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I owe responses to comments on my random Buddhist rant, but you guys are too deep for me on a Friday night.

Good news though. The financial aid fiasco is (knock wood) over. Done. Finito.

I called the school and they were mystified, two people said there was no record of a problem (yes, I've learned to call and get confirmation from at least two separate voices). They researched it, and said, "It must be someone goofed and then fixed whatever they did in the system."

*kisses entire financial aid department* Thank goodness. You know, I've really grown to like these guys?

This coming Wednesday I'll be sitting in a chair, scribbling notes and studying Sanskrit at 9:30am. As I quietly hyperventilated over what a difficult language I was about to tackle (harder than Latin, easier than Chinese) someone told me, "Yeah. But the nice thing about dead languages is you don't have to learn how to speak it."

Of course, the speaking is usually the easy part, because spoken language is like music. Imitate it like a child learning Do Re Mi and you'll pick it up very quickly.

Memorizing zillions of declensions-? I think I'm in trouble. *starts doing Manjusri mantras as my only hope*

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I advise you to say the declensions out loud. Turn it into a chant. It worked wonders for Greek. (Which I've heard is pretty much like Sanskrit in terms of difficulty. But since I don't know Sanskrit or Chinese...all I can say it that Greek's *definitely* harder than Latin.)

I had my Latin students chant the irregular verbs in class, too. It seemed to work well for them. Even the less studious students remembered their irregular verb forms.

/unasked for advice

Wonderful advice. I will do exactly that. *nods* *files this away under words of wisdom*

I've learned that if you sing immediately before studying spoken language (learning a song by listening) -- you'll pick up the intonation much more quickly.

Icarus

I'll agree on chanting Latin declensions. My Latin teacher had us chant the endings for male nouns, versions of me and you; just about everything really. I can still remember much of what I learned 13 years later.

Cool. *nods*

Also, Fred? Love the icon.

Icarus

Thanks. I stole it from someone on my f-list who got it from someone... repeat ad infinitum

I second the turn declensions into some sort of chant, it is what I do with the Latin conjugations and declensions. *hums: amo, amas, amat* It is also what I did with irregular Japanese forms and the different 'te' forms. Then just read, read, read, and keep using the language by some more reading and translating so that you fall into the patterns of it without having to speak. Still, read it aloud, or just find a transcription of it and touch type out entire pages ... helps with falling into grammatical rhythm and just getting a bird's eye view of the language.

Spoken language is always hard for me as I am somewhat tone deaf :P *g*

*nods*

*takes notes*

I'm definitely going to do this. I've tried to keep this quarter relatively light so that I have time to absorb the language. I'm doing this, creative writing, and music cultures of the world (which has a bonus of having the only professor who's studied Tibetan and it's a cross-regional requirement for my degree -- and it's a strategic move because it's immediately after my Sanskrit class. Two classes back-to-back assists me in not skipping classes when the homework piles up).

*crosses fingers*

The Asian Studies degree has two years of language required, as opposed to the usual one year for most Bachelors degrees. Language is hard and this is the most likely class to sink my GPA. Like a stone.

Is it weird that I have one of my creative writing assignments already sketched out in my notes?

Icarus

I know I have mentioned how incredibly jealous I am of your courses, but I think it bears saying again. *jealous*

What does music cultures of the world involve?

All languages have their challenges and sometimes you can just click more with one than the other. I always have trouble with French, but Japanese comes easily. No affinity with Greek, but Latin I can fumble around in and end up ok. So ... just work at it and don't let it lie down for long period of time. Practice is the only way. You might also be suprised with the GPA ... depends on their marking structure to some extent.

Wow. Taking any language course is not a requirement at all for a Bachelor over here. Horrible and slack as they are, because it should be. One minimum.

No. Not weird. Weird would be if you had it already written. *nod*

So are you doing two different languages or just the one?

What does music cultures of the world involve?

That's my "mystery" class. It's "Ethnomusicology." All it says is that it covers Music of the Near East, Central Asia, Far East, South and Souteast Asia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The class is kind of a gamble for me. The professor has one of his degrees from the University of Wisconsin and was the spearhead of the effort to keep the Tibetan language program at the university. I'm hoping that I can connect with him and get some extra readings on Tibetan culture and history, as well as Tibetan language.

But it also helps that it's directly after my Sanskrit class. Having them back to back will keep me going to Sanskrit, not missing a minute, even when my morale gets low.

I know I have mentioned how incredibly jealous I am of your courses, but I think it bears saying again. *jealous*

Well, I moved across country specifically to go to this university, and it is huge. The U has its own zip code.

Wow. Taking any language course is not a requirement at all for a Bachelor over here. Horrible and slack as they are, because it should be. One minimum.

