German Grammar

Lately I've been really trying to improve my German. My goal is to be fluent (or at least near-fluent) before 2011 so I've been devoting a minimum of an hour a day to it. If my German is as good as my French by 2011, I'd be over the moon, but even if it's slightly worse, I think that will suffice. German grammar is not nearly as complicated or difficult as Russian grammar, but it still has some peculiarities. For English speakers (can't speak for others) I think the main problem might be the cases. I know the cases are what get me every time. 

Articles in German chance based on what case is being used and there are for cases. (Tisch = desk/table)

Nominative: der Tisch/die Tische 

Genitive: des Tisch(e)s/der Tische

Dative: dem Tisch(e)/den Tische

Accusative: den Tisch/die Tische

The problem is, certain prepositions require different cases. Sometimes, it's really, very, extremely confusing. If you want to say, "The book is on the table" you'd use Das Buch ist auf den Tisch(e), using the accusative case. But then can't you use the dative case as well and say Das Buch is auf dem Tisch? Grammar books I've read say the preposition "auf" calls for either the accusative OR the dative case... so which one am I suppose to use? Would either one be correct? If I were to say I want to walk on the lake, would I say "Ich will auf den See laufen" or would it be better to say "Ich will auf dem See laufen"? 

Personally, I hate the German articles. With all the declensions, cases, and the three genders, the possible combinations make my head spin sometimes... I mean... der, die, das, dem, den, des... I sometimes wonder if I'll really be able to know when to use which article in the future.

Today's Random Quiz:

You Are Italian

Ah, you are a true romantic. You enjoy all of the sensual pleasures in love - delicious food, soul stirring music, a beautiful sunset... And you always seem to be able to find the words to describe each experience perfectly. You are a charming and seductive person. You just have that certain something that draws people to you. You are passionate about words. Words can easily inspire, delight, or anger you. It's sometimes all about how something was said.

What Language Are You?

XYZ Affair

I just spent the last half hour explaining the XYZ Affair to French high school students. This semester, I have stint at a local private high school or lycée, where I give lectures on a bi-weekly basis on the history and politics of the European Union. Somehow during today's lecture, as I was introducing the beginning of the EU, I went off a slight tangent and referenced the infamous "XYZ Affair", which, to my surprise, the students had no clue about. Ah, high school AP U.S. History class and AP tutoring helped me keep this Quasi-War with France fresh in my head.

Don't want to re-post a history lecture (it was a Quasi-War because while President Adams prepared for war with France, war was never actually declared, and this was due to the then-French Foreign Minister, Marquis de Talleyrand's, demands and demand for bribes from the U.S., as well as French seizure of American ships. It was called the XYZ Affair because Adams, not wanting to stoke the fire, replaced Talleyrand's intermediaries' real names with 'X', 'Y', and 'Z', when forwarding the negotiations documents, in a very short summary), but it makes me really wonder how different the education system is in France. The U.S. is "famous" for producing uneducated, culture-insensitive, overfed, and arrogant citizens, sending them abroad on resort vacations in their hotel bubbles, talking too loudly and dressing poorly. Yet, I really want to pause to wonder, is France, or any other country, really that much better?

Sure, I guess the average European dresses better than the average American. When I'm sitting in class with my sneakers, a hoodie, and jeans, my hair tied back into a ponytail, my nails cut short and unpolished, my French colleagues are sitting in class with their fashionable winter boots, a skirt or well-tailored pants, with smoky eye makeup, polished and filed nails, hair in moussed and hair-sprayed tresses and a nice, feminine shirt. Still, while that stereotype might be true to an extent (not all people dress to impress, but I guess most still dress nicer than I do when I'm in class at 8a.m.), it doesn't mean the French educational system as a whole produces smarter people.

The difference might arise in higher education. Up until high school, perhaps the French school system produces brighter students, I can't say for sure. I've tutored private-schooled American students and now I'm teaching at a French private school. From my experience, I must say I don't see a huge disparity in the quality of education. If anything, the private school students of New York receive more high quality education than the private school students of Strasbourg. That said, New York is the largest metropolis in America, so perhaps I'd be singing a different tune had I experienced private Parisian high schools.

