Disqus - Latest Comments for chinamike

Re: Hourly Pay Is Modern Slavery

chinamike — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 02:45:49 -0000

Yegor, watch the opening scene in the Butler and then write again about how being an wage earning employee is like being a slave.

Your mistake is that you have decided that work we do under the direction, guidance, supervision and authority of others is the equivalent of slavery. It is not as long as you made the choice, you are free to leave, you have other options, and you are being treated like everyone else who does the same job.

It is great to be paid for results, and I will grant you that it is empowering to be paid based on your work results but there are many people who happy to be paid for their efforts and knowledge (bomb disposal experts), and others who are quite satisfied to be paid for the hours they put in (life guards), and still others who deserve to be paid simply for making themselves available (fire fighters). These people are not slaves. They are quite free.

Re: Grammar ESL teachers should know: “to”

chinamike — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 11:00:40 -0000

Dear Seb,

I have had the same experiences as you and I also came to the same conclusion. I actually created pictures to represent the concepts of want to (aux.) and want (main verb) differently so as to position these "forms" as being independent and distinct.

Students and I then started grouping want to and have to with must, can, and should. This makes sense as each of these words takes the infinitive and each of these words acts on the verb to alter the meaning of the verb. They share similarities in the sense that they are all modifiers that front the verb.

Well, that works great in the positive but the similarities disappear in the negative and question forms.

I am still searching for an easy way to group the modals and semi-modals more closely. In the end I figure instruction on these points must be staggered so I can point out both similarities and differences.

Re: Grammar ESL teachers should know: “to”

chinamike — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 09:16:07 -0000

I really want your approach to work actually because of the problems involved when teaching lexically similar words like: should, can, will, must want to, and like to. It would be soooo much easier if all these words would cooperate for beginning students. As it is, I just try to point out these differences to the students as easily as possible (meaning I never try explaining everything in one day).

Of course the difference goes beyond just statements. It gets really tricky when we start asking questions and need to front "want to" and "like to" with "do". So from a broad "use/meaning" perspective these words are similar (they all modify the meaning of verbs) but from a grammatical perspective they are quite different.

Re: Come again?: A foreign language listening tool

chinamike — Mon, 20 Apr 2015 15:21:01 -0000

Thanks! A lot. Now, I need to figure out how to get students to use it.

Re: Grammar ESL teachers should know: “to”

chinamike — Mon, 20 Apr 2015 13:23:42 -0000

If you turn want to into a lexical unit then you must break the rule (or bend it in an inelegant way) when you have to say:

I want Seb to change the way he teaches this.

Re: 8 Awesome Things Found Only in China

chinamike — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 10:15:48 -0000

To Mahoney moments: Yeah, this is great. I really like making fun of people who are genuine and honestly trust you. I think it is even better when you fool them by occupying a position of respect. And it is even better when you get them to parrot words that make them sound like idiots. I think you should really do more of this. I think it is great when Americans can go around the world making people look like fools when they only want to better understand and use our language! Congrats to the people behind this video. You are really putting your intelligence, creativity and energy to GREAT use!

Re: Three Ways to Use Hip Hop in Your Next English Lesson

chinamike — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 20:40:06 -0000

I really don't see how it is possible to fruitfully:

describe positive and negative correlations
predict future usage

of words in rap songs. Please give me a sentence or two answering these questions in a way that students might. And you haven't explained to me why you think writing about words in a statistical fashion is more interesting than writing about endangered species, marriage rates, revolutions, or accidents in the home. What is it about these words that "naturally spices up" a lesson on predictive and descriptive language?

Re: Why the order you learn characters matters

chinamike — Tue, 27 May 2014 23:36:50 -0000

I would argue that this paper merely restates what any linguist would already know...concrete things are easier for 1st language learners to learn than
abstract things. But this "fact" has relatively little significance to
the question of what words to choose to teach adult 2nd language
learners. In fact one could argue that the MOST common words in any
language are (except for personal pronouns) typically verbs, function
words, and relatively abstract words. To make your materials
noun-centric is to hamstring language learners who would learn to
recognize things but would get little practice in using words that
string "things" together. I really don't understand how you can use this
thinking as an anchor to a program
unless your goal is only meant to teach people how to read signs in
which case you should probably be up front about this feature.

Re: Studying Mandarin as a language in the U.K.

chinamike — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 03:14:06 -0000

Why didn't you ascribe the rigid language to the small tea cups, dark sinister eyes, or the fact that Chinese people "only" eat rice. In fact, the Chinese language is hardly rigid, it is just tied to the ideograph system. English has 3-4 times more words than the second largest language (German). From this high peak we could easily look down on every language as being rigid (or impoverished) just as others could look upon English as being chaotic or unrestrained (too much freedom!). Finally, Chinese has words for horses of all kinds.

Re: Recap: EDUKWEST Live in London – The Booming Tutoring Market

chinamike — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 02:05:54 -0000

Stefan,

A lot of questions are implied by your question. They are:
1. Can the best tutors actually be identified? How do you decide if your sample is representative of the entire group of best tutors? Are the best tutors different from others as business people?
2. How do you define independence? Is someone who works at only 1 online tutoring agency independent? How about someone who is listed at 3? Is the opposite of independence, dependence? Or is it something else?
3. Is a tutoring agency really similar to a platform or a marketplace in terms of the terms of employment? Could an argument be made that these are all significantly different?
4. Is it possible for a tutor to both be independent and contract bound at the same time? If yes, what does this imply in terms of seeking independence and having your own company?
5. Could a tutor work for a tutoring agency, and/or a platform, and/or a marketplace and also be seeking independence?
6. Does setting up a business make it impossible to work for others in a contractual role?
7. Does society accept people working in multiple roles at one time?

