Wind, Obst, Wein und Spaß - living in Germany and Austria: the autumn edition

[LinzerTorte]

A thread for all those living in Germany or Austria or anyone who just wants to chat/ask a question about living in or visiting this part of the world - all welcome (particularly as the previous thread has been so quiet recently).

The thread title comes from this song btw - they're not the first four autumnal German words that popped into my head. (It could have been worse; I did briefly consider "Nüsse auf den Teller, Birnen in den Keller".)

Volkshochschule - basically a school offering courses for adults... There is an English equivalent which has just dropped out of my brain.... Hmmmm..... I'm sure you know what I mean.

MrsT maybe sing some songs for the kids? With hand movements? And have a little chat at the start and end where people introduce themselves and talk about their children/ lives/ holiday? Hmmmm.... Yeah, I'm probably no help really am I

Oh I see - like an adult education course?

ptumbi VHS offer German courses for immigrants and all sorts of other courses (for children too - currently my 7 yo is doing Taikwando and my 9 year old has signed up for a sewing machine course - her choice ). I just teach English - beginners and intermediate. You can teach though VHS if they need English teachers - it's self employed but if you only offer a couple of courses they have an exemption meaning you don't have to do any self employment paperwork. You can also learn a wide variety of weird and wonderful stuff from felt making to Vietnamese cookery to NorwichWalking, and their courses are vastly cheaper than ccommercial equivalents - worth looking your local branch up if you are at a loose end while living in Germany.

• Nordic not Norwich. ..

Thanks MrT - I would be looking at learning German (or at least, talking/listening).
Do you need a qual in TEFL to teach there?

I don't know whether you officially need a TEFL qualification - I do have a degree in English and a CTEFLA from 20 years ago though.

hmm, so A level English Lit/Lang from 30 years ago probs won't be all that?

:o Ptumbi I do know an American woman with no teaching qualifications of any kind and a degree in a totally irrelevant subject who has a successful Kindergarten English teaching programme - she has the brass neck and self confidence allowance of about 20 people though - Kindergartens usually want freebies, I have no idea how she convinced several to pay her to run classes, let alone with no qualifications except being a parents and a native speaker... VHS didn't specify qualifications, so I don't know whether they're needed - I suspect plenty teach without. There are courses in Spanish and Croatian too and I have a feeling those teachers have no specific qualification in teaching their native languages. .. There are also English teachers who are not native speakers, and often my new pupils say they picked my course because my name couldn't be German :o

MrT - that is interesting. Thanks for that - I wouldn't even mind 'teaching' as a freebie, or chatting/conversational groups, if it also got me talking/listening to German.

When I was looking for a german tutor I came across one who had a very Indian name; I've worked with plenty of Indians with good English, but I usually had to concentrate to understand the accent. I cant imagine what German would be like with an Indian accent.... So I can understand people wanting a 'proper' native speaker!

Hello! Apologies for disrupting the thread but is there anyone here around Bad Hofgastein/Bad Gastein? I've just visited my friend with her newborn, and there is a distinct lack of baby groups or friendly English faces for her
Any ideas?

Thanks

A quick Google will turn things up Heyhoe if she knows the right search terms. What about this:

www.pepp.at/pages/de/angebote/treff-zu-pflege--still--und-ernaehrungsfragen-babytreff.php

Good terms to search are Baby Treff; Mutterkind Centrum; Krabbel Gruppe

Great thanks!

Heyhoe I know it isn't quite the same but you can also send your friend a link to us here on MN

Yes I did send the link - hopefully she'll come aboard the MN ship

Yes, definitely see if you can get your friend to join us Heyhoe - we could do with some more Austrians. She's in a lovely area, at any rate; DH and I had one of our last pre-DC weekends away in Bad Gastein.

I really do empathise with your friend, btw - I found it so difficult when we first moved to Austria to find toddler groups to go to with DD1. I was complaining about how difficult it was in comparison to where we moved from (where there was information available everywhere - at the paediatrician, local libraries, etc.) and SIL helpfully told me that "in Austria, you're expected to find things out for yourself."

I've just had a quick google too and couldn't find anything other than a Krabbelgruppe where you would leave your child and that you have to pay for (the Babytreff that MrTumbles linked to is in Zell am See, which must be a good hour from Bad Gastein). I found that playgrounds could be a good way of getting to meet other parents, although it sounds like your friend's baby might not be at the playground stage yet. Otherwise, could she ask at the paediatrician's maybe?

Correction - just asked DH and he said it's probably not much more than 45 minutes. I used to spend just as long going to baby groups in Vienna when the DC were little, so it's probably doable if you're desperate (and I sometimes was desperate to speak English to to other adults ).

Also, don't underestimate parenting websites - there are very few English speakers around here, so MN has often been a lifeline. I also managed to make a RL friend through another parenting website, not to mention the lovely people I've met through this thread (think I've met five in RL now).

Ah thanks Linzer - if she is reading this (hi!) then I'm sure your words will be helpful

Apologies for not looking at your link closely enough MrTumbles - I've just discovered links to courses, groups, etc. in Bad Gastein and Bad Hofgastein, where there's both a Babytreff and an Eltern-Kind-Gruppe. Sorry.

That's what comes of MNing before I've had my first coffee...

For you!

:o Linzer - my geography of that part of the country is non existent so you were quite right to be suspicious of my link; I was relying entirely on Google.

Got a meeting at school in a minute about dd, though I asked for it 3 weeks ago and now I'm pretty sure there's no point. Really ds' s school life needs much more attention, but his teacher is so unreasonable I can't see any point having more meetings with her...

Good luck with the meeting MrTumbles; let us know how you get on. From what you've said about DS's teacher, it really doesn't sound like there's much point talking to her - I can't imagine her seeing your point of view and so you'll just end up feeling even more frustrated.

I've just booked a spur-of-the-moment trip back to the UK (for all of us) to visit my parents over Easter; considering it's only two weeks away, the flights weren't too extortionate but I don't know what's going on with the hotels. I e-mailed the airport hotel where we normally stay (flight always lands very late) and they want £70 more than we paid at Christmas. And not only that - breakfast is no longer included in the price and will cost £17 per person. I e-mailed them to ask why on earth they're suddenly charging so much more but no reply as yet. I thought I'd look slightly further afield as, even taking into account that we'd have to pay for a taxi, there's bound to be somewhere cheaper but it really doesn't look like it. Even Travelodge wants £100 per room per night - and, having been foolish enough to have had a third child, we would of course need two rooms. Aargh!

Hi all,

Sorry to butt in. I'm hoping that some of you can point me in the right direction.

It's looking like a good chance that I'm going to get seconded to Koeln for a couple of years with work. The last time I lived in Germany (5 years in Munich) I didn't have a family in tow so I need some help.

What is probably going to happen is that I will move out to Germany in June this year and that DH and the girls will follow me once the school year is over.

I have 2 girls. DD1 is 6 and will be 7 in December. DD2 is 3 and will be 4 in Jan. Can someone point me at a good source of info on the German school system. Would DD1 be the right age to attend Grundschule in Sept? Or is she a year too young? I know that they used to start at 7. How about DD2? What age is Kindergarten? What do I need to do to apply for a place in a state school? I know that it'll take you forever to answer all my questions here. So if you have links to a reliable source of info I'd appreciate it (English or German are fine).

Thanks loads.

Try toytown germany. Look under local forums, koeln should have one. Or start a thread but use the search function first.
dd1 I think would be year 1, would enrol her, see if she can absorb the German in the year
dd2 should be entitled to a kindergarten place
Not sure re koeln but my kids schools were allocated by postcode