Commenting

Irritation is clicking around on the settings of one's blog, clicking on the 'Comments' menu and discovering that for some reason the site hasn't been notifying me when I have comments, for about a year.  This wouldn't be such of an issue if for the past few months I've had a podcast shortage only to find out that in February I was recommended a lot of new podcasts.  *shaking fist in air at the curs-ed interwebs*

High Chair

There are two things which trouble me here (well, maybe trouble is a strong word, puzzle me enough to take a picture and give me something to write about), one, why would you put high chairs outside your cafe.  And, two, if you were a human who saw said high chairs, why would you sit on one and start texting on your phone.  Wouldn't you realise how odd you look, towering over people, adjudicating their walking abilities.

Deutsching

In other news, I have started a German course at the Goethe Institut.  Originally I'd gone to the language school you can see at the top of the photo above.  I had done a test and been told that I had to start at the complete beginner level, A1.  Seeing as I'd done many many months of studying beforehand, this fact irked me some.  Ahh, these people are moronic dipshits, I thought to myself.  And it turns out I was right.

Upon registering at the Goethe Institut I was giving a test.  A much more intensive one and a little more than the "here's 15 questions on a badly photocopied peice of paper" I got from Parlando.  So, after many questions, a written text part and an interview they concluded that I am level A22 (which is Level A2 - Part 2, before you think I'd just jumped a whole 21 levels).

I'm now 3 weeks into the course and its going quite well.  There are a few things that I haven't studied before and the teaching method for these seems to be "well, you should know it, its easy, why can't you understand it completely from my 55 second explanation in German".  But all in all, I'm getting somewhere with my German, actually using it and practising it with people.

My 2010 in Randomness

2010 - A Year in Random Clips

People are Wank with Numbers

Background Rant

A little background first.  I've been learning German on and off for around 2 years now, and have thus far progressed about as far as you'd expect if you'd studied for a month and a half.  This is due to a few things really, the shite-ness of language schools (from my first 2 week experience of not learning anything and paying lots of money for the privilege), a lack of people willing to practice my awful, slow stilted German with and the complete ineptitude of the two, separate, private tutors I hired earlier this year (ok, and there may be a generous dollop of personal lazyness in there too).  Oh, and the fact that I hate language purists and the grammatical rules to which they pray, if the other person I'm communicating to understands what I am saying along with all the subtleties that I'm conveying, then language has done its job.  (I could write a whole blog on this subject, but suffice to say, language should be able to freely change depending upon how its best used, not kept the same for the simple reason that its the way its always been done)

But, after not really getting anywhere with studying German, I gave in and pledged my balls to the great grammar god.  So, this resulted in a generous spurt of learning was way back in 2010, 3 months of studying for at least an hour a day from books, cd's and the monotonous Rosetta Stone, plus multiple lessons and a spattering of German TV and Film watching.  All of which got me to the point where I know a hideous amount of grammatical rules and could answer all the questions thrown at me with relative ease.  What I did not learn though, was how to speak the language.

So, I gave up and ignored learning German for 5 months whilst I pondered my next move.  Now, I understand the need for grammatical rules, but they are not my whole learning world so I am going back to focusing on the simple idea of practise.  The idea now being that I'll go to a language school again, learn and then practice with my fellow students of the same level (ie. willingness to speak at my level with patience).

Number Wankness

Which brings me to (what I thought before that rant) the main reason for this post.  Numbers seem to be confusing for most people.  Especially when it comes to money.

Whenever I've talked to people about going to a language school two things usually come up :

1. The best one to go to is the Goethe Institut.
2. The most expensive one is the Goethe Institut.

I already knew the first one so I took the second as read, everyone says it, so it must be correct.  The problem is that when you look at it properly, its not, not by a long way.

First, lets look at it from the perspective of the disinterested or pleb like :

• Parlando - 4 Week Evening Course = €104
• Logo - 10 Week Evening Course = €320
• Die Neue Schule - 8 Week Evening Course = €220
• Sprachenatelier - 4 Week Evening Course = €100
• Goethe - 8 Week Evening Course = €609

Now, what I imagine happens in most peoples brain is this : "OMGZZZZZ!!  WTFFF!!!  609 is a way bigger number than all of the others!!!!! they're so like freaking expensive!!!!" and thats it.  End of story.  Bigger number = more expensive.

But then, if you use this brain thing that some people have, you can break them down :

• Die Neue Schule - 8 Weeks, 4 lessons per week = €220 for the course, €10 enrolement, €30 books = €8.12 per lesson.
• Logo - 10 Weeks, 4 lessons per week = €320 for the course, €30 books (this is a guess, they don't list the price) = €8.75 per lesson
• Parlando - 4 Weeks, 4 lessons per week = €104 for the course, €79 books (wtf?) = €11.44 per lesson.
• Sprachenatelier - 4 Weeks, 4 lessons per week = €100 for the course, €50 enrolment = €9.35 per lesson.
• Goethe - 8 Weeks, 10 lessons per week = €609 for the course = €7.61 per lesson.

It puts Goethe as the cheapest, the next closest charges for new books every level at €30 a pop.  With Goethe they're all included.

So, my conclusion.  People are turd with numbers.  There is nothing that complicated about them, its all very basic stuff.  Alas though, I think most people in the world are like this guy.