What the Eurobarometer says about language learning in Austria

A small part of it anyway - this article in German ponders some of the results for Austria in the Eurobarometer. The results they reference are here, showing Austria compared to the European average.

One of the things the article notes is that Austria is much more interested in Italian than the European average: while only 2% of those in Europe think Italian is good to learn for their children's future, this number is 10% in Austria. "Most useful for personal development" also shows 5% for Europe and 10% for Austria. Not much of a surprise given that Austria borders Italy, although this doesn't benefit Slovak at all: the two capitals are just 80 km apart but Slovak doesn't even show up anywhere, so local environment isn't the only factor here.

Austrians are also more likely to use their languages on holidays abroad: 71% compared with the European average of 50%.

One other interesting number: the top advantage given in Europe to learning another language is "to be able to work in another country" at 61%. In Austria this is down a bit at 59%, and is overshadowed by two other advantages: "to use on holidays abroad" at 64%, and "to be able to understand people from other cultures" at 63%.

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Which languages do Austrians like the most?

From here:

http://www.pressetext.com/news/20111116011

In response to the question "which language could you imagine yourself learning or improving on in the future?" the answer is:

English: 33%
Italian: 29%
Spanish: 26%
French: 18%
Russian: 7%
Czech: 3%
Slovenian: 3%
Portuguese: 2%
Chinese: 2%
Hungarian: 2%
Turkish: 2%
Arabic: 2%

The article also goes into which languages they say they already speak - 85% of them say English. After that is French at 17%, Italian at 12% and Spanish at 7%. The article goes into more detail too, dividing the answers up by age, etc.

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Zeit article on using heliostats to make the cold, dark winter a little more bearable

Here is a particularly interesting article from the German press today, on the use of heliostats for both personal and public use. Villages in hilly and mountainous areas tend to be particularly depressing during the winter. Because villages in these areas are naturally located near the base where transport is easier and rivers tend to be, they also tend to be located in the darkest parts while higher up where nobody lives there is still a good amount of sunlight. The solution? Building a mirror to reflect the sunlight below. The mirror needs to be large, and its heading also needs to be controlled in order to continually reflect the sunlight onto the house or village below.

The article has two images: this shows the size of a personal heliostat compared to a person, while this shows the result - an otherwise dark and cold room in a house receiving full sunlight even in the winter.

The most striking example given in the article though is the Italian village of Viganella, which made headlines in 2006 after spending 100,000 euros to install a mirror to reflect sunlight onto the village below. Before doing so the village spent a full 83 days each year without any sunlight at all, due to the mountain next to the village over which the Sun never rose during the darkest period of the year:

Before the installation of the mirror the poor village was like Siberia in the winter, according to residents.

According to an Austrian company referenced in the Zeit article that makes about fifteen heliostats a year, a personal heliostat like the one in the first two pictures (a mirror of 2.5 metres or 8 feet on a mast about twice that height with a computer tracking system that keeps it focused on one area) costs about 10,000 euros.

The company that makes these heliostats is a fairly well-established company (80 years) that makes most of its money from different yet related ventures (air conditioning, ventilation, fireproofing, etc.) and says that heliostat technology has not yet reached the level of mass production, which is part of why it is still so expensive. The position of the Sun still has to be directly fed into the device instead of recognizing the Sun's position automatically. The pictures also don't show any protection against potential vandalism besides being located on a mast 4 metres up.

The next example given in the article is a heliostat in a hotel in the village of Ischgl in Austria, which is 1377 metres above sea level and looks like this:

A businessman named Gunther Aloys there has installed a mirror on top of one of the luxury hotels, which apparently looks kind of silly in the summer but when winter comes around and the clock strikes three, the entire village is plunged into shadow except for the ice bar there, where everybody gathers to enjoy the only spot in the village that still has sunlight. You can see a picture of the hotel here with the mirror. Total cost for that mirror is somewhere around 100,000 to 150,000 euros.

