Job Discussion Forums

[AKA]

Here is a barrage of personal invective Bertrand saw fit to fire my way. This is what he thinks of us China FT's, which will not surprise those who've read his postings. Nice chap isn't he? Gets angry quickly though.

BERTRAND WROTE:
" Well, I presume that you live and work in China.....? So, to rub it in, I most likely earn in a day (i.e., 2 or 3 hours work) what you earn in a week? 1,000 HK dollars a day, that is. So, if you were a TEFLer you would be in China by now. Oh! You are in China! (But are probably not a TEFLer.) Remember, superflouous[sic] residue always falls to the bottom....

No, not at all. I just like the way that, as a stuck-in-China poverty-stricked [sic]'TEFLer', (the lowest of the low in TEFL, maybe with the exception of those working in Cambodia), you think you are something you are not: viz., a teacher".

You can read the entire posting on the "Is it easy to get work" thread.
He's wrong on every count in my case, salary, qualifications, "stuck" , "poverty stricked"???.
I think it's his self righteous, superior attitude I really admire though.

[smarts]

1000 hk dollars a day..... PHEW.. now that's big time...
kings in the middle kingdom

[Minhang Oz]

I've had my share of disagreements with Bertrand, but I can't work out what he's doing or why.
He interrupts perfectly reasonable threads in which people are exchanging views and information with personal attacks and opinions which seem only designed to enhance his own status. In fact, he only makes himself appear more bitter, contemptuous and misanthropic.
His obsession with how much he earns, and how well qualified he is, dominate his wilder postings. Who cares? Who's impressed? Did anybody come to China to earn kudos and big dollars?
But now he's really throwing mud.
So I'd suggest he find some kind of life on his side of the border - but maybe he's all played out there.

[kimo]

If he's the same Bertrand I know of, he's a 13 year old idiot savant in Cleveland. Sometimes his parents take the leash off, thus the above comments from him.

[Gray000]

Actually, he is Humpty Dumpty reincarnated.

"When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less."



[/quote]

[Gray000]

I unashamedly cut and paste and it's the truth.
Bernard Wrote:
In response to Minhang Oz's Earier Q:
1] Answer the question: why can you use the word"dialects", but I can't without providing a definition?

Well, obviously, you can 'use the word' (in a Wittgensteinian sense) without having to give a definition. But if you are using a word that - perhaps totally unknown to you - has seperate, technical meanings AND someone (who knows these differences) feels that your point is worth answering, then that person will surely seek clarification.

*What follows is about 800 words on why B is justified in being delierately obtuse in order to demonstrate that he is a licensed critical thinker, unlike MO*

a recap:

MO first wrote:

I found these figures on a site called www.al-bab.com I'm sure every resource you look at will give different figures, but its the ranking that's the key factor here. If you look at the NESB populations of the major English speaking migrant taking nations, it would have to cut their total native speakers back by many millions- its certainly the case in Australia. And while most English speakers of whatever dialect can communicate, apparently many Arabic dialects are as mutually unintelligible as, say, Shanghaihua is to a Hunan [or Beijing] native.

Bertrand countered:
What do you mean by dialect? What linguistic definition are you using? Max Weinreich, for example, famously quipped that a dialect is a language with an army and navy.

Did anyone find B using the term dialect carelessly? MO?

[Gray000]

Quote of the day:
"If that is your idea of knowledge and research then fine, but we are having two entirely different conversations operating at different levels of abstraction."

Bertrand

I think this is funny, because Bertrand is known in ancient texts as "That which haveth not conversations, but instead harangues."

[chinasyndrome]

I thought he was Kevin Bacon! C'mon guys, he and his tribe are harmless. They just want some acknowledgement, some recognition that they're actually alive. They are the digital equivalent of the 'think I'll go and eat worms' fraternity, and the only thing that gives them hope is that you can be goaded into responding to their rants. Who cares what they think? Okay, so in their view of the world we're lower than whales***, but just remember that it's the whales***ters here who have rejected them, making them lower than...

So over in another thread - do the research yourselves - there's a party going on. An online story is being built line by line. Gerard is having a hell of a time whingeing about how the Canadian government is going to be sorry they ever saw him. Too late, in my opinion. They've got his passport photo.

I know for a fact that Sunaru is incommunicado tonight because this afternoon I dropped he and Miss Molly in a seaside 'resort' out in the boonies. Told them I'd pick them up on Thurday. Ha! And they believed it!

Now where was I? Oh, that's right! So we've got a momentary infestation of PhD's and abused children on the board. Let 'em have the board! Let's get back to the Off-Topic Forum!

[Gray000]

Do I have a personal axe to grind? Yes, I do.

