Language

„A language is something infinitely greater than grammar and philology. It is the poetic testament of the genius of a race and a culture, and the living embodiment of the thoughts and fancies that have moulded them. “ (Jawaharlal Nehru)

Why am I throwing this quote by Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, into my blog? Well, it is because I am reading his book “The Discovery of India” at the moment and this quotation stroke me as I have been thinking myself a lot about language and its meaning lately. I think these words portray the complexity of language and how difficult it is to master a second language. From these words I assume that it might even be impossible to master a second language more or less perfectly if there is so much to consider! Looking at all these components, meaning not just linguistics but above all that culture it really takes a lot of effort to learn another language.
Of course I have been thinking about this because I am right now trying to learn Spanish. I am sure I’ve already learned a lot during my first months in Spain and already back in Bolivia, but every day I find new words, new phrases which I cannot understand yet. It is quite frustrating as I am trying really hard to keep up my vocabulary notebook and to memorize the new vocabulary more or less daily. But then it is not just the vocabulary. There also comes the sentence structure, the idioms, the cultural connotations, all these aspects which make this objective so difficult to achieve!
Oh no, I am not saying I want to give up. Rather I want to show that language is basically a multifaceted discipline with reference to many others. That makes it really difficult but also exiting to learn as one does not only gets to know words but also gets to learn about another society, another way of life, another history and about so many other things which culture encloses. Language learning is certainly fascinating and I think if you have the chance to study another language, take this opportunity as you will discover a whole new world!

Yours,
Conny

Alltag auf Mallorca

Gibt es eigentlich so etwas wie Alltag auf Mallorca, schliesslich scheint da immer die Sonne, Touristen tummeln sich in den Gassen von Palma, Valldemossa und anderswo, in den Kaffees wird stets lustig geplaudert und ueberall scheinen die Menschen das Leben zu geniessen. Trotzdem, auch im sonnigen Sueden geht der Alltag nicht an uns vorbei. In dieser Woche hab ich ihn ganz besonders zu spueren bekommen, inklusive Stress. Ja, natuerlich hab ich es genossen, ihr kennt mich doch! Wie ihr wisst, mache ich neben der Uni ein Praktikum an einer Schule hier in Palma. Letzte Woche habe ich begonnen und diese Woche durfte ich auch schon 11 Stunden Englischunterricht in den 11. und 12. Klassen geben, mit teilweise bis zu 38 Schuerlern in einer Gruppe, verrueckt. Da die Englischlehrerin in dieser Woche einige Schueler nach England begleitet hat, hatte sie mich letzte Woche gebeten, sie zu vertreten. Das Angebot habe ich gerne angenommen, denn wann hat man schon mal die Moeglichkeit, das Unterrichten im Studium zu ueben. Hinzu kam, dass ich gestern ein Referat an der Uni halten musste und darueber hinaus plagt mich eine schreckliche Erkaeltung, also wirklich Stress. Aber dafuer wurde ich heute schon reichlich belohnt! Wie? Das kann ich euch verraten, die 12 "I" hat am Ende meiner Englischstunde applaudiert, was gibt es schoeneres!?
Jetzt bin ich gluecklich, zufrienden und darin bestaerkt, dass ich das Richtige studiere. Es ist ganz bestimmt keine leichte Arbeit, aber in diesen Momenten weiss man wenigstens, warum man es macht!
Ich danke euch allen fuer Kommentare oder auch einfach nur dafuer, dass ihr mir zuhoert! Ich wuensche euch ein schoenes Wochenende und verspreche euch, der naechste Eintrag folgt bestimmt!

Eure Conny

Flowers in Valldemossa

Beautiful, isn´t it!?

Valldemossa

The streets of Valldemossa. We even saw cars trying to squeeze through!

Banyalbufar

Last Friday we went to Banyalbufar which is famous for its gardens all along the coast.

Trip to Sollér

Here you see a group of international students at the UIB. There are a couple of chicos from Slovakia and Poland, one chica from Mexico and the rest: Alemanas.

View on Palma

Everyone knows that I just love walking. Therefore, on my very first day I went walking all over the place here in Palma. That´s the view I enjoyed while I was close to the Castell. Nice, isn´t it!?

El Sol

Hi everyone,

sunny greetings from Mallorca. Since yesterday the weather has been beautiful: sunshine and about 20 degrees celcius. I am not telling you this because there is nothing else to talk about or to make you jealous, but to show you how happy I am about this. As you will hardly find calefacción (heating) in apartments I had a very tough time to cope with the cold for the last couple of weeks. But now the sun is out and the apartment is slowly warming up.
This blog is going to be rather short, sorry. I want to enjoy some sun before going to my next class in about 40 minutes.
Anyway, things are going great. Although Real Madrid has to leave the European Champions League I think Barça will provide many more nights of watching soccer games with my roomies. The Spanish are basically crazy about soccer, it occupies nearly half of the news, it is everywhere. But I don´t mind. I guess this year is just a "soccer year" considering the coming world championships!
Last night I had another run on the beach watching a gorgeous sunset. Later I went out with a couple of Erasmus students to an Irish pub. There was life music all night long and we got to move a little. We even got to watch a fight between a couple of guys. Though after some broken glasses they had to leave.
To all those who are waiting for pictures: please wait until next week. I promise I will put some online then!!! I think I will get to take some nice shots on the weekend as the weather is supposed to be good and we are going on a trip on Saturday.
@ Shawn: Sorry I accidently erased your comment, I did not intend to. The city is beautiful indeed and I have to start taking pictures. I just have to catch the right time with some good light. But don´t worry, I will take care of it!

Well, these were my latest news.
Besos,
Conny