h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

[Amy P]

One summer I tried to learn some Spanish. I made some headway with vocabulary, but no real progress on grammar. Later I went to Italy, and found that what little Spanish I had interfered with my learning any Italian.

I love the birthday card, , it's a classic. What a delightful happening to light up your birthday.

Deb

Day 6

I have a nasty suspicion that I have become that teacher the students know they can distract from the point of the lesson by a well-timed question. In fact, I have a feeling they are having a competition to see a) who can ask the most random, completely unconnected to the point of what we are doing and b) who can derail the lesson with such a question for the longest amount of time.

Today we spent far too long arguing - arguing for crikey's sake - about the pronunciation of can vs can't. But I think the prize goes to the student who, apropos of nothing at all I found out after talking to him for a good five minutes, while we were supposed to be discussing a poster advertising a ghost tour (as a prelude to a ghost tour guide talking about her job), asked if 'marrionet' means the same in English as French.

They won!

As for the pronunciation argument, I sympathise. A lot of Spaniards learn pronunciation from American tv. So 'can't' comes out as


ki-yahnt

I give them a hard stare, and try to make them talk proper.

You remind my of a day in maths class, back when I was in tech school. (I'll let you guess how long ago) The sun was shining, birds singing and I was not in a mood to crunch number on the slide-rule or calculator (I forget which, we changed in mid term).

The written question was how long it would take a particle of light to reach your desk top from the overhead tube. I raised may hand and told him I accepted the wave theory, so such a thing could not happen. For the next hour we discussed wave vs particle light theories rather than crunching numbers.
I am not sure if I am proud or ashamed about diverting the entire class - but it was fun

F S

Oh dear, my students do this too! We spent quite some time this week putting the names of the 7 dwarfs in alphabetical order before starting a lesson. But the best way to derail my lesson is for one of them to ask some geographical question because they know it's my weak spot.

Some I can't answer due to my general geographical ignorance and others I suspect they just throw in for amusement, eg todays gem "What's the nearest football ground to the Globe Theatre?" claiming it would help them with their English to know this. I told them I thought it was Millwall, and then of course we had to check.

Another easily-sidetracked instructor here

Deb

It's really up to the teacher to police the 'no English spoken here' rule. Teachers often fail to do so because they so easily fall into using English themselves in class. It is a good rule to obey religiously.

But no, it's not always the woman. We are learning Spanish, and I have abandoned live classes because I find I am getting plenty from Duolingo. I am two levels ahead of my wife and loving it.

Alas, they have not got a Russian course going yet ...

http://www.duolingo.com/

But they are hatching one http://www.duolingo.com/course/ru/en/Learn-Russian-Online

That seems a great little site Recumbentman. I had a quick play. Thanks

IT is amazingly good and entertaining, not to say addictive. And it has won awards.

"Duolingo launched for the general public on 19 June 2012 and as of January 2014 has 25 million users, out of which about 12.5 million are active. In 2013, Apple chose Duolingo as its iPhone App of the Year, the first time this honor was awarded to an educational application. Duolingo has won Best Education Startup at the 2014 Crunchies." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duolingo

My Duolingo German's coming along nicely.

It's interesting when I get the listening-comprehension questions. A woman's voice sounds in my ear and I have to translate.

But I was somewhat startled to have her speak these three phrases to me in quick succession recently:

Ich trage keine Kleidung
Ich trage nichts
Sie mögen Leder

Well, B's English is much better than my Russian, so no, it isn't always the woman.

The thing about the classes, is that actually,if a non-Russian speaker doesn't turn up, no English is spoken, except by some of the kids. And that's the problem. It's so difficult to get kids to speak in their less well used language. And the benefit of these classes is not just the hour's worth of input in the lesson, it's the community. The fact that kids meet and hang out with other people who speak this weird language Mama insists on using (even though they know she knows English) and so on. Blasting your way in and upsetting that balance just because you can't just nod and smile for one hour a week is irritating.

Nobody realised I was British for about six months because I didn't speak English at these things. I didn't speak much therefore. No, they didn't think I was a native speaker, they thought I was, I dunno, from Estonia or something. But there.

Self rightous mother of actually balanced bilingual children (unlike, man who can't shut up, yours, who clearly don't really understand let alone produce the language).

Sorry. This REALLY bothers me.

Day 7

It is amazing how much mileage you can get out of a visit to Pets at Home.

They have lots of fish. Small mouse type things. Rabbits. Guinea pigs. Lizards. Live insects (to feed the lizards). Snakes. And people come in with their dogs a lot too.

Of course, you also get families buying pets. I really feel like the meanest Mama in the world, given JUST HOW MUCH my son would like a pet a bit more exciting than a fish when I see some woman just come in and get the first hamster she sees for her daughter and pick up all the trappings for it right there and then. Quite casually. As though it wasn't such a big deal.

The truth is, I don't want a pet. I have two children. At least they eventually will learn how to poo on their own without me having to continually clean it up.

I could, therefore, live with a cat. A mostly outdoor cat.

But my son wants a dog.

Kill me now.

But ooooh! Duolingo. WHY!!! Is it not in Russian? Dammit. You have inspired me to look for some kind of language learning app though. I need to boost my vocabulary out of childcare related chatting.

And (sorry for multiple posts, but hey, my journal, my rules), coelacanth, the nearest football ground to the Globe for an Englisg essay? That's genius. I complement your students.

And Florida Sailor, shame on you.

I thought Michel Thomas was all the rage when it comes to learning languages. I keep meaning to have a look at it myself, so I don't know exactly how it works.