Postby Cavesa » Sun Jan 08, 2017 6:26 pm
Thanks! I'll download it. I got winamp for music, but VLC should be for movies, perhaps for music too. My homework, when it comes to the "learn to use your Macbook" challenge, are the keyboard shortcuts. Some are pretty intuitive, others will take a moment to get used to. One thing I love about my Macbook: the keyboard. Sure, I need a specific French one (and yay! The Spanish one is organized ore or less like the French one, less stuff to relearn), but I can write German with my Czech keyboard, and I am finally learning to use the alt key well to use some special symbols, instead of the longer way. And I love the light under the keyboard, which I can make brighter or dimmer. It's very practical.
I've just spent an hour with my little sister and her English. It's a disaster. She is not improving, quite the opposite, her teacher is a trolloc. You know, I've always been fan of the idea of combining the strengths of the traditional and the modern classroom teaching method, therefore having plenty of conversation practice AND clear and systematic grammar explanations and vocab acquisition. Nope, this lady and many other teachers have chosen to combine the inconveniences of both approaches. Grammar chaos, almost no speaking in class, badly organized vocab learning. They are using a very crappy coursebook, The English File. As my sister said: "If we were learning vocabulary just from the coursebook, we wouldn't know anything!". True. So, the teacher teaches other vocabulary as well, which would be great, but the kids don't have any lists, or overviews, or example lists, to review from. I have absolutely no clue what vocabulary to use with my sister, to prepare her for her tests.
Fortunately, she is a clever girl and responds well to explanation of the grammar. She does think logically, at least when she forgets to remind herself it is "impossible". I have no choice but to explain grammar mostly in Czech, as that is what her teacher tests. She can use some stuff from the years of "immersion classes" (which were horrible, but at least she was listening to natives quite a lot), she can understand quite a lot, she reads in English. But she is losing those skills, she is forgetting all that because of an old bat at school. They have conversation classes too. That sounds great, doesn't it? If only the "teacher" wasn't a Croatian Erasmus with bad pronunciation, comprehension, and behaviour towards the students (such as shouting at a student for her own mistakes). I can spend time with her, but it is a bit complicated given my own workload. But still possible and quite fun. And she trully makes progress under my guidance, that is encouraging for both of us. Now I just need to remind our overworked father to finally buy her the grammar and vocab books I chose for her months ago.
Given all this, I am worried that she's starting a second foreign language in September. German, French, Spanish, and Russian are being offered. Of course Russian was not even considered, learning it is still a bit of a political issue (and these days perhaps more than a few years ago). German teachers tend to be the best language teachers in czech schools, but most kids are going for German, the groups may be a bit bigger, and my sister is not interested in the language (I may have accidentally been a bad influence here). So, it is either French or Spanish. Unfortunately, the French teachers tend to be the worst of the language teachers in czech schools. Either I'll have an opportunity to have a closer look at the teachers (check whether they have passable pronunciation, find out which coursebooks they want to use, whether they appear at least intelligent and not assholes), or I'll recommend her Spanish as the least risky option.
End of rant. Back to German. I had been continuing my adventurous journey through Lektion 9, when she called.
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