Arabic II

Well, the Saturday class was pretty cool. It was full, which was a surprise. I didn't think many people would be interested in a 9am-12pm class. Who knew?

I listened to the disks on the drive in, which was good, since pretty much everything I learned last semester had evaporated. By the end of the lesson, I was feeling back in the swing of things, although I need to spend some time this week reviewing, in addition to doing the homework and memorizing new vocabulary. This lesson -- the university setting, review of nisba structure (creation of adjectives), and idafa structure (creation of compound and possessive nouns).

On the Russian front, I haven't been able to get ahold of the Russian III instructor: I've emailed and left voicemail, but not heard back. Tonight is the second class of Russian II, which I suppose I'll prepare for, since I'm not sure what's going on with the III class.

Gah!

I went to Russian III tonight, but couldn't attend the class. Why? Because it is in a secure building, and only people on the roster are cleared to enter. And I'm not on the roster yet, because I registered for Russian I, as instructed, while sitting in on each class for the first 3 levels. After deciding which is most appropriate, I'm supposed to transfer/change. Gah! I wasted my time schlepping over in the rush hour traffic, only to turn around and come back.

I'm supposed to call tomorrow and they'll give me the email address and phone number of the instructor, who'll judge whether or not I belong in the class. I'm thinking yes. Except I really liked the instructor for Russian II, even if the course content was remedial.

Anyhow, I've skimmed forward through most of the text book, and a lot of it (most of it) is nothing new, grammar-wise, although there is some new vocabulary.

Need to dust off the Arabic text and listen to the next lesson, reviewing grammar and vocab. That'll be Saturday's class.

Lesson One

Tonight was the first class of my Russian adventure. When to the second level class. First level classes are on Thursday and third are on Wednesday. I'm going to them all, then selecting. Anyhow, the instructor thought maybe I should be in an intermediate class instead of this one. On one hand, I appreciate the review and the correction to pronunciation. On the other, I was bored senseless while listening to the other students stutter over reading a simple dialogue out of the text book.

The instructor himself was quite entertaining. Originally from Russia, educated in London, he speaks English with a British intonation and a lilting English-as-Second (fourth or fifth in his case)-Language. Clearly he is passionate about the language, but also bored by the sluggishness of his students. Exuberant.

More than half, almost three quarters of the students are studying Russian as a part of their education or career plan in International Relations.