Zwei Teilnehmerinnen des Work and Travel Programms der DKG berichten über ihre Erfahrung und über uns 🙂 auf dem Blog der Canada Dream Tours, Corporate Mitglied der Deutsch-Kanadischen Gesellschaft.
„Work and Travel Abenteuer Teil 1 von Jana und Lisa Hallo zusammen, wir sind Jana und Lisa, sind 19 Jahre alt und kommen vom Niederrhein. Letztes Jahr haben wir unser Abitur abgeschlossen und sind im November nach Kanada geflogen, um dort einige Monate Work and Travel zu machen.„
Am 19. Mai fand die Lesung mit der kanadischen Autorin Louise Dupré und ihrer Übersetzerin Ursula Mathis-Moser auf Zoom statt. Die Veranstaltung wurde von der DKG Oberbayern organisiert und war ein grosser Erfolg. Von 100 Angemeldeten nahmen 66 Personen teil.
Frau Elisa Valentin, Generaldelegierte der Regierung von Québec in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz eröffnete den Abend mit einem Grußwort.
Die Lesung wurde meisterhaft von Jennifer Dummer, Spezialistin für quebecische Kultur im deutschsprachigen Raum, in Französisch und Deutsch moderiert.
Frau Dupré las aus ihrem Buch „Tout comme elle“ einige Zeilen auf Französisch, diese wurden direkt danach in Deutsch von Frau Mathis-Moser wiederholt. Im Buch geht es um die Beziehung zwischen einer Mutter und ihrer Tochter und die entstehende Beziehung der Tochter zu ihrem neugeborenen Kind. Das Buch wurde auch als Theaterstück inszeniert. Es handelt primär von der komplizierten Bindung zwischen Mutter und Tochter und dem Wunsch der letzteren, es anders als ihre Mutter mit ihrer eigenen Tochter zu machen.
Der Text wurde wunderbar in beiden Sprachen vorgetragen sodass man direkt in die Geschichte hineingezogen wurde.
Im zweiten Teil wurde aus dem neuem Buch „Théo à jamais“ vorgelesen, welches gerade noch von Frau Mathis-Moser übersetzt wird. Hier geht es um einen jungen Mann, dem es augenscheinlich sehr schlecht geht. So schlecht dass er versucht seinen eigenen Vater und noch einige andere Menschen umzubringen. Die Gedanken und Schuldgefühle seiner Adoptivmutter (als Théo und sein Vater im Krankenhaus liegen) werden thematisiert. Fragen wie: „was habe ich falsch gemacht, wer trägt die Schuld“.
Die beiden Romane behandeln sehr schwere aber relevante Themen unserer Gesellschaft.
An dieser Stelle möchten wir ein riesengroßes Dankeschön an das Team Oberbayern aussprechen: Dr. Georg Schmitz, Dr. Marietta Weiland-Kuch und Vera Kühr! Und natürlich auch an Martin Gutsch, unseren DKG Zoom Spezialisten-Schatzmeister-Virtual Canadian Pub Nights Veranstalter und seit kurzem auch noch Regionalleiter der DKG Aachen, merci Martin! Danke auch an Jennifer die großartig zwischen Französisch und Deutsch fließend und mit viel Schwung moderiert hat.
Et un merci tout spécial à Louise Dupré ainsi qu’à Ursula Mathis-Moser d’avoir pris le temps, pour quelques instants, de nous emmener dans votre monde! Ce fut grandement apprécié! À refaire!
Our newest interview with Entrepreneur Mélody Roussy-Parent / Next Virtual Canadian Pub Night – Canadian food and beverages special!
Do not miss our newest interview with long time DKG member and Entrepreneur Mélody Roussy-Parent!
Long time DKG member, Mélody Roussy-Parent is a multi-talented, self-made Canadian business woman who has been living in Munich for over twenty years. Not only does Mélody run three businesses but she also finds time to be the President of the Quebec Association in Germany (Association québécoise en Allemagne) as well as giving time for the DKG. To our great pleasure, the very sympathetic „Rimouskoise“ whom we know best under „Mélody’s Canada“, accepted to tell us about her life’s journey.
Long time DKG member, Mélody Roussy-Parent is a multi-talented, self-made Canadian business woman who has been living in Munich for over twenty years. Not only does Mélody run three businesses but she also finds time to be the President of the Quebec Association in Germany (Association québécoise en Allemagne) as well as giving time for the DKG. To our great pleasure, the very sympathetic „Rimouskoise“ whom we know best under „Mélody’s Canada“, accepted to tell us about her life’s journey.
