Commenter Thread

Comments on Open Thread by novakant

Fortunately that doesn't apply to MFL teaching in the UK but the subject is unique because of its performative aspect. Sometimes, howver, I envy English teachers with their quiet classrooms, when I'm doing my all singing, all dancing MFL skit..

every prompt or set of instructions is going to cause confusion

I'm teaching MFL and there's been a lot of pressure to teach in the target language. Initially I tried to toe the line and sometimes issued instructions in the TL. I was disabused of this notion when I found out that around 50% of the pupils had issues following instructions on English.

To be fair, I'm not very good at setting up and explaining games and stuff like that.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/22/israel-politics-itamar-ben-gvir

The latest from a certain prominent member of the Israeli government:

“all of Lebanon must burn”

“for every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep”

The saddest thing is that not that he's a psychopath but that a fair chare of people voted him into power and agree with him.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/jun/19/middle-east-crisis-live-israel-strikes-targets-in-lebanon-as-us-iran-talks-in-switzerland-called-off?page=with%3Ablock-6a34f1a18f083b97ede8ba1d#block-6a34f1a18f083b97ede8ba1d

This is heartbreaking. Nothing good has come of this and "the weak suffer what they must" - as usual.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/07/world/middleeast/iranians-despair-war-economy-inflation.html?unlocked_article_code=1.oVA.pucr.G9dfcBeCvZR9&smid=url-share