Learning stuff

[serene]

On my kitchen table right now, because I haven't set up my school desk yet, are the following books:

Our Bodies, Ourselves (for Women's Studies: Women and their bodies)
A couple of ethics textbooks
A book and workbook for grammar
ASL book and DVD
Book on teaching oneself Dutch
Beginning Braille for adults


It occurs to me that I'm starting to learn three languages, only one of which involves speaking. (Dutch and Braille are for my personal use; ASL is for my language requirement at school, for work, and because I took a class in my 20s and have always wanted to learn more.)

This week, I work one day, take the GRE the next day, then go visit my mom. Next week, I work one day, then start school. I'll be going to school Tuesdays and Thursdays (along with two online courses) and working Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays. After the disaster-filled summer in my family, it took me a while to get excited about this again, but now I am. I'll take my schoolbooks to my mom's and study in the downtimes; only four of my classes have books, but I've already bought all of them, so I can get a head start.

Sometimes, on a rough day, I wonder if I'm biting off more than I can chew, but then I remind myself it's only a year (or possibly a year and a quarter), and this time around, I'm not trying to go to school and hold down a minimum-wage job while being way too young to do all that. This time, I'm middle-aged, fairly responsible, and financially stable, albeit not highly paid. The kid is old enough to take care of herself, and the partners will miss me but are totally behind this step of my adventure. And of course, the Best Job Ever is making this possible by allowing me to tailor my work schedule to my school schedule. AMAZING of them, and I so appreciate it.

Comments

[jae]

Book on teaching oneself Dutch

!!!!!!!

-J

[serene]

Oh, I guess you didn't see this: http://serene.dreamwidth.org/1298167.html

(no reproach, just a repost. :-)

[jae]

Thank you for reposting! :)

-J

[bcholmes]

Book on teaching oneself Dutch

Oh, cool. I wish I had an aptitude for languages. I think that in the four months I spent in the Netherlands, I managed to pick up maybe a half-dozen words.

Mind you, to this day, I still say "bedankt" instead of "thanks".

I also still clearly remember one of my work colleagues commenting on English. He said that English is strange because we say "steet" but we write "straight" and we mean straat. (In Dutch pronouciation, "ee" is pronounced "ay").

Make lots of posts about learning Dutch, please!

[wild_irises]

Make lots of posts about all this stuff!

[jae]

I second the nomination for you to make lots of posts about learning Dutch! :D

Do you remember my post about my own (ridiculous) learning process? Should I relink you?

-J

[serene]

If it's this one -- http://jae.dreamwidth.org/995339.html -- I have it bookmarked. :-) And I don't think it's ridiculous. Re-reading it does make me want onto your Dutch filter, though. :-)

[jae]

That's it. :) And 'ridiculous' isn't quite what I mean; I'm just trying to be less able-ist and stop using words like 'crazy' so often. (I have yet to find a word for what I do mean--do you have one? Something that to more ordinary people would make you seem actually mentally ill? 'Obsessive'?)

I just added you to the filter, by the way, if you want to read back. There hasn't been a filtered post for a while (because I'm still learning the language of course, but I'm not really in the "learning stage" anymore), but all are tagged 'dutch'.

-J

[tachyon]

I just saw a nice Our Bodies, Ourselves article.

[serene]

Keen; thanks! I was impressed that the first (the very first!) chapter was about how ridiculous it is to expect all women to be tall, thin, young, white, busty, etc.