Social Jocasta Nu's Coffee House

I am Polish, too, but the only words I know are the ones for "brother" and "sister." It will be interesting to hear how this all develops.

 

Ah, Dzien Dobry! Jak sei masz?

PRONOUNCED: "Gen Dobry! Yak sheh mash" - the 'mash' as in machine.

MEANS: Hello! How are you?

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[b]NP[/b], I'd be grateful if you could tell me the two words you know are in Polish, spelling and phonetically if possible. [face_happy]
I'll add them to my spreadsheet of foreign words (mainly Spanish, but other languages as I encounter them).

[quote=MASTERPRENN]It's a great oppurtunity to learn parts of a new language, and teach her some engilsh. [/quote]

Yeah, what he said.

 

Sithy, I think www.freetranslation.com (possibly www.free2translation.com) does Polish if you really get in a bind.

 

I can say "sister" and "brother" (my personal favorite, you'll see why )

"sister" is siostra, pronounced "shows-trah"
"brother" is brat, basically the same as the English word.

My grandmother sent me a "Learn Polish" tape once but I lost it and those are all I can remember.

 

Well now, what a good discussion. My grandfather is full Polish, so I guess I have a pretty big percentage of it in my blood. But the only Polish word I know is dupa.

 

Not a drop of Polish blood in me! 100%...well, not 100% of anything. 100% non-Polish.

NP, you pronounce that brat as in what you call an annoying kid or as in short for Bratwurst?

 

Thanks, DVC and NP!

'Brother' in Russian is brhat, so the Polish spelling is very close.

Things are going better, though apart from cleaning the shop (internet cafe), and doing a fantastic job on the keyboards, there hasn't been much for her to do, work-wise, so we've gone over her four and five times tables, manually working out percentages as they relate to interest on a savings account (fer-rag, that was a disaster) and covering more words.

My favourite piece of conversation today:

Sithy - So what's your favourite animal then?

Student - Horse

Sithy - And where did you first see one, since you've never seen a cowboy film, you say.

Student - In my country

Sithy - Where in your country?

Student - In my best friend.

Sithy - IN your best friend?! How big is she?! The size of a barn? Sheez, I bet you never got picked on at school with a best friend like that. Wow.


Yeah, we covered IN, ON, OVER and UNDER and how they change the meanings of sentences.

I think she is enjoying her time here; fast learner. Though I need to rethink how to tackle percentages, cos that was a clusterfrag.

Oblivion, what does dupa mean then?

 

Oh geez. I bet you two will have a fun time with conversations like that. It reminds me of some of my early German classes. Two beginning German students trying to carry on a conversation with a limited vocabulary = lots of creativity and some major giggles (not to mention major language butchery.)

 

Anyone around here play(ed) Everquest?

The name of that Barbarian town/starting area, Halas is Polish for 'noise'. Another word is szum (pronounced 'shoom').

We found our own English-Polish translator (only goes one way) at http://akson.sgh.waw.pl/~anthon/slownik.html after I took on trying to explain the difference between hardware and software.

Definite progress on her times tables. Ace'd the eleven and twelve times, but still having difficulty with threes and fours.

 

Butt. Hence the .

 

Cheers, Oblivion

Good thing with her is that although I let her choose about ten words she doesn't know from some rweading matter, and I've decided to let her bring in a different book each day, there are subsequent words that I'm discovering she doesn't know.

Had to explain what a blanket is before I could use it as an explanation on what 'damping' as relates to a car means.

And the pretentious article writer that wrote: "the name Maserati conjures a thousand images" - thanks mate. Explaining 'conjure' in a non rabbit-out-of-hat scenario made for an interesting morning.

 

I've spoke English all my life and I couldn't recite the three or four times tables...just because I never bothered to memorize them (is there no "tongue sticking out smiley" or am I just a moron who's incabable of finding it?)

 

[image=http://forums.randi.org/images/smilies/irony.gif]

Sephy, I often find the tongue smiley to be a challenge to find as well (any smiley I'm actually looking for for that matter). It's on the third row from the top, fourth from the left if you're looking at the drop-down list. Or you could just type [face_ tongue] (without the space).

 

Ironically, when I called my self a moron, my question was answered by Mo Wronn himself.

But, today was actually a pretty good day. One of those days where you'r like "Frag it, I got so much done today, I can take, like, a week off from caring about anything." Except I actually can't because I've got a Sithload of homework to make up before the end of the year.

But seriously, I earned Life Scout (the rank before Eagle in the BSA) today, so in six short months, I could be Eagle and throw that onto every job application, college application etc.

It was also announced today that my play will be performed in our school's annual Student Play Festival next year.

 

on earning Life Scout! Well done!

Nice looking play there, though obviously you've blown your internet anonimity to the four winds since it says who the play is by - wanna change that?

Whoever plays Lyle is in for a serious monologue in the middle somewhere, hehe.

As for you not learning your times tables, from the moment I decided to actively augment whatever education my work experience 15-year olds have been receiving, all three, from wildly differing schools, have all had to start from sratch with their tables.

 

Congrats on the play, that is awesome. I bet it will be fun to see something you've written come to life.

 

I'd wouldn't really do much good to edit the prescence of a name when my picture is right next to the blog. Until someone comes knocking on my door, threatening me because he/she disagrees with me about my theories of Ood Bnar training a pre-Sithified Darth Plaguies or Darth Sidious existing as early as the KOTOR era and just doing a lot of body-hopping until deciding to stick with Palpatine for as of yet unexplained reasons, until that happens, I won't be too concerned about Internet anonymity.

