I've had a lot of free time lately and 0 energy for doing anything physical. So I've been reading when I get bored doing other silly stuff and have the mental focus to handle it!
DE SHUILKELDER by Tomas Ross (44 pages)
This is mostly in the present tense, but has a few pages in the past tense. The past tense words are the simpler verbs though, so it's quite readable even if you only know a little about past tenses. The title literally means "The Shelter Celler", but I guess we'd say "The Bombshelter". This is a short story, not a novel (and doesn't try to be a novel or feel like a shortened novel).
It felt like I was reading a Stephen King short story, which I think is a good thing :-P It had a similar dark and twisted aspect, and seemed very well-written, despite the linguistic constraints. This story left me wanting to read more by Thomas Ross.
DETECTIVE ORHAN EN HET VERMISTE MEISJE by Sadik Yemni (108 pages)
It means "Detective Orhan and the Missing Girl". Another great read. I lucked out, getting two in a row! This one is more of a novel, and all in present tense, aside from characters talking about the past. I understood almost everything while reading it at B1 level.
The author is a Turkish born Dutchman. Almost all of the main characters are Turkish, but the chicks aren't stupid passive foreigners. It was refreshing after some of the books I read earlier :-P I think it was also interesting in that it briefly addressed cultural issues of non-Western immigrants and their Dutch-born children. And that basically they're just Dutch people that happen to have foreign grandparents and cousins.
The plot was good and interesting. Some parts were a bit unrealistic, like the detective running around with guns all the time and shooting up neighborhoods (and bad guys) without being noticed or caught. But overall a solid murder/disappearance mystery with a plausible yet non-obvious ending.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Book Review!
I love reading, and have found it to be a useful way to get accustomed to Dutch grammar, and even to pick up a few new words. But you can't just pick up any Dutch novel, grab a dictionary, and go for it. Believe me, I tried it :-P
"Normal" books often have abstract and colorful phrases. Even if your dictionary has all of the relevant words, you'll still have no idea what the hell the author just said. Another problem is that dictionaries don't conjugate verbs. Even electronic ones, unless you want to shell out 500 euros or so. And even then maybe not :-P
One solution is to read books designed for very young children. But those can be a bit boring, even if they do have pretty pictures, not too mention that they're rather short. The other solution is books written or adapted specifically for people that can only read simple texts.
In Amersfoort, the main library branch (Zonnehof), and a smaller one (Kruiskamp), both have "NL Punt" sections with books we can handle! The main branches at Hilversum and Utrecht have similar sections, though called differently. If you need help finding the section, ask a librarian. Not only do they usually speak fluent English, they tend to be very good at understanding (and speaking in) simple Dutch.
NL Punt includes translation dictionaries, text books for learning Dutch, useful guides telling foreigners how to bath themselves and clean their homes, and novels. Most of the novels at the Kruiskamp branch are targeted at teenage girls, but Zonnehof has a much better selection of novels for adults. The NL punt at Zonnehof is up on the 2nd storey (3rd floor for us Americans) with the childrens' books. After coming up the central stairs, take a left into a little alcove.
Once you find the section, picking a book is pretty easy. Find one with a cover that doesn't look like it's targeting teenage girls, flip it open, and see if you can understand it. Some books (A-level) will only use the present tense, which is great if you haven't learned much conjugating yet. Most of the novels won't use a normal paragraph format, and will only use short sentences.
HITTEGOLF by Rene Appel (61 pages)
The title means "Heatwave" and it's an adaption of a popular novel written by a Dutch author. It's a crime thriller written in the present tense. It's the first book I read, and I got it when I was at about A1 level. I didn't use a dictionary even though there were a lot of words I didn't understand. I was still able to follow what was happening pretty well.
I liked this novel a lot - I'm looking forward to reading the original one of these days! The author managed to make the present tense sexy and intense, instead of weird and awkward. It's a somewhat typical murder mystery, but the protagonist is the primary suspect. It was a little annoying that he was in a bit of a stupor for most of the book.