Mélody was born and grew up in Rimouski, a city in the Lower St-Laurence area in Quebec, Canada. Daughter of a painter and a business woman, she became both very creative and very organized. Mélody’s father first studied at the University Angelicum of Rom and travelled to many European countries. Then he taught theology and history of art at the University of Quebec in Rimouski and built his own painting studio which later became his gallery. Mélody’s mother who was a teacher and then the regional director of SUCO (Service Universitaire Canadien outre-mer) travelled many times to West Africa and helped developing countries by providing and coordinating the resources and expertise needed. When she met her husband and founded a family, she took care of the gallery and also promoted other artists. It is no wonder that Mélody became so hard working and skilled in many areas.
As a child, Mélody learned to read notes of music before she could read books. She studied piano at the conservatory of music from the age of five up to her 20th year and participated to the Canadian Music Competition which brought her to Vancouver in 1986. She might have liked to pursue but she could not handle the stress of playing in front of people. The pressure to perform became too much. She would have preferred to play another instrument to disappear inside an orchestra and not being the center of attention. Mélody was pushing herself already at a young age, studying music at the conservatory, and sciences at the „Cégep“ at the same time.
After college Mélody wanted to study medicine at the University but as she wasn’t accepted in the program, she opted for geological engineering at „Polytechnique“ in Montreal.
As she was also attracted to languages and traveling, she participated in the Canadian Summer language program throughout her teenage-years, spending time subsequently in Lennoxville, Quebec, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Charlottetown, Prince-Edward-Island and London, England.
Later on, Mélody spent a summer in Spain where she learned Spanish at the Universidad de Salamanca. The next summer, she decided to learn German and came to Munich. She liked it so much that she decided to stay. She appreciated the feeling of traditional village flair while being in a major city. In 1998 she made her decision and came to Germany for good, studying the German language in Munich for six months. Afterwards she started linguistics at the University of Munich. That is how she came about to develop online language courses partnering with the University and has been a tutor since.
Being the hard worker and creative person that she is, Mélody decided one day to import Canadian products to sell in Germany. To be able to import the products and start a business, she went on a quest to gather the needed information and launched Mélody’s Canada in 2006. At the beginning, she offered various products in a physical shop in Munich. After a while she found her niche with art, spirits, wine and maple products. All of those are carefully handpicked by Mélody; she has visited every producer herself and has inspected the production process and tested the final product.
In 2017, she decided to do her MBA (Master Business Administration) at the Oxford Brookes University. That is where she developed the idea for her latest business: „RethinkPath Creative Culture Consulting„. Mélody believes in the fact that new ways create new solutions and encourages businesses to explore international opportunities and create the adapted strategy to it. She offers her services and creative thinking training to international businesses, writes academic publications and gives presentations.
Curious and adventurous, Mélody has taken over the presidency of the „Association québécoise en Allemagne“ a couple of years ago. She is also involved in the DKG, participating in the Canadian Pub Night series and the organization to the next one in May. In the past, she also presented her products in various activities with the DKG Oberbayern in Munich as well as with the DKG Rhein-Main.
Mélody is just as versatile as the products she offers: intelligent, unique, creative, strong, resourceful, beautiful, nice and sweet.
Rückblick: Virtuelle Kunstausstellung – Magnetic North
Am 29. April veranstaltete die DKG zusammen mit einem ihrer korporativen Mitglieder, der Anwaltskanzlei Arnecke Sibeth Dabelstein, und der Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt eine virtuelle Führung durch die Kunstausstellung Magnetic North mit Werken der berühmten Group of Seven.
Nach einem von der SCHIRN produzierten Einführungsvideo begrüßte unser Präsident Michael Siebold die Gäste. Im Anschluss hielt unser Präsidiumsmitglied Wolfgang Klooß einen sehr einsichtsreichen Kurzvortrag über die gesellschaftspolitischen und kulturhistorischen Hintergründe der Group of Seven. Den ungekürzten Vortrag von Wolfgang Klooß finden Sie hier.
Die renommierte Kunstvermittlerin Berby Krägefsky führte die Teilnehmerinnen danach anhand ausgewählter Exponate durch die Kunstausstellung. Sie machte sich die Möglichkeiten des virtuellen Formats geschickt zunutze, indem sie beispielsweise während ihrer Führung Videos („Mobilize“ von Caroline Monnet / „Big Timber“) und Materialien von Google Earth einspielte, um zum Beispiel darzulegen, wie sich die Künstler fortbewegten und wo in Kanada sie ihre Werke schufen. Die von den Teilnehmerinnen gestellten Fragen ließ sie elegant in ihre Ausführungen mit einfließen.
