For me, like for so many other exchange students, language was one of the main reasons to select my location. Therefore, it is obvious my development in acquiring the skills needed to comprehend this Austrian dialect of German is critical to my happiness level. If I'd fail at improving my German (or Austrian) during these 10 months, I would feel very disappointed. Every time I talk to somebody auf Deutsch I have an internal radar on, analyzing my performance. As with any learning, the success has been mixed.
I fondly remember one encounter from my first week here. I went to open a bank account and Henry decided to tag along. He went in first, and the very nice bank clerk seemed to know English well enough to manage the opening of the account in short order. I was next in line, and told up front that I'd prefer to speak German, if she only would speak a bit slower than normally. I can still recall the look of relief on her face. If I wouldn't have known the context, I'd thought he was praising some higher power for uplifting her from hell. She did tell me that her English wasn't that good and that she was already really tired - it was late afternoon - and was happy to speak German again. That really got me into a good mood about my German and I approached every situation thereafter with even more confidence. Successes make learning a new language that much more pleasant.
As for the not-so-successful stories, I have a hard time choosing. Possibly the low point was on a train ride from Vienna to Graz. I'd just returned from a weekend in Hannover, and was pleasantly surprised of the ease I could communicate with the locals over there. You see, they speak the most perfect Hochdeutsch one can find. In here, well not so. In the trains you're normally only asked once for your ticket, and I had already presented mine. For some reason this time there had been a change in the train guard personnel, and a woman was going through the train and checking tickets again. I, however, didn't know what she wanted and thought that it can't be the ticket, as it had already been checked. So, I asked her to repeat the question, but really could not make out any discernible words. After the third time, she just retorted: "You don't speak very much German, do you?", which earned my not-so-grateful response "Sure I do, but not your damn dialect!". I wasn't feeling too good about myself after that...
Oh, and yesterday in a bar, I was trying to order a drink, and the waitress kept continuously addressing me in English. I found that really offensive, as I don't think my German is that bad! (Even though I've once been asked by an Austrian if I'm Swiss...) Anyway, the situation resolved itself, and I found out that the waitress couldn't speak German - she was Swedish! So, for the rest of the orders it was time to practice my Swedish skills, which undoubtedly have seen better days.
The whole thing about languages is very central to the general feeling I have around here. All in all, I'll admit that I could've improved more, but I'm still fairly satisfied about how it's gone. And, thanks to Henry, my English is actually in the best shape it's been for a while!
Showing posts with label happiness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label happiness. Show all posts
06 March, 2011
17 January, 2011
Life as investment: the stock of shortsightedness
Life - a long and fuzzy thing. Something, that most of us feel is quite important. We all want to be happy and satisfied. That's fine by me, but there's something about the viewpoint, the philosophical stance that bugs me. It's the view of investment and return.
With the rise of capitalism and financial security the language of economics and business has invaded into the personal sphere. I've seen countless self-help books and heard many a discussion, where we are investing in quality time, marketing ourselves or developing our assets (eg. skills). Before I could have shrugged and said that sure, it sounds stupid, but they're just words, and calling learning asset development doesn't really change anything. I don't think so anymore.
I've really seen people of my age do ROI calculations about various careers to decide, which line of work to get into. Usually they've been the same way, get the average yearly salary and then calculate, how much the difference in, say, 10 years is. Some have even took into account investing this 10 year surplus into shares and then found out to be loaded at the promising age of 70! Yes, I'm telling the worst examples, but I'm devastated that even a single person would seriously consider the above as a career choice method. Well, maybe I just came across somebody who really values money first and foremost, and I guess there's not much to say if that's a conscious choice.
Money, however, is just the tip of the iceberg. We are investing a lot of other stuff too. Ever heard of the concept of quality time in parenting? Have you ever been told how a PT can make your training so much more effective? Have you ever heard how just that one orange juice makes you so much more energetic in the morning, saving precious time?
All the above things can have a grain of truth, and actually make your life more effective. But to think that it actually increases your happiness, that's the key issue. The belief seems to be that the more time and effort we put into something, the better the results. Sure, it works for a lot of things: if I spend a lot of time studying real good for an exam, my grade is a lot more likely to be at the upper end of the scale. But, seriously, to apply this framework to life?
First of all, there's the problem of not being able to increase the time used. You're alive all the time already! Secondly, what's the return in this context? Why does more effort inescapably make you more happy? What does happiness have to do with effectiveness?
Well, you don't really need to be a philosopher to work it out. More effort makes us more capable and more effective. That in turn makes us do tasks better, which means promotions, a bigger paycheck. That enables glamour and style, which in turn facilitates rise in social status. If one believes that happiness stems from the position in the social scene the right track is in increasing effort. I, however, happen to believe that happiness comes from my disposition to the outside, not the other way round. For me happiness is very closely linked with intrinsic motivation, as a kind of gut feeling of "how much I like doing this", using an example of having a hobby.
There's a lot more to be said about this subject, but I'll let it go for now, lest this post become monstrously long!
With the rise of capitalism and financial security the language of economics and business has invaded into the personal sphere. I've seen countless self-help books and heard many a discussion, where we are investing in quality time, marketing ourselves or developing our assets (eg. skills). Before I could have shrugged and said that sure, it sounds stupid, but they're just words, and calling learning asset development doesn't really change anything. I don't think so anymore.
I've really seen people of my age do ROI calculations about various careers to decide, which line of work to get into. Usually they've been the same way, get the average yearly salary and then calculate, how much the difference in, say, 10 years is. Some have even took into account investing this 10 year surplus into shares and then found out to be loaded at the promising age of 70! Yes, I'm telling the worst examples, but I'm devastated that even a single person would seriously consider the above as a career choice method. Well, maybe I just came across somebody who really values money first and foremost, and I guess there's not much to say if that's a conscious choice.
Money, however, is just the tip of the iceberg. We are investing a lot of other stuff too. Ever heard of the concept of quality time in parenting? Have you ever been told how a PT can make your training so much more effective? Have you ever heard how just that one orange juice makes you so much more energetic in the morning, saving precious time?
All the above things can have a grain of truth, and actually make your life more effective. But to think that it actually increases your happiness, that's the key issue. The belief seems to be that the more time and effort we put into something, the better the results. Sure, it works for a lot of things: if I spend a lot of time studying real good for an exam, my grade is a lot more likely to be at the upper end of the scale. But, seriously, to apply this framework to life?
First of all, there's the problem of not being able to increase the time used. You're alive all the time already! Secondly, what's the return in this context? Why does more effort inescapably make you more happy? What does happiness have to do with effectiveness?
Well, you don't really need to be a philosopher to work it out. More effort makes us more capable and more effective. That in turn makes us do tasks better, which means promotions, a bigger paycheck. That enables glamour and style, which in turn facilitates rise in social status. If one believes that happiness stems from the position in the social scene the right track is in increasing effort. I, however, happen to believe that happiness comes from my disposition to the outside, not the other way round. For me happiness is very closely linked with intrinsic motivation, as a kind of gut feeling of "how much I like doing this", using an example of having a hobby.
There's a lot more to be said about this subject, but I'll let it go for now, lest this post become monstrously long!
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