.
Second, when you start to learn a second language, you must define your end goal. Perhaps I differ from many in not viewing perfection as an end goal. Instead, I hope to communicate. This means if I want to order a Bratwurst in a roll with a little mustard in German, I have the words and syntactic structure to communicate my desire, even though I may not know whether Bratwurst and mustard are feminine, masculine, or neuter, or which corresponding article to use to express something more complicated about Bratwurst and mustard.
Here is why perfection is an unrealistic, even asinine goal: Now, in my 30s, if I want to be perfect in German, perhaps I will compare myself to my native speaking German peers. But this is unrealistic because they have been immersed in a Germa-only environment for 30+ years of their life. Just to compare it to American students, each year of schooling in the US equals something like 10,000 new words. I have met people who aim to overcome this vocabulary hurdle by learning 50 new words every day. I have rarely seen this as a successful strategy.
Furthermore, you don't need that many words if your goal is day-to-day communication. The vocabulary needed for daily spoken interaction amounts to far, far fewer than 10,000 words. Think of the many people around the world who manage to interact successfully and communicate effectively, even though they only completed five years of schooling. Still others have never completed even one full year, yet they speak a language sufficiently well to satisfy their daily needs.
So, when you start to learn a language, define your end goal realistically!
For example, I'm learning German now.
let's look at the verb 'gehen' which means to go.
I can now conjugate this verb in three tenses: Present, Perfekt, and Prateritum.
Ich gehe zu Hause. I go home. OR I am going home.
Sie geht zu Hause. She goes home. OR She is going home.
Perfekt is the past tense used for spoken interactions.
Ich bin zu Hause gegangen. I went home.
Prateritum is the past form used for writing and reading.
Ich ging zu Hause. I went home.
So, arguably, with just these three tenses, I can speak, read, and write in the Present and Past.
In many cases, one can also communicate in German in the future tense using the present tense construction.
Therefore, if my goal is being able to communicate day to day needs in spoken language, what more do I need than the ability to speak in past, present, and the future?
So, to sum it up --
You CAN learn a foreign language at any age.
You CAN learn to hear and make new sounds at any age.
You should BE REALISTIC about your goals. If your aim is to communicate via spoken language successfully with others, you don't need nearly as much vocabulary or grammatical training as you think.
Therefore, if learning another language is on your bucket list, recognize that if you are reading and understanding these words, you already have many skills in your first language which will help you succeed in a second.
AND THEN... you can even learn a third.
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