Category: Cram Session
Hi All,
I'm in my final year of a 4-year undergraduate degree. I'm studying languages, which is what I've always wanted to do... but I've become very disillusioned with my course. I feel like I'm studying an English literature degree - just in another language!
All the focus is on theory, theory and more theory - we have 1 hour of oral class a week, and yet 6 hours of literature. I'm just so tired, and so sick of theory. It's like no matter how much I sleep, it doesn' t make a difference, because it's very interupted sleep - I wake up at night thinking about what I need to do, what I haven't gotten done...
I'm sorry, this is turning into a huge rant. What I want to know is... how do I keep myself sane for the next few months? I know it'd be absolutely mental to give up now, when I'm so close to the end - but I'm just so tired of it all. And my family are great, but if one more person says 'you'll fly through it, you're so clever' I may scream.
I hate myself for feeling like this - I know there are so many people who would give anything for a college education, or even the chance at one - but if I don't get this out of my head I'm going to drive myself around the twist.
Thanks for reading!
try to think of one day at a time rather than the rest in all one step. Make sure your ballencing your study out and not trying to get it all done at once.
I hear a lot from a friend of mine that when you clime stairs, you do it one step at a time, so stop looking at the top and just look at the next step
HTH
flylady.net
Omgosh Nicky you are so right! Totally agree with you.
Irish;I want you to know that I very much understand how you feel. Though my course of study wasn't as long as yours, by the end of it I felt like I was going mad.
I'm a massage therapist, and while I was in school (a nine month program), even in my sleep I was having dreams about my classes..waking up in the middle of the night thinking, "Okay, this muscle goes here..this does that.." etc..so I understand how you feel.
Nicky is right. I had to slow down and take one day at a time as it came and went. After I graduated from school, I still had to take my state board licensing exam..so had to study for that as well as the tests that I had to do while in school.
However, I got through it and so can you! I did a lot of praying, seeking encouraigement from friends and family as well as quiet time for myself. God only knows how I was able to squeeze it all in during a day, however anything is possible with God. :))
Good luck, pray, take one day at a time and try to fit in some fun for yourself in order to keep from going absolutely mad! Will be praying for you!! God bless!
Wow... thank you all so so much, really you have no idea how much your words have lifted me and given me strength! I think what I needed was to know that there are people out there who have done it, come out the other side, and understand. Thanks for listening to my moaning! Next week I start my final simester (eek!), but I'm feeling a bit calmer and more positive. And at least I have a great thesis supervisor who's not only really helpful anyway, but also gets the whole 'blind thing' better than most.
Thanks again for putting up with my whining!
happy new year!! :) x
Hi irish,
I too did languages and in my final year I did French, Spanish, German and Catalan simultaneously at Exeter. You're right. Close to the end, it feels like you're just on the brink of burnout! And you don't wana speak or interact or anything in other languages. My advice is to remember why you got into it. You ever seen interpreters in the booth, doing their thing? I have, I've even tried to do simultaneous interpretting. Its fun, its different, its also somewhat inspirational when you remember the practical applications of what you're doing. Listen to podcasts in other languages, watch films, chat to people. Nothing accademic, just casual chatting. Remind yourself why you're doing what you do.
In fact if you wana get on skype and go back in fourth in whatever language, let me know, I'm out of practice! But trust me, these methods do work, I left Exeter with a high first because I kept my sanity through this period.
Good luck,
Me
Hi irish,
I too did languages and in my final year I did French, Spanish, German and Catalan simultaneously at Exeter. You're right. Close to the end, it feels like you're just on the brink of burnout! And you don't wana speak or interact or anything in other languages. My advice is to remember why you got into it. You ever seen interpreters in the booth, doing their thing? I have, I've even tried to do simultaneous interpretting. Its fun, its different, its also somewhat inspirational when you remember the practical applications of what you're doing. Listen to podcasts in other languages, watch films, chat to people. Nothing accademic, just casual chatting. Remind yourself why you're doing what you do.
In fact if you wana get on skype and go back in fourth in whatever language, let me know, I'm out of practice! But trust me, these methods do work, I left Exeter with a high first because I kept my sanity through this period.
Good luck,
Me
Hi irish,
I too did languages and in my final year I did French, Spanish, German and Catalan simultaneously at Exeter. You're right. Close to the end, it feels like you're just on the brink of burnout! And you don't wana speak or interact or anything in other languages. My advice is to remember why you got into it. You ever seen interpreters in the booth, doing their thing? I have, I've even tried to do simultaneous interpretting. Its fun, its different, its also somewhat inspirational when you remember the practical applications of what you're doing. Listen to podcasts in other languages, watch films, chat to people. Nothing accademic, just casual chatting. Remind yourself why you're doing what you do.
In fact if you wana get on skype and go back in fourth in whatever language, let me know, I'm out of practice! But trust me, these methods do work, I left Exeter with a high first because I kept my sanity through this period.
Good luck,
Me
Hi irish,
I too did languages and in my final year I did French, Spanish, German and Catalan simultaneously at Exeter. You're right. Close to the end, it feels like you're just on the brink of burnout! And you don't wana speak or interact or anything in other languages. My advice is to remember why you got into it. You ever seen interpreters in the booth, doing their thing? I have, I've even tried to do simultaneous interpretting. Its fun, its different, its also somewhat inspirational when you remember the practical applications of what you're doing. Listen to podcasts in other languages, watch films, chat to people. Nothing accademic, just casual chatting. Remind yourself why you're doing what you do.
