Smelling the coffee in 2023

[MaggieMae]

@Cavesa
So many wonderful books! I'm glad you enjoyed it in Geneva!

I've also noticed that the French side tends to hate the German language, and vice versa. They would 100% rather speak English than the other major Amtssprache.

Warning: they translate "Gymnasium" as "College Prepatory School" which isn't wrong, but it isn't anything a native American English speaker would say. No clue if Brits would use it, but we don't have many prep schools in the US that aren't just recognized as high schools instead. It just felt weird.

Not sure how common it is across the US, but "college preparatory school" is definitely a used phrase. In my neck of the woods (Dallas), Jesuit College Preparatory School is the best-known.

I know it's used, as in, it exists and it's a thing. But in Nebraska, we added high school on the end of all those anyway. Like, Creighton Prep High School, the all male feeder school to Creighton University. But it was, for all intents and purposes, just a high school with a fancy name.

And in German speaking lands, Gymnasium is pretty much just high school with entrance exams. It's still for ages 15-18. The other alternatives here in Switzerland would be apprenticeships or trade schools, and those are very different from high school. I suppose I found the two school systems just so vastly different that even trying to translate them is weird, and I got mad at Duolingo for not accepting high school as a valid translation, when I would've never in a million years come up with college preparatory school. And Hochschule are more like college (17+) so that's definitely not high school.

I just don't get along with Duolingo, and it was the only example that popped into my head.

[Cavesa]

I've also noticed that the French side tends to hate the German language, and vice versa. They would 100% rather speak English than the other major Amtssprache.

I am moving to a more bilingual canton, I am curious about it. I'm waiting for the answer about an appartement, but I've already signed up for the library! Curiously, there are more medical books in German than in French, but both are present, and some in English.

I did some intensive reading of a physiology textbook. I was awefully slow, like 5 pages per nearly an hour, looked up some vocab, but I was quite ok reading! YAY!

Hopefully, it may be easier to learn German there, perhaps I could find someone to correct my writing among the uni students looking to earn some extra francs.

Warning: they translate "Gymnasium" as "College Prepatory School" which isn't wrong, but it isn't anything a native American English speaker would say. No clue if Brits would use it, but we don't have many prep schools in the US that aren't just recognized as high schools instead. It just felt weird.

Not sure how common it is across the US, but "college preparatory school" is definitely a used phrase. In my neck of the woods (Dallas), Jesuit College Preparatory School is the best-known.

I know it's used, as in, it exists and it's a thing. But in Nebraska, we added high school on the end of all those anyway. Like, Creighton Prep High School, the all male feeder school to Creighton University. But it was, for all intents and purposes, just a high school with a fancy name.

And in German speaking lands, Gymnasium is pretty much just high school with entrance exams. It's still for ages 15-18. The other alternatives here in Switzerland would be apprenticeships or trade schools, and those are very different from high school. I suppose I found the two school systems just so vastly different that even trying to translate them is weird, and I got mad at Duolingo for not accepting high school as a valid translation, when I would've never in a million years come up with college preparatory school. And Hochschule are more like college (17+) so that's definitely not high school.

I just don't get along with Duolingo, and it was the only example that popped into my head.

It is just an example, I know. And definitely not my main complaint about Duolingo

But to this example: I have no doubts this kind of a term "college preparatory school" exists. It just means something totally different in each country or even a region. In the Czech Republic, people will imagine the private extra classes that prepare you for entrance exams. In France, it's the closest to Prepa, which is a university alternative in some fields, a full value school, notorious for being really really hard. In Germany, no clue what would the translation of "college preparatory school" be, not sure it would be Gymnasium.

Really, Gymnasium is a high school, one type of it. A part of the misunderstanding is that highschools everywhere in Europe are harder, and with more content than the american ones, because the american system simply moved a part of the content and time to the college. That's the usual source of translation misunderstandings, a different organisation of the system.
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I am curious what will the language minorities in my new hospital and region be. I suspect I'll keep regretting not speaking any Portuguese! Portuguese and Brazilians are everywhere and usually nice people. Anyways, I've recently used my Czech and the mutual partial intellibility with Polish and Ukrainian a few times. I sometimes regret not having made time to learn either of these languages. A few weekends could have changed a lot in my work with these patients. But franky, I should calm down with any new language desires no time.

[Suzie]

In Germany, no clue what would the translation of "college preparatory school" be, not sure it would be Gymnasium.

Really, Gymnasium is a high school, one type of it.

You are spot on with your description on the complexities of the different school systems across Europe and in comparison to the US. Just to add for Germany: Also here, the Gymnasium is one type of high school, usually directly following primary school - so kids would start Gymnasium at the age of 10 and then spend 8-9 years there. There are no entry exams for university (maybe still with some exceptions, like medicine - not sure if these are still a thing); the Abitur (final Gymnasium exams) directly qualifies for university. There are alternatives to the Gymnasium, other secondary school forms that would still allow you to become a well-trained and well-earning specialist in your field (just not via studying in a university). Traditionally, Germany has a strong secondary/tertiary education system outside Gymnasium/Universität, compared to other countries. So "college preparatory school" may be a very bad but indeed the most appropriate translation of the German system.

A bilingual location! This is the dream! All the best for your new job and home!

[MaggieMae]

I am curious what will the language minorities in my new hospital and region be. I suspect I'll keep regretting not speaking any Portuguese! Portuguese and Brazilians are everywhere and usually nice people. Anyways, I've recently used my Czech and the mutual partial intellibility with Polish and Ukrainian a few times. I sometimes regret not having made time to learn either of these languages. A few weekends could have changed a lot in my work with these patients. But franky, I should calm down with any new language desires no time.

Portugese seems to be a common native language (among those with immigrant backgrounds) in Schaffhausen, too. One of my classmates is from Portugal, even. I love how I can hear so many different languages here, even if I have no clue what half of them are, and can understand even fewer. But, yeah, Switzerland is really a multilingual and multicultural dream sometimes.

[Cavesa]

Still learning, but not putting in as many hours as I should. I should also challenge myself more, but just reviewing is good too. For now. In a few weeks, I am changing jobs. We've found an appartment, it has also taken some time. Some paperwork still left. But we have it! It is in a tiny town, not really my style, but it is well worth it. Not too far from work, three rooms, enough space for a proper bookshelf (or a few), a balcony!

My new job (from the info pieces arriving to my email and from asking around) looks good, even though very far from great. But some of the upsides: at least in the first three months, I will have no night shifts. Today, I will have my last one here, I pray for it to be calm, so that I can mostly do my delayed paperwork. But without nightshifts, I hope to get some more order in life. Even such a thing as regular eating has been near impossible in the last year.

I will also have only 10 hour work days, 5 days a week. Yeah, it is quite a lot, but my education time is in that (not on top of that or none, like here) and I might even really get the midday pauses to eat. That's really cool. And I also won't have 13 hour (with overtime 15 hour) shifts, which is great. Those are really really exhausting and interfere also with language learning, other stuff, normal life, etc.

Portugese seems to be a common native language (among those with immigrant backgrounds) in Schaffhausen, too. One of my classmates is from Portugal, even. I love how I can hear so many different languages here, even if I have no clue what half of them are, and can understand even fewer. But, yeah, Switzerland is really a multilingual and multicultural dream sometimes.

I got the schedule for the first three months. There is not just me, but all of us young doctors. I looked at the names out of curiosity (even though I don't know anyone there yet): mostly women (I prefer sort of half/half mix), some typical Swiss or French names, but also several Portuguese ones, one or two Arabic sounding names. One is a typical slavic name that could be from half a dozen countries. But that doesn't necessarily mean immigrants, many people have "just" foreign roots. I am so curious what will all my new colleagues (not just doctors) be like, because vast majority of those from this year have been awesome and leave me with some high expectations

I hope I get to speak Italian from time to time, at least like here, but I am afraid there will be less of it.

May will be a big change. A slower pace with more free time, but less excitement, and possible frustration with the work (the first three months are in a deparment I am not excited about, I hope the second three months will be the one I primarily want). I will profit from this to also move my languages further.

Finally, I've found someone to correct German writing without necessarily doing video calls. Finally! I just need to gather enough pieces to send in.

I am considering conversation lessons, but only if I manage to find good enough teachers, who will really be strict and go into detail, as we're talking C1/C2 learning. And it might secondarily help with my overal conversation topics being too limited to just work.

I need to actively get back to Italian. I speak occassionally, but I've been neglecting it lately.

And hopefully, August or September would be a good moment for C1 German exam.

[Cavesa]

Very little language learning happening, just small bits of German from time to time. I am overworked. Today was my "weekend" after more than 60 hours in the five days before that. And now four more days before me. The last weekend work days here were really good in the sense of making me feel much less sad about leaving

Regular schedule will be a relief now. And will allow me to work more on my languages.

I see more and more tempting job offers in German, and one or two in Italian keeps appearing on the job hunting servers. Really, why is the francophone part of the Switzerland the hardest to get the needed category of job in? I could get one of the great jobs next year, if only I get my German to solid C1!!!

1.I've decided to try once again Italki even for conversation practice. To improve languages, and also to get to speak about more varied stuff more regularily. It is hard to find non-work friends as an adult with horrible work hours. I am of course signing up for the normally expensive writing teacher, I'll try her out. But I am looking for some cheap tutors too. Just to get excuses to speak, and regular contact with my advanced langauges, Italian, and "advanced" German. I've signed up with the now used email adress. And I am immediately second guessing my decision
-the searching mechanism still sucks. Enormously. The labels are mostly missing what I want, such as "advanced". I also need to do a personal second filter based on the generic profiles. I already have a sort of list of keywords, that really turn me off.
-a sort of a "lie" in the price filter. It searches based on price, including the sample lesson price. So, it includes mostly people that are actually above my desired limit
-a lot of spam. I need to look into turning it off. Italki is really sending a lot of advertisements and some of them are "hilarious". Such as finding a tutor that should "really suit my needs". Yeah, sure. A lady, that describes herself as specialising in beginners, and who prepares for the Duolingo language exam. Did she pay for the advertisement? Or do their searches tracking cookies just suck?

