So I’ve realized how useless I become when I’m not in school. I must get into grad school! I must! I do best when I’m busy and have a full curriculum set up for me. I’ve been so idle these past two months that I’ve become depressed and very lazy. I had to move my GRE back until the day before I leave for Spain in September. My dad wondered if I’d be way too stressed to take it, but I’m not stressed out about Spain at all really. I actually got just like this before I went to France last year. I got all sloth-like and depressed and didn’t feel like doing anything! Well, I need to stop that! That is over! I’m going to sit down tomorrow and write out a draft statement of purpose! I’m going to make a list of the things I want to accomplish in grad school and in the future in the field of linguistics, a list of my weaknesses, followed by a list of my strengths, as well as what I can contribute to the programs to which I will be applying. All of the deadlines to apply are in January and I plan on getting everything finished well before then this fall! I want to be one of the first applications that ling departments receive for admissions for fall of 2010!

I’ve also changed my mind on which schools to which I will officially apply. They are:

University of Hawai’i at Manoa

University of British Columbia

University of California at Berkeley

University of Texas at Austin

University of Utah

Other than being lazy these past weeks, I’ve got to spend some time with Joan and Tom, some. I went with Joan and Megan (a mutual friend) to go to Baja Sol near campus where my friend Tom works a bar tender. Joan and I ended up seeing “The Hangover” after eating dinner and drinking margaritas. It was one of the funniest films I have seen in a VERY long time! I would have, however, rated the film NC-17 as it is pretty raunchy and inappropriate definitely for the two 12 year old boys that were there with their parents. I recommend seeing it if you aren’t too offended by some extremely outlandish things and male frontal nudity!

Last night we celebrated Joan’s 26th birthday at Brazenhead on 5th Ave. in Grandview. After I went to stay all night at Joan’s but ended up coming home early in the morning.

My niece, nephew, sister, and bro-in-law were here from Sunday night until yesterday! It is always so much fun to have them around! We went swimming on Monday and just wrestled and played around the majority of the time. I’m going to miss them again when I leave this year.  It is hard to believe that sometime I’m going to be leaving for a very long time and not get to see them! We will have to get a lot of use out of the webcam and my sister and brother-in-law will have to learn to start taking a lot more pictures and taking video of things I’m going to miss!

This post is stored in the category of Made in USA, Personal Post, Written in English and was written by Derron Borders

Tags: Depsressed, GRE, Joan Berning, Lazy, Made in Spain, Tommy Smiley, University of British Columbia, University of California at Berkeley, University of Hawai'i, University of Texas at Austin, University of Utah

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I’ve decided that my sleeping habits have been the downfall to my existence. I’m a night owl and love to stay up late wasting time away and sleeping in really late. By time I get up and moving the day is well half way over for those normal people. I’m going to stop staying up so late and getting up at 9:00am every morning for the rest of my time here in Ohio. I’ve realized that my sleeping habits are the cause of many of my problems in France and the reason why I missed so many classes. That is not going to happen this year. I can’t let that happen as I need to form good sleeping habits if I plan on being successful in Graduate School.

I was lucky enough for one of my friends, Visa Warren, to give me her e-mail and password to the My GRE Tutor website. On this site they have tutorials on how to do well on the GRE and the different sections of the GRE, practice questions with hints and help, and practice tests. You have the option of picking different study plans and I’ve decided that I will do the 6 week study plan in the 3 weeks that I have left until I actually take the GRE on August 26th. I will take two hours in the morning to do “one day” of the 6 week plan and two hours in the afternoon to complete a “second day’s” work in the 6 week plan. I’m also using my Princeton Review GRE review book as well. I think that taking an extra hour a day looking at, studying, and learning words should help me to prepare the best I can in the next three weeks for teh verbal part of the test as this is the most difficult.

Besides using my days to practice and prepare for the GRE test, I’m also studying Catalan using the Parla.cat website. I’ve started at the very beginning of the lessons in the Basic level 1. There are 4 levels: Basic, Elemental, Intermedi, and Suficiència. Each of these four levels has 3 level lessons, which have multiple units. The level that I’m on, Basic level 1, has 7 units.  Within each there is an introduction part, three lesson parts, and an evaluation part. I’m vowing to try and to one unit per day which would put in me into level Elemental 1, unit 2 by the time that I leave for Spain. You can also download a PDF file of the units in each unit. The Parla.cat website is one of the best language learning websites that I have ever seen and I’d love to use its format to creat similar lesson plans of endangered languages that I hope to study in the future!  Along with the Parla.cat website I’m also using the following books to help progress my Catalan language learning along: “Teach Yourself Catalan”, “Llengua Catalana Nivell Llindar 1 i 2″, and “Catalan, A Comprehensive Grammar”.

I also received an e-mail from the English teacher in my elementary school in S’Alqueria Blanca, Mallorca. Below is her e-mail followed by my response in Spanish (which I will translate for the purpose of this blog).

Hi! I’m Marga.

