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Post by oh oooh on Jul 7, 2020 20:12:42 GMT
Yeah, he offered me a good deal. But he didn't mention it until the end of our one-hour conversation, like 'and if all else fails, you MIGHT want to consider....' - not sure why.
The stress of moving house, I believe, isn't in the actual moving - it's in all the stuff you need to do once you've moved.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2020 20:47:05 GMT
I feel your pain with neighbour noise, especially if it affects your sleep I'm hopefully gonna be a house owner sooner rather than later, one thing I'm holding out for is a detached house. Less chance of neighbor noise.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2020 20:51:53 GMT
Quick joke
What starts with 'W' and ends in 'T'
No it does, look, "What"
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Post by Charlie O. on Jul 7, 2020 21:09:57 GMT
I guess it's the Ringo birthday stuff, but it just occurred to me that after February of next year John Lennon will have been dead for longer than he was alive.
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Post by oh oooh on Jul 7, 2020 21:21:11 GMT
I feel your pain with neighbour noise, especially if it affects your sleep I'm hopefully gonna be a house owner sooner rather than later, one thing I'm holding out for is a detached house. Less chance of neighbor noise. Yeah, a detached house is the only place you're guaranteed quiet. Unless you live beside a busy road... I miss living in my mam's bungalow. There was never a sound. Quiet - almost silence - is not for everyone, but it does great things for my head.
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Post by oh oooh on Jul 7, 2020 21:21:50 GMT
I guess it's the Ringo birthday stuff, but it just occurred to me that after February of next year John Lennon will have been dead for longer than he was alive. Wow. I heard Yoko isn't doing too good, by the way...
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2020 21:40:32 GMT
I'm very sorry about the stress of the new place.
I thought you'd asked about noise before buying it? The people really should have mentioned it if it's a fault throughout. (Is there anything to be done regarding soundproofing from below? Expensive and may not be possible. Being nice to the people above you may be the option. Do they have hardwood floors? Tough one.)
As for the internet - isn't there a website where you put in your postcode and it gives you speeds available? Our house is big, we have a number of extenders plugged in throughout the house. And you can get them with various speeds so get the maximum available.
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Post by oh oooh on Jul 8, 2020 8:12:57 GMT
I know you'll hate this, but you might consider a headset. The mikes are unidirectional and they shouldn't pick up surrounding/ambient noise. Having you consider also recording your lessons in addition to the live/zoom sessions, that way they have at something to refer to; and if you have to you response to them in audio/video. Thanks, yeah. The lessons are always recorded - the students themselves regularly have connection problems (their bandwidth is 'choked' in cities like Beijing at times) so they need this option, really. They have the opportunity to listen back later. I'd consider a headset but it's really sorting out a stronger signal that's the priority right now. I'm very sorry about the stress of the new place. I thought you'd asked about noise before buying it? The people really should have mentioned it if it's a fault throughout. (Is there anything to be done regarding soundproofing from below? Expensive and may not be possible. Being nice to the people above you may be the option. Do they have hardwood floors? Tough one.) As for the internet - isn't there a website where you put in your postcode and it gives you speeds available? Our house is big, we have a number of extenders plugged in throughout the house. And you can get them with various speeds so get the maximum available. I'm not sure it really is a fault throughout - I think this girl just told me that. It's only a problem occasionally - most of the time it's extremely quiet (right now there isn't a single sound of any kind apart from my keyboard tapping) but when she's roaming around upstairs it BOOMS right here in this room. I'll look into soundproofing, yeah. Even if it's pricey - if it helps, I'm interested. The strange thing about the internet is that it's fast here, the speed tests show that, the Sky dude on the phone told me it was way above the national average, but I think you need to have a very strong signal for any kind of online teaching where several individuals are coming in at you. Sky is the only internet option available for the flat otherwise I'd have moved the Virgin Media contract down here from Edinburgh. I'll let you know how it goes today. And thanks.
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Post by Reactionary Rage on Jul 8, 2020 8:46:27 GMT
Bad day today with the online teaching. Quite a few of my students are in Beijing and they couldn't actually get connected in time for the lesson, so that was ONE issue. Add to that the usual difficulties I have understanding them (sometimes their utterances just sound like a string of vowel sounds) AND the Chinese reluctance to ask questions/admit defeat, and you've got an extremely frustrating situation - for everyone. When I finished I went into the 'virtual staffroom' (eurgh) and every other teacher was complaining too. You know what's at the root of this problem? UK universities thrive on the cash they get from China. They're taking on students with average IELTS scores of 4.5 (meaning their English isn't particularly strong) and expecting them to complete these short language courses that revolve around all kinds of high-level academic concepts and study skills. They're simply not up to it but the institutions don't give a fuck. Many are accepted without them even getting close to meeting the entry criteria. And we're in the front line having to encourage them, praise them, make things level-appropriate, but get through quite a lot of tricky stuff just in two 50-minute sessions a day, five days a week. Every day I hang around for a few minutes at the end of teaching to answer any questions the students have. One lad said "teacher if I get no knowledge at all from your class, will it influence my final grade?' What can you say? That sounds hellish but comically so as well. - uh, hello...teacher, are you healin me....? - hello? - Er Mr Coan?! COME IN PREASE!
Education is fucked. The more you hear the worse it gets. What's the drop out rates for these students?
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Post by oh oooh on Jul 8, 2020 8:56:25 GMT
It IS farcical.
Drop-out rates? I think UK universities manage to get most of them through somehow. Google 'Chinese UK universities' or something similar and you'll find a shitload of articles about this terrible business.
It's good that they're young and their parents are paying - otherwise the unis would be facing huge volumes of complaints about the quality of the teaching they're getting online.
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Post by oh oooh on Jul 8, 2020 8:57:14 GMT
In other news: can I carry a 20 kg armchair-in-a-box home from Argos? That's quite a weight, isn't it?
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rayge
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Post by rayge on Jul 8, 2020 9:10:47 GMT
In other news: can I carry a 20 kg armchair-in-a-box home from Argos? That's quite a weight, isn't it? It's likely to be awkward to carry, as well, especially over a distance: it would probably require both arms and to be held in front of you. Wouldn't want to do that for more than a couple of hundred meters at most, and certainly not up a hill.
Might be best to get a taxi, assuming buses aren't available.
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Post by Reactionary Rage on Jul 8, 2020 9:13:03 GMT
In other news: can I carry a 20 kg armchair-in-a-box home from Argos? That's quite a weight, isn't it? It's a decent weight to carry for a distance, aye. Depends on the size and shape though.
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Post by oh oooh on Jul 8, 2020 9:15:44 GMT
Thank you friends. I'll book a taxi.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2020 9:32:31 GMT
It's only a problem occasionally - most of the time it's extremely quiet (right now there isn't a single sound of any kind apart from my keyboard tapping) but when she's roaming around upstairs it BOOMS right here in this room. I'll look into soundproofing, yeah. Even if it's pricey - if it helps, I'm interested. If she's only temporarily there, see what it's like after. And then speak to the guy, find out if they have hardwood floors, a rug may make a huge difference.
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