Friday, January 26, 2007
Yesterday we translated less than a page during Greek class. Dr. Lavigne seemed more than a little miffed, but then, he expands discussion of the text or this or that grammatical point instead of simply letting us butcher the lines. I had prepared everything for yesterday's class, wie ein gutes Ei, but I had not skimmed it right before class, so I stumbled through a few phrases, too. Half the time I do not take Dr. Lavigne's meaning for a word (to diffentiate between having taken an entirely incorrect word, which does, as well, occur on occasion).
I do not like Dr. Lavigne quite so much as I used to.
Der Grair Bär seemed pleased with the scope of my bibliography and the fact that he had only to make slight omissions here and there in proofreading it. He suggested I narrow down only a few articles to read in their entirety (or I would be researching enough for a thesis), to include a few auf Deutsch.
He cautioned undergraduate German students normally never have to attempt this sort of academic writing, but he immediately approved of one article I happened to have before me (most are still online, in computer land), so this afternoon I shall endeavour to read through it after I finish some Latin.
We then pored over a couple of articles I had read through and made margin comments on. This was provocative, and he provided me with a background that is progressing as I encounter different points. Toward the end of the discussion he took up one of the articles and flipped through a few pages, reading my comments aloud. The second or third side note I had made read
Germany does not need to imitate Greece, because the Germans are fucking great.I felt it an apt summary of the paragraph, and fortunately Der Grair Bär just found it mildly amusing.
[Lauree Frances Keith concluded this diatribe at 8:29 AM]