No Lives Were Lost

I just got word via Twitter that the green tea Cokes arrived with no related fatalities. A picture of the unexploded bottles was put up by their recipient here. ;-)

Pronunciation Matters

When you're teaching a foreign language, explaining why pronouncing a word correctly is important is often a rather abstract concept for students. Often, they think you're being overly fussy or pedantic. The truth is that this impression is not always a false one. I've heard teachers who are from other countries go out of their way to correct an accent because it represents the pronunciation of native speakers from another country. Particularly, a lot of British people want to "correct" North American accents when the student's speech patterns would be comprehended just fine anywhere in the world.

My feeling has always been that, as long as what you say can be understood, it doesn't matter if its the pronunciation a native speaker would use. However, sometimes it's very important to get it straight so that you are not a laughing stock. If one ever needed a more perfect example of this, one need only turn to the very well known (amongst expatriates) Japanese Self Defense Force Navy commercial:



The words on the screen are telling you what they mean to say, but what you hear if you're not reading along is "semen sip for love." Seeing a bunch of dancing, prancing sailors say "semen sip for love," does not conjure up the intended image of peace-loving protectors so much as gay sailors who enjoy nothing more than some round robin acts of fellatio.

So, if you ever need to prove how important it is to get the pronunciation of words correct, you can just show this video to the students and explain the meaning a native speaker is going to get.

Pop Culture Icons

This morning, I ran across a bit of the new Star Trek movie trailer on 109.com. (Edit: There's a better version here.) You don't have to be a geek to like it, but it doesn't hurt. One of the things that struck me about the trailer was that the scenes of Kirk and Spock as kids were refreshing to see. The series has been around long enough that the characters have become iconic. In fact, they may actually be better known internationally than most iconic superhero characters, with the exception of Batman. Everyone who has been exposed to American entertainment culture knows the Batman, and everyone wants to be him. ;-) If you search YouTube, you can find some knock-off versions of the original Star Trek made by other countries. Some of them are rather hilarious, but it's clear that even those who never saw the original show know the concept from their own bastardized versions.

Anyway, most iconic characters are pretty fleshed out, but J.J. Abrams seems to have found a few nooks and crannies for the characters to showcase in the trailer (if not the movie itself). It looks pretty exciting, but then I am a fan of the original Trek. And, no, I'm not old enough to have seen the original series when it aired, but I am old enough to have seen it in syndication before Star Trek: The Next Generation aired.

Times are tough, for sure, but most of us can still afford to play video games online (I recommend Guild Wars because it has no monthly fee, or Diablo II because it's the most awesome game ever), take a walk, make yummy homemade food from scratch, or see the occasional escapist movie. Life is still pretty cool even when things seem to be crashing down around us. Seeing that trailer and looking forward to the movie reminded me of that.

Weird Things

After about 6 or so years in my former company, my boss (D.) and I were talking about the upcoming busy season and the temporary teacher pool he'd be hiring from. Each year, it seemed that we were getting fewer and fewer applicants and many of them were completely inappropriate. That is, about 30-50% weren't native speakers of English and therefore not qualified. If their résumés were any indication of ability, all of them weren't even close to being fluent in English either.

During the time we worked there, we hired a lot of people with little problems or who were just plain weird. One Australian girl, for instance, sat in her cubicle and meticulously "painted" the cord connecting the telephone receiver to the phone red with her pen (much to the irritation of D. who shared a cubicle with her). Another was rather anally-fixated on hygiene and when she ate any salted snack wouldn't put her hand down into the bag to grab bites. She tore the bag open along the top and back seam so it was flayed open and bits could be picked up from the exposed pile. This same co-worker was once aghast that my husband and I brushed our teeth at the kitchen sink as she thought it was appalling that we spit out our toothpaste in the same place where we washed dishes. However, somehow that became okay when we told her we only have one sink in the entire apartment and had no choice. Yet another temporary teacher ate a bowl of breakfast cereal at his desk upon arrival one day and was shocked that this would be considered inappropriate. When the president witnessed this behavior, he was incensed and docked the fellow's pay so we had to tell him the obvious - don't eat breakfast at your desk when you arrive, eat it at home before coming to work.

