SLA – Page 3 – SLA Profiles (2018)

Proud to be an American

Well folks I’m back, and I learned quite a lot. Not only did I learn a bunch of German, but I learned something about the process of learning language as well. When I first started to learn German last summer, I had to rely on flashcards and hard work, researching various aspects of the German grammar and so on in order to make progress in the language. This summer, however, with a bit of German already under my belt, I was able to learn new words by consulting a German-German dictionary; I was able to observe the grammatical quirks of the language through participating in conversation with my teachers and other native speakers. In other words, I was able to learn the language by using the language, and my progress accelerated much more quickly compared to last summer’s flashcards and research.

Not only did I gain this insight into the process of learning a language, but I also learned a few things about life in another culture. Germany, although it is full of pieces of American culture (our movies, television shows, memes, and so on), has still an underlying culture of its own, based on centuries of history and change. Living in a country like Germany, with its slightly different culture and its respected status in the world, truly made me realize how much I appreciate my own country. So, while I’ve gained a legitimate appreciation for the German culture and way of life, I’ve also gained a newfound appreciation for American culture.

Looking forward, my experience abroad will continue to be useful. Not only will I be able to demonstrate my global experience on resumes and applications, but the lessons I learned will actually be helpful as well. I’ve grown to appreciate another country and culture; I’ve experienced what it’s like to learn another language, and I know the process that is required now. This experience has really been transformative, and the language that I acquired during my time abroad will be extraordinarily helpful in the future, as I plan to work in Germany someday. I’m truly grateful that I underwent this experience, and I look forward to more German in the years and months to come.

Best wishes from the USA!

-Alex

Tours Week 4

It was incredible how quickly the happy hours passed. I had already been in Tours for one month, with only two weeks left! According to the tradition of the institute, we would be reorganized into different classes of different levels once a month. Therefore, this week was my last week with my classmates. Also, since the majority of the students in my class were leaving by the end of the week, we cherished our last week with each other. One of my best friends in the institute was also leaving on Friday afternoon, who didn’t get a chance to visit any chateau at La Loire, so we decided to ride to one of closest chateau—- chateau d’Amboise —- as our last excursion together.

Before I touch on the sentimental side, I will first introduce the beautiful and historically famous Loire Valley. The Loire Valley includes the town in the middle area of the longest river in France, La Loire. The early history of La Loire could be traced back to two thousand BC, when the Gauls first inhabited alongside the river for trades. Also, the valley was once the center of French monarchical rules, where a lot of great chateaus stands out against the sky, showing the once extravagant and glorious life of the French kings. The royal past gave the valley its name “la vallée des rois” (the valley of the kings). Though the French revolution that rallied against monarchy had led to the destruction of several, and the transformation of many into schools and prisons, some of the most grandiose survived with solemnity, spectating the rise and fall of human history.

“Profitez du soleil,” my host parents always told us. That was exactly why we headed out at 1:00 p.m., bearing the dazzling sunlight and 95 degree weather. On our way to Chateau d’Amboise, we first followed the main road; but later, when we saw the trod winding down to the shore of the river, lured by the nature, we abandoned the main road. My friend was an adept rider: within half an hour, she had filled her bucket with wild flowers. We also saw some strawberry farms on our way, but the price of picking the fresh strawberries deterred us. As I wrote in the first line, the happy hours flew quickly—- when we figured out we were in no way near the right path, two hours had gone since we started the journey, long enough for us to reach the chateau by that time. After checking the google map, we decided to totally abandon our plan, and explore more in the little town laying ahead of our unexpected journey. Luckily, though there weren’t many residence in the town, we were able to find a catholic church (since France has a lot of catholics), where a wedding was holding. And then, the time was getting late, and we had to return. On our way back, there were a few vineyards (oh, by the way, the Loire Valley is also known for its wines!) environed by clusters of wild flowers. Unfortunately, the vineyards were closed, but we were able to at least enjoy the scenery.

