A Foreign Language Class
Posted: Monday, December 19, 2011
by IvanPetryshyn
Ivan Petryshyn
well, over 20 prominent characters. over 20 he's and she's. nearly all - well-bred, honest, calm and willing - a mosaics of ego's and personalities. some of them had been having different everyday problems - they were sick or somebody from their families was sick ... some thought they had real problems in their lives thoUgh they had not- they were mature enough and I was old enough not to be compationate...
Other students seemed to be very bright, calm, polite, with math-oriented minds knowing what could have been proved by the Mathematics as real and what was secondary, irreal, not important.
Yes, there were seen some eyes of serious rejectors (for different reasons- I really did not think it was necessary to analyse it all) but there were also timid, calm, reserved personalities who seemed to be either really very tired or just who were losing the faith in their abilities to cope with the elements of the Language not knowing every detail. I was just wondering: did they really want to know everything? But the author of the book wanted them to develop their power of guessing - to know only the most important things about the read. They seemed to be confused if they did not understand each and every word from the reading text. Some eyes were sparkling like stars questioning and trying to make me understand: " I do not know everything and I need to know it not to lose my status of a genious"- the young perfectionists, the seekers of the truth, impatient, sometimes angry or naively less polite for the reason of their age, but- they were sensitive, they tried to be honest, and what was even funnier, I was also honest with them!
Oh they tried hard to squeeze the rules and the words of the manual into the cells of their brains, real super-powerful computers, already loaded or even over-loaded with other things I could not even have had a mere understanding of: that was a real battle of the intellect and the nature . I knew they wanted it the easy way, like in the two fairy-tales we read, easily, nicely, pleasantly, without too many efforts.
I was asking myself many times: "do they really know everything that they do not ask anything, or are they afraid?" No, I could not even have generated a thought that they could have been cowards! They could not be! They decided to do what they could- and, they overcame the challenge, to the best of their abilities. I am proud of them having done that, not proud of everything they have done, but proud, to a certain extent.
The cruel Fate decided to make them stop any continuance of the course- the prayers didn't help: they seemed to have had all reasons not to go on with the course. What was that? A lack of belief? A loss of a motivation? A fear that the sea of the language is too deep to dive and too vast to swim in? My prayers in 15 languages didn't help: they decided not to continue. But till the last moment I was waiting for a miracle- the miracle didn't occur: my having recited 2 breviaries in 2 languages didn't result in their changing their minds. We appeared to become aliens from 2 different dimentions united spiritually only several times a year under the same flag.
There were some questions left I haven't received an answer to but they might have been of no importance as the time and the choices are irreversable.
The beautiful harmony of the language was not enchanting enough... We might have needed a shaman, a zombying shaman who could have mede them do what I thought was natural to be done after what I have done for them, but...
They didn't like the foreign language songs too much or not at all, they didn't seem to like the manuals without games, nice pictures and sparkling youth-oriented expressions. They wanted jokes, maybe, but they all got their final grades... That was their goal. The course has tested their intellect and integrity. Has everyone passed that? They know it better that I.
Well, it was just a class of so many classes I had had, just something new, some indication of new processes and new attitudes, a strong and nearly god-like volition to be fluent in the language within 3 months. They seemed to me prodigous people. And they were - they coped with the things they had to cope with, in their own way, having tasted something different, new- a marvelous game of learning, understanding and a real realm of research- the new conquistadores of the new generation have won. The winners.
Ivan Petryshyn
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