Re: [Unschooling-Discussion] Language Tidbits
[email protected]
In a message dated 7/9/2003 8:47:17 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
shantinik@... writes:
Greek!---foreign languages. Six years of French (first through sixth grade), two years of
Spanish in high school, and three years of college German.
I learned French the "normal school way"---drill, drill, and more drill. What
do I remember? cochon, mouton, vasche, cheval, chien, chat, tete, man (I'm
probably misspelling several of those! <G>)---and I'm VERY good with restaurant
French. But I'm *just* as good with restaurant Italian---no lessons!!!
I had two years of high school Spanish. The teacher entered the class and
said, "My name is Miguel Hernandez. I am from Panama, and this is the last
English you will hear me speak in class." Semi-immersion. I can still understand
s-l-o-w Spanish and read a good bit---haltingly.
I had one pathetic year of college German and then spent my junior year in
Germany and Austria. Then I married into the Air Force and spent three more
years there. Total immersion. I am basically fluent (my writing leaves a bit to be
desired, but I can read well and carry on an extended conversation---I don't
just translate: I think in German.
Five years of high school Latin and one college semester of Greek. I can
still translate Latin (and I remember most of the Lord's Prayer and Twinkle
Twinkle Little Star!), but all I remember in Greek is probably the letters! <G>
Having "learned" languages several different ways, I'm positive the typical
school drill is useless. Total immersion---"sink or swim"---works because it
HAS to.
People ask me all the time how to teach a child a foreign language. I tell
them to move to another country! <G>
~Kelly
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
shantinik@... writes:
> Anyway, it seems to have hit a nerve, and I've got some totallyI've been "exposed" to three---no, six, if you count Latin and
> hilarious e-mails back -- my favorite was another student of Russian,
> whose only remaining bit is knowing how to sing "It's a Long Road to
> Tipperary" (in Russian.)
>
> So, I thought a collection of these would make for a great future
> article (and might be fun to share here as well, if you choose). (Now
> I don't want to offend anyone -- if language teaching somehow worked
> for you, more power to it!) But I'd love to get a little collection --
> what linguistic flotsam-and-jetsam do you have hiding in your
> synapses, and which flossing doesn't reach?
>
> If you post it here, I'll assume I can use it (without attribution of
> course), unless you say otherwise? (or you can send it to me privately.)
Greek!---foreign languages. Six years of French (first through sixth grade), two years of
Spanish in high school, and three years of college German.
I learned French the "normal school way"---drill, drill, and more drill. What
do I remember? cochon, mouton, vasche, cheval, chien, chat, tete, man (I'm
probably misspelling several of those! <G>)---and I'm VERY good with restaurant
French. But I'm *just* as good with restaurant Italian---no lessons!!!
I had two years of high school Spanish. The teacher entered the class and
said, "My name is Miguel Hernandez. I am from Panama, and this is the last
English you will hear me speak in class." Semi-immersion. I can still understand
s-l-o-w Spanish and read a good bit---haltingly.
I had one pathetic year of college German and then spent my junior year in
Germany and Austria. Then I married into the Air Force and spent three more
years there. Total immersion. I am basically fluent (my writing leaves a bit to be
desired, but I can read well and carry on an extended conversation---I don't
just translate: I think in German.
Five years of high school Latin and one college semester of Greek. I can
still translate Latin (and I remember most of the Lord's Prayer and Twinkle
Twinkle Little Star!), but all I remember in Greek is probably the letters! <G>
Having "learned" languages several different ways, I'm positive the typical
school drill is useless. Total immersion---"sink or swim"---works because it
HAS to.
People ask me all the time how to teach a child a foreign language. I tell
them to move to another country! <G>
~Kelly
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[email protected]
In a message dated 7/9/2003 9:24:17 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
kbcdlovejo@... writes:
addition of restaurant Italian, it *could* be six! <G>
~Kelly
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
kbcdlovejo@... writes:
> I've been "exposed" to three---no, six, if you count Latin andI said I learned LANGUAGES, NOT math! <G> Try FIVE---although with the
> Greek!---
addition of restaurant Italian, it *could* be six! <G>
~Kelly
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[email protected]
> So, I thought a collection of these would make for a great futureI had 5 years of French in school which I loved. Mademoiselle was a former
> >article (and might be fun to share here as well, if you choose). (Now
> >I don't want to offend anyone -- if language teaching somehow worked
> >for you, more power to it!)
nun and scared me to death but I loved the language and can still read it pretty
well. I wanted to take Italian next but that wasn't offered at our school so
I chose Spanish. I had 2 years of Spanish and all I remember about that classs
is that every Friday we sang La Bamba while shaking maracas. To this day, I
know little Spanish except how to count to 10 which I had learned at 3 from
watching Sesame Street and the words to La Bamba. (I'm slowly learning a little
Spanish nowadays from my kids who love Dora the Explorer!)
