(Separated thread) Writing in Spanish in Mexico

Rolly, good for you if the letter worked but you should have an educated native speaker review it. It has errors. I've noticed that sometimes an office worker in Mexico will be rather sloppy (and perhaps uneducated).

Maybe Mexican's "terrible" writing skills (actually no worse than university graduates NOB) account for their ubiquitous "magical realism" sort of fiction. The writer figures that his horrible and ungrammatical use of the language will be excused as just part of the "magic". <GRIN>

Words (and writing) are my full-time BUSINESS, and I see all sorts of butchered writing, primarily in English, but in Spanish too. My publishing company just accepted a self-published book in Spanish for translation and publication in English. Although the Spanish was not as bad as many self-published English-language books I have seen, it obviously had not been edited by a professional editor, nor had it been proofread by an outside, professional proofreader. We are having to correct the mistakes, so that they don't appear in English-language book AND in the e-Book version of the original Spanish-language book (which we will publish simultaneously with the translated versions).

Unions certainly provided very important protections and improvements in the past.
The issues and problems arise when unions use their power to crush teacher evaluation programs, to crush school reforms, etc. When a Colorado legislature driven study found that many Colorado union teachers at the high school level could not pass basic exams on the material they were teaching, the unions threatened the Speaker of the Colorado House and the head of the Senate - and nothing was done, and further student and teacher evaluations were killed by the unions.

These NOB events find their equivalents in SOB Mexican schools, where the Mexican teacher's unions control who is hired, sell teacher's jobs to unqualified people who have the scratch, and support current teachers to sell their union protected jobs to family members. Due to strong union protections, many teachers in rural schools only come to work 1-2 days a week, since they don't like the daily commute out from their city homes to rural areas - and many union protected teachers have second jobs, so, they only go to their rural pueblito schools once or twice a week to qualify for their full union guaranteed salary.

This sort of selfish self-interested behaviors do not improve education systems either north or south of the border.

If unions do such a fine job, why have US schools ranked at the bottom of industrialized nations in both student and teacher performance. US schools consistently fall between 19'th and 23'rd in the world in all measured areas - yet the USA spends more per pupil than any other country. Debate and talking points often ring hollow when compared to performance.

When US and Mexican teachers start to score in even the top 12 in the world, then we might be able to say that union benefits and teacher competency are performing satisfactorily.

I too come from a family of professional teachers (both parents taught high school, in addition to brothers and sister who teach), and I informally studied pedagogy for 12 years - following international research that described why US schools lag far behind the rest of the industrialized world.

Certainly, US schools should score better than impoverished Bulgarians?

All the best to you, and I hope I have not personally insulted any one: I just think we can do better both NOB & SOB.
steve

It appears you do not understand the teacher's unions in Mexico and the Federal vs. State unions battles going on in many school districts and why some teachers only get 2 or 3 days work a week. Saying they sell jobs is old school thinking and maybe possibly in places but they wouldn't want to get caught doing it these days in the cities as they are scrutinized by gov't. who fund the schools, both Federal and State, to the maximum of their ability at the moment and ever going forward in flushing out nepotism and favoritism because so many universities are pumping out teachers now.

It is a big deal in Mexico and has been taking effect on some regions were selling jobs and selling grades is harder to get away with. I have a sister in law who's husband is a school inspector. My neighbor in Mexicali is a state school inspector and my friend in TJ retired as the assistant administrative director to escuelas de estudientes especiales in the school district of Otay which at least in Baja are federally funded and run schools. To say in a blanket statement Mexico unions have on occasion still been able to sell jobs and a teacher can work a few days and get paid a guaranteed salary, which implies what? [to me a salaried worker gets a months pay whether the hours are worked or not] and the unions are behind this. What can happen to the union officials when the school itself it committing the fraud and they have a chance of being fired and losing their pensions, especially when it is widespread and well know? Is the poorly paid teachers going to pay them? This is a ludicrous scenario. It might happen sometimes but is very far from the norn in 2012.
If it means they are squeezed out of the 5 days a week and into 2 or 3 days a week, which has been happening because of the federal unions putting the pressure on state unions teachers to join them then all the ones I know do get paid for only the 3 days they work per week, not for 5 days. Either way no one gets free money to stay home because of the union they belong to.

<Quote> SOB Mexican schools, where the Mexican teacher's unions control who is hired, sell teacher's jobs to unqualified people who have the scratch, and support current teachers to sell their union protected jobs to family members. Due to strong union protections, many teachers in rural schools only come to work 1-2 days a week, since they don't like the daily commute out from their city homes to rural areas - and many union protected teachers have second jobs, so, they only go to their rural pueblito schools once or twice a week to qualify for their full union guaranteed salary.<end Quote>

Look at the way this was written!

Man are you a just spreading gossip or are you so zoned in on your little corner of the world you can just speculate everything is really happening the way you state it is?

I thought you were an advanced Google expert and could read Spanish?
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In Reply To

The experiences of my family members & friends are neither "gossip" nor are they the results of "Google" searches.

In my home community and family, speaking from what we have seen and know, and sharing facts that our family and friends teach us, is neither "gossip" nor is it being "zoned in" in a negative way. We find that speaking authoritatively about the things we know, and people we know, is one of the most authentic things we can offer.

If your experiences differ, there is no need to criticize or attack. The Mexicali you experience is simply different than the Yucatan I enjoy.

It's not a competition. Different is ok.
steve

Steve.

Again you have misinterpreted what my main point was by skirting it to become the innocent victim of my criticizing of your above posts about corruption and teacher's unions [which would include corrupt school officials and teachers, Directors etc.] in ALL of Mexico and the way it is [reread your posts and tell me you did not generalize] and refuse to acknowledge your posts above that generalizing things because of your personal experiences in Yucatan does not constitute a fair and valuable criticism of Mexican life. Alan

"Alan, the exact same argument applies to your posts. What is happening in Mexicali I don't doubt, as it is your personal knowledge, but to go on and apply it to ALL of México is flatly incorrect.

cbviajero, YES! If Elba Esther Gordillo could be removed (gently and non-violently) from her office, it would be a MAJOR step toward beginning to cure the politicization of the largest, most influential (read corrupt) Mexican teachers' union."

I try to be specific and not generalize to the point that Steve does. I also live in San Luis Potosi most of the time and keep recognizing differences there from Mexicali and TJ which are at times profound. It seems I don't buy all the hype of Mexico not doing anything to change her ways because they are changing and not by just having good intentions, as some people think. As stated before I have no doubt some areas of the system and in some zones are hard to fight the ingrained corrupt system but some are not as it has been publicized regularly.