Nonetheless, the French higher education is rather hierarchical. You have your basic government-funded public universities. Some are better than others (Sciences Po-Paris, Sorbonne Paris I, etc.) but all in all, the "Grandes écoles" of France are the cream of the crop. These private university-equivalents are much more expensive in terms of tuition and are much more selective. All the higher ranking French government officials are alumni to a Grande école, not a normal university. Perhaps that is why I find the quality of French graduate school at the university here in Strasbourg not up to par. In essence, I'm learning undergraduate-level material at a graduate level, which says something. Not to mention the poorer quality of lecturers and professors.

I suppose it's like going to a Tier 2 university in the U.S. While the best universities in the U.S. are extremely expensive private universities (Ivy League schools like Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth, etc.), there are still some public universities that are also in the Tier 1 category, and these public universities are also the most expensive of the public universities. Unfortunately, what it all seems to boil down to is money. You receive a better education overall if you spend more money. That's not to say that universities like Harvard, though ranked as one of the world's top universities, produces independent thinkers, which is a whole different story. It's a shame that it always has to be about money, since equal opportunity for quality education should exist. Of course, if you really wanted to receive Harvard-standard education for free, you could get it. All you have to do is read books, at least at the undergraduate level. I feel like you can learn everything (or nearly everything) you need to learn from books. It's just that though you read everything, you won't get a degree, and in today's society, a degree says more than private book learning.

This has to be one of contemporary society's flaws. Everything depends on monetary achievements, a degree from an expensive school leads you to a "brighter", better-paid future. It's a shame since I feel like we're losing independent thinkers. Even Harvard-educated students aren't necessarily independent, critical thinkers. Many just regurgitate what their professors tell them and repeat exactly what they read in their books instead of digesting what they hear and read and retorting to, challenging, and analyzing what was just fed to them. Perhaps the era of modernity has destroyed some fine arts of times past or perhaps I'm just not looking hard enough.



Today's Random Quiz:

Your Surfing Habits are 50% Male, 50% Female

There's no way we can tell whether you're a man or woman. Of all the internet users, you are the most broad based in your habits. You use the internet for research and your career. But you also use the internet to keep in close touch with your loved ones.

Do You Use the Internet Like a Man or a Woman?

Zest for Life

I've pulled through my homesick phase, my confused phase, my regret phase, and now, I'm recovering my usual zest for life. There have been a few changes in my life in the past couple of months. First of all, I'm not going to stay in France for the second year since my program is not teaching my anything new. Basically I sit in class thinking "Tell me something I don't know", since all my classes just teach me everything I've already learned, except in a different language. For a while, I felt like coming here was the biggest mistake I've made so far in my life, which was hard for me to admit. My love for a language injured my academic journey, setting me back a couple of years.

In my search for another program, I've discovered several programs that interest me in Finland, Turkey, Estonia, S. Africa, Norway, Slovenia, UK, and due to my mother's incessant insistence, the U.S. Due to language limitations, my only options now are S. Africa, the UK, or the U.S. and I've already completed my applications over the past week. I will have effectively lost 2 years of my life in terms of academic progress if I choose to go to S. Africa or the U.S., though the UK program rewards a MA after one year. Still, I try not to think of it as a year wasted and thus, two years of my life lost. Instead, I think of it as a life experience. Living abroad for a year, perfecting my favorite language and improving another (German) while meeting new people and experiencing new things... not so much a waste of time if you take things from that perspective.

There are still a lot of things I want to do in my life, but I suppose I shouldn't be too hard on myself in terms of "losing" a year in France. I'm still only 22 and the world is my oyster. Besides, there is so much to be thankful for in life. As my favorite childhood book's author Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote: "There is so much in the world for us all if we only have the eyes to see it, and the heart to love it, and the hand to gather it to ourselves -- so much in men and women, so much in art and literature, so much everywhere in which to delight, and for which to be thankful." With this, and many other mantras I like to surround myself with, I think I can continue living happily, with a smile on my face and laughter in my heart, living with my mistakes and happily gaining experience, no matter how big a mistake might be.

