Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Kompetenzerweiterung II (Wednesday Group), Homework for June 7th

In advance of our June 8th session, please have reviewed vocab units 2 and 4 and grammar units 11 and 13. Bring any questions regarding any of the vocab or grammar content as well as any of the accompanying exercises. For extra practice, it would be a good idea to complete reviews 1, 3, 6 and 7, if you haven't done so already. 

Please also watch one video from the WIRED 5 levels series and be ready to explain something that you are knowledgable about on at least two different levels in our next session: 5 Levels - YouTube

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Thursday, May 25, 2023

Kulturraumbezogene Wirtschaftsthemen, Homework for Thursday, June 1st

***Please note that there is no class session on Tuesday, May 30th due to the Pentecost/Whitsun holiday.*** 

For homework, please: 

- submit your second Teilleistung by the deadline and make sure you are registered on PSSO for the final exam by the deadline.

- read the article "How to explain the puzzle of the world economy" posted on Ilias and complete the accompanying questions.

Links of interest: 

Ben & Jerry's Activism is Anything but Half Baked - YouTube

I'm sorry that the link was not easy to navigate in today's class. If you are interested in German data points for inflation, you might be interested in this table: KORREKTUR: Inflationsrate im April 2023 bei +7,2 % - Statistisches Bundesamt (destatis.de)


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Kompetenzerweiterung II (Thursday Group), Homework for June 1st

Your task for this week is to learn ALL of the vocabulary for Unit 22 (Quality and the arts) and complete any exercises you didn't last semester. Much of this will be review, but please pay attention to sections that you did not address in your own study last semester and return to exercises you had difficulty with.

Please review Units 1, 3, and 5 in the textbook and your answers to the exercises you completed last semester. Bring in any questions that you have with tense to our next session. 

In addition, please look up a graduation speech/commencement address on YouTube and decide if you agree with its advice. Be able to summarize the speech/address when you come to our next class session.

Here you will find a wealth of word formation and key word transformation exercises. I recommend doing as many as you can before the exam: https://www.english-grammar.at/online_exercises/word-formation/word-formation-index.htm
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Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Kompetenzerweiterung II (Wednesday Group), Homework for May 31st

For homework, please review Units 7 (passives and causatives) and 9 (modals and semi-modals) in advance of our next class. I recommend doing Review 4 (pp. 68-69) and Review 5 (pp. 84-85) for review.

In addition, please look up a graduation speech/commencement address on YouTube and decide if you agree with its advice. Be able to summarize the speech/address when you come to our next class session.

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Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Kulturraumbezogene Wirtschaftsthemen, Homework for Thursday, May 25th

 For homework, please: 

- focus on completing your second Teilleistung, which is due to me via email by Friday, May 26th at 5 pm. Only one partner needs to send the file, but that partner should mention their partner's name in the email sent so that I can keep track of submissions.

- read the file "People are numb to big numbers" uploaded to Ilias and consider how you can apply the journalist's claims to how you present your numbers/data in your presentation for the second Teilleistung

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Monday, May 22, 2023

Kulturraumstudien USA, Homework for June 5th

 ***Please register for the final exam on PSSO. Please note that our next class session is on June 5th.***

Using the search feature on this website (it can be accessed using the magnifying glass icon next to the orange Newsletter button at the top of the page), read at least three letters that are somehow connected to US culture or history (they don't have to be written by people from the US): Letters of Note – Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience

What are the historical and cultural take-aways from these letters? As artefacts, what do they teach us about formal and informal levels of (US) culture? What data do they contain that would be of interest to students/scholars of cultural studies? Try applying techniques used in class. 

Links of interest:

Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.] (upenn.edu)

Freeman Hrabowski Recalls His Meeting with Martin Luther King Jr. | Google Zeitgeist - YouTube

Nixon's "Great Silent Majority" - YouTube

Johnny Cash - San Quentin (Live at San Quentin, 1969) - YouTube

Merle Haggard - Okie From Muskogee (Live) - YouTube



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Kompetenzerweiterung II (Monday Group), Homework for June 5th

  ***Our next session is on June 5th due to the Pentecost/Whitsun holiday on May 29th.***

Your task for this week is to learn ALL of the vocabulary for Unit 22 (Quality and the arts) and complete any exercises you didn't last semester. Much of this will be review, but please pay attention to sections that you did not address in your own study last semester and return to exercises you had difficulty with.

Please review Units 1, 3, and 5 in the textbook and your answers to the exercises you completed last semester. Bring in any questions that you have with tense to our next session. 

Here you will find a wealth of word formation and key word transformation exercises. I recommend doing as many as you can before the exam: https://www.english-grammar.at/online_exercises/word-formation/word-formation-index.htm
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Wednesday, May 17, 2023

Kompetenzerweiterung II (Wednesday Group), Homework for May 24th

 ***Please make sure to register on PSSO for the written exam by the deadline.***

For homework: 

-please review Units 7 (passives and causatives) and 9 (modals and semi-modals) in advance of our next class. I recommend completing Review 4 (pp. 68-69) and Review 5 (pp. 84-85) as well.

-please also learn the vocabulary from Unit 24 and complete all of the accompanying exercises. 

