NewsUpper SchoolFaculty/Staff
Ross takes extraordinary trip
Sep 3, 2001 8:00 AM
By Stefan Eady - Faculty
Tollie Ross certainly goes the extra mile to brush up on his language skills and that’s exactly what he did this summer. The Upper School foreign language instructor traveled on a German freighter with German officers and a crew from the Philippines from Los Angeles to China. “Every day I spoke German, read books, did crossword puzzles, and watched the water go by. All the ports were interesting but I liked Hong Kong the best,” Ross explained. “I look forward to a return visit, but by air next time. It was a very relaxing vacation, but on the way back to Los Angeles I found myself growing very tired of all that water.”
Ross said the most interesting part of his trip was traveling across the South China Sea to Taiwan with a typhoon. “Fortunately it stayed about 100 miles away but the swells were quite high for me,” Ross said. “However, the Captain said on a scale of one to 12, with 12 being the worst, the swells reached a nine only.”
As an Upper School German and Spanish instructor and adviser to the German Club, his summer vacation experience will benefit his students." Funny thing about language, no matter how well one speaks it, one must continually use it in order not to lose it. The great benefit for me was the experience to speak to adults about various topics," Ross said. "In using German in the classroom, I have to be sure that the German is simple enough for my students to understand. To ensure this for language teachers, textbooks follow a certain pattern."
Ross said the most interesting part of his trip was traveling across the South China Sea to Taiwan with a typhoon. “Fortunately it stayed about 100 miles away but the swells were quite high for me,” Ross said. “However, the Captain said on a scale of one to 12, with 12 being the worst, the swells reached a nine only.”
As an Upper School German and Spanish instructor and adviser to the German Club, his summer vacation experience will benefit his students." Funny thing about language, no matter how well one speaks it, one must continually use it in order not to lose it. The great benefit for me was the experience to speak to adults about various topics," Ross said. "In using German in the classroom, I have to be sure that the German is simple enough for my students to understand. To ensure this for language teachers, textbooks follow a certain pattern."
