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Jan. 15th, 2008 12:48 pmClasses this semester promise to be entertaining. Which they should since I picked them because I wanted to take all of them and not because they will be helping me make progress toward a degree. I've already finished with that, so now I can take what I want (and probably would have taken anyway only now I don't have to justify it beyond being annoyed at how applying to grad school works).
I went to French yesterday and am certain that it will be an easier foreign language than Japanese. Mostly because I can already read the textbook and the class grade is largely based off of the free points you get for coming to class and spending a grand total of five hours in the language lab. It turns out that to pass French you don't actually need to speak French; all you need is the ability to sit and stare, which I mastered at the age of three.
I've also noticed that my habit of using Japanese when it is faster/make more sense than the English to take notes also occurs in French class. This apparently disturbs my classmates. I've been told that it's something that just isn't done. I responded by saying that I wasn't writing my notes for their benefit so their interest in what I had written was equally bizarre and their inability to understand what I had written wasn't of any concern of mine. Followed by my notes, my business.
I am going to have to practice French conversation once I get a few more vocabulary words under my belt because I find myself wanting to automatically reply with the appropriate Japanese phrase. This is probably because I don't have to mentally translate that to make it make sense to me but I really don't want to be in the middle of one of the oral exams and suddenly starting sentences with "Watashi wa . . .” As it is I have an uncomfortably long pause where I'm going, "wait, no, not Japanese, no not English either! Crap! How do I say that in this language again?"
And I must say French spelling and pronunciation make no sense to me. At all. I'm sure there are rules and eventually I'll have someone come beat me over the head with them or I'll figure it out at 3:00 in the morning when I should be sleeping and not playing video games. As for now I'm going to side with Cat and her "fucking moon language" school of thought. I mean Kanji may make a grown man cry but at least in Japanese there's never any question on how you're supposed to pronounce anything.
I've also been to Reser's class which went exactly how I would have figured. The Freshthings are still learning to be scared of him but by the end of the course description a few people were backing away in their seats, cowering from his mighty intellect. I found this hilariously funny. He's also decided to do his survey of English literature backwards, because then the class gets to cover the stuff he actually likes. He also explained that the selections he has tentatively chosen are based on his personal taste so we are going to read A Modest Proposal for his amusement but that we can also ask him to include something we really want to read and he might have the class vote on it; his vote counts for 100. Many students looked downright annoyed at his refusal to have an actual calendar for the course. After all who wouldn't want to have to rush to meet a random deadline as opposed to having the essay assigned when we've actually finished discussing the material? Sure, we might not cover the sheer volume of literature that you'd get in another course but we'll more than make up for it by actually covering the literature.
I'm also taking a few Anthropology course this semester. One is online and the other I haven't been to yet but I have checked out the vista shell and been over the assignments. I'm really excited about both of these, the online one looks like it will be a lot of fun--it might be a bit difficult getting all the coursework for it done in five weeks--and I think I'll manage to do okay in it. The teacher knows what they are doing and even seems comfortable teaching a web course which means I shouldn't have some of the issues that have cropped up in previous web classes.
I've already started the readings for the other anthro class despite the fact that I haven't yet been. Yeah, I'm a sick twisted person who likes new textbooks--shut up--most of you already know this about me. I've finished her ethnography which was fascinating and really jives with a lot of what I've noticed about undergraduate culture. It also made me realize, even more, what anomalies the people I choose to spend time with really are. Talking about academic stuff outside of class without trashing it first or because a test is right around the corner? The horror!
Now for a completely random side note: If someone (read Kou) decides to stand behind me and stare at both me and my computer whilst breathing at me is it really a bad and slightly evil idea to consider using images of (practically) canonically gay lawyers smooching to make them wish they hadn't done so? Or is it just passive aggressive? I mean I have told him to go away and leave me alone or sit and use a computer and leave me alone already . . .
I went to French yesterday and am certain that it will be an easier foreign language than Japanese. Mostly because I can already read the textbook and the class grade is largely based off of the free points you get for coming to class and spending a grand total of five hours in the language lab. It turns out that to pass French you don't actually need to speak French; all you need is the ability to sit and stare, which I mastered at the age of three.
I've also noticed that my habit of using Japanese when it is faster/make more sense than the English to take notes also occurs in French class. This apparently disturbs my classmates. I've been told that it's something that just isn't done. I responded by saying that I wasn't writing my notes for their benefit so their interest in what I had written was equally bizarre and their inability to understand what I had written wasn't of any concern of mine. Followed by my notes, my business.
I am going to have to practice French conversation once I get a few more vocabulary words under my belt because I find myself wanting to automatically reply with the appropriate Japanese phrase. This is probably because I don't have to mentally translate that to make it make sense to me but I really don't want to be in the middle of one of the oral exams and suddenly starting sentences with "Watashi wa . . .” As it is I have an uncomfortably long pause where I'm going, "wait, no, not Japanese, no not English either! Crap! How do I say that in this language again?"
And I must say French spelling and pronunciation make no sense to me. At all. I'm sure there are rules and eventually I'll have someone come beat me over the head with them or I'll figure it out at 3:00 in the morning when I should be sleeping and not playing video games. As for now I'm going to side with Cat and her "fucking moon language" school of thought. I mean Kanji may make a grown man cry but at least in Japanese there's never any question on how you're supposed to pronounce anything.
I've also been to Reser's class which went exactly how I would have figured. The Freshthings are still learning to be scared of him but by the end of the course description a few people were backing away in their seats, cowering from his mighty intellect. I found this hilariously funny. He's also decided to do his survey of English literature backwards, because then the class gets to cover the stuff he actually likes. He also explained that the selections he has tentatively chosen are based on his personal taste so we are going to read A Modest Proposal for his amusement but that we can also ask him to include something we really want to read and he might have the class vote on it; his vote counts for 100. Many students looked downright annoyed at his refusal to have an actual calendar for the course. After all who wouldn't want to have to rush to meet a random deadline as opposed to having the essay assigned when we've actually finished discussing the material? Sure, we might not cover the sheer volume of literature that you'd get in another course but we'll more than make up for it by actually covering the literature.
I'm also taking a few Anthropology course this semester. One is online and the other I haven't been to yet but I have checked out the vista shell and been over the assignments. I'm really excited about both of these, the online one looks like it will be a lot of fun--it might be a bit difficult getting all the coursework for it done in five weeks--and I think I'll manage to do okay in it. The teacher knows what they are doing and even seems comfortable teaching a web course which means I shouldn't have some of the issues that have cropped up in previous web classes.
I've already started the readings for the other anthro class despite the fact that I haven't yet been. Yeah, I'm a sick twisted person who likes new textbooks--shut up--most of you already know this about me. I've finished her ethnography which was fascinating and really jives with a lot of what I've noticed about undergraduate culture. It also made me realize, even more, what anomalies the people I choose to spend time with really are. Talking about academic stuff outside of class without trashing it first or because a test is right around the corner? The horror!
Now for a completely random side note: If someone (read Kou) decides to stand behind me and stare at both me and my computer whilst breathing at me is it really a bad and slightly evil idea to consider using images of (practically) canonically gay lawyers smooching to make them wish they hadn't done so? Or is it just passive aggressive? I mean I have told him to go away and leave me alone or sit and use a computer and leave me alone already . . .