Presentation: Ireland: Irish Business & Tradition

I divided my presentation into the following parts:


*Where is Ireland?
*Irish culture
*Irish language
*History of Ireland
*Ireland Government (legislative branch, political parties/leaders,...)
*Current issue of Ireland (evironment, health, human rights)
*Irish economy (business activity)

Shooting in Head of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNo4rPIuVsk
Yesterday I saw a video on the internet page "youtube.com" and it talked about the shooting in Tuscon, Arizona.
A man had shot into a crowd outside of a vent in a supermarket . The congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in her head and seven other people were also injured.
The gunfight was short time ago during a event called "Congress on your corner".
At this time it is unclear what the conditions are.

U.S. Politics

In our last english lesson we talked about last Tuesday's election of congress. The reason for this was the election of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Moreover we spoke about some general facts about politics in the U.S.A. For example that each of the 50 states has his own leader, which are called governors.

In America there are two parties, the Democrats and the Republicans. You can compare these two parties with the Social Democrats and the People's Partie in Austria.

Furthermore in America there are two houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives.
In England there also are two houses, the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

What interested me most was that Barack Obama, he is an Africain, has the aim to improve health care und to reduce the unemployment in America.
In his speech he said that it's no matter if you are poor or rich, old or young, black or white everybody should have a good life.

I wasn't aware of the fact that the midterm elections are in the middle of the president's term.

To summarize I can say that it's very important to know some important facts about the politics in the U.S.A., because so you can see that some points are nearly the same as in Austria.

The Health Care System in the United States

In our last English lesson, Farrah explained to us the most important facts of the health care in America.

Basically what she said, was that the American haven't got state insurance. Some people are able to afford private insurance but the youth and the poor people cannot meet the expense of this insurance. Private insurance is very expensive, so in some cases people are on the verge of bankruptcy.

Generally there are two systems in America. The first one is the Medicare for the old and sick people and the second is the Medicaid, which is for the poor people.

The aim of PPACA (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) is that everybody can afford insurance. Until the age of 26 everyone is insured with their parents, if this person is a student and doesn't work.

A further aim of PPACA is that the costs and the risk of bankruptcy should go down.

I wasn't aware of the fact that a law like PPACA exists and that the American health care is divided into two parts.

To sum up I can say, that we, all the Austrian people, can appreciate the health care regulation in Austria.

School System in America

On the  11th of Octoberwe spoke with Farrah about the school system in Amercia and discussed about the differences between the school education in Austria and in America.

I'll tell you something about the school life in the U.S.A. Futhermore I'll give you some infromation about the "grades system".

First of all a child has to go to the kindergarten until the age of five. Afterwards it attends elementary school and at 12 years, the teenagers go to middle school, also called junior high.





From 14 to 18 the teenagers attend the high school.

 Then they can choose if they want to go to university or start working.

If they decide to attend a college, they have to pass the SAT (Schoolastic Apitude Test).

I wasn't aware of the fact that at high school every mark has a different number of points, for example, an A = 4 points, a B = 3 points and a C are 2 points.

Summerazing I can say that many things are the same as in Austria, for example, the schools in Austria as well as the schools in America have core subjects.

Conversation with Farrah

In our last English lesson, we get to know Farrah. She is 22 years old and comes from Maryland, which is on the East Coast of America. Moreover she told us her hobbies, which are reading, meeting her friends and traveling. Farrah will stay in Austria until May - and she also said that she wants to get better in skiing.

We asked her if she had ever visited New York?! Her answer was, that NY is only 4 hours away from Maryland. So she confirmed for us some clichées of the United States, but she enlightened us, for example, that  the U.S.A.  also has its own culture.

Furthermore she speaks French and her favourite forgein language is German, which she has been studying for 3 years. Business Administration and Management are two of her subjects at the University of Maryland.

Now I would like to write something about the first impression of Farrah.
She is very friendly and I have no problems understanding her, she has a very good pronunciation.
Moreover I think she helps us to improve our English skills and she is able to tell us, in which way we can communicate in 'real' life, for example, how we can describe some words we don't know and through that we also get a little impression of the American way of life.

Fat-free and happy

One week ago I was reading an article at school and it talked about the personal impression of America.

Moreover I though you might be interested because in this article you can read something about the differences between Europe and the U.S.A.

In the U.S.A. many things are completely different, for example they have their own culture. Furthermore the Americans are tolerant in other ways, for example in the relationship between gays and lesbians.

I wasn't aware of the fact that businesswomen wear sneakers and white tights with elegant dresses.

Basically, I agree with what it says about the big shopping malls in America, but also in Europe the shopping malls get bigger and bigger.