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Jul. 27th, 2004
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sbisson
Jul. 27th, 2004 04:05 pm[NON BLOG] Randy Tries Japanese
Jul. 27th, 2004 07:29 pmAs I noted yesterday, I managed to get signed up for a half-hour trial lesson in Japanese. I did go, of course--it was free.
I'd left the Toronto reference library late, and had to walk quickly (south on Bay, west on Bloor) to get to the school. I did have an entertaining brief conversation with a slim man in his 60s who wore an army khaki jacket with what I thought was East German flag decal sewn on. It wasn't, as it turned out, but he did emigrate to Canada in 1959 from West Berlin.
The school itself is located on the "grand concourse" level (that is, second floor) of the Global Village building on 180 Bloor Street West, sharing space with, among other institutions, a LSAT prep course and the Consulate-General of Israel. The school itself was a small collection of rooms. I was met after a brief delay by a petite teacher, who gave me a detailed and somewhat intrusive form to fill out. Once I was done, we went into the classroom. I was alone.
The school's basic philosophy is that of total immersion. The instructor tld me at the beginning of the session that I could only speak in Japanese, no English. For the next half-hour, we proceeded through a quick session acquainting me with, among other things, five Japanese vowels, the names of some common objects (beer, buses, cups) and how to refer to them. and basic terms of conversation (yes and no, thank you). I learned by imitating; I picked things up reasonably quickly. At the end of the session, the instructor tried to sign me up for a September two-month course; I begged poverty and got her to send me an E-mail for the October class, when it became available.
lautreamontg was right, I think, in being skeptical about the efficacy of this school. I enjoyed the trial lesson, and I do have an exceptionally basic grasp of the spoken Japanese language. I doubt, though, that I'd acquire a working fluency in Japanese after 23 more hours of this. Even so, the idea of learning Japanese remains an attractive sort of project.
I'd left the Toronto reference library late, and had to walk quickly (south on Bay, west on Bloor) to get to the school. I did have an entertaining brief conversation with a slim man in his 60s who wore an army khaki jacket with what I thought was East German flag decal sewn on. It wasn't, as it turned out, but he did emigrate to Canada in 1959 from West Berlin.
The school itself is located on the "grand concourse" level (that is, second floor) of the Global Village building on 180 Bloor Street West, sharing space with, among other institutions, a LSAT prep course and the Consulate-General of Israel. The school itself was a small collection of rooms. I was met after a brief delay by a petite teacher, who gave me a detailed and somewhat intrusive form to fill out. Once I was done, we went into the classroom. I was alone.
The school's basic philosophy is that of total immersion. The instructor tld me at the beginning of the session that I could only speak in Japanese, no English. For the next half-hour, we proceeded through a quick session acquainting me with, among other things, five Japanese vowels, the names of some common objects (beer, buses, cups) and how to refer to them. and basic terms of conversation (yes and no, thank you). I learned by imitating; I picked things up reasonably quickly. At the end of the session, the instructor tried to sign me up for a September two-month course; I begged poverty and got her to send me an E-mail for the October class, when it became available.
lautreamontg was right, I think, in being skeptical about the efficacy of this school. I enjoyed the trial lesson, and I do have an exceptionally basic grasp of the spoken Japanese language. I doubt, though, that I'd acquire a working fluency in Japanese after 23 more hours of this. Even so, the idea of learning Japanese remains an attractive sort of project.[BRIEF NOTE] East German gastarbeiter
Jul. 27th, 2004 07:51 pmFrom South Africa's Independent Online, Emmanuel Camillo's article "Majermane 'tired of waiting for their money'":
The main employment problem facing Communist-bloc economies in the 1970s and 1980s was a high rate of unemployment and underemployment. In East Germany and Czechoslovakia, however--the two most developed Communist economies apart from Yugoslavia--there were serious labour shortages, caused by labour inefficiency, plummeting birth rates, and (in East Germany's case) high emigration rates. Exchange programs were set up by these the richest Communist countries with poorer Communist states--Czechoslovakia concentrated on the recruitment of Vietnamese, while East Germany absorbed (including Vietnamese) Cubans, Angolans, and Mozambicans. At the East German program's peak, more than a hundred thousand immigrants in contracts of varying duration worked in Germany.
The experience of these immigrants fascinates me, I have to admit, in part because Communist economic structures are hostile by design to the sort of labourers' autonomy implied by international migration. I know thateternityfan is of East German background, and I wouldn't be surprised if I had other East German readers. If they've any experiences with these immigrants, I'd be interestedto read about them.
More than 300 former migrant workers occupied the German Embassy and its compound for a second day on Thursday, vowed to remain until they are paid for work done two decades ago.
Riot police wielding batons injured three protesters and arrested three others in a brief clash during the night that began when shouting workers shoved a police officer.
Authorities said on Wednesday that the standoff had ended after six hours when German Ambassador Ulf Dieter Klemm told the protesters he would raise their case with Mozambican authorities.
However, the former migrant workers refused to leave the embassy and its grounds, vowing to stay until their demands were met.
"They are still occupying the embassy and negotiations continue," a German foreign ministry spokesperson said from Berlin on condition of anonymity.
The ambassador has been talking to both the Mozambican government and the protesters, she said.
The protesters, known as Majermane, pushed their way past embassy guards and occupied the embassy compound on Tuesday. They contend Mozambique's government owes them $2.2-million in pay for work they did in East Germany in the 1980s. Germans did not pay the workers directly and gave the money to the Mozambican government instead.
The protesters decided to continue the occupation, hoping the Germans can pressure Mozambique to pay them, said Alberto Mahuaie, a leader from the Forum of Returnees From The Ex-German Democratic Republic, or GDR, a group claiming to represent the Majermanes.
'We are not going to pay any extra money because we owe them nothing'
The occupation was spontaneous and not planned by his organisation, he said.
"Some of our colleagues were tired of waiting and decided to invade the German embassy to try and force the two governments to sit at the same table and reach a conclusion about our demands," Mahuaie said.
The main employment problem facing Communist-bloc economies in the 1970s and 1980s was a high rate of unemployment and underemployment. In East Germany and Czechoslovakia, however--the two most developed Communist economies apart from Yugoslavia--there were serious labour shortages, caused by labour inefficiency, plummeting birth rates, and (in East Germany's case) high emigration rates. Exchange programs were set up by these the richest Communist countries with poorer Communist states--Czechoslovakia concentrated on the recruitment of Vietnamese, while East Germany absorbed (including Vietnamese) Cubans, Angolans, and Mozambicans. At the East German program's peak, more than a hundred thousand immigrants in contracts of varying duration worked in Germany.
The experience of these immigrants fascinates me, I have to admit, in part because Communist economic structures are hostile by design to the sort of labourers' autonomy implied by international migration. I know that
eternityfan is of East German background, and I wouldn't be surprised if I had other East German readers. If they've any experiences with these immigrants, I'd be interestedto read about them.