feuervogel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
feuervogel) wrote2016-12-20 08:04 am
feuervogel) wrote2016-12-20 08:04 am
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First semester wrap-up
Grades are in. History of German: A. Teaching College German: A. Languages in Contact: A. Seminar in German Studies: A-.
I was honestly concerned I'd get a B in SGS, because I have no idea what I'm doing in that class, and 40% of our grade was a term paper, which I had no idea what I was doing for. I'd never written a literature term paper which had to rely on other people's ideas and various theories of X (in this case, memory). I can't say I particularly enjoyed it. I much prefer talking about what is in the text itself - symbolism, characters, narrative arcs, tropes - than about what other people have said about it (which is apparently what they call "research" in this field?).
I mean, I wrote several thousand words on narrative arcs and themes in the first season of Iron Blooded Orphans (and would do it again), but that isn't what you're Supposed To Do In A Real Term Paper, which is complete bullshit IMO.
I would have been pretty upset with myself if I didn't get an A in Teaching, after the Goethe Certificate and all. The principles are largely the same, but for US secondary education, the application is a little different, because we have a mostly homogenous, English-speaking group, and we can use some English in class.
History of German was kind of annoying; we had a lot of little homework assignments to turn in every session, and he basically never graded them or turned them back. He didn't give back our midterm before the final. (I got a 96 and a 91, respectively, according to the Blackboard-equivalent UGA uses.) It was interesting, in that it's useful to know why German does some of the weird things it does (and, by extension, why English does), and there's a lot more sociolinguistic stuff in the last section of the class. Also we got to talk about why nationalism is bullshit and language purity movements are stupid and why capitalism is garbage (though that was my point, mostly; we read Marxist philosophers and historians, what do you want me to do?).
Contact was neat, and the comments the prof left on my term paper should be useful in me turning it into an abstract for the big German linguistics conference in spring. They're due 1/15, so I'm going to need to figure out what to do with it pretty quick. I want to look at sociolinguistic aspects of bi-/multilingualism for my thesis, I think, so that should be really helpful for me.
Spring semester, I have Seminar in German Literature (topic: the metropolis in literature), Seminar in German Linguistics (topic: syntax of some variety, using Universal Grammar), and Old Icelandic. I'm also auditing 4th semester Russian.
I am actually really glad that the old department chair got a new position as assistant dean, because that means his Goethe seminar (which would have been mandatory) was cancelled, and I can take Old Icelandic. And I don't have to have 2 horrible literature seminars in one semester. I'm already cranky that I have to take one 3 of 4 semesters as it is.
I was honestly concerned I'd get a B in SGS, because I have no idea what I'm doing in that class, and 40% of our grade was a term paper, which I had no idea what I was doing for. I'd never written a literature term paper which had to rely on other people's ideas and various theories of X (in this case, memory). I can't say I particularly enjoyed it. I much prefer talking about what is in the text itself - symbolism, characters, narrative arcs, tropes - than about what other people have said about it (which is apparently what they call "research" in this field?).
I mean, I wrote several thousand words on narrative arcs and themes in the first season of Iron Blooded Orphans (and would do it again), but that isn't what you're Supposed To Do In A Real Term Paper, which is complete bullshit IMO.
I would have been pretty upset with myself if I didn't get an A in Teaching, after the Goethe Certificate and all. The principles are largely the same, but for US secondary education, the application is a little different, because we have a mostly homogenous, English-speaking group, and we can use some English in class.
History of German was kind of annoying; we had a lot of little homework assignments to turn in every session, and he basically never graded them or turned them back. He didn't give back our midterm before the final. (I got a 96 and a 91, respectively, according to the Blackboard-equivalent UGA uses.) It was interesting, in that it's useful to know why German does some of the weird things it does (and, by extension, why English does), and there's a lot more sociolinguistic stuff in the last section of the class. Also we got to talk about why nationalism is bullshit and language purity movements are stupid and why capitalism is garbage (though that was my point, mostly; we read Marxist philosophers and historians, what do you want me to do?).
Contact was neat, and the comments the prof left on my term paper should be useful in me turning it into an abstract for the big German linguistics conference in spring. They're due 1/15, so I'm going to need to figure out what to do with it pretty quick. I want to look at sociolinguistic aspects of bi-/multilingualism for my thesis, I think, so that should be really helpful for me.
Spring semester, I have Seminar in German Literature (topic: the metropolis in literature), Seminar in German Linguistics (topic: syntax of some variety, using Universal Grammar), and Old Icelandic. I'm also auditing 4th semester Russian.
I am actually really glad that the old department chair got a new position as assistant dean, because that means his Goethe seminar (which would have been mandatory) was cancelled, and I can take Old Icelandic. And I don't have to have 2 horrible literature seminars in one semester. I'm already cranky that I have to take one 3 of 4 semesters as it is.
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I'm glad this one is almost behind you