In over your head

[Drew2]

Have you ever been in one of those situations where you walked into it pretty confident and came out wondering "WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED??"

Yeah so I haven't taken a Spanish course since my Junior year of High School (2.5 years or so) and I signed up for Intermediate Spanish I (or something).

Ok now.. I have a pretty mediocre spanish-speaking background... my father's side speaks it constantly and I've grown up being able to understand a good deal of it, but I've never been able to speak it, mostly because I'm afraid to. I butcher it everytime I try, so I just don't.

So the teacher walks in and right off I can tell she won't be speaking much English. She even confirms this several times that after today, she won't speak English to us. First of all, she's Columbian. Her accent is weird and she says certain words differently and makes me have to think harder than I already am trying to translate it rapidly in my head. I look around and I'm not the only one with the "WTF?" expression on my face.

So yeah... after an hour and fifteen minutes of torture, I make it out with a vague idea of what we covered in class. I have a lot of work ahead of me, I know tha much.

Anyone else had any situation where you probably should have thought it out more clearly beforehand? Share in my misery.


[Also, I can't type English either it seems]

[Edited on 1-13-2004 by Tayre]

[Edaarin]

Yup. Economic and stat analysis second semester killed me. I looked at the syllabus, it wasn't that bad, then the professor says we're going to need to review multivariable calc and be comfortable with basic diff eq.

[Wezas]

3 years of Spanish in HS. I don't remember shit anymore.

I can pull out Hablo, Hablas, Hablan, but that's about it (Hablanamos? hahahaha).

Do yourself a favor and drop the class before it counts against you. Especially if you feel you can't catch up. Take beginners Spanish again, it'll be a nice refresher.

[HarmNone]

I feel your pain, Tayre. However, the best way to learn a language is to totally immerse yourself in that language. The learning curve is relatively steep in the beginning, but things get easier as you go along. Just do not give up yet!

HarmNone

[Wezas]

Originally posted by HarmNone
I feel your pain, Tayre. However, the best way to learn a language is to totally immerse yourself in that language. The learning curve is relatively steep in the beginning, but things get easier as you go along. Just do not give up yet!

HarmNone

Heh, so either give up or don't give up, depending on who's theory you're looking at. Does that clear things up?

Yea i'm looking at spending 4 semester in a foreign language in college (p.s. I got accepted today!) and i'm not looking forward to it.

[Suppa Hobbit Mage]

Where'd you get accepted D? Congrats.

[HarmNone]

Congratulations, RangerD1. Please, tell us more!

HarmNone is thrilled for you :D

[peam]

www.ratemyprofessor.com

Drop the class TODAY and pick up a new one. You'll have only missed one class so far, assuming your school runs on a MWF and TT type schedule.

[Pallon]

Colombian

and AP credit is teh awesome

[Moist Happenings]

I got in trouble my senior year of high school. I took AP everything AND an independent study in which none of my other group members(we were writing a game in C++) did ANYTHING, so I ended up doing 99 percent of the coding and 150 percent of the graphics and 100 percent of the music and storyline. It was bad. I should have known better than to trust my friends.

American University for foreign affairs with ROTC at georgetown.

[Suppa Hobbit Mage]

NO SHIT? Damn, you are gonna be a neighbor practically. Awesome, congrats again.

muhahahahaha. Don't give me strength now and i'm busting in your door :P

[Snapp]

I went through the same thing Tayre. I took 3 years of Italian in high school, not realizing I didn't know shit. First day, the teacher does the same thing as yours did. I had no idea what was going on... went home after class and dropped it. I went for Spanish instead.

[Wezas]

Originally posted by RangerD1
American University for foreign affairs with ROTC at georgetown.

<NOVA dropout>
What, you too good for NOVA?
</NOVA dropout>

[peam]

NOVA CC?

[Wezas]

Originally posted by peam
NOVA CC?

None other. Annandale campus. Took a few programming classes at the Alexandria campus though.