KIND VERMIST by Sylvia Vanden Heede (175 pages)
The title means "Missing Child". And don't be scared off by 175 pages - there are very few sentences per page. I think these books may also be used for dyslexics or similar, which might explain the odd formatting. This one is also a crime novel - trying to find out whodunnit, with a protagonist that is a suspect. It's written at about the same level as Hittegolf, so understandable at A1 level, if you're not bothered about understanding every word.
But I didn't like this one much. It was the first (but not the last) Dutch Book For Stupid Passive Foreign Women I read, and after Hittegolf it was a huge disappointment. The author didn't make the present tense work very well, so it came across as weird and awkward. And the main character is a woman that is not intelligent and very passive. She doesn't do stuff - stuff happens and she cries and things miraculously work out at the end. This book's saving grace was an interesting plot with a twist at the end.
NACHT by Anton van der Kolk (110 pages)
This one is actually a normal book but written for younger high school students in the easier track. It uses the past tense, and has normal paragraphs, but it was surprisingly easy to follow. I read this at about the A2 level.
It tells the story of a teenage girl trying to explore her grandfather's past during WWII. Aside from that, the primary theme is family relationships and dealing with growing old. And, for fun, a little side jaunt into incest with a cousin! I'm not sure where that came from, but I think it detracted from an otherwise interesting book. It also provides some historical context for WWII in the Amersfoort area, and the concentration camp on the outskirts of town.
TWEESTRIJD by Rene Appel (123 pages)
The title means "Two-Player Game", more or less. Another adaption of a normal novel, but I didn't like it nearly as much. Again, I (think) it was present tense, and it worked well. It was pretty readible at A1 level. But it suffered from having a useless female protagonist that I wanted to stab in the face before anyone else could.
It's another crime/relationship thriller, and the redeeming feature is that there are competent female characters - just not the main character :-P The basic plot: Nice Stupid Girl meets Bad Stupid Boy, things go wrong, Stupid Girl is helpless, Stupid Girl is miraculously rescued. A huge disappointment after Hittegolf.
KOMT EEN VROUW BIJ DE DOKTER by Kluun (168 pages)
Definitely a chick book. Uses the past tense, was pretty readable at A2.5. This is a pretty famous book, and has had a movie made. Primarily I'd class it as an emotional read, with a lot of medical and sex vocabulary.
Basically a scum-sucking philanderer (the author) finds out his wife has cancer, and keeps screwing everything in sight. But apparently this is sorta okay because he really loves his wife. You might enjoy this book if you like watching train wrecks and their emotional aftermath. I don't :-P
DE VOORLEZER by Bernhard Schlink (87 pages)
The title literally means "The For-Reader", which we don't really have a word for in English. It's someone that reads a book aloud for someone eles. It's an adaption of a very famous German novel by the same name. In fact, I'd seen the movie a year or two ago, and enjoyed it. I was a bit past A2 level when I read it, and it was an easy read, although it uses past tense.
The protagonist starts as a 15 year old boy having a somewhat complicated affair with a much older woman. Years later, in law school, his law school class is observing a trial for WWII war criminals, and she is one of the defendants. During the course of the trial, the protagonist comes to understand his former lover's previously inexplicable behavior. I liked this one a lot.
"Normal" books often have abstract and colorful phrases. Even if your dictionary has all of the relevant words, you'll still have no idea what the hell the author just said. Another problem is that dictionaries don't conjugate verbs. Even electronic ones, unless you want to shell out 500 euros or so. And even then maybe not :-P
One solution is to read books designed for very young children. But those can be a bit boring, even if they do have pretty pictures, not too mention that they're rather short. The other solution is books written or adapted specifically for people that can only read simple texts.
In Amersfoort, the main library branch (Zonnehof), and a smaller one (Kruiskamp), both have "NL Punt" sections with books we can handle! The main branches at Hilversum and Utrecht have similar sections, though called differently. If you need help finding the section, ask a librarian. Not only do they usually speak fluent English, they tend to be very good at understanding (and speaking in) simple Dutch.