Forgive me, but this question makes it sound a bit like you are barking up an imaginary tree? I can't see how this question can ever be answered in any way except to say: why would tutors (especially the best) ever limit themselves to such narrow (either/or) thinking?

Re: Recap: EDUKWEST Live in London – The Booming Tutoring Market

chinamike — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 07:10:55 -0000

Interesting you called questions your theses. I don't mean to be picky in fact, I really would like to think in terms of a thesis which I was taught should be written in terms that can be falsified. I suppose I wouldn't be so picky if instead I had the opportunity to join this gathering. Kudos for putting this together. Lucky Europe. In the end, can anything be more crucial in the business of tutoring than the fight between man and algorithm?

Re: Will Personalized Learning have a Comeback in 2014?

chinamike — Sat, 11 Jan 2014 00:02:58 -0000

It sounds to me like the publishers are leaving print behind because the margins they face are dropping like a ton of bricks. They are cedeing the print space to low cost textbooks as they see the downward (almost to free) price pressure on these products and they realize they need to figure out ways to support higher prices. In some areas books will remain valuable (and hopefully cheap) for years (history, government, English language instruction, etc.). Digital publishers will work hard to show consumers the "extra" value they add in these areas but many teachers will push back and try to find ways to keep the digital space under their control. I don't believe teachers will immediately jump on the digital ship in mass especially when they realize it is an attempt to keep prices high far into the future.

I hope teachers demand that big data doesn't become a bank vault that companies guard but rather an open sharing environment. In fact, this should become a great open-source project for someone one day. Does anyone really think that these world-wide publishers are trying to reduce the cost of education after watching textbook prices ride the pricing rocket over the past 20 years?

Re: EdTech Pitch Battle #02 – October 31st 2013

chinamike — Wed, 30 Oct 2013 20:52:49 -0000

Terms of use for Cleverize are in German instead of English like the rest of the site yet we are asked to acknowledge that we read the terms of use before sign-up. This is VERY unfriendly and a big warning sign to me.

Re: Don’t call me

chinamike — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 19:56:24 -0000

telephone marketing = brute force marketing. And they hope i react how? Sure, I love that, just hit me in the face again.

Re: Rosetta Stone acquires Livemocha for $8.5 million in Cash

chinamike — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 11:53:12 -0000

Kirsten,

Great ideas, thanks.

Hmmm, another reason may simply be that one is located in America and is Americas centric and the other is located in Europe and is in the heart of the richest pay-for-language-learning area. Live Mocha/Rosetta, and the Europeans were very strong where the other was fairly weak (I do need to look at the figures though). Indeed, Rosetta Stone has been steadily shrinking and they seem to want to bail on the American market.

In other words, I don't think this was mainly a technology issue, it was rather that they got caught in a downsizing market and this is a grab for market share by Rosetta.

I also am guessing that Live Mocha didn't take up pads because pads would have exposed their educational shortcomings. In orther words, they were weak at instruction and pads would have highlighted this. Being instructionally weak was in their DNA from the very start.

My guess is that the inherent weaknesses of Live Mocha ultimately caught up with them. They weren't that good at language instruction only offering a place where people could learn from each other. Not a lot of high value there.

I think the biggest advantage for Rosetta is in eliminating a competitor that was putting downward pressure on prices. My guess is they are in it for Live Mocha's connections in South America.

Re: Building Startups the David Heinemeier Hansson Way

chinamike — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 07:41:29 -0000

"Swears like a Viking"-- cute.

Re: Why China's afraid of North Korea

chinamike — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 21:09:34 -0000

Thanks for the great article. It clears up China's position very quickly. Funny how a well written piece on Korea/China relations has prompted so much argument about America

Re: Why China's afraid of North Korea

chinamike — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 21:02:13 -0000

You choose a metaphor that is actually probably true.

Re: New English Curriculum digs deep into the Language aims to raise Standards

chinamike — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 05:01:00 -0000

Interesting. Thanks!

Re: Best Buy ends work-from-home program

chinamike — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 04:17:52 -0000

Why you had to mention someone's ethicity is beyond me. I hope your writing is not held up as an example of being an American.

Re: The Political Dimension of Chinese Language Schools

chinamike — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 21:44:51 -0000

Taiwan has been involved in Chinese language educational initiatives for decades. The problem is that China has gone at this with much greater fervor, politician will, (and money?) in recent years.

You make this guy sound a bit eccentric for talking to high school students about this "issue". Surely he could have found a better forum. Of course, given his position, I could see how it would be nice if China and Taiwan started throwing more "free" money at this problem. He might become a recipient of this largess.

One of the biggest things the Taiwanese could do to succeed would be to stop teaching traditional Chinese characters and adopt simplified characters. But this isn't going to happen. Taiwan and China are stuck in a competition between two different versions of Chinese and whose version do you think is going to win?

Re: Fear and Loathing of Grammar and Punctuation Rules

chinamike — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 12:26:09 -0000

I have/had the same problems. They can be solved. Just tackle one at a time. Don't try to change the whole world at once. One day the problems will be in your rear view mirror because, grammar problems, unlike real problems, can't grow beyond a particular size.

Re: The Slow and Organic Evolution of the Education Ecosystem

chinamike — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 09:49:12 -0000

Interesting idea--- one could take from this the idea that things will speed up to the extent that education becomes more like a consumer product. One extension of this idea is that: the countries (and segments) where consumers can vote with their dollars are the countries and segments where we will see the fastest change.

Short list Countries: U.S., ???
Short list Market segments: I.T., language learning, technical crafts

Re: Alt Text: How to End an Argument on the Internet

chinamike — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 09:26:53 -0000

Thank you!

Re: 10 Reasons for Teachers to use Eduglogster

chinamike — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 19:02:18 -0000

Thanks!