Classes: Italian

I realize that I have not talked about my classes yet! I have been mulling over how to write about them since my first experiences. Better late than never, right?

Due to the type of courses I have taken compared to my rommates' courses, I realize that I am actually here to study while others are here for the experience of travel. There is nothing wrong with this. I just cannot afford to do that! All my courses expect a lot from me.

In this post I will talk about my Italian class. The other classes will have their own posts!

By the second week, my beginning Italian instructor insisted on having all of the class in Italian. He mostly does this, too, with a lot of expressions, finger motions, and pictures on the board (when he found out I was an artist, though, he got a little self-concious about the pictures, poor guy). Most of the class is in Italian, but he breaks it when a student needs a better explanation of something about a word or grammar structure.

What I was most excited about this course was its service learning aspect. For those of you not familiar with my first job at SNC, I was the research fellow for the Center for Community Service and Learning. Pretty much, I did hardcore research on academic service learning to form a system of gathering statistics on those types of classes. The objective of my two year internship was to make a proposal for a certificate or minor that would recognize students who took classes with the service learning component. So I have a bit of an affinity for anything that says 'service learning.'

I feel like I am learning a lot. My Spanish language background is helpful in understanding conjugations and grammar, but my vocabulary is very weak. Already my professor has caught me accidentally writing Spanish on my quiz. I have not even thought of Spanish it two years. Why is it doing this to me?? Either way, Italian does come easier to me because of this fact.

I will start my service projects after spring break (so, in three weeks). I will spend an hour at a school one hour a week teaching English, then I will spend two four hour sessions working at Libera, the non-mafia store. I cannot wait! I can feel my brain absorbing all the new information. Or crashing. Yes, crashing is a possibility...