Sumer Is Icumen In
. . . lhude sing cucku! In modern English: "Here comes the hot weather. Damn." Actually it's still in the high 80's but since everyone here seems to take a sadistic pleasure out of telling me how horrible the heat becomes in July and August, up in the 100's, I'm already sweating.
One week of the first six-week summer term down. I'm delighted at how well French is going -- I really enjoy learning it -- and think I will continue to study it in regular classes and just do the reading exam preparation course for Latin. This degree, like many Ph.D.'s, requires reading knowledge of two languages, preferably one modern and one classical, or fluency in one modern. I've chosen French and Latin not only because I have a headstart in them (thanks to the Sisters of St. Mary of Namur) but because they are good choices for a Victorianist, given that they are incorporated into much of the writing of the time.
Victorian Studies with Dr. Fenstermaker is wonderful, building on my last semester's course but covering different works, including Jane Eyre which I've read two or three times and really enjoy. When Dr. F. remarked that Thomas Carlyle would have had a hard time getting published these days, I suggested that he would have started a blog, and that gave me an idea to do exactly that: create Thomas Carlyle's Blog. It would be amusing. I just have to find the time.
Not wild about getting up at 6:30 a.m., and my Mondays and Wednesdays are long days since Vic Studies lets out at 10: p.m. but there it is.
One week of the first six-week summer term down. I'm delighted at how well French is going -- I really enjoy learning it -- and think I will continue to study it in regular classes and just do the reading exam preparation course for Latin. This degree, like many Ph.D.'s, requires reading knowledge of two languages, preferably one modern and one classical, or fluency in one modern. I've chosen French and Latin not only because I have a headstart in them (thanks to the Sisters of St. Mary of Namur) but because they are good choices for a Victorianist, given that they are incorporated into much of the writing of the time.
Victorian Studies with Dr. Fenstermaker is wonderful, building on my last semester's course but covering different works, including Jane Eyre which I've read two or three times and really enjoy. When Dr. F. remarked that Thomas Carlyle would have had a hard time getting published these days, I suggested that he would have started a blog, and that gave me an idea to do exactly that: create Thomas Carlyle's Blog. It would be amusing. I just have to find the time.
Not wild about getting up at 6:30 a.m., and my Mondays and Wednesdays are long days since Vic Studies lets out at 10: p.m. but there it is.
posted by Kathy at 5/16/2005 11:59:00 AM
2 Comments:
I'll have to investigate the question of learning Latin on one's own -- have no doubt that it can be done and will research it for you. Having connectivity issues at the moment as I switch to a much less expensive dial-up offered through the university; but once that's resolved I'll see what I can find out.
Guiseppe, something that occurs to me is that the course I'll be taking sometime in the next year prepares one to pass the reading exam in Latin, so (obviously) it concentrates solely on translation; if no other brilliant idea occurs before then, I could send you whatever materials we're using and you and I could wend our ways through the material, me filling you in on classroom material. Like distance learning.
Which reminds me: I often and more often wish that one of my siblings or parents or children (or all of them) were here doing the program with me -- what fun that would be and what great ideas I'd have access to . . .
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