È caduta la neve

Gia adesso! Ha nevicato tutto il giorno e quando le nuvole se ne sono andate, Voila! La neve!! Sembra davvero strano perché le montagne sono ancora tutte verdi. Verdi con bianco... Fa anche freddissimo. Uffa.

Dalla stazione devo sempre camminare circa 10 minuti e quando sono arrivata stamattina, le miei stivali erano tutte bagnate. Poi il riscaldamento non è ancora acceso e fa davvero freddo qui. Così ho fatto qualcosa nel forno e quando era pronto l'ho aperto e tutta la cucina era bel calda.

Dopo di insegnare ho preparato i lezioni di domani e poi sono tornata con il treno. Sono andata in città a Bellinzona e ho fatto la spesa. Be, niente di speciale ma un giorno un po' tranquillo.

Percora nera- schwarzes Schaf

Seit einigen Wochen gibt es in der ganzen Schweiz Plakate einer gewissen Partei auf der auf einer schweizer Flagge drei weisse Schafe ein schwarzes von der Flagge kicken. Man kann sich denken was das bedeuten soll. Oder auch nicht. Die Diskussion ist riesig. Ich kriege jedesmal Aggressionen wenn ich dieses Plakat sehe. Ja, sicher, es gibt das schwarze Schaf, als Redewendung. Auch auf Italienisch. Aber dieses Plakat ist jawohl eindeutig zweideutig und für mich eindeutig rassistisch.

Heute habe ich dann endlich eins gesehen auf dem jemand mit fetter schwarzer Farbe Hakenkreuze auf die weissen Schafe gemalt hatte. Yay!!! :) Und heute habe ich auch in der Zeitung gelesen, dass für den 29. um drei bei uns hier am Bahnhof eine Demo gegen Rassismus stattfindet. Freu!! Das sind doch mal klare Zeichen.

Soll ich oder soll ich nicht auf einen kleinen nächtlichen Streifzug gehen und die anderen Plakate ähnlich verzieren? Hmmmmmm....

Il corso all'ospedale

Well, I don't know why I got nervous on Monday, after all I have already been teaching adults for a while. The class at the hospital is very friendly and open. There is one doctor and a lot of nurses and health technicians. Their biggest problem is that they believe German to be much more difficult than other languages.

Today I also met some of my kids in town when I was on my way to the station. There is an American girl who is very open and friendly and I got a chance to change a few words with her.

The kids from that class, however, are still having difficulties staying quiet for an entire lesson. That is, quiet enough so that I don't have to yell and that others can work with concentration. After almost 10 years at public schools they aren't yet used to working quietly. Sometimes it frustrates me that I have to punish them all in order to do something. But a lot of times (almost all of the times) it is not one student talking but a group of them.

The first vocabulary test, on the other hand, went great! Lots of sixes (equivalent to a German 1 and an American A) and fives.

Today, during the break at noon I went down to the lake. All the colors were pastell like and the lake was placid and still. It was very humid and I had only just finished eating when the sky started grumbling. I looked up and knew right away, this one was a fast one (living in the Alps you learn these things rapidly). So I started running up the hill (at least some sport...) and right after I reached the door of my school, the sky broke open and a wall of water came down. Just like that. Boom. The nuns came running controlling all the windows and it turned into a nice little thunderstorm.

We had already had a thunderstorm last night that woke me a few times and one of my students hadn't slept at all.

600 parole

Ho imparato o ripetuto questo weekend con l'aiuto di memomo. Quasi tutti sono in cassetto 3. Adesso diventa già più difficile. Tante parole so passivamente ma non attivamente.

Tra un po' devo partire per insegnare la prima volta all'ospedale. Sono un po' nervosa.

Memomo

No, I'm not talking about my cat "Momo." This morning I found something on the web: A great vocabulary trainer. I can hear you all say, "... a vocabulary trainer?!!"
"Yes, it's a vocabulary trainer."
"What's so great about that?"
"It is great because it works and it's free and it offers a lot of languages."
"What do I need that for?"
"You need it if you're trying to learn a foreign language. And I know that some of my friends are learning foreign languages and therefore I decided to write a post about it."
"Ah, ok. And what's so great about it?"
"It is great because it doesn't make you repeat vocabulary that you already know five times. It works with Leitners Karteikartensystem but you don't have to go out anymore and buy those little cards. And what I love about it is that when you know a word but you misspell it, it remains in the same box as it was instead of going back. They explain it all on their site: Memomo."

Bailamos!!

Am Freitag war ich auf dem Lateinamerikanischen Festival. Zusammen mit einer Schweizerdeutschen. Und da wurde mir wieder ein bisschen bewusst, warum ich eigentlich in den Süden gegangen bin. Während vorne auf der Bühne die Tänzer und Sänger vortanzten, dass es ein Riesenspass war mitzumachen und ich mich auch sofort ins Gewühl geschmissen hab, stand das Mädchen einfach nur da und machte negative Kommentare. Aber die Leute aus Bellinzona tanzten und versuchten das nachzumachen, was uns die Sänger auf der Bühne vormachten. Kinder, Jugendliche, Mütter, Männer und auch ältere Menschen, alle hatten sie Spass.

