More Spanish Drama
Nov. 6th, 2007 10:28 pmSpanish grammar is going to be the death of me. First was the discovery that double negatives are grammatically correct in Spanish. It took a lot of work to overcome the English programming that double negatives are wrong before I was able to write them semi-comfortably. Then came the preterite tense, where there are more verbs that are exceptions to the rules than there are those that follow the rules. I never thought I was going to be able to get those down in time for the test. I still have trouble with them.
Now we're working on object pronouns. That doesn't sound hard, does it? Sentence structure is fairly simple: Subject Verb Object, right? Well, yes, but in Spanish, you can also have Object Verb Subject and (this one kills me) Subject Object Verb. I feel like I'm trying to work one of those sliding tile puzzles where you have to put the numbers in order. First, I have to reorder the words so they make sense to me, and then I get to figure out what they mean.
I also had two unpleasant surprises this week. In all our previous units, our worksheets were due on the day of the chapter test, which is next Monday. Yesterday, I found out that the worksheets for this unit are due tomorrow. So much for the basking in Heroes squee I had planned for this evening. Also, in all our previous units, we had a pop quiz at the end of the last class before the test, so I was expecting a quiz tomorrow night. We had it last night, instead. Oops. I was not expecting it at all, but I think I did reasonably well. I know I got two answers wrong for sure, but I'm also sure that I got both of the extra credit questions right, so hopefully those will balance each other out.
I would be counting down the days until the end of the semester, except I have a major exam every class period but one between Thanksgiving and the end of the term. I'm contemplating sleeping through the first half of January.
Now we're working on object pronouns. That doesn't sound hard, does it? Sentence structure is fairly simple: Subject Verb Object, right? Well, yes, but in Spanish, you can also have Object Verb Subject and (this one kills me) Subject Object Verb. I feel like I'm trying to work one of those sliding tile puzzles where you have to put the numbers in order. First, I have to reorder the words so they make sense to me, and then I get to figure out what they mean.
I also had two unpleasant surprises this week. In all our previous units, our worksheets were due on the day of the chapter test, which is next Monday. Yesterday, I found out that the worksheets for this unit are due tomorrow. So much for the basking in Heroes squee I had planned for this evening. Also, in all our previous units, we had a pop quiz at the end of the last class before the test, so I was expecting a quiz tomorrow night. We had it last night, instead. Oops. I was not expecting it at all, but I think I did reasonably well. I know I got two answers wrong for sure, but I'm also sure that I got both of the extra credit questions right, so hopefully those will balance each other out.
I would be counting down the days until the end of the semester, except I have a major exam every class period but one between Thanksgiving and the end of the term. I'm contemplating sleeping through the first half of January.