Friday, September 03, 2010

En Français -- Week 2


Second week of Elementary French -- after Week One went so well -- this morning, Madame labeled us "elderly" because we knew what a fountain pen was. (le stylo)

Pardon?

This is beginning to get on my nerves.

I'm not quite ready for the rocking chair yet.

I passed the advanced EMS class with a bunch of firemen who, though they may not have cursed in front of me, still wanted to be my partner.

The day the Brown's Gulch fire started, our department had three calls starting with a car wreck at 4 AM. By the time we were released from the fire, some of the team had been up for 24 hours, including me.

Last weekend, I extricated an injured bicyclist off a mountain by myself.

Now, I know this is not my problem, it's hers. Perception, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, but the problem with labels is they tend to limit expectations and possibilities.

You can't control how you're perceived,
only how you're presented.

Yeah, well, I believe you, Tim, but I still feel like crap after class.

2 comments:

  1. It's not so much that they limit one's own expectations and possibilities for oneself, as they condition others as to expectations for a particular class, thereby forcing members of that class to conform to certain stereotypical behaviors, attitudes, abilities.

    And who do children learn from? The young adults around them, parents, teachers, peers. They learn those same limiting stereotypes. Mon Dieu, c'est execreable! (yeah, I can't spell)

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  2. Interestingly enough, there's no problem with the kids. They're happy to talk, teach us swear words in French, kid about dorm life ...

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