NL Punt includes translation dictionaries, text books for learning Dutch, useful guides telling foreigners how to bath themselves and clean their homes, and novels. Most of the novels at the Kruiskamp branch are targeted at teenage girls, but Zonnehof has a much better selection of novels for adults. The NL punt at Zonnehof is up on the 2nd storey (3rd floor for us Americans) with the childrens' books. After coming up the central stairs, take a left into a little alcove.
Once you find the section, picking a book is pretty easy. Find one with a cover that doesn't look like it's targeting teenage girls, flip it open, and see if you can understand it. Some books (A-level) will only use the present tense, which is great if you haven't learned much conjugating yet. Most of the novels won't use a normal paragraph format, and will only use short sentences.
HITTEGOLF by Rene Appel (61 pages)
The title means "Heatwave" and it's an adaption of a popular novel written by a Dutch author. It's a crime thriller written in the present tense. It's the first book I read, and I got it when I was at about A1 level. I didn't use a dictionary even though there were a lot of words I didn't understand. I was still able to follow what was happening pretty well.
I liked this novel a lot - I'm looking forward to reading the original one of these days! The author managed to make the present tense sexy and intense, instead of weird and awkward. It's a somewhat typical murder mystery, but the protagonist is the primary suspect. It was a little annoying that he was in a bit of a stupor for most of the book.
KIND VERMIST by Sylvia Vanden Heede (175 pages)
The title means "Missing Child". And don't be scared off by 175 pages - there are very few sentences per page. I think these books may also be used for dyslexics or similar, which might explain the odd formatting. This one is also a crime novel - trying to find out whodunnit, with a protagonist that is a suspect. It's written at about the same level as Hittegolf, so understandable at A1 level, if you're not bothered about understanding every word.
But I didn't like this one much. It was the first (but not the last) Dutch Book For Stupid Passive Foreign Women I read, and after Hittegolf it was a huge disappointment. The author didn't make the present tense work very well, so it came across as weird and awkward. And the main character is a woman that is not intelligent and very passive. She doesn't do stuff - stuff happens and she cries and things miraculously work out at the end. This book's saving grace was an interesting plot with a twist at the end.
NACHT by Anton van der Kolk (110 pages)
This one is actually a normal book but written for younger high school students in the easier track. It uses the past tense, and has normal paragraphs, but it was surprisingly easy to follow. I read this at about the A2 level.
It tells the story of a teenage girl trying to explore her grandfather's past during WWII. Aside from that, the primary theme is family relationships and dealing with growing old. And, for fun, a little side jaunt into incest with a cousin! I'm not sure where that came from, but I think it detracted from an otherwise interesting book. It also provides some historical context for WWII in the Amersfoort area, and the concentration camp on the outskirts of town.
TWEESTRIJD by Rene Appel (123 pages)
The title means "Two-Player Game", more or less. Another adaption of a normal novel, but I didn't like it nearly as much. Again, I (think) it was present tense, and it worked well. It was pretty readible at A1 level. But it suffered from having a useless female protagonist that I wanted to stab in the face before anyone else could.
It's another crime/relationship thriller, and the redeeming feature is that there are competent female characters - just not the main character :-P The basic plot: Nice Stupid Girl meets Bad Stupid Boy, things go wrong, Stupid Girl is helpless, Stupid Girl is miraculously rescued. A huge disappointment after Hittegolf.
KOMT EEN VROUW BIJ DE DOKTER by Kluun (168 pages)
Definitely a chick book. Uses the past tense, was pretty readable at A2.5. This is a pretty famous book, and has had a movie made. Primarily I'd class it as an emotional read, with a lot of medical and sex vocabulary.
