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Posts tagged ‘LS’

Aug 24

Final Notes on Language School

Most people don’t know what they’re getting into when they start Language School at Middlebury. Below is a selection (in English) of a few students who kept public blogs over the summer. The aim here is not to expose these students as English speakers but to give a window into the language school experience. The links go to blogs full of insight on learning, thinking, and feeling in language.

I believe that there is something very special that happens, or is already present, when the most diverse group of people are brought together with one single interest. I can’t remember a time when I’ve been around a more contrasting collection of individuals, from every state, country, and background imaginable. For nine weeks, i studied alongside former army officers, university level faculty, and college students under the direction of some of the most amazing professors i will ever meet. For nine weeks, we literally ate, slept, and lived out a language and culture that many of us didn’t fully comprehend. For nine weeks, we tried our best to make out words, ideas, phrases, and emotion from a script that had been so discouraging of appreciation just weeks before. Over the course of nine weeks, i met a man who spoke 12 languages, a girl who broke down from the pledge to not speak english, a marine soldier, FBI agent, aspiring army  intelligence  officers, hopeful NGO founders, and normal students. Heck, i even met a guy studying arabic in hopes of striking it rich in the oil industry sometime in the near future.

- Arabic School: “Nine Weeks“

It was challenging enough studying a language devoid of cultural context – a seemingly purposeful exclusion made by the program administrators. And it was painful to see Arabic treated simply as a tool for American student career advancement, or to hear the same old talking points on the desire to spread “democracy” and “development” to the Arab World.

- Arabic School: “Mapping the Margins“

Last Sunday at dinner I got up to get the usual, generous spoonful of peanut butter and handful of chocolate chips for dessert. Minding my own business, I sat back down to find Lin Laoshi (one of my professors) to be looking at me like I was insane. In Chinese she said “What are you eating? (laughter) You are a very strange person!” Uhhh… Thanks? It comes out a little different sounding in Chinese which would be borderline offensive in English if you heard it and translated it the English way (if that even makes sense).

- Chinese School: “Bates Goes Global“

This week we had 51 new grammar points and somewhere around 300 new vocabulary words, all of which we were tested on on Friday. It makes for a very long Thursday night if you know what I mean. I think I went to sleep sometime around 3:30am and got up at 6am to review before breakfast. I can remember doing this in high school a little bit because I had so many extra circulars eating away at my early evening study time so I was forced to work late into the night however, at Bates I’m pretty go about getting to bed. Come 11 there I’m pretty much done for. Here, I seem to be channeling high school again; it’s hard to say if that is a good thing.

- Chinese School: “Up Up and Away“

…most of my problems I can contribute to one thing: I was in the wrong class. The placement exam was nightmarish, and I am positive that my performance on that exam and in the subsequent interview were the result of nerves and not indicative of how much German I knew coming in. Honestly, for as well structured the classes were, the placement exam was HORRIBLE – with no prior knowledge of how the exam was structured or given, I came in ready to throw up and my brain had shut down from fear before I could write a word. The interview was intimidating with a Blonde German Giantess administering rapid-fire questions, and I subsequently failed miserably.

- German School: “Let’s Mosey“

Classes have started, and I am officially drowning in homework. I can’t say I didn’t expect it–but at least we have SOME free time. Yesterday, I went to Lake Dunmore with a bunch of people from the Italian School. I haven’t swum in a lake in years, and it was really nice, even though I got a sunburn under my eyes and across the ridge of my nose.

- Italian School: “Mel Goes to Middlebury“

Unfortunately I didn’t really take the time to stop to smell the flowers – and appreciate the beauty of the mountains and the architecture – last summer when I was in Vermont for six weeks studying harder than ever before. This time, however, I reveled in it all.

- Italian School: “A Blog with a view“

Jul 19

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Life in Language Immersion: Russian

I’m teaming up with students at Middlebury this summer to produce a series of videos on what it’s like to be at language school. Here’s a “confessional” take by Helena Treeck ’12, narrating her day-to-day in Russian School. Produced by Casey Mahoney ’11.

Jul 13

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When the Language Pledge Fails

Finally truth about language the language school surfaces? Illegal English:

With all the gravity that is placed on the pledge, you’d think that language school kids would be very good about only speaking their chosen language, both fearing potentially-wasted money and getting on the bad sign of the infamous ‘language-school police.’ But you’d think wrong.

So the registered trademark of Middlebury, “No English Spoken Here,” is not as pure and sacred as one might think, but that doesn’t mean the schools aren’t good. They still are probably the best way to learn a language in an immersion environment. Even abroad, the temptation to speak English can be far worse because you have to deal with culture shock in addition to your inability to speak.

The English Spoken Here post does a good job describing why people break the pledge — language school is stressful. There is no outlet, no English music, no NYTimes.com. But the post misses the differentiation of Middlebury undergraduate students vs. other institution students. My guess is that language pledge violators are more often Middlebury students who know the campus, know English-speaking people on campus, etc. I also ponder how the honor code plays in to Middlebury undergrads studying languages during the summer — what duty do non-language school students have in keeping other students’ pledge and is there a duty to report peers breaking the pledge?

Jun 29

Spanish Spoken Here

Throughout the summer, we’ll be posting an assortment of language school videos. And much like last summer, the videos promise to range from confessional to performance-capture to entertaining Chinese rap videos (all made prior to the Middkid Rap). Let’s kick it off:

Aug 14

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Confessions of Language School

After posting some fun clips of what happens during Summer Language Schools here in Vermont, I realized that people are hungry to know more about what happens here during the summer. What’s it really like not speaking English? Did they break language pledge to see Harry Potter when it came out?