Amy Kagey
Email me for a list
of used homeschooling books!
<A HREF="http://www.ubah.com/ecommerce/default.asp?sid=Z0939&gid=1684902">my Usborne Books website!</A>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[email protected]
In a message dated 7/9/2003 8:47:23 PM Eastern Standard Time,
shantinik@... writes:
memories.
I took German in Highschool, when most everyone else was taking Spanish and
French, probably because my paternal grandfather was born there. We had one of
those teachers that was very tired by the time we made it to his 11th grade
classroom. He was close to retirement age, and born in Germany. He didn't
always "get" our American sense of humor. His name was Mr. Schmidt.
Almost NONE of the language sunk in to ANY of us...probably 90 percent of us
squeeked by with a "C". One of the only things I remember was the
"Schnitzelbaum" (or was it Schnitzelbaun?) song. We'd pretend like we loved singing it
just to get ourselves out of more drills and quizzes..LOL!! He had a
picture/chart thing in the front of the room and as we got to each part of the song,
he'd point (with a long wooden pointer) at the picture we were supposed to be
singing about. He would sing (something like) "Ist das eine dickie Frau??" and
we'd sing back, "Ya, das ist ein Dickie Frau" (fat lady)...then we'd go back
around the whole chart repeating each word and sing the chorus. We'd get
totally boisterous and overdo it...of course he thought we were having the time of
our lives! :o)
Only other thing I really remember is how he'd go down each row, asking each
of us something in German, and we'd have to answer back in German to him. So
many of us were clueless! We'd get all dramatic, like we were on a game show
(someone in class would always make the "clock ticking" noise) then we'd blurt
out anything we could think of, right or wrong. The rest of the class would
clap and chime in "Good answer!! Good answer" family feud style. He'd look at
us exasperated, give the right answer, then call whoever as in the hotseat
"Dummkopf!!"
A few times if we were near "Old World" (a Germany style shopping center)
we'd pick him up some struedel for him and his face would light up. Never made a
difference in our grades though!!
But we all loved him...his heart was in the right place.
Nancy
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
shantinik@... writes:
> So, I thought a collection of these would make for a great futureTHis probably isn't what you're looking for, but it sure brought back
> article (and might be fun to share here as well, if you choose). (Now
> I don't want to offend anyone -- if language teaching somehow worked
> for you, more power to it!) But I'd love to get a little collection --
> what linguistic flotsam-and-jetsam do you have hiding in your
> synapses, and which flossing doesn't reach?
>
memories.
I took German in Highschool, when most everyone else was taking Spanish and
French, probably because my paternal grandfather was born there. We had one of
those teachers that was very tired by the time we made it to his 11th grade
classroom. He was close to retirement age, and born in Germany. He didn't
always "get" our American sense of humor. His name was Mr. Schmidt.
Almost NONE of the language sunk in to ANY of us...probably 90 percent of us
squeeked by with a "C". One of the only things I remember was the
"Schnitzelbaum" (or was it Schnitzelbaun?) song. We'd pretend like we loved singing it
just to get ourselves out of more drills and quizzes..LOL!! He had a
picture/chart thing in the front of the room and as we got to each part of the song,
he'd point (with a long wooden pointer) at the picture we were supposed to be
singing about. He would sing (something like) "Ist das eine dickie Frau??" and
we'd sing back, "Ya, das ist ein Dickie Frau" (fat lady)...then we'd go back
around the whole chart repeating each word and sing the chorus. We'd get
totally boisterous and overdo it...of course he thought we were having the time of
our lives! :o)
Only other thing I really remember is how he'd go down each row, asking each
of us something in German, and we'd have to answer back in German to him. So
many of us were clueless! We'd get all dramatic, like we were on a game show
(someone in class would always make the "clock ticking" noise) then we'd blurt
out anything we could think of, right or wrong. The rest of the class would
clap and chime in "Good answer!! Good answer" family feud style. He'd look at
us exasperated, give the right answer, then call whoever as in the hotseat
"Dummkopf!!"
