Teaching: the easy life

By Nury Vittachi

*

Recently, one of my many unemployed banker friends announced that he was thinking of retraining as a teacher.

                "It'll be a lot less stressful than working in a bank," he said.

                "AND he'll get to leave work at 3 pm instead of 3 am," his wife added.

                In fact, he revealed that several of his colleagues plan to abandon the nerve-jangling, dog-eat-dog world of finance and go into education: a slow, cushy occupation characterized by long, paid holidays.

*
What an excellent idea! However, it's vital that we give these smart people some understanding of what is required before they cough up the funds to retrain as teachers.

                The easiest way to do this en masse, I reckon, would be to organize a reality show like "Survivor", but with an education theme.
*
It would go like this. Twelve people from the business world would be air-dropped into a school for six weeks.

They will have no mobile phones, secretaries, Blackberrys or Starbucks.

                The will have an expired whiteboard marker, a register of names they cannot pronounce, and an 80 per cent pay cut.
*
Each will be locked in a room containing 40 students, of which five have hyperactivity disorders, four are learning-disabled, six speak no English, seven have severe behavioral problems and three are borderline insane.

                There will be one teaching assistant, who has locked herself in the sewing closet for her own safety.  
*
Task one: Get all the students all off the ceiling and into their chairs without touching them.

                Task two: Get them all to stop screaming without traumatizing them by raising your voice.

                Task three: Remove all guns, knives, transmitters and explosives from their persons without weapons of your own.
*
After they have mastered the above, contestants move onto the REAL challenges. Each contestant must get 40 children to learn all the material on the curriculum. To add realism, the curriculum will be entirely rewritten twice a week.

                In the middle of each day, there will be a one-hour lunch break, during which time contestants will not be able to eat anything, because they are double-booked, on playground duty and chess club supervision.
*
While teaching full-time, contestants will simultaneously be required to:

Attend three faculty meetings; take a course in teaching technology; have a 20-minute session with the parents of each child, during which they will be required to pretend they can differentiate one brat from 1,300 others; write six college application referral letters; organize one fund-raiser; fill in 17 forms; write a five-page report on each child, including nine they have never met; and do a Masters in Education.
*
Every night, they will take home 40 essays, most of which consist of random lists of miss-spelt nouns. Armed with a red pen and a splitting headache, they will decipher each of them and write out corrected versions.

Every weekend will be filled with extra-mural activities, which will consist of shivering in sports fields, while a thousand children sneeze viruses at them.
*
Contestants' only break will be a single bank holiday. However, since everyone connected with schools has the same day off, they will find that every possible relaxation activity is fully booked by the people they need to get away from.
*
Now, banker friends, when would you like the retraining to begin?

Oh, you want to think about it a bit more, do you?

Comments

[Nainil Shah]

Well, bankers are just not cut out for teaching, and frankly, that's sayign a lot as I'm posting this comment from school...

However, teachers ahve their favorites too...

Nury, you seem to be imagining a banker in a School for Psychos and Criminals...

However, GREAT article...

Children have started to act like men...Example-me! I drink the equivalent of three Alto Starbucks every week! (I'm addicted) That's probably why children would be over-enthusiastic.

[Dancer]

No, it doesn't sound like any school for psychos and criminals but it does sound like the students of many of our local Yijin programs and various local high schools. These are the real challenges. The bankers should really start with those.

I envy any teacher who can leave at the 'legendary' 3pm. Tell me the name of the school and I'll apply. So far, there is only one school that I have ever heard of that teachers can have this kind of hours and believe me, the bankers will not be qualified for this job.

[Rick]

Brilliant, a great article.

For someone who (I'm guessing?) isn't a teacher, you have managed to hit all the nails firmly on the head. Don't forget the other pains: camps, field-trips and performances.

[Deputy_dawg]

Clearly you used to work in a school. there is SO much insider information here. yes, i'd like to see more, and add in rick's suggestions too

[fardel]

Teaching requires commitment , devotion, patience and an endless love for others and children ;
Nobody could last in this job without those qualities;
The vacations are well deserved , and the pay is not high enough;
From the dawn of mankind, teachers have been the builders of civilizations, yet the salaries have always beeen among the lower for a job requiring high skills;
Definitely this is not a place for former bankers.
For you , bankers or financers who want to try, good luck to you!
If students do not tear you to pieces,we, the parents, will do it.

