Farrah

Farrah is a young lady, who visits us in some of our english lessons. She usually lives in the USA and she stays in Austria till the end of May.
Farrah had learned German for three years and her hobbies are her friends, watching TV, reading good books and listening to music.
She has already been to Salzburg, Saalach, Innsbruck, Vienna and Linz, where she lives now.
What she likes most about Austria is the nature with the mountains and the builings. She thinks that the buildings in Austria are much smaller and elder than in the states.
She once has been skiing, but she didn't like it, because it was very difficult for her and very cold.

Halloween, October 31th

Halloween is a shortened form of All Hallows' Eve.
Hallowed means holy Eve is the day before a holy day. Halloween was an ancient British Celtic festival. At Halloween the souls of the dead returned, People lit bonfires to frighten evil spirits. Now bonfires are onlyburnt on November 5th. Bonfire night!

Children walk from house to house and play "trick or treat". If people don't give them sweets, they play a trick on them.

They wear costumes like ghosts and witches.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is celebrated every year on the 4^th Thursday in November in the USA and Canada.

Families come together and celebrate. The typical food is a turkey combined with matched potatoes. Pumpkin pie is also special for it.

The day after Thanksgiving is called “Black Friday”. It’s the start of the Christmas shopping season. The stores open either on Thursday at 10 p.m. or on Friday at 5 a.m. A lot of people come to the shops to get the special offers, because all the big Shopping Centers grant discounts.

In my opinion Thanksgiving is good because there you can spend time with your family.

The Black Friday shopping is for the companies very good, because they get lots of money, but it’s also very stressful for the people who wait hours outside the store to get in first.

I wouldn’t go to the Shopping Centers because I don’t like, if there are so many people there.

American Gun Culture

In our last lesson with Farrah, we spoke about the American Gun Culture in detail about the right to bear arms.

On of her questions was: Why do Americans want to protect their right to bear arms?
Answer of this are historical reasons, for example people have guns to make sure that the government doesn't go bad or because of hunting.

We also spoke about the least support of guns.
The least support of guns had the redneck stereotype in the urban and industrialized regions.
Redneck stereotypes are mans who work always outside and so they are sunburned.
They drive pick- ups, drick beer all the time and they don't look very well- they are quit fat.

In my opinion it is very important to have guns, because in some countries it is very dangerous and so you can protect yourself with guns.

Croatian holiday

I have just read an article at austriantimes.at, with the headline "Austrians make Croatian holiday top three".

It talks about the Croatian holiday, which Austrians preferred this year.


As you can see on the chart, Croatian and Italy are favourite countries for the holidays.


You can also notice an increase from the year 2005.



Basically what it says is that between the months January and July, Austrians had comprised nine per cent of overnight stays by foreigners.

It is also mentioned that only Germans with 19.8 per cent and Slovenes with 13.7 per cent had a larger share than Austrians.

In the text it is said that most of the Austrians travel by car to Croatian.

In comparison with the hotels in Austrian capital Vienna are the hotels in Croatian very cheap.

For example a double room in Vienna cost 125 Euros a night, this month. Last month it cost 113 Euros. Imagine, 12 Euros more than the last month.

I took this article because I think it is quite interestin g to see which countries Austrian like and why they like them.


The original link:

http://www.austriantimes.at/news/Business/2010-09-16/26836/Austrians_make_Croatian_holiday_top_three

Vocabularies:
chart - Diagramm Can you show us a chart, to understand the text better?

comprised - umfasste The marketing management comprises the management- framework and communication and soft skills.

share - Anteil The share on cheap flights is rising.

The development of advertising

I have just read an article about the development of advertising.

It is about the Industrial Revolution, which started in the 19th century.
Factorys started to promote new products, but the other wholesalers made the same.

Basically what it says is that in the nineteenth century the production had risen and there had been a corresponding growth in retail outlets.

It is also mentioned that after the growth the prices and profits fell, because the manufactured goods, which hadn't sold, piled up.

In the end of the nineteenth century the small firms went together with other small ones and so they made few big ones.
With this plan they switched off a lot of business competitions.

From about the 1850s the companys find out more and more aggressive selling methods to take the customers away from their rivals and switched them off.

In the text there is Lord Leverhulme mentioned.
He was one of the first industrialists. Lord Leverhulme realised that on the one hand advertising should be funny but on the other hand people should be serious about it.

Television spot

I took the spot of DUPLO, but it isn't my favourite one, but the only one i rememered.

The spot is about two guys who are in love with a girl, who is called Desiree.

The two guys make different competitions to win her heart.


She doesn't know which guy she preferes.


In the end she takes the guy who is the most romantic one, because he ate the praline very slowly and not as greedy as the other one.








The original spot:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsqEfNo2-vA