Imaginary vs. Imaginative

Reading that a child in Texas was suspended for bringing “an imaginary ring” to school, I marveled that the school officials were able to detect the ring’s presence.

Here’s the headline:

Texas School Suspends 9-Year-Old for Terrorism
Because He Brought Imaginary Hobbit Ring To School

In fact, the child brought a real ring to school, presumably a replica of the ring carried by Bilbo Baggins in the Peter Jackson movie The Hobbit.
The ring was real, but its magical powers were imaginary.

The English word image derives from Latin imago. One meaning of image is “mental picture.” Something imaginary or imagined exists in the mind.

Here is a review of image words with definitions and examples:

imagination (noun): The power or capacity to form internal images or ideas of objects and situations not actually present to the senses. Example: It is because of the development of the imagination during childhood that adults are able to do many of the tasks that daily life demands. 

imaginary (adjective): Existing only in imagination or fancy; having no real existence; not real or actual. Example: Lilliput is an imaginary country visited by Gulliver.

imaginative (adjective): relating to, or concerned in the exercise of imagination as a mental faculty. Example: Imaginative Artists Find New Ways to Deal With the Western Landscape Tradition

imagine (verb): conceive in the mind. Example: The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.

imagined (past participle): invented, created in the imagination. Example: The second basic axiom concerning power is that the powerful always try to create an outside enemy, real or imagined, to bind the followers to the leaders. 
Errors also occur with the pairs imaginary/imagined and imaginary/imaginative:

Incorrect: It is easy to perceive a country as an imaginary enemy.  
Correct : It is easy to perceive a country as an imagined enemy.
The country actually exists, so it can’t be imaginary. It can, however, be “an imagined enemy.”

Incorrect: Children learn from experience: from what happens around them, from what they see, hear, smell, taste and touch. To absorb those experiences and make sense of the world, they need to be engaged in imaginary play.  
Correct : Children learn from experience: from what happens around them, from what they see, hear, smell, taste and touch. To absorb those experiences and make sense of the world, they need to be engaged in imaginative play.

The play is not imaginary; it is real. Because the child is exercising imagination, the play is imaginative.

Source: http://www.dailywritingtips.com/imaginary-vs-imaginative/

Putting humanity back into Thai education

Putting humanity back into Thai education 
Published in the Bangkok Post: 13 Feb 2015 
Writer: Wasant Techawongtham

One of the most excruciating experiences of being a parent in Thailand is looking for the right school for your children, starting as early as pre-school age.

Internet forums like the popular Pantip.com are crammed full of posts from anxious parents relating the trials and tribulations of making such choices. For many parents, the experience is most grueling when their children are ready for kindergarten because they believe it will lay down the foundations for their entire lives. 

And who's to say their anxiety is unreasonable when the Thai education system
can be described as, for lack of a better term, one huge mess?

But it's a necessary mess that parents must deal with. And to be on the safe side, they try to get their children into the best school they can find, whatever it takes, to ensure their children the bright  futures they deserve.