Bernie wrote:

Gray000 wrote:

[...] is the child in your example reading to a book? That doesn't make sense.
1) Daddy, what did you bring that book that I don't want to read to out of up for?



I thought the context was obvious, but perhaps not. Okay, the father has just walked up the stairs to his daughters room where she has been waiting for a story to be read to her. Ity is her father that she is addressing. I think now it will be clear. This is, actually, a little uinfair to you; it's an old chesnut and can be found in many and any general, first year undergraduate-type introduction to current linguistic theory. Try, say, Pinker's The Language Instinct.

To which I replied:


Awww, thanks so much for trying to be fair to me! I don't get things like context - I though maybe 'bring up' meant 'mention' in this case, and they were having a conversation, which would have meant that.... oh, wait, it wouldn't have changed the grammar. Never mind.

The issue I take with your sentence, my friend, is that it is senseless. Your version:
1) Daddy, what did you bring that book that I don't want to read to out of up for?

The version in my first year linguistics textbook:
1) Daddy, what did you bring that book that I don't want to be read to out of up for?

Thanks for your efforts to educate me, but if Pinker can't appreciate the subtle difference, I'll stick with what I got.

This is actually a pretty good illustration of the difference between grammar that is prescriptively bad and grammar that just don't make sense.


**The prescriptively bad comment being a reference to TEFLers just not getting it about descriptive vs. descriptive grammar:

Bertrand wrote:

You are still referring to PRESCRIPTIVE grammars as opposed to DESCRIPTIVE grammars. The former will say 'don't end a sentence with a preposition' in very much ther same way some books read 'don't eat fish with a fork' or something. The latter simply describes HOW people speak, that is, what grammar they use (but, of course, there is no grammar of any one language; a point which you TEFLers still do not seem to realise - it's just too vast and complex.) Thus, to a generative linguist examples such as (1) below are studied (a clause that ends in not one, but some FIVE prepositions):


And finally, Bertrand edited his origingal posting without either acknowledging his mistake, apologizing, or otherwise failing to be an ass. Instead, he replied with:
What the HELL are you going on about?

which I guess is his response when he has no other.

Dig around in the 'real degrees' for confirmation.

And you know what? I'm glad he's here. I miss the hole left by MW, and I still think dragon was the best stalker ever.

[Gray000]

CS YOU BAR STARD! I was coming up on 5 consecutive posts! Now how will I get the distinction I crave? WHy not just put a muppet up my butt? You are on the list too.

[baby predator]

If its any consolation China Syndrome, I heard what you said.

Guys, stop squabbling and get over to the storytelling corner on the off-topic forum. I want to know what happens next!

[chinasyndrome]

Hey Gray! Oops! Sorry to replace the distinction you crave with the derailment you got. Erm...about the muppet thing. If you weren't busy being so absorbed in Aunt Bertie (who, it's rumoured in certain forum circles you have a crush on), you might have noticed that I have already buried the muppet in a butt of another kind.

Now do what the mod squad says and get over to the storytelling thread.

[greentea]

Maybe he's just having us on but who knows ?

I did the NET thing in HK for 3 years. It was hard to say goodbye to the salary, knowing it was a once in a lifetime deal, but in the end - not very. My mind and body were telling me (read, shouting at me) to get out and I did. Much, much happier here in the mainland.

This may be the root of Bertrand's problem. Send me a message if you'd like to talk, Bertrand.

[AKA]

This post is from the Hong Kong forum, courtesy of dandan. Sound familiar?


"Funnily enough I was in the good doctor's school the other day and I stuck my head around the door of his Primary 3 class. This is what I heard:

Little Stevie: Sir!

Dr B: I've told you before, it's Sir Doctor Bertrand BA, MA, FA, Phd to you sonny!

Little Stevie: Please Sir Doctor Bertrand BA, MA, FA, Phd to you sonny, how do you spell 'melons'?

Dr B: Spell? Spell? What do you mean by spell? Your question suggests a staggerring lack of understanding of the most basic linguistic terms. Do you mean letter-name spelling? Do you mean spell phonically? Head-spelling? @rse-spelling? I suspect you don't even have a Phd in Linguistics do you? I bet you haven't even read Chomsky!

LS: I'm only nine, sir.

Dr B: Ahaa! That's the kind of language I'd expect from an undergraduate! I'll take that as a no shall I? Go and stand in the corner until you get a Phd!

LS goes and stands in tHe corner.

LS: Please Sir Doctor Bertrand BA, MA, FA, Phd to you sonny!

Dr B: What now?

LS: If you don't know how to spell melons you can just say I don't know, we won't laugh sir.

Dr. B: SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!

The local teachers seemed to like him though, at least they had a rather cute nickname for him. They called him 'Little Willy', not quite sure why. "

[smarts]