Basically a scum-sucking philanderer (the author) finds out his wife has cancer, and keeps screwing everything in sight. But apparently this is sorta okay because he really loves his wife. You might enjoy this book if you like watching train wrecks and their emotional aftermath. I don't :-P
DE VOORLEZER by Bernhard Schlink (87 pages)
The title literally means "The For-Reader", which we don't really have a word for in English. It's someone that reads a book aloud for someone eles. It's an adaption of a very famous German novel by the same name. In fact, I'd seen the movie a year or two ago, and enjoyed it. I was a bit past A2 level when I read it, and it was an easy read, although it uses past tense.
The protagonist starts as a 15 year old boy having a somewhat complicated affair with a much older woman. Years later, in law school, his law school class is observing a trial for WWII war criminals, and she is one of the defendants. During the course of the trial, the protagonist comes to understand his former lover's previously inexplicable behavior. I liked this one a lot.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Doctor Visit and Studying
The doctor visit yesterday went fine. They tried to call to see if I could come in a bit earlier, but I was already napping :-P I barely woke up before Jan came to pick me up, and going out was a major effort.
At least getting to the hospital was easier this time, even though the GPS kept trying to mislead us. There were probably some two-way one-lane roads she wanted to explore. Finding our way around the hospital was slightly confusing. There's letters indicating which area you should go to, like "P" but on signs they like to add a little "s" or something after them just for fun. Fortunately P is P, even when it says "Ps".
First we went to the internal medicine area in the basement, and the doctor was very friendly and started speaking English right away. I was surprised by how big his office was. Very spacious, with a separate little room for getting naked and lying down. Ooer. He hadn't received the electronic records from my neighborhood doc. Apparently something isn't working right with the technology. So I recapped: "My doctor say she has no idea what the problem is. Possibly Lyme disease?" He already had the lab results at least, and affirmed that they rule out a lot of serious problems. He ordered a chest x-ray since I have been coughing a little bit, urine screening, and blood tests. It sounded like he's mostly looking for viruses, though the urine test was for everything. And testing for Lyme disease :-P All of the x-raying, peeing, and blood drawing was done very quickly, and by even more friendly english speaking personnel. I even managed to tinkle on demand without making a mess! I got skillz.
The whole visit took about an hour, with short waits for the blood drawing and x-ray. The doctor will call next friday with results, or sooner if there's something scary going on. In fact, he got a call from the lab people while we were seeing him, and quickly made a call to a patient that had some bad test results, to let her know she needed to come to the hospital immediately. My next appointment is May 10 - the internal specialists do seem too busy. I'm not sure if that's from a funding problem at the hospital or simply too few internests in the country. But I'm confident that I'm not going to die while waiting to get diagnosed at least.
Now that I have a better time frame for my medical problems, I'm quite certain I won't be starting the refresher course at James Boswell Instituut. So I made a list of things I most need to improve, and brainstormed ways to work on those.
For vocabulary I can read "actively" - taking the time to completely understand everything. I haven't been able to do that much over the past 5 or 6 weeks due to being sick. But hopefully I can concentrate more if I avoid any tiresome physical activities. There's also free online lessons using the Delft Method, which is supposed to be quite good for vocabulary though less so for grammar. And apparently it's boring :-P I can also try to do more writing for fun - like a Dutch journal or something. Then I'm looking up the words I use frequently, and immediately using them, which should reinforce my memorization of them. Of course, this requires someone (Jan!) to correct my mistakes :-) And there's always English TV programs with Dutch subtitles.
For speaking I primarily need to practice with Jan. Again, inability to focus has prevented that, but might be clearing up soon. I could also try reading aloud to myself - then I get used to grammar structure maybe? Dunno how useful that is. I got started again on livemocha.com this morning. They actually have some Dutch lessons now, though they're a bit too basic to be useful for me. But they do let people submit spoken texts, primarily for pronunciation feedback.
My listening could use improvement too. I can go to the websites associated with my textbooks for a lot of that, as well as using the CDs and DVDs. And of course, there's Dutch TV. I could also try books on tape (well, CD) from the local libraries.
