(no subject)
I would like to say that I have been working like a crazy person lately, after two months of lazing around reading Akkadian, having something to do with wanting to get my dissertation in a super-advanced state, Donka's home situation notwithstanding, just in case the postdoc people ask. Also, as indicated in a previous post, having to do with wanting corpus linguistics skills in case the postdoc people ask.
All this led me to not preparing the Akkadian lesson on Monday, and going in and telling the reading group they were pretty much on their own, as I would be pretty much figuring it out along with them. They did ridiculously well. Consider this: the whole premise of this reading group and the reason it caught on is that it calls for one hour a week. No outside studying the grammar or preparing the text. Show up, read, and leave. They've been at this--with the exception of Randall, who started in January--since mid-October, with several weeks missed for holidays. That's maybe fifteen hours of study total.
They were reading authentic Old Babylonian poetry on their own Monday. I was not reading Vergil after fifteen hours of Latin study. I was not reading Homer after fifteen hours of Greek study. And for some, maybe all, of them, this is their first Semitic language.
I think this is absurdly cool.
All this led me to not preparing the Akkadian lesson on Monday, and going in and telling the reading group they were pretty much on their own, as I would be pretty much figuring it out along with them. They did ridiculously well. Consider this: the whole premise of this reading group and the reason it caught on is that it calls for one hour a week. No outside studying the grammar or preparing the text. Show up, read, and leave. They've been at this--with the exception of Randall, who started in January--since mid-October, with several weeks missed for holidays. That's maybe fifteen hours of study total.
They were reading authentic Old Babylonian poetry on their own Monday. I was not reading Vergil after fifteen hours of Latin study. I was not reading Homer after fifteen hours of Greek study. And for some, maybe all, of them, this is their first Semitic language.
I think this is absurdly cool.