A few times if we were near "Old World" (a Germany style shopping center)
we'd pick him up some struedel for him and his face would light up. Never made a
difference in our grades though!!
But we all loved him...his heart was in the right place.
Nancy
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Bill and Diane
My sister took Spanish so I learned to say, "Esta Susanna is la cocina?
Si, Susanna esta in la cocina.." I took a semester of Spanish for health
care providers and can say quite well, "Yo no hablo Espanol." I can also
say, Yo hablo Espanol muy poquito," but it's not quite as true.
My brother took German but I didn't get any phrases from it.
I took two years of Latin in high school and can do "This little piggy"
in Latin on my kids' toes. Even in my sleep I can conjugate bo bit bis
bimus bitus bunt, although perhaps not correctly. I also use words with
Latin roots every day. ;-)
:-) Diane
Si, Susanna esta in la cocina.." I took a semester of Spanish for health
care providers and can say quite well, "Yo no hablo Espanol." I can also
say, Yo hablo Espanol muy poquito," but it's not quite as true.
My brother took German but I didn't get any phrases from it.
I took two years of Latin in high school and can do "This little piggy"
in Latin on my kids' toes. Even in my sleep I can conjugate bo bit bis
bimus bitus bunt, although perhaps not correctly. I also use words with
Latin roots every day. ;-)
:-) Diane
Shelley & Donald Wurst
>One of the only things I remember was theOh gosh! This reminds me a LOT of my Algebra class in high school -- the teacher was the hockey coach, so all you had to do to get him totally sidetracked and avoid any lessons for the day was ask him a hockey question. It became a daily ritual, and I don't think any of us learned a darned thing about algebra (at least none that I can remember -- I DO remember not doing to well on his tests....)
>"Schnitzelbaum" (or was it Schnitzelbaun?) song. We'd pretend like we loved singing it
>just to get ourselves out of more drills and quizzes..LOL!!
--Shelley, Mommy to Jacob (2 1/2 yrs)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Harvest Moon -- harvest.moon@...
Working Rough and Smooth Collies
www.geocities.com/harvestmooncollies
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Shelley & Donald Wurst
>But I'd love to get a little collection --I know almost all the words to "Mac The Knife" in German, thanks to a play we put on where, as a first year German student, I had to fill in for a 4th year student (who spoke the language fluently) when she got chicken pox the week before the performance. I memorized the entire part, then promptly forgot it a week later -- I never knew what most of the words I was saying meant! 2 years of German, and that's all I remember.
> what linguistic flotsam-and-jetsam do you have hiding in your
> synapses, and which flossing doesn't reach?
Oh, well, that and of course "Ich bin ein Berleiner", which was made famous by JFK when he visited Berlin. He THOUGHT he was saying "I am a Berliner" (as in, "I am one of you"), when in fact he said "I am a Jelly Doughnut". That made enough of an impression on me to remember! LOL
--Shelley, Mommy to Jacob (2 1/2 yrs) and Gabriel (4 mos)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Harvest Moon -- harvest.moon@...
Working Rough and Smooth Collies
www.geocities.com/harvestmooncollies
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[email protected]
In a message dated 7/10/2003 7:57:19 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
harvest.moon@... writes:
to say anything (except recite English poems or ANYTHING in Latin---THAT was
beautiful! I could listen to her recite ALL day!). But Robert and I (there
were only two of us in the class---who wants to take more than the manatory two
years of two or three years of one foreign language requirement? Just us! <g>),
to avoid translating, would ask her a question about Roman customs or warfare
or religion or dress or architecture or.... It was a sure-fire way to kill
20-30 minutes! <G>
Robert and I would plan class time around what lines of The Iliad we each had
translated the night before! And when and what we should ask about to get her
sidetracked on to some tangential discussion. But I treasure that time
now--both the recitation AND the history lessons. She's a brilliant, fascinating
woman with an incredible love and knowledge of the Classics! And *I* learned A
LOT!