Pluck the Day

On the penultimate day of my Latin program, we visited the ruins of Horace’s Villa. Unlike most of our limited, Latin-filled, fast-paced days together, this one felt relaxed and suspended. We picnicked on the grass, in the cool air near a waterfall, and recited some of Horace’s immortal verses for each other. At one point I was walking in the cool waters of the Fons Bandusiae, reciting Horace’s words in my head, sipping white wine, listening to a friend play the violin, and thinking: “Well, it really just doesn’t get better than this.”

I, along with a favorite teacher, recited Horace 1.9 for my colleagues. Like many of Horace’s poems, its theme is carpe diem. “Quid sit futurum cras, fuge quaerere et/ quem Fors dierum cumque dabit, lucro/ adpone”: “What tomorrow may bring, stop asking, and whatever days fortune gives you, count them as profit.” The poem also speaks about staying warm by the fire while the snow piles up on Mount Soracte — it would make more sense in the context of a South Bend winter than a Roman summer picnic.

As might be expected from a student of a language whose native speakers have all died, I’ve had plenty of opportunity to reflect on my mortality during this program (in a healthy way). If you listen to Horace, the way to grapple with death is to throw yourself into the present. Nunc est bibendum, nunc pede libero/ pulsandum tellus: now we must drink, now we must strike the ground with a free foot. (Isn’t that a great expression for dancing? I’m going to think about that every time I dance now.)

Seneca, whose words we read at his tomb on the Via Appia, has a different answer to the challenge of mortality: throw yourself into the past and spend your time in the company of the thinkers who preceded you. Of the past, the present, and the future, he tends to trust only history: “What we do is brief, what we are about to do is doubtful, but what we have done is certain.” For him time is best spent “arguing with Socrates, doubting with Carneades, resting with Epicurus, conquering human nature with the Stoics, and surpassing it with the Cynics.” For him, it’s ridiculous how much time we waste on “fruitless pain, silly happiness, greedy desires, and weak conversation.”

I like to think that the answer to the problem of mortality lies somewhere between Horace and Seneca. Actually, as a Catholic, I think that it lies beyond them both. I’m a student of the Great Books as well as a Classicist, so I tend to agree with Seneca that it’s important to converse with the philosophers of the past and use time wisely. But I also know that my happiest daily moments are those Seneca would consider a waste: the giggles of my little sister, walks around the lakes with friends, lingering, inane conversations in the dining hall, and cookie-baking breaks on cold days. I’d like to love the past as much as Seneca, but live in the present as much as Horace. I’d like to also live with the knowledge that I am meant to live forever. I’d like to perhaps not seize each day but pluck it, enjoy it, and live it intentionally.

Sorry to wax poetic; this blog is actually supposed to be about my language-learning process. Rest assured that I have learned a lot of Latin.

La Gastronomie

France is the country for foodies.

La bouchée à la reine : la bouchée à la reine is my favorite french dish. When my host parents had to leave for a soirée and couldn’t dine with us, my host mom made us la bouchée à la reine. The word “bouchée” originally refers to the kind of pastry with sweet filling. However, la bouchée à la reine is rather savory. With the modifier “à la reine”, the bouchée was indeed created by a queen——Marie Leszczynska, the queen of Louise XV——to regain the favor of her husband. La bouchée à la reine consists of pâte feuilletée (puff pastry) on the outside and a mixture of mushrooms cubes, savory chicken fillets and a kind of creme on the inside. Though it had been a while since I ate them, the taste of the combination of the crunchy outside and the soft, buttery inside still lingers in my head.
Four bouchée à la rein! Enough for 2 people.

