Re: Untouchables [Andreas J., please read]

Tristan McLeay wrote:
> On Thu, 4 Dec 2003, Andreas Johansson wrote:
>
>
>>Quoting Roger Mills <romilly@...>:
>>
>>
>>>Andreas Johansson wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>Actually, nothing in Roger's post said I had to do it by hand. :P
>>>>
>>>
>>>Actually, I was going to say "You will go to the _[black]board_ and
>>>write....." but didn't, as I wasn't sure younger people would recognize the
>>>term. At least in many (all?) schools in the US, blackboards are now green.
>>>However, I see Tristan used the word, so apparently it persists.
>
>
> Well, that only means it's current in Australia :)
>
>
>>I know the word perfectly, actually.
>
>
> And the English taught as a second language :)
>
>
>>The Swedish form is _svarta tavlan_, which means much the same. It's actually
>>a bit of a funny word; it's essentially always used in the definite singular
>>(indefinite _svart tavla_ sound like we're speaking of a painting), and felt
>>to be a single unit, thus not requiring the preposed extra definite article
>>normally used with AN phrases. Most I've seen are indeed dark green; I for one
>>don't feel that "blackboard"/"svarta tavlan" says anything of the actual
>>_colour_ of the thing.
>
>
> I don't think I've ever seen a dark green one, apart from a small
> (slightly larger than an A4 page) magnetic toy thing my brother got. It
> struck me as cheap and didn't hold the chalk properly; if I saw a green
> one, I'd probably think the same of it, at least initially. Blackboards as
> used in classrooms have always been ... well, dark grey, thanks to all the
> chalk.
>
>
>>Incidentally, I was unfortunate enough to have to do maths on one today;
>>they're quite popular here in Germany. Back in Sweden, we had them in
>>elementary school, but in high school and at Uni, they always
>>use "whiteboards", whitish things you write on with special pens. They have
>>the major advantage of not involving chalk.
>
>
> OTOH, they have the major disadvantage of being so reflective that you
> have to move around to read half of them. I'd rather deal with chalk then
> a whiteboard (and my yr 11 Maths teacher was the same). And dealing with
> chalk isn't that bad: I had to do it for a semester of Maths tutorials
> (two different maths subjects, both did it) and will have to do it for
> another semester next year.
Whiteboards also have the disadvantage that any ink left on them for too
long becomes permanent, or at least leaves a stain. Since a lot of
teachers IME leave things written on the whiteboard overnight (and
sometimes for weeks), this can become a problem.