Unser Mitglied Helga Busch wurde zudem ausgelost und wird zeitnah einen Kalender mit Werken von Tom Thomson erhalten, den unser Regionalleiter Rhein-Ruhr, Hans Harald Grimm, von seinem letzten Besuch in Toronto mitgebracht hat. In Kleinburg besuchte er die McMichael Collection und erwarb den Kalender im Museumsshop. Thomson war zwar kein offizielles Mitglied der Group of Seven, wird aber wegen seiner engen Kontakte zu den Künstlern der Gruppe oft berücksichtigt, wenn es um ihre Werke geht, und gilt als ihr „spiritus rector“ und Wegbereiter. Vor dem Museum wurde die Hütte aufgebaut, in der Tom Thomson während seiner Malaufenthalte im Algonquin Park lebte. Auch steht dort eine Staffelei mit Klappstuhl, die seiner dortigen nachempfunden wurde, wie Hans Harald Grimms Fotos zeigen. Wegen seiner engen Verbindung zur Group of Seven sind seine Skizzen und Bilder auch in der Ausstellung der SCHIRN zu finden, die hoffentlich bald wieder ihre Pforten für den normalen Publikumsverkehr öffnen kann und dann voraussichtlich bis September gezeigt wird.
Bis dahin können sich alle Interessenten weitere virtuelle Einblicke in die Arbeit der Kunsthalle verschaffen. Das DIGITORIAL®, die digitale Version des Begleitheftes zur Ausstellung, ist online zu finden: https://www.schirn.de/digital/angebote/digitorial/. Weitere Informationen gibt es auch auf der Website der SCHIRN in Form von Podcasts und Interviews oder im SCHIRN MAG (https://www.schirn.de/magazin/).
From Iran to Germany – and to California via Canada – A Canadian artist’s story
“A picture is a poem without words” – Horace
Art cannot be explained. It is something that you feel. And when I first saw Aryan Ahangarani’s paintings, I felt all kinds of beautiful feelings. Her art moved me. And so I am very happy to be able to tell you a little bit more about a wonderful Canadian artist from Iran, who has lived in Germany and Canada. Aryan graciously accepted to tell me more about her life’s path and her experience of both Germany and Canada. Usually in our interviews, we present you a Canadian in Germany or a German in Canada. This time we have someone originally coming from neither country, but who experienced them both. A new angle for us all to contemplate.
A couple of weeks ago I joined a group of „Canadians in Germany“ on Facebook. I asked around if there was any artists interested of giving an interview to the DKG. Aryan Ahangarani was one of the first to reach out to me. When I visited her website, I knew I had to discover more about the person behind those beautiful paintings. So here is (some) of Aryan’s story, a summary of our zoom conversation of April 14th, 2021.
Art cannot be explained. It is something that you feel. And when I first saw Aryan Ahangarani’s paintings, I felt all kinds of beautiful feelings. Her art moved me. And so I am very happy to be able to tell you a little bit more about a wonderful Canadian artist from Iran, who has lived in Germany and Canada. Aryan graciously accepted to tell me more about her life’s path and her experience of both Germany and Canada. Usually in our interviews, we present you a Canadian in Germany or a German in Canada. This time we have someone originally coming from neither country, but who experienced them both. A new angle for us all to contemplate.
A couple of weeks ago I joined a group of „Canadians in Germany“ on Facebook. I asked around if there was any artists interested of giving an interview to the DKG. Aryan Ahangarani was one of the first to reach out to me. When I visited her website, I knew I had to discover more about the person behind those beautiful paintings. So here is (some) of Aryan’s story, a summary of our zoom conversation of April 14th, 2021.
Aryan’s passion for painting started very early in her childhood. Already at a very young age she could picture her surroundings in her head in great detail. And when asked at school at the age of six to draw her house, it came to her naturally to draw the whole floor plan and show everything in detail. Her teacher was astonished as it is very rare for such a young child to draw not only the house but the inside and with such precision. He immediately told Aryan’s mom to keep an eye on her and try to encourage her to continue drawing as he saw all the potential there was.
Unfortunately, after that came the revolution in Iran and art became a taboo. So Aryan continued by herself, practicing with books to try and quench her thirst for drawing.
Needing to express herself and her feelings, she later discovered writing and started creating funny stories about every-day-life for her friends and school; and those became very popular both with the pupils and her teachers.
As she started university in Economics, Aryan began fashion design and took art classes. That is where she discovered water colours. Later on she started working as an Economist for a consulting company, still doing fashion design on the side. She had several customers and various sold out fashion shows.
