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

Pronunciation Diary 2

Dear all,

Winter break is getting closer and closer but somehow as it gets closer the more I long for it. So the last days are getting longer and longer. At least I finished every homework I wanted before the break so know I can really lay back and relax at least for a couple of days. However, let's speak about pronunciation.

After writing the last post I started to think about what my problems are with English pronunciation. The one I've chosen for this post is the "th" sound.

Our teachers in High School tried their best to explain how to form this sound, but as they couldn't form the sound neither it was kinda a fool's errand.

My problem was that instead of saying "th" I frequently pronounced it as a simple "t". I feel particularly uncomfortable saying the word "worth". That "th" sound after the "r" is very difficult to pronounce.
After listening like 30 times to the program on vocabulary.com pronouncing the word "worth" it gets better but I still have to work on it. Sometimes I forget to put my tongue to the edge of my teeth and because of that it simply sound like an "s".

Here is a recording of me where I read a short poem with a couple of "th" sounds for the first time:
https://soundcloud.com/herold-flux/th

Here I tried it for a second time. A bit better if you ask me.
https://soundcloud.com/herold-flux/th-2

Take care,
Harald

Pronunciation Diary

I was cheered when I heard that from now on this class will focus on pronunciation. Finally an English lesson which is not about writing! Sure writing is a very important part of our studies, I can cope with that but I really missed using the language more in real life than on a piece of paper. So I am already curious to what extend my pronunciation will change if I follow the guidelines provided by Rachel and Amy.

My goal is to speak clearer. I sometimes realize that instead of speaking in a clear tone, I just start to mumble. I don’t know the reason why. Maybe because I think that way no one realizes that I pronounce something wrong. Another problem I often get confronted with is that I place the emphasis incorrectly. I have to learn emphasizing the right part of a word, because mistakes like a mispronounced word make it obvious that you have deficiencies.  As I live every semester with at least one native speaker of English, I have often the opportunity to speak with someone and I try to learn as much as possible from these conversations. For example, I ask them to correct me as soon as they hear something pronounced wrong.

Music must have been the biggest help for me in learning English pronunciation. Honestly, my English teachers in High School were all good teachers but they all had a very strong accent and if I would have listened more to them, then I wouldn't be here. Watching movies in English and listening to a lot of lyrically more complex music helped me more in practicing pronunciation than English class in High School. Analyzing lyrics and listening to them a hundred times helps you remember certain words and not just the word itself but how it is pronounced.

I know, listening to music and analyzing lyrics won't be enough to sound like a native speaker, so I will apply the same strategy for pronunciation practice as for vocab learning. Start early enough and do it every day. Step by step I go through Rachel's videos according to what I want to get better at. I'm already curious how it will change my pronunciation.