graduation, goodbyes, and new beginnings

Two years ago at this time I was just beginning training.  I began grad school in July of 2011, took 27 hours my first semester, took 12 more hours my next semester, TA-ed and took a class summer of 2012, continued classes fall of 2012, and I finished coursework and took comprehensive exams this spring (with a whole lot of other things in between).  It’s been a journey but I have officially graduated with a master’s in applied linguistics.

Here are some photos to prove it.

No, this is not my son. He is the son of some friends I met at GIAL, though.  It was sad to say goodbye to them!

Graduating class of 2013!

Since I’ve been updating you all for the past two years concerning all of my classes, training, and life, I will not rehash everything here .  (Although you can look through the archives if you’re out of the loop).  But now I’ll tell you a little bit about my plans.

First, I’m planning on going on a trip to Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA) this fall.

Mainland Southeast Asia!  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mainland_Southeast_Asia.png

The purpose of this trip is so that I can see what life is like, see what projects are going on, and how I can help these projects/start new things as well as looking at where I could live, meeting people, making connections, etc.  This is all because I am moving to MSEA sometime next summer.

So that means right now I am beginning partnership development.  What is partnership development?  Basically it is finding people who will partner with me, primarily through prayer and financially.  So, this is where I ask you to let me know if you want to be apart of what God is doing in MSEA.  I can let you know how you can .

So that’s the big picture.  (Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll be hearing more from me ).  And thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has loved and supported me the past couple years.  I feel so blessed that I am able to do what I am doing and am going to do and am excited for what the future holds!

we’re getting somewhere

Well, after much fretting, I can officially let the cyber world know that I have passed comprehensive exams.

I breathed a huge sigh of relief last night when I found out.  And shook my professor’s hand.  And almost cried.

…For those of you who don’t know, I took comprehensive exams last Saturday (spanning 6 hours).  And they were hard.  Much harder than I thought they would be.  But, thankfully, I passed.

So now all I’ve got to do is knock out a few papers, project, presentation, and lots of homework and I’ll be home-free.  I’ll be a master (or mistress for those of you who prefer some level of androcentricity) of applied linguistics.

Woohoo!

lately

It’s here.  The end.  The last session of my last semester of graduate school.  Hopefully.

Unfortunately, I decided to take 7 hours (condensed into half a semester) as well as comprehensive exams…and maybe raising support and planning my life.  That to say, although I am terribly excited to be nearing the end of school and training, I’m afraid I haven’t allowed myself the time to actually process the fact that I’m almost done.

So, since I know that you’re very interested in the last few classes that I am taking, I’ll give you a brief snapshot of what they’re all about.

First, I am still in Greek; but now we’ve moved onto exegesis.  So, basically we’re looking at the Scriptures through multiple lenses (historical information, context, author, grammar and language use, etc.) in order to understand what is being said in the passage.  I’ll be spending a lot of time with Acts 9:1-19, which recounts the conversion of Saul.  Although, if I’m honest, I am tired of Greek, I am excited that I get to analyze and think critically about Scripture.

I also have a one-hour-credit class called Cross-Cultural Teaching Seminar.  I’m not completely sure what this class will look like, but I’m hoping that it will help me prepare to be better at working with and guiding the nationals that I’ll be working with.

Lastly, the class I’m most excited about is Language Development and Planning.  To briefly define what language planning is (at least generally), language planning refers to the efforts to influence language use and behavior.  I think that it is hard for Americans, coming from a largely monolingual society to understand all of the issues that arise concerning language.  Often a people will have negative attitudes toward their native language or will be concerned that they will be disadvantaged if they don’t learn the majority language, sometimes people have strong views about what language to use in church or for their translation (anyone else know adamant proponents of KJV only??).  There are a vast number of language decisions that must be made and as a linguist, it is my job to help the people decide what is best for them.  I enjoy this area of study because it relates so much to social factors and context.

I also get to spend time with people from Mainland Southeast Asia, which I love.  I got to go to an independence celebration a couple months back and experience a bit of culture.

