U.S.: Grad School (mid-semester update)
I have time for a mid-semester update! So, what has this semester entailed so far? Reading. Lots and lots of reading.
Lots of reading Latin American literature, to be more specific. Up to this point in the semester, in addition to reading stories by Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortázar, I have read the following essays/novels:
1. Ariel - José Enrique Rodó
2. Caliban - Roberto Fernández Retamar
3. El laberinto de la soledad - Octavio Paz
4. Respiración artificial - Ricardo Piglia
5. Cien años de soledad - Gabriel Garcia Márquez
6. Pedro Páramo - Juan Rulfo
7. Estrella distante - Roberto Bolaños
8-?. The list continues as the semester lives on...
In one of my linguistics courses, we have been discussing and debating how a person actually acquires a language, and along with that we are exploring theories and teaching methods that correspond to the processes of language acquisition. My conclusions so far are that it is part cognitive, part social, and even though people may wish it could be an instantaneous process, it takes time and effort. My students would like to hear otherwise--why couldn't language acquisition be as simple as inserting a USB into one's brain and copying all the information in the speed of a click?
Additionallly, I have been discovering many of the dialectological differences in Spain. It's more complicated than just "they have a lisp and use vosotros." I'm also carrying out my own research regarding voseo usage in Latin American Spanish and the implications of using voseo in the classroom. It's quite interesting that 2/3 of Latin America prefers to use the voseo form, yet it is rarely mentioned in the foreign language classroom .
If none of that interested you, I'm sorry. (Grad school is fun, they said...) In other excitement: a month or two ago I realized that without making a real conscious effort I'm down about 17 pounds from my Nica weight, my Nica host mother was denied a visa to come to the U.S. but weeks thereafter informed me she was accepted into Spain, spring is oficially here and I've started accumulating miles on my bicycle again, the microwave died so I logically replaced it with a coffee maker, and I'm impatiently waiting for the semester to end because that means the arrival of summer and (hopefully) a certain Argentine.
Lots of reading Latin American literature, to be more specific. Up to this point in the semester, in addition to reading stories by Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortázar, I have read the following essays/novels:
1. Ariel - José Enrique Rodó
2. Caliban - Roberto Fernández Retamar
3. El laberinto de la soledad - Octavio Paz
4. Respiración artificial - Ricardo Piglia
5. Cien años de soledad - Gabriel Garcia Márquez
6. Pedro Páramo - Juan Rulfo
7. Estrella distante - Roberto Bolaños
8-?. The list continues as the semester lives on...
In one of my linguistics courses, we have been discussing and debating how a person actually acquires a language, and along with that we are exploring theories and teaching methods that correspond to the processes of language acquisition. My conclusions so far are that it is part cognitive, part social, and even though people may wish it could be an instantaneous process, it takes time and effort. My students would like to hear otherwise--why couldn't language acquisition be as simple as inserting a USB into one's brain and copying all the information in the speed of a click?
Additionallly, I have been discovering many of the dialectological differences in Spain. It's more complicated than just "they have a lisp and use vosotros." I'm also carrying out my own research regarding voseo usage in Latin American Spanish and the implications of using voseo in the classroom. It's quite interesting that 2/3 of Latin America prefers to use the voseo form, yet it is rarely mentioned in the foreign language classroom .
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