I so get your “ennui”! And it is hard to work and study at the same time; but girl…do not give up !

Congrats on your bilingual certificate: you must be proud LOL LOL ! And I totally agree with you: if one doesn’t master a certain language please do not teach in it (I had the same problem when I was in the university: Portuguese teachers who knew little of English teaching in Her Majesty’s language…c’était terrible!!!).

Have a great weekend, girl!

Cheers
.-= Max Coutinho´s last blog ..Inside a Woman’s head on Valentine’s Day =-.

@Seraphine — I think I’m still dumb, especially early in the morning and even more so on Monday. I don’t want to make fun of these kids but… really, was I that dumb?

@angela — For the link, please do so, I’m honored! I will update my own blogroll soon and I’ll be sure to include your blog. Yes, going back to school is a strange experience, even for me who never really stopped studying.

@Nigel — really? Which class did you like best, and what was the problem with the other classes?

@Alexander — The campus is nice… huge actually!

@Gail at Large — You are right, this is definitely an Ottawa thing. As for “mature students campuses”, we don’t really have this option in Ottawa’s mainstream universities. It’s too bad actually.

@Em — Thanks for visiting and commenting! I’m not sure how grammar is taught here because I went to school in France. But I find students lack very basic skills in both French in English, no matter what their mother tongue is. And I’m talking of students who grew up in Canada, not newcomers.

For instance, students don’t write complete sentences, like subject + verb + complement. Punctuation is also quite erratic… and don’t get me starting on spelling! French are quite picky about their language in France and we had dictations until we were like 16.

You mentioned basic grammar skills in your post and I am wondering what are the standards of teaching grammar at secondary level in Canada? If it’s like in Ireland, no wonder. Here, pupils are not taugh the English language as it is believed that it’s a skill they pick up naturally through listening and reading. You can imagine their level when they arrive in university; some of the essays are actually illegible and tutors are supposed to teach their students basic writing skills on top of thinking skills (that is not to regugitate everything that was said at the lecture). Maybe it’s the same in Canada?

I love the poster against littering!

Em
.-= Em´s last blog ..Rain and Snow =-.

I continued to work my full-time job and attended classes on two different campuses. The downtown (Harbourfront) campus in Vancouver was nearly all mature students; I was in the main demographic of people who were already in the workforce and the location was convenient for us. It made for a completely different atmosphere. I didn’t particularly enjoy the massive theatre-style classes at the main campus in Burnaby, they were too large and it wasn’t conducive to asking questions.

As a mature student I think the first-year students will always look like kids. And they are!

Regardless, I think the whole screwed-up language class situation you’re in can be blamed on OTTAWA I’ve never heard of that before and it doesn’t make any sense at all, like many things that happen there. The whole country blames everything on Ottawa, don’t we?
.-= Gail at Large´s last blog ..My Third Leg =-.

Have a great time!

Alexander

one of my class was just fucked up — all of mine are. In the past 2 years, I have had only class which I actually liked to attend