One town that did not end up acquiring the funding for a heliostat was the Austrian town of Rattenburg. One of the darkest parts of the country in the winter, it made headlines a few years back with its plans to build a mirror to bring more sunlight in during the coldest months. Unfortunately the expected cost (four million euros) was just too much for a village of just 434 people, and plans have been shelved for now. The opportunity to build another major project of this type would have been a good opportunity to refine the technology a bit more, so its cancellation was particularly regrettable for companies that hope to eventually perfect and mass-market heliostats.

A few years after the installation of the mirror in Viganella the village still has all the regular problems one would expect with a village of its size (young people leaving for opportunities in the city, essential utilities still missing) and though the odd tourist comes in every once in a while to view the mirror, tourism has not exactly boomed. But the mirror does continue to work, and the 83 long days of shadow during the winter are now a thing of the past. This video shows the installation and the first usage of the mirror back in 2006 - skip ahead to about 5:15 to see the reaction to the mirror after it is set up and begins reflecting sunlight below.

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What newspapers said about Hitler in 1922 (before the Beer Hall Putsch)

I came across another interesting article from 1922, the period a year before the Beer Hall Putsch when hyperinflation was rampant, just three years after a Soviet Socialist Republic was declared in Bavaria, World War I had ended just a year before that, and pretty much everything was a mess. Since Hitler hadn't done much at the time besides grow the NSDAP and prepare it's no surprise that coverage was pretty much all favorable. A careful eye now of course can discern some warning signs even from a newspaper article of this type (Shylocks = Jewish bankers for example) but for someone at the time it would have been much more difficult going from English newspapers alone.

It's also interesting that he's referred to here as a carpenter and a mason. If I remember correctly his job after WWI was to keep an eye on political parties and report back to Captain...(checks)...here it is, Major Konstantin Hierl. He certainly was never into carpentry and masonry, even going homeless once for a few months because of not knowing exactly what he wanted to do but never deigning to work in manual labour, and even then the only way he got out of it was by cooperating with a friend who agreed to sell his art as Hitler was never into the idea of going around trying to sell wares to strangers.



THE BRIDGEPORT TELEGRAM, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1922

German Fascisti Leader Declares Opposition to Move to Divide Country

Adolph Hitler of Bavaria, Head of 200,000 or More Picked Young Men, Sees Chance of Recovery if Every Man and Woman Will Work -- Says Debts Must Be Met and Hate Abolished.

By KARL H. VON WEIGAND.

MUNICH, Bavaria, Nov. 12 -- The shadow of the Fascisti is arising in Germany. Whether what is yet only a shadow will clothe itself in the flesh, blood and spirit of the German Mussolini, depends on a number of things.

A strong national government with sufficient power to enforce its authority.

Freedom internally and externally for a United Germany.

Unrelenting war against Bolshevism, Socialism of the Marx type, and against all nation disintegrating elements.

Purge Germany of grafters, Shylocks, profiteers and exploiters, native and foreign, who are sucking the lifeblood of the German people making sound reconstruction impossible.

The national honor of the German people demands that obligations assumed as a result of Germany's capacity to pay and that capacity must be recognized as within limits that do not endanger Germany's economic system and that make reconstruction possible.

Creation of a "national freedom fund" to which every man and woman contribute the income of two extra hours of work daily until Germany has purchased her freedom.

An understanding with France.

Abolish thought of war revenge, which is still cherished in some Nationalist circles,

With all power and influence to oppose separation of Bavaria from Germany.

Opposition to the huge monopolies and system cartels and trusts now in Germany and which exploit the people and throttle competition.

These are 10 main points in the program of the National Socialists; the Germany Fascist as unfolded today by Adolph Hitler, leader of the movement, which is causing no less uneasiness in Communist and Socialist circles than in government quarters in Berlin and Munich.

Uprising Feared.

Alarming reports alleging impending militaristic coups in Bavaria, and rumored plans for the emulation of the Italian Fascisti, arise out of the activities of several Nationalist groups, each with a would-be Mussolini at its head, all with the same goal, but each going about it in a different way. There can be no doubt about this being the situation. I find upon investigation I have talked with leaders, but they deny plans to violently overthrow either the Bavarian or Central governments unless something wholly unexpected happens.

