Ugh, that one took far longer than I expected. Never mind! I always love the chance to hopefully introduce people to new music that I too like. Anyway. I'm going to Portugal in a few weeks - I'm unsure of the exact number, as time seems just to float by in these massive holidays, but I'm the one in the family who's going to be doing the speaking, so I've got to learn Portuguese. Being given a book labelled 'Portuguese In 3 Months' when I had 1 month was slightly disheartening, I have to say, although I've since realised that these '3 months' constituted of doing 3 lessons a month, and I personally only have to get a functional knowledge of the language.
However, I'm still finding it hard. Self-teaching is rarely easy, and this is proving to follow that pattern, the book's pronunciation guide often being profoundly undescriptive. Que sorte! Hopefully those of you who understand that will pick up the sarcasm.
What's more, whilst French and German, the two languages I've had a crack at so far, use their equivalent of 'to have' as a past tense auxiliary verb (avoir and haben respectively), Portuguese uses it as auxiliary for the future tense, which is incredibly confusing and frankly encourages me to learn Esperanto or simply go on holiday to Benidorm every year. Come to think of it, suicide is preferable to either. And I still don't know how to form the past tense.
Furthermore, the language insists on being infuriating by having no less than 13 forms of each verb, as opposed to 9 for French and German and just 6 for English. That's not counting the form that has fallen into lingual disrepair and is now only seen in classical texts. Although, I suppose it could work if I just learnt the 1st person and had a slight knowledge of the second person, short of any complaints along the lines of 'he/she has more x than I do'. And let's face it, complaining whilst abroad is not a good idea, as wary natives will just blather some gibberish that isn't actually part of the language.
Eh, I suppose when I get back I might take the opportunity to actually learn to speak Portuguese. Frankly, the little I plan to learn is enough to get a B at GCSE with comfort (although that just shows what a joke GCSE languages are), but I could further it, as fluency in multiple languages is always a useful asset to have (unless it's Esperanto), and I suppose it's not too much of a struggle.
Hey, enough pondering Portuguese (points for aliteration?). I don't doubt I've bored you with this post, but hey, life gives you shit sometimes. Such as unwanted tubgirl links (don't search it if you don't know, or you'll scratch your eyes out). Sorry for the somewhat downbeat writings, I'm just not in a great mood.
Showing posts with label GCSE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GCSE. Show all posts
Saturday, 10 July 2010
Thursday, 24 June 2010
One cook makes a broth.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... exams are finally over. I expected a sort of climactic feeling, but I have none, just one of calm relief, the sort that you'd expect you'd get lying on your deathbed at the end of an ordeal. I expected to have a feeling of euphoria akin to several hundred simultaneous orgasms, but no. Just this feeling of freedom.
It could just be that it's taking a while for the feeling to settle in; I certainly have to keep pinching myself to remind myself that yes, I am actually free of my shackles, binding me to the feeling that I have to keep grinding, trying to pull these GCSE results out of the bag. I've always been sure that I had the potential, I just wasn't too sure about the willpower. But now I'm quietly confident of decent enough results to continue my Oxbridge aspirations.
Anyway, let's move off the ego-trip. As I now have GLORIOUS freedom, I will be blogging a lot more. Thus I need stuff to blog about. I feel that this can be partially sated by keeping a closer eye on the news, but I would like people to suggest interesting topics for me to cast my ire upon. Or praise, it depends what it is. But probably ire. As you may have guessed, I don't praise much.
I would write briefly about the budget which has just been released, but in all honesty, right now I neither know enough already or can be bothered to do enough research to write a suitable piece on it. So there is one planned, but how close to fruition it is, or indeed whether or not it will actually come into existence is unsure. In the meantime, those of you who are desperate to hear more of my political omniscience, I want to write a small summary of my views on extreme right politics.
Whilst in years gone long by, extreme right politics were the norm, as in the poor continued to be poor, the rich continued to be rich, and anyone different was burned at the stake, but nowadays, thankfully they are something of a minority belief. We haven't really had a bad case of extreme racial prejudice since the demise of the original Nazis in 1945, although we have had other smaller cases, for instance apartheid, the National Front (who, I might add, might have considered rhymes before choosing their name to protect against misnomers) against immigrants in the UK, and America against all who don't follow their 'Christian' conservative values.
