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Hey wow, summer is definitely over. Notre Dame is in the second week of classes already, it’s already chilly and sweatery in the mornings (seriously, midwest, why do you hate me? It is BARELY September.), and I’m well into full-on procrastination mode. So in the interests of the aforementioned procrastination–which I’m going to go ahead and call “holding myself accountable”–I’m going to go through the goals I oh-so-hopefully set for myself at the beginning of the summer and see what I’ve actually accomplished in that brief and magical period between one long, cold winter and the next.
1) Pass my German class. Yes! Goal 1 achieved! I actually did work pretty hard on this one.
2) Pass my Syriac class. Also achieved, though as there were no actual graded assignments, tests, or exam in this class, I feel slightly less accomplished here.
3) Not starve. I would say I was an over-achiever on this front.
4) Not accrue credit card debt in order not to starve (this will be accomplished by making more money! And spending less on frivolities!) Hm…yeah…pretty much sucked here.
5) Go back through my Hebrew textbook from 11th grade and relearn all the vocabulary, the paradigms, do the exercises, etc. Basically re-learn Hebrew, but for real this time. I made it through the construct chain in lesson 15, and that’s as far as I got. I think what I did was actually very very helpful–after 8 years of this I finally FOR REALS understand what the vowels do when you make a noun definite. I probably shouldn’t be admitting that, because it’s in chapters 1 through 4, but there it is. I’m still hoping to continue the reviewing at some point.
6) Go running with the dog at least 3 times a week. Ahahahaha. Nope.
7) Eat a healthier diet (this is the point at which we enter the Land of Wishful Thinking.) Sure. Beer is healthy, right?
8 ) Hang out with friends a lot while still accomplishing goals 1 through 7. Definitely hung out with friends a lot. Like, a whole lot. See note to number 7.
9) Do some creative writing. A bit…yeah, no, I’m lying. There was no creative writing. I did think/discuss/ponder/outline the project I’m working on with Luke and Mike Johnson, though.
10) Read books that are dense and intellectually fulfilling as well as fluff. Does reading half of War and Peace count? (Why do I find it so hard to get through Russian novels? I LOVE them while I am reading them, and then I put them down and never ever pick them up again. What is wrong with me?)
11) Shop at the farmer’s market more often (i.e. ever). I think 3 times counts as “more often.”
12) Read all the school-related articles and books that I wanted to read but didn’t have time to over the school year. I read one book. It took me all summer.
13) Write my Personal Statement for graduate school applications (okay, I actually DO have to do this one). But sadly, I have not, in fact, done it.
14) Research graduate schools thoroughly, impartially, and not as haphazardly as the last time around.Yeah, no. Still planning on this one, though.
15) Go to bed and wake up earlier. Okay, now I’m just embarrassed.
16) Finish the quilt. Seriously, Past Self. You’re making me look bad.
17) Blog more. ARGH. Past Self, you are never setting any more goals ever. That will teach you.
What else did I do this summer? Well, I brewed beer with Luke, drank waaay more than I probably should have, slacked off a lot, had many many long conversations, got to know the new people in the program, learned how to say “Yesterday I did not study the Syriac language, but instead I studied the German language” in Syriac, learned that German is both easier and harder than I expected, made some extravagant desserts, painted my new house, acquired a ton of new books (my dad is awesome!), read an autobiography of Thomas Merton (way less impressed than I’d hoped to be, actually), learned how to whitewater canoe somewhat, managed to keep the dog from killing herself, passed through the Canadian border by myself for the first time, watched a ton of great television (disproportionately centered around Joss Whedon), won a t-shirt at Trivia Night that says “talk nerdy to me” (shut up, it’s the awesomest thing ever), finally found a whiskey that I like (Laphroiag) and generally rested up. So all in all, not the worst summer ever. Now if you’ll excuse me, I still have two episodes left in season 3 of Buffy, and there’s some beer in the fridge, and some crepes filled with lime curd left over… Oh right. Back to work.