As a foodie, I asked for “une petite Dégustation” in class one day, and my prof agreed that it would be good to have everyone bring their favorite french desserts and share with the others. Since we didn’t plot on the degustation, four of us brought the tarts, though of different flavors, and three of us brought “éclair.” Therefore, I am going to briefly introduce these two most popular french desserts in my class.
Les tartes aux fruits: the fruit tarts were the definitely the stars of the degustation. Basing on a pastry base, the fruit tarts are open to variations on the top, including strawberries, lemon, and the “fruits” in general. To be honest, I thought the pastry base was so hard that I almost hurt my teeth, so I didn’t really taste every flavors.
Éclairs: éclair is by far my favorite french dessert. My prof told me that the éclairs were originally only “au chocolat” or “au café”; but later on, since people wanted to expand the scope of this beloved desserts, they experimented on the other toppings, including vanilla, lemons and even strawberries. Technically speaking, éclairs are not hard to make: my host mom said they were just pâte à choux with cream inside and chocolate toppings (she was talking about éclairs au chocolat”). However, it tastes so good that it was given the name “éclair,” originally referring to “lightening,” meaning that it was eaten as fast as the lightening.

top to bottom: les pains au chocolat, les tartes aux fruits/citrons/café, la tarte aux fraises/pommes, l’éclair au café/chocolat.

4. Le petit déjeuner (breakfast): the typical french breakfast includes: tartine, baguette slices with butter and jams; viennoiserie ( croissant, pain au chocolate, pain au raisin); boisson (espresso, cafe au lait, chocolat chaude, thé, jus d’orange presse/pamplemousse presse). As for me, I had the tartine every morning. The way French people carrying baguettes around is very cool too. On every morning, I saw my host mom took out the baguette from her bag, even without a wrapping, and cut the the baguette into slices, and then put it back to her bag. Sometimes on the tram, I saw kids fighting with each other with baguette as swords, without a wrapping either.

left to right, top to bottom: jus de pamplemousse pressé, jus d’orange pressé, café au lait, chocolat chaud.

left to right: tartine, jus d’orange pressé, café au lait

Second Host Family

The program has officially ended. And just like before, I wanted to dedicate this post to my second host family.

Before I left for Narita Airport, I didn’t expect to cry. I felt like my bond with both my host families was more respectful than anything. And because my time was separated between two host families, I didn’t have the full two months to be attached. At least I thought so.

But I am so glad that I met both of my host families. They were both very welcoming and kind and different in their own ways. I played a lot more with the children in the previous host family but rarely did with the second. However, second semester was way more hectic than the first as deadlines were approaching and a faster learning pace was adopted.

Nonetheless, my second host family did their best to accommodate with my busy schedule. We went to see the famous night view of Hakodate. It was ranked the world’s top three most beautiful views.

It was a crowded, chilly night. But definitely worth it. It was so beautiful.

Another weekend, we went camping with other families. The children played in the nearby river while some adults watched them and others made rice curry. It was delicious! I really love eating rice curry. There’s not a lot of spicy food in Japan, but I prefer sweet curry instead.

We also visited cafés and local cake shops together. The cakes were cutely decorated and so soft and sweet. I already miss these sweets.

My second host family was incredibly nice. They always drove me to the station every morning because the bus came super early. Because my close friend lived 5 min away, she was also able to come with us. My friend’s host family was in the same area, so we became really close and had an ending party.

It was really sweet that they came together. And it was actually my friend and I’s plan to have our host families become friends. I hope they can maintain their friendship even after the program. They have similar personalities and wonderful hearts.

I already miss my time in Japan. I never thought I would be so attached to the city, my classmates, and my host family, especially since it was only two months. But being able to have these feelings just mean that everyone was precious. I will never forget this experience. Thank you so much to my second host family <3

What I Missed

While in Japan, it became apparent that I missed one thing unique to America: hamburgers. It just wasn’t the same. The tender meat. The abundance of ketchup. The greasy stains.

Just kidding, I didn’t miss the hamburgers. All jokes aside, I missed the diversity.

