Dear Diary,
The last few weeks have been so busy! I submitted my application for grad school at UVa. My partner and I moved into our new house and we’re almost done unpacking. (I finally got most of my language books on the shelves!) And although I’m not an official student (yet, fingers crossed!), I’ve been invited to participate in a few classes. I’m “on grounds” (as they say) five days a week, and while that keeps me busy, I love being on a college campus again. So much energy and possibility! I’ve got the life I had when I was a student way back when. I’m meeting people, I’m studying in the library while scarfing down coffee and baked goods, and I’ve got access to more library books than I’ll ever find time to read. It’s sheer heaven! And get this: I’m even learning a few things! Go figure…
I can’t say I haven’t been distracted from my language goals for this year, but in a way, school has actually helped me with some of them. I’ve still been working on German and Manx, but I haven’t been spending as much time with either of those languages as I had planned.
But I just discovered yesterday that the German Department at UVa has a Kaffeestunde (either a “coffee hour,” or, less likely, a “coffee’s tunde,” which I don’t think actually means anything). I’m betting this would be a great chance for me to improve my German conversation skills. I’ll look into participating next week. In the meantime, I’ll try to get hold of a tunde, just in case.
My Spanish has been getting the biggest workout so far. I’ve been sitting in on a digital humanities class, and we’re working on creating a website for various translations of the Popol Vuh (the Mayan book of creation). The class is bilingual (Spanish and English, since it’s run by the Spanish Department), and although I’m only speaking English in class, I’m exposed to spoken Spanish for a significant percentage of the time. We’re also reading two different Spanish translations of the Popol Vuh (as well as other readings in Spanish). It’s been more immersion than I expected, but I’ve been working hard to try to keep up as much as I can. I might only be grasping about 40% of the lectures and readings, but I will admit that I’m excited that I can grasp that much. And I feel like I am actually progressing. Slowly, perhaps, but also steadily.
The K’iche’ language class has been a real challenge. I’m starting with the second level so I’m already behind. Thankfully, the instructor has been incredible, allowing me to sit in, leave early when I need to, and participate when I feel up to it. And as an added bonus, she sent me all of the handouts from the first level class. It’s very different from any language I’ve studied, but I’m really enjoying it. Verbs have been the most challenging thing so far. We’re going over complex uses for them, and I have yet to get the simpler constructions down. But I’m getting there, and if all goes well, I’m hoping to sit in on the first and third level classes this fall, ideally as a registered student!
(And by the way, the original Popol Vuh was written in K’iche’. So maybe one day I’ll be able to read it!)
Another bonus of spending time at the university is that I was asked to join an Esperanto club! We’ve only had one session, but I’m excited about future meetings. And I’ve made a few suggestions on how to acquire more members and how to get hold of additional resources. It’s an easy language to learn, but having a community of speakers makes maintaining the language that much easier!
I’ve also been sitting in on two other classes: Phonology (we’re currently working on phonetic and phonemic transcriptions) and Languages of the World (we’re also currently working on phonetic and phonemic transcriptions. Ah, serendipity!). While I’m not getting credit for them, and they’re not related to my language goals, I’m still learning things about languages that will help me down the line. I‘m also getting a better idea of what direction I might take once I graduate. But I won’t give up on becoming an exotic dancer for the visually impaired just yet. Better safe than sorry.
All in all, getting connected with these little language opportunities and communities has had a great effect on my excitement and progress with “the main five,” and I’m excited to see what comes in the next few weeks. In the meantime, it’s time to set up my desk with some newly unearthed (that is, unpacked) study materials!
In other news, Bobby passed Jody a note in study hall, and Emily is all jealous now. I don’t think she’s going to the homecoming dance now. For reals. Oh, Diary, why must there be so much drama in my life? LOL….
Until next time!
~dave
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