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The Scamp Swears like a Sailor

Posted on by erranteditor

I always knew my penchant for swearing and my love of a well-timed insult would come in handy one day.

I just didn’t know that that day would be in an evening Advanced Conversation Class at Simply English Edinburgh.

I love my job there. I have the chance to help some really lovely and amazing people improve their English skills. One of my favourite people owns the school, and has graciously hired me for to teach some classes, and act as a sub when needed. It puts me back in the classroom (which is something that I miss), and I get to meet really great people.

I have been working with a student who is in Edinburgh for a few months for work, and is at the school to improve their English Language skills while they are here. So far, their time here has been less than ideal. My student works in a horrible department, spends most lunch breaks eating alone, and is dealing with a major setback with work.

By the time my class rolled around, my student was not in the best of moods. Luckily, the other students in the class were not about to let a bad work environment ruin the magic of the city. I gave them the option of what the focus of our class would be, and somehow, we ended up talking about cuss words and insulting people in English. The students took notes on the sayings and insults, and then we looked up the best Scottish insults and I translated them from Scottish slang to English they could understand.

Now, to be clear, this is not something I would normally do. I know that as a teacher, I have a responsibility to be professional, but right at that moment, this is what the student needed. All of the students in my class are in their 30s, and before we started, I made sure that everyone was going to be comfortable with the subject matter. Everyone was laughing and chatting away in English and sharing where they learned some of the more creative insults.

I think I was more embarrassed explaining it to them then they were hearing the insults. This is not going to be an everyday thing, but when I left the class, my student who is struggling was laughing and felt better (they even had a list with all the insults written down to take to work for when the co-workers start to act like jerks again. The hour and a half of laughter was worth it for me. Just in case anyone was wondering, I worked in grammar, new vocabulary, and how to structure the insults in the best way possible, so learning was taking place.  It’s amazing how good a little swearing can make you feel.

In the interest of fairness, here is the article that I used for the Scottish insults. If you are easily offended, please don’t click the link. I’m not going to post the ones that I gave to them, just trust that they were really nice and colourful. Twatscile was one of them (okay, you get one from me).

https://www.buzzfeed.com/hilarywardle/chew-mah-banger?utm_term=.cbe8vGplA#.yv0zXJQ3d

Feel free to share your favourite swear word or insult with me, or just scream it out loud in an empty room when you are having a bad day.

The Scamp as a Scientist or Spy

Posted on by erranteditor

In an attempt to cure my academic writer’s block, I have been reading books about how to structure a research project. I thought that if I understood the process better then I would be able free my mind from the self made prison and get some work done. When reading the chapter on design frames, I came across a section called “Scientist or Spy?” The section makes the claim that there are two camps for social scientists: the traditional scientist that runs experiments, quantifies data, and works in a lab (or basically, indoors). The other camp is the spy: the researcher who hides in bushes and observes people in their natural habitat. The spy is the one who blends in with crowd, talking to them, learning from them, and studying them as they are. The spy is out in the field, observing, listening, and learning.

Basically, the spy is the one who gets to have all of the fun.

That made me think, am I the scientist or the spy?

Right now, I am not feeling like very much of either. I am not the mad scientist type (crazy cat lady, that’s a different story), and right now I am no Harriet the Spy, with no cases to crack or mysteries to solve (plus hiding in bushes makes me itchy). Part of what is holding me up in the writing process lately is that I don’t have the answer to that question. My research for this project is keeping me at my desk, but the research I have been doing for the last couple years with the writing class has me in the field watching my students in their somewhat native habitat. There are aspects of both that I like. My desk based research is interesting because it allows me to form my own opinions about what I am reading, and the research that I am doing on the writing class allows me the freedom to try out different techniques and teaching styles to see what works and what doesn’t. I also get a chance to interact with my students and let them have a hand in helping shape curriculum that will ultimately affect them and their writing careers.

I’m staled in my writing about my methods and methodology because I haven’t figured out which one I am and why. I can’t write that I chose the structure of my project because it is easy and because I am in two grad programs at once, and I don’t want to make up some bullshit that isn’t true just to get to my word count. I got to 500 word today, but my goal is another 1000 by Sunday.

I have a feeling it is going to be a long weekend.

In the meantime, I will just look at these pictures over and over. They make me feel better about life.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ariellecalderon/bambi-the-dachshund-is-guaranteed-to-bring-infinite-joy-to-y