Foreign Encounters: Part 1

Foreign Encounters:  Part 1

The other night, I was in a British-style pub (complete with doubledecker London style bus monument just outside) talking with a Norwegian guy. 

The trial of the mass murderer Anders Breivik has been covered here extensively.  For those who don't know who he is?  Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia:

Anders Behring Breivik (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈɑnːəʃ ˈbeːɾɪŋ ˈbɾæɪʋiːk]; born 13 February 1979)^[1] is a Norwegian accused mass murderer^{[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]} and the confessed perpetrator^[13][14] of the 2011 attacks in Norway. On 22 July 2011, Breivik bombed the government buildings in Oslo, which resulted in eight deaths. He then carried out a mass shooting at a camp of the Workers' Youth League (AUF) of the Labour Party on the island of Utøya where he killed 69 people, mostly teenagers.^[15][16][17]

I asked this Norwegian friend about the trial.  The discussion turned to the maximum sentence he could receive.  The news had reported the maximum sentence would be 21 years in prison. 

As an American, this short short sentence was shocking.  We then talked about how depending upon what state (in the USA) the mass murder was committed in, Breivik might face the death penalty.  No European nation imposes the death penalty.  Although I have since found out that Austrian murderers could possibly be sentenced to life in prison. 

This Norwegian friend mentioned that new research states the death penalty is not an effective deterrent to murder as its proponents claim.  One argument, for example, is that criminals do not have enough knowledge about the different capital punishment laws in different states. 

I then went on to state that, in all likelihood, even if he was convicted in a non-capital punishment state, he would likely receive back to back life sentences amounting to several hundred years. 

A follow up conversation about this topic yesterday with an Austrian journalist revealed the following:

Quite recently, there have been peaceful demonstrations in Oslo against Breivik.  The Prime Minister, their head politician, has actually gone on the record to tell the Norwegian people that this must be a time of tolerance. 

Here is an AP article regarding demonstrators singing songs as a sign of solidarity.

http://news.yahoo.com/thousands-sing-defiance-norway-mass-killer-breivik-rejecting-170012539.html

Modern Medicine vs. Traditional Chinese Therapies

Modern Medicine vs. Traditional Chinese Therapies                  

One of the ironies of life in Europe is that although there is a universal health care system here, some Austrians opt for Traditional Chinese Therapies to heal their ailments as opposed to modern medicine. 

I have been advised to go visit a Chinese doctor to whom I would have to pay perhaps several hundred Euros out of pocket.  Please bear in mind monthly installments are being deducted from my paycheck for the universal health care system. 

Interestingly, I found this article online.  Apparently Australian border officials seized powders, flakes and other component ingredients used in these traditional Chinese concoctions.  Then a lab ran some tests presumably to answer the question:  What the heck are in these things? 

In the end, the article reports, the samples contained:

"A host of potential toxins, allergens and traces of endangered animals showed up in DNA sequencing tests on 15 Chinese traditional medicines, researchers said on Thursday."

FYI to those in Austria who utilize traditional Chinese medicines.

Full article is available here: 

http://news.yahoo.com/dna-tests-uncover-hazards-chinese-therapies-211109236.html

 Source of article AFP= Agence France Presse, the French equivalent of the AP =Associated Press

Venice- Ride the Grand Canal with us!

press PLAY

We got bikes!

Here's us on our new bikes.  Actually, they're not new, they're used.  Our friend and master planner, Erich, led us to this town just north of Vienna called Korneuburg.  It was a beautiful, sunny day, probably 60+ degrees Fahrenheit.  We went there for a bike flea market.  Before going, we were assured of finding bikes for 50 Euros each or less as compared to store retail prices of several hundreds of Euros or more.

We arrived perhaps a half hour before the doors were opened.  It was a long, bunker looking building.  I think it used to be part of this industrial complex but now it could have passed for the setting of a town hall council meeting.  A large crowd of potential buyers had already gathered and we joined this mass.

At the appointed hour, the doors were opened and it was a mad rush inside.  No elbows were thrown, nor did we have the opportunity to hip check the mothers with children in tow.  However, once inside, it was a mad free-for-all as everyone quickly sought out their ideal bike.  Immediately I saw this yellow-blue mountain bike.  All the bikes had plastic bags hanging off of them with the price inside.  There was no negotiation.  The price on this bike was 35 Euros, about $50.

Once Rachel caught up with me, I asked her to stand by this bike, effectively reserving it for us while I sought out another.  Unfortunately, by then, the hall had already filled with buyers and most were standing next to a bike they intended to buy.  Luckily, our friend Erich had already found a suitable second bike, ticket price = 20 Euros.

