RMweb Premium NGT6 1315 Posted November 8, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted November 8, 2011 Morning all. Can't see much of anything outside yet as sunrise won't be before about 7.26. Just one course today, which is good, too. I think I shall need another cup of coffee, though. Cheers everyone! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 Morning All, It is just starting to get light here, and the day doesn't look too inspiring. It is dry, but very grey and there is a definite nip in the air. I have another day of software testing to look forward to. Have a good one everybody! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonBradley Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 Dominic said "one course today" Would that be the starter, soup, fish, entre, main course or desert? It's got rather gloomy now, and a cold wind is blowing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDolfelin Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 Mucky day. Suitable for getting a haircut. May as well get them all cut while I'm there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium NGT6 1315 Posted November 8, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted November 8, 2011 Dominic said "one course today" Would that be the starter, soup, fish, entre, main course or desert? How does "second language acquisition" grab you? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium eldavo Posted November 8, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted November 8, 2011 Morning All, Full set of oktas in place. Today should be mostly finishing up wiring and fitting a couple of point motors to the Waton fiddleyard. That's assuming I can get myself motivated and walk down to the shed. No real excuses as all the bits I didn't have in stock arrived yesterday. Have a good one all. Cheers Dave Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon s Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 (edited) Morning all.. Been absent for a couple of days taking ET apart and shipping it off to the log store/local dump. Great to have an empty room again, but I'll have to get my skates on before Mrs S reclaims it as hers. As an ex hi fi buff, I was interested to read about speakers. In my heyday, I tried several over a 10 year period, eventually settling on a pair of Shahinian omni directionals, which I would never part with. They're made in your neck of the woods, Pete. Medford in NY State, but knowing the size of the US, it could be as far as Spain is to the UK for all I know. Edit: Just looked it up on a map and Medford is up towards the Hamptons, so perhaps I should visit them. They have an open invitation for owners to go to the factory. On second thoughts maybe not, they'll try and sell me some new ones... Edited November 8, 2011 by gordon s Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewC Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 Morning all. Tis another dull day here in the boring borough. The upside is I get to work from home again today. No sardine commute on the jubbly line for me. The downside is trying to get up to speed with 2 newer versions of MS Office at once. Company laptop went from 2003 to 2007 last week and my own PC went from Vista to Win 7 with Office 2010 over the weekend. Throw in a pile of documentation that is needed yesterday and let the fun begin. Now for several hours of Powerpoint poisoning and SharePoint shenanegins. Tony: hope your MIL is feeling better. Perhaps a wagon kit to keep her occupied. Always works for me. Time for more coffee. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sixoh8sixoh Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 Morning all. Full set of gently leaking oktas here this morning coupled with fairly low visibility. Not sure if it's continued haar or just the cloud and rain. Went climbing last night and by the time I left the climbing wall the temperature was plummeting but the view across to Fife was crystal clear. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold SouthernRegionSteam Posted November 8, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 8, 2011 Morning all. If only packing and going off to the Yorkshire Dales for a week was that simple! I honestly don't know how I'd survive at the moment if I hadn't been living at home - money would be a serious issue as I am still jobless until the summer... as per everyone else, I've applied for jobs but had no reply! Still, I had a really good weekend as I went up to see my best mate in Bristol Uni. Stuck in a maths lecture at the moment, half falling asleep! 3 hours is a long time of maths on a tuesday morning... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted November 8, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 8, 2011 Morning all. I was awake early, but I haven't done much today. I spent all yesterday afternoon reconnecting amplifier and speakers. I think we will be keeping the old ones as it would appear that my efforts are "very neat". I now also have a collection of various leads that were in the Sony receiver cabinet but didn't appear to go anywhere. Not as impressive as my brother's collection of leads, he could tour with them as an art exhibit. Andrew, I'll suggest a wagon kit to MiL but as painting is one of her hobbies perhaps I should give her a weathering commission. Tony Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted November 8, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 8, 2011 How does "second language acquisition" grab you? I wish I could. German at school was taught so that an exam could be passed rather than allowing communication to take place! Aditi was used to two languages as a small child and then added English when she came to England. Her father insisted that they should only speak English at home but I know that some conversations (some sentences even) involved 3 languages. My FiL could understand (and read the script) for about 6 languages that he encountered as a child. His family moved around a lot. Tony Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 I've moved around a lot and still can't grasp more than one language. I gave it up as a bad job years ago (to think of all the years I wasted, too). I just cannot think in terms of more than one language whilst some people can do it effortlessly. This incapacity is something that educators ought to be aware of (and another reason I gave up schooling so early). I know I'm not stupid. Best, Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sixoh8sixoh Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 I've got degree level French and Spanish, conversational Italian, A Level Latin, and a smattering of (ancient) Greek, German, Russian medieval French and middle English. But set me any maths problem involving calculus, differential equations or even long division and I'll look at you blankly and hide in a corner... