The first computer class for teachers was a resounding success today! After school every spot in the computer room was full - only 5 minutes late, no less - and everyone paid the 5 lei weekly price I'm charging in order to buy everyone a disk and to lead an excursion to an internet cafe in the next town over. So after our first class, everyone can basically type without looking at the keyboard the letters фыва олдж (the located on the same keys as the Latin alphabet's asdf and jkl; keys). Next class I plan to add another 4-8 keys and explain a little about how MSWord works. We decided to meet every Monday and Wednesday after school from 3:30-5:00, so if anyone wants to come watch - you're invited.
These are some pictures of the class - mostly of cheaters trying to look at the keyboard after I covered their hands with pieces of cloth so they had to actually learn where the keys were instead of hunting and pecking with two fingers each time. Everyone would laugh after I caught them in the act.
I've also got my 4 interns humming away. Today I gave them several short articles that were hand-written by the staff about their responsibilities at work. I want to combine these articles into a small 3-panel brochure to distribute among the village so they have a better understanding of what goes on in their local government - frankly, this isn't a bad idea for the American government, either... Anyway, I have a difficult enough time reading Russian when it's typed, and most of the articles were written in Russian cursive, which is tougher to understand than quantum physics. So I told my interns to type them up on the computer. They did, and tomorrow we'll work together to edit them down and start putting them together in a brochure form. I wonder if I can get them to do my laundry? [Don't worry - I'm not abusing my interns - I showed them all kinds of things like how to properly type, use Excel, and cook my eggs just the way I like 'em.]
ps - Also thought you might find this interesting - I bought paper today. A 500 sheet package costs about $4, which is not cheap by Moldovan standards, and consequently our office rarely seems to have enough paper. People always roam from room to room asking for printer paper and hide it or guard it with their lives once they have it. So I really needed to print some typing lessons for my class today and couldn't find paper anywhere. So now this will be my personal stash for 2 years, and as Mr. T says, "I pity da fool" who tries steal some from me. Does this mean I'm acclimating to the culture?
These are some pictures of the class - mostly of cheaters trying to look at the keyboard after I covered their hands with pieces of cloth so they had to actually learn where the keys were instead of hunting and pecking with two fingers each time. Everyone would laugh after I caught them in the act.
I've also got my 4 interns humming away. Today I gave them several short articles that were hand-written by the staff about their responsibilities at work. I want to combine these articles into a small 3-panel brochure to distribute among the village so they have a better understanding of what goes on in their local government - frankly, this isn't a bad idea for the American government, either... Anyway, I have a difficult enough time reading Russian when it's typed, and most of the articles were written in Russian cursive, which is tougher to understand than quantum physics. So I told my interns to type them up on the computer. They did, and tomorrow we'll work together to edit them down and start putting them together in a brochure form. I wonder if I can get them to do my laundry? [Don't worry - I'm not abusing my interns - I showed them all kinds of things like how to properly type, use Excel, and cook my eggs just the way I like 'em.]
ps - Also thought you might find this interesting - I bought paper today. A 500 sheet package costs about $4, which is not cheap by Moldovan standards, and consequently our office rarely seems to have enough paper. People always roam from room to room asking for printer paper and hide it or guard it with their lives once they have it. So I really needed to print some typing lessons for my class today and couldn't find paper anywhere. So now this will be my personal stash for 2 years, and as Mr. T says, "I pity da fool" who tries steal some from me. Does this mean I'm acclimating to the culture?
1 comment:
I really enjoy your blogs. Keep them coming.
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