How are you? I am writing from Majorca, concretely from the school you are
going to spend your time in Majorca.
I am the English techer from Mare de Déu de la Consolació, a school in
S’Alqueria Blanca. You are working both in S’Alqueria and Campos, so, do
you know where are you going to live or do you prefer that I give you some
advice? I live in Campos, so if you want to live in Campos there is no
problem in order to go to my school. Moreover there are two more teachers
from Campos working there. So, for the transport, there is no problem if
you want to live in Campos and to the HIgh School in Campos you can reach
it alking or by bike. So, you don’t need a car if you dan’t want to have
it.
Hoping to hearing from you soon,
Marga.

My response:

Bon dia Marga,

Com està? No parlo bé el català entonces voy a escribirle en castellano para practicar lo que ya conozco! Quiero empezar diciendo gracias por haber escritome.  Tengo que decirle que hace mucho tiempo que hablo (y escribo) en castellano. Desde que el mes de septiembre del año pasado, he vivido en francía como auxiliare de conversación, entonce olvido mucho del idioma castellano pero quiero practicar. Entonces, voy a comunicar con usted en castellano.  Si quiere, puede escribirme en catalán como quiero aprender a hablar catalán y quiero mejorar mi castellano. Puedo leer y entender el catalán muy facilamenta por que hablo francés entonces no está un problema si habla y escribeme en catalán.

Bueno, he pensado mucho sobre el lugar donde voy a vivir allá en Mallorca.  El problema es que quiero mejorar mi castellano y quiero aprender a hablar catalán con fluidez. Yo sé que en Palama hay más hispanohablantes (como lengua materna) que las otras ciudades o los otros pobles en Mallorca. Yo sé también que peudo hacer clases de castellano y catalán (gratis) en Palma. El problema es que no quiero pagar por el autobús para ir a Campos o S’Alqueria blanca tods los días.  Ricarod Sanchez me ha dicho que hay quizás alguien qui enseña a Damià Huguet que vive en Palma y que puede quizás conducirme a la escuela.  También, si vivo en Palma puedo hacer más en la tarde y los fines de semana. Si vivo en Campos, creo que teneré una experiencia más cultural y aprendaré más facilamente el catalán. En Palma sería solamente un otro turista y en Campos seré el americano que enseña inglés. Me gustaría ver que piensa.  Quiero también ofrecer clases de particular afuera de enseñar a las dos escuelas.  Pienso que si viviré en Campos voy a ver si puedo comprar un escúter. Por favor de me sus consejos.

Ahora tengo algunas preguntas para usted. Cuantos alumons hay en la escuela Mare de Déu de la Consolació?  Voy a enseñar cual(es) nivel(es)? Teneré cuantas clases?

Bueno, gracias de nuevo por haber escritome! Espero su respuesta.

P.S. Lo siento por mis errores y la calidad de mi castellano.

Translation:

Hello (Catalan) Marga,

How are you? I don’t speak Catalan very well (Catalan) so I’m going to write to you in Spanish to practice what I already know. (Spanish) I wanted to start by saying thank you for writing me. I have to say that is had been a while since I’ve spoken (and written) in Spanish. Since the month of September of last year I’ve been living in France as an English Asssistant, so I forget a lot of Spanish but I want to practice. So, I’m going to communicate with you in Spanish. I can read and understand Catalan really easily because I speak French so it isn’t a problem if you speak and write to me in Catalan.

Well, I’ve thought a lot about where I’m going to be living in Majorca. The problem is that I want to improve my Spanish and I want to learn to speak Catalan fluently. I know that in Palma there are more Spanish speakers (first language speakers) than in other cities and towns (pobles=pueblos in Spanish, I used Catalan here accidently) in Majorca. I know that I can also take Spanish and Catalan classes (for free) in Palma. The problem is that I don’t want to have to pay for the bus to go to Campos or S’Alqueria Blanca every day. Ricardo Sanchez told me that there is maybe someone who teaches at Damià Huguet (my high school) who lives in Palama and can maybe drive me to school. Also, if I live in Palma, I can do more during the evenings and on weekends. If I live in Campos I believe I will have a more cultural experience and I will learn Catalan more easily. En Palmam I would only be another tourist and in Campos I will THE American who teaches English. I would like to see what you think. I also want to offer private tutoring lessons outside of school as a second job. I think that if I lived in Campos I’m going to see if I can buy a scooter. Please give me your advice.

Now I have a few questions fo ryou. How many student are there in the primary school Mare de Déu de la Consolació? I’m going to be teaching which levels? I will have how many classes?

Well, thank you again for having written me. I await your response.

P.S. Sorry for the errors and the quality of my Spanish.

This post is stored in the category of Made in France, Personal Post, Written in English, Written in Spanish and was written by Derron Borders

Tags: Castellano, Catalan, Catalan A Comprehensive Grammar, Damià Huguet, GRE, Llengua Catalana Nivell Llindar 1 i 2, Mallorca, Mare de Déu de la Consolació, Parla.cat, Sleeping, Spanish, Teach Yourself Catalan

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