Random Confessions

[ancientpeas]

Dear ancientpeas - I would never tell You have had learning disability reading your posts, abbreviation of skaters' names are quite common here, so I do not make it a bigger issue it is. One thing was that You were lucky, but another is that You had a will and were eager to adapt - believe me, I know some people who would rather wallow in self-pity about learning disabilities than making something out of the situation, something good and productive.

Thanks. It was a long time ago. Now it just sort of is. Sometimes I have to make adjustments to thinking like "regular" people but, as I said, I was very fortunate. I could read. The boys I was in special ed with never learnt to read. They fell through the cracks. I was lucky enough to have a teacher who noticed and parents who thought education was important (and were educated themselves). I've always been grateful to that teacher. Good teachers are heroes in the lives of so many children.

 

[iorii]

ancientpeas,
Thanks for telling! It answers my question, it's not too long and even if it's super long I would still read it, it's comprehensible.

It's true that Russian names can be hell to spell, I think we could even categorize some into different difficulties.

Basic :
Alena Kostornaia
Anastasia Gubanova
Alina Zagitova

Middle :
Stanislava Konstantinova
Maria Sotskova

Top Tier :
Evgenia Medvedeva
Anna Scherbakova (or Shcherbakova)
Elizaveta Tuktamysheva

Not to get out of topic : I finished my thai tea and my brother came home with a cup of my favorite roasted milk tea. He has never bought me milk tea before!!!! Shocking!! But of course of all days, it has to be the day where I just bought myself thai tea too. Our brother-sister relationship so pitiful I get happy over milk tea.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

That was probably me. I remember the conversation. So.. confession time: I have a learning disability that was so bad they pulled me out of regular school back in the stone ages of dealing with learning disabilities. They thought I would never graduate high school. I can not spell phonetically at all. It literally means nothing to me so I have to remember how to spell words. Most of the time I can not sound out a word like most people do to get the spelling correct. Therefore, with all the last names, especially non English ones I really struggle. I have to memorize them. After being told I couldn't possibly be a fan of Satoko M.'s because I can't spell her last name correctly I mostly use first names and the whole S/B thing. I need to remember that there are more than one S/B or S/K and put something in brackets or something. So it's a choice I guess: Spell what I can correctly and that's normally first names. Every new, incredible Russian lady gives me fits when it comes to spelling. (I also can't tell my left from my right and I have a spacial awareness problem that makes geometry a nightmare for me)
So, long story short, sorry for the confusion. I will try to remember to be clearer.

Wow. I agree with iorii and NoNameFace - I would never have guessed that you had any sort of issue. Your posts have never been confusing.

And you can reassure yourself that you are not the only one on here that struggles with spelling names! You may worry about spelling Miss Miyahara's surname, but I always worry about spelling her first name. For some reason, I keep thinking it's "Sotoko". And even though I know that what I think is the spelling is wrong, when I come to write it, I always have to check how it is actually spelt and use copy and paste.

So, don't you for one minute think you are any way inferior to the rest of us. You are one of us. :agree:

No, scratch that. After reading your second post, you are far superior to us. You are an inspiration for the way you have excelled.

I'm feeling really bad now for complaining about abbreviations. If using them makes things easier for you, then just do it.

Oh, and can I just make clear that the comment I made about a specific member using abbreviations wasn't about you. It was about another member who uses text message style abbreviations excessively.

Thank you for feeling comfortable enough with us to tell us your story.

I liked you a lot already, but I have a whole new appreciation for you now.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[ancientpeas]

post

That's really nice to say. I was explaining the short cut I take and why I do it.
Don't feel badly. Sometimes like with the S/B thing it really wasn't clear. I was thinking about Julianne and Charlie and Deanna and Nate were in the competition so it was confusing. I just have to say to myself: is this clear to everyone and not just to me? before I post.
It's weird about the LD. It was so long ago that I rarely think about it too much. Adaption to circumstance is really the only way to exist. I was the way I was, it was what it was, the world wasn't going to change to adapt to me so I had to change to adapt to it. And unlike other people I was able to read and write so I was very lucky.

Satoko's name is very pretty sounding to my ear. I saw someone calling her Satton and I asked them if their autocorrect had done a number on them and they said no..it's her nickname. Like when people was calling Evgenia something to do with a bear. That was confusing too.

 

[Tonichelle]

Sounds like Iditarod time! How did it go this year?

haha yup! Gotta get my Idita-fix.

went really well. It was kind of a throw back to the Iditarods that I watched as a kid. Major snow storms blew in one right after the other so the teams that had trained for a hard packed fast trail weren't ready to have to slog through snow drifts and white out conditions. A lot of camping on the trail, and a lot of mushers snow shoeing ahead of the teams to make a trail for them. Threw off my predictions big time, but it made for an exciting race.

