Teacher assessed qualifications

[servodude]

Knowledge of classics can be handy in trying to follow the pronouncements from Boris.

Yes indeed but that doesn't mean we don't query him when he puts Reepicheep in charge of test and trace?

-sd

[UncleEbenezer]

Knowledge of classics can be handy in trying to follow the pronouncements from Boris. I spent last week explaining Scilla and Charybdis to my family.
John

Hehe. Haven't they ever read Homer?

When you actually see Scylla and Charybdis, they lose all the awe and mystery. It's scenic, yes, but just a short and very ordinary ferry crossing.

[bungeejumper]

Hehe. Haven't they ever read Homer?

Ah yes, Homer. The wisdom of the ancients.

Every time I learn something new, it pushes out something old. Remember that time I took that wine making course and forgot how to drive?

BJ

[stevensfo]

I have a vague recollection from my 1960s schooldays that you needed at least an O Level in Latin to be allowed to study medicine. I've heard that it's still considered a career positive for would-be medics in the US. Well, not the O level, obviously.

BJ

I thought the qualification for being a doctor was illegible handwriting, not incomprehensible language!

My teenage self would've hated wasting time on a dead language. Nowadays I wish I had learned it. Indeed, a few years back I trawled extensively through adult education resources, evening classes and the like in search of it, but found nothing.

The problem with Latin was the grammar and endless declensions to learn, something that seemed a lot easier as a teenager. Also the fact that the English language itself makes an appreciation of strict grammar rules very difficult.

But a search for learn Latin online seems to bring up quite a lot, as well as the Open university.

Then there's https://www.duolingo.com

Or just do what we used to do and latinise your sentences. Cos real Latin is a veritas painus in bumum!

Steve

PS Actually I think that should be Painus in bume.

[Watis]

I have a vague recollection from my 1960s schooldays that you needed at least an O Level in Latin to be allowed to study medicine. I've heard that it's still considered a career positive for would-be medics in the US. Well, not the O level, obviously.

BJ

I thought the qualification for being a doctor was illegible handwriting, not incomprehensible language!

My teenage self would've hated wasting time on a dead language. Nowadays I wish I had learned it. Indeed, a few years back I trawled extensively through adult education resources, evening classes and the like in search of it, but found nothing.

The problem with Latin was the grammar and endless declensions to learn, something that seemed a lot easier as a teenager. Also the fact that the English language itself makes an appreciation of strict grammar rules very difficult.

But a search for learn Latin online seems to bring up quite a lot, as well as the Open university.

Then there's https://www.duolingo.com

Or just do what we used to do and latinise your sentences. Cos real Latin is a veritas painus in bumum!

Steve

PS Actually I think that should be Painus in bume.

There's a brief introduction to Latin grammar in the film 'Life of Brian'.

Watis

[stevensfo]

There's a brief introduction to Latin grammar in the film 'Life of Brian'.

Watis

I must remember to tell my friend, Biggus, when he gets back from Rome.

Steve

[UncleEbenezer]

I must remember to tell my friend, Biggus, when he gets back from Rome.

Steve

You don't want him travelling in a time of covid. Romanes eunt domus!

[scotia]

I well remember my Latin teacher - she was a wise old (at least to young eyes) bird. I learnt much more about the structure of languages from her tuition than I ever did with an English teacher. In my days we sat our Highers in 5th year, well before Easter, and since I was not continuing with classics, in the post-Easter term she introduced me to C.P. Snow and the two cultures - knowing that I was going on to study science at University..
By the time my children attended school (in Scotland) Latin had been dropped as a core subject - and, on balance, I think that was probably a correct decision.
In more modern times, I'm sure my Latin teacher would have made an excellent teacher of computer languages, and could probably have offered a lucid explanation as to when you should use an ampersand or an asterisk in C .

[redsturgeon]

Some years after the event my latin teacher confused me by having the almost identical biography to Colin Dexter of "Inspector Morse fame. I discovered he was his brother.

