Random Fail: First World Problems

[Xno Kappa]

In the global marketplace, the predominant language is English. Knowing other languages doesn't help you nearly as much as knowing English does. "Useful" is definitely a stretch. "Incredibly useful" is flat out wrong.

Legitimate question, have you ever been outside the U.S.? Further than Canada or Mexico?

[Krandor]

To be fair he's not necessarily wrong about it not being needed. I don't speak a lick of Spanish and had no problem in the various Central American countries I've been to (Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Panama). Same story with time I've spent in Japan (though I can speak rudimentary Japanese from 4 years of classes in high school). Other then for the sake of being polite, there was little need to speak the language in most of my interactions.

Also, if anyone is making the argument about learning a second language for the sake of business/work force/or what not, learning anything other then Chinese is a waste of time.

[Xno Kappa]

I've lived all over the world outside of the U.S. for eight years. Having a basic understanding of the local language is absolutely critical because there will inevitably be a situation where you can't english your way out of it.

[Modoru]

Well yeah, that's true, but the further in you go into the sticks, the less chance you find people that speak English.
Hell, even in Puerto Rico -- a U.S. commonwealth -- if you go outside metro area, you will find people who can't speak a lick of English (mostly older people, but point stands).

[Blubbartron]

I've lived all over the world outside of the U.S. for eight years. Having a basic understanding of the local language is absolutely critical because there will inevitably be a situation where you can't english your way out of it.

That's fair, and I agree that if you're going to spend a significant amount of time in a foreign country, it's a wise decision to pick up the language. This is entirely different from teaching some random language to high school students in the US. Do you think any more than maybe 10% of those students will even visit a country that uses the language they learned in high school? I doubt it's even that high, personally.

[Astylla]

Was out shopping tonight and some dumb cuntbags too busy trying clothes on let their young baby crawl around outside and eventually inside my dressing room grabbing my leg scaring the shit out of me.

Then hesitated to grab her kid from under my dressing room , blamed me for being upset and tried reporting me to the store. Fuck you guys , I've had the week from hell and I startle easy as fuck due to my past being attacked on multiple occasions, ugh.

And I just realized it's 1am and I forgot to eat anything since lunch at 1:30pm.

[Byrthnoth]

I wasn't thinking "knowing a second language isn't useful" as much as "learning a skill is different from improving how you think." IMOP the subjects that meet the latter criteria are math, science, and their parent topic, philosophy. Every good teacher is teaching philosophy in some regard.

Sure, it might be useful to know how to speak German at some point. It also might be useful to know how to make a good cabinet at some point. It might be lifesaving to know how to make a fire at some point. Those are all skills, and skills are useful but don't make you a more enlightened human. More than anything, what the woman is wasting by watching movies with the first time with her kids is the opportunity to grow their intellect. If she was carefully picking out movies that make them think about the way American society views hispanics, or successful cultural variants, or really just any intellectually challenging movie dubbed in Spanish, I'd be on board. It doesn't sound like she is but, as GG has pointed out, it's really not worth it for n00b-Kas to rock the boat.

[Jefe]

I've never been awake so fucking early in like ever. I have a bunch of guys fixing the roof of my place and fuck. I need to sleep.

[Ksandra]

That's fair, and I agree that if you're going to spend a significant amount of time in a foreign country, it's a wise decision to pick up the language. This is entirely different from teaching some random language to high school students in the US. Do you think any more than maybe 10% of those students will even visit a country that uses the language they learned in high school? I doubt it's even that high, personally.

I think it is safe to say easily over 90% of my students go to a Spanish speaking country at least once a year.

As an aside, feel free to get your kicks on me being a "n00b" but it just makes me laugh because you don't understand just how much I have put my mark at this school. I am definitely not viewed as a n00b to those that matter.

[zoobernut]

8 of the 12 t1 lines that feed the internet into my work went down at the beginning of this week. Down hard. We have over 100 employees, plus teachers, plus guests using the internet to make the business function. It was bad enough before when we were collectively sharing a ~17 mbps connection amongst everyone now we are all sharing ~5.5 mbps with everyone.

ATT just got back to us saying that the faults are in one of their 200 pair cables and it is somewhere in 16,000 feet of cable running down the side of a steep mountain direct buried in the dirt covered by years of overgrowth and poison oak.

No estimate on getting our service back and they might have to get permits from the Forest Service before they can bring the heavy equipment down the mountain to find the problems.

Not fun being in the IT department having to explain to everyone that we had to shut down wifi across property and Facebook etc. access to preserve bandwidth for business functions.

[Moss]

As an aside, feel free to get your kicks on me being a "n00b" but it just makes me laugh because you don't understand just how much I have put my mark at this school. I am definitely not viewed as a n00b to those that matter.

[Blubbartron]

I think it is safe to say easily over 90% of my students go to a Spanish speaking country at least once a year.

As an aside, feel free to get your kicks on me being a "n00b" but it just makes me laugh because you don't understand just how much I have put my mark at this school. I am definitely not viewed as a n00b to those that matter.

Your anecdotal evidence isn't very strong considering you teach in a heavily Hispanic school district. First and second generation Mexican (illegal and legal) immigrants are a small minority across the country. Also, for these students, they probably know conversational Spanish better than their teachers do, because as you say, they go to these countries frequently to visit family.

