Sunday, January 30, 2011

School

I like to think I am a pretty good writer, sure I do not have a huge following here or anything. Still being able to express myself well in writing has always been one of my virtues. So it feels fairly humiliating to have to take a class recapping elementary and middle school Finnish grammar in order to take high school Finnish classes. Well, I really need to as evidenced by the grammar, spelling and etc. Test taken on the first day. Under 50% success is nothing to brag about.

We have our first writing assignment. I am looking forward to it but I feel nervous. I have not taken an academic class in six years. I am afraid that I will let myself down again like I did back then. Back then I failed out of college. I locked up and was unable to do the work. I was unable to study and to complete the course work. Now I know I can do better and I am just taking one class, one class I really need and am finding reading the course text rather challenging. I am scared of the writing assignment. I have to write it by hand, all high school work has to be in Finnish classes. I have a strict limit for my final draft. If it runs long, how am I going to shorten it with out rewriting it? What about writing mistakes? Can I just write it in pencil? An erase able pen? Or do I just write it in pen and draw lines over my mistakes. I have to ask the teacher. I am also worried that I will get too nervous about it and not finish it like so many other assignments in college. That would be humiliating. I really have to do well in the class to gain back my academic confidence.

When ever I have the time to work on my assignment I seem to be too tired to think so I can't work on it very much. Like now, I was going to work on it but I feel really tired. It is about nine in the evening here. I will have to try earlier tomorrow.

5 comments:

  1. Come on, take it easy - like some new, interesting and exciting experience, not as an exam to pass! You'll see new people, learn new stuff - that's a fun :)
    I will start my Finnish course in April and cannot wait (well, mostly because I don't speak Finnish...)

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  2. Marcus will be starting 20 hours a week of Finnish lessons soon. He is in a class now in the evenings two days a week.

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  3. I will probably have 6 hours per day 5 times a week which is scaring itself (as well as getting up at 6:30 am...) But it's a challenge and I hope to have fun (except for learning) :)

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  4. My multi-lingual friends all assure me that if you are good in one language you can (eventually) be good in others too. But they would say that wouldn't they? I have always been bad at languages (it was my worst subject at school) and bad at homework (self study) too, ja minun suomea on vielä kamala, despite reaching level 8 Sumea ulkomalaisille a year ago.

    My situation is probably a bit different from yours but sometimes I wonder what made me think it was a good idea to come here... I've gone from being an experienced project leading professional in the UK back to a confused part-qualified student who can't even understand the regulations without help here.

    I must do some more courses this year!

    Onnea tehtävän

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  5. My English teacher in highschool taught out of a Spanish room, and spoke a mixture of English and Finnish.

    Imagine the confusion of trying to learn English grammar when the posters and signs around the room are all in Spanish and your teacher is occasionally flip-flopping between English and Finnish.

    Thankfully, I've always had an intuitive knack for English so I was a little more advantaged than some of the other students. But the looks on the faces of the people having more difficulty, I would say, was priceless!

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