Stammtisch

Dear Stammtisch Friends!

I hope you are ready for the festive days and are enjoying quieter days at the end of 2016. There were a few messages that I thought I could still share, that may be of interest to you:

Following the tragic events in Berlin earlier this month, Newcastle City Council opened a book of condolence at the Customer Service Centre at the Civic Centre. This will be there until after Christmas.

2016 – 2017 is the 800th anniversary of the creation, by King John, of Newcastle’s Mayoralty, and of Newcastle’s Burgesses (Freemen). The city will continue to celebrate this with a number of events in 2017, including an exhibition in the City Library (until the end of January) and a major lecture and symposium on civic leadership at Northumbria University on 9 February. For more information on the anniversary and the events, click here.

We also have a request from Northumbria University for an Erasmus student work placement for a period of 4 months from early February 2017. Victoria, who is in the final lap of her applied Bachelor studies in Business Management with a major in Marketing from Belgium, is fluent in French and Dutch, but also has very good in English and some German skills. If you have an opportunity to offer Victoria work experience in a North East organisation between February and May next year, please get in touch with Richard Kotter (richard.kotter@northumbria.ac.uk), who will be able to provide you with more details.

Deutsche Welle, Germany’s public international broadcaster,  are also advertising their new journalism traineeship for English and German native speakers. They are looking for young people from all over the world, who are interested in a comprehensive, exceptional quality journalism programme with an international broadcaster. Candidates should have journalism experience or be passionate about switching to journalism from technology/IT, economics or the sciences. We are looking for open-minded people full of creative ideas.

The DW editorial traineeship is paid, with a gross starting salary of approx. 1,600 Euros per month. As full-time employees, DW trainees are automatically eligible for German public health insurance. As trainees move to Germany from abroad, they are assisted at every step of the visa process.The traineeship can lead to employment in one of the DW departments in Bonn or Berlin. Click here for further information.

Living overseas often means that unfortuntately we lose some of our native language ability. Earlier this year, I learnt that the 2015 ‘Word of the Year’ in Oberfranken was ‘Wischkästla‘ (Smartphone), which I had never heard before. The 2016 winner was a bit more familar – ‘a weng weng‘ (ein ein bisschen wenig) and other popular words were apparently ‘Herrgottsmuggala‘ (Marienkäfer) and ‘etzatla‘ (jetzt). So if you would like to expand your Bavarian vocabulary, a good source is this article in the
Süddeutsche Zeitung.

But if you are new to the British Isles and are still trying to work out what the locals are saying to you – Babbel’s ‘School of British Accents’ may help – here you can follow, for example, a German’s progress of learning Geordie.

Back to the Stammtisch – in the new year, I would like to explore your interest in walks around our region. We are planning to do one along the coast (Whitley Bay/St Mary’s Island) and another one in Hexham/Corbridge. But if you would like to show us your favourite area of the North East, why not become our expert guide for the day?

Anyhow, this is it now from the Stammtisch for 2016!

Have a lovely Christmas break and ‘einen guten Rutsch’ into the New Year.