[Greatguardian]

o ya fam cuz u no us peeps in da inglis speekin cuntrys speek it so gud rite

Re: Noobness. Making a mark is definitely a sign of noobness. As in, new to the school. Demonstrating value. That's great. We all do it. But it doesn't mean shit in the face of 30 years seniority. You know this. That's all anyone's saying. Except maybe blub, but he's blub.

[Blubbartron]

o ya fam cuz u no us peeps in da inglis speekin cuntrys speek it so gud rite

Re: Noobness. Making a mark is definitely a sign of noobness. As in, new to the school. Demonstrating value. That's great. We all do it. But it doesn't mean shit in the face of 30 years seniority. You know this. That's all anyone's saying. Except maybe blub, but he's blub.

You and Ksandra are both aware I've said literally nothing on the subject of Ksandra poking her nose into how other teachers teach, right? My comments have been strictly on the topic of whether teaching foreign languages in high school is worthwhile (hint: it's not).

[Ksandra]

Your anecdotal evidence isn't very strong considering you teach in a heavily Hispanic school district. First and second generation Mexican (illegal and legal) immigrants are a small minority across the country. Also, for these students, they probably know conversational Spanish better than their teachers do, because as you say, they go to these countries frequently to visit family.

We are talking about my students, you even stated "those kids." Keep trying to move the goal posts kid.

o ya fam cuz u no us peeps in da inglis speekin cuntrys speek it so gud rite

Re: Noobness. Making a mark is definitely a sign of noobness. As in, new to the school. Demonstrating value. That's great. We all do it. But it doesn't mean shit in the face of 30 years seniority. You know this. That's all anyone's saying. Except maybe blub, but he's blub.

No, I know exactly what you are talking about. I am not talking about making a mark, I'm talking about moving up the chain already, and being in meetings that other teachers aren't in despite them being at this school longer.

No where did I suggest I was on the top of the list or anything. Just not considered a n00b there.


And don't get me wrong, the bar is much lower at this school. There is no denying that.

[Ksandra]

I should restate I am NOT going to tell anyone about her. I haven't this whole year. This was just me venting to get it off my chest. I don't need to "make a mark." Or any stupid shit like that

[Blubbartron]

We are talking about my students, you even stated "those kids." Keep trying to move the goal posts kid.

I can see how my wording would be unclear, but I honestly was referencing students in the US. The antecedent for "those students" was from this sentence, which immediately preceded what you're nitpicking:

This is entirely different from teaching some random language to high school students in the US.

[Salodin]

Not my fault but my community association's...

So I live in a condo community that doesn't have assigned parking. This usually isn't a big deal but lately it seems either all the kids are now driving or we have multiple families living under one roof because for some reason parking has become atrocious; to the point where after 1am you might not even find a parking spot if too many people have guests staying over (with their guest parking pass). Some people double park next to medians, but as I live in front of the club house I don't want to block the road so I just parked in the mailbox 5min spot. Of course, I get a warning. Furious, I call the management company and she tells me they're aware of the parking problem and not to worry about the warnings as there's just not enough spots. This was Monday.

Fast forward to last night. Same deal, so I park at the mailbox spot. I come outside this morning, and my car is gone. My first reaction is I got robbed, but then I remembered where I live...so I call the tow company and sure enough they have it. This is after the manager said it was nbd. I call the office, it transfers me to a call center because apparently no one works on the weekends there. They transfer me to an emergency line, which apparently only handles emergencies like fire or floods, and they tell me too bad just go pick up your car all the while refusing to give me and number to reach the people in charge of my community.

So now I gotta spend $150 to pick up my car. But boy oh boy wait till Monday morning...you guys might see a story of me in the Florida thread titled "belligerent man shoots up hoa office". The worst part is we've had many issues in the community, including a water issue where the pressure is barely enough for a trickle, we can't even wash dishes properly. We're being patient, but now? Fuck them, I'm getting the city involved, I'm getting lawyers involved, these mutherfuckers gonna pay for this shit. >_<

[Brill Weave]

Unload on them. If they are aware of the parking situation and were unable to provide reasonable alternatives that is 100% their problem. Fuck HOA's, they are fucking ridiculous and should be outright banned.

[Xno Kappa]

HOA's are roll of the dice. My HOA in CO was atrocious. Motherfuckas were straight up nazis that wanted to fine you for petty things yet took care of absolutely nothing.

When done correctly though there are definitely benefits. My HOA here in VA is awesome and are quick to take action for any issue. Asshole neighbor had an old car that wouldn't fit in his garage that I guess he wanted to "rebuild." Not only was it such a ghetto sight in an otherwise affluent neighborhood, he'd leave parts all over the place which would eventually end up on my property. One call the morning of and on the same day his shit was towed never to be seen again. They were also quick with the snow plows and snow blowers when we had that huge blizzard a few months back. The streets and sidewalks were always cleared relatively quick. On top of that, contractors mow my lawn and I have a house cleaning service option available. Running trails along with the fishing lakes are beautifully maintained and there's a self-help facility next to the club house which loans out various tools and/or if you just need new light bulbs lol.