[Emmanuel Durand]

There's one more thing my wife (an English teacher in a local government school) has to face in addition to all the points you mentionned: the supposedly 2-month summer vacation reduced to a 2-week break (1-week + 1-week) because she has to "welcome" the new Form1 students (teach them extra lessons to get to the school's crappy level) and because of "English camps" for existing students (teach extra lessons to children of working parents who don't know what to do to occupy their lovely ones during such a long, useless break).
Thanks for bringing to light the hardship of being a teacher in a local school.

PS to Deputy_dawg: if you had followed Nury's daily columns (thanks to The Standard), you would know that his wife is a teacher ;o)

[Cookie]

You R-O-C-K,Nury!

[Leo]

My banker friend never told me that she's gonna be a teacher. Anyway, I bet my life that she won't even last for a day if she is air-dropped into that school.

In fact, the classroom is not really that bad anyway...well for most of the schools...it would be like out of the 40, you must get 1-3 hypers, 4-5 loners, 1-2 autistic, 2-3 with learning disorder, and the rest of them having different problems like intimate relationship, family problems, financial crisis, and so on.

But the point is that teachers don't just spend time on teaching, they have massive workloads like PR, counselling (could someone just hire another social worker?), displinary problems, processing documents, responsible for Speech Contest even if the students don't want to participate, inter-school competition or party, school anniversary performance...I actually saw one of the teachers dancing like Michael Jackson on stage...(he didn't mention the hours he spent on practicing with his students though), organizing field trip, welcoming unexpected guests, being scolded by completely insane andunreasonable parents who put all the blame on the teachers even their kids are wrong...have to work OT without getting paid for OT...multi-tasking while multi-tasking 5 tasks at one time...print out notices because it's the school policy (she did inform us already and the activity was not going to make us stay forever)...and many more...

And to top it all, suicide rate of teachers is quite high among all the occupations. How many teachers will have committed suicide before the government knows what exactly they should do to save them?

Salary does make them happy, but the pressure will never go away.

I actually did came up with a conspircy that the government is trying to force more to commit suicide in order to create more job vacancies...I hope this is not their ultimate goal...

[Adalina Lo]

This is a precious article and really a wonderful tribute to teachers.

If it weren't for the few good teachers/professors I've had, I would never have felt semi-human or believed that I had anything special to offer to society.

Quite a few of them deserve all their paid vacations. They are doing the "dirty work" many parents in the world neglect - raising their own children properly and to help them develop their respective potential.

[Mr Jam]

Wow, the many teachers I know will be thrilled at the show of support in the comments above. As for Dawg's question, my wife works in a school, and so do I in a sense. I lecture at a university. My job is a piece of cake compared to hers.

But most of the piece above was inspired by the school at which I studied when I was a kid. My parents sent me to the worst school in the universe. On the plus side, it was cheap, as in free. No one would pay for it. Most of the students would have paid everything they owned to not have to go.

[karuna]

seriously..
based on the students fees at the english medium schools in Hong Kong, it seems the local teachers must be paid very highly.
Is there any site to know the salary range for these teachers in Hong Kong ?

[karuna]

continue on my last posting....

why is that in Hong Kong we have this ridiculous concept of "native" english speaking teachers ?

Whose wisdom was it to make this decision that "native" english speaking teachers are better than "non-native" english teachers ?

Funny part.. Aussies are considered as "native" English speakers !!

There is HUGE number of teacher in most part of Asia have much better command on the english than many "native" English speakers.

And for sure, the local children would have much higher confidence in picking up English if taught by a local native English teacher.

[karuna]

continue on my last posting....

why is that in Hong Kong we have this ridiculous concept of "native" english speaking teachers ?

Whose wisdom was it to make this decision that "native" english speaking teachers are better than "non-native" english teachers ?

Funny part.. Aussies are considered as "native" English speakers !!

There is HUGE number of teacher in most part of Asia have much better command on the english than many "native" English speakers.

And for sure, the local children would have much higher confidence in picking up English if taught by a local native English teacher.

[Dancer]

The fees the students need to pay in EMI schools does not equate teachers' salary. It is the direct subsidised schools that may have a slightly different pay. They still follow the government pay scale, more or less.

'And for sure, the local children would have much higher confidence in picking up English if taught by a local native English teacher. '

Karuna, some teachers are struggling (myself included) to get local English teachers to use English to teach English, rather than using Chinese to teach English.

