Ceud mile failte!
Can you guess why I chose this title and photograph?
To answer that question, you’ll need to read on…
But wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. First of all, an introduction.
Hello! My name is Jim Pettiward, and that’s me at the top of the page. I’ll be blogging with you for the next few weeks and I’m really excited by the opportunity to be a part of this fantastic community of English language learners and teachers. Unlike many of our previous teacher bloggers, who seem to be in all sorts of far-flung places around the world, I live in London, and have done for the last 6 years. In fact, I was born and grew up here, but like many other English language teachers, I’ve been lucky enough to travel quite widely. I've been teaching for eleven years or so , five of which have been spent abroad. I travelled and worked in Ecuador for about 2 and a half years, and then lived in Budapest, Hungary for 2 years. I have always been a keen traveller, and I still get itchy feet from time to time. I think the experience of living and working abroad really helps us to get a handle on our own culture as well as understanding more about other cultures.
So, as I said, I live in London now, and I’m currently working as an EAP (English for Academic Purposes) teacher at London Metropolitan University. My job is to help prepare students for under- and postgraduate study in the UK by helping them with their academic and language skills. I’ve been using blogs with my students at the university for about a year, so I’m not entirely new to it, but while I may be lucky if 10 – 15 students read my class blog, I have a feeling (and I hope) that the audience for my BBC blog will be a bit larger – that’s an exciting (and slightly frightening!) prospect…
Now it’s high time I gave a warm welcome to our current student blogger Taru, from Finland. Hi Taru! When I was in Hungary I remember people telling me that Hungarian was almost unique as a language and that the only other languages it was similar to were Finnish and Estonian (and possibly to a language or dialect spoken somewhere in Siberia). I’m not an expert on Finno-ugric tongues, but what I do know is that Hungarian is a fiendishly difficult language to learn. I’m ashamed to say that in two years I didn’t get much further than ordering food and drink, basic greetings and very simple small talk, thus reinforcing the stereotype of the British as unwilling language learners. Having said that, I studied French and Spanish at university, so perhaps I’m the exception that proves the rule. Is Finnish another fiendishly difficult language?
I’ve enjoyed reading your opening posts, and I like the variety of subjects you talk about. Looking at all that you do, I realise that you must need all those hours of daylight to squeeze in so many activities to your day. I’m really looking forward to reading more of your posts!
The subject of long summer days brings me back to the picture at the top of this post, and the title. You’ve probably noticed that I’m starting a little late this month (many thanks to Rachel for stepping in during my absence :-). At the university we’re gearing up for a busy summer of pre-sessional academic English so I’ll be working flat out for the next few months. Now seemed like a good time to take a break so I took a week off and went up to the Scottish Highlands. It was wonderful! The weather was warm and sunny for most of the week, and because many of the places were off the beaten track, it wasn’t crowded. I’ve uploaded some of the pictures I took there - I hope they give you a feel for the place.
Nb – As usual, there are some words and expressions in bold which I’d like you to look at. I will give you some definitions…. but not yet! I’d like you to do a little research first. I sometimes ask my students to use the internet to give new words and phrases some context, then to try to work out the meaning from that context. Try limiting where you search, so, instead of typing a phrase and searching for it in Google, try searching some of the better newspaper websites (Guardian, Times, Independent, Telegraph etc) or the BBC site. Make sure you put quotation marks “ ” around a phrase. See what you can find and try noting down one or two examples in your vocabulary notebook. Don’t worry - if you’re having trouble, I’ll include some definitions in my next post
And finally,
• ‘Ceud Mile Failte’ is Scottish (or Highland) Gaelic which translates as ‘One hundred thousand welcomes’. And before you ask, no, I don’t speak Gaelic!
• Many of the roads in the highlands are single track (with enough room for only one car) so they need to have specially widened sections where 2 cars going in opposite directions can pass each other. I thought this could be a nice analogy for our blog – not only has the blog been passed from Rachel to me, but also this is a place where it doesn’t matter where we come from, for a short while we meet before moving on towards our destination, wherever that may be…. Let’s enjoy it while we can!
Comments
A warm welcome Jim! Thank you for these fabulous pictures. They are a nice gift for beginning. See you. Mercè
A warm welcome Jim! Thank you for these fabulous pictures. They are a nice gift for beginning. See you. Mercè
Hi Jim I think that you know a lot of Finnish history and language. I mean If you know that Hungaries and Finns are relatives and that Finnish belongs to Finnish - Ugry languange group, I have to say you are brilliant. I think it was on 500 century when hungaries (if there is someone from Hungary, please, check the information) separated from ugri language group. We have only some few words that if it used imagination can be found that they are common in both languages. We are more close to Estonia and other small language groups that are govered Russians. My roots comes from Carelia and actually my mothers grandparents are Ipanoffs and Timojeffs and they spoked Carelian dialect before wars. About your photos, I have to say, you have on eye on them. Good ones! Have nice time in London.
Hi! Were great if I might conquer the point there! I´d give a one hundred thousand smiles from there too. You are very welcome here, Jim! Certainly I wish as busy and excited lerners from around the Globe. Happy blogging!
Cordially welcome, Jim. I'll be with you as long as you are here. Best regards.
