Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Mmm, linguistics
So far, today has been an interesting day inside my own head, at least as far as considering the future of my education. I have been very seriously considering either a) not completing my MA Linguistics degree or b) seeing if I can put the second half off for a year, so that I can go run off to the other side of the world and teach in an exotic locale once again. I was being very, very tempted in that direction, to the point that it had begun to seem inevitable. But today I started to be reminded of why I actually really want to do a linguistics degree, and the MA TESOL was more a degree of convenience.
It started this morning in Semantics & Pragmatics. We're just brushing lightly at the surface of lexical semantics as of yet, but to me, the class is at that point where everything the teacher introduces is fabulous new knowledge to be written down and mentally filed with all those previously learned linguistic terms that it all so neatly fits with. It's an extension of knowledge I already had, and what I wanted to be learning about last year. My brain feels like it has been thirsty for such a long time, and I am finally giving it water. Ah, soak it in.
After class, though, some of my fellow TESOLers were talking about how little sense the class made to them, and how much taking the class reconfirmed their decisions not to double in linguistics. I decided that perhaps I should remain silent in such a conversation, and instead pondered what exactly it should mean to me that my own sentiments were pretty much the exact opposite of theirs. This stuff makes sense to me, by george. I need to learn more!
Then, after lunch, I made what is perhaps an unhealthy discovery: MSU's electronic resources give me access to Studies in Second Language Acquisition. I have already wasted two hours of what was meant to be productive time just looking at all the articles I want a copy of and reviews of books I don't need but most definitely want. I'm already behind on my reading!* I can't afford to do this to myself! But I want to, oh, how I want to.
Oh, and there's also this article, discovered by a circuitous route not worth detailing, on The Science of Word Recognition.
If only I could just have all the time in the world to read, or alternatively, the money to support both my book habit and my life of voracious reading. Oh, and traveling. I need to win the lottery. That is my only hope.
*I suppose that it is worth noting that none of this reading that I am behind on is in any way required for my classes. Somehow, it is still all linguistically related.
So far, today has been an interesting day inside my own head, at least as far as considering the future of my education. I have been very seriously considering either a) not completing my MA Linguistics degree or b) seeing if I can put the second half off for a year, so that I can go run off to the other side of the world and teach in an exotic locale once again. I was being very, very tempted in that direction, to the point that it had begun to seem inevitable. But today I started to be reminded of why I actually really want to do a linguistics degree, and the MA TESOL was more a degree of convenience.
It started this morning in Semantics & Pragmatics. We're just brushing lightly at the surface of lexical semantics as of yet, but to me, the class is at that point where everything the teacher introduces is fabulous new knowledge to be written down and mentally filed with all those previously learned linguistic terms that it all so neatly fits with. It's an extension of knowledge I already had, and what I wanted to be learning about last year. My brain feels like it has been thirsty for such a long time, and I am finally giving it water. Ah, soak it in.
After class, though, some of my fellow TESOLers were talking about how little sense the class made to them, and how much taking the class reconfirmed their decisions not to double in linguistics. I decided that perhaps I should remain silent in such a conversation, and instead pondered what exactly it should mean to me that my own sentiments were pretty much the exact opposite of theirs. This stuff makes sense to me, by george. I need to learn more!
Then, after lunch, I made what is perhaps an unhealthy discovery: MSU's electronic resources give me access to Studies in Second Language Acquisition. I have already wasted two hours of what was meant to be productive time just looking at all the articles I want a copy of and reviews of books I don't need but most definitely want. I'm already behind on my reading!* I can't afford to do this to myself! But I want to, oh, how I want to.
Oh, and there's also this article, discovered by a circuitous route not worth detailing, on The Science of Word Recognition.
If only I could just have all the time in the world to read, or alternatively, the money to support both my book habit and my life of voracious reading. Oh, and traveling. I need to win the lottery. That is my only hope.
*I suppose that it is worth noting that none of this reading that I am behind on is in any way required for my classes. Somehow, it is still all linguistically related.
