DEBZ!!!! MISS YOU HUNNY!!!!!

Know what it is like with the wedding thing (wedding planners are AWESOME!!) and know that you can't get online much til you get the net sorted at your place

I know what you mean with the time thing too - when I was in the US in Feb it felt like I could have been there forever I guess that is one way of settling in

*HUGE HUGS*

Can't wait to see you back here properly

Yeah Changed it in our timeline already

Ok - official then - on the spreadsheet we'll use the notice date as on the hard copy

cool, sounds like the systems are very similar except for the actual percentages...sounds like you BA may or may not have been a little more intense than mine lol but i will pay my dues when im writing all those words for my masters and phd

i love learning, but i find that i always appreciate it more when im not doing it (ie: where i am currently working monotonous, brainless tasks all day long)...absence really does make the heart grow fonder...

just like i said to julez, i absolutely cannot afford to study, but i got a wonderful break working as a teaching/research assistant, so my tuition is waived and i get paid a stipend by the school!! woot woot

That is really cool

I think my degree was pretty intense because you have your specialist subject but you also have to learn how to teach all subjects - a lot of people think that that is easy when it is elementary but it so isn't!!!

that's because a lot of people STILL think 'knowledge of a subject' is the same as 'ability to teach that subject'

makes me SO annoyed

Yeah there are lots of different types of teachers...some of them are like genius and know everything possible about the stuff they are teaching but they don´t have the ability to explain it to the kids in a way that they get it. So it´s not easy at all

when I was teaching foreign languages it used to baffle me how often someone would be automatically considered the best candidate because they were a native speaker of that language... quite apart from the fact that specially if you're teaching beginners, being a native speaker can often be a bit of a drawback - you don't know the pitfalls, or where misunderstandings are going to arise, and you probably haven't applied system and method to your learning of that language so it will be harder to help your students do that - it just seems a nonsensical assumption; we don't apply this to our own language; you don't just go and get some random English-speaker off the street and expect them to be better at teaching English than someone who has TRAINED to learn, and to teach

Haha - I know plenty of native English speakers who would be terrible - I'm not perfect (although I do try ) but the grammar you hear sometimes...

true that...i think learning a second language also makes it much easier to teach english, because you can better understand the students' train of thought...a monolingual, native english speaker with no training would most likely be a terrible ESL teacher....at least in the beginning because people always tend to oversimplify their native language

My Russian tutor is a native Russian speaker and holds degrees in both Russian and is in the middle of her English degree. She's a really good teacher, but I know what you're saying about the drawbacks of being a native speaker. Sometimes she'll make certain assumptions that I have no clue about, and we kind of have to stop, back up, and work through the misunderstanding. She's good enough that it doesn't happen often enough, but it does happen.

On the other hand, the fact that she's a native speaker gives me great insight into how the language is actually spoken. We'll be going through some materials, reading a sentence or something, and she'll tell me that a certain sentence or word is grammatically correct, but here's how real Russians say it these days. (and I'm not talking about slang here, but more about how language just naturally morphs.)

That sounds really cool - I am so jealous!! I want to learn a language too!!! I'd love to learn Japanese but I'm not sure where I would start!

You could start for free by downloading podcasts. I don't have time in my schedule right now to go to a class or have a tutor so I have been trying to learn Portuguese by listening to a few different podcasts. It's really not the best method at all (I used to have a private tutor and that was great), but it's definitely a starting point.
And I agree with what you all have said about how some people can know their stuff but that doesn't necessarily make them good teachers. I had so many bad teachers in my program in college! It was frustrating.

mox, she sounds great

but note that I said 'often' - the exceptions to what I said, above, are the sort of people you describe, both natural teachers AND highly versed in the subject at hand... in my experience they don't come along very often

A tutor or classroom instruction is of course the absolute best. The worst is going to Borders and picking up a phrase book for tourists. I've done both.

