I don't need drugs . . .
Feb. 13th, 2009 10:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wooglethealienThere is a sort of mental buzz/high I get from ‘working things out’. My first memory of it was the pleasure I took in Maths homework, in Algebra, and later Chemistry, in understanding the patterns and how things work. This higher feeling of understanding the way things are. It’s a mental high – its different to an artistic buzz, your mind goes into this higher zone. I think half the problem with my current day job is that the science is no longer giving me this buzz – doing science as your job, day to day, is not nearly as fun as interpreting and understanding other people’s interesting enough to be published results.
Anyway, my latest drug is Arabic grammar. My teacher is both a good teacher for me and a bad teacher for me. She is a translator by profession (although she has been teaching now for years). She is good for me in that she breaks things down, gives me rules – we spent the last 2 hours (on a Friday night!) dissecting sentences in arabic – is this word Nomanative, genitive, accusative? Why is this? What is the subject, object, predicate? How can the case endings (which no one even uses IRL but I have had drummed into me!!) help us work out which adjective matches which part of the sentence etc. It’s hard to explain unless you know a little Arabic grammar (Hi Monica!!). I would have been a hell of a lot better at English at school if it was like this, all we learnt is how to write newspapers and, shit, what else did we actually learn in English language? All I know is I got 2 grades lower than any of my other subjects!!!
Anyway S is great for me in that we both love this stuff. However, on the other hand, I still read at the speed of a 5 year old (although at newsreader levels of grammar!) and we never really have conversations. I know how to say the minister was late for his meeting and angry with his 2 (duel not pleural) servants, I can make the subtle distinction between house and home, between the man’s old house and the old man’s house, but I can’t ask the way to the station or order some falafel. Well actually I can, but you get what I mean. I am been taught the exact opposite of what I really need to use Arabic usefully for dance/travel. Oh well, I’m paying a lot, and really knowing Arabic gets you nothing other than scorn for being a geek from other dancers, so I may as well learn the aspects I enjoy.
Anyway, my latest drug is Arabic grammar. My teacher is both a good teacher for me and a bad teacher for me. She is a translator by profession (although she has been teaching now for years). She is good for me in that she breaks things down, gives me rules – we spent the last 2 hours (on a Friday night!) dissecting sentences in arabic – is this word Nomanative, genitive, accusative? Why is this? What is the subject, object, predicate? How can the case endings (which no one even uses IRL but I have had drummed into me!!) help us work out which adjective matches which part of the sentence etc. It’s hard to explain unless you know a little Arabic grammar (Hi Monica!!). I would have been a hell of a lot better at English at school if it was like this, all we learnt is how to write newspapers and, shit, what else did we actually learn in English language? All I know is I got 2 grades lower than any of my other subjects!!!
Anyway S is great for me in that we both love this stuff. However, on the other hand, I still read at the speed of a 5 year old (although at newsreader levels of grammar!) and we never really have conversations. I know how to say the minister was late for his meeting and angry with his 2 (duel not pleural) servants, I can make the subtle distinction between house and home, between the man’s old house and the old man’s house, but I can’t ask the way to the station or order some falafel. Well actually I can, but you get what I mean. I am been taught the exact opposite of what I really need to use Arabic usefully for dance/travel. Oh well, I’m paying a lot, and really knowing Arabic gets you nothing other than scorn for being a geek from other dancers, so I may as well learn the aspects I enjoy.
