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Posts by Trevek  

Joined: 21 May 2008 / Male ♂
Last Post: 12 Jul 2016
Threads: Total: 26 / In This Archive: 5
Posts: Total: 1,700 / In This Archive: 280
From: Olsztyn
Speaks Polish?: not a lot
Interests: varied

Displayed posts: 285 / page 8 of 10
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Trevek   
16 Mar 2009
UK, Ireland / Anti-Polish sentiment of England [253]

They wont be able to get jobs if polish graduates come here and take jobs.

Well, the UK grads are already in the country and they speak English... what's to stop them going to get the jobs first?

The problem is that a lot of UK degrees are not really training for a job, they're a preliminary to get your foot in the door (of a call-centre job).
Trevek   
9 Mar 2009
UK, Ireland / restaurant in elgin [7]

What are you doing in Elgin anyway?

Maybe he's lost his marbles!
Trevek   
8 Mar 2009
Work / New English 'teacher' in Poland (I have no qualifications). [119]

no conclusive link has been shown between a declarative knowledge of grammar and the standard of L1 production. Encouraging students to use the language creatively has far more benefits and fosters language diversity.

You know that... and we know that... but the paying students know better.

non natives often learn it through written texts / gramatically.

Exactly.
Trevek   
8 Mar 2009
Work / New English 'teacher' in Poland (I have no qualifications). [119]

My kid told me that WILL was the future tense in English, for example........is that useful?[/quote]

Can thy spell? I remeber something called "Letterland", where all the letters had names. I asked my niece to spell out a word, something like "seven". All she could do was say "Eddie elephant" but not relate it to the sound of the letter.

Funny thing I find is that British kids make mistakes no Polish kid would make, such as "I must of lost it on the train"

no conclusive link has been shown between a declarative knowledge of grammar and the standard of L1 production. Encouraging students to use the language creatively has far more benefits and fosters language diversity.

We know that, and YOU know that but the students all know better.

[quote=Trevek]
By the way, has anyone else noticed that the new COUNTDOWN to FCE is a pile of poo.

No, this takes a new prize. It is so full of typoes and mistakes that it is unbeleivable. I wrote to the publishers and said that if they couldn't afford a decent proof-reader they could spend their money on me and I'd do a better job.
Trevek   
6 Mar 2009
Work / New English 'teacher' in Poland (I have no qualifications). [119]

Plus I don't feel like a native English speaker needs to know enough grammar as an ESL student because some things can be easily explained just by being a native speaker.

We don't. We just know (generally, but lots don't) how it is used instinctively (I mean, we know what sounds strange). European students tend to get trained solidly in their grammar, particularly Poles.

I had heard that in UK primary schools were starting to reintroduce grammar, bit by bit.
Trevek   
6 Mar 2009
Work / New English 'teacher' in Poland (I have no qualifications). [119]

If exams are the engine that drives the market, coursebooks are the fluffy dice and leopard skin seats that dress it up.

You're not wrong. I was running an Upper-Int course and I gave a mountain of extra material, practice of job interviews etc, but no unit tests (at least for a while). At last 2 poeple left because they said (to my boss), "I don't feel I'm making progress (no tests to prove it to them) and we've only done 3 units (semester hadn't finished and we'd started late).

Now I glue religiously to a book and they all love it!

I'm actually of the opinion these books aren't to teach students to speak with native speakers, they're to teach them to speak to other L2 speakers. Funnily enough, when 2 studes from different countries get together and parle Anglais it is not unknown for a native speaker to find it hard to understand. The L2's understand each other because they make similar mistakes. The mistake then ceases to be a mistake in their form of English.

One example was the French and Polish businessmen in a meeting with an English businessman. The Frenchman and Pole started talking about supply and delivery of cardboard boxes. They started joking about the "Karton Network" (pun on "Cartoon Network") but the English guy was mystified because he didn't get the word-play.

By the way, has anyone else noticed that the new COUNTDOWN to FCE is a pile of poo. It is so full of mistakes that my students wanted to know why they had to spend good money on a crap product (with mistakes they wouldn't make!).
Trevek   
6 Mar 2009
Work / New English 'teacher' in Poland (I have no qualifications). [119]

you can't bloody take money off people when you have absolutely no skill whatsoever to offer them. do you think that just speaking english qualifies you to teach it?!!

