Aka. "Destination Anywhere", "The Boy and Girl from County Bavaria"... After a very intense year in Würzburg (Germany), I'm back in Salamanca. I probably won't have that many experiences to write, but there's always an excuse to post a new entry!

... yeah, we do also study. Here in Germany the semesters are from October till February and from April till July or August. March and September are holidays (except for those who have to do lab courses or something like that) and you have the exams in February and July. This means that the exams are getting closer. Just like in Ireland, one of the main differences between Spain and Germany is that in Germany you don't have to take exams for all your courses - for some of them you just need regular attendance or some type of assignment.

In Germany (at least here in Würzburg) there are five different types of courses:

- Vorlesungen (lectures): the lecturer explains something, sometimes helped by Power-Point-presentations, and the students have to take notes. There's no interaction between the lecturer and the students, but they just have to listen carefully. There aren't usually exams for this kind of courses, but sometimes international students can ask the lecturer to do so in order to become ECTS-credits.

- Seminare (seminars): there's usually a theoretical part and also some practice. The lecturer explains something and you use the rest of the time to discuss exercises about the topic. You usually have to write an assignment or do a presentation and sometimes even take an exam.

-Übungen (exercises): I don't really know what the difference between seminars and exercises is. I guess they don't have that much theory. What you have to do to get marks depends on the lecturer.

-Tutorien (tutorials): they are related to other courses and you rarely get marks for them. The main purpose of a tutorial is to practice and ask questions about the things you learnt in the course they're related to. Generally they are conducted by students.

-Kursen (courses): they can be a mixture of all the previous ones. They use this term to refer to the courses which take place in the Zentrum für Sprachen (Language Centre).

Well, knowing that, let's get to the point. These are my courses.

1. GRAMPA'S STORIES

Real title: Landeskunde (German culture)

Type: Kurs

Lecturer: Opa Raphael

What it consists of: We listen for one hour and a half to a 60-something-year-old man complaining about Germany and the Germans. Everything is bad and depressing, from the weather to the chancelor. He especially enjoys ranting about politics and psycho-analysing nazis. Apart from that, he's obsessed with two countries - England and Italy.

What to do to get marks: Exam, which will be in a week's time and will include "a short question about politics", whatever that means... (Next Tuesday)

2. DISCOURAGEMENT TECHNIQUES

Real title: Spanisch - Deutsch Übersetzung (Spanish - German Translation)

Type: Übung

Lecturer: Frau Schneider

What it consists of: We get texts to translate from Spanish to German, usually from newspapers, and have 45 minutes a week (!!!) to discuss our translations. The main thing you learn is that no matter what you've written, there's always a much better expression... it doesn't matter whether you're a German native speaker or not...

What to do to get marks: Exam - you have one hour to translate a text... with no dictionary! (In two weeks)

3. GERMAN FILMS FOR DUMMIES

Real title: Deutsch-als-Fremdsprache Filmseminar (Film seminar for international students)

Type: Kurs

Lecturer: Dominik

What it consists of: We watch a film every week and then discuss different questions in groups (summarizing the plot, describing the characters, giving our opinion...) Usually we watch a film and the next week we watch its parody, or at least a film which is in some way related to the previous one. It'd be very interesting if it wasn't because most of the students don't speak that much German, which makes it hard to discuss...

What to do to get marks: Presentation (around 5 minutes) and review of a film. (Next Monday / February 1^st)

4. TERMINOLOGY VOL. II

Real title: Sprachwissenschaft (Linguistics)

Type: Seminar

Lecturer: the one with the very long last name

What it consists of: You sit in a classroom with a group of German students who always seem to have something to say. The topics are very exciting: word formation, phonetics, phonology, graphemics and morphological analysis. In other words, we spend most of the time analysing words. Probably the most demanding course I have.

What to do to get marks: Written assingment in which you have to analyse three words from a newspaper, including definitions from terminological dictionaries, e-homework every week, two-hour courses about how to use the library catalogue and the database and exam. (In two weeks)

5. SPANISH FOR BEGINNERS

Real title: Übersetzung Deutsch - Spanisch (German - Spanish Translation)

Type: Übung

Lecturer: Alicia

What it consists of: Well, exactly what the title says... The texts are really simple, so the main interests for me are learning what the main difficulties for German students of Spanish are and finding better expressions. The weird things students find in dictionaries are also worth being mentioned (emponchar? what the hell is that?!?!) By the way, I'm the only native speaker of Spanish in the course, so they all appreciate my help a lot, which makes me happy.

What to do to get marks: Once again, translating a text... without dictionary! (Next week, I think)

6. TERMINOLOGY REPETITIONS

Real title: Sprawi-Tutorium (Linguistics Tutorial)

Type: Tutorium

Lecturer: Katharina

What it consists of: We practise and repeat what we learnt during the week in Sprachwissenschaft. It's only one hour and everything is practice, so it doesn't get too boring. From here I'd like you all to clap your hands for Katharina for her amazing patience... especially taking into account how many times I've had to annoy her with my doubts about the assignment.

What to do to get marks: You don't get marks.

7. I-DO-YOUR-HOMEWORK-FOR-YOU

Real title: Sprawi-Gasttutorium (Linguistics Tutorial for international students)

Type: Tutorium

Lecturer: Another Dominik

What it consists of: Same as the one above... but this one is for foreign students, so most of them take advantage of it to ask stupid questions about the e-homework or even getting it done. Poor Dominik...

What to do to get marks: This is an exception. As it is special for Erasmus students, you can get two credits if you prepare a little thing (a morphologic analysis, a phonetical transcription...) and present it in front of the class. (Done, waiting for the results)

8. CHILDREN BRAINWASH THROUGHOUT HISTORY

Real title: Von Lilliput bis Hogwarts (From Lilliput to Hogwarts... and yeah, this is the real title)

Type: Vorlesung

Lecturer: the guy in the tracksuit

What it consists of: Literature for children and teenagers, from the Middle Ages until Harry Potter. The guy talks about children literature from different periods of history, focusing on a particular book each time (Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels, Winnetou...) It's interesting, but sometimes hard to follow. The Power-Point-presentations go too fast and some books were / are only popular in Germany.

What to do to get marks: You have to read three children books and then choose one of them to discuss it with the lecturer for around 25 minutes. (Next week, aaaargh!!! Fingers crossed for me!)

9. IMAGINATION POWAH!

Real title: Keine Angst vor dem weißem Blatt – Schreibwerkstatt (No fear of the white paper – writing workshop)

Type: Übung

Lecturer: the blonde one

What it consists of: My favourite! It’s all about writing even when you absolutely don’t feel like or when you have no idea what to write. We do very creative exercises in which you can have a good laugh – inventing illnesses, free-writing, describing a lecture room from the point of view of a child… Well, and of course something a bit more serious, such as book or exhibition reviews. The lecturer, who’s actually working on her thesis, also takes part in the exercises.

What to do to get marks: Writing a review on an exhibition in a monastery, reading a book about how to study effectively and how to write a good assignment and writing a review of it. (Done, I’ll get the results on Thursday)