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Mallorquin

Listed below are comments made by Mallorquin between Tuesday, 6th January 2009 and Monday, 11th May 2009.

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Fiona Hyslop 08:49am on 11 May 2009 443. oldnat
You will note that my proposal uses students as teaching assistants in the primary setting. The world is full of native Spanish speakers who want to improve their English and as native speakers have the ability to pass on the native language as it's spoken. No need to worry about the niceties of grammar, it all falls into place at a later stage. Actually pointing to a book and saying "please bring it to me" is so much more useful than endlessly chanting the conjugation of a verb. It's low cost and very effective when used with really young kids. Care would have to be taken with South Americans as their dialects can be quite different and will sometimes get you into trouble.

cynicalHighlander
If you had been in an environment where language learning was practical and enjoyable and had you started at an early age then your view might be very different. Chiefly because you would probably have succeeded. The point is that it is not an academic excercise, designed so that you might pass a written exam. This is about real communication with people, something you clearly enjoy and are more than competent in, in English.

In all of this the issue is not about individual politicians and their strengths and weaknesses, it's about equiping Scottish children for what will be a very challenging and international future. An independant Scotland will be far too small to be an inward looking appendage to England. Our history is of going out in the world both in Europe and beyond. Scotland will have to re-align it's social and cultural links, Scots are respected on the continent, so let's build on that. rather than telling ourselves it's too difficult!
Fiona Hyslop 11:01pm on 10 May 2009 425.bighullabaloo
Choice of language will always be difficult for native English speakers. Whilst I understand the sentiment for Mandarin, it has the most unwieldy form of writing, which does not lend itself to computerised technologies, the Chinese themselves recognise this in their efforts to equip their population with English.
Whilst I admire many things French, it seems to me that the Academie Francais is deliberatley stifling the growth of their language. It is a language well suited to the arts and diplomacy but is too inflexible and awkward for the business community. It is in fact declining in use, I believe that EU working documents are now solely in English. Spanish on the other hand, with a pure Latin base (save for some arabic roots) is fast adapting and it's use is expanding. The geographic areas where Spanish is used are among the least developed in the West and represent a huge opportunity.
For business I would recommend English and Spanish, I don't believe that we will have to deal with Chinese who are not well educated and do not have an excellent command of English. How embarrasing to be extolling the language of our southern cousins whilst despising almost all their other institutions. At least Scotland is not falling into the Catalan trap by suggesting that our children are forced to learn in Gaelic as a sign of ethnic identity.
Fiona Hyslop 9:50pm on 10 May 2009 415.bighullabaloo
Well then, it seems that we have no fundamental disagreement. French was my first modern language and I appreciate your sentiments. Perhaps you may be dismayed to have an "idiot" agrees with you. May I be so bold though, as to point out that Spanish is the first language of 350 million people and should not be neglected (ref Wikipedia)
Fiona Hyslop 8:55pm on 10 May 2009 371 bighullabaloo Thank you for your comment. As I live in both countries I have a fair understanding of the mood in Scotland at the moment. My wife was a primary teacher so I have considerable understanding of the resource issues and the "performance" culture. I regret that I failed to understand the point of your comment, I would be grateful if you would expand somewhat and possibly suggest your ideas of how to progress essential language teaching in the Scotland of the 21st century. You will rightly gather that I have a passionate interest in the teaching of language to youngsters. I have little time for political posturing and sniping, to which this site often descends. All our futures depend on sensible people making sensible decisions and then delivering them in a prompt and cost effective manner. I suppose that I should also declare that I will vote SNP in the future as I do not wish my country to return to being an experimental laboratory for the Tories, or worse being totally marginalised by their elite.
Fiona Hyslop 4:06pm on 10 May 2009 It's such a shame that the people of the British Isles as a whole cannot/will not speak other European languages. Kids here in the Balleares learn in Catalan, but study English and Castellano from a very early age. Scotland, in preparation for becoming an independant European state should be addressing the issue. It's a courtesy to our European partners, sometimes difficult to know which language to teach, but a knowledge of any one does wonders for the understanding of their native tonque. I'd never heard of a subjunctive before learning Castellano and yet it does exist in English. As large numbers of Continental students need to qualify as English teachers because of it's global reach, it would seem logical to offer them assistant posts. Then even in the smallest primary, one day per week, everything could be taught in a European language. Very young kids have an inate ability to pick up language, soon they will be using it in the playground. I often hear children talking to each other in more than one language, switching from moment to moment with no difficulty. It would not be expensive, it would not rely on the retraining of hundreds of teachers too old to really get to grips with real spoken language. It would produce future generations prepared for employment across Europe as well as in domestic positions where langueage skills are required. So, if Ms Hyslop reads this, here's your get out of jail card!