One of the most honest and forthright accounts of Language School is by an Italian School student. Her blog is in English. It’s not MiddBlog’s job to be the Language Pledge police so her name is not listed here, but she details what most language school students go through. And this window into Midd’s language learning is rare. When I tried blogging in English two years ago at the Chinese Language School, I was strictly warned to cease and desist or face expulsion.

Here’s a sampling of a Language School experience. Follow the arc and timeline as she moves through the summer:

June 28th:

Meals are really cool. I meet new people at meals every day. The level one students are terrified of meals because they’re forced to talk about things they don’t know how to say and a lot of them sit with more advanced students so as to learn new words and phrases. Almost everyone carries around a little notepad to scratch down things they hear that they don’t recognize, and then later that night they can look them up. We are, I found out today, allowed to use italian-english dictionaries, which is fabulous.

June 30th:

I’m swamped with homework. All the time. Sort of gasping for air in one of my classes. It’s really hard for me. I realized today that most of the other students in my level are: 1) fluent in 2 or more languages and learning italian only now 2) 25 years or older 3) have studied italian for over 3 years. I guess I’m just making excuses for why they have advantages and why I feel like i’m having trouble, but these people are INCREDIBLE at italian, and it’s intimidating my socks off. I can speak, sort of, but I usually stutter before getting a thought out.

July 4th:

Anyway, about the families here: There’s this incredible family atmosphere here, mixed with young people, priests, grad students, and visiting artists (mostly authors). I love seeing the wives of some of the professors, or husbands of the professors chat with each other in quick dialect italian. Since I only have a few professors out of the 15 or 16 that are employed by the italian school, I can hardly tell the difference between whose a spouse of a professor and whose actually a professor so all the real italian people just fade together. It’s like foreigners and true italians. But it doesn’t really even matter, because everyone treats each other the same way outside of class like in the dining hall. Everyone says hi, and its like a small village, which i guess might sound like a dorm at a college, but this feels stronger because of the huge cultural force that the real italians have brought with them to the states, just the flow of conversation and the hilarity of everything. I don’t know how to explain…

July 9th:

In less academic news, the soccer team here plays competitively against other countries (language schools). It’s like war. no joke.

July 12th:

So, I knew about this before, but it got me thinking about why I’m studying italian and what I want to do with it, because even if I wanted to I might not be able to get work in italy (ever). I don’t know. I just feel like its such a privilege to be studying this language in such depth, but what is there to do with it? italian culture and history are really interesting, but it’s a bummer that I’m not taking or haven’t learned spanish, because there are SO many jobs, in the states, but also all over the world, that require or look for bilingualism in english and spanish. Anyway, I just have a hard time really loving something and giving it my all if i don’t know how i’m going to use it, and for right now I know I’ll be using it a ton next year, but I’m not sure if I’ll use it later in life and that sort of sucks to think about. I don’t want to spend all this time learning italian, and then not really need it later.

July 14th:

So i’ve been breaking the language pledge, obviously, when I write in my blog, go on facebook, la la la, etc. Today I spoke with two professors about how classes are going because I’m feeling so behind. I realized, after talking to them, that maybe I should take the language pledge more seriously and stop thinking in english. I tried really hard when I got here and there was a brief adjustment period, before I just got really impatient and felt like I couldn’t express myself in italian and I just started talking to my friends in english, via the web.

July 19th:

If you read the last post, this terrifying midterm was the reason I temporarily cancelled my facebook (really temporary, it only ended up being like 3 days…haha) so I’m really glad it’s over. By the time it was over on friday, i didn’t really care what I’d gotten on it, but when i saw my professor after lunch he asked me how i thought it was. I said it was semi terrible, but i didn’t really mind, and he said ‘oh that’s funny cause you did really well.’ I don’t know how? Miracles happen?” also, today i met a phd student who has been at middlebury for 7 summers. holy shit. comparative spanish/italian degree. DAMN

August 2:

In fact, the last week and a half or so has been pretty different from any other academic or social experience I’ve had. I’ve been hanging out with a group of athletes from the italian school, the people that I’m constantly photographing for those of you on facebook, and we’ve got this strong like borderline cultish circle of friends going on that is so fun, but i guess the biggest difference is that I eat with these people at every meal, have 2-3 hours of classes with them everyday, hang out with them during the weekends, go to the movies and conferences with them, i dont know, we just all do everything together. I guess maybe its not that different from other groups, but i’m just not off doing my own thing as much, probably because I was feeling a little isolated doing that before, especially here, because if you don’t talk to people and make friends, its really hard to like it here.

Yesterday, after the soccer game that WE WON which was so exciting, really well played, and an awesome photo op, a group of us went to these amazing waterfalls. Vermont is littered with like huge mountains and green forrests and waterfalls every 10 minutes on the highway that are totally amazing. I had no idea this state was like this…I was, unfortunately, attacked by a stinging nettle plant, and the inside of my leg has all these red dots but hey, whatever.

An interesting thing I’ve noticed is that when we go off campus, we speak english. not exclusively. It’s this weird mix of italian and english that is like borderline dialect for middlebury. We’ve created words, we start sentences in english and finish them in italian, sometimes someone will be talking to you in english, but you respond in italian. I duno, weirdest thing ever. It’s also really funny because when we pull into the parking lot on campus, everyone snaps back into italian without anyone saying a word. I’ve never been in a community where everyone is striving to be bilingual, so to me its really strange and hilarious, but we all miss english so much that sometimes we’re like, screw it, let’s just use it for a little bit.

August 14th:

I’m starting to feel weird about the fact that I did middlebury, because now that people know, their like, asking me for words, and definitions and verbs, and even when I know the answer i don’t want to say anything. at least at middlebury we were all doing that together, now its like, weird. I duno, they apparently give the student who uses italian most often in my fall program 50euro… i was like, fuck i don’t want to be that kid….

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