Liebe Gäste und Interessenten,

hiermit erhalten Sie die aktuelle Ausgabe unseres

Newsletter Telekolleg MultiMedial.

*Quick-Lerncheck

*Programmvorschau

Allgemeine Informationen    

Quick-Lerncheck Englisch    

Dear Telekolleg students,

Well, two of your final exams are over and I hope that you all got the marks that you were hoping for. And now I’m sure that many of you are in the ‘Weihnachtsstress’ that I talked about in my letter to you last Christmas. Still, I hope that in between looking for presents for your loved ones or baking those lovely little biscuits that the Germans call ‘little places’ you’ll have a few minutes to read this letter.

What did you think of the strange story in Arbeitsbogen 10 – 13? Few people would deny* that women are the ones who suffer most from sexual discrimination*. The evidence* is quite clear on that. The Equal Pay Act of 1970 makes it unlawful for employers to discriminate between men and women in terms of (in Bezug auf) their salaries or working conditions when they are doing the same or similar work. At the time that the Equal Pay Act was passed in 1970, many women were treated* much less favourably* than their male colleagues* and had far fewer chances of promotion*. The difference in pay between men and women was 37%! So it was high time that such a law was passed. Unfortunately, the difference in pay is still quite large in many countries. We shouldn’t forget, though, that many women are happy to have part-time work – they only wish to supplement their husband’s incomes – to pay for a few extras.

However, as the story of Andrew Gilbert’s humiliation* at the hands of Kathryn Dowse shows, occasionally men are the victims*, and not their female* members of staff*. As you will remember, Mr Gilbert was awarded* over £3,700 in compensation for the harsh* and rude* treatment* he had suffered from Ms Dowse. In the USA three companies – Jillian's of Indianapolis IN Inc., Jillian's Entertainment Holdings Inc., and Jillian's Entertainment Corporation - were made to pay $360,000 to some of their male employees, because of complaints* that they persistently* didn’t give these employees the same chances to get into better-paid positions as it did the female* employees – despite the fact that their performance* was just as good as that of the female colleagues (You can find further details at:http://www.eeoc.gov/press/8-13-04.html ).Anyway, the large number of links on the subject of the sexual discrimination of men that you’ll find in google, is a particularly illuminating* illustration* of how important the problem is seen in some parts of the world. Arbeitsbogen 10-13 is, like the previous Arbeitsbogen, very useful for all those Telekolleg students who need Business English in their jobs and it also contains some useful revision for the coming exams in English. One important topic is practised in tasks 39 – 42: the personal passive. This form is very common in written texts:

Two men at a party are talking to each other:

“ This party is really great!”, one man says. “The funny thing is that I WASN’T INVITED but now I can eat and drink as much as I want.”

“That’s interesting,” the other man says, “I WASN’T INVITED, either.”

“Really?”, asks the first man, “Well, how did you get in?” “It’s my party.”

There is a long queue of cars in front of the railway barrier. After a quarter of an hour, the drivers are getting very angry, when suddenly the signalman comes and says to them: “I’m sorry, but I’ve got some bad news for you. You’re going to be here for a long time. I’VE JUST BEEN INFORMED that the train has been delayed for another two hours.”

It would, of course, be possible to say: “They DIDN’T INVITE me..” , or “They’VE just INFORMED me,” but this so-called personal passive is very common. In the text: It’s been a nightmare,” you’ll find some more examples**

I hope that you are taking my advice and learning your vocabulary regularly. In the text of the final exam, there will be many words whose meanings you can guess from their context. Other words you can look up in your mono-lingual dictionary. However, time is short and we don’t want to spend a long time looking up new words. Obviously, the better your vocabulary in English is, the fewer*** words you will need to look up. If, for example you have read the Arbeitsbogen 10-13 particularly* well, you will not need to look up the words I have indicated with an asterisk (*)!!! A large number of the other words in this letter also come from previous Arbeitsbögen.

Well, dear Telekolleg students, that’s all for today. In the coming newsletters, I shall be giving you some concrete advice for the next FESTELLUNGSPRÜFUNG and the final exam.

In the next newsletter, we shall look at how to write a composition . This is the last letter you will be receiving from me before Christmas, so please let me wish you and your families a pleasant and happy Christmas and, of course, I send you every best wish for a happy, satisfying and successful year 2010.

Yours sincerely,

Bernard Brown

** He was treated less favourably (line 5)

Mr Gilbert was sacked (line 6)

He had been treated…. (line 20)

*** This is a very useful construction: je besser, desto weniger…

The more tired I am the more quickly I get to sleep: je müder ich bin, desto schneller schlafe ich ein.

The fewer cigarettes I smoke, the healthier I become (Je weniger Zigaretten ich rauche, desto gesünder werde ich). Try and use it in your next composition!

18.12.09

Quick-Lerncheck Mathematik    

Liebe Kollegiatin, lieber Kollegiat,

in diesem Newsletter nehmen wir die Lektionen 3 und 4 der Integralrechnung genauer unter die Lupe – und wie immer unter dem Aspekt: Was ist mit Blick auf Anwendungen (und das heißt bei Ihnen im Telekolleg: das Lösen von Aufgaben) unverzichtbar wichtig? Wenn Sie wegen der längeren Mathe-Pause die Grundlagen der Integralrechnung nicht mehr so ganz präsent haben, empfehle ich Ihnen, zunächst die wichtigsten Aussagen der Lektionen 1 und 2 zu wiederholen (siehe Newsletter vom 26. Juni 2009).