Children in detention at Yarl's Wood 5:12pm on 27 Apr 2009 I read this with dismay, but not surprise. The key comes about half way through when we learn that much of the transportation and detention is in the hands of private contractors. For profit organisations have a dismal record on the provision of services, in fact they do not understand the term. They exist solely to make a profit for their owners. Quite rightly so, but not appropriate when there is no direct competition or supervision of their behaviour. Contracts are awarded on the basis of price and promises, once they are up and running, even if the authorities should wish to change them, it becomes impracticable.
I too find it impossible to explain to my Spanish friends why the British as a whole and the English in particular treat children so badly, it is incomprehensible to them.
Instead of railing against these wicked foreigners, one really ought to look at why the UK seems so attractive to them. It is not the land of milk and honey. Benefits don't, on the face of it, seem generous in comparison with some other EU states and yet the queues at Calais continue to build. I suspect that making the system as unfriendly to non EU citizens as that in France, Germany or Spain might be a first step towards actually solving the problem of illegals from outside the EU. In Spain, my North American friends do not benefit from the state social provisions, even as authorised residents. By working and paying into the social security system for a time they eventually do, but it has to be earned.
On this particular issue, the early morning raid by shouting goons reminds me of the totalitarian regimes which most of Europe has grown out of. Politicians of all colours should stop pandering to the Daily Mail reader philosophy and start acting as the guardians of a once successful and certainly mature democracy. In the long run this will prove to be much more important to the British people than saving a few millions in tax money looking after people who need help. Putting innocent children in jail, after having traumatised them is not an activity of which anyone can be proud.
Lifestyle choice 02:17am on 03 Mar 2009 I haven't noticed a lot of abstinence in Finland, which has the highest European prices on booze. I don't believe that this is about public health, it is about the serious street crime taking place day and daily. Well it is embarrassing for the government. There is a solution, roll back the PC attitudes of the goody goodies. Deal with the street crime which causes our citizens to be afraid. Instruct the police to be particularly unpleasant to the perpetrators of drunken street violence and ensure that the courts are unsympathetic to those who might wish to complain. This is one area in which zero tolerance might be appropriate. Forget education, most of the perpetrators didn't learn anything after primary 4, just crack them on the head and make them afraid. It'll be unpleasant for a while, but not for long. If we must have education then send some officers to France to learn from the CRS or to Spain to learn from the Guardia Civil.
A sense of relaxation 12:27pm on 07 Feb 2009 On the original point. Why stop at borrowing? Solve all the problems of the Barnet formula and English "envy" in one blow. Have all taxes raised on Scottish people and businesses paid into the Scottish exchequer. Allow the Sottish government take control of it's own finances and negotiate with Westminster for the supply of services retained by them. Borrowing, or not, would be a natural part of running an economy.
Anti Englishness. My wife, before her untimely death, was a very highly respected member of the local community. She was actually Cornish, a race apart, but still not Scottish. Nobody noticed. Of course she never lectured anyone on how things were so much better run in the home counties.
European flag. As a frequent traveller through the EU and a part time resident of Spain, I miss seeing the reassuring blue and stars in the UK. It gives a feeling of belonging to something bigger and of being in a place by right rather than by concession. The only people who don't get it in Europe are our rulers in Westminster, they still firmly believe that ENGLAND is the best place in the world and is intrinsically superior. Even the Beeb yesterday commented on how well some badminton player had done for England in the Olympics. I thought it was still a British team.
Plus c'est la mme chose? 12:47pm on 06 Jan 2009 287,288
I live in both countries but am a UK tax payer. It gives a unique perspective on the UK in comparison with it's neighbours. As you rightly say the pound/euro rate is crap, but much better today! Happily as I own assets in euro I am partly protected from these shenanigans.
Get a grip Brits, engage with Europe, learn from them, copy the good bits, learn from the mistakes. Don't make the assumption that Johnny foreigner is some inferior species and always gets it wrong! Learn to cooperate, climb out of the silo!!!!
And I don't consider myself an "expat". I am a European citizen living in and enjoying my continent.
Plus c'est la mme chose? 12:09pm on 06 Jan 2009 Reading through this blog it is clear what a polarised and divided country the UK is. Us and them, the toffs and the working man, the little Englanders and the rest of Europe. No wonder we are in such a mess and have been for years. The polarisation of conflicting views condemns us to silos where we happily throw hand grenades at each other, oblivious to the damage caused.
OK, get rid of Brown, vote in Cameron, watch everything being turned upside down as the new dogma is imposed. Wait a few years until everyone hates this particular bunch of incompetents and change back to Brown's successors. Turn everything upside down again. The problem with being of more mature years is that you see the same mistakes made time and time again.
The root of this lies in combative politics, the real change we need is to cooperative politics, where dogma takes a back seat and common sense rules.
I'm fed up with it and off to Spain!!

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