Note to Self: must stop the constant disappointed sighing

Reading 17 essays on the same topic, any topic, is bound to get boring pretty damn quickly. If the essays are on advertising and written by teenagers with a shaky command of the English lanugage, it's not only boring, it's depressing.

Matura grades are due on Monday, so I've been helping my teachers by looking over the composition parts of the written tests (the other parts are business letters and text analysis). It's pretty clear that some of the students just memorized their essay before the test, seeing as they're suspiciously...well, not error-free, but less full of errors than they should be. These are also the essays that fail to address seven of the ten required points. Suprisingly enough, they don't receive failing grades, because my teachers are so permissive in their grading that an unconscious first former could probably squeak by with a four.

So this is what I learned about advertising today. Comments from me in parentheses.

Printing was invented in the 17th century. (Not the fifteenth as you were probably mistakenly informed in school.)

Advertising uses techniques like words or sounds. (Also, existing is a common technique.)

In some words, this advertising causes that the consumer believes to get more of a product than it ever can do. (Hello, Babelfish translator.)

Artists and drawers then produce ideas for pictures and drawings. (My nighttable has two drawers and it's never once produced an idea.)

Invading the culture of the people is the aim of this brand of advertising. ("Invading the culture of the people" sounds like some sort of Communist plot out of a 1960s B-movie.)

Advertising is veining. (Plus, arterying!)

Brands are produced through famous personalities. (This was followed up with some talk about David Beckham. What brand has David Beckham created? Infidelity for Men?)

So yes, I am now fully informed about the joys of advertising and the sorrows of teaching English as a second language. I did give three 1s and several 2s, which my teachers will probably honor, but I doubt they'll hold up my five 5s. They probably just don't want to spend another year reading the same terrible handwriting and tortured grammar. Especially since next year's batch looks to be even worse.