The Citizen, 2001-12-12, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2001. PAGE 5.
Other Views
They say that to tell a story properly, you
should fix it in terms of place and time.
Okay. I live on a small Canadian island
that is unsophisticated enough to have no
stoplights, no four-lane highways, no mega-
malls and no bridges connecting it to The Rest
Of Canada.
It does, however, fall under the yawning
umbrella of Canadian jurisprudence. And that
fact has local lawyers (alas, we have them too)
sharpening their talons in glee.
It's all about a bus shelter, you see. A bus
shelter for schoolkids.
What happened was a couple of parents with
school-age children got tired of seeing their
kids shivering in the rain and gloom each
morning while they waited for the schoolbus.
So they built a bus shelter for them.
The shelter is neat and trim, well back from
the road. It keeps the kids out of the wind and
rain. But it is cursed with one fatal flaw.
The builders neglected to Get A Permit.
That means that, should kids huddled in the
structure fall victim to an asteroid strike or a
rogue logging truck commandeered by Taliban
loonies, then there would be what lawyers
lovingly refer to as "a liability issue".
In other words, lawsuits would start flying
like autumn leaves, and who's gonna pick up
the tab?
Not the school board, not the provincial
government and not what passes for local
government either. They've all refused to take
responsibility.
S omewhere along the way I managed to
run up a total of nine languages which
isn't as great as it sounds given that my
schooling was conducted in five of them. The
strange thing is that, although I am an
economist, I never took a course in economics
in English in my life. They were all done in
German, French, Italian and Spanish.
What a time I had when I had to teach it in
English in Canada. In retrospect I feel sorry for
my students.
It helps to be born in the country whose
language you want to learn; but how about
those wanting to learn a second language?
Even with all my languages I only managed to
be born in one place at one time so I, too, had
to go through the procedure of learning them.
I was once a speaker at a conference for
Grade 10 students. They asked any number of
questions about learning a foreign language.
Each student admitted to finding them difficult
at high school and asked how to make it more
simple or more enjoyable.
I suggested there was no easy way at school.
The best way would be an immersion course.
For openers I find English-speaking people
extremely self-conscious when trying to speak
a foreign language, i.e. they hate making
mistakes in public.
Europeans really don't have this problem.
Learning a second language or even a third, is
more of a necessity there than here.
At any rate, step one is to minimize your fear
of making mistakes. If you laugh at your
mistakes, people will laugh with you instead of
at you.
To avoid suffering from overload, don't try a
lot of cramming at one time. When you are
learning an expression, say it out loud so you
can hear it. After all, a foreign language is not
sign language; put as much of your studies as
possible on this vocal plane.
During the last six months, I have taught
conversation courses in Spanish, Italian and
French. In all these classes I frequently pair
students off.
Using a given conversation pattern one asks
a question and the other answers it. Then they
reverse the process. This gives you more of the
oral practice that you need.
Arthur
Black
Unless there's a virulent outbreak of rational
thinking, it looks like the shelter, and others
like it, will be torn down.
It's not as if we haven't seen this before. On
the outskirts of the Ontario town where I used
to live there's an old stone quarry full of water.
Well, not full. The water's about 30 feet down
from the rim of the quarry, but it's deep and
warm in the summer months. It's been a
favourite swimming hole for folks in the area
for generations.
Until one night a few years back when a guy,
after methodically working his way thRiugh a
twenty-sixer of rum, staggered to the edge and
threw himself off.
He broke his back. And then he did what so
many moral midgets are doing these days - he
sued.
And won a settlement of $1.3 million.
The government then spent another small
fortune erecting a steel and concrete fence
around the perimeter of the quarry, setting up
an attendant's booth and hiring staff to patrol
the quarry during daylight hours.
You can still swim in the quarry, but it's
Do not spend hours trying to learn
complicated grammatical rules; you will never
remember them all. Try to learn them gradually
with your conversation periods. , •
Just keep in mind that when you were first
learning how to speak your mother tongue, you
did not spend time learning grammar since you
didn't know any. You simply used a trial and
error method with somebody to correct you
when you made mistakes.
Let's assume that you are trying to learn
French since that is the one most commonly
taught in our schools. If you really want to
learn it well, the best thing to do is to spend
some time in Quebec or even one of the three
French speaking countries in Europe.
With the French you have when you arrive
there, you will be surprised how quickly you
reach a satisfying level of fluency.
I asked Lauren Easton of Kitchener how she
went about learning a language and was
interested in her reply. I have known Lauren all
her life and she is a shining example of
someone who, while English speaking, has
learned how to speak French really well, and I
mean fluently. Lauren suggested that one of the
bekt ways was to listen regularly to the French
networks on TV. You will be surprised to see
how you gradually understand more and more;
you also pick up useful expressions.
Remember that attitude is just as important
in learning a language as in doing many other
tasks. No language is easy but French or
Spanish, the ones most often studied, are about
as easy as it gets for English speaking people.
German or Russian can be considerably harder
due to their more complicated grammar.
There is an old saying that success is the
progressive realiiation of one's goals and, if
you keep this in mind, you will end up with a
somewhat less than a wilderness experience -
and all because some witless boozehound was
too stunned to keep himself out of harm's way.
I read recently that a smoker in California
who is in the process of dying from lung
cancer, had his court damages award reduced
to a mere $100 million. A judge who reviewed
the case felt that the original award of $3
billion granted by a jury was 'excessive'.