Norway's Joar Leifseth Ulsom ended up winning! He's awesome, really nice guy (and so cute!). But he won because the leader Nicolas Petit ended up taking the wrong trail and he didn't realize it for almost 50 miles. That's a lot of back tracking. Joar's team passed Nic's and Nic's team - while faster - just couldn't make up the distance. It was crazy!

 

[NanaPat]

(I also can't tell my left from my right and I have a spacial awareness problem that makes geometry a nightmare for me)

That's really interesting. I know someone who also has a right/left problem, but has superior spacial awareness and has a PhD in Mathematics, specializing in topology, a branch of geometry.

 

[Arriba627]

haha yup! Gotta get my Idita-fix.

went really well. It was kind of a throw back to the Iditarods that I watched as a kid. Major snow storms blew in one right after the other so the teams that had trained for a hard packed fast trail weren't ready to have to slog through snow drifts and white out conditions. A lot of camping on the trail, and a lot of mushers snow shoeing ahead of the teams to make a trail for them. Threw off my predictions big time, but it made for an exciting race.

Norway's Joar Leifseth Ulsom ended up winning! He's awesome, really nice guy (and so cute!). But he won because the leader Nicolas Petit ended up taking the wrong trail and he didn't realize it for almost 50 miles. That's a lot of back tracking. Joar's team passed Nic's and Nic's team - while faster - just couldn't make up the distance. It was crazy!

Sounds amazing! Glad you had a good time. Don't worry, next year's will be here before you know it!

 

[Arriba627]

That was probably me. I remember the conversation. So.. confession time: I have a learning disability that was so bad they pulled me out of regular school back in the stone ages of dealing with learning disabilities. They thought I would never graduate high school. I can not spell phonetically at all. It literally means nothing to me so I have to remember how to spell words. Most of the time I can not sound out a word like most people do to get the spelling correct. Therefore, with all the last names, especially non English ones I really struggle. I have to memorize them. After being told I couldn't possibly be a fan of Satoko M.'s because I can't spell her last name correctly I mostly use first names and the whole S/B thing. I need to remember that there are more than one S/B or S/K and put something in brackets or something. So it's a choice I guess: Spell what I can correctly and that's normally first names. Every new, incredible Russian lady gives me fits when it comes to spelling. (I also can't tell my left from my right and I have a spacial awareness problem that makes geometry a nightmare for me)
So, long story short, sorry for the confusion. I will try to remember to be clearer.

I always look forward to your posts -- bagged milk and all! If initials are the worst thing that happens to us today, I'd say we all had a great day! Don't worry about S/B, I've been reading S/K forever and wondering if it's Scimeca/Knierim or Stolbova/Klimov. Luckily Alexa and Chris got married, so now it's easier!...Just keep the posts coming!

 

[ancientpeas]

That's really interesting. I know someone who also has a right/left problem, but has superior spacial awareness and has a PhD in Mathematics, specializing in topology, a branch of geometry.

See what happened to me was that I got to grade 11 and could not do geometry. I went everyday to resource for help and my best friend who is a math person (she has an M.A. in biochemical engineering) tried to teach me but I just don't understand it. I had been fine with math up (75-80) up til then. At the time to go to University you had to pass grade 11 advanced math and I went into the final exam with a 36 and the teacher said "if you can pass the final I will pass you but I won't sign off on you taking any more math at an advanced level because you'll never pass it". I pulled off a 52 on the final and passed (I'm sure she was generous with her marks) and I was able to go to University because I didn't have use that grade to apply. I took grade 12 and 13 science (Physics and Chem) did okay and took all the non math grade 13 courses I could find and got my diploma.

Sometimes, for fun, my friends will ask me to cut a cake or pie and it's a disaster. I cannot cut what anyone would call even pieces. Also I can't look at some things and know that there is more there. Normally I have do it be weighing it in my hand. It's weird but manageable. Nothing that is wrong with my brain isn't manageable so I am lucky. I feel very lucky. I know too many people who fell through cracks and got left behind.

Well done for your friend.

 

[ancientpeas]

I always look forward to your posts -- bagged milk and all! If initials are the worst thing that happens to us today, I'd say we all had a great day! Don't worry about S/B, I've been reading S/K forever and wondering if it's Scimeca/Knieram or Stolbova/Klimov. Luckily Alexa and Chris got married, so now it's easier!...Just keep the posts coming!

