Tom Fellows

If any prospective modern languages students want some advice, I'd be very happy to help - the best way is probably for them to contact me on my Oxford address or at home in holiday

I've met up with Tom a few times and I see Rob (Nash) quite often too. Of course Rob Francis and Tom Leonard are reading History in Trinity, so I see them a lot too. I would say that life is quite college-focused, or at least with your study groups (in my case, my German tutor is based at Keble so I've got to know people from there). I've only sighted Chelsea once, when Trinity freshers were in the same matriculation ceremony as her. She seemed quite cheerful then, and joined in the mexican wave. How things change...

Work
Modern languages courses take a set format for the first year, with an examination at the end. For German, work is split between language study and literature. For language this term, we have been doing translation work German into English and vice versa. The type of passages set are a couple of paragraphs (100-200 words) taken from a newspaper article or novel. In addition, we have had lectures and seminars on aspects of German history and society to build vocabulary and cultural awareness for the reading comprehension paper. For literature, you study 4 prose works, 4 plays and a selection of c.40 poems. We have been doing the prose works this term - Fontane, 'Die Poggenpuhls'; Kafka, 'Die Verwandlung'; Remarque, 'Im Westen nichts Neues'; Mann, 'Mario und der Zauberer' - and some of the poems. Literary essays are in English, and the modern languages library has a good selection of secondary literature.

Leisure
Not oodles of time for this, but if you are organised, you can get involved in a lot and enjoy yourself on a fairly regular basis. I've acted in a Freshers' Drama competition (we produced a 25 minute play in 2 weeks!) and I've been rowing for the college 3rd 'social' Eight (this means that we only have to get up at 6.30am twice a week; the 1st have to go at 5.30 about 3 times!). We will be competing in a regatta next week. I sing for the chapel choir too - all inclusive at Trinity. Going out isn't too expensive; pubs, cinemas, theatres etc. Oxford club life is dominated by cheese, but student nights with cheap entry and drinks are pretty regular.

Well, the time has passed very quickly. Work-wise the last couple of weeks have been the same - History essay a week, and in German we've been looking at Remarque's 'Im Westen Nichts Neues' and poems by Trakl, Heym and Stadler about war (some of them very warped). Now our attention is being turned to 'mock' exams straight after the holiday... Last week was very busy with the rowing regatta (and tiring!). The boat I was in got through to the last 16 (first time Trinity has done that for 5 years) and a good time was had by all. Looking forward to no longer having to get up at 6.00 in the morning though...

Hillary Term Half-way Report
Term started with the choir tour to Gloucester and Salisbury Cathedrals early in January - wonderful to sing in two such splendid buildings and spend the most of the time in between in various pubs... Back in Oxford, and 2 exams on last term's work straight away, but they went very well. Since then the work load has not been too bad. I'm studying only German this term, with a course of History lectures on the period I did last term. For language, we're continuing with translation work and looking at comprehension and essay-writing on contemporary issues in Germany. For literature, we study 4 plays: Fruehlings Erwachen (Frank Wedekind); Liebelei (Arthur Schnitzler); Von morgens bis mitternachts (Georg Kaiser); and Die Dreigroschenoper (Bertold Brecht). All the texts are good, although I'm not so sure about Kaiser... An added bonus is that a production of Fruelings Erwachen (Spring Awakening, translated by Ted Hughes) is coming to the Playhouse in a fortnight. Hope it's good... On a more diverse note, I went to a talk given by Friedrich Merz MdB, currently leader of the CDU opposition in Germany, for the German society on 'Die Rolle Deutschlands in Europa', which was very interesting. He backed further European integration and the Euro, but argued that membership of the EU should be limited to a certain number of states (20ish), otherwise it will become impossible to take any decisions. Also, Germany was justified in overreaching the fixed borrowing rates, because she plays a fundamental role in the European economy. He received quite a bit of stick from several German students studying in Oxford...

Hillary Term Diary (2)

Time flies very rapidly - I feel I've covered a lot this term, but there's always so much more that you would have liked to have done. Spring finally
found it's way to Oxford in the last week: the lawn's are going to prove very attractive in summer I sense. We rounded off the set plays and looked at some very bizarre medieval German poetry (it sounds like German spoken in a west country accent if you say it). I've also been reading some interesting secondary literature on the set texts - for German lit., it helps enormously if you know the Bible and Faust inside out! For
twentieth-century literature Freud is also quite useful. The production of Spring Awakening at the theatre was very good, and showed some aspects of the play that I hadn't realised from reading it. It was very graphic too, but you'll have to read it to see what I mean... On a lighter note I've also heard Dame Judy Dench and Sir Richard Branson speak at the Union - both amusing and interesting. Ah well, preliminary exams at the end of next term.