Arabic and Python
You know what's really fun? Learning things.
I signed up for an Arabic class a little while ago, and I've taken two classes so far. I was excited and optimistic after the first class, and I had so much fun learning the alphabet that I was even more excited about the second class. Unfortunately, the class size had, for various reasons, dropped from 5 to 2, and therefore the instructor's manic teaching style was focused, laser-like, on me and the one other student. Well, "focused" might be the wrong word. He's kind of ADD.
He thought we had gone through the alphabet in the first class - we hadn't. He thought he'd assigned us some homework, but he was wrong. When I said so, he didn't believe me. And when he expected me to parrot meaningless syllables back at him and I couldn't, he seemed to get a bit frustrated. This is because he thinks languages are taught wrong in this country, and that instead of teaching visually, from text, we should teach by speaking.
I don't know about other people, but personally, my short-term memory for spoken language is almost useless unless I already have context for it. I need to know the spelling before I can process syllables into words, and I need to know the grammar before I can process the words into a sentence. If I don't have those things, it goes in one ear and out the other. Thus, I find that I learn languages quite well from reading about them and doing drills. And that part was pretty great. I had a grand old time working with the book and the DVD.
And hopefully, if I do the reading and drills on my own, the class will at least be good for conversation. If it isn't canceled due to low attendance.
I am not taking a Python class. I am instead sitting around reading a Python book for kids (some of the best educational material for beginners is for kids) and trying things out on my computer. This is ridiculously fun too. I cannot even tell you guys how thrilling it is to write a program with dialog boxes in it. Dialog boxes! Just like the official ones that pop up when you use your browser and it asks you whether you really want to close all your tabs! I even modified the GUI module that I downloaded to change the size of one of the dialog boxes! You guys, do you know what that means? That means I have the power to change the world!
Well, that's what it feels like, anyway.
I signed up for an Arabic class a little while ago, and I've taken two classes so far. I was excited and optimistic after the first class, and I had so much fun learning the alphabet that I was even more excited about the second class. Unfortunately, the class size had, for various reasons, dropped from 5 to 2, and therefore the instructor's manic teaching style was focused, laser-like, on me and the one other student. Well, "focused" might be the wrong word. He's kind of ADD.
He thought we had gone through the alphabet in the first class - we hadn't. He thought he'd assigned us some homework, but he was wrong. When I said so, he didn't believe me. And when he expected me to parrot meaningless syllables back at him and I couldn't, he seemed to get a bit frustrated. This is because he thinks languages are taught wrong in this country, and that instead of teaching visually, from text, we should teach by speaking.
I don't know about other people, but personally, my short-term memory for spoken language is almost useless unless I already have context for it. I need to know the spelling before I can process syllables into words, and I need to know the grammar before I can process the words into a sentence. If I don't have those things, it goes in one ear and out the other. Thus, I find that I learn languages quite well from reading about them and doing drills. And that part was pretty great. I had a grand old time working with the book and the DVD.
And hopefully, if I do the reading and drills on my own, the class will at least be good for conversation. If it isn't canceled due to low attendance.
I am not taking a Python class. I am instead sitting around reading a Python book for kids (some of the best educational material for beginners is for kids) and trying things out on my computer. This is ridiculously fun too. I cannot even tell you guys how thrilling it is to write a program with dialog boxes in it. Dialog boxes! Just like the official ones that pop up when you use your browser and it asks you whether you really want to close all your tabs! I even modified the GUI module that I downloaded to change the size of one of the dialog boxes! You guys, do you know what that means? That means I have the power to change the world!
Well, that's what it feels like, anyway.