Well, I found one tutor under ten francs per hour, who looks ok. No grammar bashing, she simply doesn't teach it, because she is not a professional teacher. She says she corrects speaking and writing. And she doesn't sound dumb in her video, or as if she expected me to be dumb. She clearly says she expects people to learn outside of her lessons, good.

I'll try her. If she is not good, then I'll move on to some under 15. and so on.

Btw the teacher I had been excited about last year, before I gave up due to horrible work hours? No longer there, doesn't exist on Italki any longer. I found nobody else teaching medical German

2.Regular writing is a must. I am sooooo frozen, whenever I need to write anything. Even scared, perhaps due to some stupid perfectionism and fearing my text will suck anyways. So untypical of me!

3.Regular reading and tv shows. I'd recently given up, due to lack of time, and the tv time being shared with husband. And a few desires to connect a bit with my Czech part, not just my European part.

I've remembered, that I used to read like one book in French per week (or half a long one per week), during most of the B2-C2 progress time. And I watched hundreds of hours of tv shows. And I have an SC to complete.

So, I need to start reading one TL book (German/Italian) a week. Starting next week.

4.During the 6WC and AI6WC discussion, there was the idea that too advanced people could participate in the 6WC, just only in the total learning part, not the specific target language part. Sounds awesome. I can sigh up for the May one! Just need to sign up with something I don't intend to study. Perhaps Klingon? Or Czech? Since I won't log in a single minute, it doesn't matter.

[Cavesa]

My AI6WC results

Coursebook: 504 = 8 hours and 24 min
SRS: 14 min
Reading: 55min

You might find them rather sad and tiny. And rightly so.
I am happy I didn't lose contact with German completely and did at least something in spite of being really really overworked. The combination of long work hours and in the free time a lot of paperwork, appartment hunting, moving... it's taking a toll. And another thing was the whole issue with the language school, which totally destroyed any continuity and a lot of motivation.

In a few days, the 6WC is starting. I'll sign up with something I don't intend to study and participate only in the Total Language Learning part , trying to split my time between German and Italian. Will be fun. I'll objectively have a bit of free time every day!!! No 15 hour workdays anymore! No shift changing for three months!

I've really really liked my year in emergency medicine, but it's time for something more regular now. Oh, and I'll have my final evaluation interview today. I am nervous and a bit scared. It might be a blow to my confidence.

Trying to stay positive: no matter what they say (and my brain always tends to focus on the worst parts, that's a sort of character flaw of mine), I know I've learnt a lot and I've broken the cycle of disliked jobs that had nothing in common with what I want to do, and that I was ashamed of. This year was difficult but enormously worth it. There was something fascinating every day. I learnt something every day. Every month I was a bit better doctor. And most days, I was proud of my work.

[Cavesa]

Moved! All the boxes are here, some furnitures already in place, and so on. Last day in the old job done, the good bye party was great. One chapter closed, another is opening now. I mentioned my worry about what others (especially my bosses) might think: I actually got a lot of compliments, when leaving, about the lots of progress I've made in the last year. Yes, of course my evaluation also mentioned the weaknesses, but I am now much more knowledgeable about how to tackle them and I have a plan. But overall, both the official evaluation by my bosses and also the non official one by several nurses (I've loved working with them!) mentioned the tons of progress and gave me some much needed confidence to tackle the job hunting for next year.

Tomorrow, I am meeting my new colleagues at an introduction day.

And tomorrow, it is also the start of the next 6WC!!!! YAY!!! I am in for the Total Score. So, I had to put in a language I won't study. The Bot didn't accept Klingon Outrageous. So, I went for Polish as the not-studied language of choice

Already preparing:
Italian: Nuovissimo Progetto, and perhaps some conversation italki.
German: some conversation and writing italki, and completing some of my To Be Completed courses and grammars. And Intensive reading of stuff by Charlaine Harris, for start.

[Cavesa]

Still haven't completed all the paperwork regarding the move... which is horrible. But I had my first informational half day, seen the service, met some colleagues... Some impressions are very good, some slightly scary, some still in the "to be sorted, evaluated, and dealt with later" mental box, as is absolutely normal the first day at a new job. Now onto day two!

I started the 6wc well, with over an hour of German learning. Not bad. But I need to get to a much higher intensity.

And I caught a cold. Not good for doing my German exercises out loud.

[Raconteur]

And I caught a cold. Not good for doing my German exercises out loud.

Colds/illness often break up my lang. learning routine, and that's something I'm trying to change. How do you manage learning when you're sick?