Towards the end of my stay, I wanted to see different cultures and hear various languages. I come from an Asian background, and I’ve been told my Japanese people that I can blend in the crowd. No one avoided sitting next to me on the bus though I’ve heard stories of other students with this problem. However, whenever I spoke English outside or walked with my close friends, I felt the stares of the locals. And it was uncomfortable.

I missed the sense of belonging. And I know America has its own problems regarding racism and discrimination, but I missed being able to come from a different background without judgment (from the majority). I hope we are able to overcome these differences in background, culture, and language because, honestly, America’s melting pot is one of the country’s greatest quality.

Saris and Goodbyes: फेरी भेटौला नेपाल!

So, the semester has come to an end. I feel tired and sad and happy and nervous that I’m going to forget everything and hopeful to learn more – in other words, it was a great time, and I really hope to be able to do intermediate next summer.

Us practicing how to wear saris after class

For the end of the semester celebration, our teacher Pavitra and some of the language partners helped us learn how to put on saris – a traditional South Asian dress. I have worn saris before, but it never fails to astound me how much fabric they are to tote around with you. It’s fairly simple in theory – there is a petticoat and a blouse, and then the actual sari – a long piece of fabric you pleat and fold around you in an elegant way. Luckily, Moona (my homestay ‘mother’) was at home the day of the party to help me put mine on since, although Pavitra is a great teacher (of both Nepali and putting on saris!), I think it’s going to take more than a couple lessons for me to really ‘get’ the art of donning a sari.

Me and Phoebe with the language partners, our teacher Pavitra, and my homestay little sister at the end of the semester party.

For the actual party, my homestay sister picked out one of her mom’s for me (a beautiful bright purple one with jewels), and Moona expertly pleated it, telling me when to tuck it into my petticoat and when to wrap it around. I loved having it on, but my little sister had to keep reminding me to hold the front up as I walked so I wouldn’t trip. It was hard work.

Nepali class and language partners being silly before our talent show performance – Kutama Kutu

Even so, that didn’t stop us from dancing at the end of the night to a super catchy traditional Tibetan jam and getting tons of complements for our enthusiasm to wear saris. We sang a popular Nepali song for the talent show and ate good food and cheered on other classes as they showed off their talents. It was a great time.

Eating daal bhat for lunch with class and some of the language partners

It’s hard to imagine that I’ll never be with this same group of people again in quite the same way, but I do feel assured that we will all cross paths in the future. The research community in Nepal has been amazing, and the language partners and teachers have truly become my friends. I look forward to the program next year (fingers crossed) and to meeting my new language partner back at home.

Travel!

The time has come, my dear friends, colleagues, and enemies. We all knew that it would come to this eventually, but who would have thought so soon? This, I regret to inform you, is my last blog post.

After much deliberation, I have come to the decision to write about a recent day trip I had the opportunity to take. After deciding on Friday night that we wanted to go somewhere on Saturday, we chose Nuremberg due to its proximity to Munich and our overlooking of the weather forecast.

Alas, we arrived in the morning and I immediately set the trip off the right way by forgetting my phone on the bus, which was actually a safer place for it than outside, where it was pouring down rain. This was not a problem, however, as any traveler of Bavaria will tell you that Nuremberg is home to many, many wonderful museums. Naturally, we chose the one closest to the bus station.

It was a modern art museum, and much to our delight, we were able to enter for free. It is unclear at this point if our free entry was due to a student discount or due to the quality of the museum. Please enjoy the following photographic memorializations of several of the exhibits:

Outdated appliances represent our aging workforce and the inevitable obsolescence that comes from consumerism

Aristotle discovers that the Earth is round, 330 BC, colorized

Luckily this was a fake person and it didn’t stand up and scare me

This was a hard museum to follow. But after leaving, we decided to give the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, which was founded in 1852 and is Germany’s largest cultural history museum according to Wikipedia, a try. Naturally, it couldn’t live up to the modern art museum. I didn’t see a single exhibit about outdated appliances.