[peam]

I'm a product of the Virginia CC system too. Though the one I went to is the smallest in the state.

Why would i move to another area of the country to go to a CC? They have plenty of them where i'm from, and i've been taking classes at one in WA for the last 18 months.

[Wezas]

Originally posted by RangerD1
Why would i move to another area of the country to go to a CC? They have plenty of them where i'm from, and i've been taking classes at one in WA for the last 18 months.

That's because you haven't heard the jingle.

::locals know what I'm talking about::

[Ylena]

Congratulations, D! Good school. Great area.

I finished school at Trinity -- and I spent a lot of time in the Georgetown library. The best thing about school in the DC area (at least back in the dark ages when I was there) was the reciprocal library privileges at all the area schools. I really enjoyed the area, as well. Seeing the Pentagon and the Washington Monument every morning on the commute NEVER got old. All that, AND you can get the NY Times and the Washington Post delivered every morning!

I am so grateful I've had the opportunity to live on both coasts. Fun to compare lifestyles and people.

Ylena
(reminiscing)

[DeV]

in response to the first post.. yeah anyone who has ever attented a college classroom probably experienced that. The worst College level calculus with a professor with an accent so bad you can understand every other word if you strain hard enough.

[Wezas]

Originally posted by Ylena
Seeing the Pentagon and the Washington Monument every morning on the commute NEVER got old.

Except on the rare occasion when a plane hits the Pentagon. My office is a mile or so away and our building shook from the 2nd explosion (gas tank I believe).

Other then that, great area. You going to be living on campus? I'm not sure with the ROTC situation if you even get a choice.

[Drew2]

I don't think I can drop Spanish. Not only would my grandmother give me the ULTIMATE LOOK OF DISAPPOINTMENT, but I don't think it would be that hard for me to pick it back up. I just need some exposure to it for a while and some practice.

Also, congratulations on the College acceptance, Ranger.

[longshot]

Tayre, I had a similiar experience. I was in a 400 level language class that was cut in HALF by the drop with refund date because this new professor came out with both barrels blazing.

We went from making dinner skits the previous semester to translating articles from the Nikkei (The Japanese financial newspaper). It was really intimidating in the beginning to say the least.

I did well, but it took a lot of work. It's possible that the prof is trying to weed slackers by setting a serious tone from the get.

How much longer can you drop with a full refund?

[Drew2]

:rolleyes:

[HarmNone]

I think you will be fine once the class gets going, Tayre. Longshot makes a good point. The teacher may simply be trying to weed out those who do not wish to put in the effort to learn.

HarmNone

[longshot]

I made a good point!!

Can we make this thread sticky?

[HarmNone]

Heh. Silly Longshot. You make a lot of good points! :D

HarmNone

[Edaarin]

You guys pay tuition per class? Weird....

[Suppa Hobbit Mage]

If it's any consulation Tayre, I took Spanish 102 six times because my liver had to grow tenfold when I was in college. It was REALLY easy the sixth time, considering I'd been to like, 3 years worth of Spanish 102.

I hate languages btw.

HOLY FUCk. Thats worse than my spanish II 3 times in High school.

<--didn't try

[Suppa Hobbit Mage]

Como estas mo fo. I wasn't trying either. I was trying to drown my liver in beer.

No pasa

[Bobmuhthol]

<--- takes French. :(

[Drew2]

Spanish is a bazillion times more useful than French in Texas. In most of the country, for that matter. I'm probably going to end up minoring in it so i can feel fluent enough to call myself bilingual, finally.

I forgot to mention this, but I took a placement test on Monday because if you don't take spanish 1013-1023 or what not, you have to take the test to get into Spanish 2023, which I'm in. I just found out today that I was lucky and passed it enough to stay in this class. Spanish 2023 is on the Core Curriculum, so that means I just skipped 2 Classes of Elementary Spanish and I'll finish my Core that much quicker. :D