So verbs in Semitic languages are almost always composed of a root made up of 3 consonants. This makes translating alternately easier and harder: easier, in that you get the meaning from the root and then the other letters added on the front and the back tell you what the tense, number, binyan (verbal pattern), etc. are; hard, because some verbs have one letter missing/variable/otherwise funky. So the word “qwm”, which means “arise, stand,” is termed a “middle-weak” word, because its middle root, W, is mostly a placeholder and drops out at every available opportunity. The “placeholding” root varies–usually W or Y or aleph.
In Syriac, I have learned, these are called “sick” letters. They are “sick in the middle” or “sick at the beginning” or “sick at the end.” Naturally I found this beyond hilarious. There are a ton of very common “sick at the end” words–the words for “to see,” “to drink,” “to call,” “to fill,” are all of this type. Yesterday we were going over some participial form for this irregular verb type, and the professor (who is just wonderful) went through them: “You see? hazyo’, shatyo’, qaryo’, malyo’. They’re all SICK.”
I am pretty sure he had no idea what I found so funny.
Okay so this is my biggest problem with Hebrew, one that’s dogged me in for the entire 7 years since I began studying it (wow, that’s a lot of time to have accomplished remarkably little), and since I can’t get any paying work done today (I am recording books for a visually impaired student, my recorder is full, and I am waiting for my boss to track down the software that allows me to transfer the files from the machine onto my computer) I am going to tell you, dear Internet, all about it. What follows is a rant masquerading as an educational post.
In order to really understand Hebrew–not just muddle your way through, but to GET it, and to know WHY weird forms do what they do, and in order to predict any forms at all, you have to understand a good bit about sound rules in Hebrew.
Linguistic background ahoy: Every language has a set of “permitted” and “forbidden” sequences of sounds–that’s why the word “blurg” sounds like it could be a real word, even though Liz Lemon made it up, but “blgur” doesn’t–English doesn’t permit the sequence “blg”. English is super unusual actually in permitting ANY sequences of three consonants–the word “strike” is a word that just wouldn’t happen in, say, Japanese, which (I think I’m right here?) only allows Consonant-Vowel syllables. So when English words get adopted into Japanese, “filler” vowels get added between any two consecutive consonants, so that the loan word will follow Japanese sound rules. Cool stuff.
Sound rules in Hebrew, at least the ones that are relevant for students, are basically vowel rules. Some vowels can’t follow each other. Some vowels don’t like being with gutterals, some vowels don’t like being too far away from the stressed syllable, some vowels don’t like being in an open unstressed syllable (CV is open, CVC is closed). So you have your basic pattern, and then the vowels shift to different vowels when they get into a situation that’s uncomfortable for them. Example: You can’t have two shewas one after the other (the shewa is the short, neutral vowel you make when you say, “uh…”). So when you would, instead the first syllable goes to an “i” and the second drops out. le-nebi’im, “to prophets,” shifts to linbi’im (I’m using e for shewa because I can’t be bothered to figure out how to insert special characters).
The problem is, these vowel shifts and syllable structures and sound rules, etc. are both incredibly basic to the language–necessary for predicting ANY forms and for recognizing most–and really difficult to understand theoretically if you don’t already know something about linguistics. I still remember poor Dr. Perkins, maybe the smartest person I will ever meet, trying to explain the difference between an open and closed syllable to me while I stared at him blankly and nodded, thinking to myself, “Well, I don’t understand it, but how important can it be?” Ahahaha. To a native speaker, not important at all. It’s all intuitive; you KNOW what sounds right and what doesn’t and you don’t need to bother to reason it out. But to someone learning an ancient language, or at least Hebrew, where you run into sound changes all the time, it’s really important.