I used to recommend Rosetta Stone to those who can't (for whatever reason) do a class or tutor. I've done that as well too, but now that I've been working with a tutor, the shortcomings of Rosetta Stone are glaring. Rosetta's claim to fame is that they teach you like children learn the language. So they give you a picture and then a word or phrase. No grammar, just the picture, phrase, and an audio clip of the word or phrase being said. You're supposed to contextually figure out what the word or phrase means. For learning some vocabulary, it's not bad. It's when you start getting into more complicated situations that can only really be explained through grammar that it self destructs. I hit a point where the way the words changed seemed completely arbitrary and incomprehensible. It forced me to memorize instead of understand. And since Russian depends on suffixes (and really complicated suffix rules) to build sentences, it just got to be too much. Maybe it works better with Latin-based languages, dunno, but I'd think Japanese on Rosetta Stone would be a disaster too.

Anyway, that's my language rant for the day.


I'm really lucky to have met up with her. I was initially going to go with another woman, but every time I tried to schedule something with her she would never return my call. This was a couple months ago, and yesterday I got a voicemail from her saying "hey sorry, I've been busy, do you want to schedule a lesson sometime?" lol.


Yep yep. Don't disagree with a thing you said. Was just using my own experience to demonstrate your point about the disadvantage of having a native speaker. My tutor has a better handle on English grammar than most native speakers, and we still occasionally run into the issues you mentioned.

I wouldn't have a clue how to start learning Japanese because they don't use a western alphabet - I am guessing it would be similar to learning Russian although at least Russian has discernible characters!!

I mentioned to Jeremy a while back that I wondered whether Japanese children had spelling tests and how did they do them!?

Well, it doesn't look easy, that's for sure.

The Russian (Cyrillic) alphabet is actually very easy to learn. I'm a slow learner and I had it down in under a week. Kanji looks like it could take much longer.


LOL!

You laugh but seriously - how else do Japanese children end a Friday afternoon!?!?

they make paper cranes

Awww... and if they are rubbish they have to repeat them all weekend then get re-tested on Monday!?

The good ones get sent into space.

http://money.excite.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt_top...ias/money/cm/nw

Japanese rocket scientists!?

Sure. Because, you know, they're good at math.

OK, so I need some help on the whole "movig to America" front. I feel like I am missing something! Everyone keeps asking if I have everything ready/ I must be so busy, but aside from soialising with people I wont see for a while, and throwing the few items I have left into a couple of suitcases, what do I have to do?

Most of my stuff is already in Baltimore, because I have taken whatever I could do without on every trip (and then brought it back again as the seasons changed and I still didn't have my visa ).

I have filled out the paperwork for my car (I wrote it off with three weeks to go. Oops, good job Marty bought me one over there before I told him!)

I have handed in my notice at my jobs, and had my hen party (very important, no?).

I've been living with my parents, so I'll just stop the standing order for rent, and I want to keep my bank accounts open, as I still have loans to pay off .

I have booked my flight, and got my visa FINALLY)

Umm, anything else? Is there anything I can do now, to make things easier/quicker once I get to Baltimore?

sounds like you've got most things covered

my biggest headache is shipping, because we've decided to bring a lot of my lovely furniture

otherwise I don't think there's a lot... cancel standing orders (including Oyster card auto top-up), cancel memberships (goodbye Tate and Royal Academy ), cancel mobile phone, get bank statements put online (don't want to close my accounts either ), do final tax return, that sort of stuff... nothing that takes all that much time

I'd say enjoy the time you have and don't stress

MOBILE PHONE!!!!!>...... Thanks.