Once in kindergarten, many of the youngsters will find that their carefree days, for all practical purposes, are over. It's now study, study and study some more.
Many parents — quite possibly the majority of them — put their children in tuition schools just so they don't fall behind their classmates and also to improve their chances of successful entrance into the first grade. Imagine that — children must face the horror of preparing for an entrance exam at the tender age of six!
By this time, the parents themselves are nervous wrecks, and usually it's the mothers who suffer the most.
One of the horror stories circulating on the internet last year was the heart-wrenching tale of a kindergarten child whose upper-middle class parents put him through an educational hell.
After the boy's regular school day was done, he was sent off to a tuition school. Following dinner he had to study. The next day, he would have to get up at 5.30am for regular school.
On Saturdays and Sundays he had more classes at tuition school, with a swimming lesson thrown in. There was practically no play time for the child. The only TV programmes he was allowed to watch were educational and infotainment shows, no cartoons or other "nonsense".
One evening the child went out riding his bicycle alone, as he had made no friends in his housing estate due to his tightly controlled schedule. When his parents called for him
to come back in for dinner and study, he ignored them. Finally, the father forcibly took him in and threatened to destroy his bike for being "so naughty".
Eventually, the boy passed the entrance exam for first grade. But life remained as study-intensive as before. Many tearful pleas from the boy for play time fell on deaf ears. To cut a long story short, one day the boy suffered a severe nervous breakdown and withdrew into himself so completely no one was able to draw him out.
I chanced upon this story after reading a recent report that the National Reform Council and the Education Ministry have agreed that kindergarten should be included in compulsory education, thus extending it from nine to 11 years.
I honestly don't know what to make of the announcement but it seems to me the initiative, if it comes to pass, does not address the problem where it matters.
The problem, as many experts and commentators have pointed out, is too much emphasis on rote learning and obedience to authorities, which causes a lack of creative thinking among students. Many schools also fail to provide quality education and lack qualified teaching staff.
But the most serious flaw of our education system, as far as I'm concerned, is the philosophy behind its policy — a policy that aims to produce human resources to fulfill the needs of the economic sector rather than nurturing ethically and socially responsible citizens for future society.
So what we have are educational institutions that operate like factories, turning out products to satisfy the market; or military academies producing obedient troops, instead of being places of learning and enlightenment.
Education Minister Adm Narong Pipatanasai was quoted as saying: "Basic education is essential to equip students with knowledge to further their studies at higher levels. The sooner they are taught, the faster they can remember and learn."
But why should they have to "remember and learn" at such a young age? Shouldn't they be allowed to play, get dirty and even get hurt sometimes as children should and in the process learn the art of living with other human beings in society at large?
Shouldn't parents be allowed to enjoy their children while they are growing? Shouldn't parents and children have opportunities to enjoy their moments of fun and tenderness together more?
Why should they be pressured into turning out economic warriors rather than common, decent citizens?
This is not to say that the goal of running an economy effectively is not important. Everybody knows it is. It is a matter of survival, after all. But that should not be the primary objective of an education system. 

I believe that if an education system provides nurturing and intellectually stimulating learning experiences, the economy will be taken care of in due course.
I believe the ethically and socially responsible citizens who will emerge from such a system will know what has to be done to keep the economy strong. There will be competent − and likely honest − people who will be able to run businesses and government.
So let's fix the system where it is broken. The problem, I fear, is that we are too stuck in our current malaise and inertia to move in a different direction. 

Wasant Techawongtham is former News Editor, Bangkok Post.

Please credit and share this article with others using this link:http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/473848/putting-humanity-back-into-thai-education. View our policies at http://goo.gl/9HgTd and http://goo.gl/ou6Ip. © Post Publishing PCL. All rights reserved.

Farangs need to pass "Thainess" course to get teacher license

Bangkok:- To get a teachers’ license in Thailand, foreigners must first take a 21-hour course on Thainess and Thai education laws.

Prof Dr Paitoon Sinlarat, who heads the Teachers Council of Thailand (TCT), says the course is mandatory for any foreigner who is interested in taking a teaching job here.

“We have required them to take this course because Thai culture and theirs are completely different,” he says.

According to him, the course is a must even to foreigners who have already got a teacher’s license from their home country.

“For those who have already been a licensed teacher in their homeland, they take just the 21-hour course. For those who have never got a license from their homeland, they must take a longer course,” Paitoon explains.
He adds that the longer course covers a total of 42 hours, with content spanning from Thainess, to Thai laws, to Thai education concepts, to Thai educational psychology, and to educational evaluation.

Paitoon says in the past, only two universities were authorized to conduct such courses. However, the TCT has now decided to make these courses available at more facilities.

“Other universities should contact the TCT now if they want to organize such courses. They can even arrange the training in collaboration with schools,” he says.

The TCT has made these courses on Thainess mandatory for foreign teachers despite loud complaints from international schools, which lament that the courses make it even harder to recruit foreigners to teaching jobs.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/800012-farangs-need-to-pass-thainess-course-to-get-teacher-license/?utm_source=newsletter-20150213-1502&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news

Punctuation Mistakes: Possessive of S-Nouns Singular in Meaning

The rule that plural nouns ending in s form the possessive by adding only an apostrophe is well understood. For example:

the babies’ beds
the writers’ laptops
the witnesses’ testimony

The rule that nouns singular in meaning but ending in s also form the possessive by adding an apostrophe is perhaps not so well understood. For example:

mathematics’ rules
politics’ true meaning
Highland Hills’ late mayor
the United States’ role

Here are some examples from the Web that do not follow the rule:

Incorrect: The world beyond the United States’s borders can be conceptualized in any number of different ways. —Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy, 2009.
Correct: The world beyond the United States’ borders can be conceptualized in any number of different ways.

