Job Discussion Forums

[kowlooner]

Sorry HKTeach, I wasn't targeting you. It was 11:59's silly extension of your comment into full-blown juvenile pseudo-intellectual treatise on culture that was my focus.

As for us not being here to learn Cantonese, that's true, but since this topic is about funny (to us) common language mistakes, I think it's worthwhile to at least remind ourselves to look in the mirror once in a while, especially when some posters turn a relatively innocuous topic into a racist rant. Besides, do you happen to remember any of your non-native high school Spanish, French, or German teachers?

Anyway, despite your wordiness 11:59, you don't seem like the sharpest knife in your university's teaching drawer. After all, I certainly wasn't denigrating your students. Instead, I was calling you on your lie. Perhaps you missed it, so I'll repeat it for you, though please, try to improve your reading comprehension skills, for the sake of your students! I said ...

[11:59]

Oh, all hail Kowlooner the Great � the great primary school teacher, that is.

As it happens I doubt very much if I am "the sharpest knife" at my university, but that's hardly surprising given we have professors from all over the globe, many of whom have 2 PhDs and over 100 publications in A journals and conference proceedings. But even if I was the bluntest blade in my university's "drawer", rather that than the sharpest cut throat razor in a poxy primary school any day. Tell me, what are you teaching the kids tomorrow? Is it to be numerals from 1 - 10, or are you going to progress onto colours and days of the week? Wow, heavy stuff indeed. The terms must just fly by. Don't forget to check your Swan's usage guide first though or you might get yourself into a right little pickle. Oh, and don't forget to really load up the kids' rucksacks with tomes they will never actually read, use, or otherwise learn from. How else will they all get irreversible spinal injuries by the time they are nine?

[once again]

Taken from Wikipedia:

"Since Wittgenstein thought that the Tractatus had solved all the problems of philosophy, he left philosophy and returned to Austria to train as a primary school teacher."

[11:59]

What I find most amusing about this is that Once Again is clearly attempting to hint that, intellectually, either he is � or both he and his bum chum Kowlooner are � in the same league as none other than Ludwig Wittgenstein! And, to cap it all, this is apparently by dint of the fact they are primary school teachers! Laughable! Talk about self-delusion at its most psychotic! I think it's fairly clear that you have been around little kids who look up to you with awe for too long and/or have been in HK far too long. After all, it must be very difficult being falsely treated as an adult and seeing everyone else around you with a proper job.

Anyway, a few points regarding your lay allusion to Wittgenstein. First, it's somewhat ironic that you refer to 'Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus' (TLP), and not because you have doubtless never read it. No, it's an example of sheer irony because, correct me if I am wrong, Wittgenstein already had his PhD when he returned to Austria to become a primary school teacher. He got it for submitting TLP. Do you have a PhD, Once Again? Or are you too busy trying to impress people by writing about the fact that your rabbit hutch-sized shoebox home has a (communal) swimming pool?

Second, and again correct me if I am wrong, but when Wittgenstein became a primary school teacher I don't think he had given away his vast fortune yet, and so was still one of the richest men in Europe. It's very easy (and honourable and understandable) to become a primary school teacher when you have a PhD in philosophy from Cambridge and have a sum of money that is more than that held by some countries! Do you have a sum of cash more than some states have in their official coffers, Once Again?

Third, and I'm sure you'll encounter this little nugget if you continue with what must for you be a fascinating read of Wikipedia, Wittgenstein wasn't exactly a primary school teacher for very long, was he? Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't he then go back into philosophy and write the Blue and Brown Books? (If you know of them at all then you'll most likely only know them as 'Philosophical Investigations').

Fourth, and yet again, correct me if I'm wrong, but back in those days in Austria even primary school kids were given an introduction to calculus. Do/can you teach calculus, Once Again? Do you even so much as know what it is? I'm willing to bet you don't even so much as have a GCSE in maths.

You're out of your depth, Once Again, so if I were you I'd be a good little boy and go back to your crummy urine-polluted communal 'swimming' (read, 'paddling') pool and prepare your next lesson. What will it be? Weather and seasons or will it perhaps be 'doing/action' words?

[once again]

You always brighten my day Peaches!