Who said the OP has no skill. They said they don't have experience or qualifications. He might have plenty to offer which another, qualified teacher doesn't.

If you get a decent student

It's not the decent ones I worry about. If I lose one of them then I need to get another job. It's the ones who have an idea of teaching from 50 years ago (even if they ar not 50) and cling to an idea that if they can recite a grammar chart (I don't have/use them, it was a bit of a joke) they'll somehow have the secrets of English unlocked...meanwhile they won't have to speak in class and can write everything during conversation pairwork (does this sound like I have one or two of these people?). Then they stop coming to class and complain that they couldn't understand the teacher and he never gave homework(read: they never did it) or never taught grammar, just because the elementary class didn't cover future perfect passive continuous in reported speech.

Ahhhhhh!

Sorry, was that a little off-topic?

(being at the mercy of people's willingness to treat you like a child)

Oh boy, do I agree with you there! People showing me how to cut wood (I didn't speak much Polish so I mustn't know how to do it... despite the fact I lived on the endge of a forest for a year!) or the lovely lady in the post office who explained to me about how I had to take the stamp... and wet it... and stick it on the envelope! It was just because she heard my accent, not because I don't speak Polish. Don't get me started on the story of the barman who insisted on explaining in English (after I asked him in Polish) about which beers were Polish in the bar.
Trevek   
5 Mar 2009
Work / New English 'teacher' in Poland (I have no qualifications). [119]

And if the English teacher is an English native, is this not suitable?

Depends of they actually understand about things like grammar and can actually speak Standard English. I'm not being snobby here. My first ELT job was in Macedonia. I was a graduate but knew nothing about grammar etc. The problem was that students would ask things like "Can you tell me about modal auxiliaries?" and I didn't have a clue. The other thing was that my own speech was so full of non-standard phrases and vocab that even the good students had trouble understanding me... and I wasn't even aware that I was so non-standard.

I don't agree that a teacher has to be grat in a forign language but it doesn't hurt to know something, if only to understand why the student might find it difficult (like no continuous in Polish, no articles etc).

quote=MrBubbles]
Use of jargon is another way the teacher feels more secure.[/quote]

The students too, occasionally. How many students have you lost because you didn't teach with a grammar chart and use all the terminology!

On the subject of using the L2, I've grown tired of being in pubs where I ask the barstaff for a beer and they insist on speaking English, even when I continue in Polish. In Mikolajki they jsut insisted on speaking German, even when they could hear we weren't German and I was speaking Polish (kind of pre-conditioned to talk German to foreigners, I suppose).[
Trevek   
5 Mar 2009
History / Why communism failed in Poland? [275]

Just exactly where does Nazi style "National SOCIALISM" differ with Stalinist socialism? I've never quite worked it out.
Trevek   
4 Mar 2009
Work / New English 'teacher' in Poland (I have no qualifications). [119]

I learned more Polish in Glasgow than in Poland. I actually don't get that much of a chance to use it (everyone insists on practising their bloody English!) but am pleasantly surprised when I realise how much I can use it.

Mind you, in Mazury it is a waste of time trying. As soon as they hear the foreign accent they either talk German or English!

Very cool. I'll use that tomorrow. Never thought about it before, but now it seems so obvious. Thanks.

You're welcome.
Trevek   
3 Mar 2009
History / Why communism failed in Poland? [275]

very good! you have pointed correctly that also the western puppet master is also responsible and guilty of killing individualism. and mass advertising does not kill individualism or does it propogate that the masses consume without thinking? and dare you not criticise our hotel in Pyongyang, would you like to compare Warsaw metro with Pyongyang metro? How is your Warsaw metro? Very good? I think not!!! One line only, very incomplete - look at metro built by socialist engineers in Pyongyang!

I think you have the wrong person. For a start, the case I am talking about was in the days before socialism/communism. They didn't kill individualism, they prosecuted these guys for swearing an oath to the union rather than the king.