[Nury]

I know what you mean, Karuna. I am qualified to teach English at university level.
But because I was not born in the UK or US, I do not qualify for a job doing the same thing at the local kindergarten!

[fardel]

Is Hong Kong still a British colony, with this old- time rules?

[karuna]

Dancer:
About your comments on local english teachers....
How can they have any confidence, when the present system treats them inferior to "native English speakers" ?

The first step, would be to stop this ridiculous system to import "native english teachers". Then we will see for sure that our local teacher are able to handle the job better and with more confidence.

It is a fact that most of Asia, can speak excellent English and they are all taught by local Englosh teachers. Hong Kong teachers can also, if we stop treating ourselves as inferior.

It is time, Hong Kong education department dump this old useless English colonial system.

Let us allow Nury and other such excellent people, the opportunity to work as a teacher!

[karuna]

Fardel:
Saw your earlier positings where you mention
>> "salaries have always beeen among the lower for a job requiring high skills"

you will be surprised that teachers are one of the highly paid people in Hong Kong. The banker friend of Nury is making a good choice by considering the option
The salary guide for teachers:
http://classifiedpost.scmp.com/salaryindex/content-05-education.pdf

Salary range for an entry level primary teacher with ZERO experience is HK$19K ~ $31K (=US$2.4K ~ US$4K), which is way higher than other industry in HK.

[Nury]

Dear Karuna, thank you for all your very interesting posts.

I'm not sure if primary school teachers are paid "way higher than any other industry in HK". I know lots of teachers in Hong Kong. Most are women, and they generally earn about half what their husbands (the same age) earn in their office jobs. Maybe they start off high, but their pay doesn't go up much. My wife is a locally employed teacher and is definitely not rich.

Still, if the world changes to a point where teachers and nurses and social workers are highly paid and bankers are badly paid, this has got to be good news!

And as for the point about the "native english speakers", I think the same rules apply all over Asia.

The phrase just means "white person". So any Frenchman or Russian counts as "native English speaker" but a dark person born in London would not qualify!

Fardel would you qualify?

[Adalina Lo]

Interesting thought - if teachers were compensated as well as the leeches (I'm not naming anyone ;)), would the incentive of helping children develop intellectual and moral foundations be as strong?

In a way, teachers (not Hong Kong-styled university types) preclude a vow of poverty. At least, the types who shaped my life.

It is this vow of poverty and simplicity which makes quite a few of them (I said quite a few of them) to not be mercenaries.

There were quite a few professionals who could have excelled in the corporate world with huge earnings, but they chose to teach kids. I think these types are very important who serve as examples that there is dignity without economic incentive or to make big money.

[fardel]

Nury
On top of telling good stories,you have a talent to bring out a lot of positive feedback from your readers, this story being one of the best,
It is entertaining yet very instructive
You tell me if being caucasian, born in Africa, raised in Europe, influenced by 28 years in the Caribbean culture and speaking modified English qualify me for a teaching job in Hong Kong.
I would not think so.

Whatever is said, I maintain my comments that the teachers' salaries are generally low , worldwide.

If we could add pictures , to our comments , I would post a picture I made in Mexico 30 years ago:
A few school desks, well lined up in the sand ,under a roof covered with banana leaves; A few posts ,close together, to protect the desks from the prevailing winds , no wall, a handwritten sign, stating:
Punta Morena school
Teacher:Cesar Prieto

My hat off to this guy, my hat off to every teacher in the world.

[karuna]

" My wife is a locally employed teacher and is definitely not rich "

hmmmm..Nury, Lets go back to that SCMP site
http://classifiedpost.scmp.com/salaryindex/content-05-education.pdf

Lets take for example: "A Senior primary school master/mistress with 7 years experience". The salary range is $50,475 to $52,815 and from my knowledge this is a very good salary in Hong Kong.

Hey...do'nt get me wrong...I am not saying that our teachers should be paid less...We are a very rich country. We can well afford to pay our teachers.
It is just that your article made me wonder if our teachers are paid lowest like rest of the world. Now, it is clear to me that they are paid well.

