Obligatory start-of-school blog

I told myself I wasn't going to write an obligatory start-of-school blog; and even if I was, I wasn't going to write it until at least Thursday because by then I will have been to every class twice except for one. I almost bowed to the temptation to blog yesterday, but luckily I got side-tracked. But after today I am just too excited about my classes to wait any more. I still have one class tomorrow that I haven't been to yet, but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to like it very much anyway, so we'll just start with what I've had so far:

Semantics - This is a pretty standard-issue linguistics class that all linguistics majors have to take. As far as I know so far, semantics is basically the study of how meaning is coded into languages, specifically how it is coded into word units. I think it will be an interesting class merely because I find linguistics in general interesting. I think it will probably only be my second-to-last favorite class though not because it will be a bad class, but rather because all my other classes will probably be so GOOD.

Portuguese for Spanish-speakers - I am excited about this class for several reasons; 1) I love studying new languages, and Portuguese is no exception; 2) Because this class it designed for people who already know Spanish, we will learn a lot more Portuguese in one semester than in a semester of a regular Portuguese class because the grammar and vocabulary are quite similar; 3) I will get to use some Spanish too.   It's hard to tell from just the first day, but I think I'm really going to like the teacher too.

Morphology and Syntax - Another linguistics class which is required for linguistics majors. Our professor said today that this class is often called "typology" at most other schools, and from what I can tell it is essentially the study of grammar. I am not as excited about the content as I am about the professor who I have heard wonderful things about, and after today's introductory class, I think I will really like being in his class. And really, it's better to have a good professor and a subject that you are less interested in, than to have a bad professor in a subject that you love (like the two Chinese teachers from hell that I've had, for example). So this should be a great class too.

Spanish Phonetics and Phonology - I'm not sure if I should count this as a Spanish class or a Linguistics class, because really it will be both. In this class we will be learning about different sound structures of Spanish. We will be learning about all sorts of different Spanish accents and dialects. It's really a Spanish Linguistics class! I don't know what else I could possibly want in a class. I've also heard nothing but fantastic things about this professor. I think that either this class or my Portuguese class will be my favorite.

Beginning Russian - As if 15 hours of class wasn't enough, the other morning I decided on a whim to go and add another class. I was going to sign up for Arabic, but it was full, didn't fit into my schedule, and is a 5-hour class meaning that I would have had a crazy total of 20 hours this semester. But then I found Russian which had seats available, fit into my schedule (not very conveniently though), and was only 4 credit hours, meaning that I now have a slightly less-crazy 19-hours of class this semester. It is a 2-hour evening class that meets twice a week and the teacher is this jolly little Russian linguist lady. Again, I'm excited to be taking another language, and this class has some cute girls in it too... Spanish and Portuguese are in a tie for my favorite class, and this class is in a tie for second-favorite with whichever one of those ends up not being first-place-favorite.

So, those are the classes. I still have one class tomorrow, my International Affairs senior seminar, which I'm not really excited about, and I'm pretty sure it will be my least-favorite class, but we'll see. Overall I am REALLY excited about this semester though. I think this is the most multi-lingual semester I've ever had. If only I were taking a Chinese class, then I'd have classes in 5 different languages! I am a little bit concerned that I will be taking 19 hours, and I told work that I would do 20 hours for them... but hopefully it'll work out and I won't die.

And for today's obligatory start-of-school blog, here is the obligatory YouTube video. In the spirit of multi-lingualism, here is one my current favorite Arabic songs. It's called Amulet by Natacha Atlas.