However, extreme right wing parties are certainly getting a lot more mainstream press coverage, enough so that a UKIP candidate stood at my school's mock election (although fortunately he only got 3% of the votes), and that the EDL are planning to make a series of demonstrations across the UK that are well-publicised enough for counter-demonstrations to have to be planned. If there was one in York, I'd be going, but hopefully the whole thing will have been crushed to nothing by the time they get to such low population cities.
Let me get this straight, if I haven't already; extreme right political believers are scum. They should not be persecuted based on it, otherwise one becomes as bad as them, but rather exposed to their flaws and absolutely demonised. A great number of them are ill-educated, and thus their malleable minds will instantly jump to anyone who offers a scapegoat to their problems that are often their own fault. Case in point: Germany in 1933 had extreme economic problems, so the public voted the Nazi party in. As this was such an extreme time, even those who would normally have more political nonce felt obliged to vote Nazi based on the 'common enemy' principal.
Along similar lines, this is why I feel that better political education should be enforced in schools. Starting in year 6, or the last year of primary school, children would be taught about politics about once a week, which could replace some of the less useful lessons about. Although it is argued that this education already exists through citizenship lessons, having experienced 3 years of those myself, I can say they're frankly inadequate in terms of politics, albeit quite effective in scaring year 7 kids off sex and alcohol for a year or two.
However, it could be very difficult to get enough teachers to teach this from truly impartial perspectives. Those who have no political views would be useless, as they are generally just dumb by the time they get to their mid 20s if none have yet developed, and those who are keen enough to teach the subject would also have developed strong political views that would be difficult to hide during lessons. I still wonder how a friend of mine's father - who is a professor of politics at Leeds - manages.
Anyway, I sort of derailed from the initial intention of my post, but let's face it, that happens in most posts, and I still managed to put across my point, I feel. Back to my simmering in a half-slumberous position in this spinny computer chair, to those of you that have read my early posts.
It could just be that it's taking a while for the feeling to settle in; I certainly have to keep pinching myself to remind myself that yes, I am actually free of my shackles, binding me to the feeling that I have to keep grinding, trying to pull these GCSE results out of the bag. I've always been sure that I had the potential, I just wasn't too sure about the willpower. But now I'm quietly confident of decent enough results to continue my Oxbridge aspirations.
Anyway, let's move off the ego-trip. As I now have GLORIOUS freedom, I will be blogging a lot more. Thus I need stuff to blog about. I feel that this can be partially sated by keeping a closer eye on the news, but I would like people to suggest interesting topics for me to cast my ire upon. Or praise, it depends what it is. But probably ire. As you may have guessed, I don't praise much.
I would write briefly about the budget which has just been released, but in all honesty, right now I neither know enough already or can be bothered to do enough research to write a suitable piece on it. So there is one planned, but how close to fruition it is, or indeed whether or not it will actually come into existence is unsure. In the meantime, those of you who are desperate to hear more of my political omniscience, I want to write a small summary of my views on extreme right politics.
Whilst in years gone long by, extreme right politics were the norm, as in the poor continued to be poor, the rich continued to be rich, and anyone different was burned at the stake, but nowadays, thankfully they are something of a minority belief. We haven't really had a bad case of extreme racial prejudice since the demise of the original Nazis in 1945, although we have had other smaller cases, for instance apartheid, the National Front (who, I might add, might have considered rhymes before choosing their name to protect against misnomers) against immigrants in the UK, and America against all who don't follow their 'Christian' conservative values.
However, extreme right wing parties are certainly getting a lot more mainstream press coverage, enough so that a UKIP candidate stood at my school's mock election (although fortunately he only got 3% of the votes), and that the EDL are planning to make a series of demonstrations across the UK that are well-publicised enough for counter-demonstrations to have to be planned. If there was one in York, I'd be going, but hopefully the whole thing will have been crushed to nothing by the time they get to such low population cities.