[Santox]

Teaching has its rewards -monetary and non-monetary. Both are important, and one's perception of importance differs from teacher to teacher. However, a teacher would surely be 'rewarded' when:
1) his students phone him to thank him after obtaining good results in a public examination. This , the students do even before informing their parents.
2) his students who are now parents bring their children to meet with you and still addressl you dearingly; accompanied with a respectful bow.
3) you check your bank account and found that the month's salary's still in process by the accounts department and yet you still teach with devotion,lured by those knowledge seeking kids,who seem to assure you that teaching is still a bankable career.
4) students prefer you over those imported 'native english speackers' because in their mind Asians now have the command of the language and authority over the subject and now able to think globally and not failing to act locally.
5) parents come calling to inquire about their children's performance and never forgetting to bring about the 'hand -gift', an Asian gesture of the heart.
So, to teach or not to teach, that is the question.

[Leo]

Seeing so many people interested in education, I feel really glad.

To karuna,

I fully understand your stance. I experienced it once too. Native English Teachers are not fully concerned of the language they are using and also the way we are learning. It's true that we learn differently from native speakers. We don't have much chances in being corrected, or using English, that is why we have to be grammar based here.

Yes, some NETs do get a bit better pay but...only the good ones stay^^ don't worry about (though some good ones got kicked out too)

There are some NETs who are able to teach HK kids effectively. Again it's a matter of understanding. If the NET, who is teaching your kid, talk to him about the problem and tell him how he can change it. If he's really not listening, you can always complain to the headmaster (but please remember, changes take time please give NETs 2 months or so to re-adapt their teaching methods).

By the way, what some NETs can do is that they boost students' learning motivation by injecting lots of foreign exposures to the students. Self-motivation is the main key if success. However, it will be 2 consecutive years or more to make it effective. So, if the NET is not good in teaching but is good in motivating the students, you will still see high-flying result in the end.

And about the pay, it's not really that high for the rest of us. Starter gets only $17000 for primary and $24000 for secondary. Though I will be in the secondary soon enough, I do think the primary should get a better pay instead of the secondary ones...I mean, primary education is very important as it is the first stage.

To Adalina Lo,

The fact that the top students of any particular year will take bachelor programs on Business and Finance still doesn't change. So don't worry, our elites are making them money while the teaching in HK, sadly, usually people who got low average score but only got good English result. Good learners are selfish. Take a look at those smart kids in school. Do they SHARE the ANSWERS with YOU? Or will they?

It's kind of sad but it's a fact.../_\
Not to mention, that's probably why HKIEd can get its title yet though it has showed its dedication for teaching for years and many more years to go.

To Dancer,

Tell you a fact, there are no "local" Native English Teachers. Consider the fact if HK is ruled by Chinese...
Anyway, the local English teachers..here's a survey done by me in a school I've been to:
Do you think the English teachers in your school are good?
I got a class of 40. Guess the vote against it.......
yes, sadly, it's 40...
It's not surprise when you see so many local teachers with serious HK accent and speak...sigh...well, this is only a survey based on one school..

It's lucky for me, though I am a local, my students keep coming ask me the same question: "Are you a/an British/American?"

True about using the English...
I mean there are teachers struggling to use English...but the cases are...maybe it's the students who can't catch up sometimes...

To fardel,

And my hat is off for you and Nury!!!
Sure that some of the teachers are not working for money but...I do NOW know some people who are working for money by teaching..."Too cruel anywhere"...

[karuna]

Leo: actually I have not had any problem with any NET. My elder son is still in K3.

But, in HongKong the english language skills of our people are very poor.

I "think" (may be) the problem is because we depend on NETS to teach English and not provided the right training / encouragement for our local English teachers to do this job ?

Also, Singapore which is similar to Hong Kong(with people of Chinese race in majority) speak better English.
Nury, may point out that they speak Singlish and not English !!..... which is also a point to ponder on...here in Hong Kong, our English skills are so undeveloped, that we do not have our own English "a Honglish"

[Nury]

Wow, this is a columnist's dream -- when the comments on a column are more interesting and useful than the column itself! Thanks, guys.

On the salary trends, I tend to agree with Leo. The salaries for teachers are definitely not as high as the SCMP chart quoted. I suspect the SCMP got hold of Education Dept figures for top end schools.

I think teaching is emotionally draining, because you ae basically performing live in front of a crowd (often a difficult one), once an hour, every hour, every day.

But I must admit, I love the idea of long paid holidays -- that's one thing that would tempt me to be a teacher.

But my office is in a university. Here, we don't get teacher-length holidays, just the same as most office workers.

But on the plus side, our direct "contact hours" are less than school teachers. I think lecturers tend to teach between six and 16 hours a week, and have the rest of the time to write research papers. (In my case, books.)