John

[UncleEbenezer]

I well remember my Latin teacher - she was a wise old (at least to young eyes) bird. I learnt much more about the structure of languages from her tuition than I ever did with an English teacher.

Not having done Latin, I did experience something like that with German at school. Indeed, it was the first time I heard any of the language of grammar, even down to what is a verb, noun, adjective or preposition I should not end a sentence with.

In more modern times, I'm sure my Latin teacher would have made an excellent teacher of computer languages, and could probably have offered a lucid explanation as to when you should use an ampersand or an asterisk in C .

[didds]

Not having done Latin, I did experience something like that with German at school.

when i lived and worked in germany in the late 80s and early 90s, my German teacher often said teaching German to Brits was the most difficult of all nationalities, because we hadn't been taught these grammatical constructs. I had got a little in O-Level French but by the time a decade had passed since then the context and meaning of stuff like "past historic" and "pluperfect" had long since gone and all I was left with was words. As for datative, genetive or whatever it all was ... no idea before, never got it then, wouldn't have a clue now - except its "words".

So I used playing Rugby with Germans as my finishing school... which didn't have any grammatical terms involved but i learned to swear proficiently in German!

[UncleEbenezer]

Not having done Latin, I did experience something like that with German at school.

when i lived and worked in germany in the late 80s and early 90s, my German teacher often said teaching German to Brits was the most difficult of all nationalities, because we hadn't been taught these grammatical constructs. I had got a little in O-Level French but by the time a decade had passed since then the context and meaning of stuff like "past historic" and "pluperfect" had long since gone and all I was left with was words. As for datative, genetive or whatever it all was ... no idea before, never got it then, wouldn't have a clue now - except its "words".

So I used playing Rugby with Germans as my finishing school... which didn't have any grammatical terms involved but i learned to swear proficiently in German!

Heh! My time in Germany was the only time I've had a TV: I rented a furnished flat, which included one. I watched it when at home, to help with learning the language. Don't remember much, but there was a soap opera Schwarzwaldklinik notable mostly for the stunning scenery of its setting.

Now that you mention French, our french teacher never turned up for lessons, and we weren't motivated to study it without him. We spent French lessons playing bridge. Also played in a few tournaments: never won a tournament, but would always make it to the later rounds.

[bungeejumper]

when i lived and worked in germany in the late 80s and early 90s, my German teacher often said teaching German to Brits was the most difficult of all nationalities, because we hadn't been taught these grammatical constructs.

That's partly because English is a lot less picky about these things than most other languages, so there's relatively little need. We don't assign genders to nouns; we don't usually have different forms for different cases (apart from I/me, to "to whom" etc), and our pronunciation rules are more vague, though also fiendishly difficult.

We also have some tricky sequences of tenses, "I've been to the shops this morning" if it's before midday, but "I went to the shops" in the afternoon. This sort of thing does confuse the continentals somewhat. That said, English is a breeze once you've cracked the pronunciation.

So I used playing Rugby with Germans as my finishing school... which didn't have any grammatical terms involved but i learned to swear proficiently in German!

LOL, my finishing school was my time in "robust" 1970s Berlin, where they don't (or didn't) mess about with social niceties like talking politely. Once you'd learned the art of swearing (in dialect) and being "assertive", and once you'd learned how to take the relentless insults that passed for normal conversation among friends, you were more or less equipped for survival. When I returned to the UK, it took me several months to unlearn my Berliner habits. And a year or two to lose my Berlin accent, which could strip the paint off the walls, in rather the same way that strong scouse strikes a delicate southern English ear.

Happy days.

[Educational edit: Presenting a seminar paper in German to a roomful of super-critical thirty-something Berlin students was an experience you didn't forget. If you escaped with your life, you had reason to be grateful. And then they'd take you out for a beer. Priorities, priorities.]

BJ

[UncleEbenezer]

when i lived and worked in germany in the late 80s and early 90s, my German teacher often said teaching German to Brits was the most difficult of all nationalities, because we hadn't been taught these grammatical constructs.