~Kelly
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
harvest.moon@... writes:
> Oh gosh! This reminds me a LOT of my Algebra class in high school -- theMy 4th & 5th year Latin teacher stuttered, so it took her a lo-o-o-o-ong time
> teacher was the hockey coach, so all you had to do to get him totally
> sidetracked and avoid any lessons for the day was ask him a hockey question. It
> became a daily ritual, and I don't think any of us learned a darned thing about
> algebra (at least none that I can remember -- I DO remember not doing to well
> on his tests....)
to say anything (except recite English poems or ANYTHING in Latin---THAT was
beautiful! I could listen to her recite ALL day!). But Robert and I (there
were only two of us in the class---who wants to take more than the manatory two
years of two or three years of one foreign language requirement? Just us! <g>),
to avoid translating, would ask her a question about Roman customs or warfare
or religion or dress or architecture or.... It was a sure-fire way to kill
20-30 minutes! <G>
Robert and I would plan class time around what lines of The Iliad we each had
translated the night before! And when and what we should ask about to get her
sidetracked on to some tangential discussion. But I treasure that time
now--both the recitation AND the history lessons. She's a brilliant, fascinating
woman with an incredible love and knowledge of the Classics! And *I* learned A
LOT!
~Kelly
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[email protected]
In a message dated 7/10/2003 6:56:26 AM Central Daylight Time,
harvest.moon@... writes:
was O'Hoolihan) and we did a take-off of an episode with all the doctors
singing humorous little ditties. Mine was
"Oh, the doctors in the army,
They think they're really bright
They work on patients thru the day
And nurses thru the night!" (but in French)
I believe we got a C+ LOL
Amy Kagey
Email me for a list
of used homeschooling books!
<A HREF="http://www.ubah.com/ecommerce/default.asp?sid=Z0939&gid=1684902">my Usborne Books website!</A>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
harvest.moon@... writes:
>This reminds me of my French class- we did a skit from the TV show M*A*S*H (I
> I know almost all the words to "Mac The Knife" in German, thanks to a play
> we put on where, as a first year German student, I had to fill in for a 4th
> year student (who spoke the language fluently) when she got chicken pox the
> week before the performance.
was O'Hoolihan) and we did a take-off of an episode with all the doctors
singing humorous little ditties. Mine was
"Oh, the doctors in the army,
They think they're really bright
They work on patients thru the day
And nurses thru the night!" (but in French)
I believe we got a C+ LOL
Amy Kagey
Email me for a list
of used homeschooling books!
<A HREF="http://www.ubah.com/ecommerce/default.asp?sid=Z0939&gid=1684902">my Usborne Books website!</A>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Betsy
**Several months ago, I had an article in Home Education Magazine called
"Geese" in which I detailed the efforts of my public school to teach
me Russian (I was a "Sputnik" baby).**
Hi, David --
I was born in 1959 and took a year and a half of Russian voluntarily
because I thought languages were cool. However, all I can remember are
the words for potato, and pencil, and how to pronounce CCCP* with great
rolling flair. Unfortunately they don't even call the country that any
more so it's an utterly useless utterance. <g>
I took 4 years of French in high school, also voluntarily, and retained
a lot of that because I was semi-semi-fluent and could read Asterix
comics and favorite children's novels translated into French, and as an
adult I kept on reading French children's books every so often.
It's tempting to push my son towards learning French just because I have
a great stack of books to use, but I won't.
Betsy
* Soyuz Sovietsky Socialastitchetsky Respooblic
"Geese" in which I detailed the efforts of my public school to teach
me Russian (I was a "Sputnik" baby).**
Hi, David --
I was born in 1959 and took a year and a half of Russian voluntarily
because I thought languages were cool. However, all I can remember are
the words for potato, and pencil, and how to pronounce CCCP* with great
rolling flair. Unfortunately they don't even call the country that any
more so it's an utterly useless utterance. <g>
I took 4 years of French in high school, also voluntarily, and retained
a lot of that because I was semi-semi-fluent and could read Asterix
comics and favorite children's novels translated into French, and as an
adult I kept on reading French children's books every so often.
It's tempting to push my son towards learning French just because I have
a great stack of books to use, but I won't.
Betsy
* Soyuz Sovietsky Socialastitchetsky Respooblic