Der Nebel steigt, es fällt das Laub - a German and Austrian autumn thread

[AntiqueMuppet]

A thread for anyone living in Germany or Austria, or anyone else who fancies a chat.

Previous thread here

[LinzerTorte]

Ploom I've never heard of shorts being too loose to be safe! How ridiculous... I'm trying to think what accidents could be caused by loose shorts but can't come up with anything.

And no, I didn't notice your DS's height at all and I know plenty of 7-8 year olds. Heights vary so much that, like cheas, I would probably only comment if a child was vastly different (almost always taller!) than one of my DC, although will think twice before doing so in future.

Good to see you again hupa; I'm always very impressed by how you manage to stay off MN for so long! You obviously have much more willpower than me.

Have just finished work for the morning, so must get off the computer if I want to get any housework done in my final 20 child-free minutes. Am not actually sure that I want to, but needs must.

[hupa]

Linzer I just wish I had as much willpower when it comes to chocolate and cake.

Ploom How old is your ds1? I just wondered because dd is coming up for 10 and has always been the tallest girl in her class, but I´ve noticed recently that 2 or 3 others have caught up, if not over taken her. Are either you and your dh tall? . There´s a girl in the parallel class who is a good head taller than everyone else, but both her parents are over 6 foot, so it´s not really surprising.

[Ploom]

Hi hupa - so good to see you on the thread again!! have thought about you quite a few times - how's the kitchen getting on?
dd turned 11 in the summer and yeah dh is 6' 3" tall and I'm 5' 9" so there was never any chance the dc were going to be tiddlers! dd and I are sharing shoes at the moment but think her feet will end up bigger than mine as well as ending up taller than me.

I've also racked my brains for loose shorts possible accidents linzer and come up with nothing. She's just a control freak.

[CheddarandMarmite]

I think people that comment on children's height and pregnant women's size are just trying to think of something to say - plus in the case of pregnancy it is the only time it is remotely acceptable to say to a woman that she looks enormous .
I'm always being informed my DC are tall, but DD1 is certainly only about average height, DD2 is maybe a bit above average.

Ploom DH was scrabbling around our bed looking for DD2 just last night, and she's 15 months now (and was asleep in her cot). Partly my fault though as I'd got up in the night for a drink, and brushed past Dh's toes on the way back - he thought it was DD2 down at the foot of our bed about to fall out.

I've been trying to read up a bit about schooling in Hessen - it looks like DD won't have to start school until she is over 7 and a half, because of when her birthday falls, although she could start at 6 and a half if she is ready. Does that sound correct, or have I misunderstood something somewhere ? It seems rather old, and I'm pretty sure if we stayed here in Bayern she'd be expected to start aged 6.

[Ploom]

sorry I realised you asked how old ds1 was not dd - he's nearly 8 and already 145cm tall.

[CheddarandMarmite]

Ploom it is a PE teacher's prerogative to be totally ridiculous on the subject of clothing.
At my school we were only allowed to play netball in white socks, and hockey in navy socks. Attempting to play either sport in the wrong colour socks was also deemed "dangerous".

[CakeBump]

Ploom I was really freaked out, like I'd seen a ghost! And I suddenly thought "I don't want a real, live baby!!" I'm happy with it being a notional baby at the moment... :)

Linzer yes its for freelancers I think, I don't post on it, although I'm a member. I'll pm you the link....

[admylin]

cake I had those sudden spooky moments too. I remember well, when I was at home and noticed the birth was going to happen within the next hours I got scared that it was all going to be real soon too.

hupa ypu have realyl good will power, send some over my way please!

ploom how strange about the shorts and how typical that they cost a fortune. I sometimes torture myself by looking at SportsDirect.com and comparing prices. Hockey sticks was one of my most painful comparisons. This week we've just sent in 40? for ds for a table tennis bat and 20? for a top for the team games and his shoes are getting small too so that'll be next.

cheddar isn't it crazy how the school systems differ in one country? It makes a national move almost as stressful as an international move for dc. My dc had to learn a whole new style of joined up writing when we moved states, and when we moved again to a 3rd state they use danother style but they 'let the dc off' as they were already in year 4 and 5

linzer I agree being a native speaker is no help when you want to translate or teach English. I can't teach at all and I've tried a few times. I admire you all for doing the teaching in primary and Kita.

