'Underneath'
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, nail polish, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
I am substituting an ESL class today. I speak four languages to varying degrees of proficiency, and of course the only one that would help me is the one that, technically, I read very well but can't quite speak or understand.
I need to learn Vietnamese and Haitian Creole right now, basically. Who would think that speaking almost fluent Spanish and Mandarin would be of absolutely no help in an ESL classroom?
You can always try mime, right? Or maybe make them see how high they can count in English?
2 laptops and 3 cats= not enough real estate for this.
Mime could be fun. Most of them seem to speak English at at least a basic level, but it's no fun for me to be sitting in front of an entire room of kids who are talking and not have a clue what they are saying! I want to eavesdrop, basically.
I'm pretty sure that the ESL teacher at my elementary school didn't speak Japanese, which was the language most of her students spoke.
Oh ow ow ow ow ow. I.... for lack of a proper explanation, there is something wrong with my ears. Very, very wrong. Sounds that really shouldn't be bothersome in any way cause physical pain and a lot of mental anguish... so I'm probably crazy or something, but there's that.
And someone just gave lollipops to the entire class and the sucking noises make me want to die. I just told them all no food in class but they've chosen this moment, apparently, to all forget how to speak English. And the Haitian kids are calling me crazy. I understand enough French to know that much.
Sorry for the whining!
Where was elementary school for you, Hil? Okinawa, Hawaii, Manzanar?
Where was elementary school for you, Hil? Okinawa, Hawaii, Manzanar?
New Jersey. NYC suburbs. Some agency in Japan published a list of towns with good school systems, and our town was on the list, so a lot of Japanese businessmen who relocated to NY with their families for a few years lived in our town.
Neat! It's cool how little ethnic enclaves develop -- years ago a friend of mine with an obscure Czech last name was driving through Texas and accidentally stopped in a town where it turned out that her name was shared by a significant percentage of the residents.
I realize I'm being talky meat this morning, but there's nothing like having four guys doing major work in the basement to keep you slightly manic.
Going back to an earlier conversation, put me in the anti-time change group. I'm awake, and it's dark out. In 12 hours, I'll be heading home from work, and it will be dark out, or getting that way.
What's the upside there?