New Year’s Customs in Austria , Germany and Switzerland
GUTES NEUES JAHR – Happy New Year!
Austria
In Austria, New Year’s Eve is usually celebrated with friends and family. At exactly midnight, all radio and television programmes operated by ORF broadcast the sound of the Pummerin, the bell of St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, followed by the Donauwalzer (“The Blue Danube”) by Johann Strauss II. Many people dance to this at parties or in the street. Large crowds gather in the streets of Vienna, where the municipal government organises a series of stages where bands and orchestras play. Fireworks are set off by both municipal governments and individuals.
Germany
In Germany, parties are common on New Year’s Eve (Silvester). Fireworks are very popular, both with individuals and large municipal displays. Every year Berlin hosts one of the largest New Year’s Eve celebrations in all of Europe, attended by over a million people. The focal point is the Brandenburg Gate, where midnight fireworks are centered. Germans toast the New Year with a glass of Sekt (German sparkling wine) or champagne.
Since 1972, each New Year’s Eve, several German television stations broadcast a short comedy play in English (recorded by West German television in 1963) entitled Dinner for One. A line from the comedy sketch, “the same procedure as every year”, has become a catch phrase in Germany.
Switzerland
In some parts of Switzerland, Sylvester Clauses drive away evil spirits. In Urnäsch, in the canton of Appenzell Outer Rhodes, a colourful tradition continues to be practiced on the last day of the year. Strangely clad figures with elaborate masks and noisy bells move from house to house, in a bid to drive away evil spirits.
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/multimedia/video/Sylvester_Claus.html?cid=667924
Christmas and New Year in Hong Kong
“Merry Christmas” in Cantonese: sing3 daan3 faai3 lok6
“Happy New Year”: san1 nin4 faai3 lok6
Hong Kong WinterFest for Christmas
Not exactly a Chinese festival — but still the people in Hong Kong do celebrate Christmas. Hong Kong used to be a British Colony and it has adopted many of the British traditions such as celebrating Christmas and New Year. Hong Kong puts on a winter festival after Thanksgiving that is a highlight of the Christmas season.
The buildings along the harbor put on a light show with Christmas and New Year’s decorations. During WinterFest, most of the city is aglow with festive lighting, and Victoria Harbor is a dazzling sight especially when the fireworks burst on New Year’s Eve.
Giant Tiffany Christmas Tree at Hong Kong WinterFest
New Year – Hong Kong Countdown Celebrations
The Hong Kong New Year Countdown is a breathtaking display that brings out the dramatic beauty of Victoria Harbour and the city’s renowned skyline. This year’s Hong Kong New Year Countdown will be the biggest in the event’s history and will, for the first time, have pyrotechnics launched from both sea and land. The show will feature an eight-minute display of pyrotechnics, beginning on the harbour and moving landwards in three layers culminating in a display from various buildings in Wan Chai with the iconic harbour-front Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre as the focal point.
Hong Kong Chinese New Year Celebrations
People in Hong Kong also celebrate the tradition Chinese New Year which falls on the first day of the first lunar month.
Shops across town put on sales as both the young and old buy clothes and other goods to make a fresh start to the new lunar year. Meanwhile, the younger generations receive lucky red packets of cash from their elders, homes and businesses spring clean and paste red banners on their doors as blessings, shoppers stock up on auspicious foods, temples fill with prayers of fortune and clouds of incense, and almost every soul in town becomes consumed by one goal – to get home for a family meal on the festival’s eve.
Visitors can impress locals around this time by learning to say the traditional festival greeting, “kung hei fat choy,” which loosely translates as “congratulations and be prosperous.”
The ancient Chinese once welcomed the new lunar year by scaring away evil spirits with firecrackers, but that’s no longer feasible in such a densely packed city. However, Hong Kong makes up for it by putting on a stunning parade and pyrotechnic show on a scale that would send even the most brazen of demons scampering away with its ghoulish tail between its legs.
Lucy Luo, Trainer of Cantonese Language at Sydney Language Solutions
Kim Yuna (김연아), the princess of figure skating
Not many Australians would doubt that Ian Thorpe is the nation’s sports hero. Every kid want to swim like him and feel proud of his name since he made the country’s image as the strongest country in water sports.
Like Ian Thorpe, in Korea, we do have Kim Yuna (김연아) who is a South Korean figure skater. You can easily see her face on tv commercials and catalogues of major corporations in South Korea.
She’s a one of a kind figure skater and her career supports it strongly. She is the 2010 Olympic champion in ladies’ singles, the 2009 World champion, the 2009 Four Continents champion, a three-time (2006–2007, 2007–2008, 2009–2010) Grand Prix Final champion, the 2006 World Junior champion, the 2005 Junior Grand Prix Final champion, and a four-time (2002–2005) South Korean national champion. She is the first South Korean figure skater to win a medal at an ISU Junior or Senior Grand Prix event, ISU Championship, and the Olympic Games. She is the first female skater to win the Olympic Games, the World Championships, the Four Continents Championships and the Grand Prix Final. She is one of the most highly recognized athletes and media figures in South Korea.
