Los Exámenes de Español

By now, if you're brain hasn't been diluted with all of the political sewage in the news or been dulled by the standards of No Child Left Behind, you've probably figured out that I am taking a Spanish class. In an attempt to share the successes and failures of learning a new language, I am making available my exams for your viewing pleasure.

I shall post each one here as I get them returned. I have already taken the first two exams and posted them to the right-hand side of the blog. Each thumbnail will lead you to a larger version to reveal my grade and excellent handwriting skills.

The class will be given an exam after each chapter has been finished. We should have a total of eight exams this semester and they should all be the same format. The exams are one page, front and back with fill-in-the-blanks or circle-the-right-answer type of questions. They remind me of early high school or middle school worksheets but I suppose the professor knows what he's doing.

I didn't do as well as I had hoped on the first exam, but I have my reasons. 1) This was the first exam given and I had no clue as to the format. It was deceptively simple looking and almost too easy. So easy looking that I overthought a lot of the questions. 2) I had been on vacation the week prior and was busy up until the day of the test. While I "studied" down at the beach, you can imagine how greatly embedded in my brain the material was. Suffice it to say, I was not in a Spanish mindset whilst taking the test. For example: the "plurals" section of the first test. As I was writing down my answers I knew and told myself the rule of plurals (if the word ends in a vowel add "s"; if the word ends in a consonant add "es") but ignored it out of brain fatigue and apathy.

The second exam seemed harder and it took me longer, but I emerged hoping my old pattern would hold true. Whenever an exam felt difficult I would end up doing well on it. If the exam felt easy, I would do worse. The pattern held.

HOORAY FOR LEARNING!!!

Keeping It Fresh

I've made a few changes to the blog and will continue to update and change things around periodically. I have a slew of new ideas to make it the bloggiest blog in the whole blogosphere!!!1

As I change the layout, format or color scheme, let me know if the changes are good or bad, better or worse. Any input you provide will be considered and you never know when one of your suggestions might make it through! But please understand that this is an autocratic blog so I'll probably just piss away your idea and do something less exciting and more inappropriate, but don't let that stop you! Post your ideas in the comments section and we'll see if, together, we can't make magic.

Music To My Ears

The other day while in "la clase de español," I overheard some students discussing music of the nineties. They did not like the stylings of the album covers and were perplexed that the artists would title a song something completely different than any of the lyrics. They were mystified that the song title itself was not included as a lyric or a lyric as the title. Oh well, you can't go back in time and make all 90's bands totally awesome or as lyrically insightful as Jonas Brothers.

Jonas Brothers (full disclosure: I hadn't heard a single Jonas Brothers song until I began writing this. I listened to some on Amazon.com. In a word, Brilliant.) have obvious lyrics which directly relate to the song title and vice versa. That way our dumbed down young people (thanks to No Child Left Behind) won't get confused about which song they are currently listening to.

For instance, take the Jonas Brothers' song, "Burnin' Up" (please, take the song...bada bing!). It's upbeat, totally rockin' and has some strong lyrics relating to fire. What you might or might not have guessed is that it's probably just a metaphor. My first instinct was that the singer was literally on fire. After listening to the song, though, I changed my mind because the singing didn't seem frantic and there was no screaming. But, as I began to read the lyrics I wasn't so sure anymore. The singer first talks about how he's hot. And then how he's slippin' into lava, which we all know is very hot. and burns. He then goes on to say that he's burning up!!!1 This confirmed my initial thought that he was literally ablaze. But before any arsonphobes could have a heartattack the singer quickly tells us that while he states he's "burning up," he is, in fact, "burning up"...for her, metaphorically. Apparently she turns the temperature hotter, all according to the lyrics (I can't vouch for it - I've never met the girl, although she seems nice). This song is a great example of cutting-edge performers pushing the envelope and taking musical and lyrical risks. Of course they use a lyric for the title, there's no other way to correlate which track you're hearing to the lyrics. It'd be too confusing. There's a connection.

My fellow students, who are of the ripe age of around 18, blossomed while listening to music in the mid-2000's just as I did with the early-to-mid 1990's music. (They graduated high school in 2008, by the way) It's not that they don't like the music from the 90's, they are just removed from it by a few years and the popular genre and style had changed by the time they could fully appreciate music. I remember commenting numerous times about how shitty 80's music is (I do find some 80's music enjoyable but not the new wave swill and the completely synthesized bullshit).

I guess the conversation I overheard was more alarming not for the content itself but that it served as a marker that I am getting older. It doesn't bother me and I wouldn't want to be back at 18 anyway. And getting older certainly beats the alternative.

For now, I am off to "download" something called an "mp3." I'm not sure what it is but it's all the rave with the kids these days. I hope you enjoy some awesome music whether it be from the 80's, 90's or today. Just be sure to keep the volume at a reasonable level.

Cassandra Is Definately Awesome!

Why is the word "definitely" so hard for people to spell correctly? I've seen it spelled various ways including "definitly," "defiantly," and most often, "definately." The first one is possibly accidental with the "e" being left out by a lazy middle finger. The second one is a seperate word just used incorrectly for one reason or another, but it's still a failed attempt to use the word "definitely." The last one is ignorance...and a lack of using spell check. I don't use spell check because I don't need it. Whenever I see an error it jumps off of whatever I'm reading and slaps me across my face. It's completely disstracting and slows my already slow reading and comprahension skills. I am such a dork for properness and accuracy that it bugs me when i see that others have not made the same effort. It's just another reminder that our society is tumbling backwards as ignorence reins supreme and is rewarded with no ill consquences. I wish there was an online petition to educate people and finally put an end to the mispellings that plague electronic communications. If I can find one I will post the link here on my blog. If you find one, send me the link. I will definetly sign it!