Incorrect: Some of them have had weddings on the powder-soft sands of the Bahamas’s beaches. —Business site for wedding photographer.
Correct: Some of them have had weddings on the powder-soft sands of the Bahamas’ beaches.

Incorrect: The United States supports Belarus’s efforts to complete this commercial project as expeditiously as possible. —US government site.
Correct: The United States supports Belarus’ efforts to complete this commercial project as expeditiously as possible.

Incorrect: Cyprus’s parliament rejected its government’s bailout deal with the euro zone without a single vote in its favor. —The Wall Street Journal.
Correct: Cyprus’ parliament rejected its government’s bailout deal with the euro zone without a single vote in its favor.

Incorrect: It turns out that much of General Motors’s profits were derived from the sale of such parts through its Delphi division. —Environmental blog about electric car.
Correct: It turns out that much of General Motors’ profits were derived from the sale of such parts through its Delphi division. 

Source:www.dailywritingtips.com

Inverted Idioms

As the residents of my state prepared for a cold front, one of the local television anchors remarked, "We are in store for a big chill."

His meaning was that extremely cold weather was about to descend upon us, but that is not what he said. 

The word store in the idiom “in store for” means, “a stock of something laid up for future use.” Figuratively speaking, events or conditions (like a cold front) are “in store for” those who will experience them in the future. The people of the state were not in store for the big chill. The big chill was in store for the people of the state.

Here are some examples from the Web that get it right:

More Snow in Store for Turkey, Jerusalem This Weekend

The New Congress: What’s In Store for Natural Health?

That same television anchorman, reporting news about two businessmen, said,

They’re in the works of opening up two new restaurants.

The businessmen are not “in the works”; the two new restaurants are “in the works.” 

One meaning of works (noun) is “the working parts of a machine.” For example, one removes the back of a clock to reveal the works inside.

“In the works” is a figurative expression meaning “being prepared” or “in development.”
The processes or stages of getting something done are being compared to the workings of a machine. 

Here are some examples from the Web in which the expression is used correctly:

A new big solar panel farm in the works in California

Beamdog confirms that a new Baldur’s Gate game is in the works

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Comment: One might say that “in the works” means “in the process”.

 One might say that it means that, but it doesn’t mean that. One might say “two” means “three” in which case 2 + 2= 6 makes sense, as well. The phrase “in the works” refers to endeavors, not to people undertaking them. Saying, “They’re in the works of” doing something is like saying, “They are on the drawing board with ideas”. The ideas are on the drawing board, not them.

Source: http://www.dailywritingtips.com/two-inverted-idioms/

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Five Great Reasons to Teach Overseas!

Where in the world would you like to go? Let me tell you how you can get there and be paid for it!

Here are five GREAT reasons why you should think about teaching overseas for a year or two:

1. Schools around the world need English teachers URGENTLY! At home, jobs are had to find but not overseas as a teacher. China and South Korea alone need hundreds… even thousands of qualified native English speakers to teach in their schools.

2. You get to experience a new culture, a new language and travel!

3. Meet and make many new friends.

4. Schools will often pay your airfare. You pay initially but the school will pay you back and pay return airfare at the end of your contract. Besides a salary and benefits, you may get free Internet access, free language lessons, free or subsidized housing, settling in allowance, meals and even  transportation (in some countries this may be a bicycle).

5. Teachers usually get lots of vacation time – a fantastic chance to explore the country and neighbouring nations.

6. Did I say FIVE reasons? Let me give you another TWO! Overseas teaching experience looks great on your résumé. Most companies these days are either multinational or have overseas connections. They like to hire people who have international experience.

7. All you need is a degree (any discipline) and a TESOL certificate to make it happen and we can help you achieve your goal.

Interested? Check out our web site. We have been training people to teach overseas since 1998 and have graduates teaching around the world. Browse our web site. See what graduates say.

If you are a native speaker (or fluent in English), we can have you TESOL certified and ready to go in four to six weeks. Some of our students are snapped up even before they complete our course! We are delighted to send their certificate to them at their new school.

This is your chance to Go Somewhere You’ve Always Wanted to Go! Start by going to our web site and register for our TESOL course. $375 is the full certificate course tuition and a very small investment in your future.

Dr Robert Taylor

Sunbridge Institute of English

http://www.teachesl.org/tesol.html