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[icarus]

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*

Comments

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

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