At the moment the chief danger is said to be the fact that Socialists in Munich are arming themselves and organizing "defense detachments," and engaging in military drills.

But the real German Fascisti are the National Socialists and their "Mussolini" is Adolph Hitler, a man of the people, a private soldier during the war, a carpenter, a magnetic speaker, having also exceptional organizing genius.

Active Worker.

Aged 34, medium tall, wiry, slender, dark hair, cropped tooth-brush mustache, eyes that spurt fire when in action, straight Grecian nose, finely chiselled features with complexion so remarkably delicate that many a woman would be proud to possess it -- withal a bearing that creates an impression of dynamic energy well under control. Four years in the trenches of war, then back to the carpenter's trade and then "baumeister" or master builder.

That is Hitler, who aspires to become Germany's Mussolini. He is one of the most interesting characters I have met in many months.

With Apostolic fervor, and gifted with convincing oratory and a magnetism which is drawing to him followers even out of the inner Communistic and Socialistic circles, Hitler has the earmarks of a leader; whether it be merely a band or a great movement, only the future will reveal. He believes firmly that his mission is to arouse and save Germany from its internal foes. He has rallied around himself perhaps 200,000 followers, of whom 20,000 are said to be well armed and organized.

Born in Austria.

By birth Hitler is Austrian, but he served in the Germany army as a volunteer. He quickly makes clear that his organization of National Socialists is not against capital or private property.

"True socialism," he said, "is the welfare of all the people, and not of one class at the expense of others. Therefore we oppose class warfare.

"What is today called Socialism is Marxism, and not Socialism at all. Marxism kills personal initiatiwe and tries to bring everybody to a dead level. Capitalism has its proper place in true Socialism, but Capitalism must be held within bounds and not be allowed, through huge monopolies, trusts and cartels as now in Germany, to stifle competition and exploit the people through profiteering."

"A portion of the German press attribute to you intentions to restore monarchy and separate Bavaria from Germany," I said to Hitler.

Denies Charge.

"That is maliciously false," he answered. "Our movement is not only opposed to the idea of separation, but is actually hostile to any such attempt.

"As for the monarchy, Germany has greater and graver problems than the question of the personal interests of some throne pretender, whoever he may be. If any pretender should seek to force the issue at this time he merely establishes that he places his personal interests above the vital interests of the nation and the people, and he will discover quickly that the people are not disposed to have a monarch forced upon them against their will or before such time as they are ready to call him -- and that may be 20 or 30 years if ever."

Hitler declared that despite all talk about restoration of the monarchy, coming out of Bavaria, he believed that it would "be difficult to get many men together who would be willing to be shot to death in the streets in order to bring a king before the time he was wanted."

Hitler strongly denounced the idea of war for revenge.

"That phantom lurking in some brains would be suicidal, if it were not idiocy," he said. "An understanding with France is essential for our own peace and happiness. Our goal is a strong, national government to free Germany from these shackles laid on us by the lost war on one hand, and to purge our own house of those elements which are making the reconstruction impossible -- that includes corruption, Communism, Marxism, Shylocks, profiteers and exploiters.

Extra Work Hours.

"In order to buy back Germany's lost freedom we are for adding two extra hours of work to the eight hour day. The eight hour day must remain. It is labor's own, and shall remain so. But the extra hours and the income derived therefrom is for getting back the freedom of Germany, and is to be used for reparations and other obligations.

"Every man and woman from the President down to the lowest official, from Hugo Stinnes down to the street sweeper, must contribute the income from those two extra hours to the freedom fund."

The would-be "Mussolini" believes that only a dictatorial-like, strong government could put through such reforms. Hitler is bitterly accused by Communists of stealing their colors. He took the red flag, and placed within it a white field and upon that is the black "baltenkreuz," or swastika cross, which is also the symbol of anti-semitism.

That is the flag of the National Socialists -- the same old German colors -- black, red and white.

Hitler, who is studying Mussolini's successful methods in Italy, has had his "shock troops" uniformed in gray shirts, with black, red and white arm bands. They are all determined, energetic, picked young men.

