Re: coon dog - pejorative?

"pritsy" <pritsy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> skrev i meddelelsen
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Arne H. Wilstrup wrote:
"HVS" <usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> skrev i meddelelsen
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(> But correcting my language? You are all very
welcome - I shall do my very best to follow your advice. )
Well here goes...

I was aware of the compliment, but as you have probably
read,
a dispute between a Swede and I, deals with the fact that I
am
far from being perfect - he mentioned that I made many
mistakes in the use of adverbs and adjectives, which he did
not.

Not "between a Swede and I", but "between a Swede and me"
(with no comma afterward.

thank you for the comma correction, but why not a Swede and I?
I recall a title The King and I so why not A Swede and I? :-)


He added that my knowledge of English is far from being at
his
level, and I must admit that he is right. Not being an
amateur, I do think that I have a lot to learn and despite
of
the compliments I am not so self-centred that I don't
think -
when I get compliments for my language - that "flattery
will
bring you everywhere". :-)

Not "despite of the compliments", but "despite the
compliments"

oh, yes - it is probably because of the word "compliments" -
thank you.

I am most humble to the fact that I really have problems
with
adjectives and adverbs and I am doing my very best to avoid
those mistakes. What is more of my concern is the hidden
agendas in the language: Pejoratives, puns, culture,
pronunciation - so my frequently mistakes with some
elementary
grammar might give a clear hint that I am definitely not a
native speaker. Therefore it astonished me: The questions
were
loaded of mistakes in this aspect and I therefore could not
understand why I was "attacked" in this way.

Not "I am most humble to the fact" but "I am humbled by the
fact".
(It is a rather old-fashioned expression.)

Yes - I am old fashioned in this world :-) - by the fact
instead of to the fact - all right. I'll remember 'by the
fact'.

One day I must definitely make a list of pejoratives and
their
counterparts - a kind of contrastive "grammar" to words
that
are just as offensive in Danish as in English. :-)


You will be the children's favorite teacher! A handout
listing ALL the dirty words and insults in English! Your
classes will be overflowing! (Note: Colloquial, informal
English. sentence fragments).

:-)

- It may not be so good idea after all the way you put it :-/

No, by the way, I don't like the attitude that I should not
be
an applicable teacher because I make mistakes in this
group -
this I detest. But correcting my language? You are all very
welcome - I shall do my very best to follow your advice.
:-)

As long as you restrict your classes to beginners, you tell
your students that your English is not perfect, and make
sure that your students are exposed to plenty of native or
near-native English speakers, there should be no problem.

Well, I don't teach "beginners", but who are the beginners?
The children of 10 or the children of 15?
I mostly teach children of 13-15 English - so they are not
beginners, but not advanced either :-)

The standard in English is not very advanced in those classes.
I am sure that I can manage to teach children a bit older than
this, but I stick to the teenagers mentioned above.
The children could do worse. I have colleagues with an English
pronunciation and with a very modest understanding of the
language than I, and they teach English - we are not used to
have native speakers in our comprehensive schools.

Trust me - the children are better off with me as an English
teacher than many - but of course, there are some teachers who
are even better - you must understand that with only three
lessons a week there is a limit for how much you can teach
them - and they also have other subjects to deal with.

I am, however, very satisfied that the younger generation
seems to be even better than the people from my generation.
Our generation had to read and translate in our classes, which
is not a good way of learning a foreing language. But this was
the notion at that time. Now and again the teacher brought a
taperecorder in order to let us hear English pronunciation,
but the most of the time we were to be satisfied with the
teacher's more or less well imitation of the English tone.
Film were not many at that time, and Television were still
very expensive. Fortunately the younger generation have
opportunities which we did not have.


.

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