Better get lunch ready. The dc are having corn on teh cob. Thought I'd better give them plenty before they get their braces as I've heard they'll be on soft food and soups for a while. Not looking forward to the moaning.

[admylin]

Lol at 'hupa ypu have realyl' I never preview messages.

[cheaspicks]

Cake yes please send me that link! I have also had the thinking baby is lost in the bed when she's actually in the cot moment. Made the adrenalin rush I get on stage seem pretty tame .

hupa well done for sticking to your ban. I used to be silken btw! I'm currently on day 5 of a self-imposed added sugar ban (except I ate jam and marmalade at breakfast over the weekend and the muesli I buy is presumably also full of sugar, but no chocolate, biscuits or cake is hard enough). I suspect I'd find it harder to stop MNetting atm!

Linzer and others thanks for the advice. I think writing back today to point out I was berücksichtiging the fact I don't have a qualification/as much experience as a pro would just be protesting too much, so I'll wait and see what they say. Tbf I don't think they were suggesting any old native speaker could do the job - they've previously used an English lecturer at the university - but it's not like I haven't done any of this sort of work before and I don't see that I will do it any worse than someone with a translating qualification.

Out of interest, do translating agencies require a qualification and is it hard to obtain one? Iirc someone told me once that it wasn't particularly hard to apply for a stamp from the Landesbehörde, but that would just be for verifying translations of certificates and the like. Presumably they would demand some sort of proof that one was capable of actually doing the translation they were verifying...

[cheaspicks]

admylin bet you could teach at Berlitz! I find Nachhilfe and private conversation classes the hardest to teach as there is no obvious structure - I'm guessing that's what you have tried in the past?

Teaching the kids was hard at the beginning as I had to adjust my expectations and start making my own lesson plans, but I really enjoy it now. I love it when I can make the kids laugh, or when they beg to play a game from the previous lesson again, or when I bump into the parents somewhere and they tell me what their child has learnt. I don't think I would have had much of a clue where to start if I hadn't had all those years' experience at Berlitz, though.

[TheEnglishWomanInTheAttic]

Ploom your DS is (just) within the normal range for his age you know: www.who.int/growthref/cht_hfa_boys_z_5_19years.pdf (I bookmarked the WHO site with the charts ages ago as DS1 is also tall, though I wasn't worried just curious, as DH is 6 ft 4 and I wondered if DS1 would end up as tall or taller if he stayed on his centile) My DS1 turned 5 last week and is between the top 2 centiles at 1 meter 22cm, but I think your DS would be more or less on the top centile line... Their growth goes in spurts doesn't it, so I guess the time to worry is if he goes over the top of the chart and then doesn't plateaux within a few months. My DD is pretty much exactly average height, but I always think she is tiny because most of her friends are very noticeably a lot taller (a combination of her being the youngest in her school year and Bavarian tall genes I think - she has a friend only 2 months younger who is at least 10cm taller if not more) and of course because her younger brother is alost her height.

Cake I like that wild movement story - I have always had placentas at the front for some reason, and that dulled the sense of movement a little so it was never really wildly spooky with any of mine - never woke me for example.

I have spent the morning at the police station as there was something (acid like) drizzled all over the bonnet of my car this morning, which looks very deliberate and has eaten into the paint. The police took it seriously and said it looks like about ?400 worth of damage and agreed it did not look as if it could be accidental or caused by any kind of animal. I have reason to believe it may be our next door neighbor, though we've never had problems before and lived next to them 5 years, I called out of the window and asked them and their friends to stop revving their motorbikes and honking their horns at about 9.30pm a month or so ago, and they left a note on my car windscreen on Sunday saying that it is my fault they can't park their cars closer to their house (they have 4 cars to our 2, and we both have 2 car driveways but parking on the drive leaves very little space for the kids to get bikes etc. past just, so I do park on the road outside our double-house - I don't think I have any less right to than they do). I can't be sure it was them of course, but the police are coming out to talk to them tonight so I almost hope it was, and the wrong people are not going to get a police visit!)

