April 29th, 2008 by lafnlab
I registered to take the GRE on May 9th. The plan was to take it this summer, but I want to take it on a Friday, and the only Fridays available to take it this month are on the 9th and the 16th. However, I have a cousin getting married on the 17th in Kentucky, so I will probably be out of town on the 16th. Plus I don’t want to be stressed out from just having taken the test. I could have waited to take it in June or July, but I thought it would be better to take it while I am still in “school” mode, more or less. Waiting until June, it would probably be more difficult to get in the right frame of mind.
I’ve also come to the conclusion I need to learn a lot more about statistics. I know about averages and means, plus the old “lies, damn lies, and statistics” joke, but stuff like Chi-square (should that be X2?) is over my head. They offer a stats class during summer, but it’s at a bad time for my schedule. Maybe I can get away with reading the textbook instead.
On the upside, I have a very rough idea for a thesis topic. Namely that formulaic language can be categorized by the function, sort of like nouns, verbs, etc. I have to read some more – review the literature – to see if this has been discussed before. Plus, I need to need to apply to the MA program for a more a formal status.
April 23rd, 2008 by lafnlab
It’s election time, so that means…junk mail. Since I don’t watch TV or listen to the radio, I guess that’s about the only way I will encounter candidate ads. Strangely, the only junk mail I’ve received for elections is from Democratic candidates.
It’s strange for two reasons. First, I’m an independent and not registered with any political party. One of the reasons I became an independent (years ago) was to cut down on the junk mail. Guess it works differently in Indiana. The other reason it’s strange is because I only get junk mail from the Democrats. They’ve got more to spend, but for a party that likes to pride itself on being environmentally friendly, they seem to send a lot of trash (literally and figuratively). Maybe the environment is secondary to getting the word out, but it seems like those spam e-mails that promise anti-spam solutions – the message contradicts the medium.
For what it’s worth, this particular piece of mail came from the Obama campaign. Since the primary (I’m an independent, remember) is in two weeks, I expect a lot more junk mail will be in my mailbox until then.
April 18th, 2008 by lafnlab
Last night/this morning I felt my bed shaking. Since I was groggy, I wasn’t sure if I was still in a dream. I rolled over and saw it was about 5:30 am, and I more-or-less determined the bed really was shaking. I also had some wine last night with some classmates, so I thought that might be playing a part – sort of a delayed bed spinning. “The Exorcist” also came to mind. I sat up in bed and the shaking subsided. Still being tired, and not sure about much of anything, I made my to the lav and relieved myself. I thought about staying up but I was still drowsy, so back to bed it was. The alarm clock is set for 6:02 am, but I usually hit the snooze button two or three times before getting up. Got to work a few minutes early and checked CNN and found out it was an actual earthquake. A 5.2 hit someplace in Illinois and was felt as far north as Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, as far south as Georgia, and as far east as Ohio (How often do you hear of Ohio being referred to as Far East?).
About 11:30, I was on the phone with someone at work and my desk started swaying. This is good sized desk that’s a bit top heavy because of some bookshelves, but it’s not prone to excitement, so when it starts moving it’s pretty noticeable. Turns out there was a 4.5 aftershock. Feeling an earthquake when you are asleep is one thing. It woke me up, but it was barely recognizable as an earthquake. Many people I talked to today didn’t even know there was a quake. Some people didn’t even feel the aftershock. I think people who were out walking probably wouldn’t have felt it, because it was pretty minor too. One lady at work mentioned a flower vase in her office moved a few inches during the aftershock.
It’s nothing compared to what they get in California, but it’s big new for the Midwest because we rarely get quakes big enough to be felt over a long distance. Apparently there was a 5.0 quake in 1968 in the area. The New Madrid fault line in Missouri has had an estimated 8.0 earthquake in the 1800s, before we knew much about seismography and such. Legend has it the quake was powerful enough to cause church bells to ring in Boston, although it knocked down a few houses in New Madrid itself. On the other hand, there were only a few homes there to be knocked down at the time.
For the Midwest, it was an eventful day.
April 13th, 2008 by lafnlab
I’ve had this blog in my bookmarks for a few months. I’m usually cautious when blogs are associated with products, because I usually get the feeling they keep trying to sell me their stuff. In the cases where blogs are associated with boks and/or magazines, they usually make blog entries about some current event, then tie it into something in the book, without giving any detail. You have to buy the book or the magazine to find out about it.
