First Week of University!
So this past Monday I started classes here at the University of Edinburgh! Like I said in my last post, after Fresher's Week I was eager to get into a routine and to start my lectures. This year I am enrolled in Linguistics and English Language 1 (LEL1), Chinese 1, and Social Anthropology 1A and 1B (SA1A/SA1B). Essentially, I am taking 3 courses for the whole year, which is really weird if you're used to the American university system.
Another interesting difference to point out is the idea of lectures and tutorials. Most classes have two or three lectures a week and one tutorial. The lectures I have all have 200-300 people and simply consist of taking notes. The interesting part is the tutorials. Each of those massive classes is split up into groups of 9-12 students who meet to discuss something related to the course and ask questions, and this is where students can get more one-on-one attention. I think this is a great mix between allowing everyone to take the courses they want while still giving each student individual attention.
LEL1 and SA1A are both set up like that, but my Chinese course isn't. For the more rigorous level course, there are 4 lectures every week and 3 tutorials. This means we meet 7 times a week, which is crazy, but will help me to learn the language a lot more quickly and a lot better. On Mondays and Wednesdays our lecturer is a British woman who is teaching us grammar, which is good because she can teach it from the perspective of an English speaker. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, our lecturer is a woman from Beijing, who is particularly qualified to teach us pronunciation, how to write characters, and other things best learned from a native speaker. Every week we will also have a character writing tutorial and two oral tutorials to focus on those aspects of the language. I am very excited about the way the course is set up and I have really enjoyed the lectures so far.
My linguistics class so far has been focusing on phonetics, which means we've just been making weird sounds in class and then identifying where in our mouth we're making the sounds. For my independent study, I've been reading a book about phonetics that has exercises to help you learn more about your vocal tract. I have more control over parts of my mouth and throat than I ever thought was possible, which is pretty cool.
In my social anthropology class we are going to learn about the way all societies deal with the same things in life like birth, initiation, adulthood, and death. We're going in chronological order, so we started with conception and eventually we'll get to funerary practices. Seeing as I have limited knowledge of the subject and it is very closely related to linguistic fieldwork, I think this course will be very useful. I think I will also enjoy it!
There's not too much to report academically because I've only been to a handful of lectures and my tutorials haven't started, but that's pretty much what's been going on this week.
Another interesting difference to point out is the idea of lectures and tutorials. Most classes have two or three lectures a week and one tutorial. The lectures I have all have 200-300 people and simply consist of taking notes. The interesting part is the tutorials. Each of those massive classes is split up into groups of 9-12 students who meet to discuss something related to the course and ask questions, and this is where students can get more one-on-one attention. I think this is a great mix between allowing everyone to take the courses they want while still giving each student individual attention.
LEL1 and SA1A are both set up like that, but my Chinese course isn't. For the more rigorous level course, there are 4 lectures every week and 3 tutorials. This means we meet 7 times a week, which is crazy, but will help me to learn the language a lot more quickly and a lot better. On Mondays and Wednesdays our lecturer is a British woman who is teaching us grammar, which is good because she can teach it from the perspective of an English speaker. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, our lecturer is a woman from Beijing, who is particularly qualified to teach us pronunciation, how to write characters, and other things best learned from a native speaker. Every week we will also have a character writing tutorial and two oral tutorials to focus on those aspects of the language. I am very excited about the way the course is set up and I have really enjoyed the lectures so far.
My linguistics class so far has been focusing on phonetics, which means we've just been making weird sounds in class and then identifying where in our mouth we're making the sounds. For my independent study, I've been reading a book about phonetics that has exercises to help you learn more about your vocal tract. I have more control over parts of my mouth and throat than I ever thought was possible, which is pretty cool.
In my social anthropology class we are going to learn about the way all societies deal with the same things in life like birth, initiation, adulthood, and death. We're going in chronological order, so we started with conception and eventually we'll get to funerary practices. Seeing as I have limited knowledge of the subject and it is very closely related to linguistic fieldwork, I think this course will be very useful. I think I will also enjoy it!
There's not too much to report academically because I've only been to a handful of lectures and my tutorials haven't started, but that's pretty much what's been going on this week.
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