If universities had school-length holidays, it would be the BEST PLACE to work ever.

As for writing newspaper columns, I squeeze them into my coffee breaks!

[Leo]

karuna:
NET is cool with me too!!!
I have some of the most enjoyable and critical lessons taught by NETs.

Sure Hong Kong people English are getting worse...Kids today are yelling "I want to play computer games." but the next thing they would yell: "Is there a Chinese version? I can't read English."

When I was their age, we were screaming: "Is there an English version? We can't read Chinese." lol...kids today are illiterates......

It's not because the NETs, it's not because of the local teachers, it's the government to blame...God, please curse the education system and make us a new one...

Where's the saviour for Hong Kong education anyway? Could it be...Nury?

[fa]

I am surprised by the comment:Also, Singapore which is similar to Hong Kong(with people of Chinese race in majority) speak better English...
I thought that the perfect English was found only in the inner circles of Oxford and Cambridge, therefore I do not understand what reference is used to judge which one is a better spoken English than the other;
Unhappily, I do not know Hong Kong yet, maybe that's an excuse
How would you grade,in comparison?
Australian English
Irish English
Scottish English
Caribbean English
Texan English?

Personally ,I have a hard time to understand Australian, Irish ,Scottish or Texan.
I did not however have any problem in Singapore or in the Philippines, not mentioning the Caribbean;
Of course my ears have to be adjusted to the accents or the melody of the different speeches, but it does not take so much time to learn.( looking for food , toilets , hotel does help learn faster)

In any case , the way one country speaks a language is part of its national identity.
Why would one want to loose that?

[Dancer]

To Leo,

By "local" Native English Teachers", I was quoting karuna but what I think this actually mean are the teachers who have native English teacher capabilities but not in the NET scheme.
Like you, I also have classes of 40. To answer your question, it is not the problem whether I think the English teachers' English is good or not. The point is that these teachers wouldn't use this language to talk to the kids once outside the classroom. If they have to tell a kid off inside the classroom, they will switch back to Chinese immediately even if they are having an English lesson. For me, it is not the ability that is the problem, it is choice. It is only when we use English outside the classroom do we really create an environment for them to actually use the language and not restrict it as a 'classroom language'.
About 'maybe it's the students who can't catch up sometimes...', Yes, granted, students in lower banding schools will find it difficult to catch up but if we, as teachers let them off easy by doing direct translation rather than finding alternative wording to get the message forward, they will miss out in the long run.
I believe language learning is like brainwashing. It is not just a communication tool but also a way of thinking. If we persist to use the language long enough, students may not get everything today but they will get it one day.

[Leo]

fa,

I got no problem with HK English, Singlish (just love it), Malaysian English and Scottish English. The others...unknown...haven't come across with them.

I don't like to rank those English but I do remember there're some crazy researchers who use these as their research topic...

Dancer,

Maybe our schools can try to put up a school rule saying: English is the only official language in the school, except for lessons of Chinese related subjects. That will build up the environment. I am sure this will work since I experienced this when I was studying in Singapore at a young age.

I read on newspaper that one of the schools in HK is going to implement such policy!!! I think you all should send your kids to that school right away!!! Of course, if your kids are studying in an international school, stay there, HK Education system is still hitting the rock bottom... :(

I can't wait to see their result in 3 years time (Again language learning takes time...but the condemned mother tongue as the teaching medium surely has failed).

[Dancer]

Such policies do exist, in many schools too, including some of the ones that I have come across with. Just how well people stick to it is the problem. In my current school, this policy exists on paper only.

[Leo]

...Sigh...
I actually experienced in Singapore and it worked really well.

All the teachers, the principal, even the secretary, the gyp will speak English only.

I couldn't understand any English words at all when I first stepped into the school in Singapore. After a week like that, I could speak and listen in English with ease. I am sure this will work in Hong Kong too...if the students are truly willing to try their "breast" to speak in English (I know but I noticed that some of my students are picking up this stupid and irritating pronunciation because of that no good Hong Kong Chinese politician who is a DAB and graduated from a so-called UNIVERSITY).

I will remember him forever for his stupidity and spreading his stupidity onto my students.

