Das Extra für den Englischunterricht

Unsere neue Themenheftreihe „Extra“ bietet Lehrkräften eine Sammlung mit aktuellen Zeitungsartikeln zu lehrplanrelevanten Themen des Englischunterrichts an. Die Reihe startet mit dem Themenheft „Young people in the UK and the US” mit aktuellen Pressetexten und dazu passenden Übungseinheiten auf dem Sprachniveau A2-B1. Die Übungen zum Thema Jugend in Großbritannien und in den USA trainieren lehrplangetreu die Fertigkeiten Lesen, Schreiben, Hören und Sprechen/Mediation.

Verschaffen Sie sich einen ersten Eindruck von unserem neuen Themenheft mit dem folgenden Auszug eines Artikels über Work and Travel in Neuseeland und den dazugehörigen Übungen. Viel Spaß dabei!

Work, travel, and earthquakes in New Zealand

If you don’t mind working hard, you can earn enough for some exciting months of travel

By Moya Irvine

1 Back-breaking work, amazing landscapes, and a major earthquake: Leander Schröder from Ritterhude, near Bremen, had plenty of memorable experiences during his “work and travel” backpacking tour of New Zealand.

2 Leander got a working holiday visa and flew out to New Zealand after he had finished his Abitur. He had thought of going to Canada or Australia, but decided on New Zealand because although it is a small country that’s easy to get around, it has a big variety of landscapes and climate zones.

3 He landed in Auckland on the North Island and felt at home almost immediately. It may be on the other side of the globe, but New Zealand has a very European feel and some of the nicest people in the world, says Leander. “New Zealanders are incredibly friendly and welcoming to backpackers. One of my nicest experiences was when a bus driver changed his route so he could
drop me off at the place I was staying. That wouldn’t happen at home!”

4 The “work” part of work and travel earned Leander the money for his trip. It was easy to find jobs on internet portals like Backpacker Board. The work was quite hard though and often repetitive
and boring.

5 “The worst job I had was bud-rubbing in a vineyard. You have to rub off the small shoots at the bottom of the vines. You crouch down, rub off the shoots with a special glove, and then walk one metre, still crouched, to the next vine. I did that for ten hours a day with a one-hour break. I am not exaggerating: I was in agony the first day.” His other jobs were fruit picking, which was a lot easier. “All my jobs were quite well paid,” he says, “as the minimum wage is NZ$ 15.75 (€10.22), and you get extra if you pick a lot of fruit.”

6 Backpackers usually stay in a working hostel or the farm provides accommodation. So when you finish work for the day, there are a lots of people to talk to, says Leander. A lot of the other backpackers were Germans, but there were also quite a few from France and the UK, so he had a lot of opportunities to speak English.

7 The travel part of the trip was the best, of course. Leander got around mainly by coach but also shared cars with other backpackers and hired a camper van with a group for a while.

…

0 – 2 earthquake Erdbeben — you don’t mind es macht dir nichts aus — to earn verdienen — back-breaking work Knochenarbeit — landscape Landschaft — major groß; bedeutend — memorable unvergesslich — experience Erlebnis — variety Vielfalt
3 – 4 immediately sofort — incredibly unglaublich — welcoming gastfreundlich — to drop s.o. off jdn. absetzen — repetitive monoton
5 bud rubbing Triebentfernung — vineyard Weingarten — to rub reiben — shoot Trieb — to crouch down in die Hocke gehen — glove Handschuh — to exaggerate übertreiben — to be in agony (coll) höllische Schmerzen haben — to pick pflücken — minimum wage Mindestlohn
6 – 7 to provide bieten — accommodation Unterkunft — coach Reisebus — to share teilen — to hire mieten — camper van Wohnmobil