And although my grammar is passable when I have enough time to write it and check it over, I want to keep that going well too. Writing a journal, etc is good for that, as well as livemocha and reading books. I also need to work on my past tense verbs, which I can do with my "201 Dutch Verbs" book.
And if being sick looks like a long term thing after the tests are done, I'll go on to the B2 course book.
It feels good to have a plan at least. And after spending most of the day tracking down information and using livemocha, I don't feel too exhausted yet. Maybe tomorrow I won't feel exhausted at all! Maybe I can study! And learn! And grossly overuse exclamation marks!!!!!!
At least getting to the hospital was easier this time, even though the GPS kept trying to mislead us. There were probably some two-way one-lane roads she wanted to explore. Finding our way around the hospital was slightly confusing. There's letters indicating which area you should go to, like "P" but on signs they like to add a little "s" or something after them just for fun. Fortunately P is P, even when it says "Ps".
First we went to the internal medicine area in the basement, and the doctor was very friendly and started speaking English right away. I was surprised by how big his office was. Very spacious, with a separate little room for getting naked and lying down. Ooer. He hadn't received the electronic records from my neighborhood doc. Apparently something isn't working right with the technology. So I recapped: "My doctor say she has no idea what the problem is. Possibly Lyme disease?" He already had the lab results at least, and affirmed that they rule out a lot of serious problems. He ordered a chest x-ray since I have been coughing a little bit, urine screening, and blood tests. It sounded like he's mostly looking for viruses, though the urine test was for everything. And testing for Lyme disease :-P All of the x-raying, peeing, and blood drawing was done very quickly, and by even more friendly english speaking personnel. I even managed to tinkle on demand without making a mess! I got skillz.
The whole visit took about an hour, with short waits for the blood drawing and x-ray. The doctor will call next friday with results, or sooner if there's something scary going on. In fact, he got a call from the lab people while we were seeing him, and quickly made a call to a patient that had some bad test results, to let her know she needed to come to the hospital immediately. My next appointment is May 10 - the internal specialists do seem too busy. I'm not sure if that's from a funding problem at the hospital or simply too few internests in the country. But I'm confident that I'm not going to die while waiting to get diagnosed at least.
Now that I have a better time frame for my medical problems, I'm quite certain I won't be starting the refresher course at James Boswell Instituut. So I made a list of things I most need to improve, and brainstormed ways to work on those.
For vocabulary I can read "actively" - taking the time to completely understand everything. I haven't been able to do that much over the past 5 or 6 weeks due to being sick. But hopefully I can concentrate more if I avoid any tiresome physical activities. There's also free online lessons using the Delft Method, which is supposed to be quite good for vocabulary though less so for grammar. And apparently it's boring :-P I can also try to do more writing for fun - like a Dutch journal or something. Then I'm looking up the words I use frequently, and immediately using them, which should reinforce my memorization of them. Of course, this requires someone (Jan!) to correct my mistakes :-) And there's always English TV programs with Dutch subtitles.
For speaking I primarily need to practice with Jan. Again, inability to focus has prevented that, but might be clearing up soon. I could also try reading aloud to myself - then I get used to grammar structure maybe? Dunno how useful that is. I got started again on livemocha.com this morning. They actually have some Dutch lessons now, though they're a bit too basic to be useful for me. But they do let people submit spoken texts, primarily for pronunciation feedback.
My listening could use improvement too. I can go to the websites associated with my textbooks for a lot of that, as well as using the CDs and DVDs. And of course, there's Dutch TV. I could also try books on tape (well, CD) from the local libraries.
And although my grammar is passable when I have enough time to write it and check it over, I want to keep that going well too. Writing a journal, etc is good for that, as well as livemocha and reading books. I also need to work on my past tense verbs, which I can do with my "201 Dutch Verbs" book.
And if being sick looks like a long term thing after the tests are done, I'll go on to the B2 course book.
