learning life
Heh I should sleep already but I know I wouldn't be at my com again tomorrow cuz it's gonna be a long (but great!) day. We're going for portugese food for lunch! See, after last week's Chinese, Christina decided that we should make Saturday lunches cultural lunches so people from different countries are going to take turns to organize lunch outings! Heh and since it's Valentine's Day and we're too broke to get one another anything, the girls have decided to bake cookies chez Christina! Thank goodness for that though cuz we were gonna use precious notebook paper to draw cards for one another at first! d= And at night it's bouteillon at Katherine's before we go to Queen! Considering the late hours, I might stay over at Mariana's so I have to write now!
I have two classes that clash today. One's Social Issues in Britian and USA that ends at 3, and the other's Orale et Phoenetique that starts at 1.30. I was really torn between the two! The social issues class is good because I can transfer a sosci credit, but it is so difficult! I have a bad enough time understanding the really technical readings, I wonder how the french students cope. Well that's probably a good thing cuz it's not like I'm the only one struggling with the class, but on the other hand I'm quite worried. And I really wanted Orale et Phoenetique because I cannot leave Paris without speaking good French, and make that good French with an all-right Parisien accent! My accent now is not terrible, but as the teacher said, when we don't use liaisons at the right places etc, it gives away that we're foreigners (okay I know it's so obvious from my looks but stil!) so I really wanna improve that.
Today I left social issues during break and went over to orale et phoenetique. The teacher was really nice and I can understand her. However her voice is a little higher-pitched than I'd like, and uhh reminds me of Jen from her voice and mannerisms! So my only worry is that I'll end up sounding like her at the end of the course! x= On the other hand I'm really impressed by the students in my social issues class, particularly Ariana and Florien. The class participation in SMU is somewhat still grades-driven, and even though class participation is also graded here, I find that french students actually speak up as and when they need to. It's here that I feel like the phrase "there are no stupid questions" is taken seriously, and I mean that in a positive way. They just ask if they don't understand something, and they actually keep posing questions until they really understand. I love that and I think staying in this class would be a good way to remind myself to continually do the same too. I think I speak up more than the average person, but there are times when I'm lazy to put the effort to get to the bottom of things, or a bit too pai seh for that if it takes too long.
I'm thinking of asking Marjolaine, the teacher, if I could go for half the lesson and then move on to orale et phoenetique. I'm prepared to take it without credits (and of course no exams then haha!) but I don't think she'll accept that actually... Would be wonderful is she did though haha.
I have this other course called Cross-Cultural Barriers and it's wonderful. We spend quite a lot of time each class getting to know one another. In the first class we did introductions for about an hour, but it was in-depth because we got to pose questions at the person being introduced and really learnt a lot more about their heritage, culture, and countries. It's a lot of readings though, so that's a bummer but I keep reminding myself that it's still nowhere as bad as SMU! heh. And there was this guy called Bradley who has a really mixed heritage and seemed to have lived no more than 2 years in a country! It's amazing how much he knows, and I'm really beginning to appreciate the importance of travelling. He's so lucky though, because his school in New York apparently lets him go on seemingly endless exchanges! He's been away for 1 and a half years already, and that's even longer than the standard Micefa/Erasmus exchange programmes that last a year! I'm quite envious of the experience he's had! heh but then I might get really homesick too...
Our bar outings may seem a little frivolous but I'm actually learning a lot from there. It's like I'm finally getting the real social studies classes that I should have received in Singapore.
I have two classes that clash today. One's Social Issues in Britian and USA that ends at 3, and the other's Orale et Phoenetique that starts at 1.30. I was really torn between the two! The social issues class is good because I can transfer a sosci credit, but it is so difficult! I have a bad enough time understanding the really technical readings, I wonder how the french students cope. Well that's probably a good thing cuz it's not like I'm the only one struggling with the class, but on the other hand I'm quite worried. And I really wanted Orale et Phoenetique because I cannot leave Paris without speaking good French, and make that good French with an all-right Parisien accent! My accent now is not terrible, but as the teacher said, when we don't use liaisons at the right places etc, it gives away that we're foreigners (okay I know it's so obvious from my looks but stil!) so I really wanna improve that.
Today I left social issues during break and went over to orale et phoenetique. The teacher was really nice and I can understand her. However her voice is a little higher-pitched than I'd like, and uhh reminds me of Jen from her voice and mannerisms! So my only worry is that I'll end up sounding like her at the end of the course! x= On the other hand I'm really impressed by the students in my social issues class, particularly Ariana and Florien. The class participation in SMU is somewhat still grades-driven, and even though class participation is also graded here, I find that french students actually speak up as and when they need to. It's here that I feel like the phrase "there are no stupid questions" is taken seriously, and I mean that in a positive way. They just ask if they don't understand something, and they actually keep posing questions until they really understand. I love that and I think staying in this class would be a good way to remind myself to continually do the same too. I think I speak up more than the average person, but there are times when I'm lazy to put the effort to get to the bottom of things, or a bit too pai seh for that if it takes too long.
I'm thinking of asking Marjolaine, the teacher, if I could go for half the lesson and then move on to orale et phoenetique. I'm prepared to take it without credits (and of course no exams then haha!) but I don't think she'll accept that actually... Would be wonderful is she did though haha.
I have this other course called Cross-Cultural Barriers and it's wonderful. We spend quite a lot of time each class getting to know one another. In the first class we did introductions for about an hour, but it was in-depth because we got to pose questions at the person being introduced and really learnt a lot more about their heritage, culture, and countries. It's a lot of readings though, so that's a bummer but I keep reminding myself that it's still nowhere as bad as SMU! heh. And there was this guy called Bradley who has a really mixed heritage and seemed to have lived no more than 2 years in a country! It's amazing how much he knows, and I'm really beginning to appreciate the importance of travelling. He's so lucky though, because his school in New York apparently lets him go on seemingly endless exchanges! He's been away for 1 and a half years already, and that's even longer than the standard Micefa/Erasmus exchange programmes that last a year! I'm quite envious of the experience he's had! heh but then I might get really homesick too...
Our bar outings may seem a little frivolous but I'm actually learning a lot from there. It's like I'm finally getting the real social studies classes that I should have received in Singapore.