Years ago I had a student show me her homework essay after it had been corrected by her high school English teacher… you guessed it, the student’s English was almost perfect and every correction the teacher made was wrong!
most worrying - this was at the no.2 girls’ senior high school in Taipei!
Have they got any better since then? (1994).
My gf just bought a book that translates as something like “100 must-know word roots in English” by someone called Ruby, who according to the blurb is the world’s best English teacher, has this degree and that important piece of paper, and has taught at top schools in Taiwan. The general theme is that many English words are composed of little chunks akin to the radicals in Chinese writing. The way she’s done it is to pick random words out of the dictionary, break them down, and give examples of their use to illustrate the meaning.
OK concept as far as it goes, and most of the book is pretty good, but there are some absolute HOWLERS in there too, where she either hasn’t understood the word, or doesn’t appreciate that it is obsolete/rarely used/technical and specific. Since I don’t have it to hand with me, the only ones that spring to mind are:
- “solarize”, which is accompanied by the example phrase “you must solarize plants as well as water them”. “solarize” in the agricultural sense does mean “to expose to sunlight” … but the purpose is to kill unwanted plants. It’s more often used as a technical term in photography or image processing.
- “peregrination”, which I have never heard anyone use in my entire lifetime. The example was “the peregrination of the Jews was [something something]”. I’m sure it was.
- “photon”, which has the wonderful example “the easiest way to see photons is with a microscope”. Duh. Now why didn’t Heisenberg think of that?
- “vacuum”, which is apparently composed of the word roots “vac” and “uum”. My Latin is a bit rusty, but I thought “vacuum” was simply the Latin word for “empty”.
There are some even funnier ones (mostly, with utterly obscure words being used in mundane sentences), but I can’t remember the exact phrasing of the examples. If you happen to be in a bookshop, I recommend a quick look, just for a laugh.
This woman is, presumably, raking it in by being an in-demand expert. There’s no mention in the blurb of her ever living abroad.
[quote=“steev”]Years ago I had a student show me her homework essay after it had been corrected by her high school English teacher… you guessed it, the student’s English was almost perfect and every correction the teacher made was wrong!
most worrying - this was at the no.2 girls’ senior high school in Taipei!
Have they got any better since then? (1994).[/quote]
Definitely not! Their use of preposition is still, at best, atrocious.
[quote=“steev”]Years ago I had a student show me her homework essay after it had been corrected by her high school English teacher… you guessed it, the student’s English was almost perfect and every correction the teacher made was wrong!
most worrying - this was at the no.2 girls’ senior high school in Taipei!
Have they got any better since then? (1994).[/quote]
you are asking? if a English second language teacher (s) in general have learned how to correct English homework?
That is all that matters, really. Your girlfriend also bought the book. On the one hand, I find it horrible what goes on in the English teaching field here. On the other hand, I often wonder if I should just become completely Machiavellian and try to get myself a piece of that action.
That is all that matters, really. Your girlfriend also bought the book. On the one hand, I find it horrible what goes on in the English teaching field here. On the other hand, I often wonder if I should just become completely Machiavellian and try to get myself a piece of that action.[/quote]
You should.
[quote=“finley”]- “vacuum”, which is apparently composed of the word roots “vac” and “uum”. My Latin is a bit rusty, but I thought “vacuum” was simply the Latin word for “empty”.
[/quote]
In vacuo veritas
[quote=“SFOD-D”][quote=“steev”]Years ago I had a student show me her homework essay after it had been corrected by her high school English teacher… you guessed it, the student’s English was almost perfect and every correction the teacher made was wrong!
most worrying - this was at the no.2 girls’ senior high school in Taipei!
Have they got any better since then? (1994).[/quote]
you are asking? if a English second language teacher (s) in general have learned how to correct English homework?[/quote]
Perchance you should learn how to write English before you blather on about the acquisition thereof.
[quote=“jimipresley”][quote=“SFOD-D”][quote=“steev”]Years ago I had a student show me her homework essay after it had been corrected by her high school English teacher… you guessed it, the student’s English was almost perfect and every correction the teacher made was wrong!
most worrying - this was at the no.2 girls’ senior high school in Taipei!
Have they got any better since then? (1994).[/quote]
you are asking? if a English second language teacher (s) in general have learned how to correct English homework?[/quote]
Perchance you should learn how to write English before you blather on about the acquisition thereof.[/quote]
are you insane? me learn English? it would be easier to teach it.
Nope. Not only that when students correct these teachers they hold grudges and are very mean to many students. Not all but a great majority in our area are like this 
our latest is a grade 9 student handed in an essay for the teacher to correct before she did an oral presentation. He changed the tense completely despite it being about childhood friends.
If you can’t do, then teach (like me).
Everyone who teaches English believes their a teacher now.
The term ‘teacher’ has become so relaxed that anybody can be called this.
I teach someone how to play a computer game, I am called a teacher.
As long as I am using the verb ‘teach’ I can be classed a teacher.
The question is one of separating the crummy teachers from the few good ones, which there are not many.
[quote=“marshmallow21”]Everyone who teaches English believes their a teacher now.
…
The question is one of separating the crummy teachers from the few good ones, which there are not many.[/quote]
Maybe we could come up with some system based on, I don’t know, discrimination of homophones in the language?
[quote=“ironlady”][quote=“marshmallow21”]Everyone who teaches English believes their a teacher now.
…
The question is one of separating the crummy teachers from the few good ones, which there are not many.[/quote]
Maybe we could come up with some system based on, I don’t know, discrimination of homophones in the language?[/quote]
I was waiting to see who would say/write it.