After that we saw some medieval churches and a castle. Very pretty, slightly dreary. Nuremberg is a little more Winterfell than King’s Landing if you know what I mean. But it’s a great place for war trials. Here are some pictures:

It was truly a great trip, but perhaps the highlight actually came upon our return home. At this point, we decided to stop by a supermarket in the subway station to purchase a few refreshments. As I was checking out and putting my things in my bag, a bottle broke (for, like, no reason) and cut my finger. I found myself being shouted at in German from all directions: the cashiers, the people in line, perhaps God. As I dripped blood and my bag dripped beer, I realized something. I could understand these native speakers. And they weren’t happy. Truly a great moment for my German language progression. Unfortunately, I couldn’t savor it and instead had to clean up beer and glass as I tried to not become lightheaded from blood loss.

Now the time has come for parting words. If you have read this far, I do hope you have enjoyed keeping up with my blog and with my trip. I thank you for reading and sticking with me through the highs and the lows, the ebbs and the flows, the B2s and the C1s. Nobody means more to me than you, dearest blog enthusiast. You.

Auf Wiedersehen with much love,

James Moremen

München: Meine Lieblingstadt!

Hands down, München (Munich) is now my new favorite city! Unfortunately, it also happens to be the most expensive city in Germany… but we will let that slide.

My mom and I arrived in München the evening, so we took a short walk to Marienplatz, the main city square. It was bustling with activity! In the photo below, you can see the “Neues Rathaus” or the “New Town Hall” on the right. Although the Rathaus looks like it was constructed in the Middle Ages, it was actually built in 1864 and continues to serve as the office building for the mayor, city council, and all city administration to this day.

Marienplatz, the main city square of München.

The next morning, my mom and I walked to the Viktualienmarkt, the 200-year-old and largest open air market in Germany. It offers an incredible array of fruits, chocolates, ice creams, beers, wines, meats, bread, and garden decorations. The picture below is of “Leo’s Obst Standl” or “Leo’s Fruit Stand.” I learned that in Bavarian German, anything with an “l” on the end of a noun, such as “Standl”, means that it is small.

After visiting Viktualienmarkt, my mom and I started our bike tour of the city. It was a great introduction to the rich history and culture of München!

I learned that München was the birthplace of the Nazi Party. As we rode through the city, we were introduced to several important buildings to the movement. The buildings pictured below are the remains of the original Nazi Party headquarters located on Königplatz or “King’s Square.” The residents of München have since transformed these buildings into institutions that give back to society. For example, Hitler’s former office building is now a prestigious school for talented, young musicians.

Hitler’s Former Office Building in München

Former Nazi Financial Headquarters is located across the street from Hitler’s Office Building

We also visited one of the top universities in Germany, Ludwig-Maximilian University of München!

Ludwig-Maximilian University is renowned for its heroic students Hans and Sophie Scholl. In fact, there is a small museum inside dedicated to their memory! During WWII, the siblings helped organize the White Rose resistance group. They wrote, printed, and distributed over 6,000 copies of anti-Nazi propaganda leaflets across Europe. Unfortunately, these siblings were betrayed by the school janitor after passing leaflets throughout the school, arrested, and put to death in February of 1943. But their incredible story of courage and persistence lives on. It serves as a reminder that if we believe in something, we should fight for it, even if it means we must fight alone. Ludwig-Maximilian University is very proud to have been their alma mater.

Memorial for students Hans and Sophie Scholl outside of Ludwig-Maximilian University

After visiting Ludwig-Maximilian University, we stopped for lunch at the Chinesischer Turm beer garden located within one of the largest urban parks in the world — Englisher Garten! In fact, Englischer Garten is larger than Central Park in New York City!

Chinesischer Turm beer garden in München’s Englischer Garten.

