Eight years of finest English

The bell has rung one last time and after 8 years at the B(R)G Leibnitz it is time to say goodbye. What a journey it has been indeed! Almost a decade ago we stumbled upon our first English words and phrases such as “Hello” and “How are you?”. In chorus we would respond to our teachers “We are fine, how are you?”, since expressing more complex emotional conditions was not yet possible. Nonetheless, time passed, and our level of English improved rapidly as we tried to grow up along the way. I remember thinking what an interesting bunch of people we were. So different in many ways but destined to learn about the world with and from one another. And thus, we did, as if an invisible painter with a colour palette had painted a beautiful rainbow. Instead of mixing the different colours to a dreary one, he or she placed them next to each other which made them shine brighter than ever before. Hence, we didn’t grow because of our alikeness, but due to our individual uniqueness. 

Of course, it was not always just sunshine and roses. Sometimes it rained cats and dogs as well. “That’s life”, I recall one of our teachers say. Consequently, we learned about the importance of lending each other a hand now and then. Sure enough, we learned a lot more. We learned about the highest mountains, so that we could climb them someday. We learned about history, so that we could change the future. We learned about the earth, so that we could protect it, and we learned about space, so that we could reach for the stars. 

Finally, we realized that life is also about being grateful, which we have more than enough reason for today. In our eight-year journey, we were given a great opportunity and a lot of support. We were given the chance to become fluent in a language that is not our own mother tongue and master it in many different subjects. Moreover, a relationship of mutual trust and respect has been established among our teachers and us. Besides listening to them talking about their field of knowledge, we were always eager to learn about their personal view of life and the experiences they had already gathered. The same experiences we are only starting to have now. “This will be the most exciting time of your life”, I recall hearing the same teacher. I don’t know what to think of that just yet, but time has come and I know we are all ready to take the next step enabling us to live up to our potential and make the dreams that we were taught we can have, come true. Every once in a while, some of us will think back. It will be a happy memory! 

Lena Puntigam (8aw)

---

Four years of EAA

After four years of EAA in Unterstufeand before continuing the program into Oberstufenext year, we tried to extend our concept in sciences as well as put a multilingual focus by cooperating with French and Italian languages.
As a broad summary of the last four years, we think it’s time to present you with authentic voices from the classroom. Here are our students’ testimonials on the benefits they have received during four years of EAA-programme.

4aw

I think that we learned a lot in these four years so right now it’s hard to learn new things because we’ve covered so many different topics and there are just small parts left to study. We’ve learnt many different things about English speaking countries, so we know much more than before. Many students in my class can speak fluently and pronounce words like it was our mother tongue.
Michael Fauster, 4aw

I think it was a wise decision to attend EAA class. It is a very good chance to learn other subjects in English like pupils in the US or in the UK do.
Katharina Lamprecht, 4aw

I think EAA class has become more exciting every year. Sometimes it may seem hard studying all the subjects in English. So I think it’s really cool that those teachers who don’t have English as a subject, make such an effort to present their lessons in English in the best way they can.
Miriam Lechner, 4aw

Now in fourth class all I can say is that I’m really glad that I chose to attend EAA class because I can speak English almost fluently. It has been and still is a great experience and I would recommend it to everyone who loves speaking English.
Jana Oswald, 4a

I can only recommend EAA-class to pupils who like languages and would like to learn English in particular. For me these four years were very interesting, good fun and helpful.
Stefan Wagner, 4aw

My linguistic development has been huge. I’ve learnt a whole new way to express myself and to exchange information with people who don’t speak any German.
Christina Jauschnegg, 4aw

4hk

After primary school I decided to go to an EAA class. Now I’m in the fourth year of it. In the first year, we started with English lessons. It was really strange to talk English in subjects like Geography or Biology, but after some months it started to be fun. Our English was getting much better.
Michael Ruffenacht, 4hk

The best thing about English is that you can talk easily to almost everybody. I literally use English every single day. Sometimes I even mix English with German accidentally. The teachers explain and talk to us in simple English, and when something is hard to understand, they try their best.
Anna Heber, 4hk

English comes up in every subject, except for German. Everybody says that we speak English much better than pupils in other classes. We even speak better than some of our teachers 
Helene Höcher, 4hk

I enjoy every day, even if we have a test or a revision because English is a big part of our lives. With the EAA afternoons we have grown together and we could show teamwork at our parents’ evenings, which we had every year.
Johanna Grailer, 4hk

I like EAA very much and I will go to the EAA class for the next four years as well. I have liked the last four years very much and I’m happy to have the chance to go to this class.
Celina Klampfer, 4hk

We forgot to mention that our class was one of the first two EAA classes ever. So it was a great experience to be in that class and even if we go to other schools next year, we will keep that great memory forever.
Sophie Povoden & Leonie Tretnjak, 4hk