Saturday, September 18, 2010

Back to School...

School started up again... I can't believe I am a junior. I can hardly believe that I have already successfully completed two years of college, and now I have only have two more years to go. I have half way completed my college degree! This school year, however, seems to be especially difficult. My classes include: Church History, Christian Education, U.S. Constitution, Economics, Systematic Theology, and Articulatory Phonetics. I am sure throughout the year you may hear a story or two about my "favorite class", Articulatory Phonetics. I walked into the classroom for the very first time two weeks ago to be greeted by some strange guttural noise coming from the mouth of my teacher. I honestly didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Laugh because my teacher sounded and looked absolutely hilarious as she pronounced that strange noise. Cry because I knew that this course was required for me since I am a Speech minor. Cry because I knew that my teacher was going to expect me to make those strange guttural noises as well. However rather than laughing or crying I just looked at her in complete shock. My eyes got big, real big, as I watched her lips form in ways lips should not form, and her tongue go back so far that it almost touched her uvula (that dangling thing in the back on her throat.) I gaped as I watched my teacher almost gag over her own words. All I could think was "what type of people would honestly speak this kind of language!" Now, I am two weeks into the course. I have now learned to keep my mouth closed even though I am completely in shock and horrified at what happening to my teacher's mouth, lips, and tongue. I have to simply giggle, a nervous little giggle, because in just one week I have my first Phonetics word lists. In which I will have to say words that are spelled with letters that I have never seen before. So- just pray for me to pass this class! I think I will really need it!
School is going well so far. I will try very hard to keep my blog updated. But during the school year I am so very busy, but I will do my best... So until next time

5 comments:

  1. Brooke! I LOVED that class! Keep your mind open, and maybe you will in the end also. What might help is to have that speech sounds CD on and playing even when you are not paying attention to it. Believe it or not, it sinks in a little. I did that, and when I got to a later list, I thought, Have I done this one before? Why does it seem like I already am familiar with it? It had registered somewhere in the crooks and crannies of my brain!
    And you have to love Mrs. Voegtlin's teaching! She is very good in that field, and I believe it is not just a result of perhaps some talent, but of hard work! I mean, who goes back to college and takes very difficult, linguistic classes (much more difficult than any she offers now) when they are forty or fifty years old?
    And,--here I am preaching!--God created languages, so that can be inspiring and comforting. He knows languages, He is able to help you!
    If you tell Mrs. Voegtlin I said all this, she will probably laugh! I am riding my hobbyhorse!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the encouragement Andrea! I was partly joking about the class. I do think I will enjoy it- it is definitely a lot of work but is also a lot of fun. I actually kinda enjoy trying to speak words through my nose etc... :) And you are right- Mrs. Voegtlin is a great teacher. I love simply watching her, I truly couldn't have asked for a better teacher.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Something tells me that come the end of this semester, this will end up being your favorite class! You always excel in your classes; I am certain you will in this one as well.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This was cute. =) I studied 2 years of linguistics in Europe before coming to Fairhaven... did you know that? Anyways. Required courses were Latin and ancient Slavic (dead languages). It was fascinating to see the old letters and spellings and trace the origins of our languages today (English and Russian, I am inferring).
    I hope you well in this class. Who teaches it?? I am very curious. You are so proper and elegant, I can imagine this must be a hard class. But I'm sure you'll do great!

    ReplyDelete
  5. :) Hey girl! Yay for the Junior year!!! It flies from here on out! Enjoy every minute of it! As for the language class...well, I'm not sure I have much advice in that area, but I am sure you will do great at it!!! Miss you!

    ReplyDelete