Wednesday, November 21, 2007

It's Crunch Time,

Which means life is getting difficult at RA. Presentations, essays, exams... well the exams come later, but they're looming on the horizon, which is, in many ways, worth. To add to all the academic stress, a few of my good friends and I have an addition weight on our shoulders: that of the soon-to-be-released media website. It's been a lot of fun, putting together this new website, but it's also a lot of extra work.

Add to that, the new issue of Tabula Rasa, which I am putting together with Martijn and Anne, who are both involved in the website as well, and you have a stressful few weeks.

Unfortunately the stress got to me Monday; I went home after my French class Monday morning feeling so incredibly exhausted, I slept for two hours, then wrote an email to my teachers saying I wouldn't be in class. I worked on an essay for an hour, then slept for a half hour, then worked for another hour, then slept for an hour...

I stayed home Tuesday to, except for a half hour or so in the afternoon when I went to pick u pa book at the Roosevelt Study Center and mail a birthday present to my sister.

The Roosevelt Study Center is a really nice place. It is in no way connected to the Roosevelt Academy - except that students are welcome to make use of their resources, etc. I am always amazed, however, at how welcome students are. In order to go to the RSC, as it is abbreviated, you have to email them and make an appointment. If you are going for a particular book (which you can find in the internet catalogue of the Zeeuwse Bibliotheek, the Middelburg's public library), they will set it aside for you. When you arrive, you ring a doorbell, and someone comes to get you at the door, then escorts you to the actual Study Center. (This is not a matter of being friendly and welcome, however; this is a matter of security.) In the Study Center, there are two large, round tables, and rows of bookshelves. It is not stock full of books, and the bookshelves have wheels on them - I suppose they are put away at night or something. Anyway, you select a book, and sit down at the table - and then they ask you if you would like a cup of tea or coffee! How civilized!!

But the purpose of the Roosevelt Study Center is Dutch-American relations, Zeeuwse history, etc. And it is fascinating. I went to pick up a book I needed for a presentation and got distracted by A one-volume abridged edition of H.L. Mencken's The American Language. It's from 1977, so quite outdated for linguistics, and absolutely fascinating. The first section is called "The Two Streams of English", and basically talks about the simultaneous developments of American and British English and how they moved away from point A - except that British moved towards B and American went in the opposite direction (would that be point Z?) or, anyway, a different direction.

I really hope RA doesn't mess things up so bad as to not offer any other linguistics courses. Professor Mark Janse, who taught my introductory course and is very well-known in the field, as well as being an interesting instructor, has left RA for Oxford. One can't really blame him for that career decision, of course, but as a result, the classes that he was supposed to teach have been canceled. So, although Ernestine is taking over the 300-level class on Linguistic Theories and Linguistic Practice, Professor Janse's classes on Historical Linguistics and Language Contact & Language Death both seem to have been canceled.

And those are the two aspects of linguistics that most interest me!
Of course, there is always the option of doing an Independent Research Project (as long as I get a 3.3 GPA), but that simply isn't as much fun as taking a course. The thing about linguistics, is that it's exciting and fascinating and fun, and what's the fun of it if all you are doing is privately studying a topic and writing a formal research essay about it? The only conversation you get is that which you have with your mentor.

And I could write a research paper anywhere with a library.

Ah well, no time to worry about that now. Next semester I have the linguistic theories class to look forward to, and if things work out well for me, I just might be able to go on exchange next fall. But in order for that to happen...

I better get to work on my two presentations for tomorrow: The first, on transportation and travel in Victorian England, and the second, on Moliere's Les Femmes Savantes (that one's for French class).

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I don't know if you know about two websites I find particularly interesting (to the point that they're on my Google Reader), Languagehat and language log; but, if not, you'll likely find them as interesting as do I...

Anyhow, faut de mieux, independent study of language history, however casual, will always be fun--and maybe useful even!