It feels good to have a plan at least. And after spending most of the day tracking down information and using livemocha, I don't feel too exhausted yet. Maybe tomorrow I won't feel exhausted at all! Maybe I can study! And learn! And grossly overuse exclamation marks!!!!!!
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Gezakt
"Gezakt" means "failed" if you're wondering :-P My class had our final exam for progressing to B2 classes on Thursday and Friday. Monday we received emails saying if we had passed or failed. I passed the writing test and failed the spoken test. Only 25% of the class passed, which seems a bit ... off. It wasn't like in A level where a few students were slacking, one didn't know how to study very well, and another had pronunciation problems. Everyone in B1 was studying a lot, and I was probably the closest thing we had to a slacker in class, since I missed a third of the classes due to being sick. From what I heard, most people that failed the class had also failed the written test, so grammar was the main problem.
Our teacher spoke briefly about problems with the course itself on a couple occasions. Apparently the average pass rate for B1 intensive classes at James Boswell Institute is under 20%. So our class was actually above average! Her opinion is that we're too rushed in A level and the grammar doesn't really have the time to sink in, though just enough for a lot of us to barely pass A. Then we're in B1 and need to progress to a certain level, but just don't have enough time to do it, even if we're doing everything we need to be doing. The biggest indicator of who passed and who didn't was how well they were doing prior to starting to B1, which was generally based on how much Dutch they know prior to starting A level.
If I'd paid for the class with my own money, I'd be a bit ticked off to know that my odds of passing were less than 1 in 5, regardless of how much and how efficiently I studied. One student mentioned today that failing was unexpected, and a bunch of us agreed ... we'd been doing the right things and making fast progress. But it simply wasn't possible to make fast enough progress. The teacher told us she focused on giving encouragement during the course because students usually give up if told they aren't doing as well as they need to be, such as one in our class who was having very basic speaking problems and stopped going to class when the teacher spoke with him about it.
Hopefully JBI will re-evaluate the course and make some changes. If B1 or A need to be longer, then they need to do it. Or label the class to make it clear that it's only going to work for people that have been in the Netherlands for a while and already picked up a lot of the vocabulary and basic grammar.
Well, I was upset at first, and cried - mostly from frustration at being sick so friggin much. After thinking about (justifying?) it a bit, I reached the conclusion that I don't want to start B2 next week anyhow. I can barely make it to classes as it is, and suffer through them with physical exhaustion, pain, and mental fatigue. I can't understand half of what people are saying and can't actively read in a learning context at all. My brain is just not processing things well. I already have the B2 course book, so my plan for now is to study at home and make Jan grade my homework :-) Hopefully if I'm not exhausting myself just by getting to classes, it'll be possible for me to actually focus and study.
My next doctor appointment is tomorrow, but it'll probably take at least a couple weeks just for a diagnosis. And then it might take much longer to treat the problem. There's a review class all the other failing students can take (400 euros, 15 lessons over 5 weeks), but it's only two weeks til that starts, and I probably won't be physically ready for it. The blood tests came back normal. Even my cholesterol and triglycerides had improved from a year or two ago :-P So no electrolyte imbalance, no anemia, no diabetes. My huisarts (general practitioner) asked if I thought it might be Lyme disease, but I haven't had a rash or been frolicking in the fields with ticks. My primary problem now is muscle weakness, resulting in pain, shakiness, and cramps (in that order) if I overuse them. The appointment tomorrow is with an internist, and I suspect more tests will be following soon.
In better news, I started with volunteer work yesterday. It was pretty enjoyable, though I had to take the bus instead of riding my bike, and the closer bus stop was closed because the street was closed, and I had to walk about a kilometer. Currently that's enough walking to cause me some suffering, even if I do it at a leisurely pace. But I had plenty of time to rest after I got to work, even though I was just barely on time. Everyone spent about half an hour drinking coffee (water for me) and chatting. I participated quite a bit, but they didn't feel awkward about chatting with eachother when I couldn't really keep up, though were happy to explain words I asked about. I processed the incoming mail, which included some reading and writing, checked some numbers against each other, and recorded and printed out the weekly energy usage and such. I was also shown the ins and outs of the copy machine, which is pretty nifty.
