Ich-AG

October 14, 2009 By 4 Comments

Ich-AG is a term used to refer to state support for unemployed people who turned self-employed between 2003 and 2006.

It was intended to assist with payments such as health insurance and pension contributions during the start-up phase of the new business.

Over the years the process of applying became more complicated, making it more difficult and less attractive.

To hear a simple explanation and a short discussion in German, listen to the podcast:

(Press the “play” button to listen to the podcast)

Download the MP3 file | Subscribe to the podcast

Filed Under: German Words Explained, Podcasts Tagged With: , ,

Why do visitor numbers drop?

October 13, 2009 By 1 Comment

Over the past few months I’ve been reading about the number of visitors travelling to Lanzarote this year – and it appears that they have been dropping.

Why is that?

I have a theory – and it is only partly to do with the economic climate.

Earlier this year, I tried to book flights from Frankfurt to Lanzarote.  This was not easy, as although there were plenty of places available on flights to Spain, the was a distinct lack of places on direct flights between Madrid and Arrecife, with Iberia offering my flights to Las Palmas instead (following by a short island hop on Binter Canarias).  Other options included spending a night on Madrid, or flying via Amsterdam!

So what is my theory?  Well, I am wondering if the lack of visitors is due to the lack of flights.  It is not because people don’t want to go, but because they can’t get there.

I feel that my suspicions were also confirmed by the news that Ryan Air was receiving a 100% discount on airport tax in Arrecife, encouraging them to take up Lanzarote as a new destination.

Did the major airlines decided at the beginning of the year, that people would not want to fly and so cut back the number of flights to the island?  Is that causing the problem?

What do you think?

Filed Under: General, Lanzarote Tagged With: ,

Learning to write – German style

October 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment

With my daughter learning to read and write at primary school in Germany, it is interesting to see which methods are being used.  It often leaves me wondering if I learnt by similar methods, or whether it is a completely different system.

Letters are referred to by their phonetic sounds, so “b” is not “bee” but “buh”, at least for the first two years of primary school, and roughly one of these is covered each week.

I am particularly fascinated by the book that she uses to practise writing the letters in.  It looks almost like a musical stave, except it has less lines.  These correspond to the floors on a pictogram of a house that is at the side of the page.

Apparently, most of the lower-case letters all live downstairs, whilst some of them – and the upper case ones – also go upstairs.  Some letters even venture down into the basement!

I’m pretty sure I didn’t have houses at the end of the lines I was learning to write on…

Filed Under: School Tagged With: , ,

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