[fardel]

In a lesson involving mental calculation about the density altitude and aircraft performance ,( challenging for beginners) I noticed that some of my students got stuck, unable to complete the task smoothly and rapidly, although they had an engineer-level of education.
The students who could perform better and a lot faster had a lower level of education, way lower.
I could not find what was wrong until I noticed that one student was thinking the calculation out loud enough for me to hear it:
He was calculating in his mothertongue;
He was translating the question ,thinking it out loud . when he found the answer, he translated it back in English, sometimes with mistakes due to translation errors.
My English-speaking students were performing a lot better than the ones using English as a second language ,because of this translation “delay”.
It is so easy to learn a foreign language during a vacation , or from a girlfriend/boyfriends as an example.
In this case one uses what I call “ parallel thinking”, a way to process an idea without the reference to one’s original language,i. e using translation.
Think bread,and the right word comes out more easily when you think of food rather than the translation of bread.
One can learn "chocolate cake" even faster.
Each language has its logical way of thinking;
Once one unlocks it , the learning process becomes easy.
No one had taught me that ;

Note , I started learning Chinese a year ago;
After all this time,I can say : how are you, but I already forgot how to say good morning.
Does any one have the key for this seemingly difficult language?
Thanks

[angela]

Fardel,

This is coming from someone who is 50% Chinese, I have no key, no answer, no advise, just sharing an experience.

I gave up trying to learn conversational mandarin after 3 months and decided that my collection of Hokkien expletives would be enough for me to survive in a predominantly Chinese community.

First day of class, my instructor stopped me at the door and said "Tamil class next door, Malay class on the opposite door." Perplexed, I said "but I am here for conversational mandarin class" he could not understand why a Chinese person needs to learn Chinese. So I was the only Chinese looking person in a class of about 25 students composed of mostly Indians, Malays, and one British woman. And guess what??? they could speak Chinese better than me. I was crushed, devastated, and totally embarrassed. But apparently not enough to not retell the story.

I can help you expand your vocabulary a bit by teaching you how to say “Good evening everyone, my name is (Fardel) and I look Chinese because my mother is Chinese but I don’t speak Chinese, Thank you, Bye bye.” I can also teach you how to order food from the hawker centre in Singapore.

ps: Agree with "parallel thinking" as an easier way to learn a language instead of translating. I think that is why children also learn new language faster than adults because they have no reference language to translate from but they have reference image of the object :)

[fardel]

Hi Angela
Your nice note made me laugh
It reminds me of my first year in this island ;
When I would go shopping on the south side ( Dutch), people would speak Dutch to me because I just look....Dutch
I learned the sentence you mentioned, in .....Dutch (it took me a few months though... )
But I am now fluent in Dutch ( only with this sentence )

I cannot wait until the day when I tell a Chinese audience, in broken Chinese:
Hello everyone, My name is Fardel,I look Chinese but I do not speak or understand your language;

Guys if you reach to this line , you now will be nice....You turn off your computers.;
It is getting personal
The rest in for Angela only:

How would I say in Chinese?
Would you like to have a dinner of fried silk worms or other delicacies of this sort , in two or three years ?

(I asked the same question in plain English to a Mr Vittachi,for other reasons, but he did not understand.
Is there anything wrong with my English, my Chinese or is an invitation for fried silk worms dinner, disrespectful in HK?)

By the way I could find my way to order food in Little India ,in a small nice restaurant , where a friendly waitress advised me on a few dishes which looked good and smelled good .
I did not understand a word , I still do not know what I ate, but the food was really good.
She was so nice that she even called the fire department , when I turned so red that she thought that I would catch fire from the peppery dish.
I understood what she said on the phone only when the fire engine started to throw water on me.

[angela]

Mr. Fardel, this is strike 2. Don't think that I didn't notice the comment on disappearing mustaches :) Strike 3 and maybe Mr. Vittachi will ban you from posting.

ps: It is extremely dangerous for a dutch-looking person to wonder alone in Singapore without a local food guide. He will risk spontaneous combustion from consuming local fares.

pps: There is nothing disrespectful about your offer but the 2-3 years wait is very offensive (doesn't take that long to fly from caribbean to sin even if one hangs on to a kite) by then the fried silk worm may go the way of bubble gum in Singapore. But worry not as I will offer you hasma for dessert - sweet soup made of frog ovary.

Kokak! kokak!

[fardel]

Hmm
Frog's legs, yes
frog's ovary soup ?
I am not sure

Moustache comments was a joke , not a strike
Two years is the minimum time I need to
learn Singlish la
learn Chinese
make up my mind and swim around the planet ( the future of airlines is so unpredictable nowadays)
Thanks for the advice;I shall bring a guide along °_°

[Nury]

What a funny conversation you guys are having! It is my theory that the world will soon end up speaking the same language that we are speaking now -- a fairly simple type of English with lots of the best bits of other languages in it, including French and Chinese and so on.