I have just come in to say -

I bloody well HATE those meez things; they belong in the Special Hell

my apologies to anyone who likes them; you exercise your right to have a meez

but I'll exercise my right to throw virtual eggs at the screen every time I see one

I have a pay as you go so I will keep it as I can use it in the UK then

Sounds like you have it all covered - I feel like I have so much to do but then I think it is because I don't even have my visa yet or my interview or anything - I haven't packed anything, I need to sell bunches of stuff but am waiting for car boot sale season... I can't wait to have an empty room and packed cases!! Although I will prolly be a bit sad then too



Hahah I think they are kinda cute actually but if you create one you can actually get the bb code for the (much) smaller animated version which I swear would be much less imposing - having to scroll down for ten years because of a giant picture is kinda annoying but I am sure if they were swapped for the smaller versions then they would be fine

I hate those things too. The good news (for me) is that I haven't seen one in weeks. If you use Firefox, just right click on the image and select the option to block images from that website. You'll still see everyone else's signature but you won't see the Meez. You might have to do it on a couple different signatures as I think they use multiple servers. If you're using Safari I think it has the same option. If you're using IE...well...enjoy your Meez.

Firefox at home; IE at work

partial rescue

What did I miss? What's a meez?

It's those little animated people at the bottom of siggies - they really slow my puter down which sucks but I don't understand why people don't use the smaller versions!!

You can also turn signatures off completely by going into My Controls and then Board Settings. That disables everyone's signatures, so it's not a perfect solution either. Too bad you can't turn off signatures per-user.

I also loathe them! They are always engaged in such stupid motions. It bugs the heck out of me. They are creepy and unnatural.

Just MHO. I'm not asking anyone to stop using them, just adding to a vent that I think has validity!



That's a good idea moxie, cos generally speaking, I really like to see siggies. I find the ones with timeline info to be useful, as well as those who have cool/helpful links. I just hate meez and people who have oversized pics that force me to scroll from side to side.

I do agree on the oversized pics - I think the meez are cool but I must admit the large size is offputting. I do like the little tickers and I like the helpful links and timelines as well as the small-but-cute piccies... Maybe we could have an option to block siggies per user...

Ok - now who is going to suggest it in the suggestions forum?!

Totally agree on hating the oversized pics! Especially while I'm at work and trying to make it look like I'm working.

Oh...and timely discussion. I just had to block yet another one, and thought maybe the meez service had added another server. But no. For some inexplicable reason, the poster had uploaded their image to Photobucket. Which means I have to block Photobucket now. *sigh*

This, by the way, was one of the small ones you were talking about Aly. I agree that it's not as obnoxious, but it's still pretty annoying. The problem for me is the animation. It's a constant distraction. Unless the moving image *is* the object of my attention (such as if I'm watching YouTube), animated images are rude and distracting.

And another browser tip: If you press the ESC key in most browsers (haven't checked Opera), animated images on that page will stop their animations. This is temporary though. If you refresh the page or navigate to another page with animated images, they will animate. I don't know of a setting in any browser that lets you turn off animations persistently. Maybe there's a Firefox plugin.

*nominates mox*



word.

Dammit, I knew that was going to happen!

Okay, posted. Now fly my pretties and go "ME TOO!" it!

Already have posted my support mox!

Thanks for being such a team player!!

Thank you!! I'm going to try that at home.


Same here!

cool! I have a whinge, and mox does the dirty work

*big eyes*

thanks, moxy

*tips cowboy hat*

No need for thanks ma'am. It's what I do. It's...what I do.

*rides off into sunset*

On a completely unrelated note, I suddenly feel really hungry.

*hands Julez a twinkie*

*tips cowboy hat*

No need for thanks ma'am. It's what I do. It's...what I do.

*rides off into sunset*

you crack me up mox!

Me too.....



He is the nominated honourary July Filer jester

And StP - I am still loving Lovers Electric I know all the words to some songs now

oh, that's so GREAT! I really love them too... was playing the album yet again not half an hour ago

they're in Australia at the moment; got some free gigs lined up... I wish I could go


mox, you actually and literally made me laugh out loud

oh, and I just popped back with some more randomness - I like how at the top of every page recently, I've had 'Start a New Life in New Zealand' as the sponsored ads

I think something's broken somewhere, if they think they're going to get many takers on a board like this

Prolly something to do with... no it can't be your IP address cause you aren't in Oz!! Oh who knows... maybe they expect you to want to be closer to home?!?!