I don't live in Warsaw (nor am I Polish), what about the London/Paris/NY/TYneside metros, which actually cover some distance more than the Warsaw one.
Trevek   
2 Mar 2009
Work / New English 'teacher' in Poland (I have no qualifications). [119]

What is Business English, aside from some specialized vocabulary? It's all about knowing how to communicate, and yes, I also teach business english. My background is 25 years in sales and sales management, so I have a little experience in the field.

I sometimes feel awkward doing a class with business directors, managers etc using a book such as "Market Leader" (classic book) and explaining the ideas of business philosophy to someone who earns more in an hour than I do in a day.

Poland's a Catholic country so everyone knew about fasting, but they called it "post".

Do you ever get that amazed reaction of realisation when you tell them that to stop fasting is to "break fast"?
Trevek   
2 Mar 2009
News / Poland..wake up to a multicultural world [1059]

If u need to progress, you need a multicultural society,made up of whites, yellows, browns, blacks.

I guess this guy has never been to Warsaw, then.

Even in Olsztyn we have that mix.

however we can't say to black guy who's his great grand father born in UK or brought as slave he's not welcome as it was said by white guy who his father is Irish.

he's as british as the queen if not more(german ancestor) or prince charles(greek father).

Maybe this will explain a few things:
Trevek   
2 Mar 2009
UK, Ireland / More Polish workers leaving the Isles [28]

I have a friend or two in Norway at the moment, they didn't even bother going to UK/Ireland.

What I'm interested in is whethr any mass homecoming will just create a similar glut of over-qualified people with no jobs. A colleague who is a banker suggested that actually the ones who stayed in Poland might be in a better position than SOME of those who left.
Trevek   
2 Mar 2009
History / Why communism failed in Poland? [275]

If an Irish man disobayed the English Empire he was sent to Australia.

Not just the Irish. It was standard thing in Britain too. Never heard of the Tolpuddle Martyrs who were transported for swearing an oath to form a trade union?
Trevek   
2 Mar 2009
Life / City Pole versus country Pole [27]

villages in the UK are expensive to purchase property in.

Yep. In Poland people build new homes or buy weekend homes. In UK it is possible to find whole villags with no farmers, just BMWs and Mercedes. The townies upped the price so that many locals couldn't afford to live in their own village. Some villages are now running protectionist policies to stop this.

Poland hasn't caught onto that yet, at least not where I am.
Trevek   
2 Mar 2009
UK, Ireland / More Polish workers leaving the Isles [28]

A recent article in Newsweek said many of the Poles leaving UK were heading to Scandinavia, especially Norway.
Trevek   
2 Mar 2009
Life / City Pole versus country Pole [27]

Funny you should say that... I was at a Christmas service in a Greco-Catholic church in a little £emko mountain village. The altar boys were wearing Adidas tops.
Trevek   
2 Mar 2009
Work / New English 'teacher' in Poland (I have no qualifications). [119]

I'd suggest a grammar book like Murphy or, even better Heinneman for the explanations of the grammar.

It's pretty common to find yourself trying to explain a structure using the very structure you're trying to explain. "We use the present continuous when we are doing something".

Keep some pictures handy (postcards, things from magazines etc). You can ask the student to speak about them, compare them etc and use it as a basis for vocabulary/adjectives/prepositions etc. You can also use it as the starting point for a conversation etc.

Write a list of interview questions to ask the student. It'll give you some idea of their level and where they need attention.
Trevek   
2 Mar 2009
History / Why communism failed in Poland? [275]

It had Communism forced on it through conquest.
betrayal is what it was.. there was no conquest.. may want to crack a history book
.

Urrm, have cracked a few. If you want to argue semantics then lets say it was imposed through invasion and external imposition, rather than internally generated.

the collectives was a farming policy.. we collected for them/you.


Yes, but the farmers who owned private land were never given a coherent policy or allowed to develop. They weren't given access to credit or the ability to buy decent equipment. That's why they are in such a cr@p state now.
Trevek   
1 Mar 2009
Life / City Pole versus country Pole [27]

I worked with a village based theatre near Olsztyn. A lot of young college/university students came to visit and were interested in the village music and dances which the group used.

