I need your help with a little something...

[silivrin]

Ah well, I normally don't talk about real life stuff online, but I have an upcoming interview for a position as a foreign language assistant in Great Britain in about two weeks and I'm required to give some ideas on how to introduce British students/pupils to Austrian culture. (Have I mentioned that I'm really nervous about it? No? Well I am

Comments

Re: I need your help with a little something...

[fcc56]

Hmm, what comes to mind when I think of Austria . . . aside from historical personages and events (Maria Theresia, Aspern-Essling), the first things that come to mind are Franz Klammer, Salzburg, and Grüner Veltliner. You don't mention how old these children are, but I'm guessing wine isn't the most appropriate topic.

You hint that food and Mozart are not what you're looking for. It seems to me that kids respond primarily to popular culture, so is there anything going on in Austrian pop culture that would be interesting, either in how it ties into the larger universe of (primarily American) pop culture or stands apart from it? To me, the culture of "middle Europe" is fundamentally high culture-I don't don't think of rock bands, I think of Mahler, or Schiele, or Husserl, or Peter Handke. How do you break free of that, as it seems you want to?

The pop-culture figures of my generation, such as Romy Schneider, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Wolfgang Puck, or Falco are not going to resonate much with people under 40; are there people active now that could interest these kids? Is there anything interesting going on in avant or postmodern art? I am doubtful as to how interesting Interkosmos would be to a sixteen-year-old in the UK. :)

As you can see, this person from outside Austria doesn't know all that much beyond the obvious. I should know more.

Re: I need your help with a little something...

[silivrin]

Oh no, you know quite a lot :)
I've talked with a guy from America once who told me that his friends would not believe him that he was in Austria as (and I quote) "nobody is wearing a Dirndl on your photos" -.-
The classical stuff is the most obvious thing about Austria I guess, although it is mostly connected to Vienna in my mind. Popculture stuff is difficult as music, televison etc. is very much influenced by the anglophone world or connected to Germany...

Ah well, at the moment I'm thinking of simply focusing on the "classics", Austrian traditions (of that we have many especially at Christmas and Easter) and last but not least stereotypes (well hello there Sound of Music, nice seeing you here ;) )

Thanks for your imput :)

Re: I need your help with a little something...

[fcc56]

My earliest Olympics memory is Jean-Claude Killy skiing in the snow at Grenoble in 1968, but my most vivid Olympics memory remains Klammer's "brink of disaster" downhill run at Innsbruck in 1976.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYj9kIxAL_o run starts at 1:32.

Re: I need your help with a little something...

[silivrin]

Sweet! It looks really strange though, if you compare his run to those in the television nowadays... no safty nets, the audience standing at the edges of the slope...
and I was constantly on the watchout for the speed and interims... XD

I think skiing and the hype about our "ski stars" is defintely something I could work with though...