DACH

Turning the Tables

I know it’s a blog about the Germans but what about turning the tables and writing down my impressions as a German speaker about the three months that I spent in London. I've got a notion that within a short period of time I saw quite a lot, probably a bit of everything from the entire world culture. Why do I say this? Because you have just a huge choice here and plenty of different possibilities to do something. No matter what, from museums (where you can push buttons or hear figures explaining world history ... amazing for children, to learn by playing). Musicals, theatre, classical music (and every day in summer, the Proms ), concerts, galleries.

Not to forget the British Library which is not a usual Library. I had the opportunity to do work experience here which was wonderful. I saw how the processing of the books works, the history and the architecture of the building. The people working there have a lovely sense of humour. And I have to recommend the tour of the BL. It’s different – not as boring as some guided tours can be. I have always been interested in books but after this time here I’m going to buy probably over 100 books. (More than I had in mind). Some of them that I had a quick look in, are too good to miss. My father would definitely approve.  I'm going to have many demands on my purse (a poor student like me). But as everybody knows; knowledge is expensive (Oxford, Cambridge…).

Oh and what I nearly forgot, the most famous thing that everybody speaks about is probably the weather, because it is so changeable like nowhere else. And to mention the food there is a restaurant near where I stayed in Finchley which has the best fish and chips ever. (Madonna used to go there as well.) There are markets that are as long as the whole Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich . You have parks, you can’t have more green than this. Ok maybe in Scotland… but you know what I mean: you don’t have to go on vacation, it’s not necessary. You have everything here. (I’ve been to Brighton three times.) Lucky you!

Anyway most of the culture related things are for free. I'm perhaps too enthusiastic but I had a really good time. Also impressive is your recycling system. We are probably one of the cleanest countries in the world but we still haven’t a separate recycling system for plastic cups. Stuff like that is general waste in Switzerland.

I think there is something about London and I will come back that's for sure. At the very end I'm left saying: it was a really exciting, interesting time and what stuck out was the friendly nature and the helpfulness of the people everywhere. And this constantly (apart from some bus drivers but that’s another story...)

However I never felt like a foreigner. It was worth the trip.

Arbi Jusufi (Intern in the German Section, July/August 2010)

Apart from chocolate, cheese and minaret debates

When I learned that the BL’s underground area houses more than 600km of bookshelves (almost twice the length of my native country Switzerland), I was amazed. What is more, when Clemens brought me the Wörterbuch des Flumser Dialekts (BL shelfmark X.909/82299), the Dictionary of the dialect of my native village Flums, I was speechless.

I actually thought that I knew my father’s dialect inside out. Anyway, examining the book, I came across words I’ve never heard before. Like vertschienggä [fær't∫ıє:ŋgæ]: It’s a verb which describes the process of wearing out your shoes by “walking in an unorderly manner”.

A long chapter is dedicated to agriculture. I now know that the farmers have different calls for cows, pigs, goats and sheep to draw them back to the stables. Inspired by this newly acquired knowledge, I want to share something about Switzerland with you that not everybody knows.

The Alpabfahrt is the highlight for a lot of herdswomen and herdsmen who spent the whole summer in the mountains with their cattle for summer pasture. Living in the alp huts (Alphütten) is only possible during a few months, mainly July and August, as it is too cold there, apart from midsummer time. Although sounding rather idyllic, it is a busy time up there: during their stay in the mountains, in addition to looking after the cattle, the Sennerinen and Senner (the German name for people who are doing both herding and producing diary products) are producing cheese, milk and butter and are maintaining the pastures. There was a time when women were not welcome in the Alphütten because their presence there was thought to bring misfortune with it. That was also the time when many myths came into being. The most famous one is the Sennentuntschi myth (which could be translated as “the myth of the alp hut dolly”) of which exist countless variations in different regions in Switzerland.

Nowadays, quite a few women decide to spend the summer as Sennerinnen, and even people who are technically not farmers will work as dairy people during summertime to escape from every day life for a short time.

The Alpabfahrt marks the end of the summer pasture, when the cattle are brought down to the valleys again. It’s never clear when exactly this event is taking place because the homecoming depends on the long range-weather. Several hundred animals will then make their way down to the valley in small groups, each under the care of two or three Sennerinnen and Sennen. Before they set off for their way home, on average about 20 km (12 miles) away from the alp, the best cows (the ones that give the most milk) are adorned with a conical head dress of flowers and carry large bells on ornate straps around their neck, called Tschäppel .The women and men are wearing traditional clothes of the region. Back home, they are welcomed by the crowds and at various market stalls, the alpine dairy products are sold.

You can certainly imagine that during the Alpabfahrt, the herdspeople will have to cry “se se se” pretty often to keep the cows under control, and that afterwards the shoes are definitely vertschienggät.
[Asha Riederer, Intern November to December 2009]

Work experience at BL

Most people seem to end up in shops or offices for their work experience – so it was with some surprise that I arrived on a Monday morning and realised that I was one of nine students with placements in the British Library for a week (for official purposes, I was “Work Experience 08” for that time), spread between the numerous departments.  After the inevitable health and safety briefing – I’m now well versed in the Library’s intricate fire alarm system – I was introduced to the equally intricate cataloguing system, with which I spent some time doing battle before I got the hang of it.

Probably the most exciting part of my placement was visiting the enormous basements, or, as I called them to my slightly bemused friends, “Book Mecca” – partly because I’m very proud of not shutting either myself or anyone else in the mobile bookshelves, but mostly because old books fascinate me, and if there’s one thing the British Library has a lot of, it’s old books.  Some of them are so old, in fact, that touching them was off limits; but even discovering that copies of some of the same books I’ve studied in preparation for A Levels, such as Ovid’s poetry, were being printed, read and studied in the fifteenth century is a reminder that texts like these have and are part of a history outside of both the time they were written and their readers today.

Also interesting – if a little disturbing – was the process of identifying for transfer a number of Nazi propaganda books collected at the end of the Second World War. I say disturbing because the books all have titles like Unser Führer: ein deutsches Jungen-und Mädchenbuch (Our Führer: a German book for boys and girls; @ BL W90/7328 DSC) and Mutter, erzähl von Adolf Hitler!, (Tell me about Adolf Hitler, Mum!; @ BL W90/9808 DSC). In the beginning of one of the books I actually saw a large glossy picture of Hitler himself bending down and patting a young boy reassuringly on the shoulder – so I suppose one thing I’ve learnt this week is that politics never changes.

As well as this sort of work in German collections, I’ve done some similar work in French collections and spent a day in the Modern British department; moving around the departments tested my sense of direction (the British Library is a huge and somewhat bewildering, but mercifully air conditioned, building) but also gave me a much clearer idea of the Library as a whole and the diversity of its roles – from web archiving to blogs to collecting Nazi propaganda.

Now, after my week’s work experience, I can’t say I know what kind of career I’d like any more than I did at the beginning – but I came to the British Library because I have an interest in books, and to European collections because I have an interest in languages, both of which have been reinforced by seeing how they can be used in the “real world” beyond A levels!
[Rachel Rowan-Olive, on work experience in July 2009]