What was interesting was that when speaking with people I often heard the same thing; townies were interested because this contact with village cultur gave them a sense of their "Polishness". Howevr, village kids often gave trad culture a wide berth, as if it was an embarrassment to them.

Educationwise, facilities are usually a million miles better in the towns. hard to get someone to work in a village school.
Trevek   
1 Mar 2009
History / Why communism failed in Poland? [275]

I'd suggest part of the "problem" was that unlike places like Russia and Cuba, where there was a revolution, Poland didn't have a revolution. Inter-war Poland was not in the kind of situation which inspired revolutions as in Russia. It had Communism forced on it through conquest.

Probably the fact it was Russian communism didn't endear it people either. Even Stalin famously said that introducing Communism to Poland would be like putting a saddle on a pig.

Secondly, I'd suggest that internal squabbles amongst the party prevented necessary social reforms being made and resulted in hard-line tactics of oppression being used repeatedly to enforce crumbling regimes (each leader seemed to repeat the mistakes of the past ones). The failure to create a decent farming policy probably didn't help either.
Trevek   
28 Feb 2009
News / How many prisons are there in Poland? [9]

I once performed with a theatre company in a £odż prison. Crazy thing was that I'd lost my passport a few weeks before and I needed photo-ID to get in. The only thing I had was my RBS bank card (with security photo). That was ok to let me in (and out).

Funny, most people get into prison when they use SOMEBODY ELSE'S card.
Trevek   
28 Feb 2009
Life / City Pole versus country Pole [27]

Town people buy places in the country and get them decorated to look like Góral cottages, spend the summer being village people then moan about the poor conditions and run back to the town in the winter.

Around Olsztyn all the townies are building in the villages cos the old farmers are selling their land. Seriously, one week there's a field and the next month ther is an estate.
Trevek   
26 Feb 2009
Law / Applying for Russian VISA in Poland [7]

There are visa websites, just Google.

If you're not resident in Poland they'll probably tell you to return to UK and apply there. I am resident and e-mailed Russian Embassy in London. They told me to contact Warsaw... that was 3 months ago and still no reply!

What they want is proof of entry and exit and proof of where you are staying (usually an official hotel).
Trevek   
25 Feb 2009
UK, Ireland / Supermarkets in Poland: differences and similarities to the UK. [62]

on supermarkets (Tesco and Carrefour) in Poland

Tesco in Olsztyn is a cr@p hole. The till staff are often largely temps and the service is often hellishly slow (especially at night... I thought 24 hour service meant they opened 24 hours, not that it took 24 hours to gt served). Attitude often unfriendly.

The "safety" aspct would cause heart failure to any Brit inspector. Pallets left in the middle of the floor, spilt liquids not cleaned up (and disinterested shrugs when the staff ar informed), dangerous overhead shelves. The check-out system is difficult for baskets retrieval. Oftn there are no baskets available for new customers because the queue and the sweet stands mean the staff can't get used baskets back for new customers. Customers often have to find their own.

In both Tesco and Carrefour (and other supermarkets) Alcohol is sold in a special inner area and the receipt shown on exit of the main shop, unlike UK stores where it is just on normal shelves.

Probably more promotion/demos of produce than in UK stores. Displays often messier after clothes etc have just been dumped back.

I notice the workers don't have knee cushions, as they do in UK after a few court cases, also less likely to have full uniform. Female workrs seem to have a desire to reveal their buttock cleavage when stacking lower shelves (hey, Tesco aint all bad, I suppose).

The shops also shut on major religious holidays and commemorative holidays (whereas we money grabbing Brits would probably open up)
Trevek   
24 Feb 2009
UK, Ireland / Dublin city centre - interesting places to see [33]

KIlmainham Prison is interesting, particularly if you want to learn something about Ireland's political struggles. It's been a few years since I was in Dublin, but basically walking along the river and soaking up the atmosphere is great in itself.

I think the pub O'Donoghues is worth a visit. It's where groups like The Dubliners first played. Dublin bar-staff are some of the best in the world and have to be seen inaction.