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Oct. 12th, 2007 08:38 amOne of my classes yesterday was canceled, so that I have not yet experienced a whole Thursday's worth of classes like I will next week. But, it means that all of my classes have met at least once, so that I can pretty much say which classes I will be taking in this semester.
So, it looks like it's going to be Migration and Memory, Austrian History: an Overview, Women and Gender Studies in National Socialism, Women's Diaries of the 19th Century, and Literature of the Weimar Republic. So, yeah, it actually appears that I'm going to be taking some heavily complimentary history courses, but it's actually all looking fairly doable.
It seems to work here that you read and study a lot, but you do it at your own pace. The lectures are informative about certain aspects of what you're reading, and so that suggest a schedule for you to look for, but in if you just get enough of it done by the end of the year, then you're going to be fine. That works for me well enough. My consistent study-habits will probably end up making this bearable in ways that it otherwise would not be.
Yesterday I had my first lectures for Women in National Socialism and Women's Diaries. The National Socialism class was interesting, but a little frustrating too. I felt like I was constantly about one or two words away from understanding each sentence. (There is also a tendency when speaking German to speak a whole sentence in the passive voice, get to the very end, take a breath, and *then* say the verb. It's a bit like this: "This trend in women's literature was by many to be a example of a broader historical trend to self reflection, understanding, and more liberal social policies *gasps* considered." I am constantly astonished by how much of a sentence you have to hold together in your memory to understand it all.)
However, the next class on Women's diaries was being taught by two women, one of whom was German and spoke very clearly and plainly from her notes, not from complexly scripted speech. I could understand *everything* she said. The next women was a little less clear in her speech, but she had a lovely tendency to have an idea, ramble for a little, and then return to the idea by restating at least one more time (sometimes twice more). Repetition= Beanie's new favorite way of learning. I left class on a bit of a rush.
That was combated a little bit by tonight's encounter with my neighbors. Yesterday I ended up sitting on the bit squishy couch pretending to read while trying to decipher what a large group of them were talking about. This time, I ended up more or less in the conversation, but I could really only follow along and keep up with about half of it. Two of them were very nice and friendly, but they had very strong Austrian accents. I can decipher German-German in conversational contexts fairly easily, because it's what I'm used to hearing, but Austrian-German has a different feel to it, and it takes me long enough just to figure out *what* I'm hearing that I tend to just sit and listen. Still, it's only a matter of time before I get to be able to actually understand it all.
So, it looks like it's going to be Migration and Memory, Austrian History: an Overview, Women and Gender Studies in National Socialism, Women's Diaries of the 19th Century, and Literature of the Weimar Republic. So, yeah, it actually appears that I'm going to be taking some heavily complimentary history courses, but it's actually all looking fairly doable.
It seems to work here that you read and study a lot, but you do it at your own pace. The lectures are informative about certain aspects of what you're reading, and so that suggest a schedule for you to look for, but in if you just get enough of it done by the end of the year, then you're going to be fine. That works for me well enough. My consistent study-habits will probably end up making this bearable in ways that it otherwise would not be.
Yesterday I had my first lectures for Women in National Socialism and Women's Diaries. The National Socialism class was interesting, but a little frustrating too. I felt like I was constantly about one or two words away from understanding each sentence. (There is also a tendency when speaking German to speak a whole sentence in the passive voice, get to the very end, take a breath, and *then* say the verb. It's a bit like this: "This trend in women's literature was by many to be a example of a broader historical trend to self reflection, understanding, and more liberal social policies *gasps* considered." I am constantly astonished by how much of a sentence you have to hold together in your memory to understand it all.)
However, the next class on Women's diaries was being taught by two women, one of whom was German and spoke very clearly and plainly from her notes, not from complexly scripted speech. I could understand *everything* she said. The next women was a little less clear in her speech, but she had a lovely tendency to have an idea, ramble for a little, and then return to the idea by restating at least one more time (sometimes twice more). Repetition= Beanie's new favorite way of learning. I left class on a bit of a rush.
That was combated a little bit by tonight's encounter with my neighbors. Yesterday I ended up sitting on the bit squishy couch pretending to read while trying to decipher what a large group of them were talking about. This time, I ended up more or less in the conversation, but I could really only follow along and keep up with about half of it. Two of them were very nice and friendly, but they had very strong Austrian accents. I can decipher German-German in conversational contexts fairly easily, because it's what I'm used to hearing, but Austrian-German has a different feel to it, and it takes me long enough just to figure out *what* I'm hearing that I tend to just sit and listen. Still, it's only a matter of time before I get to be able to actually understand it all.
