Tuesday, September 25, 2007

The Man With Two Jobs

I have been back in the UK for two months, and I have been working as an IT contractor for five weeks. I figured that it would be nice to do more teaching sometime, but haven't been looking for work.

I was surprised and delighted when I had a call from the local college asking me if I wanted to teach an evening class. The college staff knew I was back in the country when I asked for a reference, and they must have thought I did a good job on last year's Sumer School.

I start tomorrow with an Elementary class. I met them briefly yesterday evening and I'm looking forward to teaching them tomorrow.

The day job? They have a flexi-time scheme so I can leave early for college on Monday and Wednesday and make up time during the rest of the week.
It's going to be a busy time, but I'm excited!

English Language Opportunity in Prague

I am indebted once again to "The Register" for this story. They report that in a document promoting the Czech Olympic Committee's Olympic Bid, the committee came up with the following gem.

Three times will Prague examine courting with international Olympic collection. Previous two advances arrange games are over always inglorious. A how go in for Twentieth Century typical, capital you-break teeth among others on policy. Historian sport and Olympic motion Francis wheelwright prove this story, which he began write at the end 19. century, tell very attractive.
Apparently there is more here. It seems to me that an enterprising school or freelance English teacher might want to approach them and quote a rate to do the job properly.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Textonyms

My former colleague, Alec Muffet has written in his blog about Qwertonyms, words which are different, but use the same keys in predictive text mode on a mobile phone, eg 'home' and 'good'.

I first heard about them a few years ago. Some friends texted to say they were coming over, and I replied with "I'll open the post", which confused them. I meant port

When I explained my puzzling reply, my friend told me that Stephen Fry had spoken about them. His nephew and his friends had started using the word 'book' instead of 'cool', because when they typed 'cool' in the phone 'book' was the first entry in the list. Book became their slang for cool not just in text but in speech as well.

The word textonyms, rather than qwertonyms, has been used to describe these.

The Chambers Dictionary website has an entry for textonym in its wordwatch section - http://www.chambersharrap.co.uk/chambers/features/wordwatch/textonym.shtml

Identifying Bears

I guess this is doing the rounds, but I thought it was funny.

In light of the rising frequency on human/grizzly bear conflicts, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is advising tourists, hikers, and fishermen to take extra precautions and keep alert for bears while travelling this summer.

We advise that people wear noisy little bells on their clothing so as not to startle bears that are not expecting them. We also advise everyone to carry pepper spray with them in case of an encounter with a grizzly.

It is also a good idea to watch out for fresh signs of bear activity.
Outdoorsmen should recognize the difference between black bear and grizzly bear dung. Black bear dung is smaller and contains lots of berries and squirrel fur.
Grizzly bear dung has little bells in it and smells like pepper.

Don't forget, you don't have to outrun the bear, you just have to outrun your fellow hikers!

Czech falls off motorbike, wakes up with British accent

I saw this story at The Register. A Czech speedway rider racing in England came off his bike and was concussed. When he came around he asked where he was, in perfect English. According to the story he couldn't speak much English prior to the accident, and reverted to this state two days later. Read the story for more details.

I guess the moral of this story is that all it takes to sound like an upper-class Englishman is a blow to the head.

I hope this doesn't mean that English teachers in Prague start taking blunt instruments into class, though.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Michael Jackson is dead

No, not the American singer! I was saddened to learn on Friday that Michael Jackson, the authority on beers of the world, dies recently. The Telegraph has an obituary.

I saw his TV series "The Beer Hunter" in 1990, and learned of the rich variety of beers that were made in Belgium, Germany and Czechoslovakia. There was a discussion of his work on the radio on Friday in which he was credited with stimulating the boom in microbreweries in the US.

His contribution to the well-being of the world will be sadly missed.

Tour of Britain

I missed the start of the Tour de France in London this year because I was still in the Czech Republic. It's a shame because I enjoy cycle racing and the London start was a great spectacle, even if the Tour was somewhat tarnished by the finish.

On Sunday the Tour of Britain started with a Prologue time-trial at Crystal Palace. This is a much lower-key event, lasting just seven days and with mostly minor teams and development squads rather than the stars of the ProTour teams.

Still, I enjoyed watching it, and it was great to see aBritish rider, Mark Cavendish of T-Mobile win on the day, with a number of other britons doing well. This was a big change from when I used to watch the Milk Race in the early 1980s.

In those days the race was an amateur event and young British hopefuls struggled to compete with young riders from Belgium and Holland who were preparing for pro careers, and fully mature riders from Eastern Europe who were employed by state organisations but were able to race more or less full-time. The prospect of a British winner in those days was less likely than a British winner at Wimbledon. Nowadays British riders are dominant in track events and we have some riders in the pro teams who can hold there own.

Mark Cavendish is in his first full season. He went on from the prologue to win yesterday's stage, too. He has won 10 1-day races and stages so far, and he should go on to greater achievements next season. I sincerely hope that cycling is able to keep root out doping and ensure that the new crop of riders can reach their full potential without drugs.