554 Class: The last few weeks

When Melissa first talked about doing this class, both Avan and Ducky (that would be Evan and Susan, cleverly disguised) wanted me to be in the class. It seemed odd to me, since I've never shown a real interest in revitalization work; if anything, I feel I'd be more of the evil linguist who comes in and goes "Oooh! That's cool!" and then goes away. I'm a phenomenom sort of person, unfortunately, and rather a coward at heart; dealing with "white guilt" makes me want to break out in hives, especially considering my background. And if that all seems rather personal...yes, it is, because I want to make clear the sense of uneasiness I always feel when it comes to revitalization efforts. It's not like it can be swept under the rug or anything, and I do have to confront it. And I am.

But, as wise people may say, helping on projects like this are ways to confront and deal with the uneasiness. And I have to admit, coming into this class, I have been absolutely fascinated by things. Why, good heavens, it's applicable to my own life! Who would've thunk it? (Oh, do I pay for my upbringing sometimes.)

Anyhoo. Actual purpose: talking about class. These collaborative groups are a lot of fun, and this class shows promise, once we all start opening our mouths. (Last class, I swore not to talk. I became infatuated with a thumb pimple/blister just so I wouldn't have to. This just doesn't work with Spunky Undergrad, whose name I promise to try and remember--then butcher turn into a proper psuedonym--sometime in the future.) Get our mouths working, and I think we get working as well. I do have to keep remembering, though, that WE WORK FOR THE CLIENT (to use business parlance.) In this case, with the survey, I have to bite my tongue with C....I know she wants demographic information, very specific information, but I'm torn over whether or not this is the way to go about it. I think groundwork has to be laid, and then built upon. But, again, we're there for the client, not to boss the client or appear superior to the client, or any of those other archaic ways of doing things. And while I have no real intention of doing such, I still need to watch it. I always say that I'm a leader, not a follower, except when no one else is leading...and even then, I need to shutup. :)

Oh, BTW? According to The American Heritage Dictionary, off of Dictionary.com, linguistic (adj): Of or relating to language or linguistics. Linguistics? A noun. (Interestingly enough, the same dictionary includes pragmantics and socioling under that broad heading. Interesting because, as I am finding out, pragmatics really isn't a separate field, even if it does have its own journal.) The whole point of this? Modifier vs. noun + noun thing. And yes, I really suck at being wrong sometimes.

This entry is getting kind of long, so I'll address the class stuff in the next one--below this post, due to the way I published these things. Ah vel.

And I don't think I said everything here, but hey, must save things for later. Really.