Let me get this straight, if I haven't already; extreme right political believers are scum. They should not be persecuted based on it, otherwise one becomes as bad as them, but rather exposed to their flaws and absolutely demonised. A great number of them are ill-educated, and thus their malleable minds will instantly jump to anyone who offers a scapegoat to their problems that are often their own fault. Case in point: Germany in 1933 had extreme economic problems, so the public voted the Nazi party in. As this was such an extreme time, even those who would normally have more political nonce felt obliged to vote Nazi based on the 'common enemy' principal.
Along similar lines, this is why I feel that better political education should be enforced in schools. Starting in year 6, or the last year of primary school, children would be taught about politics about once a week, which could replace some of the less useful lessons about. Although it is argued that this education already exists through citizenship lessons, having experienced 3 years of those myself, I can say they're frankly inadequate in terms of politics, albeit quite effective in scaring year 7 kids off sex and alcohol for a year or two.
However, it could be very difficult to get enough teachers to teach this from truly impartial perspectives. Those who have no political views would be useless, as they are generally just dumb by the time they get to their mid 20s if none have yet developed, and those who are keen enough to teach the subject would also have developed strong political views that would be difficult to hide during lessons. I still wonder how a friend of mine's father - who is a professor of politics at Leeds - manages.
Anyway, I sort of derailed from the initial intention of my post, but let's face it, that happens in most posts, and I still managed to put across my point, I feel. Back to my simmering in a half-slumberous position in this spinny computer chair, to those of you that have read my early posts.
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Philomathy (the love of maths)
I love maths. No, seriously, I do! Although there are plenty of things that I can think of that I'd rather be doing than doing a GCSE maths paper in a room of bipolar climate, I actually quite enjoyed 'helping' some friends with their revision by dreaming up trigonometry questions that were sufficiently difficult to be of a standard that would never come close to an AQA GCSE paper (needless to say, I am now short of a few friends; their heads exploded. This is a true n'yawwwww moment).
I say this because, lying in front of me, there is a challenging maths problem. It's one of these ones that has an incredibly long answer, so I won't attempt it until I have an hour or so to kill, but I shall eventually venture to do it. I look forward to it. In fact, I recall that as I was doing work experience at my primary school approximately a year ago, there was an incredibly brainy maths genius, who, at the age of 9, enjoyed doing maths. He noticed that I shared his passion, and consequently asked me to set him some maths to do over the summer. So I was hard at work, creating all manner of testing problems, then it occurred to me - he was 9. I feel that standard deviation and trigonometry will have been a little above his capabilities, but I gave him them anyway. I have not heard back from him yet.
So, as it is just 35 minutes until I must depart for my exam, I felt a need to write something about my feelings this morning. Given how absolutely zippadeedooda my exams have gone so far, it's certainly one of confidence. I almost feel on top of the world, but then my logic kicks in and reminds me that that's physically impossible. I feel wonderful, having finished for all eternity both my studies of the English language, and indeed, English literature; I daresay that my vocabulary will expand as I move into the future, and I shall certainly read more books, but I never have to complete the banal process of copying down notes dictated to me ever again. On poetry.
I've enjoyed maths over the past five years at this school; I feel it could've been a little more challenging, but that's just me. I'm looking forward to my continuation of it at college, where I will be taking further maths, which effectively means that I will be doing pure maths, statistics, decision, and mechanics, rather than just two of the four. I could do without the mechanics - I would've chosen to skip further education rather than continuing a full Physics course - but beggars can't be choosers (I can't help but feel that that's not the most appropriate proverb, but my mind escapes me for the moment).
I'll leave you for now by saying that in addition to having far fewer functions, non-scientific calculators are generally less durable; having found a spare scientific calculator on the floor, I decided to conduct a comparative test of durability - in other words, dropping two calculators from a second floor (third floor to Americans) window. The scientific one survived, whilst I had to make an unfortunate grave for the standard one, although if I'd used my usual scientific calculator for this experiment, I would now be taking a geometry exam without a 'Pi' function.
The moral of the story is this: don't drop calculators out of second floor windows.