Ten cents would be excessive. This moron
had sucked up two packs of Marlboros every
day for 40 years. He claimed to be 'unaware'
that there was any health hazard.
You know what we need?
I can't believe I'm writing this, but we need
a new government body — some agency that
will wade through hordes of frivolous lawsuits
and the pettifogging bureaucratic rats' nests of
over regulation that snarl up our lives.
We could call it The Ministry of Stupid
Litigation. It would be charged with weeding
out the greed-driven lawsuits initiated by
suitors who are merely trolling the courts in
search of an undeserved jackpot.
It's a pretty simple concept: actions have
consequences. If you smoke, you increase your
chances of dying ugly. If you drink and djve
into a quarry, you may get hurt. Whatever
happens, it's your fault, not the taxpayers.
As for the "illegal structure" sitting on the
side of a road on my island - it's a shelter for
schoolchildren for God's sake.
Find something significant to get neurotic
about.
far better command of the language you are
learning; you will also be much happier while
doing it.
Bonne chance!
Letter
Continued from page 4
asking for a donation, tell the caller to send
you something in writing that you can study at
your leisure. If they cannot send you such a
notice — don't make the gift.
5. Ask questions. A real charity will welcome
them. Ask how much of your donation
actually goes to charitable purposes and how
much is spent on administration and
fundraising expenses. By law, it should not be
more than 20 per cent ). Don't trust a charity
that won't give you the facts.
6. Never give your credit card number over
the phone or to someone whom you don't
know.
7. Don't be swayed by emotional appeals or
feelings of guilt. Don't feel pressured to give
money immediately. A legitimate charity will
appreciate your donation just as much the
following day.
8, Remember that you don't have to donate to
a charity just because it sent you something
you didn't ask for. You can legally accept that
item as a free gift.
9. A federal income tax registration number
does not guarantee the organization is
legitimate. The number could be fake.
10. Check out any suspicious charity appeals
with the Better Business Bureau or with the
RCMP's Phonebusters program at
1-888-495-8501. You can also find informa-
tion on the latest consumer fraud scams on
Industry Canada's Strategis website
(ww w.strategisic.gc.ca) and on the RCMP
website (www.rcmp-gre.gc.ca):
I strongly believe that we all have a duty to'
help those less fortunate than ourselves, at
Christmas and everyday. I also believe that we
should protect ourselves from fraud. With this,
I hope that the above is useful should you
decide to donate to any charity.
Sincerely,
Paul Steckle, MP Huron-Bruce.
Shedding the mantle
Well, it's getting down to the crunch
so it's likely that for the next couple
of weeks you can expect to find
some kind of chatter about the season in this
space. Christmas does tend to be a little all-
consuming at this point, after all.
In the name of tradition, there is much to
uphold. Decorating, baking, cards to sign,
presents,to buy.
And it all takes time. Which is unfortunately
more and more at a premium. It's not that I
leave everything to the end. Though I do have
problems making up my mind on occasion,
when it comes to jobs to be done I would never
be called a procrastinator. Quite the contrary. I
abhor a task hanging over my head and will
rise to meet it almost immediately.
Sometimes with hazardous results. Home
from work on a Friday night, taking quick
account of the time left before me and the
things I need to accomplish within that time
frame I decided to get the Christmas tree up
and looking festive.
However, as my son dragged the boxes
downstairs, then quickly departed, I couldn't
help wondering why all of these tasks have
fallen to me. I remember a time when we
shared the work. The kids helped with the
Christmas baking, each one having a favourite
recipe. My girls helped with everything from
shopping to wrapping, while the boys were
usually around to lend support with the
decorations. There was no question it
lightened the burden of the holiday workload,
but they are leading their own rather busy
lives, so now, I must come to accept that I'm
on my own.
And where's my husband in all this, you ask.
Me too.
Thus, having donned the mantle of
martyrdom I began what has become a rather
lonely job. Plugging in the first lignts to test
them I was relieved to see the set was in
working order. Standing atop a kitchen bar
stool I began to painstakingly string the lights
on the tree, paying great attention to aesthetic
detail.
Half an hour later I was ready for the second
string, which also, joy of joys, worked when
tested. I plugged it into the first string, which
as Murphy would have known, no longer did.
Ripping them down from the tree, I again
ascended, with no small degree of irritation.
And then, I'm not sure how; perhaps I tripped
on that aforementioned mantle; I was
plummeting unceremoniously to earth taking
lights, chair and tree along.
Obviously as I'm here to tell you about it,
there was no serious damage done to myself
other than some bruising to body and ego. Our
wall, though, does boast a melon-sized hole.
And I must admit some aches, pains and a
new level of apprehension slowed the progress
a bit, though in due course I did complete the
project. Then made a call to my daughter in
Toronto informing her that the job was hers
from now on. To my surprise she was only too
happy to agree. Also, when I asked my eldest
daughter if she would make the shortbread this
year, her response too was immediate. So I
began to wonder just how much of their .
absence has been my fault. It would seem I can
shed this mantle; my family's certainly not
asking me to wear it.
However, there is one whose participation is
going to be a little tougher to recruit, though I
have made a start. Hubby says he wants those
Christmas cards sent.
I've suggested he get on that.
It's all abou a bus shelter
Lessons on learning a language