In May 2011, Kim began to host a show called “Kim Yu-na’s Kiss and Cry”. The program portrayed the challenging process of ten popular entertainers as they learned how to figure skate from professional skaters. The ten stars included comedian Kim Byung-man, singer U-Know of TVXQ, Krystal of f(x), IU, Son Dam-bi, actors Park Jun-geum, Seo Ji-suk, Lee Ah-hyun, Jin Ji-hee and speed skater Lee Kyu-hyuk.
Kim has stated that she hopes to become a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after the 2014 Sochi Games.
Her challenge and inspiration would never stop!
Ashley (Korean teacher)
Example of a Writing Task OET for students to practice during Christmas holiday
You are a health professional at the Royal North Shore Hospital. Read the case notes and complete the writing task as follows:
Patient: Mr James Naismith
DOB: 25.12.1940
History:
1.1.2010
Symptom A, symptom B, symptom C
Examination shows sign A and sign B
Diagnosis: disease A
Prescribe drug A 25mg tid
1.1.2011
Reports compliance with therapy A
Symptoms B and C are worse
Examination shows sign C
Increase dosage of drug A 50mg tid
PMHx:
Chronic condition A since 2002
Surgery A in location A – 1996
Episode of acute condition A in 1995, resolved
FMHx:
Father died of disease B at age 65
Social history:
Widower, lives alone in Sydney Retirement Solutions
Quit smoking in 2005
Emergency contact is son who lives in Homebush, mobile: 0555 555 555
Plan: refer to specialist to discuss possibility of therapy A
Using the information in the case notes, write a letter of referral for further investigation and discussion of a new management plan to the specialist Dr Michael Jordan, at 55 Main Street, Newtown.
In your answer:
– Expand on the relevant notes in complete sentences
– DO NOT use point form
– Use letter format
The body of the letter should be approximately 180-200 words
How to edit your IELTS essay
Hi IELTS students,
In the last 7-10 minutes of your writing task, it is very important that you keep in mind the following to help you achieve Band 7 in Writing.
- If you’re running out of time and you have a lot of ideas that you haven’t expanded on, be brave and make some cuts.
- Only pick the best ideas and expand on those.
- Don’t feel like you have to write down and expand on all of your ideas.
- A shorter paper that is well written and well organised will earn you a better result than a longer paper that is poorly written and poorly organised.
- You must meet the minimum number of words required. You will be penalised for answers shorter than the required minimum limit.
- Don’t keep writing about a subject just to add words and sentences, and certainly don’t start repeating yourself.
- Leave at least seven minutes at the end of your essay to go back and check over grammar, sentence structure and vocabulary usage in your work.
- Re-read the essay to make sure that every sentence is well linked and flows.
- Clean up any spelling or grammar mistakes that you might have made.
- Clean up any other extraneous information that you might have written that doesn’t fit into your paper.
- Check whether there are any fragments or run-ons and delete them.
- Check for sentences that are too short or too long and modify them.
- If a sentence is too short, it is possible that it does not have an identifiable subject and verb.
- Break up long sentences into two smaller separate sentences.
- Be careful when you use any “big” words.
- The priority is to have a correct and well-structured essay, not a long essay with beautiful words. Don’t try to impress the examiners with difficult words and sentence structure, just show them you can develop and explain an idea through your essay.
Na Pham 2012 ©
Some tips to become a good interpreter/translator
Australianism in Interpretation and Translation
Australian delegates sometimes use colloquialisms which are quite difficult to transpose into other languages. These words are often used deliberately to be amusing.
Some expressions such as ‘things are crook’ and ‘scumbags’ are often heard on TV and radio and we often think they are English. However, they are more likely to be Australianisms and may not be completely understood at an international forum.
Therefore, it’s very important for an interpreter at a beginner level to prepare for how to interpret these type of expressions into your native language. Here are some examples:
– To cut off your nose to spite your face.
– You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
– To hook up with.
– To get on the gravy train.
– Rubbery figures.
Preparation of a glossary
For any translator or interpreter, it’s always important to build a glossary of important words in many fields such as banking, tax, finance, construction, government, architecture and medicine . When checking the meaning and putting these words into the glossary, you can prepare yourself and have a rough idea of what terms are likely to come up in the translation or interpreting assignment.
The words in the glossaries can be arranged in alphabetical order so you can sort them and find them easily when you need to. Alternatively, they can be arranged in topic order too.
Keep adding more words to your glossaries as you continue your research in many fields. Glossaries are often more useful than dictionaries as they are more specific and related to the field, while dictionaries often only focus on the more common and general words.
Don’t worry about these words being complex as after two or three times of being used they will become familiar to you.
Dr Na Pham – Sydney Language Solutions – 2012
Christmas in Korean
Christmas is just around the corner! Unlike sunny sizzling Sydney Christmas, we have a cold (approx -5’C) and snowy Christmas in Korea. White Christmas indeed!
Let’s learn one Christmas Carol in Korean! Here is a song performed by the K-pop super group, DBSK , when the 5members were together. It is still considered as the best ‘a cappella Carol’ in Korea.