Nice to see you back Hupa

[cheaspicks]

EnglishWoman that sounds horrible and also very childish. What a nasty situation to be in. People can get very irrationally wound up about parking spaces though. I hope things get sorted out and don't escalate .

[itsMYNutella]

Just quickly checking in :)

Cake that sounds very odd but I can imagine what you mean.

Our baby-ecke is coming along, the ILs came over to help didn't know what to do with them because I'm not allowed to do anything to help and that bugs me. So I kept out of the way in the office on MN "working" preparing for lessons tomorrow.
FIL has a nasty habit of asking what you want and when do you want to do it; then totally ignores you and tells you how you should be doing it and that is should be done as fast as possible
MIL was essentially in the way so since we did a white wash yesterday it occurred to us she could iron DP's shirts :) kept her busy and made her feel useful.
She also offered to let me have a rummage through her clothes for big blouses (I'm guessing this was inspired by the T-shirt I'm wearing today which is snug and keeps riding up) that might fit me I feel horrible but I'm not sure any body wouldn't want to wear the clothes of an almost 70 year old MIL.

oops sorry thats a bit long! Thank you for all the discussion about size! :o I feel much better :) better get off to yoga!

oh and English I find what happened to your car really odd. It's a very personal and overt way to interfere with someone's car. Anyway, hope that a little chat from the fuzz keeps them quiet (did I say I worked in the police in London for 8 years in a previous life? Neighbour problems/disputes were always odd)

[itsMYNutella]

Oh and in the end ILs were only here two hours and then dashed off... which seemed odd. But another friend has been here all day working on making the walls ready for papering (nothing fancy, that ugly stuff you get all over rented flats...) so we can then hide all the holes from what we had to remove and paint it easily but without too much expense... not sure if we've upset them

Will speak to DP about it later...

[LinzerTorte]

cheas IME most translation agencies prefer you to have a translation qualification, particularly if you don't have any experience - generally either a postgraduate diploma/MA in translation or some other kind of translation qualification; the Diploma in Translation offered by the Institute of Linguists is quite well recognised. A couple of friends of mine have taken the DipTrans and there's more information about it here, but I don't know a great deal about what it involves or how difficult it is.

Otherwise, agencies will sometimes ask you to provide samples of your work or to do a test piece. They'll often start out by sending you a small job to check your skills, reliability, etc., which can then lead to more work if you're lucky.

In Germany and Austria, it's possible to be a certified/sworn translator (which I think is what you're talking about wrt to the stamp), but I've never really looked into it as my lack of certification hasn't been an issue (in the UK, it's the translation itself rather than the translator that is certified). It doesn't guarantee work and the German and Austrian agencies I've worked for have never asked if I'm certified, although I suppose they might look on your application more favourably if you are.

hupa I'm quite good at rationing myself when it comes to chocolate, as I rarely eat anything other than Cadbury's so have to make it last until my next trip back to the UK, but wine is my downfall.

Cake Thanks for adding me to the FB group.

English What an awful thing to happen. I hope the culprits get caught quickly.

[AntiqueMuppet]

Linzer That link is really interesting. I've been thinking about another translation certificate while I'm at home and can't really think about starting to work just yet.

Nutella Hope everything is ok with the ILs!

English Sorry to hear about your car. Have you heard anything back from the police? I was reading another thread on here a while ago about parking space issues and was really surprised how weird some people get about perceived parking space rights. I hope they get them quickly.

Hi hupa! I'm very impressed with your self-imposed MN ban. I have no willpower when it comes to these things.

cheas Did you work at Berlitz here or in the UK? What are they like to work for? FIL is always going on at me about teaching. (I was a teaching assistant for my year abroad - 9 years ago - and he seems to think that's what I should be doing, no matter how often I tell him I really do not want to be a secondary school teacher and am NOT qualified!) I worked in IT development for one of the big oil companies for years and he completely dismisses that as if it was a hobby. Strange man :)

When do your two get their braces, admylin? I saw someone with lovely, perfectly straight, even, symmetrical, white teeth the other day and really wished I had had braces when I was younger.

Cheddar I've done the panicked scrabbling round the bed a few times too and my DS is 1!

Ploom How ridiculous! Did he wear the black shorts in the end?