All College of the Arts & Sciences are required to take one language, for the equivalent of three quarters (or you can do a 12-credit summer intensive). The business school I believe has no such requirement, and I'll be willing to bet other colleges within the UW such as Architecture and Nursing and Pre-Med also do not require it.

So ... just work at it and don't let it lie down for long period of time. Practice is the only way. You might also be suprised with the GPA ... depends on their marking structure to some extent.

Good advice. I'm absorbing whatever advice I can at the moment (and praying, yeep).

So are you doing two different languages or just the one?

The degree I'm taking is Asian Studies, so it only requires two years of one language. If I was doing Asian Language & Literature that would require two years of one language, and one year of a second.

I'd like to study Tibetan, be tested and have it included in my degree, but it's not offered here any more. I hope to study it in a summer intensive at least.

Icarus

Good news though. The financial aid fiasco is (knock wood) over. Done. Finito.

AWESOME.SAUCE. *kisses them too on your behalf* I'm so SO very happy for you. :D

*flumphs* Thank god. Though I've reached a point where I'm almost used to everything going haywire right before school starts. It's becoming a regularly scheduled event.

Icarus

"Yeah. But the nice thing about dead languages is you don't have to learn how to speak it."

Someone should tell that to my professor- we've got to do a recitation of Cicero this semester. Nobody so much as bothered to mention pronunciation rules before him, of course, and to any useful extent including him. Ah well.

Sanskrit. Sanskrit is the one thing making me glad I'm going to be here for way too long, so I can take it when the course cycle comes 'round again. Gah. ♥

WHICH Latin pronunciation rules? Just establishing that would be very helpful to start with.

Oi. That's it, he's getting interrogated before I'm even considering starting the assignment. :P

Oh, so you're at UW, too? The Sanskrit professor here is pretty well known (and he has Sanskrit cartoons outside his office, which makes me happy in an absurd sort of way).

Icarus

NGAH GAH GAH ::covets the Sanskrit::

In addition to the chanting everyone else is recommending, I'd suggest writing out whole paradigms for practice. You can say them while you write them, but the writing adds a kinesthetic component and trains your hand. My hand is getting so trained at Russian that I've begun switching into Cyrillic letters in the middle of English words. :-)

Okay. *nods* I'll do that. Also, that sounds like fun since Sanskrit is so lovely. I do love different alphabets. Did you know that's how I got into different languages? The Tibetan alphabet was so elegant and pretty I wanted to know what it said.

Icarus

So happy the financial aid problems are fixed! I was worried for you.

Oh, that's really sweet of you. Thank you and, whoa, what a relief.

Icarus

Make sure your teacher teaches Sanskrit as Sanskrit, not as Latin. I was never able to grasp Sanskrit because the book I used was from the 1880s, and was written for people who already knew Latin. I didn't know Latin. Also I suck at grammar.

Spoken Sanskrit is much easier. Have you heard of Samskrit Bharati? It's an organization that is devoted to teaching spoken Sanskrit and making it accessible to everyone. There are a couple of villages in India that now only speak Sanskrit in their daily life.

Let's put it this way: when the oldest scrap of Buddhist text yet discovered was unearthed in 1997, the professor of Sanskrit at the UW was one of the people they called. And my professor this fall is an Abhidharma scholar and protege of his. When the plug was pulled on the Tibetan program, the Sanskrit remained for the sheer scholarly "sexiness" of the staff they'd managed to hook.

If someone's teaching Sanskrit in the U.S. at all, it's so specialized, they're likely way up there in the hierarchy of scholars in the field. Otherwise there's no budget for them.

I understand it's different in India, where Sanskrit is pushed as part of a political agenda so you find it everywhere, but there are some pretty shaky professors in the smaller schools.

Icarus

So based on your comment, I read the preface to my Sanskrit textbook.

It made reference to an old Sanskrit teaching system that relied on linguistic terms that applied to English (and Latin?), weren't relevant to Sanskrit, and assumed one was already a student in linguistics, too.

I'm reassured by the fact that we'll be learning the Sanskrit grammar terminology. The professors who wrote the textbook back in the 80s say that Sanskrit has one of the clearest systems of terms for grammar (they point out inconsistencies in English grammaticaly terms) so it doesn't make sense to force a system that is not only inappropriate but also unsystematic and unclear, and bound to cause confusion.

They also said that for the first year they've left out a lot of subtleties and exceptions where those exceptions are rare, so as to aid the students' initial comprehension. More complexity is added later in the second year. So I am going to be learning a slightly simplified version.

That said, I'm a little panicked. I mean, quite worried. After scanning each chapter in my grammar book I've come away with one impression: Sanskrit is hard in a way I've never encountered before. I admit right off the bat that I think I'm in over my head.

Icarus

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