Margarete E. Schachermeier, Akademische Übersetzerin
Description:
In the last few years the requirements for employees working for international companies have changed steadily and are still changing at a breathtaking speed. This is mainly due to increasing globalization, the desire to set up international working teams and the requirement for employees to be more flexible with regard to their job location. One of the consequences of this development is an increased demand for foreign languages, since communication competence is becoming more and more important.
Prerequisites:
Intermediate German II, 4 semesters of college-level German or equivalent
Learning outcomes:
This course aims at enhancing language skills, refining the students' ability to converse with native speakers and to write at a sophisticated level about issues of economic interest proving social and intercultural competence required in today’s business world.
Method of presentation:
Lectures, discussions, field trips, presentations, guest speakers
Required work and form of assessment:
Regular participation in class-work, regular reading and writing assignments, regular oral presentations and reports, class-room discussions, video and DVD work, quizzes, tests, midterm exam, comprehensive final exam, paper
content:
• Current economic development – global financial crisis
• Globalization – a critical view
• History of the EU
• Setting oneself up in business
• Legal forms of business enterprises (partnerships, corporations, …)
• Location factors
• Financing a business enterprise
• Different kinds of investment
• Marketing
• Market research
• Office communication
• Advertisement
• Job application
• Writing a curriculum vitae
• Job interviews
• Conversation skills
• Reading of current newspaper articles
• Improvement of vocabulary by exercises developed from texts
• Speech comprehension drills in video and DVD presentations
• Perfection of intonation and pronunciation
• Oral reports
• Writing compositions (essays, synopses)
• Review of complex grammar and syntax
Required readings:
• Reading material prepared by instructor
• Current newspaper articles
• Jürgen Bolten, Marktchance Wirtschaftsdeutsch, Edition Deutsch
• Kimberly Sparks, Van Horn Vail: German in Review (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, second edition)
Other Resources:
guest speaker from Erste Bank (biggest bank in Austria), GO-Gründerservice, lecturing on "How to
start a business", followed by a discussion with the students
guest speaker from McDonald's, lecturing on franchising, followed by a discussion with the students
guest speaker from Toyota Austria, lecturing on advertising
guest speaker from Google Austria GmbH, followed by a discussion with the students
watching the movie "Let's make money", a documentary on the causes and effects of the world
financial crisis watching an Austrian TV documentary on the negative aspects of globalization (“Weltjournal“) field trips
Special emphasis will be laid upon intercultural competence and communication abilities in connection with special chapters of German grammar, such as verb prefixes, infinitive clauses, relative clauses, adjective endings, passive voice with and without modal verbs, subjunctive I and II, prepositions, stylistic exercises and handling of complex sentence structures in compositions, essays, translations and reports.
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Margarete E. Schachermeier earned her degree of "Akademische Übersetzerin" from the University of Vienna and her diploma of organ from Konservatorium Wien Privatuniversität. She pursued studies of English, French and Russian. She was a Fulbright scholar and teaching assistant at the College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio. She has taught at IES since 1971 and since 2001 has been appointed faculty consultant to the AP GERMAN Reading by the College Board's Advanced Placement Program. Her teaching areas include all levels of German language courses, The Cultural Heritage of Austria and Business German.
In the last few years the requirements for employees working for international companies have changed steadily and are still changing at a breathtaking speed. This is mainly due to increasing globalization, the desire to set up international working teams and the requirement for employees to be more flexible with regard to their job location. One of the consequences of this development is an increased demand for foreign languages, since communication competence is becoming more and more important.
Intermediate German II, 4 semesters of college-level German or equivalent
This course aims at enhancing language skills, refining the students' ability to converse with native speakers and to write at a sophisticated level about issues of economic interest proving social and intercultural competence required in today’s business world.
Lectures, discussions, field trips, presentations, guest speakers
Regular participation in class-work, regular reading and writing assignments, regular oral presentations and reports, class-room discussions, video and DVD work, quizzes, tests, midterm exam, comprehensive final exam, paper
• Current economic development – global financial crisis
• Globalization – a critical view
• History of the EU
• Setting oneself up in business
• Legal forms of business enterprises (partnerships, corporations, …)
• Location factors
• Financing a business enterprise
• Different kinds of investment
• Marketing
• Market research
• Office communication
• Advertisement
• Job application
• Writing a curriculum vitae
• Job interviews
• Conversation skills
• Reading of current newspaper articles
• Improvement of vocabulary by exercises developed from texts
• Speech comprehension drills in video and DVD presentations
• Perfection of intonation and pronunciation
• Oral reports
• Writing compositions (essays, synopses)
• Review of complex grammar and syntax
• Reading material prepared by instructor
• Current newspaper articles
• Jürgen Bolten, Marktchance Wirtschaftsdeutsch, Edition Deutsch
• Kimberly Sparks, Van Horn Vail: German in Review (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, second edition)
guest speaker from Erste Bank (biggest bank in Austria), GO-Gründerservice, lecturing on "How to
start a business", followed by a discussion with the students
guest speaker from McDonald's, lecturing on franchising, followed by a discussion with the students
guest speaker from Toyota Austria, lecturing on advertising
guest speaker from Google Austria GmbH, followed by a discussion with the students
watching the movie "Let's make money", a documentary on the causes and effects of the world
financial crisis watching an Austrian TV documentary on the negative aspects of globalization (“Weltjournal“) field trips
Special emphasis will be laid upon intercultural competence and communication abilities in connection with special chapters of German grammar, such as verb prefixes, infinitive clauses, relative clauses, adjective endings, passive voice with and without modal verbs, subjunctive I and II, prepositions, stylistic exercises and handling of complex sentence structures in compositions, essays, translations and reports.
Margarete E. Schachermeier earned her degree of "Akademische Übersetzerin" from the University of Vienna and her diploma of organ from Konservatorium Wien Privatuniversität. She pursued studies of English, French and Russian. She was a Fulbright scholar and teaching assistant at the College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio. She has taught at IES since 1971 and since 2001 has been appointed faculty consultant to the AP GERMAN Reading by the College Board's Advanced Placement Program. Her teaching areas include all levels of German language courses, The Cultural Heritage of Austria and Business German.