In the end, we walked our bikes to the entrance of the hall where tables passed for a make-shift cash register.  After paying, cash only, we went out to take our bikes for a test spin around the grounds.

Then, we biked back to Vienna along the Danube river.  A scenic, relaxing way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

What did I say?

What did I say?!

Communication breakdowns can be a frequent occurrence when living abroad, sometimes to disastrous effect, at other times hilarious.

Rachel frequently has lunch out with her colleagues.  On this day in particular, they went to an African restaurant close to work. 

A little background on Ethiopian cuisine might be useful.  Rachel and I loved an Ethiopian place in Baltimore called Dukem.  Typically, we would order the vegetarian platter, a variety of vegetarian lentils, potatoes and other sauteed, simmered deliciousness sitting atop Injera- the Ethiopian bread.  Injera is a bread that more closely resembles a thicker, spongier crepe, OR a spongier, blander pancake.  

In any event, Rachel and her colleagues were enjoying good food and good conversation.  By the end of the meal, the Injera tends to soak up lots of liquids and juices.  Therefore, its consistency towards the end can be summed up by one word -  mushy.  With this in mind, Rachel informed her colleagues she was finished and wasn't going to eat the mushy part. 

With these words, her colleagues- a man and two women- all reacted rather strangely.  Silverware was dropped, one woman turned red and had a raised-eyebrows look of dismay on her face, another began to tear up from stifled laughter, the man became very embarrassed and wouldn't make eye contact with Rachel. 

“What?”, queried Rachel, “What did I say?”

None of her colleagues responded but their laughter mounted.

“What? Was it ‘Mushy’? Tell me what it means!”

Laughter at Rachel’s expense continued.

“What does it mean? Ok, fine. If you don't tell me what it means, I'll just shout it a few more times!”, she continued loudly, “MUSHY, MUSHY, MUSHY, MUSHY...”

Finally her colleagues couldn't take it any longer.  They shushed Rachel.  One brave female colleague informed her, "MUSHY in German means, um, the opposite of a Willy."

Oh! That explains it.

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."

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! 

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.

Correction: I touched a monkey

Thanks to Erich for the below correction: 
... there are at least two more of these "Flacktuerme" (anti-aircraft towers) still standing in Vienna. One of them can be seen from my office - it's in the Augarten in the 20th district. I forget where the other one is. 

I touched a monkey, actually fed one

Today, I took a field trip with my first graders and my colleague, Michi. 

We went to the Haus des Meeres.  I have been very curious about this place for several reasons.  First, the name Haus des Meeres translates to "Sea's House" which made me think of an aquarium.  However, on the side of the building in large blue letters is "ZOO".  In the end, it is more like an aquarium although there is a tropical room that has colorful birds and small monkeys.  The other interesting thing about this building is it's the only anti-aircraft tower left from the Second World War.  There used to be an anti-aircraft battery atop this tower. 

Here's a picture of the building:

  

As you can see from the picture, the building also has a climbing wall on its outer face. 

Inside, it is most definitely an aquarium with giant tanks displaying hammerhead sharks, Japanese spider crabs (which live in deeper than 1000 feet), a giant green turtle, and assorted fish.

Perhaps the coolest part of the excursion for me was when we got to feed the monkeys.  Actually, they weren't monkeys. I cannot remember their name now but they were a smaller relative of the capuchin. 

Here's a picture:

We had a cool tour guide named Phillip.  Phillip would excuse himself and return with a small plastic crate full of wood chips (sawdust) with maggots crawling underneath.  Then, he would fish out a maggot, place it in his hand and steadily hold his hand by the wooden beam where the monkeys would then appear.  They would walk over to Phillip, grab the maggot and escape to the trees to eat their lunch. 

At the time, I imagined we were feeding them worms but later a couple corrected me, they were maggots.  (It was easier to hold them in my hand if I called them worms!)

Most impressive of all was the six-year-old first graders in our class that were able to feed the monkeys.  Obviously some of them were grossed out by the maggots while others were scared of the monkeys.  Maybe it was reassuring that I was so active in both holding the maggots and feeding the monkeys thus enabling so many of the children to overcome their hesitations. 

In the end, it was a really cool experience having such tame, cute little capuchins (or whatever they were) come right up and eat out of my hand. 

It goes down in my history of cool animal interactions second only to swimming with the green turtles on several occasions in Barbados.