March 9 2014

I can’t spell. I used to be able to spell… when I lived in America that is, and I CAN still spell on my American laptop and iPad, but on the Aussie computers over here, I’m no good at spelling. It’s all the fault of the British. Australia uses the British Word program (or programme) rather than the American version, so my work computer is full of funky ways to spell everyday words. For example, center is spelled centre, program is programme, color is colour, labor is labour, honor is honour etc. It’s very annoying. Spell check flashes me a lot! I looked up the reason for this on Wikipedia. There’s a huge long explanation involving lots of Latin and Greek spelling derivations and rules, but the short story goes back to the 1800s when the printing press was invented. Before then, English spelling was not standardized in any country. People spelled words however they sounded and basically one spelling was as acceptable as another. Once the printing press was invented though, it became necessary to standardize spelling. Of course, by then, America was it’s own independent nation and Britain probably still resented that, so the two nations failed to agree on a standardized method. The US name we know and love, Noah Webster, was the leader in the American standardization of American English. He, of course, is well known for the establishment of Webster’s Dictionary. Webster wrote An American Dictionary of the English Language in 1828, which followed the rules of the English Spelling Reform. Britain, on the other hand, followed Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) that followed the influence of those who preferred the Norman (or Anglo-French) spelling of words. So, there you have it; I wonder if the Revolutionary War played a part in the refusal to compromise on language issues? Johnson’s dictionary was published right around the time of the Revolution. Maybe both sides had issues related to finding a common ground and didn’t want to be the first to compromise, so the two versions of English just proceeded on with their own version rather than compromise. I’m blaming it all on the Brits though.

We continue to meet interesting and varied people from around the world. Until coming here, I had no idea of the peoples and cultures of the islands of the South Pacific or of China and many of the Asian countries. I’m learning a lot about the cultures of these countries though and have gained a great appreciation for people who leave their home country for the hope of something better in another country. We will start employment classes this Thursday in downtown Sydney. One of our upcoming students spoke at a forum we attended this week. She is Indian, but was raised in Tahiti for most of her life. Maybe I mentioned before that there is quite a large Indian population in Tahiti. Originally, the Indians were brought over as slaves, but over time they achieved their freedom and for many years have been a high achieving portion of the culture in Tahiti. Her family though had only been in Tahiti for one generation. They chose to leave India and move to Tahiti, they came in to the country well off. This young woman was raised Hindu and spoke Hindi at home while growing up. Her father had the foresight to have her and her sisters attend the private Catholic school in their city and she was able to learn English and become very fluent. She also received a very good education. Her family moved to Australia when she was 15. Her father felt their family would have better opportunities in Australia than they had in Tahiti. It was in Australia where she was converted and left the Hindu faith. Her father never has converted, but her mother and her siblings all did. She has finished uni, but is only working temp jobs right now and wants to find full-time employment. She is a beautiful and talented young woman.

 
Speaking of uni, New South Whales (the state where Sydney is located) has a college type educational system here called TAFE, it stands for Technical And Further Education. It reminds me of the community college system in the US in a way. Students can’t get a four-year degree here, but can get certificates and certifications by taking classes here. It’s a huge educational system in NSW and is government funded, so many students can get vocational and technical education at a very reasonable price. Since students can leave high school here at age 15, the TAFE program provides certifications and training as well as internships for students who don’t fit well in the high school system but still want an education geared for the workplace. There are many certifications related to business (entry level banking jobs, for example), automotive training (mechanics etc.) , building construction (design, demolition, etc) technology (computer systems, beginning electrical engineering etc.). Many courses take two years to complete, just like a junior college in America. As of next year though, the government is cutting a lot of it’s funding to the TAFE institution, so tuition is going to go up a lot and they are cutting quite a few courses. Some sort of certification seems to be required for almost any job over here, so this change in the system is going to make a big hardship for some people because they won’t be able to get needed certification at a reasonable price. I spent some time looking through the TAFE catalog this past week and I think I’ve identified a few classes that might be destined for the chopping block. Here are a few of my favorites: 1. Basic blow-drying; upon completion of this class you should be able to complete a basic blow-dry for a hair client. 2. Floristry; upon completion of this class you will be able to design, create, and construct basic and advanced floral arrangements 3. Thoroughbred Exercise Rider Skills; when completed you will be able to demonstrate safe and competent horse handling and riding and qualify to exercises horses. 4. Equine Massage Therapy; you guessed it, this class covers the basics of how to massage a horse. 5. Captive Animals; this class qualifies you to work in a zoo. 6. Handling Dangerous Dogs; this class covers how to read a dog’s body language, how to avoid being attacked, and what to do if you are attacked (designed for animal shelter staff, mail carriers, vet clinics, etc) 7. Wool Handling; this class is designed for people who want to learn how to shear sheep! It’s a one-year certification. Wow, who would have thought there is still a big demand for this job, let alone that it requires a one-year certification process!

