As I alluded to in a recent AIM status, I am a masochist when it comes to studying this elusive, zagadochny Russian language. Six years later, I have finally come to this realization that I will likely be in some way connected to clovopodchinyonye predlozheniya and prichastiya for the rest of my life (yes I did buy a clovar' russkikh prichastii. I am officially a language geek. How many times through the years have I used this term: from glowing about gerunds and infinitives in English to spending a MONTH teaching reported speech to my teenagers to using fairy tales as a source for teaching Russian grammar to students studying it as a second language. Hello, my name is Jon, and I have a grammar problem. Whew. I feel better now. Incidentally, if I actually had any grammar problems, I'd be in serious trouble with regards to writing this damn thesis.
Speaking of that, the time has come to formulate my topic and purpose (in Russian formal academic writing, it's required to state the tsel', or purpose, of your topic, and why it warrants analysis/discussion/further exploration). My subject is (tentatively, subject to revision upon meeting with teh advisor): analysis of Russian fairy tales and teaching Russian grammar to students using the fairy tales. My purpose is something like this: to discern and analyze some general characteristics of fairy tales and their relationship to studying Russian as a foreign language. To do this I am going to read and analyze themes (in this case morals/main ideas) of various skazki and find and explain the grammatical structures and stylistic devices that might be found and used in teaching lessons. All this, naturally, formulated in Russian. :p Yay. (Not so much with the yayage...)
If that wasn't enough, you may be thinking, why am I a masochist? I'll tell you. It's because I thought it might be a good idea to take an elective course, NOT FOR CREDIT mind you, on translation. So the first class was on Wednesday. Our first homework assignment: to translate a two page q/a on Iran and the nuclear issue. Welcome to translation. Hahahaha. Oh my God, what the HELL did I get myself into? I'm sure I'll get the hang of it though, even if I have to take a final exam at the end of the semester. If I get too in over my head, then I'll drop it. We'll see how it goes.
On a lighter note, choir is going well. We're starting to sing some Christmas carols in preparation for our concert in December. Next week we start having rehearsals on Saturdays, which will mean that choir will in fact totally dominate my life on weekends. Which, I must add, is not necessarily a bad thing. I'll need some spiritual guidance, not to mention a general reprieve from the hecticness that is being a grad student in Moscow. More than that, I feel very much at home singing in choir, like I belong to a big family. This feeling of belonging I experienced right when I first started going to St. Andrew's and I still feel it every week, be it in the morning, in the afternoon with the Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy, or on Tuesday evenings when the few proud tenors gather together to show up the rest of the choir...LOL. Well, perhaps not show up, but we do try our best. And we have fun too.
As the days turn into weeks, as the weeks turn into months, I am starting to already think about coming home for winter break. Because tickets are expensive around the holidays, and because Russian students take their exams in January (after a TEN DAY holiday beginning on New Year's Day), I may be coming home sometime in mid-January, though still with a decent break (2-3 weeks). I hope to negotiate an earlier return if possible, nothing would please me more than
Christmas with my friends and family. We shall see, but regardless of when I will be home (notice I said when and not if), the time spent will be a much needed break from the chaos and uncertainty of life in Moscow. For now though, I continue to keep my head about water as best as I can, hoping that this project will go somewhere, even if I don't write the majority of my paper until after the break. Miss you guys and gals! To all my friends out there in Sader Nation, have a great Homecoming Weekend at the Cross! Have a drink on my behalf and I hope to see some of you during the break (perhaps for Winter Homecoming???). Love you all, just keep swimming and take care! :)
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