Westminstenders: The Final Week

[RedToothBrush]

Our final week in the EU...

I got interrupted - we are deliberately slamming the door on the EU, without even identifying where other doors are, never mind seeing if they open.

Nothing to do with Brexit as such, but merely further signposting how the UK, despite sometimes trying to put on a friendly facade, really views those who are tainted by foreignness. Naturally, I expect that after 31 January, New Brexitannia will be far more outward-looking, welcoming, and inclusive, as amply demonstrated by its patriotic adherents.

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/29/our-worst-nightmare-uk-family-face-being-split-up-as-coronavirus-evacuations-begin

...and no doubt if she were to end up being forced to stay for a prolonged period, the Home Office will then say that she has been out of the country for too long and forfeits her Permanent residency visa

I recently talked to a Frenchwoman who teaches French at a university in Scotland. She said that they have reduced their entry requirement from an A to a B in Higher (the exam that you can take at 16 - not very tough). She says that some new students can't understand the most basic of questions in French.
I'd appreciate any ideas anyone has for spending a year abroad, as DD is seriously considering taking languages at university. We don't have money to throw at it though. And if AuldAlliance felt like divulging the universities that are best at teaching students good French, especially in Scotland, that would be very useful!!

I teach a French-English translation module for our incoming Erasmus students, and I can see who has learnt the imparfait/conditionnel/futur properly and can therefore translate them accurately and who hasn't.

I really find it hard to believe that a second or third year student can't translate from their MFL into their native language using the right verb tenses. The other way round I could understand - but that's shocking.

You'd be amazed, Mistigri.

I've just corrected the exam from the first semester Erasmus translation course and one student translated "X sait voir que la lune n'est pas simplement un disque blanc et plat comme une assiette" as "X knew to see that the moon wasn't a disc white and flat like an owl."
It's alarming enough that someone studying French and who's been in France since September doesn't know that "sait" is the present tense, and that une assiette = a plate. But there's a whole range of other issues, relating to basic common sense, the position of adjectives in English and the physical appearance of owls, going on there.

Torchlightt, we have exchanges with 3 Scottish universities.
Edinburgh is still sending us very good students
Stirling generally does so but with hits and misses now and then.
Edinburgh Napier is a little less good, but still not too bad.
That's anecdata, though, so please don't base your DD's life choices solely on it.

As I have mentioned before on here, we are finding that increasing numbers of UK students have MH issues that we just don't have the resources to handle

That's interesting - though something that has nothing to do with Brexit, presumably.

When I was on my Erasmus year I was friends with someone who had done their Erasmus year in France and he had gone round saying "bon matin" (aka Guten Morgen) for ages before someone gently told him you don't say that in French. And he was a well educated German in the early 90s.

As fewer schools offer foreign languages, or limit their offerings (I have ranted on MN a few times under other usernames about my son's school offering three MFL in total but only allowing the students to do one for GCSE) universities offer less too and/or take lower grades because there is less competition.

I also see that my son's 6th form college, which used to have a very good A level MFL offering including French German Spanish Russia and Italian (the last two can be done from scratch) is stopping Russian.

TheElementsOdeToJoy the British aren’t refusing to evacuate Chinese citizens it is the Chinese authorities who are refusing to let them leave.

X sait voir que la lune n'est pas simplement un disque blanc et plat comme une assiette

I don't really know much french but I know platt is flat in German, so I'd have guessed and translated as X [something something] that the moon isn't simply a white and flat disc like a plate. I'd struggle with the verbs at the beginning as "know to see" doesn't make sense so I assume you translate it some other way.

You can't really teach common sense can you - ie owls don't look like the moon :)

"the British aren’t refusing to evacuate Chinese citizens it is the Chinese authorities who are refusing to let them leave."

I read that the UK FCO is refusing to evacuate them

That applies to all non-British citizens - not just Chinese - who are being evacuated

eg.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/jan/29/coronavirus-live-updates-china-wuhan-death-toll-cases-symptoms-treatment-evacuation-us-japanese-citizens-latest-news?page=with:block-5e3132c38f086a28115a163c#block-5e3132c38f086a28115a163c

As the UK government finalises plans to evacuate its citizens from Wuhan,
one British man has spoken of his distress at not being able to leave immediately with his Indonesian wife.

Nick House, who lives in the city with his Indonesian wife and two British children, told Sky News:
“We would like to be out of here.
The man on the other end of the phone said, ‘Yes, you are on the list, but

unfortunately your wife probably won’t be able to get on the plane because she doesn’t have a visa at the moment’.

“I won’t leave without my wife, so essentially the government are leaving three British people here for the sake of one seat on a plane

cologne, you've done better than my student.

The first bit just means that "X is capable of seeing..."
The rest you got right.

And, indeed, owls do not look like the moon (unless you decapitate them, I suppose, and chuck away their bodies).
Nor are they flat, by any stretch of the imagination, and only some of them are white.

My favourite Erasmus translation, though, has to be one about a schoolboy daydreaming in a classroom. The French text said, "Il jeta un coup d'oeil par la fenêtre" ("He glanced/cast a glance out of the window") and one student translated it as, "He threw a cup of oil out of the window". Because that's something we've all done as schoolkids...