The funeral service on Saturday was lovely - if that doesn't sound too strange.
I was amazed at how composed her daughter and husband were, I'm not sure I would be as strong as they were in that situation. The husband even sang a song, really calmly, while the rest of us were blubbing away.

We're off to look at a house tomorrow! I was speaking to a friend yesterday who thought that we could legally get out of our contract early (for the current flat) as long as we had a Nachmieter or two lined up. I need to look into this but that really would be perfect. The flat is via one of DH's colleagues so no agency fees etc. I'm really excited!

Hello to anyone I've missed!

[cheaspicks]

Thanks for the info and that link, Linzer. I haven't looked at the sample papers yet, but the idea of taking it is somewhat tempting. I'd either have to majorly cram to take it in January or wait until Jan 2014 though .

I guess I have to decide whether I actually want to become a translator though! I reckon I could specialise in medical translation - presumably there's a market for it (although the English abstracts in DH's journals have clearly been nowhere near a native speaker) - or maybe Schott (the music publisher) might employ translators (my trade journal "Das Orchester" has a page of English garble each month, so maybe not).

Or I could try concentrate on getting more playing work by learning the baroque version of my instrument, or by buying a fairly rare relation of my instrument (£££ though). Or somehow get really really good at jazz playing (not sure there's really money in that in this area, so would have to get amazingly good and make the right contacts - pie in the sky).

Sorry, I'm not really looking for answers from any of you, although your thoughts would be very welcome . I've just spent the last couple of years not really looking for work, taking on things when they've been offered, but expecting to have to give them up again soon enough when I got pg again. Now DD is 3, I've had to accept that she's not going to have a sibling very close in age, I'm not going to have two kids at kiga at the same time and, actually, it's freed me somewhat from the desperation of ttc-ing unsuccessfully.

(For those of you who have joined this thread recently, I had a shot of depo provera, the contraceptive injection, 2 1/2 years ago and am still waiting for my cycle to normalize .)

Me, me, me post . Sorry!

[cheaspicks]

Antique do you already have a qualification in translation, or do you mean you've been looking into getting one? I'd be very interested to hear your musings on the matter .

Berlitz are ok to work for. I worked for them as a freelancer, some teachers get contracts with them, but they prefer not to have to guarantee your salary . The teaching is easy: they send you on a week's training course to learn how to use their teaching manual and then you are let loose on the students. You are expected to teach using the target language only, so you get very good at explaining stuff in a roundabout way, but the teaching manual tells you exactly how to approach each point, so the only real thinking involved is dreaming up additional questions for larger groups. Once you've taught each level a couple of times you can virtually stop thinking, especially if you've scribbled all your ideas into your manual.

It suited me because they were very flexible. I could work 40 hours a week in the Semesterferien and two evenings a week in term time if I wanted. Lessons at Berlitz are made up of 40 minute units, separated by a 5 min break. A typical class would be 3-4 units long, so better in a way than VHS for making it worth leaving the house and travelling.

The pay is fairly rubbish, although comparable to the VHS at least where I was. They pay both expenses and for your travelling time when you go out to companies though (depending on what they've negotiated with the client). When I was pg with DD I taught at a company two days a week - 8 units of teaching (two small classes, then 1-1 with a manager). I got two travel units paid (needed around 2 1/2 hours to drive there and back though) plus 30 cents per km. The manager regularly cancelled his lesson at the last minute, which meant I could go home early but still got paid. I would say that was fairly typical.

[LinzerTorte]

cheas Yes, there's definitely a market for medical translation; one of my friends is a medical translator and, from what she's said, medical translators are generally able to command slightly higher rates. Being able to offer a specialism (which a lot of language graduates can't) is always an excellent idea. If you do decide to go into medical translation, I'd be happy to put you in touch with her. I don't know much about music translation I'm afraid, but I can imagine the market for it would be much smaller.

I'd also recommend joining the ITI (Insitute of Translation & Interpreting) to anyone interested in working in the field (they also have a medical network IIRC). You do need several years' experience (and have to take an exam/have work assessed) to become a fully qualified member, but you can join as an associate initially.

