Scholastic Endeavors

There has been some interest among the masses about my schooling and all that. So, let us explore all of that information.

I am at the University of Edinburgh. I'm working on getting my MSc in English Language. There are 7 people in my program including me. 5 people from China. 1 guy from Spain. And me. That's right. I'm the only native English speaker in an English Language program. 

No, my school doesn't look like Hogwarts. Some parts of the school are really cool, like this. 

That's the administration building. Oh, well, it also has the law library and what-have-you. 

This is my building.

What you don't see is this little gem on the side. No, I have idea why in the world it is there. 

All of my classes are in two classrooms. It's a flashback to undergrad and the cold, dark (aka fluorescent lighting) basements of the JFSB. Which leads to interesting moments when I'm taken off-guard by the professor talking with an accent. 

And what are my classes you ask? Well, allow me to enlighten you.

I have three required classes. 

Intro to Phonology
-This class is going to be fun, but man, I'm rusty on my phonetics. It's almost embarrassing just how much I've forgotten from BYU. And the teacher is a delicate little man from Manchester.

Intro to Language Research
-This is one I definitely wouldn't really want to take if I wasn't required too. I guess it's a good thing for us to learn about how we should go about dissertations and research projects and get some idea of what we might want to do. But.....kinda boring.

Intro to Syntax
-This is the most touchy-feely syntax class I have ever had. We're talking about grammar rules, what words come where and whatnot. But the first day of class the teacher was going on and on about what constitutes as grammar for some and the personal developments of language blah blah blah. Most of this is in direct contrast to my grammar class, and I just want to say, "Hey, lady (My professor's last name is Heycock. Yes, I did giggle like a pubescent boy over that), can we draw some sentence trees already?" No idea what I'm talking about? See below.

In addition to the required classes, I have two that I selected to take. I was trying to find any way to connect my classes to editing, so I wound up with the following.

English Grammar: A cognitive approach

Holy moly, I almost had a meltdown after the first reading for this class. It's been almost five years since I last had a grammar class. Here I was thinking I'd get to look into more about sentence structure and nerdy arrangements. Nope. I got dropped right into a new approach to language study and the most jargonated journal article ever! Thankfully, I asked the other students and they all had suffered because of the article as well. Then when the teacher asked what we thought of it.... I may have given a bit of a snort of derision. My professor looked at me and smiled, saying "Yeah, it's a bit of a tough read." VALIDATION!!!

Scots and Scottish English
We haven't really gotten into the meat of this topic yet. I have a feeling I'm definitely going to like it though. My program director is the professor, and he's a pretty cool dude that grew up in Ireland, studied languages, and then transplanted to Scotland to teach about Scottish linguistic history and developments. I do notice some problems, though. Mostly when the professor plays sound clips and asks us to think about what we heard and the type of accent or dialect that was shown. Some English students or Scottish students will comment on how "I thought it was interesting how the first time he said 'ey-eet' and the second time he said 'ay-*hiss gh sound*t'" and all I think is, "It sounded foreign."

Oh, well. I think I'm catching onto the curve. I haven't burst into tears awkwardly yet. And I've only resorted to frosted flakes as comfort food. I'd say that's pretty good so far!