Re: [h-cost] Languages - OT
I hope you won't kill me for this...but when I was studying in America (at the age of 12), most of my schoolmates made such terrible spelling mistakes it's quite funny, but I was one of the few students who managed to get an A in spelling:-D Zuzana [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If it weren't completely OT, I'd love to post some of the things my American college students write in English class. And, as you say, for most of them English is the only language they've got. --Ruth Anne Baumgartner scholar gypsy and amateur costumer -Original Message- From: Land of Oz Sent: May 6, 2008 1:01 PM To: Historical Costume Subject: [h-cost] Languages Bjarne, I *never* make fun of anyone who speaks more than one language! but I do get a chuckle out of the occasional malaprop. I only speak the one I was born to and I admire anyone who can communicate in more than one language. My mother speaks 4 fluently and can get along in two others. Her native language is French and I can limp along a little, but my cousins were terribly amused to find that I had HORSE on my head, not hair. or was it hat? Anyway, you do just fine in English -- far better than most of the people on this list could do in Danish, I'd guess. Don't let it bother you if we sometimes get a smile from something you wrote -- A smile a day is healthy! Denise Iowa ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume - Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
Re: [h-cost] Languages - OT
I hire college students to intern in the museum for which I work, and as part of the application process I require that they submit a college-level paper so that I can see how well they write (writing is part of the job). And the one person who wrote the most beautifully in the seven years I've been doing this was a native Danish speaker. The American college students couldn't write their way out of a paper bag. Quite frightening, actually (Even more frightening is that most of them can't identify the parts of a ruler or do basic fractions-- also things the job requires since we hang art to specific measurements. Meanwhile, my Danish student did all her calculations in metric and then converted them--correctly--to Imperial.) Astrida *** Astrida Schaeffer, Assistant Director Museum of Art, University of New Hampshire Paul Creative Arts Center 30 College Road Durham, NH 03824-3538 603-862-0310 FAX: 603-862-2191 www.unh.edu/art-gallery *** -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Zuzana Kraemerova Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 10:59 AM To: Historical Costume Subject: Re: [h-cost] Languages - OT I hope you won't kill me for this...but when I was studying in America (at the age of 12), most of my schoolmates made such terrible spelling mistakes it's quite funny, but I was one of the few students who managed to get an A in spelling:-D Zuzana [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If it weren't completely OT, I'd love to post some of the things my American college students write in English class. And, as you say, for most of them English is the only language they've got. --Ruth Anne Baumgartner scholar gypsy and amateur costumer -Original Message- From: Land of Oz Sent: May 6, 2008 1:01 PM To: Historical Costume Subject: [h-cost] Languages Bjarne, I *never* make fun of anyone who speaks more than one language! but I do get a chuckle out of the occasional malaprop. I only speak the one I was born to and I admire anyone who can communicate in more than one language. My mother speaks 4 fluently and can get along in two others. Her native language is French and I can limp along a little, but my cousins were terribly amused to find that I had HORSE on my head, not hair. or was it hat? Anyway, you do just fine in English -- far better than most of the people on this list could do in Danish, I'd guess. Don't let it bother you if we sometimes get a smile from something you wrote -- A smile a day is healthy! Denise Iowa ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume - Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
Re: [h-cost] Languages - OT
Oh, knowing how bad I am at the only non-English language I'm even vaguely able to communicate in (Italian), I'd agree about not making fun of any English - as - second - language speaker! and they do say that English is one of the hardest languages to learn, because it's so inconsistent. Is it bad that I always take measurements in imperial, then convert them to metric to use them / buy fabric / whatever? Well.living in the country that's probably the worst for using both systems at once (UK). In a message dated 07/05/2008 19:01:22 GMT Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I hire college students to intern in the museum for which I work, and as part of the application process I require that they submit a college-level paper so that I can see how well they write (writing is part of the job). And the one person who wrote the most beautifully in the seven years I've been doing this was a native Danish speaker. The American college students couldn't write their way out of a paper bag. Quite frightening, actually (Even more frightening is that most of them can't identify the parts of a ruler or do basic fractions-- also things the job requires since we hang art to specific measurements. Meanwhile, my Danish student did all her calculations in metric and then converted them--correctly--to Imperial.) Astrida ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
Re: [h-cost] Languages - OT
There is a bad joke around campus here. They call a person who knows two languages bilingual, what do they call someone who only knows one language... American. :P It is becoming a necessity here to learn Spanish because of the influx of people settling in the area that are coming from the south of the border. So that joke will be fading away in the near future. De ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
