grwwwarrrrrg
Today's been interesting. (Also, I love Stephen Pastis for this icon, and I enjoy using it.)
I don't mean to come off as an elitist, and I don't mean to belittle ESL speakers. But honestly, I hate getting English grammar lessons from people whose native language is not English. Today, my Greek prof (teaches Greek, I don't think she is Greek, but she certainly is foreign. Probably Scandinavian. Anway.) tried to tell me that to say "I did X in order that Y might happen" is wrong. "In English we don't know how to use the subjunctive. Really, it should be 'I did X in order that Y happen' because if it were indicative, it would be happens, not happen, and may/might always means it's a conditional statement."
Now. I take a couple issues with this:
1) What happens if the subject of the Y statement is anything other than third person singular? What about "I do X in order that we achieve our goal?" I agree that that is correct, but that verb achieve is no different than its indicative counterpart. But isn't "I do X in order that we may achieve our goal" also correct? Feel free to chime in, anyone. Maybe I've missed something?
2) When I brought up part 1 with her, she simply said, "Well, I'm not going to tell you everything about the subjunctive. I think it's too much information and you'll get confused. I will only tell you the very basics. And I think if you include may/might you will get confused with conditionals." Whaaaaat?? Does that mean that may/might really is ok, but this is one of those things like 'always translate imperfect as 'was' so as not to confuse it with aorist/perfect'? Or are you confused? Also I just hate, in general, the even-if-a-student-asks-I-won't-explain-things-I-deem-to-be-above-him style. That really drives me nuts. For crying out loud, we are in college. I think we can handle this...
Ugh. I just left that class in such an irritated mood. Thus the icon.
But econ was pretty good, and then I did Rosetta Stone and now I'm having lunch and tonight I'm hanging out with mi care and we're going ice skating! Yay!
Oh. And yesterday. ^_^ *bounce*
My writing class was cancelled because of snow, so I stayed in my room reading for awhile, which was fun. And then I went to have lunch and this random kid from my writing class showed up and sat with me, which was pleasant but he was not a good conversationalist... *awkward*
Thennnnnn I had my first Adolescent Development class! Gahhhhhhh! I love it. So much. The prof has more Einstein-esque hair than Einstein, and he reminds me of my uncle, which is really fun. "Did you hear a knock at the door? Who do you think it is? Elijah?" "None of us are self-sufficient. We are all totally interdependent. Think about how many people did not kill me on my way to work this morning! You know, I have a bumper sticker that says, "Look, I'm Jewish, I'm not sure about an afterlife, so please be careful!'..."
I want to take this class over and over until I graduate. Why do I feel like they won't let me do that?
Then there was the third annual Christian Unity event, which was really interesting and really fun. I miss singing praise songs. I need to get a song book for ST meetings. However, because it was hosted in the Executive Dining room and they said there would be food, somehow I assumed there would be dinner...nope! cookies and soda, afterward. Gahhhhhh I was so hungry.
Anyway, yesterday was a super good day, and today has been kinda...eh *shrug*... so far, but I'm about to leave to go ice skating!! Yay!
-fin-
P.S. then (today) my roommate showed up in the dining hall so we've been hanging out and having fun. ^_^
I don't mean to come off as an elitist, and I don't mean to belittle ESL speakers. But honestly, I hate getting English grammar lessons from people whose native language is not English. Today, my Greek prof (teaches Greek, I don't think she is Greek, but she certainly is foreign. Probably Scandinavian. Anway.) tried to tell me that to say "I did X in order that Y might happen" is wrong. "In English we don't know how to use the subjunctive. Really, it should be 'I did X in order that Y happen' because if it were indicative, it would be happens, not happen, and may/might always means it's a conditional statement."
Now. I take a couple issues with this:
1) What happens if the subject of the Y statement is anything other than third person singular? What about "I do X in order that we achieve our goal?" I agree that that is correct, but that verb achieve is no different than its indicative counterpart. But isn't "I do X in order that we may achieve our goal" also correct? Feel free to chime in, anyone. Maybe I've missed something?
2) When I brought up part 1 with her, she simply said, "Well, I'm not going to tell you everything about the subjunctive. I think it's too much information and you'll get confused. I will only tell you the very basics. And I think if you include may/might you will get confused with conditionals." Whaaaaat?? Does that mean that may/might really is ok, but this is one of those things like 'always translate imperfect as 'was' so as not to confuse it with aorist/perfect'? Or are you confused? Also I just hate, in general, the even-if-a-student-asks-I-won't-explain-things-I-deem-to-be-above-him style. That really drives me nuts. For crying out loud, we are in college. I think we can handle this...
Ugh. I just left that class in such an irritated mood. Thus the icon.
But econ was pretty good, and then I did Rosetta Stone and now I'm having lunch and tonight I'm hanging out with mi care and we're going ice skating! Yay!
Oh. And yesterday. ^_^ *bounce*
My writing class was cancelled because of snow, so I stayed in my room reading for awhile, which was fun. And then I went to have lunch and this random kid from my writing class showed up and sat with me, which was pleasant but he was not a good conversationalist... *awkward*
Thennnnnn I had my first Adolescent Development class! Gahhhhhhh! I love it. So much. The prof has more Einstein-esque hair than Einstein, and he reminds me of my uncle, which is really fun. "Did you hear a knock at the door? Who do you think it is? Elijah?" "None of us are self-sufficient. We are all totally interdependent. Think about how many people did not kill me on my way to work this morning! You know, I have a bumper sticker that says, "Look, I'm Jewish, I'm not sure about an afterlife, so please be careful!'..."
I want to take this class over and over until I graduate. Why do I feel like they won't let me do that?
Then there was the third annual Christian Unity event, which was really interesting and really fun. I miss singing praise songs. I need to get a song book for ST meetings. However, because it was hosted in the Executive Dining room and they said there would be food, somehow I assumed there would be dinner...nope! cookies and soda, afterward. Gahhhhhh I was so hungry.
Anyway, yesterday was a super good day, and today has been kinda...eh *shrug*... so far, but I'm about to leave to go ice skating!! Yay!
-fin-
P.S. then (today) my roommate showed up in the dining hall so we've been hanging out and having fun. ^_^