Wednesday, April 20, 2011

And Then There Were Two

So today was the last day for one of my classmates.

He took his test today...I hope it went really well.

He isn't leaving yet...he has more training to do...but once again I am reminded of just how little time we have left.

Cue panic.

It suddenly occurred to me that I am not feeling like I have improved much since we got back from our immersion. And so now I am worrying about whether I will get my 3/3.

Not that this would be the end of the world...it would mean the end of my vacation, since I would get extended in language. But it wouldn't be the end of the world. Or maybe it would be...I could really use a vacation, and I think my wife will die if we don't get one soon.

Still, I can't shake the feeling that I should be better by now. Long-term language training is HELL on your self esteeem. No matter how good a language learner you are. No matter how good or nice (or bad or hateful...I have really lucked out on that account! Not all language teachers are created equal.) your teacher is.

So twelve weeks....11 1/2 really. Not much time to become awesome. And not a lot of time to get everything organized, since so many other things are up in the air...little things, like whether my wife will be with me.

Sigh.

3 comments:

James said...

Well, if the DoS considered blogosphere support, you'd have an EFM approval without a doubt. We're all still pulling for you on that one.

In other news, I'm thinking the hateful, ruler-weilding-catholic-nun type teacher would be best for my language learning. I need someone to smack some sense into me. Can you order them up on a menu? Like, "hmm, let's see...for Russian 101 we seem to have a few options...Ghengis Khan, Catholic Nuns, or some graduate-level exchange students from St. Petersburg triple-majoring in art, music, and Social Work...which would you like?

Digger said...

In a department as large as the Russian one, you'd be certain of spending time with all of the above!

Anonymous said...

I hear you. I had six months of one-on-one at FSI in a one-country, non-Latin alphabet language. Made me feel stupid, and I had the second-highest MLAT in my A-100.