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Say anything
Aug. 22nd, 2003 12:00 pmI went to the first day of Spanish class this morning and was reminded of just how much the average 18 and 19-year-old annoys me.
This is Spanish 105, Accelerated Spanish. It's for people who have had at least one previous semester in high school Spanish. Now, after repeating "Me llamo Sarah" several times, the TA asked several students "¿Cómo se llama?" Silence. Half-open mouths.
Later in the hour, she asked us to use basic present tense of ser to describe different people: Sherlock Holmes, Jim Carrey, Oprah, etc. She had us refer to a list of cognates: inteligete, comico/a, ambicioso/a, etc. She wrote the conjugation grid on the board: Yo soy, Tu eres, Usted es and so on. She even gave an example of how to conjugate for third person singular. "Sherlock Holmes es muy serio" (Sherlock Holmes is very serious for anyone not keeping up here).
Crickets fucking chirped.
I understand not wanting to look stupid in front of a group of people, but this is beginning Spanish. Nobody is going to care if you say something wrong. Just say something. I hope they liven up soon or I'm going to be arrested for choking the shit out of their tanned, skinny little nineteen-year-old necks.
Me llamo Lydia y yo estoy muy aggravated beyond comprehension.
This is Spanish 105, Accelerated Spanish. It's for people who have had at least one previous semester in high school Spanish. Now, after repeating "Me llamo Sarah" several times, the TA asked several students "¿Cómo se llama?" Silence. Half-open mouths.
Later in the hour, she asked us to use basic present tense of ser to describe different people: Sherlock Holmes, Jim Carrey, Oprah, etc. She had us refer to a list of cognates: inteligete, comico/a, ambicioso/a, etc. She wrote the conjugation grid on the board: Yo soy, Tu eres, Usted es and so on. She even gave an example of how to conjugate for third person singular. "Sherlock Holmes es muy serio" (Sherlock Holmes is very serious for anyone not keeping up here).
Crickets fucking chirped.
I understand not wanting to look stupid in front of a group of people, but this is beginning Spanish. Nobody is going to care if you say something wrong. Just say something. I hope they liven up soon or I'm going to be arrested for choking the shit out of their tanned, skinny little nineteen-year-old necks.
Me llamo Lydia y yo estoy muy aggravated beyond comprehension.