Job Discussion Forums

[Burl Ives]

[windsorman1972]

The problem, Burl, with a jackass like this, is that even if he felt obliged to correct 1000 people in response to his original post, they, not he, would be considered the source of the problem.

Ludwig - you are a pretentious, arrogant, boring, childish and anal-retentive asswipe of a human being.

You need to stay off this discussion forum and let the adults talk amongst themselves in peace.

[Diletante]

Windsorman1972 wrote:

[Ludwig]

[laodeng]

Terribly off-subject I'm afraid, but, Diletante, where in Virginia? This old Roanoke boy is in the midst of a massive nostalgia attack.

[scot47]

Has Ludwig read Wittgenstein ? I find it strange that he gets the name of his major work wrong.

Why are there so many pompous, self-important people among the posters here ? Is there something in the drinking water in China ?

Sometimes I wonder what the Chinese must make of all these Foreign "Experts" in their midst.

[Taiping04]

Just had to register and post. When I used to browse these pages some time back, one character who was an endless source of mirth was one "Bertrand". He used to fancy he was Bertrand Russell reincarnated I guess. He was a pompous jackass, a would-be academic and intellectual, who had somehow been reduced to living in a Hong Kong shoe box, and trying to teach Chinese kids to speak English. For whatever reason "Bertie", as he became known, was a chronic attention seeker. Dumped on by one and all, he never flinched. "Ludwig" [another philosopher] reminds me of him. Coincidence?

[lagerlout2006]

Ludwig no need to get snarly---lighten up!

I have read the Ray Monk bio of wittgenstein but I'm likely out of my element discussing the original texts...Propositions??? May I try...

"No 2 objects are exactly alike."

"Communication is not possible without defining your terms."

Ludwig himself thought his own work was unsatisfactory but I'm sure you disagree with him...As did his mentor Bertrand Russell...

And yes Scott47 there is something wrong with the drinking water here.

[Diletante]

laodeng wrote:

[Roger]

Hello, Ludwig,

aplogies for the sarcasm in my previous post, but as you can see, others are far worse than myself...
On the other hand, this thread has digressed from your original topic, but that's not bad - in fact, I have enjoyed the debate so far.

Let me tell you, therefore, what I have seen in Chinese schools as regards cheating:
- In every classroom, kids sit so close together that co-wiritng their exam papers is a foregone conclusion. When I taught Literature in my first school in China ten years ago, I immediately did something about it: giving DIFFERENT topics to write about (based on a piece of literature we were studying) to every student sitting beside another one so that not any two had the same topic while sitting side by side; the result was a kind of rebellion with the kids complaining to the Administration which then hauled me into a session where I was severely repirmanded. One of the things said to me was "sometimes we don't know if the cow leads the cowboy, or the cowboy leads the cos..." I was perplexed by this "old CHinese saying", but in the end, the students got right of way...

- 4 years ago, I taught in yet another normal school; one day, a meeting was being held outside the school building, with all students and some Chinese teachers.
The Chinese teachers were so SURPRISED and ANGRY at having found out that cheating was so widespread at their school that they wanted to get an apology from all the students (some 500!). Well, can you imagine something even more naive than this? Why did these greenhorns never check on their students during exams? It is a custom that has so many manifestations that some of these manifestations are widely regarded as "acceptable"...

- I asked my students to comment in their essays on cheating; we also did a thorough discussion in other classes (a total of 26 classes). The outcome was, well, interesting:
- Every student knows cheating goes on and on and on!
- Every student knows how to cheat!
- Among dirty tricks used are: preparing notes that students hide in the
most common as well as uncommon places: some put their materials in toilets and will request an "urgent leave" during the exam; why on Earth
has no Chinese school ever clamped down on toilet visits during exams?
Others write notes on their body parts such as hands and thighs (girls!);
- still others use a kind of morse code by hands; why don't teachers
know that their students are communicating with each other during
exams - weren't they students at some time themselves???
- Cellphones are very commonly used too!
- Some students even bragged about "paying a teacher or the school..."

Considering those many underachieving teachers, do you think they are very keen on steering their students towards good English skills? Maybe their self-esteem would be shattered if their own students outwitted them after a year under their instruction! I cannot see much motivation for Chinese teachers to excel at teaching! That's why exams will continue to be the only reason why students have to attend English classes!
At least, they keep Chinese teachers - and, to some extent us - on the payroll.

[kev7161]

I have my own classroom and I walked into my student's homeroom to ask someone a question. I saw one kid blatently writing down his vocab words on his hands while other kids were hovering around him. I immediately took him to the director's office. The director actually laughed when I made the student show him his hand!! The student didn't get to take the test and received a "zero" grade. I'm sure he was just devastated!

[Ludwig]

Edited by Paladin

[Taiping04]

Ludwig wrote: