My Reflection on the Pecha Kucha Experience

If a noun or expression is followed by the word "experience" it always reminds me of Jimi Henrdix.:)

When I first heard about this Pecha Kucha thing I wasn't sure what to think about it. I thought that its going to be a lot of work and effort crammed in 6 minutes and 40 seconds. I was totally right but I haven't thought of the fact that I could actually enjoy the work.


My assigned partner was Orsolya and I was happy that I could finally prepare something with a partner I know well. I know that the purpose of teamwork is that you have the chance to work with someone you don't know and to collect new experience, but still, knowing that I will work with Orsolya was a great relief. She is a very positive person who loves to do things passionately and that makes the work much easier. The other thing that made the PK a positive experience was the topic. I know we may seem obsessed with Hungary, but trust me, we aren't. We just wanted to work on something that we know well in order to create something that is important for both of us. I mean, who could give you a better insight into the reasons why Hungarians come to Austria than two Hungarians who came to Austria. :D

The Process: 

We started off by making a rough outline of what we want to speak about and what we should include. We knew that a short history section in the beginning would make out a good start and that it would create a good base for the whole project. Than we had a lot of other things to do so we just laid the project by side. In the middle of November we started preparing it. We met like five, six times for three, four hours. We progressed from slide to slide. Sometimes it was obvious what we want to say but then there were slides which we had to think about much more. Luckily, Orsolya had all her history books from High School that were even written in English.
From the beginning on we always measured time to know how much we can say to one picture. That helped us with remembering the transcript and it also gave us a good feeling for the pace. The hardest part of the presentation was searching for good pictures. We had slides which took us one or two hours till we found a picture that both of us liked.
Four-five days before the presentation day we met more frequently and practiced the whole thing just a couple of times every day and individually at home. I would listen to the recording and walk around in my room, doing as if I would present it to the class. As it was only 7 minutes long I could practice it a lot and soon I knew it by heart.

The Product:

I would lie if I said I wasn't excited but I got used to speaking and presenting in front of a bigger audience, so I for me it was pretty relaxed. The other thing is that I like the group so its not like presenting to unknown people. Most of them I already knew last year and even if we don't spend too much time together, the fact that everyone is walking in the same shoes made the whole thing a collective experience.
As we practiced our presentation a lot, I think it went as expected. The timing was right and I hope the pronunciation too. Language and content-wise our presentation was maybe a bit too simple, compared to other ones. We just didn't want to include difficult expressions that would only confuse the audience. We followed the suggestion: "Keep it short and simple".
 I don't know why but I just couldn't wash the smile of my face while presenting. I really enjoyed it.

 It was nice to watch the other presentations and I really enjoyed them all. I think everyone did a great job. The only negative thing that I can mention is that 5 presentations within 1 hour were simply too much. I can hardly remember any information that was said during the presentations.I concentrated more on the language and the presenting styles of my classmates and because of that the content often just went in on one ear and out on the other.

All in all, I really enjoyed the whole atmosphere and I left school for Christmas break with a really good feeling.

Take care,
Harald

My system for improving my vocabulary

I'm a bit late with this post but better late than never. As we run out of time it is better to get it out of the way now, as I assume that I won't have time for it later.

I don't have to say how important it is to collect and improve vocabulary in the process of learning a language. It helps to express yourself better and colors the language. Isn't it a beautiful feeling when you use a word in a conversation for the first time without having to think about it for 2 minutes?




Here is my system for improving my vocabulary:

The most convenient way of studying vocabulary is vocabulary.com. It adapts to your level and helps you to study words systematically. Normally I do 3 tests per day but since we have to improve our pronunciation I rather do spelling bee as it helps me with the pronunciation and on the right hand side it provides short definition of the word. Here is a picture of my process so far:


As those short definition aren't always enough to really understand a word, I search for a better definition in longman dictionary online and look how the word is used and what forms it can occur. In order to remember the word I write it down in my notebook. I've heard that writing down a word helps remembering it because the word gets processed by your brain while you write it down. Here is a picture of my notebook:

Although writing it down helps you to remember the word better, revising the words and creating example sentences is still very important. So I make sure to revise them regularly, especially before an exam.

I also love flashcards, though I didn't use them too much throughout the semester. Originally I use it for words which I stumble over accidentally and are worth remembering, but  at the beginning of the semester I decided to use them to write down words and definition related to finance and economics. I thought it's going to help me with Henry's class. In the beginning it did but unfortunately the semester was too demanding and I simply didn't find the time to do it regularly. I know...silly excuse :D.

Take care,
Harald