The story of a history book
19 September 2025 12:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
igenlodeThese are my kind of people -- every second person on the bus is busy reading ;-)
This second dozen of TV broadcasts for learners has a different host, a friendly young man rather than a bright young woman with the air of a primary-school teacher, and is undoubtedly but indefinably more difficult than the first set. Less care taken to simplify everything, I think, despite the careful repetition of key vocabulary. Maybe we have reached the 8–10-year-old level equivalent as opposed to the 5–7-year-old level! (Although I do find it totally unconvincing that even in the Soviet Union there would be just *one* standard "history textbook" universally used by university students, issued by the library and replaceable at any bookstall -- I'm assuming that's a gross simplification for the benefit of the TV script.)
It does come up with a couple of memorable observations, though: the lady at the lost-property office comments that the books in their possession represent the most popular books among readers, since they are the ones most often lost on public transport and hence the ones people most like to take with them :-) And the owner of the second-hand bookstall uses the sales slogan "Buy an old book, learn new things"!
This second dozen of TV broadcasts for learners has a different host, a friendly young man rather than a bright young woman with the air of a primary-school teacher, and is undoubtedly but indefinably more difficult than the first set. Less care taken to simplify everything, I think, despite the careful repetition of key vocabulary. Maybe we have reached the 8–10-year-old level equivalent as opposed to the 5–7-year-old level! (Although I do find it totally unconvincing that even in the Soviet Union there would be just *one* standard "history textbook" universally used by university students, issued by the library and replaceable at any bookstall -- I'm assuming that's a gross simplification for the benefit of the TV script.)
It does come up with a couple of memorable observations, though: the lady at the lost-property office comments that the books in their possession represent the most popular books among readers, since they are the ones most often lost on public transport and hence the ones people most like to take with them :-) And the owner of the second-hand bookstall uses the sales slogan "Buy an old book, learn new things"!
no subject
Date: 2025-09-19 01:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-09-19 08:33 pm (UTC)The English traditionally hide behind their newspapers on the Tube so that they won't be obliged to meet the eyes of the man opposite ;-)
But nowadays they are all on their iPhones instead; I have started reading books while walking along the street, which always used to be considered inconsiderate, on the grounds that everyone else is 'reading' too! And of course I've been *writing* while walking along the street for years...