Translation in ELT

Recently I was lucky to participate in a webinar given by Guy Cook, a celebrated author, on translation in ELT. The presenter published a book on the topic last year and is a strong supporter of the technique. He finds a lot of convincing arguments in its defense, reminding us that translation is one of the most common real-life situations involving communication, especially in today's multicultural world. To get a small sample of what Guy Cook has to say about translation, listen to him here:

 

 Go to OUP Teachers' Club website to see what webinars have been planned for the nearest few months. The one on translation has been recorded and is to be available for playback soon.

Steve Jobs: How to live before you die | Video on TED.com

Listen to Steve Jobs's 2005 commencement address at Stanford University. I'm sure you will find it very inspiring and moving.

Ten years

Unforgettable.

Good old days

Time for a new task! As you may know, it has long been part of the blog project to share your childhood photographs with everyone. Now that most of you are at home, it seems an ideal time to get round to it. Apart from posting the pictures, please browse your memory and write about your favorite pastime as a child. Did you spend most of your time outdoors, running about with your friends, or were you perhaps more of a domestic type, playing house/board games/computer games or something else entirely? Do you remember any toys that everybody had at the time? There is always something kids are all crazy about. Try to go back those 10-15 years back and see how much you can remember.

If you want to see me as a little girl, look here - a few more years back, admittedly. ;)

Janusz Korczak - an inspiration for life

Today I came across a short article by Eva Hoffman, an acclaimed American writer of Polish-Jewish origin, about the person who is one of the strongest influences in my life: Janusz Korczak. It occurred to me that it would be good if TTC students - future teachers - had some idea of who he was and how he saw his role as an educator. Janusz Korczak is usually known for his heroic death in Treblinka, a Nazi death camp, after he refused to be rescued from the Warsaw ghetto and instead chose to accompany 200 Jewish children from his orphanage to the gas chamber. 

The tragic end of his life overshadows the incredible work of his lifetime. Apart from his beautiful and thought-provoking children's books that we all know from school, he wrote a lot o pedagogical texts, where he explained his humanistic notions of childhood (e.g. How to Love a Child, 1919). He saw children as  people, with their own dignity, need of love and respect. ("Dziecko to człowiek, tylko że mały.") This may seem rather obvious now, but at the time it was an almost revolutionary idea. Then, children were to be seen, but not heard! He taught them responsibility by introducing democratic procedures: they took decisions by voting, they elected their own jury to decide cases of misconduct among them, they issued their own newsletter, etc. This upbringing aimed to produce responsible, mature citizens, who knew their rights and their obligations. At the same time, however, the Old Doctor showed them how to love others. Although he never married and did not have any biological children, all the children at the orphanage were 'his own', and he let them feel that. They trusted him unconditionally, which one needs to earn very hard with children.

Now Korczak is patron of many educational initiatives and institutions, and his ideas are still valid. Admittedly, they do not seem to go very well with the permissive attitudes of modern approaches to "stress-free upbringing", because in his view all children need to have their responsibilities and take them very seriously, as an obligation to one another and to adults. On the other hand, children's rights and the concepts of democracy and justice are very modern ideas, and it is here that Korczak's influence is the strongest. 

My own 'Korczak experience' started in high school, when I joined a scouting troop for a summer camp called Korczakowo. Korczak's ideas were realized there on everyday basis, including a daily newspaper published by the participants, frequent discussion sessions on current issues, and a lot of artistic events which were organized almost every day by everybody at the camp. Young people were allowed to believe that they can achieve a lot if only they try hard enough. It is also important to add that all this happened in the beautiful natural surroundings, in the woods, on a lake. In other words - a magical, irresistible place. I returned there a few summers in a row, and then, years later, I sent my kids there too. It is still a very inspiring place, with the spirit of creativity which helps children find new potential in themselves. Korczak's ideas live on.

 

A monument in memory of Janusz Korczak built in the woods, in Korczakowo.

This post has been submitted as an entry in the Bloggers for Korczak competition. 

Your music

To celebrate the first signs of spring, I would like to offer a light topic this time. Music is an important element of our lives regardless of age, but it seems that young people are especially attracted to it. Blogs are an obvious opportunity to share it with others, and hence our new task:
Please write about a music performer  - a singer, an instrumentalist, a band, or maybe a choir - whatever or whoever you like listening to. Say what it is that makes their music special to you and share some of it with us. The most convenient way is to place a YouTube video in your post, but you can also add a link to their website or some other online features. I know that some of you have already done something of the kind, but I'm sure you can find more to share with us.
I would like to use this opportunity to present to you one of my old-time favorites: Annie Lennox's Walking on Broken Glass. You may be surprised to recognize some familiar faces there. ;) (This is what you might call 'a star-studded cast'.) The music itself is amazingly dynamic, with the string section so well suited to the 18th century style of the video, whose story is based on Dangerous Liaisons, an excellent film of the late 1980s.

The same music has been used in a YouTube video that smoothly combines various dance scenes from period drama movies. Since embedding has been blocked for that video, click here if you want to see it. I think I like it even better than the original one.

Good news?

Here is my next task for you:

With all the misery in the media these days - the tsunami and nuclear pollution in Japan or the unresolved situation in Libya - I was wondering if there is any good news around. Please browse some online news services, preferably in English, to find some news which makes you feel optimistic or inspired. It may be international, national or local news. Report the details of the story to us and say why you've chosen this particular one. Please add a link to the news story you've decided to share with us.

Colin Firth!

:))

Books you grew up with

Recently, when cleaning up her room, my daughter came across an old book of mine, which I urged her to read when she was a little girl. Being such a grown up now, she no longer wants to have it in her room, and so it came back to me. When I held the book in my hands, I felt a flow of memories which made me feel absolutely wonderful. It's not a very popular book I think, not now at least. Its Polish title is Malutka czarownica (German: Die Kleine Hexe), its author is Otfried Preussler, and I remember I just loved it! As the title says, it's about a little girl who is being brought up by witches to become one of them, and the thing is that she wants to make a really good witch. The question she keeps asking herself is what it means to be one. :) Does it mean being GOOD, or being really mean? Trying to answer this very question upsets the wicked world she is supposed to become part of and gets the Little Witch into all sorts of trouble. I guess this tricky concept of being naughty by trying to be good made the book so interesting and appealing to me.

What about your childhood books? Did you have any? Do you remember anything about them? Try to dig deep in your memory - I'm sure you'll find some treasures there. Why not share them with us? This your next blogging task. Enjoy!

Getting started

Welcome to this year's blog project. I hope at least some of you will find it interesting and enjoyable. Your blogs may become another space where you share your reactions to things you have seen, heard or witnessed; they may also let you get to know other students better - those from the other groups, for example. It's important that you not only write your posts, but also read what others have written, and leave your comments. I will read everything and comment sometimes, too, but that's different, isn't it? ;)
Do your best in terms of English - your blogs are available online for anyone to read. I'm not going to give you any feedback on your errors in my comments, so you need to take full responsibility for your writing. No need to be perfect, but please don't be sloppy.

Here is your first assignment, then:
Please write a post about the place where you're staying now. It may be your family home, a rented room, a dormitory room or any other arrangement you have at the moment. Tell us how it works for you, how you feel there, what you would like to be different. You can add some background information about your part of town.
When you're done, go to other students' blogs and place a few comments. Have fun blogging!