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alexpgpSo after closing my eyes for a restful spell last night, I awoke to find it was 1:30 am.
Drat.
There are no singularly intense stressors in my life, currently. I hardly notice the scar in my chest any more, either because I'm getting used to the feeling that several layers of kraftboard have been inserted under the surface of the skin, or because I'm actually getting better.
And there's not much to be done about the cancer, except to let the therapy run its course.
However, that's not to say there's nothing to do.
Work has been light, despite having resurrected a relationship that had faded away when my client failed to win a contract. I have something on my plate right now, and every bit helps at the end of the month, but it's not a big job at all.
It turns out tomorrow's event (at which Galina and I will be judges) is the annual Olympiada of Spoken Russian sponsored by the American Council of Teachers of Russian. The judging rules are pretty straightforward, although I suspect things might go slowly at first because the examination procedure is not something I have first-hand knowledge of, although I've heard descriptions of the process, which involves the examinee blindly selecting one or more cards with questions written on them (out of a general collection of all possible questions that can be asked for the examination).
The one thing that bugged me upon waking last night is the fact that I had been asked, last Saturday, to prepare "a few words," as apparently, I am among the speakers that will be called upon tomorrow morning to kick off the competition. When I asked what the "few words" were to be about, the response was a bit fuzzy: about myself and my work.
Who the heck is interested in that?
Still, I suppose I shall prepare about 90 seconds of remarks, likely leading off with my journal's subtitle here on LJ (from Wittgenstein: The limits of my language denote the limits of my world.) and then...
I don't know.
Would there be a place to cite a quote Lomonosov, where he says, in the dedication of his Russian Grammar:
(Although I should probably leave out the part where it is said that Lomonosov came across this chestnut in a book published years before, the Dictionnaire historique et critique of Pierre Bayle.)
Tell them about all the cool people I've worked with and all the places I've been to in connection with my devotion to languages?
Tell them how it was that an engineering student ended up taking an intensive elementary Russian course and then—lacking employment prospects in the engineering field—found a job working for a US travel agency in the USSR?
If I could convince myself that this was relevant to the competition, maybe I would. Just like that, however, I get the feeling it'd sound like bragging.
I don't know.
Maybe note the side benefits of learning a language, i.e., how language works (which can only really be appreciated when studying a foreign language), which can lead to think about about English in a way that you would not be able to without having something (e..g, Russian) against which to set things off.
Should I argue that a foreign language is perhaps the most important thing one can study in school? (Problem 1: This has nothing to do with the Russian language. Problem 2: As attractive as I can make this argument sound, it can be easily reduced to dust in any one of several ways.)
Gee, does it sound like I'm freewheeling my remarks right here and now? &grin>
More later, maybe.
Drat.
There are no singularly intense stressors in my life, currently. I hardly notice the scar in my chest any more, either because I'm getting used to the feeling that several layers of kraftboard have been inserted under the surface of the skin, or because I'm actually getting better.
And there's not much to be done about the cancer, except to let the therapy run its course.
However, that's not to say there's nothing to do.
Work has been light, despite having resurrected a relationship that had faded away when my client failed to win a contract. I have something on my plate right now, and every bit helps at the end of the month, but it's not a big job at all.
It turns out tomorrow's event (at which Galina and I will be judges) is the annual Olympiada of Spoken Russian sponsored by the American Council of Teachers of Russian. The judging rules are pretty straightforward, although I suspect things might go slowly at first because the examination procedure is not something I have first-hand knowledge of, although I've heard descriptions of the process, which involves the examinee blindly selecting one or more cards with questions written on them (out of a general collection of all possible questions that can be asked for the examination).
The one thing that bugged me upon waking last night is the fact that I had been asked, last Saturday, to prepare "a few words," as apparently, I am among the speakers that will be called upon tomorrow morning to kick off the competition. When I asked what the "few words" were to be about, the response was a bit fuzzy: about myself and my work.
Who the heck is interested in that?
Still, I suppose I shall prepare about 90 seconds of remarks, likely leading off with my journal's subtitle here on LJ (from Wittgenstein: The limits of my language denote the limits of my world.) and then...
I don't know.
Would there be a place to cite a quote Lomonosov, where he says, in the dedication of his Russian Grammar:
Carl the Fifth, the Holy Roman Emperor, used to say that one should speak Spanish with God, French with friends, German with enemies, and Italian with the fair sex. But had he been skilled in Russian he would of course have added that it would be appropriate to speak with all of these in it, for he would have found in it the magnificence of Spanish, the vivacity of French, the strength of German, the delicacy of Italian, and, in addition, the richness and conciseness of Greek and Latin.
(Although I should probably leave out the part where it is said that Lomonosov came across this chestnut in a book published years before, the Dictionnaire historique et critique of Pierre Bayle.)
Tell them about all the cool people I've worked with and all the places I've been to in connection with my devotion to languages?
Tell them how it was that an engineering student ended up taking an intensive elementary Russian course and then—lacking employment prospects in the engineering field—found a job working for a US travel agency in the USSR?
If I could convince myself that this was relevant to the competition, maybe I would. Just like that, however, I get the feeling it'd sound like bragging.
I don't know.
Maybe note the side benefits of learning a language, i.e., how language works (which can only really be appreciated when studying a foreign language), which can lead to think about about English in a way that you would not be able to without having something (e..g, Russian) against which to set things off.
Should I argue that a foreign language is perhaps the most important thing one can study in school? (Problem 1: This has nothing to do with the Russian language. Problem 2: As attractive as I can make this argument sound, it can be easily reduced to dust in any one of several ways.)
Gee, does it sound like I'm freewheeling my remarks right here and now? &grin>
More later, maybe.
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no subject
Date: 2015-04-17 06:00 pm (UTC):( I don't believe you've mentioned that part before, and I'm sorry it's more than just surgery that's weighing on you. The fact that you're generally feeling better through recovery is a good sign.
Tell them about all the cool people I've worked with and all the places I've been to in connection with my devotion to languages?
"Learning Russian has opened doors. I've had unexpected job opportunities (true, and you're still making use of them today!), and I've met so many interesting people (people who are fascinating and not just famous?)"
If the people you've met are cool because of their personalities/occupations rather than their fame, it's not so much bragging as celebrating how the Russian language has enlarged your world and experiences.
i.e., how language works (which can only really be appreciated when studying a foreign language), which can lead to think about about English in a way that you would not be able to without having something (e..g, Russian) against which to set things off.
You know, my husband was an English major in college and I was music with math and various arts/sciences. But both of us studied German in high school, and learning German grammar was what put English grammar into a really meaningful context for us. I think this is more surprising for my husband, given that he was already headed down that path, but really... we both grasped it much more clearly through having studied German.
I can't explain why, but it's a sideways approach that seems to work very well.
no subject
Date: 2015-04-18 02:22 am (UTC)I just wanted to say I appreciated your insights.
(And now I need to go and finalize my remarks!) <grin>