What's the craic?
In this section I will post about things I am currently up to, what I do, think and reflect about. If I feel they are interesting, I will share them - simple as. Yes, that's quite subjective but who knows, you might end up enjoying them, too. This will very likely stay on a very much anecdotal level, it's kind of my place to vent and release some thoughts. I can't (and don't want to) invest too much time and provide every little source - it would defeat the purpose of this outlet. I also want to write from my heart, what comes to mind first, as little editing as possible. For research papers, you have to go somewhere else.
In any case, there's not too much to tell you at the moment, but I am sure content will follow - busy weeks ahead! So, enjoy the picture of my cute dog Luna who loves nothing more than a cold pint of Beamish - and stay tuned!
And just in case you are not familiar with the Irish concept of 'the craic': replace it with 'up' and you have the meaning of the expression: what's up?
But then you lose out on an awful lot of craic...
Orangutan Carrying Baby by Eric Kilby (CC BY-SA 2.0)
22 Feb 2024. You know the feeling when you hear something for the first time and it really resonates with you? The other day, my colleague Dr Emma Riordan and I had our co-taught tutorial with final-year BEd Gaeilge and German (Bachelor of Education Irish and German) students. The students will compelte their degree this year and have already quite a teaching load in schools where they work as German and Irish teachers. But what does an orangutan keeper have to do with that? Continue reading.
Belgrade inner city
31 Jan 2024. You know the feeling when you think you have a full-circle moment? At this stage, it’s been quite a time since it happened: On the occasion of the very first Österreich-Tage (Austria Days) in Serbia on 23 and 24 November 2023, I travelled to Belgrade and Niš to give professional development workshops for German teachers; I was there on behalf of Kultur und Sprache, a programme of the The Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF). Continue reading.
Arts installation in the School of Education, Maynooth University
20 Nov 2023. You know the feeling when you go to a conference or CPD event and try to bring all your thoughts together and recap the event but you attended various papers and had so many discussions which left even more impressions and unanswered questions that you don’t know where to begin? Same. Especially because this conference weekend 1 already started a day before the annual conference of the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics (IRAAL) 2023, on 18 November 2023 for me. Continue reading.
How many languages?
11 Nov 2023. You know the feeling when you are doing one thing and end up doing something completely different? I was working on the introduction for the next issue of the Scenario Journal which will include a special issue section for the proceedings of the International German Teachers Conference which took place at the University of Vienna in 2022. Continue reading.
📸Sal Consoli via Twitter/X
3 Nov 2023. They say, the most difficult thing is to start. Whether it's starting a new workout regime after being for months in lockdown, the first line of a new paper, or indeed to start the day buy snoozing the alarm and getting up, for whatever it may be. Not a new experience, but I found it quite difficult to start coming up with the first bit of information that I want to include here. Without further ado... Continue reading.