The restrictions on what MFLs are available in UK schools will lead to fewer candidates in MFLs at universities and to more closures of departments, which in turn will diminish the UK's standing internationally as the number of graduates with those skills falls.
It will also have an effect on student mobility: we have a huge range of MFLs and our students who go to the UK are keen to (indeed, have to) continue studying them there. Courses in Russian, Chinese, Japanese and Portuguese are all increasingly difficult to find in UK universities. As for Korean...

Sunderland University have just announced they are closing all MFL courses. And history, too, I think.

Sunderland University have just announced they are closing all MFL courses. And history, too, I think

Yes, but they used to be a poly and are effectively going back to that. I'm not sure I ever agreed with the "lets make all post 18 colleges universities" thing. Universities, polys and HE colleges did different things.

Love the throwing oil out of the window :) They're just not thinking it through before they submit it. Which is worrying in itself. Too much spoonfeeding perhaps. I'm talking from the English perspective, I don't know what the situation is like in Scotland.

I have two lecturer mates who have recently moved to france. One teaches french and her department is shutting down, so it was jumping before she was pushed. The other teaches history and has seen most of his department made redundant and he says the atmosphere has been really nasty. He had some time off sick with stress which is totally unlike him.

They both said their subjects are not valued and they are increasingly being assessed on how much money their graduates make

Very sad

They're just not thinking it through before they submit it. Which is worrying in itself

It used to be the case that a really good exam technique was worth an extra 10% on the final mark. Teachers used to teach it, but I noticed with DS they didn't. (So we did).

further signposting how the UK, despite sometimes trying to put on a friendly facade, really views those who are tainted by foreignness.

Update by the Guardian -

"UK presses China to let dual nationals join coronavirus exodus."
"China does not recognise dual nationality and is not letting Chinese passport holders leave."

Same family photo;
www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jan/29/uk-presses-china-to-let-dual-nationals-join-coronavirus-exodus

Forget Big Ben. they couldn't even organise tea towels ...

www.theregister.co.uk/2020/01/29/brexit_tea_towel/

There's good news and bad news for those seeking to commemorate the UK's departure from the European Union on 31 January.

You too can own a "Got Brexit Done" tea towel, courtesy of the Conservative Party.

Sadly, you cannot do the drying up with delight on the big day itself. Deliveries of the collection (which also includes a lapel pin, a mug and a magnet that presumably repels an entire political and economic union) won't start until the week commencing 10 February

(contd)

I note the removal of the "Made in UK" label on the lapel pin too ...

If nothing else, Brexit really is a (grim) laughing stock.

Another British man, Jeff Siddle, from Northumberland, said that he and his daughter had been offered seats on a flight on Thursday - but not his wife, who's a Chinese national. China is not allowing its citizens to leave the country.
What about people flying back from China?
by Francesca Gillett, BBC News reporter, at Heathrow Airport

China does not recognise dual nationality.
It sees no reason for its citizens to leave.

And it has the face recognition software and the great firewall of China and the totalitarian government to enforce that.

Economic power is scary stuff and should not be underestimated

I don't think students are being taught exam technique.
Otherwise, when told to skip a line between each line of text when writing up their exam scripts, to allow for annotation, they'd do it.
About 75% don't.

I don't think students are being taught exam technique. Otherwise, when told to skip a line between each line of text when writing up their exam scripts, to allow for annotation, they'd do it. About 75% don't.

I know they aren't. Even simple things like looking at how many points for a question (3 points = 3 items when asked for a list). Plus simple sanity checking. And just knowing how to pace an exam and "pre-take" it before putting pen to paper.

That said, all exams really do is prove you do exams. Nothing more. And if you've ever taken a Microsoft certification, you'll know that all it means is you chose the Microsoft answers, not the right ones. And yes they are different.

Just been reading that IDS and his ilk think they can face the government down over Huawei ... add that to a lovely sunny day, and it's hard to feel too despondent.

(Just FTAOD I don't think IDS has a cats chance in hell so it will be nice to see him crushed by democracy).

China does not recognise dual nationality. It sees no reason for its citizens to leave.

To be fair - the Netherlands and Austria restrict dual nationality as well.

I don't think students are being taught exam technique.
Otherwise, when told to skip a line between each line of text when writing up their exam scripts, to allow for annotation, they'd do it.
About 75% don't.

That bit might not be lack of teaching exam technique. Suspect a fair number of secondary MFL teachers have repeatedly banged their heads against that particular wall.

Shocked by the owl sentence though. It’s not particularly complicated in terms of grammar or vocab is it?

Bit disappointed that the EU parliament vote was only item 3 on the six o'clock news on Radio 4 as I was driving home. I know there are lots of important stories at the moment but this IS kinda the big one for the UK. Obviously you won't be able to get away from the story on Friday but I think it should have been higher. The story was covered in the main news but headlines is headlines.
But I was in the Soviet Union when the Berlin wall came down. That was downplayed in tbe news there too.