Was It Something I Said?

I received an iPod for Christmas and have put several Italian lessons on it from my CDs. This will make it easier for me to take my studies with me wherever I go. Browsing the iTunes store, I found free podcasts of Italian lessons. It is very elementary stuff, but might be good for review.

In the meantime, it was a relief to see that I got an A for the semester. Although I had done well throughout the class, my performance on the final seemed weak. But all’s well that ends well. Now I just need to figure out exactly what I am going to do in the spring. I have already signed up for a Geology class, to fulfill my science requirement. The next Italian class in sequence is not being offered at my school, and the equivalent class at the university was canceled for the spring semester, apparently because not enough people had enrolled. In the new year I will explore private language schools.

This is the day of the Italian final. Historically, tests have not worried me much. But I don’t feel confident about this one, and I woke up feeling tense. We have been told it will be mostly about vocabulary, in areas where I am weak. I was out of town over the weekend; although I had my Italian books with me I was able to do only a small amount of studying. And I had a jolt this afternoon when I realized I had entirely forgotten to look at one of the needed sections.

As I study the material, I feel as though I know it, but after I put the book down, it seems I’ve forgotten absolutely everything.

I recently read yet another article citing a study that caffeine helps improve mental performance and memory. I am drinking coffee as I go through the book one more time, and I’ll make a stop at Starbuck’s on my way to school.

Other students agree with me: A language textbook should not be allowed to use words that are not defined in its dictionary. This textbook often uses words that are never defined, either in the margins (where many definitions are given) or in the dictionary (where we’d like to look them up). These are usually difficult words whose meanings we cannot deduce from the context. On the other hand, there are some words that are defined several times throughout the book. These are usually easy words that we don’t need help with. Yet another way this book annoys and frustrates.

As it turns out, it may not be too late to enroll at the university for next semester. One of my fellow students has explored the options and submitted the paperwork, and believes there is enough time to get processed and admitted. Additionally, another community college in the system is offering Italian 3 in the spring, but the schedule is not right for me. And, il professore got permission for us to enroll in Italian 4 at this school if we want to. I don’t want to; I truly believe I need Italian 3 first.

At this point I intend to look into the private language schools. It would cost me around $1000 to take one or two classes at the university. For that amount of money I think I could get quite a bit of mileage out of Berlitz. In the meantime, I have already enrolled at this school for next semester. I’ll be taking a geology class to fulfill my science requirement.

I’m at an odd point in the learning curve right now. Back when I had a tiny vocabulary, I used it with confidence. I knew it sounded like Tarzan-speak, and that was okay. It was easy to pick something from my very small set of choices. Now I know enough to be intimidated by how much more I don’t know. I have been introduced to the complexities of Italian grammar without having had enough time to master any of them. In some ways it is harder for me to speak Italian now than it was when I had only a handful of words at my disposal. It is no longer enough to blurt out little two-word declarations with the belief (usually correct) that someone will figure out what I’m trying to say. Now I wonder, what is the correct word order? Which is the right form of the pronoun? Am I being polite enough? Too polite? Should I use the present perfect or the imperfect? How in the world does one conjugate a reflexive verb in this context? I have been rendered inarticulate by my own vocabulary.

La Strada: Okay, so it’s a famous movie by a famous director. So what? The acting is not especially good. (Yes, I realize part of the problem may be that the original dialogue had to be dubbed in Italian. But it is what it is.) The female lead is particularly annoying, so obviously trying much too hard to be cute and appealing, and coming off mostly as artificial and rather stupid. The plot barely exists, the cinematography is ordinary, and there isn’t a single character whose fate I cared about.

L’Avventura: This was the last straw for my husband, who now refuses to watch any more Italian movies with me. The story is that a woman mysteriously disappears while on a yachting trip with friends. Her fiance and her best friend search for her, and begin an affair. The premise may sound as though the film would be suspenseful or emotional, but it isn’t. It’s slow, meandering, and quite dull.

This will not come as a revelation to anyone who has spent much time in a classroom. Those who most need to study are those who study least. I do the homework, not just just because the teacher assigns it, but because I recognize it as a method of learning. I also do general studying by reading the textbook, doing the unassigned exercises, or just writing lists of vocabulary words in my notebook. In college, many instructors go over the homework, or part of the homework, in class, but don’t actually ask to have all of it handed in, and don’t necessarily grade it. Some students take this as a sign that homework is optional, and they simply don’t do it. With rare exceptions, these are the same students who have trouble understanding the concepts, who struggle painfully with the material, and who are destined to receive poor grades. Often, they appear not to perceive the connection between study and academic success. In my first semester of Italian, I heard comments like, “You’re so good at it, you don’t need to study so much.” Apparently the person who says that honestly doesn’t see that studying is what makes me good at the subject.

In Italian 2, this is not as much of a problem, since people generally do not enter this class without motivation. We have one teenager who is in this class through a program that allows high school students to take some college classes. Presumably he’s enrolled at this level because he had at least a year of Italian in high school. He has trouble understanding the rules of grammar, and is so filled with uncertainty that he will pronounce just the first letter of a word and then trail off into silence, rather than say something that might be wrong. He doesn’t complete the homework, and obviously doesn’t do any extra studying on his own. Having sat with him during some class exercises, I know that he is capable of understanding the material when coached. But in classes like this we are not going to get much coaching; it is up to the students to work outside of class so that they will be prepared to move along inside the class.

In the “general ed” classes, I understand that many students aren’t really interested in the subjects, and take the classes only because they are graduation requirements. But I still don’t understand why people take non-required classes when they are not really motivated by the subject.