Finally, some Tours, 1 July 2010

Before I begin talking about my work experiences of the week, I would just like to point out that exactly a week from today I'll be coming home. The home part will be short lived, because then the next day I'm flying to the Philippines, but I'm excited about both. I love you Germany, as I told 30 5th graders today, but there's no place like home.

Monday was my first tour, meaning, I was a tour guide. The morning frankly was not so hot. I woke up at six, (sorry if this is normal for some of you, but I don't like it), got on the train at 7 and was at work a full hour early. The secretary was and has been unusually annoying this week. And I don't know what she was talking about, but I swear she told me the press was invited to my tour. So that gave me something to freak out about as I got ready (put my make up and contacts in at work, and read over the tour text). But no press came. Then I went down early and Matthias wasn't there. Trust me, its weird to think of that Matthias and know a different Matthias will/is reading this. He came, but the group and teacher were there early, too, so his one minute of tardiness made me nervous. He definitely had the keys to everything, so without him, I couldn't really give the tour. But it all worked out. For that, anyway. The group of 19 students, turned out to be all boys.

Their teacher was also worried that the tour would be too difficult. Frau Auer's text had been sent to her, which is very psychological and philosophical. Good content, but not exactly for translation if you're dealing with second language learners. I assured here I wouldn't stick to the text and it would be much easier.

Now, normally I get along better with boys better than girls, but I knew this would be a tough crowd. They didn't know much English, it was early Monday morning, they'd been up late celebrating Germany's "victory," and what 19 year old boy wants to be questioned about Harry Potter? Let alone Catholic Saints? Sadly most of my tour involves asking questions, which totally didn't work out. So I did most of the talking, which was too fast, I think. Most of the museum's also small, so fitting all those boys so they could see was difficult. Only two of the guys answered any questions during the entire tour, but I was grateful for them. Basically, I talked too fast and we had a lot of time after wards, so they completed their fill-in-the-blank worksheets I'd written. Then we went over it and they all had the right answers. So I guess they understood something. And the teacher asked if I could do another tour next week, which I said "sure" and so I think she's figuring that out currently.

After the tour, Matthias and I went on the coffee break. I had my tea. Then after the break, I went upstairs and emailed Dr. Auer that I was done and had nothing else to do. She brought me a museum guide, explaining a bunch of objects in the Uhr und Industrie Museum, and asked if I wanted to translate it. I've been working on that this week. I could have done it in one or two days, but I realized this and so I've been working very slowly, to make it last longer. And I've had to research a bunch of things to understand what's going on.

For example, the pamphlet's about different historical clocks. I really don't know much about clocks, and if you think you do, you're wrong. The most notorious term I came across, was "stackfreed." I looked through translations and then turned to wikipedia. I spent over an hour tracking this thing down. It didn't help that I initially thought it was a German word and it turns out its actually English. So I spent some time looking in the wrong places. But, I eventually found it after reading up on the mechanisms of clocks. Turns out it was a set of pieces to regulate the clock's accuracy of telling time, but only used for 100 years before abandoned for the better and more accurate fusee.

Today I had my second tour, and it went much better. I definitely had less nerves, though the lady with the key (Matthias is now on vacation and won't be seen again) was late. I think she may have forgotten. But it went well. There were a lot of children (31) but they were pretty well behaved. And they answered some questions. I did definitely ask fewer, though, this time. At 5th grade, they've almost had a full year of English. But I simplified my language better this time and I think it went well. The girls were interested in asking me personal questions at the end and the boys were more apt to volunteer information during the tour.

One setback, is the size of the rooms or artifacts that the kids are supposed to see. We're constantly crowded and if half the kids can't see what I'm talking about, they get bored. I don't blame them. In one room, I attempted to remedy this by having the group switch half way through my story about St. George. These kids also liked my storytelling. They're clearly winners. Since their English wasn't so so good, I also spoke in German to clarify things. This worked out well, though I 'm a little surprised how I switched back and forth. I should be speaking German while I'm here, and they're supposed to be learning English on the tour. Meh.

In the end, we took some time to go over the crossword puzzle I designed. Then we had a slightly open forum for them to ask me questions. This was mostly, "Where do you come from? What's your favourite color? Do you have any pets? What's your favourite country? Do you have siblings?" And then the teacher asked if she could bring a group next week of 11 graders. I said sure, just call Frau Haas, the secretary. I also offered to deviate from the tour theme to talk about other things the group might be interested in. I'm not sure if Frau Auer would approve, but if I can better interest the kids, then they'll be more likely to participate and therefore will benefit more.

The rest of the day I translated a little and read up on World War I battles, Russian czars, and Harry Patch. I think I'll be looking up Mr. Patch's autobiography when I get home. Oh, Harry Patch was the oldest living survivor of trench warfare during WWI, but died last year. Now I believe there are no more WWI veterans. I also learned that 1 percent of New Zealand's population was killed in battle during WWI. With that, I bid you Tschuess, and you may all expect more sometime this weekend after I get home from France. Yes, France.