CFIs: THE IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE!

I think there is a bit of fear that when you explain something to people and
they sit there not having a clue as to what you are saying they loose their
credibility.
Therefore they must take you down a peg in order to equalize the exchange.
I have issue with people that say can't understand me _after_ I dumb it
down. Like I have some problem that I can't communicate to my fellow human
beings.

For instance, budget meeting to be had with the C.F.O to the President of
our Parent company.
He says to me, "tell me why we need this equipment _IN ENGLISH_ Okay?"
So I tell him , this database will allow us to track all of the material we
produce and attach any corresponding legal or accounting documents to it.
This way we can find a product and all the costs and billing information in
one search"

He says "I said in English"
The phone ring and he says into the phone "No I said the eltap and the IBIDA
aren't right. Look at the Delta."

I'm thinking "that was English?"
The difference is, and I toot my own horn here, is that I was genuinely
intrigued to know what the hell he was talking about. He , on the other
hand, needed spoon feeding.

The epilogue was that his "soundbites only" description of my budget items
got me 90% less money than I had asked for.

--

--
Dave A
Aging Student Pilot



"Proton" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 25 Jan 2005 11:51:01 -0800, "gatt"
wrote:



When we were doing touch and goes during a complex checkout yesterday we
had
an incident right after touchdown because of a blue heron in our immediate
path. The CFI said "to your detriment you already had the flaps at one
notch...", which confused me.

Later, he pulled the power on me approaching the pattern. During the
debrief he said "You see what happened? You forgot to do your third GUMPs
check but to your detriment you remembered to do it on final." To my
detriment I remembered to do one last GUMP check? I think he meant to my
CREDIT. (Unless there's some reason you wouldn't want a notch of flaps in
an Arrow II during short-field TnGs or wouldn't want to do the last "three
green, prop forward" before touchdown.) I might have gone home thinking
he
was telling me it's incorrect to have a notch of flaps had it not been for
his later mistake.

My instrument instructor used to like to say, in reference to the DE,
"one
of his pet peeves is to..." "One of his pet peeves is pattern B." If
his
pet peeve is Pattern B, why are we spending so much time on it? "His pet
peeve is to keep you in a holding pattern." Apparently, she believes that
"pet peeve" means "things he likes to do." Entirely excusable, but
another
example of language inaccuracy which might be potentially
counterproductive.

It's important not to confuse your students. Using correct terminology
and
language is important to that end. Please remain vigilante. ;

-c


Welkome to Americuh in the twenty-fihrst centry.

I work on computers. I have this problem every damn day. When I hear
other techs ask me to bring things down to their level, I cringe.
Would a heart surgeon ask a PA to simplify his explanation of blood
pressure's importance during a valve replacement? No.

There is a major bout of anti-intellectualism going on right now
that's the cause of the destruction of English.

-Proton, who got a D in English....

"What-chu readin' for?"

"George Patterson" wrote in message
...


" wrote:

The sad part is that no one seems to be the least bit embarrassed
about such performances.

That doesn't mean that they aren't embarrassed. Back when I played
coffeehouses
and bars, I learned to give no signs when I missed a chord. If I didn't
grimace,
most of the people in the audience never knew I screwed up -- especially
when I
played bars ;-)

George:
BTDT totally agree!!!!!!!!!

Bob Barker N8749S

Like, what are youse guys like, tawking about? Like, the skool
system izn't like, doing its job, like? Like i dont know how to spel,
like. Duh. Dontcha know that any old spelling is ok? Like, who makes
these dumb rules anyway? What a looser.
Near our uncontrolled field there's a lot of training traffic, and
many of the instructors make position reports on the common ATF and ask
that "any conflictions please reply." New word, I guess. The students
pick it up. Pretty soon it'll be in the dictionary.

Dan

On Fri, 28 Jan 2005 14:17:18 GMT, "Dave A." wrote:

The epilogue was that his "soundbites only" description of my budget items
got me 90% less money than I had asked for.

I think things like that are why people don't complain when they get
old and at least can draw social security (maybe) and retire.