A Warm Welcome Jim , Thanks for the Pics and I'm really enjoyed reading your posts about Highlands ! Best Regards
Hi Jim, I hope you're doing great. I'm very happy to meet you over the internet. I see you've got a good sense of humour. The way you started telling us a little bit about yourself was really interesting! Wonderful. I hope you'll have an effect on our English. I also hope that you'll accept my warm welcome. Nice to meet you, and I'm looking froward to hearing from you. Well done, Best wishes to you and your family, Abdisamad
Hi Jim, It seems that I am on holiday by looking at your beautiful pictures.
Nice to meet you Jim! I hope you enjoy your period as a teacher blogger :-). All the pictures are great. All the best, Ana Paula.
Nice to meet you Jim! I hope you enjoy your period as a teacher blogger :-). All the pictures are great. All the best, Ana Paula.
Ceud mile failte!Hello, Jim! i read your post with great interest and the pictures are simply fabulous.Scottish highlands are such a scenic beauty. thanks for the words in bold. some are new to me and i have a good time looking up the definitions!
Hi Jim! Nice to meet you, and Ceud Mile Failte from me,too! Jim, don’t you think I’m a quick leaner because I welcome you in Scottish Gaelic, which you taught us yesterday? I listen to “Keep your English up to date” whenever it have updated with great pleasure. I think I am familiar to your voice and face since I look at the smiling picture of you at the bottom of the web page against my will. Therefore, I feel more comfortable writing to you even though it is the first time. Thank you, for the really and truly breathtaking pictures of Scotland! They certainly make me get itchy feet. It sounds you have to work flat out during being with us because you have got a lot of burning ambitious international students, who really want to learn and improve their English from you. It’s just a small tip for you, which is “ don’t make any mistake even a slip” if you do you’ll get fired by students, who have got eagle-eyed. I think I am too kind!!( ha ha ha..) Impatiently looking forward to next blog from you!
Hi Jim, I am very happy to learn that you spent two years in Budapest! I hope that you enjoyed the time here - even despite language difficulties:)I am sure that it was not your fault that you could not aquire a good knowledge of Hungarian! I am a language teacher and I also try to teach Hungarian to foreigners, but I have to admit that it is really a fiendishly difficult language with lots of rules and even more exceptions to these rules:) In addition, many thanks for sending us such beautiful pictures from your holiday!! We (my family) are thinking of travelling to the UK, but we are "quarreling" a lot about the exact itinerary. My husband insists on going to Scotland, but I was not sure whether it would be a good idea...Now I am, thanks to you and your pics!:) Szia:)
Hi Jim, wonderful photes enable enough to make my face smile. Thanks
Hi Jim! Nice to meet you, and Ceud Mile Failte from me! Jim, don’t you think I’m a quick leaner because I welcome you in Scottish Gaelic, which you taught us yesterday? I listen to “Keep your English up to date” whenever it have updated with great pleasure. I think I am familiar to your voice and face since I look at the smiling picture of you at the bottom of the web page against my will. Therefore, I feel more comfortable writing to you even though it is the first time. Thank you, for the really and truly breathtaking pictures of Scotland! They certainly make me get itchy feet. It sounds you have to work flat out because you have got a lot of burning ambitious international students, who really want to learn and improve their English from you. It’s just a small tip for you, which is don’t make any mistakes even a slip if you do you’ll get fired by students, who have got eagle-eyed.(just kidding you) Impatiently looking forward to next blog from you
Hi Jim, nice to meet you:) All your pictures are great.I'm going to buy a new camera and have ambitions plans also take so great photos :) O love it ..... I tried to look for the meanings of some words and expressions in bold which you gave us. If something I've done wrong I hope you will corect me or if you will give us definitions I will know what I've done wrong:) 1. to get ahead of myself : I think it means - „to overtake facts „ eg. I found in the news: “The prosecutors may be getting ahead of themselves if they think they have solved the murder. (...) And blaming this on (...) may seem obvious, but the whole situation is not straightforward”. 2. the exception proves the rule -hehehe:)), I have to admit that I had a big problem with , seem to be.... easy expression I found sth in the news: „Ms Boyle, an unemployed lady from Blackburn(..), she appeared on a TV programme called "Britain's Got Talent". She certainly did not look the part of the modern singing star (...)You could see them thinking — hey, we are in for a good laugh this time.But then she started to sing. Her singing was remarkable. It is one of the (many) absurdities of the modern age that we think a person's ability to sing is directly linked to youth and good looks. So is Susan Boyle a turning point for those us who are the ugly ducklings who never did make it to swan status? Are older, less fashionable, less pretty women about to get a fair crack of the whip? Are they to be accorded looks-do-not-matter status the same as old, ugly, unfashionable men? Sadly no. Susan Boyle is simply the exception that proves the rule.” 3.gearing up for – I think it means: to prepare to sth, get read e.g.„Gearing up for winter(...) It is possible to ride your bike through the winter. The right gear helps” Impatiently looking forward to next blog from you :)
Hi, The photographs were truly wonderful. Looks like there is more to Scotland than Scotch. Is there a fun way to teach punctuations? I found this one pretty interesting: http://www.vocabletics.com/blog/?p=10 -Ashish
Hello Jim, Ceud mile failte to you too. I have a wonderful music CD from a Gaelic singing group " White Raven", that's their name. Do you know them? I like the pictures from the Scottish Highlands very much, see you soon..
Hello Jim ;) The photographs are wonderful and I'm really enjoyed reading your post.
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