Wednesday, August 04, 2004

Second Day of Dutch Class

The countries in question were Macedonia and Spain. The woman from Spain was not in class today and I really doubt she'll be back. She had the crazy idea that she could come to class in the morning, go to work in the afternoon and somehow finish the mounds of homework that we get each day - all while traveling back and forth from Den Haag. She wasn't in class today. It's sort of sad. Makes me realize what a luxury it is to have the time to really study and not have to worry about a job.

I was the first to do a five minute presentation today in class. It went well, over five minutes. Time flies when I'm chattering away - even in another language. The other person to get up was Rod. He's the Israeli. He's got the most flat American accent and it totally comes through when he's speaking. He's tall and goofy and has that actor thing about him. He led us in an improvisation thing, which totally won me over to him. I've been wanting to do an improv class for years. I would love to take one here, in Dutch. I think games like he played with the class - as a part of your presentation? Cheat - are helpful in loosening people up and making people use their vocabulary, although one woman did spend literally a minute and a half thinking of a word during a word-association exercise.

It's going well. I have tons of homework to do and then a museaum tour to take in the afternoon. I have to leave in an hour for it. Today we looked at articles and pronouns. Makes me look at English differently.

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