Then Aryan became a mom and had less time for her fashion. Sadly she did not have enough support, hence fashion-design, creation and sewing had to go on halt. But her urgent need to create and express herself could not be contained and she tried to find another way. That is when she saw a beautiful painting in a frame shop. The painting, created by the art teacher Jamal Khoraminejad, reflected exactly the way Aryan wanted to paint. She knew she had to get in his class. So although Mr Khoraminejad’s classes were booked up months in advance, Aryan was able to convince the organizers to take her in. Her love of painting was huge and she really wished to be properly taught. This teacher was a revelation to her as he opened a whole new window and Aryan discovered a whole new way to satiate her craving for drawing, painting and expressing herself. She finally thrived and a year later had her first (sold out) show in one of the best galleries in Tehran. A week later she was giving an interview on TV talking about her art and the way she feels when painting. That led to another TV show, this time a live airing, explaining how painting made her feel and what it meant to her, all while being careful of the way she was saying it as there were many restrictions; women not being allowed to speak too freely. It is at around this time that Aryan finally received her visa to study in Germany which was no easy task at all, she had to fight her way through. As she was recently divorced with a child, which in itself was very difficult being in Iran, the authorities did not want to grant her the visa. Only with a lot of determination and resilience in overcoming the many obstacles was she able to follow her path to become the artist and the person she longed to be.
After much patience and courage, Aryan finally arrived in Germany with her four year old daughter. At the Kassel University she received her Master in Global Political Economy. True to her passion, she pursued her art at the university. All in all she had 4 art shows while in Germany. Her German experience was fantastic. It was, as she stated, the best time of her life. Aryan said that it is difficult to get to know people at first as Germans are more reserved. But once you earn their trust and they open up, they are the most welcoming people. Aryan has countless stories where she was helped and encouraged by caring, lovely people. Like when she could not find a kindergarten place for her child but was allowed to take her to her masters class for several months in a row so she could still go on with her studies. Coming from a very old country she appreciated the history and culture in Germany; the buzzing cities with so many activities. She was always amazed at how much Germans would know about history and politics in her home country.
But one day she decided to leave the country and that is when Aryan applied for immigration to Canada. As she already had a brother there, it made sense for Canada to be her next destination. With no-one to stop or hinder her anymore, she wanted to experience her freedom and see more of the world. This time, with her diplomas and life experience, the transition was easier. But coming to Canada was a total shock. They arrived at Calgary and after living in lively Europe with so much history, coming to this very quiet place was a big change. Also, people were very friendly but it was much harder to make friends; to be admitted into their intimate circle. Also Aryan had the feeling that Canadians were less informed about what is going on in other countries. But once again, art came in handy. The mountains and the beautiful skies became her inspiration. By painting the beautiful landscapes of Calgary, Aryan made contacts in the art scene, showing her work, connecting and networking. Even becoming an art teacher herself and sharing her knowledge, wisdom and passion. And so she made many helpful friends through her art over the years.
In 2019 her career as an Economist brought her to California. Her daughter, now 23, is studying European-Union Studies and Russian Affairs in Toronto. Aryan is a citizen of the world. A strong woman and role model who made it possible for herself and her daughter to thrive. An artist who shows her love for life through her paintings. Despite growing up and evolving in difficult situations, she always stayed focussed, going her way, believing in herself and that there was a place for her and her art. A very inspiring and beautiful story, full of hope and love, which we can all use anytime but especially nowadays….
Last Friday Canadian Expats and Canadians at heart met yet again for another „Virtual Canadian Pub Night“. This time the focus was on Alberta. Every month the Pub Night Team uses its network to connect Canadians and Canada Fans alike. This time we had the chance of hearing the wonderfully talented Calgary Singer/Songwriter Justine Vandergrift performing two beautiful new songs live. This magic moment was followed by a short interview with Justine whom we learned was nominated for two YYC Music Awards in 2020. After that we turned to literature with the German Author Natascha Birovljev who lives in Alberta. Natascha presented us her book series „Willow Ranch“ of which a 4th book is coming out this Spring. The first of the series „Schattenpferde der Rocky Mountains“ will be published in English at the end of this year. The presentation was also followed by a short interview that gave us the opportunity to get to know the very talented and sympathetic Writer. A Pub Night would not be one without a quiz. Prepared by a young German couple who now live in Calgary and who were participants of the DKG’s Work and Travel Program, the tricky questions kept everyone entertained and left with new knowledge of the western Province. To end the evening, we had a very informative and interesting presentation of „The Bison Guys“, a team from Germany, importing Bison meat from Alberta. Once again, a very successful and pleasant evening! Thank you so much to our great guests!
Don’t miss the next Pub Night which will be on April 23rd at 19:30. This time with a Nova Scotia Special!
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