After all, we can all speak a bit of Chinese -- every time we say "ketchup". And we can all speak a bit of French, every time we say "croissant". And we can all speak Hindi, when we use words like "avatar".

So if I said "My avatar wants ketchup on his croissant" that's a truly globalized sentence.

By the way, Singaporean English is one of my favourite types of English, so mixed-la!

[fardel]

Did you mean?
Your avatar take a taxi , go to restaurant ,eat a pizza with Ketchup and eat a croissant in a Cafe?

[Nury]

Can you make a sentence where every word comes from a different language? That would be a good challenge!

[Angela]

If I catch your avatar dipping his croissant in my katsup again he is chimichanga! Capiche? :-)

[Nury]

Aiyeeaah! Ketchup in the Rajah's espresso. He commits hari-kari. Shalom, mon ami.

(Cantonese, Hokkien, Hindi, Italian, English, Japanese, Hebrew, French)

Beat that!

[fardel]

Hi Nury
Since I could not write a sentence with every word from a different language , I wrote this little saga to keep you busy :

In a small village , on the southern shore of the Zuiderzee, an hour drive by taxi from Den Haag,there is a bistro called the buccaneers'cafe .
It serves pizzas,spaghettis with ketchup, or paëlla in the evening, during the day

The owner will tell you the story of his great grandfather, who circumnavigated the world;

That was eons ago when Hans packed his fardel and set sail to Brittania, then to Eire on a Viking drakkar .
This was an amazing country ,covered with cairns,menhirs and dolmens, engraved with triskells (cryptograms which differed from hieroglyphs);
On the shore of Lough Corrib ,he built a curragh to cross the arctic Ocean .
after escaping a maelström, he fought the kraken in a fierce battle.
His journey took him to the shores of Greenland were he shared the life of Eskimos in their igloos.
In order to reach Vinland he built a kayak, which would allow him to sail across Arapaho territories where a squaw gave him a papoose.
There, he discovered tobacco and pemmican, made of wapiti
He could not settle down , and went down to the islands where the Arawaks tought him how to barbecue his food.
He traveled to South America, then set sail across the Pacific on a balsa raft, and arrived in Rapa Nui where he discovered Moais.
After being attacked by ninjas and samouraïs in the kingdom of Cipangu,he set sail again to reach Catai, where he traded his canoe for a Sampan,
He proceeded by land and bought a few yaks to bring his riches back through the lands of the Maharadjas,

He returned home after a 30 year-trek;

You can listen to his story , while eating croissants or delicatessen, or while tasting the home made yogurt, served with a shot of rum or tequila,aguardiente or sake
.

[Nury]

Fardel, one day you should write abook. I will definitely buy it!

[angela]

I will pick up the book to check out the author's photo on the jacket :) then I will think to myself...to fardel or not to fardel...that is the question.

[fardel]

Nury
thank you for the compliment.
This story was a quick one for everybody to count the foreign words, their country of origins and their meaning;
Leave your sudoku ,this is more challenging (°_°)

By the way, I am finishing a book , but for you to read it , you would have
1 to learn to fly
2 plan a flying trip in the Caribbean
3 Fly your own airplane
4 Wait for the book to be published ( maybe it will be finished by the time you can fly,or will it?)

in other words :: boring , very technical, but very useful

I started a book on the history on aviation is the French Caribbean , but gave up due to lack of talent.
Instead , I produced scale models of historical commercial airplanes,
each one with its own little historical note
A picture is worth a thousand word they say, one model is worth one hundred pages ,I say

Hi Angela
What can I do, write, say that you would not be interested in?(°_°)
strike 4

[research paper writing]

Well, I have been reading your blog posts daily and the reason I come on your blog frequently is its compelling content… Regards…

[Julie]

A postscript on teachers' English language skills.

I live in Australia and recently applied to do a teaching course at graduate level. I was asked for my Year 12 English results as apparently the universities here don't trust their own graduates (even native born ones!) to speak good enough English to teach . . . a free kick to all of you who impugn Australian English? ;-)

[Jayan]

Dear Mr. Nury,

Ageing is not worry for teachers they look same after many years. May be blessings from students for putting up with them.