Excuses aplenty
October 18th, 2010 § 2 Comments
Oh dear, I’ve abandoned this humble space for quite an embarrassingly considerable stretch of time. Here are my excuses:
1. I’ve been settling in.
If you’ve recently been to my About page and read that I’m about to head off to England for further studies, what you’ve read is history. I am now in England — in London, right at the heart of the most vibrant of cities on the British Isles.
2. Work has begun to take up my time.
As a History undergraduate, reading takes up the “free” time between lectures and tutorials and during those long “breaks”. To those who’re beginning to cast pitying glances at me (or at the screen, since you can’t actually see me), stop it. Work in its current context is a pure and utter joy for me. It makes me ridiculously happy just to declare myself a History undergraduate; finally, all work that I do is completely enjoyable and exhilarating. It’s difficult to describe how much of a difference it makes to be spending all of my academically-related time studying in great detail the academic areas I truly love. World Histories takes me from ancient civilisations to modern ideas; History of Eastern Europe since 1856 feeds my interest in the area that made me apply to SSEES in the first place; Russian…
Oh yes, русский. Or русский язык, to be more precise. I stuck to my word; I am learning Russian. More on my adventures in that area soon.
Indeed, I do have plenty of reading and writing and typing to do. Blogging has faded beyond being secondary on my agenda, I’m sad to say. But as you can see I’ve made an effort to return here — a good sign for the life of this WordPress. I’ll be back — and with photographs, too! À bientôt, my readers.
Russian; and Spanish too I see!
I’ve got a question to ask you: did you start learning at the Alliance Francaise from the very basics or did you already have some command of French before going for lessons? I really want to do lessons in French and German and I’m wondering how much I can study alone before resorting to a teacher. Do you have any advice on this matter?
Hello Thomas!
No I did not begin learning French at l’Alliance Française; I did SL French ab initio as one of my six IB subjects. I took lessons at l’Alliance after IB.
I think it’s best to go straight to l’Alliance if you’re a complete beginner in French; French pronunciation can be hell to tackle on your own without a native speaker’s guidance. My first French teacher was a Parisienne (or technically an Orléannienne, but never mind about that) so that helped shape my French accent. I found French very easy to pick up linguistically but if you really intend to speak the language well, seek a native speaker! L’Alliance is plein de professeurs français, and the learning environment is excellent, so I’d definitely recommend going there.
I’ve never been to Goethe Institut for lessons, but I reckon they’re about as good as l’Alliance. However I must admit German pronunciation is far easier to master than French (or, as I now am discovering, Russian) and German grammar, though quite a headache-inducing matter at the beginning, isn’t as bad as people make it out to be, so you could get through much of the basics on your own first before going for formal lessons.