That's partly because English is a lot less picky about these things than most other languages, so there's relatively little need. We don't assign genders to nouns; we don't usually have different forms for different cases (apart from I/me, to "to whom" etc), and our pronunciation rules are more vague, though also fiendishly difficult.

Up to a point, Lord Copper.

We do have remnants of gender, such as calling a ship "she". We just never learn about it unless in the context of a foreign language. And of course the word "gender" has now been misappropriated by political forces, first as a smut-free synonym for sex and then to yet another meaning where it refers to a bunch of stereotypes.

We also have some tricky sequences of tenses, "I've been to the shops this morning" if it's before midday, but "I went to the shops" in the afternoon.

That smells contrived to me: "I went" would surely be the more natural form in both cases. The ability to use alternative tenses to express something is not unique to English.

LOL, my finishing school was my time in "robust" 1970s Berlin, where they don't (or didn't) mess about with social niceties like talking politely. Once you'd learned the art of swearing (in dialect) and being "assertive", and once you'd learned how to take the relentless insults that passed for normal conversation among friends, you were more or less equipped for survival.
BJ

Talking politely is for strangers. The constant insults are a sign you're among friends (just beware of taking a feminist for a friend, lest you be forever labelled misogynist for it). And the real heavy-duty insults come within the family.

Besides, being there (anywhere) as a non-native speaker is a fantastic licence to play with linguistic nuances that might ordinarily get you into trouble!

[stevensfo]

Besides, being there (anywhere) as a non-native speaker is a fantastic licence to play with linguistic nuances that might ordinarily get you into trouble!

When I worked in France I once chatted to a nice lady in our lab about how the French use '-ette- to mean little or feminine. e.f. Camion= truck. Camionette = van, Claude...Claudette etc.

It was the skiing season and I remarked that I had to get some new salopettes (ski suit) to go. Feeling witty, I added that, in that case, I'd be looking for some 'Petites salopes' (little whores).

Her look spoke volumes. For the next minute I felt like a ten year old letting rip with the loudest fart in history just as the Headmistress brings her visitors in.

Never has an attempt at wit fallen so flat.

Steve

PS She did forgive me though.

[AleisterCrowley]

Which is probably why my home county ended up as Shropshire again, after a brief spell as Salop.. We are still proud Salopians though

[UncleEbenezer]

a ten year old letting rip with the loudest fart in history just as the Headmistress brings her visitors in.

PS She did forgive me though.

You're our present Prime Minister thinking back to a moment with his predecessor AICMFP.

[vrdiver]

Whilst working in Sweden, I used to play squash with a Dutch colleague who was staying at the same hotel. As we were checking in, he suddenly swore, before exclaiming he'd forgotten to bring his racquet with him. The receptionist remarked that, in that case, I would just have to "go play with myself".

About a second later, she put her hand over her mouth and started to apologise profusely whilst the two of us tried not to laugh too much.

She did join us for a drink later...

VRD

[servodude]

Whilst working in Sweden, I used to play squash with a Dutch colleague who was staying at the same hotel. As we were checking in, he suddenly swore, before exclaiming he'd forgotten to bring his racquet with him. The receptionist remarked that, in that case, I would just have to "go play with myself".

About a second later, she put her hand over her mouth and started to apologise profusely whilst the two of us tried not to laugh too much.

She did join us for a drink later...

VRD

Isn't that how the "plot" starts in "Svensk Receptionist 4: Spel Idag" ?

[vrdiver]

Whilst working in Sweden, I used to play squash with a Dutch colleague who was staying at the same hotel. As we were checking in, he suddenly swore, before exclaiming he'd forgotten to bring his racquet with him. The receptionist remarked that, in that case, I would just have to "go play with myself".

About a second later, she put her hand over her mouth and started to apologise profusely whilst the two of us tried not to laugh too much.

She did join us for a drink later...

VRD

Isn't that how the "plot" starts in "Svensk Receptionist 4: Spel Idag" ?

No idea! Sadly never learnt more than a few words of Swedish. But maybe, if the timing was right, she may have used a line that she understood perfectly