고요한 밤 거룩한 밤 (Silent Night, Holy Night Korean Version) by 동방신기(DBSK)
HANGEUL
[믹키] 고요한 밤 거룩한 밤 어둠에 묻힌밤
[최강] 주의 부모 앉아서 감사 기도 드릴때
[영웅] 아기 잘도 잔다 아기 잘도 잔다
[시아] 고요한 밤 거룩한 밤 영광이 둘린 밤
[유노] 천군 천사 나타나 기뻐 노래 불렀네
[영웅] 왕이 나셨도다 왕이 나셨도다
[시아] 왕이 나셨도다 왕이 나셨도다
[All] 왕이 나셨도다
ROMANISATION
Goyohan Bam Gorughan Bam
[Micky]
Goyohan bam gorughan bam
Odume mudhinbam
[Changmin]
Juye bumo anjaso gamsa gido durilte
[Jaejoong]
Agi jaldo janda agi jaldo janda
[Xiah]
Goyonhan bam gorughan bam
Yonggwangi dullin bam
[Yunho]
Chongun chonsa natana
Gippo nore bullone
[Jaejoong]
Wangi nashododa
Wangi nashyododa
[Xiah]
Wangi nashyododa
Wangi nashyododa
[All]
Wangi nashyododa
– Ashley Jang (Korean language teacher)
Korean New Year
Korean new Year is typically a family holiday. The three-day holiday is used by many to return to their hometowns to visit their parents and other relatives, where they perform an ancestral ritual. Many Koreans dress up in colorful traditional Korean clothing called hanbok. But nowadays, small families tend to become less formal and wear other formal clothing instead of hanbok. Many Koreans greet the New Year by visiting East-coast locations such as Gangneung and Donghae in Gangwon province, where they are most likely to see the first rays of the New Year’s sun.[2]
Tteokguk
Tteokguk (떡국) (soup with sliced rice cakes) is a traditional Korean food that is customarily eaten for the New Year. According to Korean age reckoning, the Korean New Year is similar to a birthday for Koreans, and eating Tteokguk is part of the birthday celebration. Once you finish eating your Tteokguk, you are one year older.
Sebae
Sebae is a traditionally observed activity on Seollal, and is filial-piety-oriented. Children wish their elders (grandparents, aunts and uncles, parents) a happy new year by performing one deep traditional bow (rites with more than one bow involved are usually for the deceased) and the words saehae bok mani badeuseyo (Hangul: 새해 복 많이 받으세요) which translates to Receive many New Year blessings, or more loosely, “Have a blessed New Year.” Parents typically reward this gesture by giving their children new year’s money, or “pocket money,”
3 quick ways to improve your English pronunciation
Pronunciation is a key factor in learning a language and there are many ways that you can improve to help make yourself more clearly understood.
Here are just a few tips that you may want to try:
1. Find out what you are doing wrong
If you don’t know what you are doing wrong then you can’t improve your pronunciation. Ask your teacher or native English speaking friends to listen to you and correct you when necessary. Ask them if they can understand what you are saying. It may be a little embarrassing and time consuming, but it is an ideal way to learn.
2. Slow down and breathe
People can get very nervous when using a new language and try to speak very quickly to give an impression that they are fluent. However, speed does not equal fluency and in fact, speeding up instead of slowing down can make it even more difficult for people to understand what you are saying. Remember that not everyone who is fluent speaks quickly. Think about the way you approach your own language. Do you speak very quickly all the time? I am sure that you don’t.
3. Make use of your face-to-face time with your teacher
Having a native speaker face-to-face with you on a regular basis has to one of the best ways to improve your pronunciation. Observe how your teacher speaks, how he/she positions their mouth and what their face looks like when they speak. Is their face strained or relaxed? Do they speak in a monotone or do they sound interesting? Listen to the way they make sounds and try to mimic them. Ask them to correct you and tell you what you are doing wrong.
Why is good pronunciation essential when speaking English?
When we learn a foreign language we can often become so caught up with the spelling, grammar and writing that we forget about the speaking. For example, you may know simple words and be able to construct simple sentences but you can’t rely on simple pronunciation to be understood.
If your pronunciation is simple but so poor that native English speakers cannot understand what you are saying, then you may wish to reconsider the importance of it in your language tool kit.
One of the difficult aspects of any language is the accent. Just because someone may speak the same language as you doesn’t mean you will have the same accent. People in Australia speak English but sometimes their accents are so strong that native English speakers from other countries struggle to understand what they are saying.
The key to getting by then is to aim for good pronunciation and focus on reducing your accent so that when you do talk to native speakers they don’t have to struggle and be uncomfortable understanding what you are saying. If they do, you will find that the conversation is stilted and may become difficult. You will not be able to make yourself understood and chances are that you will become frustrated and reluctant to try out your language skills again.
Your teacher is the best person to help you with any questions you may have about what is good pronunciation and how you can attain it. The main point, however, would be to speak English at every possible opportunity that you have and remember that practice makes perfect.
-Vicki
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