Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

The Irreplaceable Human

Friday, November 19th, 2010

Like other technology, our software and videos are tools that allow people to accomplish certain tasks better. A hammer is better than a fist when it comes to driving nails, yet it does not replace the human. The hand holds the hammer. Another hand made the hammer.

One of the biggest roles a classroom teacher plays in the kind of instruction we deliver is the interest that the teacher shows toward our instruction. The students take their cues from on-site adults.

Our instruction can put students past 1st-year high school Spanish in a relatively short time, if the on-site adults believe in the program. If they don’t, it doesn’t stand a chance even to make an average dent. Technology just can’t replace humans altogether. It will always be a tool. As people give us feedback, we adjust the tools. That makes the on-site adults that much more irreplaceable.

Tim’s Toys

Friday, May 21st, 2010

Today I begin interviewing an African-American man who gives himself away. He teaches people to fly big radio-controlled planes. He says he was married to the greatest wife in the world…until she died six years ago. His daddy died in the 1970s, his momma died two years ago. He retired early to take care of her for 12 years. I said it must have been very hard to care for a mother with Alzheimer’s Disease, losing her a little more each month. He doesn’t see it that way at all. He says it was a blessing to return a small part of the favor she had done him during his lifetime. He said, “I look at it as returning a dime on the dollar she gave me.”

Tim is one of many interesting men and women I introduce to people who would otherwise never know them. Tim’s Toys will be a two- or three-part feature series teaching Spanish and wholesome values to students who have been through the first two batches of our video lessons. Students will be glad to meet Tim.

Quechua Guy

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

A Quechua merchant from Ecuador asked me today if I’m from Argentina. I know why. For one thing, most Argentines are of European ancestry. Second, I’ve been listening to a ton of Argentine radio lately and have apparently been absorbing some of their tones. That’s how things go in the multilingual world. I know a young Mexican man who speaks with the Castillian Spaniard lisp for the letters “c” and “z”. He was raised in Mexico City, but as a child he listened to lots of books on tape read by a Spaniard. He never lost the c and z lisp, even though the other four family members and almost everyone in Mexico speak without the lisp.