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cosmolinguistJust wanted to say that while the first part of this week was really difficult, with a migraine and a big mental health crash, the last couple of days have been better despite being such busy days at uni.
The best thing was that I finally properly read an email I'd been sent at the beginning of the semester, about accommodations made for me for the International Phonetic Alphabet transcription exam the rest of my phonology class had to do today. I'd been really stressed because I don't know nearly enough but it turns out the version of the exam my lecturer suggested and sorted out for me is both more manageable and more interesting than the one everyone else had to do.
Even if the interestgness was inadvertent, it turns out; I joined the class for the second half of today, and during the break the lecturer came to me and said "you're a native speaker of American English!" She explained that she'd remembered this after setting me the task of transcribing a text as I'd say it myself, but she didn't mean it to be the whole different phoneme set that is U.S. English.
She says I can either try that or get a native British speaker to read it out for me, and I haven't decided yet which I'll do. The latter would probably be easier; even if I don't get an RP speaker (that's the dialect we've been studying), most English accents will be more like we've studied. But I was sort of looking forward to doing my own accent, after feeling so weird and out of place. Still, I'd rather have a good mark than an ambitious disappointment, so we'll see if my delight at getting to represent myself is something that I can be sufficiently confident about.
So that's a big weight off my mind but also, I...just actually feel like I've been learning a lot of stuff? It feels good, after being so confused and dispirited lately. Semantics has been all logical notation, which turns out to be the most comprehensible part of the semester for me? And there was the cool thing in Arabic yesterday.
At the beginning of the week, when I saw people and they asked how uni was going, all I could think was "...my grades are fine but I feel like I'm drowning?" (I didn't say that, but I did stumble a lot coming up with any other answer because this was the only true one.) And now...to overstretch the metaphor, I may still be treading water but at least I'm breathing again.
The best thing was that I finally properly read an email I'd been sent at the beginning of the semester, about accommodations made for me for the International Phonetic Alphabet transcription exam the rest of my phonology class had to do today. I'd been really stressed because I don't know nearly enough but it turns out the version of the exam my lecturer suggested and sorted out for me is both more manageable and more interesting than the one everyone else had to do.
Even if the interestgness was inadvertent, it turns out; I joined the class for the second half of today, and during the break the lecturer came to me and said "you're a native speaker of American English!" She explained that she'd remembered this after setting me the task of transcribing a text as I'd say it myself, but she didn't mean it to be the whole different phoneme set that is U.S. English.
She says I can either try that or get a native British speaker to read it out for me, and I haven't decided yet which I'll do. The latter would probably be easier; even if I don't get an RP speaker (that's the dialect we've been studying), most English accents will be more like we've studied. But I was sort of looking forward to doing my own accent, after feeling so weird and out of place. Still, I'd rather have a good mark than an ambitious disappointment, so we'll see if my delight at getting to represent myself is something that I can be sufficiently confident about.
So that's a big weight off my mind but also, I...just actually feel like I've been learning a lot of stuff? It feels good, after being so confused and dispirited lately. Semantics has been all logical notation, which turns out to be the most comprehensible part of the semester for me? And there was the cool thing in Arabic yesterday.
At the beginning of the week, when I saw people and they asked how uni was going, all I could think was "...my grades are fine but I feel like I'm drowning?" (I didn't say that, but I did stumble a lot coming up with any other answer because this was the only true one.) And now...to overstretch the metaphor, I may still be treading water but at least I'm breathing again.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-04-20 06:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-04-20 07:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-04-20 08:53 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-04-20 10:37 am (UTC)GIP
Date: 2018-04-21 09:00 pm (UTC)