We are coming in the middle of the night (a Canadian invasion) to replace all your cartons with bags.

Some folks get upset about people who call Gabby and Guillaume G/G because that to them is Gordeeva/Grinkov. I always think that as long as I'm understood it is probably okay. In that case I wasn't clear and so I should have clarified it.

 

[NanaPat]

I passed my final University German class with a C only because if I'd gotten a D I would have had to re-take it to graduate (a special foreign languages requirement, back in the bad old days.) . My instructor asked me "are you going to take any more German" and I solemnly promised not to. And I got my C. And have never taken any more German classes. I think if I'd said yes, he would have given me a D, and then I would have had to re-take the class before advancing,.

 

[brens78]

I've always loved gazing at the planet Venus in the sky whether morning or evening. She's making her presence in the evening skies for the next few months and with the days getting quickly shorter in the Southern hemisphere, it'll be great watching her get brighter over the next month

 

[TryMeLater]

I passed my final University German class with a C only because if I'd gotten a D I would have had to re-take it to graduate (a special foreign languages requirement, back in the bad old days.) . My instructor asked me "are you going to take any more German" and I solemnly promised not to. And I got my C. And have never taken any more German classes. I think if I'd said yes, he would have given me a D, and then I would have had to re-take the class before advancing,.

Foreign languages requirement is still very much alive in most non English speaking countries, although the requirement is for English.

 

[ines42575]

Foreign languages

Oh, yes. Here you need at least an Upper-basic level of English to graduate from State Schools, but I actually needed Almost-native speaker level to take my last year of High School. Now at University I need at least 3 more advanced languages in order to obtain my degree, so I am studying French, Italian and Portuguese.

For me, it puts me under a really big pressure, because I really struggled with Advanced English Learning, and my parents have really high expectations on me

 

[Spirals for Miles]

In the US, it's not a requirement, but it's "strongly recommended" to have at least 2-3 years of a language in order to get accepted into college.

 

[TryMeLater]

Foreign languages

Oh, yes. Here you need at least an Upper-basic level of English to graduate from State Schools, but I actually needed Almost-native speaker level to take my last year of High School. Now at University I need at least 3 more advanced languages in order to obtain my degree, so I am studying French, Italian and Portuguese.

For me, it puts me under a really big pressure, because I really struggled with Advanced English Learning, and my parents have really high expectations on me

Here, in order to graduate from any school with a high school diploma you have to study English at a basic level or intermediate or advanced.
All levels require reading, listening comprehension proficiency (which also test your grammar and vocabulary), an essay and an oral exam (With different exercises for each level).
The intermediate and advanced level also have an English literature part (usually a play or poems, I remember that I studied "The road not taken" by Frost).
In order to be accepted to a "good" university you are usually required to have English in at least an intermediate level and have a good grade on a "psychometric" exam (resembles the SATs). About a third of the SAT checks for English proficiency.
If you receive a bad grade on the English part and still get accepted to university (not an easy feat), then you have to take a course in English.

 

[NanaPat]

My problem was that I changed languages between high school and University. First year German was fine. In second year, the class was full of students who had taken 2,3 or even 4 years of high school German. Because the University thought that they were so much better than the highs schools, that one year there was equivalent to many years in high school. Not even close. Second year was a real struggle for me, and I suspect for many other students in my position.

That said, I'm really lucky I am a native English-speaker, because I would definitely struggle to learn it as a second language. Though it may just be that learning another language as an adult is difficult for everyone. It certainly was for me.

 

[TryMeLater]

My problem was that I changed languages between high school and University. First year German was fine. In second year, the class was full of students who had taken 2,3 or even 4 years of high school German. Because the University thought that they were so much better than the highs schools, that one year there was equivalent to many years in high school. Not even close. Second year was a real struggle for me, and I suspect for many other students in my position.

That said, I'm really lucky I am a native English-speaker, because I would definitely struggle to learn it as a second language. Though it may just be that learning another language as an adult is difficult for everyone. It certainly was for me.

Oh, I see.
It really is hard to come to a classroom full of students with prior knowledge.
I disagree regarding English, though. Usually you start the second language quite early.
Didn't you learn French in Canada?

 

[NanaPat]

Oh, I see.
It really is hard to come to a classroom full of students with prior knowledge.

I had prior knowledge too (my one year of German at university). It's just that it was much less than many other people's prior knowledge.

Usually you start the second language quite early.
Didn't you learn French in Canada?

I didn't grow up in Canada.

 

[invisiblespiral]

I just discovered that there's a candy brand called Sugarpova.