Und wer hatte keinen? Und warum? Ja, es stimmt, es gibt in der deutschen Kultur diese Tendenz sehr schnell negative Kommentare über etwas zu machen anstatt sich einfach mitreissen zu lassen. Man muss sich immer kontrollieren. Leider ist das so. Nicht unsere Schuld sondern Werte, die von Generation zu Generation getragen werden. Und während ich oft zwischen Schweizerdeutschen und Deutschen keine Gemeinsamkeiten finde, war es in diesem Fall doch so.

In Münster haben Isabel und ich ein paar Mal versuchte eine anständige Salsaparty zu finden. Aber ausser dem grossen Lateinamerikanischen Karneval auf dem ich mit Pierre war, habe ich so etwas nie mehr gefunden. Bis auf Freitag Nacht in der Piazza del Sole. Und wenn das Mädchen nicht stocksteif neben mir gestanden hätte und statt dessen einfach mitgetanzt hätte, hätten wir sicher bis spät nachts getanzt und einen Riesenspass gehabt. Aber so hatte ich nach einer Stunde genug. Leider.

Il mio primo test!

Oggi ho fatto il mio primo test agli miei allievi e sono contentissima. Ho avuto quattro che hanno raggiunto 100% e solo un test che non è andato bene. Gli ho già detto i punti ma non ancora le note perché non so ancora come farle. Non vorrei che sia troppo facile ma neanche vorrei che perdono il coraggio.

Dopo il test volevano così tanto che gli dica subito il risultato che hanno lavorato calmi e tranquilli come mai! Così ho potuto correggerlo in classe mentre loro lavoravano. Ormai dopo siamo ancora arrivati alla fine della parola "extra" che significa compiti in più. Quando c'è troppo rumore funziona bene fare così. Non sono ancora abituati a stare tranquilli. Però sono carini e bravi e mi piace insegnarli anche se adesso è ancora un po' faticoso.

Uffa!!

Uffa, letzte Nacht nur drei Stunden geschlafen. Das ist so krass, wenn ich nach 18:00 Kaffee trinke, kann ich abends nicht einschlafen. Aber das scheint einfach so verrückt, dass ich es manchmal doch versuche. Und heute hatte ich fünf Stunden über mehr als acht Stunden verteilt... ich dachte, ich schaff das nie so müde aber das ging ganz gut. Sobald ich im Klassenzimmer stehe, läuft es wie von selbst.

Und in der Mittagspause (von halb eins bis zwei) habe ich mir mein Brot geschnappt und bin runter zum See. Da hab ich mich in den Schatten einer Zypresse gelegt auf die Stufen am Ufer und ein bisschen den Wellen gelauscht. Heute morgen als ich mit dem Zug nach Locarno gefahren bin, war der Lago Maggiore spiegelglatt und ich dachte noch, wow, so glatt habe ich ihn noch nie gesehen. Aber in der Mittagspause rollten grosse Wellen ans Ufer und es flog richtig die Gischt obwohl es strahlend schönen Sonnenschein gab (wie immer :P). Ich habe das total genossen, die Wellen, die Sonne, die Pause und natürlich auch das Salamibrot.

La mia prima settimana

Well, I did it. My first week as a teacher is over and I am proud of myself because I didn't get sickening nervous. Sometimes when I was on my way to a job interview I'd get so nervous and anxious I felt like throwing up. But I did good this time. The trials are over and all I have to do now is do my best in class.

The kids in German class are still a bit impatient and talk to much but we're getting there. The only problem they have is that sometimes they don't get what I explain the first time and that gets them all upset and panicked. I tell them to calm down, I will explain at least three times (I try to speak only German) and if there's still someone who hasn't got it, I ask one of them to explain in Italian. But basically they're good kids and I enjoy teaching them.

The first and the third class on the other hand are much easier to teach but the first class is definitely too quiet. The third class, however, is fun to teach, because they understand a lot and they are also a bit more creative. There are also two or three girls who are very ambitious. And then I have a student from town coming in who is almost as old as me and very sweet and friendly.

Well, I have been reflecting for some time and these are my goals for the next two weeks:

- improve discipline in German class
- do things even more calmly
- relax, you're doing fine
- make first class talk more
- reread all schedules of the previous teachers
- learn all names
- reserve more time for explaining tasks and don't get upset if they don't understand
- in hallway ask one or two of them how they are doing (every day)
- relax, listen to a CD
- stop thinking of school when you're trying to sleep

The other thing is that I can't get rid of the feeling that this is too easy. There's got to be a problem coming up or something. It is not a very good feeling and I hope I'm only imagining things. Maybe I'm only still a bit scared of it all?