Comments on: boss

By: j

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 22:37:59 +0000

@ Tarte Tartan, a friend’s kid ended up in detention for doing just that, despite the diplomacy of saying “I don’t know how it’s pronounced in America, but in England le four is called an uhven, not an owe ven”. Be advised that in France, teacher is omniscient, omnipotent, and parents are ALL twits! (Apologies, I never learned phonetics)
@ Kara, try doing some ESL, then just maybe you’ll get where certain commentators are coming from.

By: Tandy

Tandy — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:27:46 +0000

by the way, did anyone pick up on the fact that Petite might be pregnant? In one of the answers to the marathon question time she mentions “next year when I have Tadpole nr 2″, or something similar.
Hein?
*with bated breath*

;-)

By: Linda

Linda — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:00:42 +0000

@109 @ 108 … I think parents have the right to expect the teachers to get things right, though, and to graciously accept a correction from a native speaker …

By: Sheila K.

Sheila K. — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:28:14 +0000

#109
The reality of it is that even though you are paid by the school district, (or whoever ,in your particular country) your ultimate employer is the parents of your students. I don’t know if you are a teacher, but if you are, it would serve you and your students well to drop the text-style of writing and set a good example!

By: kara

kara — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 22:13:29 +0000

@ 105: if you cant see the tongue in cheek in my comments thats too bad for you

@ 108: parents dont have the right to tell a teacher how to do their job… im sure that parents wouldnt want to hear what teachers think of their parenting skills!!

By: Tarte Tartan

Tarte Tartan — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:11:54 +0000

Just wait until she starts to correct her English teacher at school. One of my English friends was called to the school because her son had been doing this. When she took out her son’s homework jotter and pointed out the mistakes herself, the teacher replied: “Excuse me, but I studied English in Paris and spent one year at an English University. I know how to speak and teach English. I will not be told how to do my job!” My friend was gobsmacked.

By: dame blanche

dame blanche — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:55:45 +0000

As i’m a bit ill and have to stay at home for some days i decided to read some of your old blogs, (starting from the early beginning).
I was in Paris last weekend and i went to starbucks so when i read your blog about Starbucks (coffee empire) it made me laugh.
BTW: when I asked for ‘un lait russe’ they didn’t seem to understand me. So i had to tell them i wanted ‘un café latte’.

By: Ariel

Ariel — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 05:07:20 +0000

Cute. I’m wondering whether you and Tadpole might have developed some kind of own language that is mainly English peppered with French, or made-up words that are your own only. For example, the English I speak on the island is a mixture of English with Islandese bits and made-up funny words. Elsewhere, my French is riddled with anglicisms that are mostly impenetrable to anyone outside QC or the UK. Sometimes, German words also appear, out of nowhere… it’s a miracle I manage to communicate with anyone at all! :-)

By: Passante

Passante — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 20:06:31 +0000

Let’s see: a French teacher who doesn’t know the gender of an everyday noun and doesn’t think it important, who says that most teachers “just make it up as they go along” — now I understand the reason why many of the young people I encountered when I taught at university level were so ill-prepared that I ended up having to teach some of the basics they should have covered by the time they were 14.

By: Jes

Jes — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:23:08 +0000

I’m sorry to forewarn you Petite that by the time Tadpole is in her teens and twenties (as mine are) anything you say or do will be met with “eyes to the ceiling” so be prepared for the distain!