As we were discussing the parade of strange people we'd seen pass through and pondering what sort of oddballs might be coming our way in the future, I remarked that we really had to expect everyone to be weird because the truth is that we're all weird in our own ways. D. and I had worked together for so long though that we'd grown accustomed to each other's weirdness such that they didn't bother us so much anymore or seem particularly remarkable.

Sometimes I think it's useful to sit down and think about one's peculiarities just to be mindful of the fact that peculiar isn't only the purview of others. So, I present you with some of my particular weirdnesses at present. You may feel free to laugh at me or judge me harshly. Just don't tell me about it:

1. I haven't listened to music of any kind for at least 4 years. It's not that I hate new music or never liked music. I just have zero desire to listen to anything. This may be related to the fact that music has profound effects on me emotionally. I'm not sure, but it's odd even to me that music is just not a part of my life. That being said, sometimes I find myself singing songs to myself when I'm alone. This is very disturbing.
   
2. I don't like freshly made pasta, but I do like it reheated as leftovers.
3. I love being around people and talking to them, but I hate answering the phone and the door. I don't mind talking on the phone or having people visit. I just have an aversion to the unexpected and intrusive nature of either of them ringing.
   
4. I can't recall wanting to be considered "cool", even when I was younger. I'd rather be a dork (or dorkette if you prefer). I'm guessing I'm pretty successful at this.
   
5. I'm not embarrassed by my unavoidably "human" qualities and habits. For instance, I snore sometimes. Sometimes I snore loud enough to wake myself up. This does not embarrass me at all to admit. One of my coworkers once stated that everyone picks their nose (whether with a tissue or without) and anyone who claims he does not is a liar. This statement struck me as his having a refreshingly good attitude about the less savory aspects of being a meat sack with many unpleasant realities.
   
6. I don't like the use of the word "race" when describing people of different skin colors and ethnic origins so I always speak of "ethnicity" rather than "race" as I feel culture is a larger factor than blood in determining what people are like.
   
7. Despite never having lacked any of the basic necessities in life, I remember everyday that I'm very lucky to have clean and safe water, abundant food, a job which doesn't require hard labor, and comfortable, clean shelter as well as a husband who loves me. I take a moment to be thankful for these things at least once a day. I believe this contributes greatly to my happiness and satisfaction with life.
8. I love cats, but I enjoy looking at pictures of puppies more than pictures of kittens.
9. I haven't left for my local neighborhood for the past year. In fact, I think I haven't left it more than 5 times in the past 2 years. I used to travel all over the place every weekend and I think I'm utterly burned out and disinterested in travel now. This realization strikes even me as surprising, but it doesn't trouble me.
10. I'd rather go to the effort and hassle of cooking my own food and cleaning up after it than go to a restaurant where the environment is unpredictable and the meal experience might be ruined by smokers, bad air conditioner settings, loud or crappy muzak or poor service. I'm sufficiently annoyed at the idea of paying for a good experience and being letdown that I prefer not to even take "the risk."

LOL Wombat

First of all, let me say that I actually don't like the whole LOL cat thing. While I love cats and the occasional picture of one, I don't like the infantile misspelling and incorrect grammar that accompany such pictures. I'm sure that the plethora of such pictures of all stripes will breed a new legion of young people who are even worse than the crop which finds typing "you" to be too cumbersome a task so they type "u" or those who think that ROTFLMAO is actually a word you can say (apparently pronounced "rofflemao"). I probably have a missing component in my sense of humor that makes me immune to why the things written on the pictures are funny. I imagine it's the humor equivalent of being color blind.

That being said, I accidentally created something which my husband said reminded him of those cats and he dubbed it an LOLWombat. My friend wanted a wombat graphic for a web site he's going to make and I suggested a pirate wombat to suit the site's possible title. Unfortunately, the graphic I made is too spastic for his tastes and freaks him out a bit so he can't bear to look at it every time he logs in.

Ahoy, I'll beat anyone who makes me talk like an LOLcat t' death. Gar.

A good freak out is a terrible thing to waste so here it is for you. Personally, I see him saying things like "Yarrrr," "Arrrgh" and "Avast, ye scurvy prairie dogs!" However, you can attach any LOL-style caption you like to it as long as you don't share it with me. ;-)