Tomorrow marks a month since I've come to Spain. It's also the day I go back to Glasgow for the weekend! The word excited doesn't do justice to how I feel. But before I get too focused on my plans for the weekend, I thought I'd give an update on the last couple of weeks.
I'll start by saying that yesterday I finally matriculated. My name is now on the system, on the lists of classes I've chosen to challenge myself with these next few months. The classes I've ended up picking are Spanish linguistic skills, Spanish language, German, and Greek. I've now had the time to form an impression of what these classes are like, and what I love and hate about them.
To start with, I'm still struggling to differentiate between the two Spanish classes. It kind of feels like the linguistic skills is an intro to the Spanish language where we're already meant to have those skills. Therefore, the latter is more complicated and intense, but it takes place in a classroom of around 60 18-year-olds who refuse to stop talking for more than five minutes at a time. What I do like about this class, is that it seems I'll get to do some creative writing for it. Not going to lie, when I first started looking into my options of studying in Spain and couldn't find creative writing classes anywhere, I was kind of relieved. If I can barely express myself in a day-to-day conversation, how would I ever express myself in a creative written form? Well, I shall find out soon, as my first story is due in on the 26th of October.
My other Spanish class seems like it will have a creative element to it as well. Just a couple of days ago we had to write an essay about 'Happiness' in class. My happiness in this class is that I've somehow been blessed with a Spanish girl who's taken me under her wing and shares her notes with me (there are no handouts for this one, try and summarize what a lecturer is saying in your third language as she goes..). I was also fortunate enough to have this girl agree to form a group with me and a couple others for our January group project/exam. I don't know when the topic was chosen or discussed, or how Artificial Intelligence will be related to this Spanish class, but I couldn't be more thrilled with the topic and look forward to doing research for it.
German was one of the more obvious choices for me since I'd done it in school. I am therefore not at all surprised that it is my absolute favorite class. It's very refreshing learning German from a person whose mother tongue is German and not Lithuanian. I am forced to relearn the way I pronounce certain letters, but this is exactly why I set out to do it. One of my favorite things about this class is that there are only 8-10 of us. It's easy to get to know everyone, there's individual attention to everyone's progress and we take it at a speed that everyone can manage.
I am aware that I have yet to mention my journey of finding the right church here, but I feel like that deserves a whole post for itself and the journey is far from over, so stay tuned if you're interested in that.
To end this, I want to thank everyone who has been reading so far. It's not about the numbers but it's sure nice to see the number of readers more than doubling on my last post. However, what I appreciated most were your kind words and encouragement, so thank you once again. Glasgow friends, see you very soon!!!
Matthew 11:28 New Living Translation (NLT)
28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
Hi Abigaile,
ReplyDeleteI'm happy for you that you have made a friend in one of your classes. You will of course make more friends as time goes on. But she will always be amongst the first if not your first.
I'm also intrigued that one of the subjects you'll be covering is Artificial Intelligence. It is a topic that has fascinated me since I was a child watching Star Trek and in particular the character of Data who was the android and one of the fan favourites. He was a creature of pure logic that struggled to come to terms with human emotions and motivations. Something we can all relate to.
AI is a fascinating thing isn't it? Upon leaving school one of my first jobs was with a tech company that trained me in computer programming during the dot com bubble. Unfortunately the job was much less glamorous than is portrayed in the media and the company soon closed it doors when the bubble burst and I moved onto other things. But I still build my own computers for more recreational purposes and keep my finger on the pulse on what's happening in the tech industry.
To some people like Elon Musk AI is the biggest danger facing mankind to others it will be the tool that saves humanity from itself. Sam Harris has a Ted Talk on the subject on YouTube if you're interested.
But AI is all around us now. From the Algorithm that power the Google search engines to the ones that power the stock markets and of course the one everyone uses when using Google Translate.
Unfortunately Google Translate hasn't quite got the hang of natural language processing and sentiment analysis. It struggles with context,grammar and can be awkward to read. But progress has been made and will continue to be made. I wonder what impact it will have when they finally get it right. What need will there be for a translator when we have one in our pocket?
Anyway, enjoy your weekend in Glasgow and good luck with your courses. Even the Greek. I could actually tell you a few things about the weird things they got up to. But let's keep it clean!
AI really is fascinating and I felt so lucky to be able to do a presentation on an interesting topic! In terms of google translate, I've discovered that it seems to do a pretty good job translating from Spanish to English and vice versa, but Lithuanian to English and the other way round is of really poor quality at this point in time. I think we'll always need translators as language is too nuanced, in my opinion, for a machine to comprehend it all.
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