This celebration was basically song after song…after song. Some traditional, some not. I could understand none of it. But I loved it.

I also go to a Mainland Southeast Asia church on Sundays. Sometimes kids who have no ability to communicate with me follow me around and sit with me in church.  Sometimes I also teach them Bible stories and Sunday school songs that I feel a little bit bad for passing along to another culture…

Alright, that’s about all, folks.  Be watching for a newsletter with some more details on my plans for the future.  (Yes, I’m actually beginning to make some decisions )

an update

Although this title alludes to the revealing of big decisions and direction, it is unfortunately not.  Here’s what I do have: I am still in school.  I am still in Greek.  BUT the good news is, there is an end in sight!  That’s right, folks, I have officially applied for graduation and comprehensive exams.  I even took pictures to commemorate the moment.

What are comprehensive exams?  Comprehensive exams are what they sound like; exams that are designed to test everything I have learned relevant to my concentration, in the form of timed essay questions.  So, since I am studying Applied Linguistics I will answer a question concerning Semantics and Pragmatics as well as Discourse Analysis.  Because my concentration is translation, I will also answer a question relating to translation principles, using Greek.

That’s about all I got.  Oh, I also spend a lot of time making lattes.

Mmm, coffee.

Γρικ

Greek.

Ok, that doesn’t actually say Greek, it’s the English word Greek transliterated into the Greek alphabet.  (So Γ makes a ‘g’ sound, etc.).  And that’s what I’m doing right now, lots of Greek.  Since we translate from the original Greek of the New Testament into the intended language, it’s good to have an idea of what the Greek says . (Although there are plenty of helps these days- so no, I will not be a Greek scholar by the end of my Greek education).

Last Friday marked the end of session 3 along with the end of a class I took called Principles of Multilingual Education.  It was super interesting and I learned a lot about bilingual education, mother tongue literacy, and language and education policy in various countries.  Literacy is a pretty important aspect of any project for two main reasons: 1) if they can’t read, what use is the Bible in any language? and 2) many of these minority groups are oppressed or ignored by the government and don’t have access to education and, consequently cannot stand up for themselves or participate at the national level.

(If you’re a teacher of non-English speakers in an English-speaking school or have anything to do with second language students or education reform, you should should check out Thomas and Collier’s (1997, 2002) study here or just google it.  Why are we surprised so many students drop out of school or perform poorly when they can’t understand the language of instruction?)

And now all I have is Greek.  It’s pretty nice.  (Although it is disheartening when your professor tells you on the first day of class that what we’re doing in half a semester he used to teach in a year.  What??)

And the countdown begins: 10 credit hours and comprehensive exams and I will have a Master’s in Applied Linguistics.

And sometimes I hang out with Mexican kids.  They’re sooo much fun.

And that’s about all I’ve got for now.  Thanks for reading and thinking of me and praying for me!  Also, I love to hear how you’re doing, so send me an email, facebook me, leave a comment- whatever is your preferred method of communication !

i need a vacation

Well folks, I am back in Dallas after spending the summer in North Dakota.  Overall, the summer was a success; I came out with 3 more credit hours toward my degree and an A .  I also had a great (although a bit overwhelming) experience TA-ing for Syntax and Morphology.  And I nearly successfully avoided a scorching Texas summer- it’s still a bit warm.

So here’s one last picture from the summer: literacy materials for a classmate’s literacy program in Québec.  I adapted the games Memory and Bingo for the mother tongue literacy program he and his wife are implementing.  It’s so great that my work is actually being used for something!

Homemade Naskapi memory and bingo

So what’s next??  More school!  Today!  Then I’ve got one more year until I graduate.  That’s 16 credit hours and comprehensive exams.  And then I’ll be done.  Then I’ll need a vacation.  Hopefully.

answer the call

Check out Pioneer Bible Translators’ newest video!  It’s a great summary of the need for Bible translation and what Pioneer Bible Translators is doing to fill that need.  There are 350 million Bible-less people in the world.  How will you answer the call?

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Stay tuned for a bit of a summer re-cap and my plans for the fall!