My cycle also took ages to get back to normal after the 3-Monats-Spritze, definitely far longer than the 10 months they say (although bfing may have affected it as well). I know it must sound trite, but there are advantages and disadvantages to every age gap - probably not much comfort when you feel like you're not being given any choice about the age gap, I know. Glad to hear you're feeling better about things anyway, and fingers crossed that something will happen for you soon.

Antique Glad to hear that the funeral went well, or as well as those kinds of things can go. I felt the same at my friend's DH's funeral last year and was just so amazed by how composed she and her daughter were and how much inner strength she must have had.

Good luck for the viewing tomorrow and keep us posted!

[admylin]

antique glad the funeral was OK.
My 2 get their braces in a months time so counting down now. They aren't going to like it at first.
I've been thinking about doing a translation certificate but it always ends up working out too expensive from where ever I've bene living at the time and as the next move is going to happen (but who knows when!) I always put it off. Good luck if you can do it now.

cheas medical or specialised translation is very expensive so could be a good earner for you. Once dh wanted to get some English translated into German for an internal application and it was too expensive so he had to beg colleagues to help, cost him a couple of bottles of Whiskey and many hours of his time!

nutella how nice of your PIL to want to help and great that you got the ironing done for you! Hope the baby corner is to your liking when it's finished. Have you got everything?

english hope you get the car and neighbour problem sorted (if it was them), never nice to have trouble with the neighbours is it? Can you figure out what was used on your car?

Dd stayed home today, sore throat but she's not too bad now, sitting reading her magazines on the sofa under a blanket. It's a Feiertag tomorrow, what is everyone doing? We can't decide, it'll either be a sofa/TV day or we'd go the cinema if there was something on we all wanted to watch, any tips?

[cheaspicks]

Hmm, having looked at the sample papers I reckon I could translate them into English (if they were in German) without too much difficulty. I cannot, however, think of the German translation of "nooks and crannies"?

Linzer no, not trite, something I keep reassuring myself of. Plus I can have dcs 2 and 3 close together, can't I? I'm not religious, but I often think that it will happen when the time is right, whatever that might mean in reality. I'm feeling a lot more positive about it atm than I was last year and trying to live healthily and look towards the future may well help as much as anything else atm.

[LinzerTorte]

cheas Apart from guessing that Ecken would be in there somewhere, I'd have no idea what nooks and crannies is in German either. Luckily, I haven't been asked to translate anything into German since I left university and no reputable agency would ask you to translate into a language that isn't your mother tongue unless you have a particularly unusual language combination.

My mum always says that things usually work out for the best, even if it doesn't look like it at the time, and that's often helped me to get through difficult situations. (Maybe you'll end up having twins and will be very glad of the larger gap. ) A friend of mine had a 7 year gap between DCs 1 and 2 and said it was great as her DS was already so independent and also very good at entertaining the baby. Whatever age gap you end up, there are bound to be lots of plus points and I don't think it's the case that the children are more likely to be close if there's a relatively small gap, as I've sometimes heard (mainly from DH to explain why he's not close to his sister, although I think their personalities are so different that a narrower age gap wouldn't make much difference). DD1 and DS are 4.5 years apart and get on very well when they're not trying to kill each other; she often helps him with his homework and is quite protective of him, but they play together a lot too.

admylin I was looking for a film to go and see on Sunday, but couldn't find anything that we'd all want to go and watch (mainly because I'm not a fan of cartoons!). My neighbour told me the other day about a French film (with an Austrian director) she'd seen, which she said was excellent and very moving - about an elderly couple and one of them becomes ill IIRC. Am not sure how "family friendly" it is, although obviously your DC are older; I'll try to remember what it's called (may have to resort to google!).

[LinzerTorte]

The film's called Amour, or Liebe in German.

[cheaspicks]

"in jedem Winkel" according to dictionary. I know I wouldn't have to translate into German of course, I was just wondering whether I would have come up with "nooks and crannies" if confronted with the German.

I have to admit that my schadenfreude level goes through the roof whenever I see someone who has managed a small age gap but then ends up with twins .

Is Cloud Atlas out - saw a poster for it in the cinema car park at the weekend, but didn't have chance to read it? I loved the book (and everything else David Mitchell has written) so the film will probably be disappointing.