Today's Random Quiz:

Your Valentine's Day Personality is Cynical

You really, truly hate Valentine's Day. It's your least favorite day of the year. You think Valentine's Day fake, tacky, over the top, and meant to make single people feel bad. You realize that Valentine's Day is a holiday that only benefits companies... not couples. You know that real love is not about teddy bears and roses, and you feel like the holiday cheapens emotions.

What's Your Valentine's Day Personality?

Language Learning Difficulty Levels for English Speakers

I don't know about other governments, but the U.S. government's Foreign Service Institute (FSI) of the Department of State came up with the approximate difficulty levels of all major foreign languages for native English speakers several years back. I learned of this categorization of languages a few years back but I realized I've merely talked about it and haven't shared the information publicly yet. First, I read it in a book about foreign languages (for English speakers) and I found the list on government website. I tried to go back but it didn't come up, so I decided to post it on my blog.
Before I get into that, I'll give you some basic details. The languages are divided into 3 major levels or categories. 1 being the easiest and 3 being the most difficult. The weeks and class hours estimated by the FSI is to reach S3 and R3 proficiency levels, the U.S. proficiency levels similar to that provided in Europe. Here's my rough estimate, correct me if I'm wrong!Does that mean you can get to level B2/S3 in Danish within 6 months in the comfort of your own home? Sorry to burst your bubble (mine was), but it's probably not likely. These estimates are based on the classes that the FSI students are provided with. Who are these students. Well, generally they are middle age (think late 30s to 40s), probably already speak several other foreign languages and have a "talent" for formal language study. Not to mention that their classes size is at it's largest 6 students, meet for 25 hours per week with an additional 3 to 4 hours of directed self-study PER DAY. If you made learning Danish a part-time/full-time job for the next 6 months, sure, you could get to B2/S3... but do any of us have that kind of time or commitment? I suppose Not. I guess that's why for normal people like you and I, it takes us years to reach a certain level of proficiency. The most difficult language to learn for native English speakers according to the FSI? Japanese. Not hard to imagine, with their 3 writing systems (katakana, hiragana, kanji) and the "inversed" sentence structure, I guess it's no wonder that's considered the most difficult.
*Languages preceded by asterisks are typically somewhat more difficult for native English speakers to learn than other languages in the same category.

Today's Random Quiz:

You Are a Scrambled Egg

You are spontaneous and fun. You like to mix it up in life, and you are very flexible. You consider any day that surprises you to be a good day. You aren't big on planning and structure. You are an agreeable, happy person. You can get along with almost anyone, and you're pretty easy to please. You live a somewhat chaotic life, but things seem to work out for you in the end. Even when things are a mess, you come out fine at the other end.

What Kind of Eggs Are You?

Education in America

I guess, despite hating the state as a whole, the education system in New Jersey isn't too shabby. Although "evolution" is a theory, it's the most accepted theory as to the origins of mankind and everything on Earth. I don't believe in a God at the moment, but I can't say I buy into the evolution thing 100% either. I mean, there are too many unanswered questions. We all came from an atom that exploded that created the whole universe, right? The whole "big bang" theory... but where did the atom come from? Honestly, no one knows and thus the question of our purpose here on Earth. Either way, I'm going off an a tangent there.

Coming back to where I was going with this initially, the teaching of evolution can be correlated with the quality of education a child receives in each state in the U.S. While this cannot be deemed as a "perfect" example, I think it's pretty accurate when compared with national standardized test scores and distributions.
Most of the South and some of the Midwestern states receive poor grades in terms of their treatment of evolution in public schools. Iowa, apparently, has no state standard at all. I guess I should be glad that I received most of my primary/secondary school education in Pennsylvania/New Jersey respectively.

Good teachers are actually hard to come by in the states. Even teachers that molest children have found loopholes to teach again in the mass network of teachers unions that almost prohibit schools from firing ineffective teachers. This probably contributes to the lack of quality education one can get through public schools here... though some teachers are genuinely interested and informed.
Maybe it's not our fault that the stereotype of "dumb American" came about.