My wife, Janet, graduated with her Masters in English this past Spring and
was immediately hired to teach College Composition by a local two-year
college. She's always wanted to be teacher and was very excited. She was
teaching first year students, many of whom had just graduated from High
School, and others who were non-traditional adult learners. When she was
grading her students' papers, she was appalled at how poorly written the
majority of them were. She showed me some of them (with the student's
names covered to preserve their privacy). I could not believe how bad the
grammar, structure, punctuation and so forth were in some of the papers.
There was no way they were college-level. Many weren't even junior-high
school level. There was also strong correlation between attendance,
turning in the assignments, and the quality of the work. The poorest
writers also had the most absences and were frequently either late with or
didn't turn in assignments.
Janet had only three "A" students out of four classes, a few "B"s,
many"C"s , quite a few "D"s, and sixteen "F"s. As I said, I saw many
examples of these students' writing, and I do not think Janet was grading
too harshly at all. Janet stressed over, and over, and over again that if
any students needed help, she was more that happy to meet with them in her
office after class. A couple of them took her up on this, and their
grades improved markedly. Janet spent many hours on her own time tutoring
these students that asked for help.
Then an interesting thing happened... About mid-way through the semester
the students were given a teacher evaluation form to fill out. The
teachers are not allowed to see what the students write. Toward the end
of the semester, the assistant department chair told Janet her contract
would not be renewed because her student eval scores were too low.
So Janet had to find another job, and is feeling very frustrated. She
feels the only way she could have kept her job was to have passed
substandard work, and she was just not willing to do that.
The problem cannot be placed solely on the teachers, but rather on a
society (including parents) that does not uphold standards. My wife's
office roommate also worked as a high school teacher and they shared many
stories of administrators pressuring teachers not to teach, but only to
make sure students passed the national tests. Especially because of the No
Child Left Behind Act, these schools are "graded" solely on perfomance on
standardized tests. The ideals of the act were admirable, but the
implementation has been terrible. The students learn how to take tests,
but not the skills necessary to perform in the real world, like my wife's
English students. All of her students had to pass either a placement test
or lower level courses as prerequisites to her course.
Another misconception I hear frequently is how overpaid teachers and
college professors are. Janet, with her Masters Degree would have made
$20,000 a year less than I, a tech school graduate, make as an electrician
working on firetrucks at Pierce Manufacturing. And what people also fail
to see is all the hours teachers spend grading papers and planning lessons
on their own time, in addition to the after class hours tutoring they do.
Janet easily was putting in 60 hours a week.
Scott Wilson
Appleton, Wisconsin

On the nose, Scott!

Either Janet's school did not have a faculty association (i.e. teacher
union) or Janet did not avail herself of the services of that association.
The matter never would have come down like this.

Jim
VP, S. C. Faculty Association


wrote in message ...
Then an interesting thing happened... About mid-way through the semester
the students were given a teacher evaluation form to fill out. The
teachers are not allowed to see what the students write. Toward the end
of the semester, the assistant department chair told Janet her contract
would not be renewed because her student eval scores were too low.

Perhaps I don't understand your statement? I'm in the older generation,
draw the max social security, and antsy to continue working. I do not
countenance sloppy work, or sloppy writing. In many cases its just
being lazy and I won't stand for that either. Makes me real unpopular
with some who think I'm just an old a$$hole with an uptight attitude.
THAT is the problem with too many these days in my opinion. I
continually ask what ever happened to the good old solid work ethic.
Why is it we see so many foreigners coming to the USA and excelling in
school? And many of them can't even speak English! In keeping with the
aviation theme may I add....when I taught pilots for All Nippon Airways
and Japan Airlines, they were insatiable in their search for more
information on the aircraft, techniques, regulations, and all the while
learning to speak English. If they did less than 98 on the writtens
they were ready to commit sepuku!
My own kids disappoint me when I ask what I think are simple questions
about the world today and they don't have a clue where, what, or why
unless its in their own personal area of interest. Seems like society
in general is just accepting this dumbing down of America. I refuse to
without squawking like hell and making my feelings known. Won't accept
any less than high standards of the pilots I choose to fly with either
anymore than I expect them to expect less than excellence from me.
So THERE!!! Hrrruuuummmmpppphhhhh
Ol Shy & Bashful

Dave A. wrote:

I think there is a bit of fear that when you explain something to
people and they sit there not having a clue as to what you are
saying they loose their credibility.

In this of all threads, please tell us that you understand the
difference between "loose" and "lose". "Loosing one's credibility"
means unleashing it, which I think is the opposite of what you mean to
say!

Jim Rosinski

wrote in message
oups.com...

THAT is the problem with too many these days in my opinion. I
continually ask what ever happened to the good old solid work ethic.
Why is it we see so many foreigners coming to the USA and
excelling in school? And many of them can't even speak English!

Recently I came upon an assignment I was marking, where the
student wrote, "Third world countries have less luxuries". I
commented on that sentence to another class, and only my ESL
student knew what was wrong with the sentence. What's worse,
one of my colleagues, and English teacher, didn't notice anything
wrong with it either (!)

So THERE!!! Hrrruuuummmmpppphhhhh

"You can say that two times!" (Short Circuit)

--
Jeff Shirton jshirton at cogeco dot
ca

Keep thy airspeed up, less the earth come from below
and smite thee. - William Kershner
Challenge me (Theophilus) for a game of chess at Chessworld.net!