The Irish Model

[Seeker]

"I couldn't find ANYONE who'd give my any useful information until I ran into a Korean "

A pimpin' ajoshi wearing a loud Hawaiian shirt?



Maybe it's the same dude and he just wanders around asia looking for lost waygookeem to help out like some kind of patron saint or something...

[joncha]

10 Euros says Ted Striker will be disappointed when he opens this thread.

[MikeH]

I was.

[Bereta_Eder]

This is a perverted disgrace.

[Timexwatch]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

In any case, it makes sense to make learning English a high priority and countries that don't do that (like, say, Japan) are probably going to feel some pain in the future.

Japan is definitely making English a high priority. It remains to be seen how effective these new programs will be however. I'm pretty pessimistic.

I've been told that English teaching suffers from the same problem as the rest of the Japanese education system - too much rote learning of grammatical rules, ridgid lesson plans and not enough practice with native speakers or in practical situations. That, and trying to learn English from Australians who barely speak it themselves.

[Bereta_Eder]

to answer the dissapointing question from my part: neoliberalist policies, full blown and close proximity to the US of A

[Drake Tungsten]

Originally posted by Timexwatch
I've been told that English teaching suffers from the same problem as the rest of the Japanese education system - too much rote learning of grammatical rules, ridgid lesson plans and not enough practice with native speakers or in practical situations. That, and trying to learn English from Australians who barely speak it themselves.

That's about it; they try to teach English like they teach math, which doesn't really work. They've noticed that they're failing, but instead of fundamentally changing the way they teach English, they have just decided to start earlier (English classes are being phased into elementary schools now). I think that if they're really serious about making English a second official language, they should try following the Dutch model, but I doubt that will ever happen.

And definitely get rid of the Aussies; they can't speak English anyway and the students would be a lot safer...

[Provost Harrison]

So what is the Dutch model?

[Drake Tungsten]

I've been trying to find an overview of it online for a while now, but Google is failing me...

[Provost Harrison]

I know their English is very good...

[C0ckney]

THE irish model -

miss world 2003.

[Colonâ„¢]

Originally posted by Provost Harrison
So what is the Dutch model?

A consensus-model between the gov't, the employers and employees focused on wage-mitigation and balanced budgets. It's pretty moribund nowadays though.

[Barinthus]

Doh! I opened this thread thinking we'd be talking about this person...

[Barinthus]

Originally posted by Seeker

8. Lots of now well-off diaspora communities make for ready made business networks. There are large, fairly well-to-do Irish communities in most former Empire places.

It has been said that there's more Irish in USA than there are Irish in Ireland.

[Shi Huangdi]

It's more then EU Subsidies- Portugal and Greece get more subsidies then Ireland. While Ireland is Rich, Portugal and Greece lag far behind the rest of Europe.