Разговор обо всем на свете :)

[diggerzz]

on the one hand, yes, routine is very soothing.

It's very killing, I would say.
Being of my age (40+) I think I have got the right to whining a little. :)

[Juliemiracle]

diggerzz,
last year I listened to a book by one Asian neurologist (I guess I already mentioned it somewhere). It's called Забывчивость - мое второе что-то там, and it explains in detail how and why the routine is killing our brain. To my surprise, even seemingly complex mental activities, like teaching at uni can be done mostly on auto-pilot. And at the end of the day, all of us need to regularly break the cycle to avoid the early onset of memory probs and cognitive deterioration, on the whole.

[Juliemiracle]

JamesTheBond (О методах изучения и преподавания английского языка.)
more logical fallacies - tick,
mentioning France - tick (I guessed right :)
What else?
Oh yeah, the author:
1) doesn't understand the principles of the CLT and uses it as an invective instead;
2) doesn't know what it means to teach a language except teaching grammar terminology; hence, they don't get most of the questions addressed to them.
The post is so full of BS that I'll probably make its copy and use some quotations from it for some workshop about the myths on language teaching.

[diggerzz]

Juliemiracle,
Была бы мудрота, поделился бы. :)
То, про что вы писали, ну сомнительно как-то, но если помогает, то вай нот, собсно.

[Easy-Breezy English]

I don't want to read the same things for 10+ years, especially written by a charlatan.

Why do you, then?

[Juliemiracle]

Easy-Breezy English,
because I believe that imposters must be called what they are. Because due to 'experts' like that our profession has low levels of credibility. Because I have seen how this particular person drove an exceptional teacher out of this community, using his moderating privileges.
So, knowing that I'm a bit of a thorn in his side (and I know I am, judging by how meticulously he moderates my posts in his threads) gives me a sick pleasure.

[diggerzz]

because I believe that imposters must be called what they are.

Even if they are imposters, who cares?
How many persons just have read the articles you are fighting against?
Who of them readers gotta know english worse t'n before? :)

[Juliemiracle]

Even if they are imposters, who cares?

I do.
I dealt with the victims of such 'teaching'. The students who come to you with a thick notebook full of 'very important theory' and absolutely no skills. The saddest thing is that it takes ages to make them believe that they aren't dumb or incapable of learning English, that English is wonderful and learning it can be fun. Because usually in between dictating the 'theory' such 'teachers' also speak about their Amercian professors and all that stuff, which makes students think very highly of them and plunges their own self-esteem below zero.
James is the personification of that evil to me, and the fact that he's the moderator of the language learning and teaching community never ceases to amaze me. It's like an illiterate person at the head of the book club.

[Juliemiracle]

diggerzz,
and I'll never forget what he did to Mike.

[diggerzz]

and I'll never forget what he did to Mike.

What that was?
I thought that Mike left the forum because the administrators denied to ban some freakers who told about learn-english-as-your-mother-tongue-in-no-time.
James may be the Bond, but he didn't take any part of that, if I remember correctly.

[Juliemiracle]

James may be the Bond, but he didn't take any part of that, if I remember correctly.

You remember it wrong. When we moved to this forum, and James became a moderator here, he basically started bullying Mike the way he tries dealing with me now: he deleted or moved his posts around and other stuff. Not in one thread; everywhere Mike went. Until at some point Mike lost his temper and James immediately gave him several 'punishment notices'. Mike left because he was insulted by the whole situation, because he was tired of that bullying and because the admins supported James (although some of us were against it and wrote about it openly). He said that he wouldn't set foot into this forum while unprofessionals have a free reign here. I know that he had been silently reading the forum for some time after that as we exchanged some PMs, but as far as I understand, he eventually left for good.

[Juliemiracle]

diggerzz,
and why had James been holding a grudge against Mike? Because on the old forum James used to have a thread similar to that of Astrologer where he tried to promote his super-duper method (first, based on word frequency, later, on retelling phonetics books, even later, grammar terminology), but due to Mike's comments and questions in it, it was clear that he knew neither language nor teaching methods. Mike made him look phony and ridiculous, and of course, James didn't like that.

[diggerzz]

Juliemiracle,
Got it.
If that went as you told, Mike's leaving is enough to get me to your side.
But anyway, without the support of admins...
That is a little bit unjust to put all the blame on youknowwho. :)

[Juliemiracle]

diggerzz,
the admins position is 'let all the flowers bloom'. And you know how jesuitical James is. For instance, in winter, when he didn't like some post of mine, he deleted it. When I complained to the moderator, he himself as a moderator simply closed my complaint. By the time I posted my complaint in the open thread, he'd restored my post, moved it several times, so in the end, even the admin couldn't make head or tail of it. And it was the moderator's word against mine, a simple user. Now he's much more careful, of course.

[Juliemiracle]

diggerzz,
won't be surprised if all these posts suddenly disappear and I get 'a notice' for 'discussing the moderation, which is against the rules' - it's his personal unfailing favourite.

[Easy-Breezy English]

Easy-Breezy English,
because I believe that imposters must be called what they are. Because due to 'experts' like that our profession has low levels of credibility.

I see. I wouldn't lose my sleep over it, honestly. I don't think it's all that consequential. But suit yourself, of course.

[Juliemiracle]

I wouldn't lose my sleep over it, honestly.

I don't, either.

[diggerzz]

the admins position is 'let all the flowers bloom'

That is the start and the end of it. IMHO, for sure.
If coming back to Mike's leaving, the root is the "blooming flowers".
Let all the flowers bloom, let all the shit stink, let <you name it>

[Juliemiracle]

If coming back to Mike's leaving, the root is the "blooming flowers".

Yeah, but here we had a very particular 'blooming flower', sundews-type :)

[diggerzz]

Juliemiracle,
Don't be angry with the consequences.
We have got that we have got. That's it.
Might turn out to be a real f.. sh.. c.. beautiful thing. Вот.
Be positive. :)

[Juliemiracle]

Be positive. :)

If I wasn't, I'd have been dead :)

[diggerzz]

If I wasn't, I'd have been dead :)

That's the spirit! :)

[alanta]

the admins position is 'let all the flowers bloom'.

I'd say it's more like - 'we don't really have a big pool of candidates to choose from'. So we're kind of doom, I guess.

[Juliemiracle]

'we don't really have a big pool of candidates to choose from'.

But what priviliges and how much power such ppl have is completely up to admins.

[Juliemiracle]

Вот книжечка, которую очень рекомендовала Блондинка (не как авторитет, а как преподаватель :) ).

James is definitely reading my posts not only in his own threads. Although he pretends to take no notice of me, he can't help trying to get back at me on his own ground. I find it absolutely adorable.
Also, I like his personal understanding of words. For instance, 'theoretical' is simply the synonym of 'too complex/unfathomable'. That's why he refuses to admit that the books he's citing are theoretical grammar. Not because they're too difficult for average low-level learners or anything, but because they have no practical sections.