After lunch, we had the opportunity to watch river surfing! Our tour guide informed us that people have been surfing the Eisbach river in Englischer Garten since the early 1970s. This was the first time I had ever seen anyone surf, so of course I was very excited!

München offers an incredible variety of things to do and its rich history makes the city all the more interesting. I would love to return someday!

Óró Sé do Bheatha ‘Bhaile

Leaving An Cheathrú Rua is going to be the hardest thing. Although I know I will be back to Ireland, I can’t say that I will ever be able to experience Ireland in this way again. Living in rural Ireland, rather than just visiting, has been such a changing experience. Living in the Gaeltacht is challenging, but the people here are so proud of their language and want you to learn Irish that they want you to have the best experience. Sometimes this means slowing down while they speak or repeating something in English explaining what they meant, but they have never been condescending about our relative lack of knowledge compared to their fluency. They don’t use Irish as a reason for them to be better than the American college students taking over their town, but rather as an experience that they want to share with you, that they want you to enjoy. I won’t ever have the community of Irish language surrounding me like I do in Carraroe. I enjoy the rhythm of the days here- class, tea, class, lunch, class, walk home, dinner, pub (try to find live music), walk home again. I have bought a box of Barry’s tea, but I won’t be drinking it alongside my friends with Digestive biscuits and the random Irish / English conversation as the advanced, intermediate, and beginner speakers try to mix their common knowledge and communicate.

As I prepare to leave Carraroe, I had not purchased any sort of souvenir. I hadn’t run across anything that I felt I needed or really captured what I wanted to remember about my time here. I ran into this necklace in Galway, with the Celtic Harp symbol as the charm. While everyone usually thinks of Claddagh and Shamrock symbols as symbols of Ireland, the harp is actually the national emblem of Ireland and is found on the coins (as well as the Guinness pint glasses). While I’ve heard of a variety of meanings of the symbol, one that I was told is that it represents the tradition of song and story in Ireland. Upon hearing this, I knew that this symbol was something that I wanted to remember Ireland by.

The traditional music sessions, especially when we traveled out to Ros a Mhíl, are some of my favorite memories of the trip. In Ros a Mhíl, we would sit in a small room with anywhere from 4-10 musicians who brought their instruments (or voices) that week. They would play the guitar, violin, concertina, harmonica, or different percussion instruments. There was no set list or plan, they just showed up with their talents and played. They never seemed like they were playing for us, just for themselves and the joy of sharing the music. One would start a song and then anyone else that knew that song would join in. If it was a song that everyone knew, the people in the pub would join in singing too. Only one musician could keep everyone from joining in, only so that they could hear every note she sang and played: Roisin. Only 18 years old, she played both the guitar and concertina beautifully and had such an incredible voice. She even danced sean nos for us a couple of times and, unsurprisingly, was also incredibly talented at that. Even though everyone in the pub knew the words to “Óró Sé do Bheatha ‘Bhaile,” they refrained and only sang the lyrics to the chorus because of her incredible voice. But joining her and everyone in the pub in song brought everyone together. Every week we go to this session, I am in awe and I always say that there is nowhere in America that even comes close to this experience. These sessions might be the thing that I miss the most.

Group selfie at one of the music sessions (standing because there are no more seats, but 100% worth it!)

Coming from the US to Ireland, I was not expecting the frequency of conversations surrounding Donald Trump to dramatically increase. Even in rural Carraroe, every local wants to know what you think of Donald Trump. When we were studying adjectives, one of the people we were tasked with describing was Donald Trump, and our young teacher made it clear that we did not have to make an effort to describe him using any positive adjectives. Even my bean an tí’s mother wanted to know my feelings on Trump. The conversation got to Donald Trump starting with her feelings on guns in Ireland v. the United States (Ireland having some of the strictest gun regulations in Europe). The consensus in Ireland regarding Trump is an altogether negative one, although without many specific reasons, just a negative view because of the things he says, he is perceived very negatively, even by the older more conservative generation.