Classes, in order of appearance
LIN493/503 – Sociolinguistics (Dr. Wolfgang Wölk): Simply put, I feel like I’m standing in the presence of greatness each class (which, in a way I am) and of course, just when I think I can’t be further enamored with him or his style of oration he starts talking about Conflict Theory Linguistics (‘not everyone’s language is really equal, and here’s what you need to know to make informed decisions so politicians who don’t know what they’re doing, don’t make bad choices’)…the man is just…amazing (and has a dirty, wicked, dry sense of humor). The class itself is wonderful and while we covered a lot of the same material in Paauw’s class, Wolfe provides us with his own novel material and, in doing so, keeps everyones attention.
After that, about 1/3 of the class walks with me to:
LIN301 – Structure of English Sound System (Dr. Karin Michaelson) is wonderful; The instructor has a bravado about her and an enthusiasm that just fills the room (…a room full of geeks…like, huge geeks…like, some of us may be considering getting a schwa tattoo somewhere in the near future, level of geekdom…) and really, she’s just always happy and relaxed and everyone feels comfortable in her class, so we all feel comfortable contributing to the discussion. Though that may also be a side effect of the fact that everyone but two people in the class already know each other (one of the benefits of being in a small department). When I walked into class the first day I was just like “the gangs all here…when do we start the roast?!”
After class most of us make a mass exodus down to LIN302…we’ve somehow managed to block schedule ourselves…miscreants that we are.
LIN302 – Structure of English Grammar (Dr. D. A. Zubin) is an interesting fellow; I can’t say I agree with his approach to linguistics or his mass generalizations (I find them counterproductive and I also find that when you say “we all speak like this” and just move on, that you then don’t take into account situations that may cause an environment for one to say something that speaker A may ‘always say’ but speaker B only says under certain conditions and speaker C may only say when referring to person A or B; so while they may ‘all say it’ that kind of reasoning doesn’t take into account why they ‘all say it’, or the situation surrounding the discourse and why the situations can be different and therefore they may ‘all say it’ but for different reasons…but I digress…).
I do recognize, however, that teaching styles differ and I don’t have to agree with him; I just have to learn his theories as one set that are out there. I also find myself cursing my 1980’s/1990’s Plainview, NY education (born in 1984, Nursery School in 1987, Kindergarten in 1989) because I grew up with “Whole English” which means I know absolutely nothing when it comes to grammar or syntax…my first exposure to grammar wasn’t English, it wasn’t Hebrew…no it was Arabic…so I should at least get something interesting out of the class because he does know his material, I just disagree with a few of his methods.
LIN421/501 – Linguistic Anthropology (Jürgen Bohnemeyer) is quite fascinating as a lecturer (he sounds like a German Kermit D. Frog, which of course keeps my attention because it combines my love of muppets with my love of people who have accents), the readings so far have been pretty abstract and require me to just sit down for a few hours after and turn the ideas over in my head until I can relate them to other previously learned concepts and then begin to understand them in greater details and apply them. Overall I’m enjoying the class though I’m curious to see other people’s perceptions of it at present.
ARI202 – Arabic IV (Issa Roustum) this is my last semester with Prof. Roustum because I don’t believe the Arabic International Studies Department (a subset of linguistics) will be getting the funding from The University required to have an Arabic V (which, it currently doesn’t have as a course). It looks like we’ll be doing a lot of translation work this semester and I’ll enjoy it, though I’m sad that I’m concluding my time with Prof. R. as a student this semester…he’s probably, by far, one of the most influential teachers I’ve ever had. He’ll be in Syria this Summer, and I hope that after University our paths will have reason to cross again. He’s an ambassador for his people and a truly remarkable man, I’ll be sad when I say goodbye to him at the end of the semester.
Next Semester
As far as Linguistics Courses that I need to take to complete my degree, I only have one more after this semester. Phonetics with Alice’s (
maleficentseyes) Mom (who I also did my LIN420 – at least I think it was 420 – Independent Study with; she also directed the Teaching Internship I did). I’ll be taking her Phonetics Course, and hopefully TAing for another course so I can get some more TAing under my belt before I graduate. I met with her the other day and I was cleared to go to Israel this summer for two months, because the two courses I was going to take this summer I can take next fall which means this summer I’m a free man.
My course load in my final semester will be:
Phonetics
CSE111 (fulfills math)
The second half of Nutrition (science with lab)
TAing
And then…I get my degree…weird…very weird.
Scheduling
Scheduling is currently being shifted to take into account more time for reading, studying and report writing and adjusting pilates and yoga to their scheduled times on campus from the Wellness Center.
Today’s Workout
After I get a good eight hours of sleep I’ll be putting on the weighted training vest and heading to North Campus to make use of an empty university full of tons of classrooms with tons of stairs.
Eye Candy For The Weekend
I leave you with my current celebrity day dream: Jake Gyllenhaal
moocowinthecity
maleficentseyes) and I are hosting.