Orientation Seminar

I've been in Hollabrun for the past couple of days doing the orientation seminar for language teaching assistants. There are about 100 of us here for the eastern part of Austria. About half are American, half English, with the odd Scottish, Irish, and Australian thrown in the mix. We started off this morning with a presentation from a representative from the Austrian Ministry of Education telling us about some administrative stuff, and then the next half of the day was sort of like a crash-course for teachers. I feel really happy that I got that TEFL certificate, because I feel like I'm a bit ahead of many of the people here. I did learn a lot more about the Austrian education system- it's really intense! The students who are on the university track (who will be my students) have to take a really intense test before their graduation called the "Matura". They are tested in 5 core subjects, and English is one of them (unless they choose French or Spanish, which isn't as popular). By the time they're sixteen, they're reading books like "1984", "On The Beach", Dickens, and even Shakespeare! The tests they have to take last for about 5 hours, with a spoken interview and extensive written essays. So, they will be very advanced before I get to them. Its funny though, because I haven't come across many Austrians who speak English very well at all. I suppose they must forget it all after their school years. There are four of us who will be going to Eisenstadt including myself. One is American, one English, and one Australian. We've been hanging out a bit, and they all seem to be very nice people.

All of you who I sent emails to: You are all terrible lazy and I'm disappointed I haven't heard from you!!

-Art