Austrian authorities seem to realise how important the languages are for the education of children and integration of different nationalities. The Vienna Bilingual Middle School is one of the finest examples of how little children are expected and encouraged to be proud of their heritage and work simultaneously in two languages German and English. They have foreign teachers, native speakers who try to work with teachers of many subjects, make students whose background is predominantly German aware of the English keywords in any of the subjects thought and vice versa. Most children speak a language of their origin plus both of the languages in school. The second stress is put on connecting subjects together and enabling students to realise the connections learn naturally.
After a nice lunch at the school canteen we thanked the director Martha Hafner for the hospitality and went our separate ways, researching hidden places in Vienna, mostly non tourist, but rather residential area of the 9th district.
Starting with Freuds’ house, where there is a museum of the man’s life and work we passed from one street to another. Surrounded by secession houses in a still very beautiful, what used to be Jewish community, we passes the Servitenkirche, the church with the orden of monks who are there to help and serve the poor. The orden is still alive and their grounding fathers come from Italy, the so called seven martyrs. There are the remains of the Jewish presence in the community on the pavements and reminders, such a cemetery in the midst of a retirement home. The area has beautiful palaces, such as the Lichtenstein Palais. It was an interesting afternoon full of history, very kind people ready to help us, tell us more about their city, the area and artistic pleasures.