There are ways around it, of course–I took the route of trying to memorize every weird form instead of learning the patterns that made them all make sense, then just sticking with it long enough that it began to come intuitively. That’s fine, but here I am, seven years later, and I still feel like translating is like trying to shoot ducks in the dark. Maybe the best way would be to give everyone an introductory linguistics course before they started learning the language–but then Hebrew is a language that’s really important to a lot of non-specialists. A lot of the people who want to learn it just don’t care enough about the fundamental structure of the language to take the time, and why should they? I only learned about sound changes by accident, really–my introductory linguistics course was taken to fulfill the requirements for an English degree that would get me into a school of education in Virginia, because I thought I might want to teach English in public schools.
I guess what I’m getting at is that all the textbooks present these basic building-blocks of the language at the beginning of the textbook, usually in an introductory chapter, when it’s highly unlikely for them to sink in–students just don’t have the framework necessary. You have to understand the sound rules to read the language; but you have to have a basic sense of/experience with the language to understand the sound rules.
Good students probably go back and periodically review the sound rules throughout the time that they’re learning the grammar. I did end up doing this with Aramaic this past spring, and it paid off–I understand how Aramaic functions much better now. But I never did with Hebrew (because I’m lazy lazy lazy with languages) and only now am I beginning to realize just how big a mistake was. I may have said this before, but the main difference between what I’m doing now and what I did during high school and undergrad was that, back then, the languages were a hobby, sort of, just for fun (“fun” being a relative term, of course). They didn’t REALLY matter, because I was going to be an actor/writer/English teacher–they were just something on the side. The grades mattered, sort of, but everyone knows that you can still do pretty well without really knowing a language. Now that I have to ACTUALLY know them, inside and out, things are a little scarier.
I’m so happy to be a grad student, y’all. I just got a package from Amazon, my reading for the next month or so–Lyle Campbell’s introduction to historical linguistics and James Kugel’s How to Read the Bible. I’m REALLY EXCITED. And the best part is, I don’t have to downplay the excitement. I’m supposed to be dorky about this. It’s my job.
I feel as though I never knew just how much of a nerd I was until my natural proclivities were given free rein.
I finally finished translating Esther. SPOILER ALERT: the Jews win.
This has been one of my favorite bits of the Bible to read thus far. Maybe it’s just because I spent the last year reading everything with an eye to subtext (desperately trying to keep ahead of the 10th-graders), but I found it incredibly well-written. The structure is interesting–one commentator has noted that the whole thing is structured as a chiasmus (ABCBA, with each letter standing for an event). So we start with King Ahashverosh’s two feasts, and we end with two days of feasting for the Jews. After that we get Haman (the bad guy) raised to a position of power, and right before the Jews’ feast we get Mordecai (the good guy) raised to power.
There are tons of interesting parallels, too–one of the ones I haven’t seen anyone talk about yet (though I’m sure someone has) is the role of Haman’s wife paralleling that of Esther, Mordecai’s ward–Esther is obviously the more important character, but right after the scene where she agrees to plead for the lives of the Jews and takes on a position of real authority in doing so, Haman’s wife urges him to build a scaffold and hang Mordecai on it. Interesting gender/power dynamics there–as the commentator I’ve been reading notes, this is the only book of the Bible explicitly interested in sexual politics. Altogether a satisfying read, with the exception of the two words I just couldn’t find in the lexicon and am hoping I don’t get stuck translating. AND we’re spending most of the actual class time talking about the characteristics of late Biblical Hebrew, and getting into how scholars actually date texts–the nitty-gritty of the thing, rather than the vague “Oh, we know that this is from the third century at the latest” stuff you find in annotated Bibles and undergraduate textbooks.
Also, puppy!
Clementine likes to sleep in my stuff.
She’s taken to chewing on the corners of the woodwork, which is obviously very bad. So I got some of that no-chew-spray, which works okay, but not great. I found that a spray bottle of vinegar works just as well (thanks to Kat in my apartment complex!), and it’s really funny to watch her react to it–she kind of wants to play with it, but it obviously bothers her, so she jumps all around barking at it. This weekend my good friend Scottie and her good friend and roommate Jonathan have VERY kindly agreed to watch her and take her to the Blessing of the Animals service! Yay! I am a little worried that she’ll miss me a lot, or that she’ll destroy something valuable, or that I will miss HER a lot, but I am also kind of excited about being able to sleep in on Saturday morning.