And yeah, the monologue is huge. Seeing the person that gets cast as Lyle (because my only bits of creative control happened before I even submitted the play) stumbling over that monologue may be the best part of seeing it onstage.

 

Indeed.

Congrats on the play.

I've always dreamed of something that I've written being brought to verisimilitude.

 

Sithy vs the Student - Episode III

Ah, it was going so well. I thought she doing so well with her times tables and other stuff, I was going to teach her to create her own web page, doing simple HTML on Notepad.

So she selected a picture of a horse from Google, wrote something about it in Word, went to lunch, and did not come back. Didn't phone in either.

Sithy vs the Student - Episode IV

So, this is where I had to dip into the Dark Side of 'work experience'. Since this is supposed to simulate being in work for the child, the whole Verbal Warning, Final Warning disciplinary procedure has to apply, so they don't try this guano in the grown-up world, and it costs them a job.

She came in first thing, at 0900 (I normally stipulate that she arrive at 1000) - thank Feth I ran for that train - so I cut her off, sat her at a table and ignored her while I opened up, turned machines on, apprised myself of overnight RPF activity (my, Exiles was busy! ), then 'Operation Can-of-worms', I visited Google.pl to find the online translator she was using yesterday.

I only meant to keep her waiting for 8 minutes, but by time I'd translated and transcribed all things I needed to say in both languages, a good half hour had gone by.
Ah well:


"Deciding that you'll take the afternoon off, and NOT PHONING is not acceptable here, and not acceptable in the work place."

"Decyzja co (¿eby; który) wy bêdziecie braæ (przedsiêbraæ) po³udnie od, i NIE TELEFONOWANIE nie jest mo¿liwy do przyjêcia tutaj, i nie mo¿liwy do przyjêcia w praca (roboczy) miejsce."


Now, at 1041, she's at a far table, with instructions to restart PCs when customers leave; write a letter of apology explaining what happened (I'm taking liberties there ); and write out and learn all her tables until she's ready to be tested.

Sorry for the length. Oh yes, http://www.translate.pl/ rocks!

 

Wow Sithy...I'm glad i've never had to get a lecture with Sub-Titles before!


I can't belive she would take off and not call.

I know a couple people at my friends work (Arby's) decided they weren't going to phone either...and they don't get warnings there...

So, she doesn't speak much english...where the frag was she all day?

 

Well, she told me later that she had "large belly ache" and no credit in her phone. I told her that wouldn't wash in the world of work, and it is her responsibility to contact us.
Get fifty pence and go to a phone box, use a carrier pidgeon, whatever.

I can't belive she would take off and not call.

Thanks to the European Court of Human Rights, that overrides UK law, our schools are not allowed to discipline children, so they get used to doing what they like.

Now while I enjoy teaching, I don't have the same limitations as proper teachers.

I think my student now much prefers the 'make learning fun' version of me to the 'sit there till you have learned it' one.

 

Thanks to the European Court of Human Rights, that overrides UK law, our schools are not allowed to discipline children, so they get used to doing what they like.

Not to be mean but...God Bless America. With the EU and the Euro and all that going on across the pound, I'm glad to be in a country that actually governs itself (for the most part), and isn't being slowly drug into a world wide governement which, if you belive Revelations or any other prophets, signifies the end of the world. Rapture, Armegedon, Ragnorok, what ever.

And you Brits are still alot better off than some of the other countries. Atleast your PM (for those of you not savy with the English abreviations, that's Prime Minister) ((For those of you not savy with news either, his name is Tony Blair)) makes a great counterpart to our own president. Like the smart, geeky kid, being friends with the big dumb bully, who happens to be a world super power with Nukes.



Wait...what were we talking about...oh...right...

Yes, I think she would enjoy your "making learning fun" side. You'd just better hope she doesn't get a hold of some Shakespear...you'll have hell explaining words to her...


(Oh, and back to the smilies, if you're using IGNBQ, it's 9 faces in on the top row, directly under the color picker arrow)

 

Not to be mean but...God Bless America. With the EU and the Euro and all that going on across the pound, I'm glad to be in a country that actually governs itself (for the most part), and isn't being slowly drug into a world wide governement which, if you belive Revelations or any other prophets, signifies the end of the world. Rapture, Armegedon, Ragnorok, what ever.

Actually, I think that the United States (We're not the only America you know, there are all the South American countries, Mexico, and Canada who can all use the title America) non-participation in IGO's is part of the problem with our forign policy. I think that the EU is the best thing to happen to Europe, and I am largly in favor of it. Also, I think that the future of International Relations is going to be IGO's, so we need to jump on the bloody boat.

 

No, Global government is inpractical. Once they have us all under their thumb, Human Rights go the way of the Dodo.

Gun control will be the first thing, I'm betting. From there it's easy to arrange a hostile take over and send one man to be King of the world. Literealy.

Of course, this would end in Revolution, thousands dead, and the world thrown into a Chaotic Anarchy that will lead to the fall of the Human Race.

 

Hehehe...

I remember when DVC was activist.... way back in the day...

International Government is a weird kettle of fish. On one hand, Philosophers like Kant say its the only way for world peace. To have an overarching authority that can compel rouge nations and outlaw groups to fall into line. Its the enforcement mechanism to quell the anarchic world. And his arg does make sense, both philosophically and in the realm of International Relations Theory.

Yet.... International Gov will pretty much never happen. The need for soverignty is too strong... the EU itself is unprecidented in what its doing, and it is experiencing a heck of alot of problems. The Nation-State system is far too strong, countries, especially hegemon and rising powers will never relinquish their national perogative.

And in the end, thats all that matters, the powers of the big guns...

*Kicks back and relaxes*

-I_H