You hold my back and I'll hold yours

Wow that last post was fun wasn't it?  Pretty sure that was just brain diarrhea, and I thought about deleting it, but I've decided to leave it as an example of what reading final exams can do to a person.  I've noticed nearly the same effects in my colleagues here at Berndorf.  At this point I've read and corrected all of the English Matura exams, 38 in all- less than I expected (thank goodness!), so I'm feeling much better, but I feel like my language skills are still recovering so forgive me if this post isn't the greatest English... I have no idea what's proper English anymore.

Besides frying my brain on final exams all week nothing has really happened... I've talked to a few more non-English colleagues at school, and they're all happy that I'll be coming back next year.  They've all commented that unlike past teaching assistants I don't sit in a corner and pretend like no one else is in the room, I actually talk to them.  Another plus is that my German is actually quite good (at least that's what they say).

I had one rather strange interaction with another teacher (NOT an English teacher) here at Berndorf this week... She often makes little comments that, when I think about them later, are really quite passive aggressive and mean.  The Spanish assistant has also noticed this, so it's not just me.  One day this week we were talking about the school lunch, and I said that hers smelled good, in what I'm pretty sure was perfectly normal German.  She responded (after a delay) by telling me that she thought it sounded bad when a non-native speaker says something in dialect, so I should just stick with speaking 'Hoch-Deutsch' or standard German.  I was a bit taken aback because I wasn't trying to speak dialect, and I really don't think I did... unless there was something in my accent or the way I pronounced it that made it dialect, but it's not like I do it on purpose, it's just how I speak!

Later that day I was laying in the sun outside school resting my eyes, when she came out.  She said 'Auf Wiedersehen' to which I responded (without even thinking about it) 'Wiederschauen'.  What she said is considered more standard German, and what I said is more Austrian German.  It's something I picked up when I studied in Graz, and it's just an automatic response for me, I don't say it because I want to be cool and speak "better" Austrian German than an Austrian.  Anyway, she came over and told me AGAIN that she thought I should just stick with speaking Hoch-Deutsch because it sounds so bad when I try to speak dialect.  I told her that I've had lots of compliments on my German, it's not really something that I try to do, but I do like learning dialect, and also the students like it when I say something to them in dialect.  I mean, it would be pretty impossible for someone who has learned German to live here for a year and leave not knowing or understanding some dialect (especially understanding because pretty much everyone speaks dialect).  I learned a lot of it when I was in Graz (in fact one of my professors taught us dialect), and I've picked up a bit more here... but for the most part I'm pretty sure I speak standard German.

I've never really run into that attitude before, most Austrian's I've met think it's cool (or funny) if I can say something in dialect, and they like that I want to learn more.  I talked to an English teacher at Gainfarn about this whole thing yesterday, and she gave me a confidence boost by telling me that my accent in German is pretty good, of course it's not really German or Austrian, but it's also not really American!  I would be interested in more thoughts from Austrians on the idea of non-native speakers picking up dialect.

Now that I've got that off my chest I can (hopefully) entertain you with some of the choicest quotes from the Maturas: (the themes were online friends vs face-to-face friends, summer jobs and a letter of complaint about a language course)

"there will always be a person to hold my back"
"non of use would say no to a bit more pocket money" (it was supposed to be none of you)
"humans are like a pack of wolves"
"it is very important for life to have face-to-face friends"
"All in all, swimming on the internet is impossible."
"This is especially true of those who are thick and want to surf the internet."
"I had many disappoinments in life" (talking about the language course)
"noone explain me why the tour was cancelled"
"Hugging your computer screen is just not the same as being held in the arms of a human being."
"Some people say friendship is like a flower, you have to take care of it or it will wilt."
"A real adorable friend accepts every part of you."
"The tutor did not speak audible."
"You drink a hot chocolate on a rainy day with your friends, you eat a whole bowl full of ice cream on a hot summer day with your friends."
"I hope that I will not be forced to take further information." (further action)
"That was no problem, it was a funny afternoon." (classic misuse of 'funny')
"The internet is not a place where I can and should visit people"
"What is more, your grades at school can also suffer from writing too much with uncorrect spelling" (now how's that for a slice of irony!)

I laughed out loud as I came across several of these, so at least there was some fun to be had while correcting!