Moving Classes and Media Overload

Today began a new experience for me in the Arabic course here. For the past seven months that Susan and I have been navigating the world of DLI Arabic, we have done so from separate classrooms. She was always in the section next door, and I'd only see her during our ten minute breaks between class hours. Yesterday, however, our teaching team leader approached me to ask if I could switch into the other section, thus putting the top four students in our class into one room all day. From an academic perspective I was really excited by this opportunity. The students in the other section would be able to challenge me, forcing me to improve my Arabic at a faster rate (granted, that faster pace scared me at the same time). I was also very leery of being in the same room as my wife all day long. I love her completely, but with both of us being very competitive, I was apprehensive about the constant proximity.

Well, it didn't take long for us to realize the difficulties of this new arrangement: just one day together. We recently began using the first hour of each morning to listen to media Arabic - usually the Al-Jazeera evening broadcast. While this practice certainly necessary, it also tiring! Twenty minutes of Arabic news doesn't sound like much, but the mental concentration that it requires is staggering. In that amount of time we get 6 to 7 different stories, but I have the mental stamina for about three. There's a definite difference in the quantity and quality of the notes that I take during the first three stories as opposed to the later ones.

So, after a tough hour of trying to listen to lots of media Arabic, my brain and motivation were both shot. The next hour, my attitude got the better of me and I shut down. Of course, my wife, for all her protests to the contrary, was still plugging along, dutifully understanding her Arabic. In the past, while I knew her skill to be superior to mine, the knowledge was very conceptual; she was in the other room. Now that I'm sitting just a few feet away from her, it has a much different feel to it. I'm extremely proud of her, but intimidated at the same time. At the break, I ignored her, rather than rushing to see her, as was my norm. Suffice it to say, being in the same classroom as my wife all day, then seeing her at home all night, has added a new wrinkle to both learning Arabic and our relationship.

A Breath of Fresh Air

Today was our hotly anticipated first day with the new teaching team leader. Of course, all of the students are wondering what she's like, and what kind of dynamic she'd bring to class. Well, long story short, she's GREAT! She has a lot of teaching experience, at DLI, in the US, and in Sudan - all language related, and boy, does it show. She's patient, she appears to have a plan each hour, objectives for us to reach. I'm very excited for her to fully take over this week and make improvements as we head into the home stretch of our year at DLI.

On the downside for Susan and I, though, is the fact that Wednesday is our Unit 6 test, and we are light years from being ready for it. We're exhauseted, and we're really trying to push through today and tomorrow in order to get some kind of studying done, and learn some of these words. Since Christmas break, we flew through this unit, and it's really making us nervous.

Blogging

Well, I think that I have hit upon a practical use for blogging. A few years ago I set out to watch the American Film Institutes's 100 Greatest American Movies. I'd always wanted to record my observations, and now a blog seems the natural way to do that. Check it out at http://afi100thoughts.blogspot.com.

Grad School

Susan and I returned a few hours ago from the grad school fair at DLI. The FAO office here at DLI invites grad schools to recruit FAOs, since we have to begin our applications for school very soon. Now that I've had a little time to digest what was there, I thought I'd share a little. Entering the fair, I was very worried that I'd be overwhelmed by international relations and very politically heavy programs that are trying to solve the world's conflicts. What I came away with was a very pleasant realization that many of the Middle East and Arab Studies programs are actually very language heavy. Since that's my main interest in the FAO program, that was a very positive feeling. My current #1 choice, Georgetown, seemed like a good fit for me, since it's a good language program. I was also surprised at Harvard's willingness to recruit and work with FAOs - especially given Harvard's history with the military. Without doing any more research, those two are at the top of my list.

Princeton, on the other hand, was not very impressive, and their school colors are really ugly.

Last thought - there was a huge and obvious difference between the high cost and low cost schools. Both Georgetown and Harvard had well established and interesting programs, ones where I could also further my Arabic skills. Texas A&M, by contrast, just seemed lost and they really didn't offer any Arabic language training that would benefit me.

How's this work again??

Okay, so the 'blog experiment' has hit day...something. I don't recall when I started this thing. I'm sort of forcing myself to post, to justify having started this. I'm not exactly sure what the big deal and draw of blogging is. I suppose that if I had 'things to say' that I arrogantly thought that other people would find enlightening or interesting to read, then this would make a lot more sense. I have a hard enough time using such modern marvels as the telephone and email - I am terrible at keeping in touch and telling people what's going on in my life.

So...the blog. Yeah, I'll give it some more time, but right now it feels a little stilted. I feel like I'm typing just to say that I did... It's a little lame.

First Post

This is my first post on a personal blog. I'm not entirely sure why I've decided to do this, other than sheer curiosity. It seems strange that me, a guy who loved computers as a kid and even has a degree in Computer Science, is so resistant to 'new' technologies like this. Computers are supposed to simplify our lives and make communication easier - which they have - yet I am very resistant to using them. At it's heart, digital communication isn't any 'better' than other forms, they're just faster, stronger, etc. For me, a person who doesn't network or name drop in person, 'social networking' website like Facebook hold zero appeal. I struggle to use the phone, and don't even have a cell phone, so I've found, as time goes on, that I use email less and less, to the point that I write very few emails and receive even fewer. For some reason, however, this held some appeal to try. I'll check it out for a few weeks before deciding if I like it or not.