On a light-ish note

It's easy to get down on yourself when teaching English as a foreign language. It's really, really easy to forget just how difficult a language it is, especially coming from a Chinese background (and vice versa). Consequentially, I can sometimes be prone to thinking I'm not doing my job "right" if I'm not getting through to 100% of the students (even if the little bastard falls asleep in my class). Praise from above is all well and good, but - what can I say - I'm a bit of a perfectionist. I don't want anyone to fail.

As a cure for these occasional bouts of melancholy - languishing in the solemn knowledge that despite my best efforts, not all of these student will ever really be able to effectively utilize the language - I indulge in my sinful addiction...

I speak, of course, of cruising political blogs and forums. In the words of Obi-Wan Kenobi: "You'll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villany." And wow, is it ever true! Ascribe it to the Jonathan Gabriel's Greater Internet Dickwad Theory (Normal Human + Anonymity + Wide Audience = Raving Dickwad), and then mix that with the normal rancor of partisan politics... and the result is... well... something approaching a true model of evil incarnate. Nevertheless, it's quite entertaining... especially when the facts are on your side.

But back to the main topic... how said internet cesspools help me out of these kinds of funks. Observe, from a conservative...uh... human...I think:

The contitution say if i am right [ we have the right to bear arms} thers was also an incident where the was thirteen yesr girl had a paper signup in a store window, the town councel made a big issue over it , they made them take it down it had noyhinthing do to politics ,But they ssayed it was a something agaist Omba. what is this country country coming to when a thirteen year old can't is all over the news. and embrassed for something .Omba is changing this this county into a comunist ountry. what and watch in time we will be paying out of our pocket to him.

by BUTCH MORGAN October 27th at 7:21PM

This... person... has been - ostensibly - speaking some horribly mutated variant of the English language his whole life. And yet, I'm proud to say that I have an easier time understanding a nervous Chinese college kid reading aloud from something she just wrote, than following this line of thought... much less spelling.

And there you have it - proudly making Chinese students more literate than the majority of the Southern electorate.

(CS)WC Out.

Well, I hope you're recieving me alright.