School shopping.
Sep. 3rd, 2013 07:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sister_luckSo there I was at the local branch of an international chain selling office supplies because I wanted to buy something I'd seen in their advertising. Yes, I know but the item I was after was a ring binder so ugly that I needed to get it - it is for a special purpose.
Of course the store was swarming with people - school starts here tomorrow or the day after (if it's your first day at school) and there were these confused groups of parents with lists in hand looking for their children and for the various items that they will need for their first day of school.
I can picture the scene at home that led them there with parent asking: "Have you got everything ready for tomorrow?" Kid grunts. Parent tells kid to pack their schoolbag and when kid has finally located it they produce this list from between last school year's exercise books. "Parent, you must go shopping with me. I need all these things TOMORROW."
Or alternatively the scenario goes the other way round with the kid pestering the parents with wanting to go school shopping and the parents always saying: "We've got plenty of time left." or "I've first got to find the list you gave me."
And let's not forget, some people will have had to wait for the beginning of the month to have enough money for school shopping.
One particular group consisted of a mother and her two adorable primary-school age daughters. Mother was wearing a headscarf and they all had the prettiest henna designs on their hands (and the mother's face was painted, too.) The elder of the two girls walked up to her mother with a plain grey lever arch file in her hand. "Mum, don't you think this might be what they call an Aktenordner?" she asked in perfect German. Mum was studying the list and seemed a little unsure. A little absent-mindedly she said: "I don't know. I don't think so." Her German was nearly as flawless as her daughter's. They walked through half the store and they kept getting confused because of the signs on the shelves: When it says Ordner, is that an Aktenordner? And then what's the difference to a Ringbuch?
I was close to them, so I tried to help out by telling the girl that I though she was right - what she was holding was commonly referred to as an Aktenordner. That's what I'd call it. I asked the mother for the list - maybe it offered more information. It did.
Teacher doesn't just want any old file or ring binder. No, it needs to be a blue one for boys and a red one for girls. There are not many pink ones around, so obviously, it had to be red.
The mother and I agreed that we didn't see the point of this.
Why does the teacher insist on different colours for boys and girls? Oh, I know there are moments when you sort pupils into boy/girl groups even if that might be problematic, but you want them to work together and then sometimes you have to separate them first to get them into mixed groups. There are other legitimate reasons, too, but they are rare.
It might all be done in the name of efficiency - have one boy and one girl come up to the front of the class to hand back all the binders. It might save a couple of minutes but there are other ways to sort kids without using gender.
Also, the naming of office supplies is a lot less transparent as it often seems to native speakers and I'm sure there are difference between different German-speaking areas, too.
Of course the store was swarming with people - school starts here tomorrow or the day after (if it's your first day at school) and there were these confused groups of parents with lists in hand looking for their children and for the various items that they will need for their first day of school.
I can picture the scene at home that led them there with parent asking: "Have you got everything ready for tomorrow?" Kid grunts. Parent tells kid to pack their schoolbag and when kid has finally located it they produce this list from between last school year's exercise books. "Parent, you must go shopping with me. I need all these things TOMORROW."
Or alternatively the scenario goes the other way round with the kid pestering the parents with wanting to go school shopping and the parents always saying: "We've got plenty of time left." or "I've first got to find the list you gave me."
And let's not forget, some people will have had to wait for the beginning of the month to have enough money for school shopping.
One particular group consisted of a mother and her two adorable primary-school age daughters. Mother was wearing a headscarf and they all had the prettiest henna designs on their hands (and the mother's face was painted, too.) The elder of the two girls walked up to her mother with a plain grey lever arch file in her hand. "Mum, don't you think this might be what they call an Aktenordner?" she asked in perfect German. Mum was studying the list and seemed a little unsure. A little absent-mindedly she said: "I don't know. I don't think so." Her German was nearly as flawless as her daughter's. They walked through half the store and they kept getting confused because of the signs on the shelves: When it says Ordner, is that an Aktenordner? And then what's the difference to a Ringbuch?
I was close to them, so I tried to help out by telling the girl that I though she was right - what she was holding was commonly referred to as an Aktenordner. That's what I'd call it. I asked the mother for the list - maybe it offered more information. It did.
Teacher doesn't just want any old file or ring binder. No, it needs to be a blue one for boys and a red one for girls. There are not many pink ones around, so obviously, it had to be red.
The mother and I agreed that we didn't see the point of this.
Why does the teacher insist on different colours for boys and girls? Oh, I know there are moments when you sort pupils into boy/girl groups even if that might be problematic, but you want them to work together and then sometimes you have to separate them first to get them into mixed groups. There are other legitimate reasons, too, but they are rare.
It might all be done in the name of efficiency - have one boy and one girl come up to the front of the class to hand back all the binders. It might save a couple of minutes but there are other ways to sort kids without using gender.
Also, the naming of office supplies is a lot less transparent as it often seems to native speakers and I'm sure there are difference between different German-speaking areas, too.
