This morning started off very foggy and cool, the temperatures sitting in the mid-40s (Fahrenheit). Something interesting that happened today was that my red-green colour blindness struck in class when looking at a picture of some apples in a basket and trying to describe it. I said the apples were green, when in fact they were red-gold. My teacher got quite confused as to why I was saying there were green apples (since it was a game in which I could not say they were apples, and thus was I describing them as “green fruit”). Side note…my teacher for this language class is from Poland, speaks Polish and German, and barely speaks any English. She does know a minimal amount of English, which is fine, because our German language class is held entirely in German, which actually speeds up learning the language, because it forces one’s mind to acclimate to the language and stop relying on comparisons between German and English (in the case of everyone in my class). Thus, following my clarifying that I was colour blind, the general level of confusion between my teacher and I was much lessened for the exercise on which we were working.
An interesting fact that we learned in class is that it is customary to send cards of congratulations for some things that we do not do the same in the United States. For example, grandparents will often send grandchildren cards of congratulation when the grandchild gets their first car. Additionally, cards of congratulation are often sent to family members who have recently acquired a new job.
After language class and lunch, we began the first session of our History & Culture class. This class ads two hours more of class per day (ten hours more per week, taking the total from twenty-two hours per week to thirty-two hours per week for the duration of these two classes). For the first several weeks, the two hours per day of this class shall be composed of presentations on historical German topics. These presentations are given in part by the lecturer and in part by pre-assigned student pairs. Coincidentally, my friend Maddie is my partner for our presentation; our topic being Augustus II, two-time king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Our presentation is (theoretically) to be given tomorrow during History & Culture class. I say “theoretically” because, while four student-presentations were supposed to be given during class today, only two were presented, due to time constraints. Thus, while Maddie and I were supposed to present first-thing tomorrow in class, our presentation may not even be reached.
Following History & Culture class, Maddie and I had to go back into town to work on finishing up our presentation, thanks to the internet in some of the dormitories being temporarily broken. We ended up eating dinner in town, because of how late it was when we finished. (Yay döner!) I just finished my homework from class and will be probably having a quiet evening, because of not being able to work on any more internet-based work, for the short duration of it that remains.
No comments:
Post a Comment