We will begin our first class series this week and I am excited for that. It will be good to finally be doing something besides tedious reports and such. I have several reports to complete this week, so besides teaching, I will be labouring away in the centre to advance the programme in Australia. Feel sorry for my spell-check this week!

Grandkids: 

Well, did you guess that a bloke is a man? People use that word over here all the time. Think about all the times you hear someone in the US say ‘guy’,. For example, “See that guy over there?” Every time that we would use the word ‘guy’, they say the word ‘bloke’ instead. We hear it a lot! Did you know ‘fortnight’ means two weeks? You don’t hear it used very often in the US, but we hear people say it a lot over here. This week, instead of making you guess what words mean, I’m going to tell you about two words related to the law that they use over here and we never use in the US. Do you know what a barrister or a solicitor is? Both words are used for what we, in America, call a lawyer. Over here, a solicitor is a lawyer that does law work, but does not (and isn’t allowed) to appear in court. A court lawyer is called a barrister. So, if a solicitor were to do some work for a client and the legal work required him to go to court, even though he is a lawyer, he would have to hire another ‘higher’ lawyer called a barrister to appear in court and argue his case for him. Here’s the catch though, a barrister gets paid $8,000 a day to appear in court, so if you have to hire a barrister to go to court for you, you better be sure that you have a good chance to win, because $8,000 a day is a lot of money to pay for one day. Here’s the only bad part I can see about being a barrister, you have to wear a white wig in court! Yes, they really do have to wear a white wig the whole time they are in court! Maybe that’s why they charge so much money each day; they feel silly in their wig. Here’s a picture of a barrister from our church named Neville Rochow. He is very well-known in Australia.  He was just in Sydney this week. He’s working with a lot of people from many different churches around Sydney. All the people from all the churches get together and work to make life easier and better for poor people who live in this big city. They help find food to feed the people and help them to have clean and safe places to sleep at night if they don’t have a home. 

Grandpa and I went to an animal park on Saturday and we got to see lots of animals that live in Australia. I will show you a couple of pictures each week, but I will start with kangaroos. I promised Nick and David that I would pet a kangaroo while I was here, so here are some pictures of us petting a small kangaroo. They don’t let big kangaroos out where people are, so we only got to pet small kangaroos. Oh, by the way, kangaroos stink!

This is a mama kangaroo with a baby in her pouch!

Here is a picture of some bats they had in cages at the animal park. I am sending you this picture because the other night, at twilight, Grandpa and I were outside of our house talking to some friends and one of these giant bats flew right over our heads! People around here call them flying foxes. Look at the bat’s face, can you tell why they are called flying foxes?

Look at the bat in the back. He's all curled up in his wings taking a nap!

One last thing, Grandpa and I went walking in a park downtown called Hyde Park. It’s very big and very pretty. One of the things that was going on in the park that day was outside chess. When the weather is nice, people sit around at tables and play chess with each other. There is also a big chessboard made in the cement by the sidewalk. These two men were playing a chess game with giant chess pieces!