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sniffnoyWell, I'm kind of panicking. And I've bought a bottle of Pepsi, which will probably not help things.
It's been quite a while since I mentioned the Languages of the World class I'm taking this quarter...it's been since the quarter began, in fact. Let's get up to speed.
I thought the class would be cool because, well, I can't take actual linguistics anymore, but at least I learn some, right? Well, guess what. Turns out it's been quite boring. The teacher would hand out notes each class, and then basically just read from them. I would read them quickly and then work on algebra or something. Not to mention it was, uh, pretty light on theory, which I guess I should have expected. :-/ I stopped doing the out-of-class reading rather quickly. Why? I didn't need it for anything! My sleep schedule has not been very good this quarter and I often slept through class without worrying about it. Sure, there's a participation grade, but it's just 10%...
There were a total of 3 homework assignments, and they were all very easy - basically just "solve this little linguistic puzzle". (I.e., here's a bunch of sentences with translation into English, can you determine the following properties?) Nothing you needed to know linguistics for, just, you know, basic puzzle-solving skills, and knowing what the terms meant. So, piece of cake.
Except now I've got a final paper to write. A 10-page final paper to write, and I was supposed to clear the topic with her by the end of 7th week. Oh, and did I mention I'm not really going to be here Thursday or Friday? (Visiting Michigan.) And I've barely *thought* about this.
Maybe it's just me, but while I will freely admit I was forewarned have clearly neglected my work here (especially considering how much free time I've had this quarter compared to say, last quarter), I do think this is kind of a violation of the concept of "difficulty curve". You know. Things should start out easy and get hard over time. Or, alternatively, they should start easy and stay easy, or just start out hard and remain so the entire time. The key thing here is continuity. Three trivial assignments followed by one massive final paper is not my idea of a good difficulty curve.
The good news is, despite its length, it's uncomplicated. Pick a language we didn't go over in class, give a 10-page description of it. That's it. The bad news is, uh, I kind of need to actually do research for this, meaning getting to the library when it's open and oh while I'm still here. (And I think it's safe to say there's no way the shit I pulled in 3rd-quarter Civ is going to fly here.)
So that's the situation. Nothing left to do but bang my head against it until it goes away. Well, actually there's one other thing left to do, and that's my takehomefinal[0] for algebra, due Tuesday morning. Which, hey, shouldn't be a problem by itself - except, that, you know, it's not by itself. :-/ Still, I may not have a lot of time (and damn, that extra day or 2 would really mean a lot right now), but, well, I can pull something off, right? After all, I have to.
-Harry
[0]That's how Nori wrote it!
It's been quite a while since I mentioned the Languages of the World class I'm taking this quarter...it's been since the quarter began, in fact. Let's get up to speed.
I thought the class would be cool because, well, I can't take actual linguistics anymore, but at least I learn some, right? Well, guess what. Turns out it's been quite boring. The teacher would hand out notes each class, and then basically just read from them. I would read them quickly and then work on algebra or something. Not to mention it was, uh, pretty light on theory, which I guess I should have expected. :-/ I stopped doing the out-of-class reading rather quickly. Why? I didn't need it for anything! My sleep schedule has not been very good this quarter and I often slept through class without worrying about it. Sure, there's a participation grade, but it's just 10%...
There were a total of 3 homework assignments, and they were all very easy - basically just "solve this little linguistic puzzle". (I.e., here's a bunch of sentences with translation into English, can you determine the following properties?) Nothing you needed to know linguistics for, just, you know, basic puzzle-solving skills, and knowing what the terms meant. So, piece of cake.
Except now I've got a final paper to write. A 10-page final paper to write, and I was supposed to clear the topic with her by the end of 7th week. Oh, and did I mention I'm not really going to be here Thursday or Friday? (Visiting Michigan.) And I've barely *thought* about this.
Maybe it's just me, but while I will freely admit I was forewarned have clearly neglected my work here (especially considering how much free time I've had this quarter compared to say, last quarter), I do think this is kind of a violation of the concept of "difficulty curve". You know. Things should start out easy and get hard over time. Or, alternatively, they should start easy and stay easy, or just start out hard and remain so the entire time. The key thing here is continuity. Three trivial assignments followed by one massive final paper is not my idea of a good difficulty curve.
The good news is, despite its length, it's uncomplicated. Pick a language we didn't go over in class, give a 10-page description of it. That's it. The bad news is, uh, I kind of need to actually do research for this, meaning getting to the library when it's open and oh while I'm still here. (And I think it's safe to say there's no way the shit I pulled in 3rd-quarter Civ is going to fly here.)
So that's the situation. Nothing left to do but bang my head against it until it goes away. Well, actually there's one other thing left to do, and that's my takehomefinal[0] for algebra, due Tuesday morning. Which, hey, shouldn't be a problem by itself - except, that, you know, it's not by itself. :-/ Still, I may not have a lot of time (and damn, that extra day or 2 would really mean a lot right now), but, well, I can pull something off, right? After all, I have to.
-Harry
[0]That's how Nori wrote it!
