Home is where the heart is or not?

Hello everyone!

Today I was thinking a bit about home and decided it would be a good idea to talk to you about it.
I live in Graz now for about a year and a half. Graz, for me, felt like home from the first day I've been here. It always reminded me a bit at Meran, a city i used to live at. With it's Mediterranean atmosphere Graz was perfect. But after a while I started to miss something. something that never was utterly important to me, but gained more and more in importance over the last few years: the mountains. At home, in South Tyrol, there's just a perfect mix between the mountains, the whole alpine lifestyle, our Austrian roots and the Italian dolce vita, the southern atmosphere. That's what I love about home.

It doesn't matter where about in South Tyrol you are, you can always see the mountains. And with mountains I mean real mountains and not just some hills that are mistaken with mountains by some ignoramus people. Real mountains, high mountains, burning in the evening sun, and when you've crest the peak you would be able to breath the freshest, cleanest air of all, and depending on the time you're going there you could gaze at the stars, ore the most beautiful sunset or sunrise you would have ever seen. Because mountains are nothing to just look at or to climb at but more something to feel. You have to feel the nature, the mountains and the mountain spirits. To show you what I mean with that I here linked a video for you that I've found a few months ago. It's only short but gives you a good impression of the Dolomiti, one of our mountain chains. It is really worth watching!

Now that I've talked a bit about home and the mountains there's another thing I would like to tell you.  I don't know about you, but even though in the text above I stated South Tyrol as my home, actually it's never really clear to me where home is. People say home is where the heart is, but if that is the truth my heart definitely seems to be shattered. I think there are different kinds of home. To me South Tyrol is home, because it's where I've been born, where I grew up, where my roots are. On the other hand also Innsbruck means home for me. I mean, technically seen, I never really lived there. I never had a flat nor a room, not to mention that I never paid rent, but I still lived there kind of. I was there more than a year, always at my best friends place. Everyone said his living room seems more like my room, his couch was my bed. So yes, it definitely somehow felt like home. It's the same with England. I lived there, yes properly lived there, not Innsbruck-Style. It was one of the best times of my life and obviously Bournemouth is home - just as Graz is. Although I call all those places home, you can't compare one home to another. I mean ok, they are different places, but I think the difference isn't only defined by the different lives that I am clearly living, but more because something else that I can't explain. it just feels different, not a lot though, only slightly different.

Quite complicated, isn't it? Well I guess these are just casual Sunday thoughts and I'll rather get studying.

Enjoy your weekend :)

It's all about register!

Hey guys ;)

Today I'm going to tell you something about register. You may ask yourself what register is. I'm gonna try to explain it to you.

In sociolinguistics the term register is used when we talk about a different variety of languages used for a particular purpose or in a particular social situation. There are different kinds of register and it is mostly associated with formality. 

When you are at work and talk to your boss you will most likely use a different language, different phrasing than you would whilst talking to your friends or family. Also there you will probably notice a difference between talking to you parents, grandparents or your younger siblings for example. It is not because you will use more technical words at work but you will probably use more formal words talking to your boss than you would talking to your friends. The difference is also noticeable in whether or not you are honouring a person or at least should be honouring the person when communicating with it.

When you talk to a person you will choose your words more spontaneously than when you write to someone, then your word structure will probably be more complex, your words more appropriate and carefully chosen. Because the written language is also more situational, there is a bigger differentiation of style and register than there is in spoken language.

So why is register so important?

When you are writing a text for example, always keep in mind who you are writing for. Who is supposed to read and understand it? If you would use to informal words some people could get easily offended. Also what would you like to achieve with your text? What would you like the person to do?   That's why register is so important, it's all about the functionality of your language.