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Tuesday, May 16, 2023

Kulturraumbezogene Wirtschaftsthemen, Homework for Tuesday, May 23rd

 ***Please don't forget to sign up for the final exam on PSSO.***

For homework, please: 

- read the entries for bonds, interest rates, quantitative easing (QE), and recession before watching the videos below: The A to Z of economics | The Economist

- watch this video and summarize to the best of your ability why SVB collapsed: How Silicon Valley Bank Collapsed in 36 Hours | What Went Wrong | WSJ - YouTube

- watch this video and answer the question in the video's title with details (pay attention to the metaphors used in this video as well): Could banking fears spark another Global Financial Crisis? | The Business | ABC News - YouTube 


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Monday, May 15, 2023

Kulturraumstudien USA, Homework for May 22nd

***Please don't forget to sign up for the final exam on PSSO by the deadline.*** 

For homework, please: 

- you have most likely read/heard Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech "I Have a Dream" before, but I would like you to listen to it here and read along with the full text featured on the page. We've talked about a number of ways to analyse texts during our academic year thus far as well as a lot of cultural/historical backstory to the US. With this knowledge, how do you look at this speech now? Bring in at least three concrete remarks about the speech to next week's session (and if it's your first time listening to the speech: enjoy!): Transcript of Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech : NPR

Links of interest: 

How JFK's Clever TV Strategies Helped Him Win the Election - YouTube

12 Angry Men (2/10) Movie CLIP - It's the Same Knife! (1957) HD - YouTube

12 Angry Men (8/10) Movie CLIP - These People (1957) HD - YouTube

A RAISIN IN THE SUN and the American Dream | TIFF 2021 - YouTube


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Kompetenzerweiterung II (Monday Group), Homework for May 22nd

***Please register for the final exam by the end of the registration period.***

Your task for this week is to learn ALL of the vocabulary for Unit 18 (Reactions and health) and complete the accompanying exercises. Please also do all of Review 9 on pp. 152-153 (for those of you who want to get ahead of the game in terms of studying for the exam, I recommend taking this opportunity to review Unit 17 while you're in this part of the book this week).

We'll be looking at collocations more in depth in future sessions, so I recommend completing the following quizzes:  



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Thursday, May 4, 2023

Kulturraumbezogene Wirtschaftsthemen, Homework for Tuesday, May 16th

 ***Due to Project Week, our next class session will be on May 16th.***

For homework, please: 

- research graphs and data for your second Teilleistung. Try to contact/meet up with your partner during the Project Week to hammer out your presentation's details and structure.

- in our May sessions, we will be focusing on the banking system and various financial markets, including stock markets. A number of you have a background in this while others might currently find these topics difficult. Our goal will be to understand texts like that which you find in the Second Teilleistung Task Description (the one entitled "The coronvirus exposes the weakness of Germany's biggest firms") and what is currently going on in the banking world, particularly with regard to so many banks being bought/bailed out currently and the effects that this has on global markets. Therefore, in preparation of our next session, everyone should complete all of the "Business Spotlight stock exercises" files (there are three files in total) in the "Stocks" folder and check their answers with the answer key file. If you'd like extra practice, I recommend the first two "financial markets" files and the file "shareholder value". If you are completely new to studying and talking about the stock market (don't worry/be shy about this), I highly recommend watching the video featured in the "Questions for Netflix explained stock market" file and following along with the questions provided. 

Links of interest: 

How the British royal family makes money - YouTube

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Kompetenzerweiterung II (Thursday Group), Homework for May 25th

***Due to Project Week and the Ascension Day holiday, our next class session will take place on May 25th.***

Complete the final draft of your log (i.e. your first Teilleistung) and make sure that you submit it by May 7th at 6 pm.

Your task for this week is to learn ALL of the vocabulary for Unit 18 (Reactions and health) and complete the accompanying exercises. Please also do all of Review 9 on pp. 152-153 (for those of you who want to get ahead of the game in terms of studying for the exam, I recommend taking this opportunity to review Unit 17 while you're in this part of the book this week).

We'll be looking at collocations more in depth in future sessions, so I recommend completing the following quizzes:  



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Wednesday, May 3, 2023

Kompetenzerweiterung II (Wednesday Group), Homework for May 17th

 ***Our next session is on May 17th. There is no class session on May 10th due to Project Week.***

Make sure to submit your log for the first Teilleistung by the deadline. 

Your task for this week is to learn ALL of the vocabulary for Unit 22 (Quality and the arts) and complete any exercises you didn't last semester. Much of this will be review, but please pay attention to sections that you did not address in your own study last semester and return to exercises you had difficulty with.

Please review Units 1, 3, and 5 in the textbook and your answers to the exercises you completed last semester. Bring in any questions that you have with tense to our next session. 

Here you will find a wealth of word formation and key word transformation exercises. I recommend doing as many as you can before the exam: https://www.english-grammar.at/online_exercises/word-formation/word-formation-index.htm
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Tuesday, May 2, 2023

Kulturraumbezogene Wirtschaftsthemen, Homework for Thursday, May 4th

 For homework, please: 

- start looking for graphs and a core audience to center your second Teilleistung on. Bring any questions you have about the second Teilleistung to our Thursday session.

- have a look at the following five clips/videos (total run-time: approx. 35 minutes). They provide information and context about the state of the UK's economy and about the business of the monarchy. While watching these videos, I'd like you to think about the following question and ultimately come up with a concrete answer to it: do UK citizens and residents get a solid return on their investment when it comes to financing their monarchy? (Put differently: from a taxpayer's perspective, is financing the monarchy worth it?) Jot down information that relates to your "yes" or "no" answer and come to class with a firm thesis statement (i.e. "yes, because..." or "no, because..."): 

What the Royal Family Costs U.K. Taxpayers and How It’s Spent | WSJ - YouTube

The coronation - What are the costs and who pays? - YouTube

What is the future of the British monarchy? - YouTube

Should King Charles Pay For His Own Royal Coronation? | Loose Women - YouTube

Cost of living crisis: UK inflation hits 40-year high of 9% - YouTube


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