Posts by Chris Waugh
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Capture: See Into the Trees, in reply to ,
There's a windfarm not far away. It's certainly not up to Wellington or Manawatu standards, but it can get a little breezy.
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Well, that was interesting. I was listening to that American French Fries song when the NZ Herald's video of Gerry Brownlee answering journos' questions starting autoplaying in a tab I wasn't looking at, and I didn't realise it wasn't part of the song until I heard something like "So why did you offer to quit?" "Because I put him in an uncomfortable position." For once autoplay wasn't mega-obnoxious.
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Capture: See Into the Trees, in reply to Nora Leggs,
These are very complex thought bubbles
Whatever they are they're decorating the north gate of the World Grape Exhibition (I tried but failed to find an official English name, so I'll just directly translate the Chinese name for now) site just a couple of kms down from our village. What they have to do with grapes, I don't know, but they made for a cool sunset shot.
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Yeah, somebody forgot to put a vanishing point at the end of the road and pick the clouds out of the trees.
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on the road
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Hard News: Te Reo Māori in schools:…, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
What percentage of school students will end up in a role where they author academic papers in the sciences?
People finishing high school should know the basics of academic writing, the fundamental principles common to all branches of academia, so that they are prepared to begin their studies. Whether they go into the humanities or sciences doesn't matter, they'll learn the particular conventions of their field of study in due course, but they need the basics before they begin their university career. This is a particularly big problem in the Chinese system, but I see precious little evidence it's being taught well anywhere. And it doesn't actually matter which percentage of them, or whether any of them, do go on to university or polytech or any kind of further education, these are skills that can be applied in many other areas. Imagine how much better the op-ed pages of the NZ Herald would be if the likes of John Roughan and Bernard Orsman were capable of examining and analysing the evidence, including that which contradicts their opinions, and building a rational argument based on that.
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Hard News: Te Reo Māori in schools:…, in reply to Josh Petyt,
My daughter's the same: 3, fluent in Mandarin as much as any 3-year old, English lagging. But that's only natural for the time being. Given time, and in a few months the tables will be turned and we'll have to work on keeping up the Mandarin input.
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Hard News: Te Reo Māori in schools:…, in reply to linger,
Here in Japan, I quite often hear arguments
That seems to be common across East Asia, or at least variations on that argument. One version common in China is "Why teach the local dialect? The kids need good Putonghua and English." That extends to the teaching of minority languages, and not just "dialects of Chinese" (no, now is not the time and place for that discussion). And now they're starting to de-emphasise English, and part of me thinks "About time. The world has a multitude of languages" - the common assumption that "foreigners" are all white-skinned, English-speaking Americans is frustrating. Part of me is hoping this isn't a symptom of a further retreat into petty nationalism.
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Hard News: Te Reo Māori in schools:…, in reply to Ewan Morris,
Thanks.
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Ah, finally... New Zealand did once have Maori-language newspapers. The Herald can manage to translate its masthead and a few articles into Te Reo for a week each year.