In fact if you wana get on skype and go back in fourth in whatever language, let me know, I'm out of practice! But trust me, these methods do work, I left Exeter with a high first because I kept my sanity through this period.
Good luck,
Me
oops! so sorry! the thing wouldn't refresh and I kept clicking the damn button. lol
haha no worries! Thank you so much Bermuda - you're totally right. I've taken to sitting down in the morning with a cup of coffee and reading a couple of the 'opinion pieces' in El Pais and Le Monde - just to read something that's not about 19th century Spanish! Actually, simultaneous interpreting is something I've always wanted to do. The presidency of the EU is coming to Ireland for six months (actually it started at the start of January), and I'm going to be a bit cheeky I think, and ask if there's a way I could watch the interpreters at work! Worth a try haha! thanks a million again. Ooh this is fun, I'm getting loads of ideas for non-academic stuff I can do with languages to relax... thanks!
that's awesome! good luck to you irish girl. :)
Aw thanks!
Lucky you. You're all most done. I'm just beginning my second semester in college, going for business management. I didn't do so well in macro economics, and I have to take micro this semester. At the end of the last semester I was pretty burnt out myself. What's kept me going is the fact that I've relized I need to support myself. While I have some family support, some of it is not trustworthy enough to depend on. Plus, I want to be independent and self-relient. Period. I let people dictate my life for the first 16 years, because that's all I knew, if that makes sensee. I didn't think it was possible to do anything for myself. Talk about being sheltered. But, I came out of that, and I am trying to make the best of the time I have now. I work hard, and have fun when I can.
Best of luck to you.
Hi DistanceRunner,
Thanks for your response, you're absolutely right! Best of luck with everything! I'm sure you'll get through, sounds like you've got the determination to motivate you! Being able to work and support myself is a big motivator for me too - I don't know how the social welfare systemw orks where you are, but I can't wait for the day I make that phone call or send that email to say 'thanks for your help, but I don't need it anymore!'
Best,
C
Hello,
To be honest, I'm in full admiration, I wasn't as brave as you are! One year ago, I decided to go to university for a second time, and since I have always loved foreign languages, I thought English would be the ideal choice. Very quickly though, I realised my assumption had been wrong. Nothing was taught about the language itself, literary criticism being almost the only thing we had to do. I do find an enormous pleasure in reading, but still, this habbit of annalysing everything from the character's name to the blood of the author didn't seem very sane, or at least it was surely not what I had expected. Even the grammar course was uninteresting, although grammar is the thing I like best when it comes to foreign languages. But the professor was more interested in exposing his own unclear theories and pretending that we should believe everything without questioning. I do not say that these are useless subjects, on the contrary. Perhaps I am not sufficiently analitic... in short it was not my cup of tea at all. After three months of trying, I gave up and found a different way of quenching my thurst of languages and finally obtained a certificate of teacher of English as a foreign language without passing a second time through the university system. Maybe I am already too old for this, or too superficial in my way of thinking... I stopped seeing it as a failure, but sometimes I still wonder why I abandoned that quickly.
Anyway, it's the last year, it's important not to give up now. All these apparently useless theories will become personal culture, and are certainly going to be a plus someday. In other words, it's a bitter medicin, whose effects always come afterwards. First we learn things and do not know why, and later we are grateful and pleased to realise that we are cultivated enough to understand and even take part in a specialised conversation. The only horrible thing about it, is that there is an exam at the end. I admit, I have no advice here other than... the usual stuff: patience and strength. These last months are very intense, but the releaf is also going to be great, and you'll proudly say, "I did it!"
A barrel of luck, and very warm greetings from France!
Vlad
Irish,
Another quick suggession, Besides opinion pieces, maybe reading something casual that actually interests you in that language?
Hope this helps,
Matthew
English is a rather difficult language in and of itself, with several words that have the same meaning and all the grammar rules which have exceptions here and there. However, trying to learn any second language is a challenge. It isn't something a lot of us are taught young and it doesn't come natural to everyone. What got me the most in high school Spanish was all those conjugations and the different ways we had to rephrase everything to match the tenses.
ha, this makes me super nervous, I'm about to graduate highschool and am about to go into college. I (unfortunetly) don't quite know what I want to major in, but I've thaught of languages and knowing how dificult it may be is scary!!
good luck to you irish, and hope it's going well!!!!
I find coffee is one of the biggest tickets to keeping one's mind fresh for studying!
I am taking French courses and I do love it in spite of the heavy workload.
DistanceRunner, I'd agree with the congugations, same goes for Italian, which I'm currently learning.
What I found most helpful was picking them appart, and analyzing why I was using a certain one.
Drills and repititions of definitions and conjugations are very helpful as well.
Oh man, Spanish verb conjugation is what killed my interest in the language my junior year of high school after taking it since seventh grade. I just couldn't handle it anymore. My head started hurting trying to remember all that information. I can understand more than I speak but it's only bits and pieces now. It's been eight years, but I remember the basics. *smile* Good luck in your studies.
Hi all,
I'm so sorry I haven't replied in ages!
Thank you all so much for your support, and to the person who's about to graduate high school, don't be nervous! I did it, I got through it, got a high second-class honours degree and am graduating in November... and it's thanks in part to the support from all of you!
So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you all so, so much *big smiles*