It was a slow day, so after doing all that with a lot of random chatting interspersed, they gave me a little magazine discussing housing laws and such to read, which was pretty interesting. I used my elite copy machine skills to make a shrunken copy of the magazine to take home to read some more. They asked how long I'd been here and said I was doing very well with my speaking for being here 7 months. Maybe I should ask them to talk to my teacher :-P
We did more gardening over the weekend prior to the previous one, and got the front area sorted. The ivy was trimmed back, the cement block around it removed, bricks dug up where the roots had burrowed between them, and the roots pulled out or deeply cut. I HATE ivy :-P I got a fuschia, carnation, and white hyacinth to plant in the cement block, and transplanted some purple pansies that were in a plastic pot. Then we got a tall black squarish pot to put in front of the trash area, with a small climbing rose, a colombine, and a little azalea. We also got two smaller pots for the backyard against the gray brick shed wall, one with an camellia and one with a climbing hydrangea.
It's been pretty exhausting but the garden is finally DONE. Everything is growing very well, except the purple basil which really didn't like the sun as much as it was supposed to. It's transplanted to a less sunny area now and looks like it might be recovering. The blueberry bushes look so leafy and healthy, with some new upward growth as well. The roses have lots of leaves starting, and the fuchsias are just gorgeous. The heavily pruned hibiscus tree is looking good too, with lots of little twigs starting to grow from the main branches and trunks. Even the sad little beet I kept stepping on is growing vigorously :-)
We got a little birdhouse to attach to the shed wall. It was the only one we saw that looked like a birdhouse, instead of abstract industrial art :-P We also have a little bird feeder hanging in the hibiscus tree, but the birds are still more interested in the peanuts and seedballs we hung in the tree a week or two earlier. I doubt we'll get birds this year, since most had already started nesting when we put it up, but there's two of the cute little yellow ones in the garden next door that spend a lot of time in our garden, and two really stupid little brown birds that are nesting in a neighbor's roof gutter. When it rained the first time after they started their nest, both were standing right outside the nest and looking at it in a puzzled birdy manner. But they keep adding to the nest there, so ... not very smart birdies!
Our teacher spoke briefly about problems with the course itself on a couple occasions. Apparently the average pass rate for B1 intensive classes at James Boswell Institute is under 20%. So our class was actually above average! Her opinion is that we're too rushed in A level and the grammar doesn't really have the time to sink in, though just enough for a lot of us to barely pass A. Then we're in B1 and need to progress to a certain level, but just don't have enough time to do it, even if we're doing everything we need to be doing. The biggest indicator of who passed and who didn't was how well they were doing prior to starting to B1, which was generally based on how much Dutch they know prior to starting A level.
If I'd paid for the class with my own money, I'd be a bit ticked off to know that my odds of passing were less than 1 in 5, regardless of how much and how efficiently I studied. One student mentioned today that failing was unexpected, and a bunch of us agreed ... we'd been doing the right things and making fast progress. But it simply wasn't possible to make fast enough progress. The teacher told us she focused on giving encouragement during the course because students usually give up if told they aren't doing as well as they need to be, such as one in our class who was having very basic speaking problems and stopped going to class when the teacher spoke with him about it.
Hopefully JBI will re-evaluate the course and make some changes. If B1 or A need to be longer, then they need to do it. Or label the class to make it clear that it's only going to work for people that have been in the Netherlands for a while and already picked up a lot of the vocabulary and basic grammar.
