sometimes people say i'm egoistic or my head's getting too big for me to handle.
alright, nobody actually says that to my face but i'm sure i've acted pompously on more than one occasion.
during writing for the web lesson on friday, kenneth tan brought to my attention a phrase i'd used on my webpage - "spa myths demystified".
he said, though it was a clever title, it somehow overshadowed the accompanying content. people would stare too long at the title and thereafter forget why they were reading that section in the first place. not very good news to a webmaster, right?
kenneth then got a couple of students in my class whom, i think, he thought were comfortable in english and asked them if what they thought of the title i wrote.
student no. 1 started out reading "spa myths demys....", stumbled terribly upon "demystified", butchered the word in the process, and consequently gave up the entire passage altogether.
student no. 2 did not read the title aloud, but went on to skim the following paragraph. she then proceeded to declare that section "weird". (what the hell.)
student no. 3 caught the word "demystified" and very honestly said she didn't know that word meant, which meant that that phrase had been completely lost on her. bummer eh.
in the short space on 30 seconds, all three students then reveal that they had not understood what "demystified" meant.
first came shock. then disbelief. then incredulity. lastly, amusement.
they were not weak in english. quite the contrary, i would think those three girls' strengths were, in fact, their language fluency and capability, especially since i've been told that one of 'em had been a debater in her secondary school days.
so obviously, in these situations any normal person would get a bit smug. wouldn't you? even kenneth looked a bit taken aback, "you mean you don't know what'demystified' means?"
but hey, of course i wouldn't react like that if student 1, 2 or 3 had been someone studying medical technology or even chemical engineering. engineers can have good english, it's just not that imperative to them, neither is it expected of them, in my opinion at least. so that creates a justified distinction between say, someone in communication and someone in engineering.
we need to raise the standard of english in my course. we need to do this... we need to do that... but everyone knows nothing really gets done.
alright, nobody actually says that to my face but i'm sure i've acted pompously on more than one occasion.
during writing for the web lesson on friday, kenneth tan brought to my attention a phrase i'd used on my webpage - "spa myths demystified".
he said, though it was a clever title, it somehow overshadowed the accompanying content. people would stare too long at the title and thereafter forget why they were reading that section in the first place. not very good news to a webmaster, right?
kenneth then got a couple of students in my class whom, i think, he thought were comfortable in english and asked them if what they thought of the title i wrote.
student no. 1 started out reading "spa myths demys....", stumbled terribly upon "demystified", butchered the word in the process, and consequently gave up the entire passage altogether.
student no. 2 did not read the title aloud, but went on to skim the following paragraph. she then proceeded to declare that section "weird". (what the hell.)
student no. 3 caught the word "demystified" and very honestly said she didn't know that word meant, which meant that that phrase had been completely lost on her. bummer eh.
in the short space on 30 seconds, all three students then reveal that they had not understood what "demystified" meant.
first came shock. then disbelief. then incredulity. lastly, amusement.
they were not weak in english. quite the contrary, i would think those three girls' strengths were, in fact, their language fluency and capability, especially since i've been told that one of 'em had been a debater in her secondary school days.
so obviously, in these situations any normal person would get a bit smug. wouldn't you? even kenneth looked a bit taken aback, "you mean you don't know what'demystified' means?"
but hey, of course i wouldn't react like that if student 1, 2 or 3 had been someone studying medical technology or even chemical engineering. engineers can have good english, it's just not that imperative to them, neither is it expected of them, in my opinion at least. so that creates a justified distinction between say, someone in communication and someone in engineering.
we need to raise the standard of english in my course. we need to do this... we need to do that... but everyone knows nothing really gets done.
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