I'm halfway through my Spanish II class - I'm beginning to be conversational in this language and while I still don't care for it very much, my dreams have taken on a very convaluted alternate reality. I am reading, writing, speaking, watching tv, etc - but it's all in Spanish. I wake up in the morning absolutely physically exhausted!
I find this funny because I read not long ago that when you start dreaming in a foreign language it must be taking root. Judging by the dreams I'm having, I bet it'll be a mighty fine root - LOL.
I'm still trying to continue my self education in the Czech language also. This language is so beautiful and it comes to me so much more easily than Spanish does. Funny, that - because Spanish is supposed to be the easiest language to learn and Czech one of the hardest, but for me it's opposite.
I'm choosing classes this coming week and I have to decide what to do about language studies. It would be easy to continue on to Spanish III and IV, but it's not a language that's listed as being a "Super Critical Needs" language by the US. Dept. of State. This puts me in a quandry, because the only language my university has that might come close to qualifying is Chinese - but it might be cantonese rather than mandarin. I can continue to teach myself Czech, but it's not on the super critical needs list either - I just love it. I need Hindi, Farsi, Darsi, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese or Urdu. I'm thinking when I can get my head out of Spanish for a while I may try to teach myself one or two of these languages.
Oh well, that's it for now. Time for a small nap and then back to homework for awhile.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
This is where it all begins ...
All of my life, I have been in love with foreign culture. I have always wanted to travel and visit new places, live in foreign lands, speak foreign languages. As a young adult, I let life lead me rather than me leading life. I decided to not attend college, ended up pregnant and single, and then met a man, got married and had a total of 3 kids. We have always been more or less on the poor side of things, and so, I never did travel or reach any of those goals - until now.
I'm 35 years old, I weigh 275 pounds and have 3 kids, a husband and a dream. I want to be a Foreign Service Officer. Needless to say, I have a lot of work to do.
This is where it all begins for me. I hope to start living my life now instead of my life living me.
I really started looking into making this dream a reality in late April to early May, 2008. I went back to school and my first class back was Spanish I. I never took a foreign language in high school - my family didn't have money and I was going to have to go right to work upon graduation - so I took technical classes and a foreign language didn't fit in.
My first class was an "intersession" class - basically for 3 hours a day 5 days a week for 3 weeks, I learned Spanish. We did quiz after quiz and exam after exam, workbook pages a dozen at a time for each unit. We also had to have an oral interview - one on one conversation with the instructor in spanish. I wrote 2 papers, and a composition in Spanish. I made it through this class with an average of 89.5 - a "B." I felt pretty proud of this grade because of the intensity of the class.
For the first session of Summer (2 hour classes 4 days a week for 5 weeks) I am taking the second Spanish, English Composition, American History and principles of Economics. So far, so good with these classes as well.
There are other forces at play in my life as I try to reach this goal - I'll talk about them each in seperate blog posts so it doesn't get boring.
If you are also trying to become a Foreign Service Officer, email me and let's talk!
I'm 35 years old, I weigh 275 pounds and have 3 kids, a husband and a dream. I want to be a Foreign Service Officer. Needless to say, I have a lot of work to do.
This is where it all begins for me. I hope to start living my life now instead of my life living me.
I really started looking into making this dream a reality in late April to early May, 2008. I went back to school and my first class back was Spanish I. I never took a foreign language in high school - my family didn't have money and I was going to have to go right to work upon graduation - so I took technical classes and a foreign language didn't fit in.
My first class was an "intersession" class - basically for 3 hours a day 5 days a week for 3 weeks, I learned Spanish. We did quiz after quiz and exam after exam, workbook pages a dozen at a time for each unit. We also had to have an oral interview - one on one conversation with the instructor in spanish. I wrote 2 papers, and a composition in Spanish. I made it through this class with an average of 89.5 - a "B." I felt pretty proud of this grade because of the intensity of the class.
For the first session of Summer (2 hour classes 4 days a week for 5 weeks) I am taking the second Spanish, English Composition, American History and principles of Economics. So far, so good with these classes as well.
There are other forces at play in my life as I try to reach this goal - I'll talk about them each in seperate blog posts so it doesn't get boring.
If you are also trying to become a Foreign Service Officer, email me and let's talk!
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