Post by unanimous on Feb 26, 2010 9:38:22 GMT 3
Ive been taking an intensive language course the past months. It is quite a humbling experience. After 2 hours of first day in class, on our drive home, my husband asked: sooooo, what did you learn in school today? 35 years old, and this is the reply: A B C’s - and you lots obviously did not learn it from Sesame St!WTF!
It is one thing when you’re a child and learning – you have not much of an idea how what you are learning would impact on your life, and when you are asked to read out loud, your mind is pretty much occupied about what you will play during recess and cant wait for the bell to ring so you can go home and watch cartoons. Your only concern is to be done with it and hope the teacher’s ruler does not touch any part of your body. When you’re in middle age though, learning to read is heaped with your previous experiences, hopes and expectations. NO offense to people who have it … but if you sound like you have a Tourette’s and you have no medical excuse for your condition, it’s awful. Lucky of course, but very disconcerting just the same.
On the application form when you are going to register for a class, one of the questions that you have to fill out asks : Why do you want to learn the language. I sincerely felt at that time: Self defense. This reminds me of the time when people at work, when they learned that I was leaving, started asking why I was leaving. I kept coming up with different answers everytime even to the same people – coz you kno it’s a bit of a pain when you have to explain and reassure them that you’re fine. My favorite response was: I am leaving coz im taking a class – I’m going to learn karate. Hiyaaaaaaaaahhhh!!! *chop**chop* On my last day at work, I was given a nice watch.
Every day we have an assignment, exercises to do at home. This I understand, especially if you’re paying a stiff price for a class and you only get two hours of it per day and it is not a private tutorial, it is better when you come to class having an idea of what is going to be discussed, so you don’t pretty much take up a lot of time pulling others down with questions you could have figured out if you only did your assignment. This concept however is not transparent to everyone. But this is kewl. After the first few days, you realize that there are more stuff you don’t understand anyways no matter what so you can just spend the ‘extra’ time thinking about something else.
It is extra hard to learn a new concept when the basics for such concept is explained in a language you don’t understand in the first place. However, one of my classmates said she learned English this way. English was taught to her by a person who speaks no other language but English and six months later, she can follow the English news program on tv. I’ll see in six months. But for now, I try not to look my teacher in the eye, lest I gave away the vacuous space that lies behind my eyes.
Later during the class, homework would consist of exercises where you have to construct sentences by yourself. These usually are about innocent subjects like what your interests are, favorite stuff, describing something or someone. When my husband would come home from work, he’d help me with my assignment before he drives me to class and he’d help me make sentences about a mother who is a prostitute and the father who is a drug lord with a prison guard for a child; tell stories about an asian male judo master who attends fashion week in paris with a polish granma for relaxation. Then I would read these gems with a straight face during classes.
Good times.
It is one thing when you’re a child and learning – you have not much of an idea how what you are learning would impact on your life, and when you are asked to read out loud, your mind is pretty much occupied about what you will play during recess and cant wait for the bell to ring so you can go home and watch cartoons. Your only concern is to be done with it and hope the teacher’s ruler does not touch any part of your body. When you’re in middle age though, learning to read is heaped with your previous experiences, hopes and expectations. NO offense to people who have it … but if you sound like you have a Tourette’s and you have no medical excuse for your condition, it’s awful. Lucky of course, but very disconcerting just the same.
On the application form when you are going to register for a class, one of the questions that you have to fill out asks : Why do you want to learn the language. I sincerely felt at that time: Self defense. This reminds me of the time when people at work, when they learned that I was leaving, started asking why I was leaving. I kept coming up with different answers everytime even to the same people – coz you kno it’s a bit of a pain when you have to explain and reassure them that you’re fine. My favorite response was: I am leaving coz im taking a class – I’m going to learn karate. Hiyaaaaaaaaahhhh!!! *chop**chop* On my last day at work, I was given a nice watch.
Every day we have an assignment, exercises to do at home. This I understand, especially if you’re paying a stiff price for a class and you only get two hours of it per day and it is not a private tutorial, it is better when you come to class having an idea of what is going to be discussed, so you don’t pretty much take up a lot of time pulling others down with questions you could have figured out if you only did your assignment. This concept however is not transparent to everyone. But this is kewl. After the first few days, you realize that there are more stuff you don’t understand anyways no matter what so you can just spend the ‘extra’ time thinking about something else.
It is extra hard to learn a new concept when the basics for such concept is explained in a language you don’t understand in the first place. However, one of my classmates said she learned English this way. English was taught to her by a person who speaks no other language but English and six months later, she can follow the English news program on tv. I’ll see in six months. But for now, I try not to look my teacher in the eye, lest I gave away the vacuous space that lies behind my eyes.
Later during the class, homework would consist of exercises where you have to construct sentences by yourself. These usually are about innocent subjects like what your interests are, favorite stuff, describing something or someone. When my husband would come home from work, he’d help me with my assignment before he drives me to class and he’d help me make sentences about a mother who is a prostitute and the father who is a drug lord with a prison guard for a child; tell stories about an asian male judo master who attends fashion week in paris with a polish granma for relaxation. Then I would read these gems with a straight face during classes.
Good times.