The Bavarian Fascisti, like the Italians, are working secretly among the Reichswehr and police and there is fear that Hitler may one day proclaim himsels dictator of Bavaria.

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Prospective immigrants to Austria must have a basic proficiency in German

Here's an article in Turkish on a new law Austria has enacted requiring immigrants who have family in the country (i.e. family members that other immigrants bring over after settling in themselves) to have a certain level of German before being able to immigrate.

Family members immigrating to Austria must have a basic level of German

Austria has approved a package 40 pages in length aimed at immigrants called the Nationaler Aktionsplan für Integration (National Action Plan for Integration), in which family members of immigrants who want to immigrate to Austria must know German.

The most important item in the action plan is the requirement to know German. In the plan, immigrants that want to move to Austria to join their family members already there must pass a German language test, without which they will not be able to immigrate to the country.

This family reunification system is already in place in Germany, which served as an example to Austria in drafting the plan. Last year Germany began a law where those immigrating to the country needed to know German.

Green member of parliament Alev Korun said that the requirement for family members immigrating to the country to know German did not apply to EU citizens, and that it was done in order to prevent immigration from areas such as Turkey and the former Yugoslavia in particular. Korun criticized the new law for having many gaps and being inequal to immigrants.

So what level of skill is being aimed for with this new law? According to Austria's site it's A2 level German, which is a basic and practical proficiency in the language.


Here's the type of German one can expect to encounter at that level. This is the reading portion of a sample test.

The German in the test is not Was ist das? Das ist ein Leid-level basic, but still quite easy, with sentences like: Die Menschen wussten schon immer, dass Lachen gut tut - People have always known that laughing is good for you (i.e. laughing does good).

For information on the test used in Germany, see here.

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On the signing of the Nabucco pipeline to deliver natural gas through Turkey to Europe

I've written about it many times here over the past year and above, and the deal has finally been signed (with some bits left to work out). The discussion has naturally turned to whether this will aid Turkey's efforts to become a member of the EU. There is no direct influence on this (it has nothing to do with the chapters that need to be fulfilled before a nation can become a member) but in terms of stressing its strategic importance it could, and I'm also curious whether this will change anything in Austria, where anti-Turkey EU membership sentiment is highest:


As Austria is the country where the Nabucco pipeline will end.

Construction will start in 2011 and shipments in 2014. One big concern about Turkey joining the EU is the countries that border it, namely Iran, Iraq, and Syria, plus the Cyprus issue. There's also the frozen border with Armenia. Luckily these are all solvable problems - Iran, if we're lucky, may be able to overthrow their government and replace it with something better (in order to keep the system stable a Supreme Leader Montazeri and President Mousavi might be the best bet at the moment), Iraq is actually Kurdish Iraq along the border so Turkey can definitely solve this if they play their cards right, Syria seems to be open to better relations with the US, Cyprus is achievable, and Armenia and Turkey may somehow be able to normalize relations.

That's a lot on the agenda, but at least we're not dealing with completely unstable countries like North Korea - each of the countries listed above are solvable in some way.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger speaking German / Schwarzenegger wenn er deutsch spricht

It's not very often you can find Arnold Schwarzenegger speaking his native German, as not only has he lived in the US for a long time, but he also governs a state there and thus rarely takes questions in German from the press. For fans or students of German though each video of him talking in German is pretty interesting, since it's always a bit of a trip to see the person you've only seen speaking English before suddenly chatting away in a completely different language, and to realize that oh yeah, that's the language he grew up speaking. Here are a few videos of him speaking German that I've found. Let me know where others can be found and I'll add them here.

A collection of interviews from the 80s (and maybe early 90s):



On a show in 1989 in Austria showing off his muscles:



As governor (only 24 seconds):



This one has the same interview in the first video but with subtitles, so even better. Arnold starts 20 seconds in.



