Give or take. At least, classes are over now, and I’ve graded pretty much everything before the final. Well, I do have to grade one set of scientific paper analyses, about 30 of them, but they’re only about 2 pages each. That needs to be done ASAP, so people can see the comments before the final on Monday. Meanwhile, I’ve done some Christmas shopping (How did I survive before there was Amazon.com?). And tonight Robin and I are going out for sushi with the Hills.
What I’m reading lately:
Inez del Alma Mia, by Isabel Allende. I read her Zorro: Impieza la Leyenda last year, so I thought I’d read her newest book in Spanish also. It’s good, and eventful enough to hold my interest even when I have to refer to a dictionary a couple of times per page. One nice thing about reading a novel in Spanish is that it takes me about 20 times as long as reading one in English, so I don’t have to search for something new to read as often.  I’d like to say I’m building my vocabulary, but that would be assuming that I have a memory. Eventually, after looking up something enough times, I do start to recognize it, though. “Lodo” is mud. “A pesar de” means “In spite of”. An “espada” is a sword. And so on.
I’m working on my Spanish for a competence exam I’ll take (and better pass) in January, and I’m so sick of textbooks that I have started reading John Gray in Spanish. Several years ago my cousin gave me Marte y Venus en el Dormitoria, and it’s hilarious. I suspect that in English it would just be kind of blah, but I’m finding it a romp.
Well, that’s an interesting approach. I have to admit that before I read Isabel Allende I read the first few Harry Potter books in Spanish. That actually worked pretty well, as I had read them already in English, so I knew what was going on and had a lot of context clues for the Spanish words.
oooh, Harry Potter! I wonder if I can find that in Spanish on tape in Berkeley… It’s hard (at least in Reno) to find audio Spanish books that aren’t about business.
Ah, we did that with Harry Potter too (back when there were only three books). I don’t think I’d make it through “Half-Blood Prince” in another language, though.
And I have a copy of Gaiman and Pratchett’s “Good Omens” in French, which was very helpful for colloquialisms. I now know that “la siege de mort” is the passenger seat of a car, and that “rôder” is “to lurk”. Useful, no?
Indeed! This morning I gave my exam room to a French prof because (a) my room was unlocked, (b) hers wasn’t, (c) neither of us had keys, (d) the admins weren’t due in for another hour and a half, (e) she was giving a final, and (f) I wasn’t.
As a special added bonus, I told her students that I would say for them every sentence of French I know, except the dirty ones that everyone knows from 1970s disco hits.
Then I went out to the hallway to intercept my students — all two who showed up to collect their portfolios — very pleased as having been able to start my day by asking roomful of examinees, “Oue Youth Hostel?”