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted November 8, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 8, 2011 This incapacity is something that educators ought to be aware of (and another reason I gave up schooling so early). I know I'm not stupid. I agree. No matter how hard I tried I wasn't very good at languages and at things like music, art and woodwork I was utterly useless. It didn't help to be told that this was due to laziness or stupidity. The same theme occasionally re-occurs on model rail forums, someone expresses the opinion that anyone should be able to recreate a live steam z gauge model of Puffing Billy like they have and failure to do so is due to some lack of moral fibre! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted November 8, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 8, 2011 In today's newspaper there is an article stating that university students who gain firsts will be offered £20000 to train as teachers. Less money for second class degrees and no funding for anyone with a third. I got a third in Chemical Physics. This was quite a difficult subject and I had to work hard to get this result. When I started as a teacher it was actually understanding why students didn't understand something that I think made me a good teacher. In my last job I taught computing so all that needed was an ability to count to 2 so even I was OK. I was however given the task of taking a class of students who had failed GCSE maths a number of times. The students said they liked me as I wasn't clever like all the other maths teachers! They did pass. As mentioned earlier my wife is rather good at languages but was very weak at mathematics as a child. Her family as well as being adept linguists are also very good at maths. They couldn't accept that her numeracy was due to anything other than laziness. It was only when her father employed a tutor so that she could pass O level maths that whatever was causing the problem was sorted. Actually even many years later Aditi still resents that people in her family treated her as stupid. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 I wish I could. German at school was taught so that an exam could be passed rather than allowing communication to take place! That is sadly very true. I am fortunate enough to speak three languages reasonably well - English, French and German. Learning languages doesn't come naturally for me and my second and third languages have been hard fought. French was the first language I learned. I started learning at school from around four years old - but once I got to secondary school, most of my learning was done in France on holidays. I never did German at school - I did two years at evening class and then moved to Germany thinking I could "get by". It was a rude awakening when I got here! What Tony said is also very true. Not everybody is capable of doing every thing. Some are skilled at learning languages, some are skilled with their hands. Everybody can probably do pretty much anything to a certain standard but there are limits. I, for example, couldn't probably create a live steam model of anything! During my first few years of school I was told that I was useless at Maths, and the teacher used to tell me that I had a lack of moral fibre. I believed it for years, and it was only later with a different teacher that I realised I could do it. I'm no mathematician - but I did manage to get a degree in Engineering! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted November 8, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 8, 2011 People develop at different rates. Matthew had learning difficulties and only just did well enough in GCSE to start A level. During the lower sixth year ways of resolving these problems were found and although his AS results were not spectacular he was able to achieve excellent grades in his A2 year. If he had been a year later he wouldn't have been allowed to start an A level course at the college and the GCSE resit options were very limited. Further Education (Technical Colleges) used to be available for those whose school education hadn't worked out but the range of courses now available isn't like it was years ago. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium skipepsi Posted November 8, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted November 8, 2011 Afternoon all, late today failed to set the alarm and was woken by irate son at 8.15. Part of my job is to sort out what is going on with children who are acting out in school so rooting out difficulties accessing education is one strand of it. The number of children that have a naughty reputation and are dyslexic is silly. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted November 8, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 8, 2011 Afternoon all, late today failed to set the alarm and was woken by irate son at 8.15. Part of my job is to sort out what is going on with children ... ... hope today's session wasn't "Time Management". Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium skipepsi Posted November 8, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted November 8, 2011 Think I could win 'Husband most likely to annoy wife award.' today more than any other day Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium NGT6 1315 Posted November 8, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted November 8, 2011 During my first few years of school I was told that I was useless at Maths, and the teacher used to tell me that I had a lack of moral fibre. I believed it for years, and it was only later with a different teacher that I realised I could do it. I wish I had come across this kind of teacher in my day... I'd been reasonably good at maths before about my 9th year, but was then taken off duty for about two weeks due to a bad case of the flu - just when algebra and then calculus were being introduced. I never did catch up on what I missed during that period and kept struggling for the rest of my time at school, lacking a sufficient degree of understanding of complex maths as I was. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium eldavo Posted November 8, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted November 8, 2011 My first language is Java but I am fluent in C, Algol, Pascal, Fortran, Basic, Cobol and a number of flavours of Assembler. I can sometimes make myself understood in English and can order a beer (or two) in several languages. Cheers Dave Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold BoD Posted November 8, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 8, 2011 Ah, one of the old Cobolers then. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDolfelin Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 Fortrain should be useful in the shed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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