Job Discussion Forums

aroha · Joined: 08 Oct 2004 Posts: 66 Location: Mexico

At my school, Friday 5th is a holiday for the primaria and secundaria, but not for the prepa for some reason. Maybe its because the prepa classes finish in one week, and then they only have to come in for exams. If you want a teaching job with an unholy amount of paid holidays in Mexico, definitely go for the preparatoria...

Somebody told me the minimum number of in-school days required to comply with the SEP is 200. Does that sound about right? My school celebrates all the Jewish and Mexican holidays, so there is a shorter summer holiday, returning mid-August.

geaaronson · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 948 Location: Mexico City

Samantha
I can see some of the confusion that you have created here, and it�s partly your fault.

You write
"By all means, please call any school in my area, it won�t matter which, during Semana Santa or Carnaval and no one will answer the phone. It IS a holiday here" in your May 2 message.

First,
Your suggestion is disingenous in itself. If we were to take you up on your challenge, we would have to wait until next years holidays to expose your bluff.
This is merely a bluff, and a readily transparent one at that. If you were really sure that ALL the schools in your area took three weeks off, your challenge would read, "why not call any of these schools now and ask them for how many weeks they take off for Carnavel and Semana Santa".
I suspect that cwc likewise spots your insecurity but did not confront the situation directly as he did not correctly identify the problem that was exposed in your phraseology.

Second,
You write that is a holiday here. No, on May 2nd, the day which you entered this message, it was not a holiday nor was it semana santo there, so that statement is misleading.

If we are to understand the statement in the manner in which it was intended, namely that where you live the schools celebrate those two holidays with days off, then the rejoinder is that it is a holiday wherever you go in Mexico, but not everyone takes three weeks off. Several places take considerably less than that.

As English teachers, it is imperative that we use the language, clearly, concisely, and accurately to our intentions. We all flub up from time to time, but most of us take it in stride when our peers correct us. It is for the better.

I can�t speak for CWC, but I for one, welcome criticism to the point that I allow and encourage my students to correct my Spanish. They come to the blackboard and correct my grammatical mistakes. I have good self-esteem and am not unduly offended. I believe this makes me a better teacher as my students recognize that I am not some dictatorial god-like figure, coming down off Mt. Sinai.

I believe this is the real issue in our discourse. You take it personally and revert to an attack position whenever you receive scepticism, criticism or outright accusations. This is deplorable. Take it in stride, sharpen your writing skills.

This is not New York where people can intimidate each other by blustery aggressive namecalling or disparaging personal comments. I have refrained from such behaviour. I did not call you a confabulator, nor would I from the little bit of discourse with you over the thread. But I do recognize there are other issues and I have outlined them.

cwc · Joined: 16 Nov 2005 Posts: 372

She�s a misleading confabulator. How�s that?
geaaronson, dude you�re an excellent reader and writer. We could use someone like you here in Carmen. I think you are the only person besides me that put his address on the board. That should shut her up.

M@tt · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 473 Location: here and there

i was offended by your reference to Mt. Sinai.

why is anyone proud of posting their home address on a public forum? hopefully the thread will be relocked.
or we could change topics and hypothesize about guy's long-lost texan relatives. he does bear a faint resemblance to ross perot in his avatar...

snorklequeen · Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 6:31 am Post subject: Mt. Sinai

thank you, Matt, for saying that! i was offended also, but let it pass

cheers,

Queenie

geaaronson · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 948 Location: Mexico City

And what was it that offended you about the reference to Mt. Sinai, exactly? I would hope that you are clear and succinct about why you find it offensive.

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

geaaronson · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 948 Location: Mexico City

Some people just miss the point.

Perhaps intentionally.

The point I made was that there is some paranoia involved in giving out personal information such as home addresses, places of work, places of residence, etc. that is totally unecessary. This was in answer to Samanthas unwillingness to reveal the location, name of the school, that gave three weeks off for Semana Santa and Carnaval.

The point you have also missed is that the woman not only is not particularly lucid in her statements but also does not back them up. When she is called on the mat for making outrageous statements or even statements that cause a small amount of scepticism, she reverts to a highly aggressive stance. Your criticism is misplaced. Think it through.

geaaronson · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 948 Location: Mexico City

Guy-
What`s Moses doing in Copper Canyon?

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

M@tt · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 473 Location: here and there

who are you talking to? why the hell does anyone care about this thread?

guy, you are a misleading confabulator. i've been to mount sinai and it doesn't look like that. this is clearly a photoshopped image of ansel adams in yosemite.

Samantha · Joined: 25 Oct 2003 Posts: 2038 Location: Mexican Riviera

I was totally confabulated! I thought it was real. Surprised

(Guy's mountain picture, that is.)

Geaaro, I simply can't believe you are for real. Anyone with any common sense whatsoever would never divulge personal information on a public internet forum, so stop going on about that.

I don't know how to be more clear to you so you will actually grasp this but if it is so important to you, here is what you should do.

1. Access the Telmex Yellow Pages for Mexico
2. Pick up phone
3. Dial the number of any school in MY city, Mazatlan, Sinaloa
4. Ask the burning question
5. Then bug off and let it go

You do know that Carnaval follows the religious calendar a few weeks prior to Semana Santa, don't you? It is not 3 weeks together! Posting about school holidays is not "outrageous statements".... Get a grip.

I still don't get why this thread was unlocked. It is way off topic. Maybe we need an off-topic Mexico forum so we can discuss house colors, bull-fights and stuff. (I wanted to say c o c k fights, which we still have here, but the forum settings edited that out).

geaaronson · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 948 Location: Mexico City

Sorry Samantha-

Unless you have surmounted (bad pun intended) the great gender divide, I don�t believe you could partake of a cock fight.

Confabulation aside, (somehow that sounds lascivious, doesn`t it), that isn�t Ansel Adams, its the Swami. All you secular humanists aside don�t know your religious leaders.

geaaronson · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 948 Location: Mexico City

Samantha

Dunnnh. Everyone knows that Carneval and Holy week don�t run consecutively. I don`t know whether you intentionally misunderstand other people`s words as some kind of idiosyncratic defense mechanism, ie. the erroneous zones of human personality, but I never implied that the three weeks were consecutive.
You have the knack of deliberately misrepresenting other peoples statements. That`s a bad habit, one the American right, ie. Cannity and Homes, the McLaughlin Group, Jerry Falwell, etc. deliberately do in their dishonest attempt at gaining surpremacy in an argument.
I hope you have not learned your lessons from them and are at the very least an autodidact.