Am off to make oatmeal scones. I make this recipe a lot, and would definitely recommend it. I never put the cream of tartar in, since I a) don’t have any and b) am not even sure what it does. I also don’t put raisins in, because I dislike them. Sometimes I do chocolate chips instead. If you’re looking for a way to make them lower-fat (the recipe does call for a stick of melted butter) there are lots of ideas in the comments. I just go with the butter.
The decision has been made.
Next year, I’ll be going to the University of Notre Dame. I’ll be working toward an MTS (Masters in Theological Studies) with a concentration in Biblical Studies. From there, I’ll apply to Ph.D programs, hopefully going to Notre Dame again, though there are several other good schools in the area.
Blondie, meanwhile, will probably be at the University of Illinois, which is about a 3 to 4 hours’ drive away.
Potentially unfortunate things about this: 1) It’s an MTS program, which means that they can’t offer me a fellowship, so while they’re giving me full tuition, I have to take out loans and probably get a job to pay for my living expenses. 2) We’ll be paying for 2 apartments and doing a buttload of driving. 3) ND is definitely a school of theology rather than religious studies, so it might possibly be somewhat oppressively Catholic, and I might reasonably expect to encounter people who have a distaste for healthy skepticism. 4) I will have this as a school logo.
Potentially wonderful things about this: 1) It’s a really, really good school in terms of size and track record of faculty. The Biblical Studies concentration alone has 14 professors, about 3-4 times the size of most of the other programs I was looking at, and most of the faculty members seem to be at the top of their fields. 2) U of Illinois is also a top-notch program, with lots of different kinds of electron microscopes and other cool machines that make Blondie happy. 3) South Bend is super cheap–apartments are around half the cost of those in Boston. 4) Because of (3), I’ll be able to afford a dog, which is increasingly high on my priority list. 5) Notre Dame’s Ph.D fellowships are quite generous, meaning that I’ll be able to afford my life after 2 years, assuming that I get in. 6) I really like the idea of being in a consciously religious community, even if it’s not necessarily my religion. And I’m almost sure that at Notre Dame I won’t run into many people who think I’m silly or irresponsible or biased to try to study in an academic light the beginnings of a religion that I also count myself a practitioner of.
So all in all, a good deal. And now I find myself with 10 weeks to go at St. Catherine’s, feeling anxious to go one minute and anxious to eke out every minute with my students (whom I dearly love and thoroughly enjoy) the next. It helps that we’re doing Romantic poetry, which they really really get, right now; the last three days have been a breeze of sunshine and daffodils.
Blondie: Accepted to Illinois, Indiana, UNC, and Michigan.
Brandon: Accepted to a variety of places, notably UCSD, Chicago, Princeton, and Harvard.
Penelope: Accepted to Bryn Mawr.
Mary Frances: Accepted to Bryn Mawr.
Me: Accepted to Cornell and Boston U, rejected from Indiana. Waiting impatiently for the letters from everywhere else.
Final round of the Poetry Out Loud competition went down tonight–what a wonderful, grand time. Beautiful poems read and performed beautifully. I was actually very glad to be a teacher–if I were a student I think I’d have been eaten up with nerves and really wanted more than anything else to win, whereas as a teacher I got to enjoy and applaud everyone’s poems without thinking, “Is she going to sabotage my chances?” Some really beautiful and unusual poems chosen too–a nice mix of the ones that were new and the ones discovered anew.
One girl read Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 116.”
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments; love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds
Or bends with the remover to remove.
Oh no; it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand’ring bark
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error, and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Awesome.
Oh, also–on a more personal note, I got an interview at Cornell for their Near Eastern Studies program! Woohoo! That is, naturally, the one school that Blondie did not get into for chemistry…but it’s still good to be that much closer to an acceptance.
