Well, my university life began for the second time in my life. This time has been quite crazy. First of all, thinking that I could study Icelandic as a second language at an undergraduate level while studying for a master's degree. I know, I know, what was I thinking? Honestly, I didn’t think I would pass the admission exam for the bachelor's degree and the master's was something that I had already planned before. Once I registered in all and agreed to be on both, I was like Nemo's friends once they escaped the fish tank. Now what?
I'm not going to tell you about my master's degree this time, perhaps that requires an article of it’s own. But today I want to share with you about this format in which we all find ourselves dealing with: the horrors of the Zoomniversity. It has been, to save time in the description, exhausting. I don't really know, since I have no way of knowing if this is how the classes are supposed to be, or if it is because of the mandatory social distancing, that the classes seem to take longer than I thought. And no, we are not going to consider my funny decision to do two things at the same time.
I actually have only three classes, taking into account that in Mexico, normally, I took six per semester, the change should be considerable. But it's not like that. The classes are Grammar, Oral Production and Icelandic Language. What I have to say is: forget everything I have told you before ... if you want to learn Icelandic seriously, if you are really interested in mastering the language, if you like it, if you need it, my best recommendation is to try to enter into this program.
In particular for the lessons of Grammar and Oral Production. We started from the basics. As if we don't know anything. We learned the Grammar from the morphological roots of words to be able to understand the many “whys” of the language. In oral production, in addition to making presentations and talking in this Zoom mode, we review the sounds from zero, of the Icelandic phonetics. Sometimes the class consists of reading isolated sounds to distinguish between a and á, or i and í, which is very silly and, although at first, it may not seem like it , it is very useful.
Forget everything I have told you before ... if you want to learn Icelandic seriously, my best recommendation is to try to enter into this program.
Rules like A-víxl or brottfall have opened a world of possibilities for me, where the exceptions are fewer, where the rules exist, where all the chaos of "it is what it is" ceases to exist and where can I stop translating and be able to think directly the reasons for a word declining in certain way. I still struggle with them, for sure. I have to premeditate it, at times in my mind, others aloud, how words are declined. And other times, without hesitation, I know the declension, as if I knew it all my life. Small achievements.
Not everything has been automagic like grammar. I still have a hard time speaking. I tend to start a sentence and interrupt myself thinking, to end up in my comfort zone with English. But we’re moving.
What I still do not adapt to is the rhythm of the work, and I insist, I do not know how much this is because we are using digital platforms. I'm just recovering from a phonetics test when I already have the grammar test behind me. And in two days, the deadline of the written assignment for the Icelandic language course. And among all I have to read, practice, study in other mediums, solve books, watch videos… oh yes! And also work.
Regardless of the master's degree (I insist, which has not really been my problem), I don't know how I could have combined my studies with work. Because the classes are from Monday to Thursday morning. Meanwhile the pandemic continues, this form of teaching through the computer has really worked for me. Of course, it relies on being self-taught, because many tasks are without supervision.
However, at the beginning it was madness. I'm sure I wasn't the only one (judging by the comments made on the same platforms from other students) because everything was confusing, messy. From the oopsis we have had some, of the misunderstandings, of the zoom links that are not, of the technical failures. It even happened to me that I entered a class that did not correspond to me, I don't even know how, I don't know why. It looked like some advanced math course. The new normal is strange, some people seem to handle it better than others, but in the bigger picture, it capitalizes on our weaknesses. There are those who need the interaction that the classroom provides, I personally struggle with procrastinating. And with all the stumbling, I have reached the so-called midterms.
