November 30th

What's better than one lecture on Friday? Two lectures for the same class followed by an in-class essay in Medieval Literature! I thought I was going to die of starvation today. Not all the carrots in the universe could satisfy my howling stomach. Why was I so hungry? Well running late I sorta skipped breakfast and just grabbed a few carrots for lunch. Since my American Culture teacher decided that today we were going to make up our missed lecture, I wasn't able to have lunch. Why? Because it was from 12 to 1 audience!! I then had my in-class final exam essay in Arthurian Literature. That, well that was a fun one. I had two dictionaries with me; my French to English and my French. They were so useful. Not actually for looking up translations or definitions, but rather spelling. I wish on in-class essays in history and some English courses people were allowed to have a pocket dictionary. Obviously not on tests with vocabulary questions, but just on essay exams. When I am nervous as all hell, which I often am with tests, my spelling goes out the window. I already am not a strong speller, never have been, so I can't afford to lose anymore words. A dictionary would prevent that and give me more confidence on an exam. And none of this bullshit that you should always know how to spell a word regardless of the situation. Scientists forget formulas and are able to reference them any time they like. In fact, it is necessary that they do to insure that they are correct. Writers use dictionaries to ensure that not only are they using the word correctly in a sentence, but that they also have it spelled correctly. Spell checker is nice, but it flukes about 40% of the time. Therefore, I think that it is perfectly plausible to allow students a pocket dictionary on essay exams. Or at least have the option to use one. This is my request of the world. Please audience, won't you shake a lost speller's hand? The in-class essay went better than I thought it would. Of course mine was much shorter than the other student's, no surprise. But I am curious to know their level of English. Kids whom I believe to have decent English skills can't write worth crap. It's not just their vocabulary, that is forgivable since there are way too many words in every language, but their grammar is unruly. Here I thought I sucked in French. Compared to the average French student in English, I'm pretty good at French writing. My biggest mistakes are prepositions, and that will never quite leave me. Sadly prepositions are, in my opinion and Stev's* opinion, the hardest part to every language. After all, different word formations demand different directions or prepositions. It doesn't helps that the French have three different words for "in"; En, dans, and à are murder for me at times. Well despite my constant errors in French, I have improved some from the beginning of the year. Hey, maybe I will have some fluency by June/July. Fingers crossed audience. Now it is time for tacky reality TV. Laguna Beach, let's go Stephen!

*Stev is a TA at Iowa and was my first university French teacher.

P.S. He is French.