Blogos: The Multilingual Blog is different in that it doesn’t constantly make reference to MultiLingual, which is the journal they’re associated with. There are some references, but not in every article. The blog and the journal are mostly intended for IT people who deal with localization. Localization deals with making products usable for people who speak other languages. While it is often used in the sense of making software or websites usable in other languages, the term can probably be applied to things like ingredients on a food item, or an instruction booklet for a camera.
The site is worth a peek if you are interested in multilingualism and multiculturalism.
April 10th, 2008 by lafnlab
Last semester in Second Language Acquisition class we learned about a concept called automaticity. IIRC it means when a person is learning a new language, there comes a point when certain things are understood automatically, without having to translate back into the person’s first language. I’m getting a bit of this in French class. At least, it’s getting to the point where I don’t have to mentally translate words or phrases back into English. I still rely heavily on translating back into English, but it’s less often than before. This may be because some phrases are used throughout the class. Setting up verb conjugation tables in a spreadsheet probably helps, too.
Three weeks left in the semester, including Finals week. We had our last Oral exam in French this evening. I have a final paper and presentation due in each class in the next couple of weeks. Sociolinguistics is a 15 – 30 page paper with an approximately 20 minute presentation. French has a two to three page paper with about a five minute presentation. The presentation in Sociolinguistics is due in two weeks, while the paper is actually due May 1st. In French class, the presentation and paper is due in our last class session. Each class also has a final exam. In Sociolinguistics it’s a take home exam, but it is due next week because we will be doing presentations the last two class sessions.
No classes for me during the summer, because the ones they offer that I’m interested in are only offered during the day.
April 6th, 2008 by lafnlab
When learning French, articles are the bane of my existence.
In English, we have the definite article the and indefinite articles a and an, and we often drop them. For example, in the preceding sentence, I could have written, “…the indefinite articles…”, but didn’t, and it isn’t a big deal. In French class, one of the first things we learned was “No naked nouns” – every noun must be preceded by something, usually an article, but numbers work too.
As an aside, it’s interesting how learning another language makes you realize everything you forgot about your own language, or maybe it’s just me. In English, nouns are usually preceded by something as well. We can use articles and say, “The cat is purring,” or “A cat is purring,” but we can also say, “His cat is purring,” and, “Three cats are purring.” To me, the latter two aren’t articles, but they seem to be used in that manner. We could also say, “Some cats are purring,” which is an indication of quantity, but not a definite amount. I suppose I could look it up in a dictionary (precriptivist vs. descriptivist arguments aside), but I’m a bit too lazy for that at the moment.
French has the definite articles le, la, l’, and les. Since nouns in French have gender, the articles used depend on the gender of the noun. Le is used for masculine words and la is used for feminine words. L’ is used for words that begin with vowels (for either gender, IIRC). It’s similar that we use an in English, except an is indefinite and l’ is a definite article. Les is used for plural nouns, regardless of gender.
French also has indefinite articles un (masculine), une (feminine), and des (plural). If I remember correctly (it’s very possible I may not), un is also used for feminine words that begin with vowels. To top things off, French also has partitive articles du (masculine), de la (feminine), de l’ (vowels), and des (plural).
In general, partitive articles indicate a portion or part of something. In French, we could say:
J’ai mangé une pizza. – I ate a pizza. (A whole pizza)
J’ai mangé la pizza. – I ate the pizza. (The whole thing)
J’ai mangé de la pizza. – I ate some pizza.
In writing that, it dawned on me that saying, “I ate the pizza” could also indicate “I ate what was left of the pizza”, at least in English. I don’t know if that would be the same concept in other languages.
As if that wasn’t difficult enough, articles can be modified by prepositions. À means to, at, or in in English, and it can modify les articles définis, but to me it seems like another set of articles. Au (masculine), à la (feminine), à l’ (vowels), and aux (plurals) are handy, but they mean another set of rules to remember.
I keep thinking that if I stick with French long enough, I will get some sort of epiphany regarding the rules. I learned some of this in Second Language Acquisition last year. I think the key is experimentation and feedback. In class, our vocabulary and knowledge of the rules is enough where we should be able to hold simple conversations or maybe read some children’s books. However, since we probably use English exclusively outside of class, it’s difficult to put our lessons to practical use. Maybe I should get a pen pal or something.