I say this because, lying in front of me, there is a challenging maths problem. It's one of these ones that has an incredibly long answer, so I won't attempt it until I have an hour or so to kill, but I shall eventually venture to do it. I look forward to it. In fact, I recall that as I was doing work experience at my primary school approximately a year ago, there was an incredibly brainy maths genius, who, at the age of 9, enjoyed doing maths. He noticed that I shared his passion, and consequently asked me to set him some maths to do over the summer. So I was hard at work, creating all manner of testing problems, then it occurred to me - he was 9. I feel that standard deviation and trigonometry will have been a little above his capabilities, but I gave him them anyway. I have not heard back from him yet.
So, as it is just 35 minutes until I must depart for my exam, I felt a need to write something about my feelings this morning. Given how absolutely zippadeedooda my exams have gone so far, it's certainly one of confidence. I almost feel on top of the world, but then my logic kicks in and reminds me that that's physically impossible. I feel wonderful, having finished for all eternity both my studies of the English language, and indeed, English literature; I daresay that my vocabulary will expand as I move into the future, and I shall certainly read more books, but I never have to complete the banal process of copying down notes dictated to me ever again. On poetry.
I've enjoyed maths over the past five years at this school; I feel it could've been a little more challenging, but that's just me. I'm looking forward to my continuation of it at college, where I will be taking further maths, which effectively means that I will be doing pure maths, statistics, decision, and mechanics, rather than just two of the four. I could do without the mechanics - I would've chosen to skip further education rather than continuing a full Physics course - but beggars can't be choosers (I can't help but feel that that's not the most appropriate proverb, but my mind escapes me for the moment).
I'll leave you for now by saying that in addition to having far fewer functions, non-scientific calculators are generally less durable; having found a spare scientific calculator on the floor, I decided to conduct a comparative test of durability - in other words, dropping two calculators from a second floor (third floor to Americans) window. The scientific one survived, whilst I had to make an unfortunate grave for the standard one, although if I'd used my usual scientific calculator for this experiment, I would now be taking a geometry exam without a 'Pi' function.
The moral of the story is this: don't drop calculators out of second floor windows.
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Exams
It has come to that time in my life where I must face the first key examinations I am to sit, although I have already taken modular exams in one or two subjects. So what am I doing about it? Currently, I'm sitting here, trying my best to delay the inevitable revision I must do at some point this evening by writing this and attempting to convince myself that I'm practicing my English skills. Oh, what a wonderful peaceful world I live in.
Anyhow, it's occured to me that my blissful respite from key examinations that has been the story of my life so far is now to end until I leave university. This year? GCSEs. Next? AS Levels. After that, A Levels themselves. Then, assuming I do well enough to get into university, I will have to take yearly examinations to prove I'm keeping up. Taking into account my high aspirations for myself meaning I may not leave university until I have several postgraduate qualifications, I could still be in university in ten years time, at the age of 26. A decade of drudgery lies ahead of me. It seems like the 2010s will be a decade for me to forget.
But of course, my school years are the best of my life! No wonder so many middle aged people decide to end it all. Nonetheless, I try my best to enjoy myself, and I recommend anyone else to follow suit. It isn't a bad life, unless you choose it to be, or you have extreme circumstances. But for most MEDC dwellers, this quite literally is 'the life' and if one listens to many environmental doomsayers, our generation could well be the last to experience it!
Anyhow, it's occured to me that my blissful respite from key examinations that has been the story of my life so far is now to end until I leave university. This year? GCSEs. Next? AS Levels. After that, A Levels themselves. Then, assuming I do well enough to get into university, I will have to take yearly examinations to prove I'm keeping up. Taking into account my high aspirations for myself meaning I may not leave university until I have several postgraduate qualifications, I could still be in university in ten years time, at the age of 26. A decade of drudgery lies ahead of me. It seems like the 2010s will be a decade for me to forget.
But of course, my school years are the best of my life! No wonder so many middle aged people decide to end it all. Nonetheless, I try my best to enjoy myself, and I recommend anyone else to follow suit. It isn't a bad life, unless you choose it to be, or you have extreme circumstances. But for most MEDC dwellers, this quite literally is 'the life' and if one listens to many environmental doomsayers, our generation could well be the last to experience it!
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