Well, I was upset at first, and cried - mostly from frustration at being sick so friggin much. After thinking about (justifying?) it a bit, I reached the conclusion that I don't want to start B2 next week anyhow. I can barely make it to classes as it is, and suffer through them with physical exhaustion, pain, and mental fatigue. I can't understand half of what people are saying and can't actively read in a learning context at all. My brain is just not processing things well. I already have the B2 course book, so my plan for now is to study at home and make Jan grade my homework :-) Hopefully if I'm not exhausting myself just by getting to classes, it'll be possible for me to actually focus and study.
My next doctor appointment is tomorrow, but it'll probably take at least a couple weeks just for a diagnosis. And then it might take much longer to treat the problem. There's a review class all the other failing students can take (400 euros, 15 lessons over 5 weeks), but it's only two weeks til that starts, and I probably won't be physically ready for it. The blood tests came back normal. Even my cholesterol and triglycerides had improved from a year or two ago :-P So no electrolyte imbalance, no anemia, no diabetes. My huisarts (general practitioner) asked if I thought it might be Lyme disease, but I haven't had a rash or been frolicking in the fields with ticks. My primary problem now is muscle weakness, resulting in pain, shakiness, and cramps (in that order) if I overuse them. The appointment tomorrow is with an internist, and I suspect more tests will be following soon.
In better news, I started with volunteer work yesterday. It was pretty enjoyable, though I had to take the bus instead of riding my bike, and the closer bus stop was closed because the street was closed, and I had to walk about a kilometer. Currently that's enough walking to cause me some suffering, even if I do it at a leisurely pace. But I had plenty of time to rest after I got to work, even though I was just barely on time. Everyone spent about half an hour drinking coffee (water for me) and chatting. I participated quite a bit, but they didn't feel awkward about chatting with eachother when I couldn't really keep up, though were happy to explain words I asked about. I processed the incoming mail, which included some reading and writing, checked some numbers against each other, and recorded and printed out the weekly energy usage and such. I was also shown the ins and outs of the copy machine, which is pretty nifty.
It was a slow day, so after doing all that with a lot of random chatting interspersed, they gave me a little magazine discussing housing laws and such to read, which was pretty interesting. I used my elite copy machine skills to make a shrunken copy of the magazine to take home to read some more. They asked how long I'd been here and said I was doing very well with my speaking for being here 7 months. Maybe I should ask them to talk to my teacher :-P
We did more gardening over the weekend prior to the previous one, and got the front area sorted. The ivy was trimmed back, the cement block around it removed, bricks dug up where the roots had burrowed between them, and the roots pulled out or deeply cut. I HATE ivy :-P I got a fuschia, carnation, and white hyacinth to plant in the cement block, and transplanted some purple pansies that were in a plastic pot. Then we got a tall black squarish pot to put in front of the trash area, with a small climbing rose, a colombine, and a little azalea. We also got two smaller pots for the backyard against the gray brick shed wall, one with an camellia and one with a climbing hydrangea.
It's been pretty exhausting but the garden is finally DONE. Everything is growing very well, except the purple basil which really didn't like the sun as much as it was supposed to. It's transplanted to a less sunny area now and looks like it might be recovering. The blueberry bushes look so leafy and healthy, with some new upward growth as well. The roses have lots of leaves starting, and the fuchsias are just gorgeous. The heavily pruned hibiscus tree is looking good too, with lots of little twigs starting to grow from the main branches and trunks. Even the sad little beet I kept stepping on is growing vigorously :-)
We got a little birdhouse to attach to the shed wall. It was the only one we saw that looked like a birdhouse, instead of abstract industrial art :-P We also have a little bird feeder hanging in the hibiscus tree, but the birds are still more interested in the peanuts and seedballs we hung in the tree a week or two earlier. I doubt we'll get birds this year, since most had already started nesting when we put it up, but there's two of the cute little yellow ones in the garden next door that spend a lot of time in our garden, and two really stupid little brown birds that are nesting in a neighbor's roof gutter. When it rained the first time after they started their nest, both were standing right outside the nest and looking at it in a puzzled birdy manner. But they keep adding to the nest there, so ... not very smart birdies!
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