Eight-minute documentary about his bodybuilding career with him speaking:

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Turkmenistan: we're ready to strengthen our bilateral relations with Austria / Türkmenistan: Avusturya'yla ikili ilişkileri güçlendirmeye hazırız

Source: turkish.cri.cn (Turkish)

Türkmenistan: Avusturya'yla ikili ilişkileri güçlendirmeye hazırız

Turkmenistan: we're ready to strengthen our bilateral relations with Austria

(GMT+08:00) 2008-11-18 19:51:12 cri

Türkmenistan Devlet Başkanı Gurbanguli Berdimuhammedov dün (17 Kasım) Viyana'da Avusturya Devlet Başkanı Heinz Fischer'le görüştü. İki lider görüşmede, iki ülke arasındaki ilişkiler, enerji güvenliği ve Avrupa'ya uzanan yeni petrol ve doğalgaz boru hatlarının döşenmesi gibi konularda fikir alışverişinde bulundu.

Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow met yesterday (17 November) with Austria's President Heinz Fischer in Vienna. There was an exchange of ideas in the meeting between the two leaders, including on bilateral relations, energy security and the furnishing of a new oil and natural gas pipeline to Europe.

Uluslararası İnterfax Haber Ajansı'nca bugün verilen habere göre, Fischer görüşmede, Avusturya ile Türkmenistan arasında ekonomi, ticaret ve özellikle enerji alanındaki karşılıklı yarara dayalı işbirliğinin geliştirilmesine önem verdiklerini ve enerji alanındaki işbirliğinin yoğunlaştırılmasını istediklerini belirtti.

According to news given out today by the international Interfax News Agency, importance in the meeting with Fischer was placed on the development of mutually beneficial cooperation between Austria and Turkmenistan in the fields of economy, trade and especially energy, and the two sides hoped for a deepening of cooperation on the field of energy.

Berdimuhammedov, iki ülke arasında ulaşım, makine, kimyasal sanayi, maden ocağı işletmeciliği, tekstil ve tarım alanlarındaki işbirliğinin güçlendirilmesini istediklerini söyledi.

Berdimuhammedow said that they would like to see a strengthening of cooperation between the two countries on communication, machinery, chemical industry, mining administration, textiles and agriculture.

Görüşmeden sonra bazı işbirliği belgeleri imzalandı.

A number of documents on cooperation were signed after the meeting.

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'A Turkish library for every country' project delivers free books to libraries around the world / Her ülkeye bir Türk kitaplığı!

Café Central in Vienna.

I think this is the library in Vienna the article is talking about, though it changed its name from 2006 from Wiener Stadt- und Landesbibliothek (Vienna City and State Library) to Wienbibliothek im Rathaus (Vienna Library in City Hall). Just in case it's the wrong one I'll just write it as "Vienna City Library" below.

Must remember to check whether they plan to send free books to Korea as well.

Source: sabah.com.tr (Turkish)

Her ülkeye bir Türk kitaplığı!

A Turkish library for every country!
21.09.2008

Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı'nın, "Her Ülkeye Bir Türk kitaplığı" projesi kapsamında, Viyana Şehir Kütüphanesi'ne 400 kitap bağışlandı. Türkçe, Almanca ve İngilizce dillerinde kaleme alınan ve tarih, kültür, sanat, turizm konulu kitaplarla romanlardan oluşan 400 kitap, Türkiye'nin Viyana Başkonsolosu Sedat Önal tarafından kütüphaneye teslim edildi. Kentin en zengin kütüphanesi olarak bilinen Viyana Şehir Kütüphanesi, Türkiye'den yapılan 400 kitaplık bağışla birlikte, 1300 kitaplık bir Türkiye bölümüne sahip oldu. Viyana Şehir Kütüphanesinden istenen kitap, ücretsiz olarak ödünç alınabiliyor.

The Ministry of Tourism and Culture has donated 400 books to the Vienna City Library in the "A Turkish library for every country" program. The 400 books are written in Turkish, German and English and are composed of books on history, culture, art, tourism and novels, and were delivered by Turkey's Consul to Vienna Sedat Önal. Vienna City Library is one of the richest libraries in the city, and with the sending of the corpus of 400 from Turkey it now has a Turkish section of 1300. Books can be taken out from the Vienna City Library free of cost.

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