Exploring the English Speaking World

Since the start of the summer semester, a group of enthusiastic students from Year 6 have been travelling through the English speaking world. The Friday afternoon course started off with a close look at different English accents, an overview of the countries where English is spoken as first or second language and various pronunciation traps challenging learners of English.

A special highlight so far has been our American language assistant Josué’s humorous and witty presentation and exploration of American stereotypes. With great eagerness and motivation, he managed to engage the students in a lively discussion about the cultural differences between Austria and the US.

The latest country we dealt with was Canada. We found out about some surprising facts, e. g. that Canada consists of more lakes than the rest of the world combined, that the beaver is the national mascot and that the Canadians are an ice-hockey crazy nation. Of course, the afternoon was rounded off with a nice cuppa accompanied with - to fit the Canadian tradition - pancakes and maple syrup.