taylweaver (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
taylweaver) wrote2007-07-12 08:42 pm
taylweaver) wrote2007-07-12 08:42 pm
Entry tags:
Of Spanish class and sunsets
So I started my summer Spanish class yesterday. My other class, on language assessment (related to ESL), began on Monday and I am really enjoying it.
My Spanish class? Not so much. How bad is it that I can sit there in class and explain how I know she is a bad teacher? I mean, she is friendly and well-meaning, and helpful in providing vocabulary and structure when students want to give individualized answers to questions in the text.
But then she deals with grammar.
Maybe it is the linguistics major inside me. Maybe I just can't stand it when a teacher gives an inaccurate description of why a certain grammar structure works the way it does. Like when she was explaining the Arabic influence on a certain Spanish construction:
"Me gusta el gato" is the equivalent of "I like the cat." It really translates to, "the cat pleases me." Word by word:
"me pleases the cat."
She was trying to explain why it is backwards, and she said it is because Arabic is written right to left.
I was so frustrated! It is a different grammar system - nothing to do with which direction they write!
Plus, other people are having such issues following the grammar stuff. I am not, because of many factors:
a) early experience with two very different grammar systems - English and Hebrew - leaves me more open to learning new grammars
b) I did learn some French - even if I have forgotten most of it
c) my linguistics background
d) I am just good at learning grammars
But other people don't have that, and they are struggling.
Anyway, it is frustrating.
That having been said, there is one convenient thing about the class:
We miss two instructional days to visit a museum and a restaurant on our own.
Next Tuesday, I will be going to a museum. (Lemme know if you want to come. I am thinking Museo del Barrio.)
The Tuesday after that, I will not be going to a restaurant.
Instead, I will be at home, relieved that I only have half a day of classes on a fast day. :)
So that is a very good thing.
As for the restaurant, well, I am going to try to find a kosher one that sells cuisine from a Spanish-speaking country (I am open to suggestions) and, barring that, I will just write up something about Jewish Sephardi foods instead. (which she said is okay. As I said, she is nice.)
As for the sunset part, well, twice a year, the sunset aligns with the east-west blocks in the city. Which, as we know, are not actually east and west. Anyway, it happens on May 28th and July 12th. (I am not crazy. I looked it up today on a website.) And today was sunny and gorgeous. And digital cameras are convenient because I could look at the viewscreen instead of the sun, and thus not hurt my eyes.
Anyway, I got some pictures.
My Spanish class? Not so much. How bad is it that I can sit there in class and explain how I know she is a bad teacher? I mean, she is friendly and well-meaning, and helpful in providing vocabulary and structure when students want to give individualized answers to questions in the text.
But then she deals with grammar.
Maybe it is the linguistics major inside me. Maybe I just can't stand it when a teacher gives an inaccurate description of why a certain grammar structure works the way it does. Like when she was explaining the Arabic influence on a certain Spanish construction:
"Me gusta el gato" is the equivalent of "I like the cat." It really translates to, "the cat pleases me." Word by word:
"me pleases the cat."
She was trying to explain why it is backwards, and she said it is because Arabic is written right to left.
I was so frustrated! It is a different grammar system - nothing to do with which direction they write!
Plus, other people are having such issues following the grammar stuff. I am not, because of many factors:
a) early experience with two very different grammar systems - English and Hebrew - leaves me more open to learning new grammars
b) I did learn some French - even if I have forgotten most of it
c) my linguistics background
d) I am just good at learning grammars
But other people don't have that, and they are struggling.
Anyway, it is frustrating.
That having been said, there is one convenient thing about the class:
We miss two instructional days to visit a museum and a restaurant on our own.
Next Tuesday, I will be going to a museum. (Lemme know if you want to come. I am thinking Museo del Barrio.)
The Tuesday after that, I will not be going to a restaurant.
Instead, I will be at home, relieved that I only have half a day of classes on a fast day. :)
So that is a very good thing.
As for the restaurant, well, I am going to try to find a kosher one that sells cuisine from a Spanish-speaking country (I am open to suggestions) and, barring that, I will just write up something about Jewish Sephardi foods instead. (which she said is okay. As I said, she is nice.)
As for the sunset part, well, twice a year, the sunset aligns with the east-west blocks in the city. Which, as we know, are not actually east and west. Anyway, it happens on May 28th and July 12th. (I am not crazy. I looked it up today on a website.) And today was sunny and gorgeous. And digital cameras are convenient because I could look at the viewscreen instead of the sun, and thus not hurt my eyes.
Anyway, I got some pictures.
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bad linguistics hurts my little linguist soul :-P
isn't that new meat restaurant on Cedar Lane in Teaneck a Tex-Mex place?
there's also a kosher Mexican restaurant in the Five Towns that i remember seeing.
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Oh, and I am definitely going to see what there is in terms of restaurants in Teaneck. I think there was another mexican place that closed.
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me gusta el español
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I have decided to just give up on explaining it to her. At this point, it is just not worth the effort.
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I'd be all for the museum thing but I have to work. Let me know how it is.
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(Gotta run-- but I'll post a further comment when I have time.)
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Bad language teacher who doesn't understand linguistics-- I've had my share of those. The worst was the Arabic professor, who was calling the shadda ("gemination" or "doubling" of a letter, such as the double L in "Allâh") "stress". When I wanted to know which syllable to emphasize in a word, I said: "Which syllable is stressed?" He said: "I told you, NO STRESS [i.e. doubling] in this word." I said: "I mean, which syllable has the accent?" And he said: "Well, we're working on teaching you the Arabic accent."
Or the French teacher who claimed that the difference between the indicative ("regular") and subjuctive moods was that "the subjunctive is more energetic. It's the difference between 'I want' and 'I want'." That is not only unhelpful, but wrong.
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