Saturday, February 18, 2006
On Tuesday I must turn in an essay analyzing either of two short stories: "Wanderer, kommst du nach Spa" or "Seegeister". Everyone will write about the former in order to avoid the latter, which was difficult to comprehend. Naturally, I shall force myself to write about "Seegeister", despite the fact that I did not understand the action, though the most basic meaning (as conveniently discussed in class) is clear enough. Favourably, the professor admitted she really does not know of any "proper" interpretation for "Seegeister", which gives me ample latitude to supply the convolutions of my mind.
Most of my failings (besides grammatical) in writing the first essay consisted of poor or inadequate expression. My English is awkward enough, but trying to write that way auf Deutsch, without a strong knowledge of German sentence construction, presents countless difficulties. The professor wrote that she liked the complex ideas I presented, but that I ought to concentrate more on thinking in German, then writing in German, rather than trying to correlate my English to German. That makes sense enough, and where I did write with what I already knew, I made only grammatical (usually verb tense or adjective ending) mistakes.
For the next two hours, I need to work out my ideas for the "Seegeister" essay as I straighten the Lauree Lair and organize tasks for the coming week or two. I need to prepare better for my German classes, especially Conversation, which I missed a few times (on quiz days, natürlich). Fortunately, the department shows German movies for extra credit every couple of weeks.
[Lauree Frances Keith concluded this diatribe at 10:48 AM]