Back in classes.
LOVE IT.
Really. It's been over a year since I was both in school, and healthy enough to complete my classes.
I was sitting in my language acquisition and development class, and I felt like a real student again. The class is kind of a cross-roads between my first actual major (English Linguistics), my current minor (Linguistics:Comparative), and my current major (Family Studies: HS&FP [that's the "development" part of the class]). So I feel like I kind of know what's going on! :-) Most of the people in my class are Early El Ed women. I'm the only sort-of linguistics student. I have found myself needing to shut myself up more than a few times! However, today was really fun. We covered suprasegmental cues in language (pitch, pauses, emphasis, sarcasm, etc). The professor needed someone to speak in a language that the other class members wouldn't recognize, to emphasize how much meaning comes across, outside of the comprehension of the arbitrary semantic symbols (..."words.")
There were only 6 foreign language speakers in the class (which is kind of odd for BYU--usually there are more). The others spoke romance languages that many were familiar with. That left me--I got to speak a paragraph or two at a time in Arabic, as it was a language that no one else in the class spoke. Arguably, I don't really speak it, either, but I was able to smoothly come up with a basic paragraph, when put on the spot. I was pretty proud of myself! I said, basically, "Hey, everyone! I don't actually speak a lot of Arabic--I only speak a little. I only took a year of it, here at the university, and that was a few years ago. But I love the Arabic language! I want to be fluent, but it's not easy to read."
I sounded SO good. I was surprised at myself, and pleasantly so! {I was going to say something about how it really is tremendously cold at BYU, but only in winter time--BUT I didn't. Arabic speakers, be proud of me. ;-)}
I was amazed at how much I remembered--both in Arabic and linguistics--that I thought I'd forgotten. I feel like I'm shaking my brain awake; like it's been lying under a thick layer of dust for a long time. Wake up, brain!! So much to know!
Dust....wake... this line of thinking is jogging a memory in my gray matter... so, naturally, I look it up. Yup, there it is:
Moroni 10:31: And aawake, and arise from the dust, O Jerusalem; yea, and put on thy beautiful garments, O daughter of bZion; andcstrengthen thy dstakes and enlarge thy borders forever, that thou mayest eno more be confounded, that the covenants of the Eternal Father which he hath made unto thee, O house of Israel, may be fulfilled.
32 Yea, acome unto Christ, and be bperfected in him, and cdeny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and dlove God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may beeperfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God. (emphasis added)
Well, if the glory of God is intelligence (D&C 93:36), then it makes sense that "coming to Christ" involves learning more about the world and the people in it. I personally have chosen to pursue this learning in lots of different ways, one of which is completing my college degree. I feel very blessed to be able to get back to it! ^_^
LOVE IT.
It has only *officially* been one semester since I was in school, BUT when you add in the summer break, and the fact that I was pretty much dead on the couch for most of last winter semester...it feels like forever.
It's been since '09 since I have been healthy enough to actually ENJOY school... or be semi-good at it...or finish all my classes within the semester deadlines...or not randomly hang out at hospitals or whatnot.
But now...
I'M BACK!!
And it feels GREAT.
I was sitting in my language acquisition and development class, and I felt like a real student again. The class is kind of a cross-roads between my first actual major (English Linguistics), my current minor (Linguistics:Comparative), and my current major (Family Studies: HS&FP [that's the "development" part of the class]). So I feel like I kind of know what's going on! :-) Most of the people in my class are Early El Ed women. I'm the only sort-of linguistics student. I have found myself needing to shut myself up more than a few times! However, today was really fun. We covered suprasegmental cues in language (pitch, pauses, emphasis, sarcasm, etc). The professor needed someone to speak in a language that the other class members wouldn't recognize, to emphasize how much meaning comes across, outside of the comprehension of the arbitrary semantic symbols (..."words.")
There were only 6 foreign language speakers in the class (which is kind of odd for BYU--usually there are more). The others spoke romance languages that many were familiar with. That left me--I got to speak a paragraph or two at a time in Arabic, as it was a language that no one else in the class spoke. Arguably, I don't really speak it, either, but I was able to smoothly come up with a basic paragraph, when put on the spot. I was pretty proud of myself! I said, basically, "Hey, everyone! I don't actually speak a lot of Arabic--I only speak a little. I only took a year of it, here at the university, and that was a few years ago. But I love the Arabic language! I want to be fluent, but it's not easy to read."
I sounded SO good. I was surprised at myself, and pleasantly so! {I was going to say something about how it really is tremendously cold at BYU, but only in winter time--BUT I didn't. Arabic speakers, be proud of me. ;-)}
I was amazed at how much I remembered--both in Arabic and linguistics--that I thought I'd forgotten. I feel like I'm shaking my brain awake; like it's been lying under a thick layer of dust for a long time. Wake up, brain!! So much to know!
Dust....wake... this line of thinking is jogging a memory in my gray matter... so, naturally, I look it up. Yup, there it is:
Moroni 10:31: And aawake, and arise from the dust, O Jerusalem; yea, and put on thy beautiful garments, O daughter of bZion; andcstrengthen thy dstakes and enlarge thy borders forever, that thou mayest eno more be confounded, that the covenants of the Eternal Father which he hath made unto thee, O house of Israel, may be fulfilled.
32 Yea, acome unto Christ, and be bperfected in him, and cdeny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and dlove God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may beeperfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God. (emphasis added)
Well, if the glory of God is intelligence (D&C 93:36), then it makes sense that "coming to Christ" involves learning more about the world and the people in it. I personally have chosen to pursue this learning in lots of different ways, one of which is completing my college degree. I feel very blessed to be able to get back to it! ^_^
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