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Chris Campbell

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Posts posted by Chris Campbell

  1. Magic language learning moments

    I'm delighted that this section of the Forum is livening up. Please feel free to start new threads. I'm starting a new one here: "Magic language learning moments".

    I'm looking for anecdotes falling into the following categories:

    1. A personal experience where you were struggling in a foreign language and would have benefited from knowing it better.

    2. A personal experience where your knowledge (even limited knowledge) of a foreign language proved to be a very satisfying experience.

    3. A point in time where, having studied a language for some time, you suddenly felt you had made a breakthrough.

    Here are my contributions:

    1. I was travelling with a group of colleagues in Hungary. As the only one in the group that had any knowledge of Hungarian, I was designated to buy the tickets for a short train excursion – no problem: basic transactional language. The train that we expected to arrive did not appear. I asked a porter when the train was expected – no problem in formulating the question and understanding the answer  – but his answer did not make sense to me, as he appeared to be saying that it would be many hours before the next train arrived. It finally dawned on us It finally dawned on us (by comparing the station clocks with our watches) that this was the weekend in Hungary when the clocks went forward for summer time and we had missed the train. I went back to the ticket office to try to get a refund on the tickets. Somehow or other I managed to explain the situation using expressions such as “This train did not go”. Eventually, we found an English-speaking Hungarian ticket office clerk who sorted it all out for us. We got our refund. I was encouraged by this experience to keep working on my Hungarian. Transactional language is easy - until something goes wrong.

    2. In the 1980s I spent many pleasurable holidays in Italy with my wife and two daughters. At the time I had decided to follow the BBC “Buongiorno Italia” course. I quickly reached the point where I felt fairly comfortable in using basic transactional language, so I put it to the test on our next holiday in Italy by ordering a meal in a restaurant for the four of us. The whole process went smoothly, with the waiter speaking clearly and slowly. When I had finished ordering, the waiter said in perfect English: “I like people who try. You can have half a litre of wine on the house.” The waiter had worked in a restaurant in England only a few miles from where we live. A side-note: Why, oh why, is the BBC cutting down on TV language courses for adults and putting so much effort into Web-based materials?

    3. I was a student of German in the 1960s. As part of my university course I spent a period abroad at a German university. At the time I was by no means fluent in German, and always had to think carefully when constructing sentences with subordinate clauses in which the main verb fell at the end of the clause. I joined the university film club, watching German language films three times a week. Suddenly, after listening to many hours of spoken German, it seemed “normal” to me to put the verb at the end of the clause, and I began to utter complex sentences with confidence. The listening skill had transferred to the speaking skill, it seems. A breakthrough had been achieved, and I never looked back.

    #From Chris: I still hang my head in embarassed shame when I think of my firt days in Germany for my intercalated year abroad. Working out in which order to visit the various departments to ensure the correct 'Aufenthaltsgenehmingung' was achieved before I was barred from my university residence, I visited the town hall.

    Being only the second day there, it all seemed a fairly longwinded afffair, but optimistic as ever, I saw it all as a challenge - including getting the basics right like finding my way around the various departments and sections required. Searching for another, I blythely asked a passer-by which floor I needed and listening intently, registered the floor number and pressed the lift button to take me there, as the friendly local continued to chat. Within seconds alarm sirens were ringing and police with drawn hand guns were running everywhere. The chosen day was during the time the Bader-Meinhof Gruppe were coming to a sticky end and the authorities were expecting a backlash. Next, before my eyes appeared a shapely silk-stockinged pair of lower legs, evidently attached to a screaming and very scared women. The the moment of horror arrived - I'd pressed the NOTRUF button on a Paternoster Lift - the sort without doors where you just walk in and out as the lift moves slowly past your chosen floor. I'd never seen one before but the realisation was almost a physical blow. Panic and the sure belief that my linguisitic incompetences were such that I'd never be able to explain myself I nonchalantly left with the local German 'guide', who thankfully hadn't notice me pressing the button. Needless to say I read the print off the local paper for a couple of days in case someone had died of fright during all the panic - and set about learning to read all signs and notices with the utmost care.

    PS any good German words for that moment of horrible Aufklärung?

  2. Meiner Meinung nach geht es bestimmt nicht darum, dass Schüler(innen) sich schuldig fühlen, eher dass man ihnen hilft, kritisch darüber nachzudenken. - oder habe ich das alles falsch verstanden?

    Was mich noch weiter interessieren würde, wären die möglichen unterschiedlichen von Schüler(Innen) aus verschiednen Ländern

    Einstellungen zu dem Film und zwar zu dem Thema.

    Grüsse aus England,

    Chris.

  3. Hi,

    it strikes me that the crucial step that is often missed is that there is an insufficiently strong relationship between schools and their LEA, who might  reasonably be expected to promote, provide and/or broker adequate training opportunities to a wider audience.

    chris.

    Hi there folks!!

    As you may have seen from my biography I have been working closley with BECTA and the Dfes looking at the way in which ICT has influced the education sector in the last 5 years.

    With schemes such as Laptops for Teachers and the Interactive whiteboard initiative there is growing interest within the sector to see which way the ICT market will go now.

    We supplied many of the schools in the UK this year with their Laptops and Audio Visual needs, and was suprised by the lack of basic understanding that teachers had in regards to the technology.

    We have also trained teachers to use the smartboards, em panels etc, and  I have found that the education sector overlook the need for training as they believe that if one person in a school knows how to use the equipment then surely, so should everyone else!!

    Do you find that this is this the case??

    Also I would like to know, from any teachers, what their thoughts are on future developments in ICT and Audio Visual products within education.

    Thanks and Good Luck to you

  4. Hello!

    My name is Chris. I was a teacher for French and German for 23 years, before leaving the classroom to work for a Local Education Authority. I am now a 'generalist' working to support schools in developing and improving their work with pupils - mainly in the 11-18 age range. I also work in primary modern languages provision and support for the educaitonal provision for gifted and talented pupils.

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