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I was a teacher for 17 years, but couldn't read or write

bbc.co.uk

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Re: I was a teacher for 17 years, but couldn't read or write

#11
post #8
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correction: those languages seem to have already "th" == "θ".

That's weird as "th" is pronounced "th" in Finnish and there is no "θ" sound: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_phonology#Consonants

"th" isn't really used in Finnish (at least in modern kirjakieli). Even loan words just drop the "h" (e.g. "termostaatti"). There probably are some exceptions, but none that I can think of right now.

Re: I was a teacher for 17 years, but couldn't read or write

#12

Incredible, but I still can’t help but feel like he is an idiot. Noticing an obvious deficiency in your life and doing nothing about it is in fact idiotic.

Sometimes we hide something as a child and it gets so ingrained in us that we don't question the child's logic. We just live life hiding something that a child decided had to be hidden.

Re: I was a teacher for 17 years, but couldn't read or write

#13
I knew someone more or less like him. My friend went through high school and later even got into university. He was able to read but very slowly and he read everyday. He had this very large (and complicated) romance with him and he would read one page per day pointing at each word painfully slowly. I have no idea if he managed to understand the story or if it was just an exercise. Just like the person in the article, he was very popular with girls and managed to pull a number of similar stunts to go through tests and exams.

Eventually he dropped out of university and got a job. This was the 90s and he started playing with computers and something just clicked inside. Sudenly he could read normally and became quite proficient with computers back then. I suppose it was some kind of learning disability that went away with time and persistence on his part.

It also shows that schools are not equiped to deal with learning disabilities and push those pupils forward in the hope the problem goes away. BTW, this was in Europe, so it is not a US specific problem.

Re: I was a teacher for 17 years, but couldn't read or write

#14
> If he had called on me I was going to get out of my chair and take two steps, grab my chest, drop to the floor and hope they called 911.

Used this tactic many times myself. You pull it once, they call 911. You pull it twice, they usually do it again. You pull it three times...an awkward silence fills the room...after the sixth time, my boss just carried on with the meeting, and I stopped getting invited. I think they call this life hacking.

I now do it everywhere...in the line at the DMV clutches heart, wife nagging clutches heart, kid wants new shoes clutches heart. People say you can't outrun your problems...in reality, all you need to do is stay calm, pretend to have a heart attack, and your problems just melt away. I think I am going to write a self-help book.

Re: I was a teacher for 17 years, but couldn't read or write

#15
post #11
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's weird as "th" is pronounced "th" in Finnish and there is no "θ" sound: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_phonology#Consonants

"th" isn't really used in Finnish (at least in modern kirjakieli). Even loan words just drop the "h" (e.g. "termostaatti"). There probably are some exceptions, but none that I can think of right now.

Finnish has only 3 words, all loanwords that didn't drop the h: thai (+ thai food, thai boxing etc), theeta (name of the Greek letter) and thorax (medical term, common word is rintakehä).

https://www.kielitoimistonsanakirja.fi/#/th?searchMode=all

Re: I was a teacher for 17 years, but couldn't read or write

#18

> If he had called on me I was going to get out of my chair and take two steps, grab my chest, drop to the floor and hope they called 911. Used this tactic many times myself. You pull it once, they call 911. You pull it twice, they usually do it again. You pull it three times...an awkward silence fills the room...after the sixth time, my boss just carried on with the meeting, and I stopped getting invited. I think th…

Can you elaborate how you fake the heart attack when you are in different situations? Your idea seems really interesting as a life hack. There must be specific ways to clutch your heart?

Re: I was a teacher for 17 years, but couldn't read or write

#19

> If he had called on me I was going to get out of my chair and take two steps, grab my chest, drop to the floor and hope they called 911. Used this tactic many times myself. You pull it once, they call 911. You pull it twice, they usually do it again. You pull it three times...an awkward silence fills the room...after the sixth time, my boss just carried on with the meeting, and I stopped getting invited. I think th…

Can you elaborate how you fake the heart attack when you are in different situations? Your idea seems really interesting as a life hack. There must be specific ways to clutch your heart?

[deleted]

Re: I was a teacher for 17 years, but couldn't read or write

#20
post #10
post #9

First time I read about this (Not from the US). I wonder what‘s with his Highschool/College degree? I mean by his own words he said that he cheated big time.

Also not from the US, but I think read about him many many years ago in Reader's Digest. It was a long form that had a lot more information. I recognized the story because of this anecdote: "I passed my blue book out the window to him and he answered the questions for me." But the Reader's Digest version mentioned that he was dyslexic (which I don't think the BBC article mentions) and that he taught almost exclusivel…

It does sound like he was dyslexic ("for me it was like opening a Chinese newspaper "). But the speed at which he eventually acquired reading and writing doesn't seem consistent with dyslexia; I figure there was some other problem interfering with hiis literacy.
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