Precerpt from My 20th Language: L6 German - University German
University
German
At Penn State, my German skills exploded. German being a
heritage language at that time in Pennsylvania, it was, for all intents and
purposes, a commonly taught language. Classes were full; the range of courses
was impressive—from historical linguistics to contemporary literature and, of
course, writing and stylistics at higher levels and composition at lower
levels. I don’t believe that is the case now, given that German is considered a
less commonly taught language (anywhere) these days.
My two years of high school German should have allowed me to
skip one semester of college German, the rule of thumb being one year of high
school covers about as much as ½ semester at college. However, I tested out of
first year, skipping two semesters, one for each year of high school. That, in
my mind, is great testimony to the value of Mr. Hurley’s second-year class, the
one almost all the students hated and the one I devoured. That deep foundation in
grammar meant a lot ultimately. The group of advocates (fortunately, thinning out
now) for “focus on form” (which is not a grammar focus at all, unlike the
implication of the term) had not appeared in those days and would have been
chased out the door by Mr. Hurley—and they would have been scandalized by his
approach. Yet, it worked. He did not teach grammar for the sake of grammar. He taught
grammar as a stepping stone to coherent communication—the same way he taught an
understanding and control of their own grammar to native speakers of English.
It not only helped me skill a full year of German, when I should have placed
into second semester, it became a model for my other language learning efforts.
Where my instructors did not provide a grammatical base for a language, I
searched it out. Where I learned a language on my own, I started with an
overview of the grammatical system (which is quite different from learning
discrete pieces of grammar the way the old grammar-translation methods taught).
At Penn State, once I got past the obligatory second year, I
took every course in German I could fit into my schedule. Linguistics, composition,
literature. Old language, old literature, contemporary language. As much as I
could stuff into a schedule that was already bulging with languages and required
courses. (Every semester I petitioned for a course overload; then, I just found
a way to double the course load without petitioning, for which I should have
been called on the carpet but no one ever knew.)
At one point, I declared a German major but had to drop them
after I got married because I needed to graduate early (my scholarship was
taken away once I got married on the premise that “married women are a waste of
scholarship money because they never do anything with their lives except stay
at home”), and linguistics was the fastest route to graduation. It did not matter.
The German department accepted me as one of their own in spite of not being a
major. Then, when I enrolled in graduate school, thanks to a grandmother who
came into a small amount of money, enough to pay for a year of grad school, and
I stuffed my schedule once again, so that I could finish all the coursework in
a year. (In 3.5 years, I completed my BA and all requirements for the MA,
including comprehensive exams, except for the master’s thesis, which I turned
in literally a few years later after an intervening stint in the Army).
In graduate school, I majored in comparative literature and
eliminated the dilemma of choosing between Russian and German by choosing both.
Typically, comparative literature included English literature and a foreign literature.
I received permission to take two foreign literatures instead. Hey, it was
still comparative! And all the literary theory was English lit theory, so I
actually came out ahead with three literatures.
During the summer of that grad school year (yes, I had a
FULL year), the German department brought in a guest professor, Dr. Peter Demetz
from Yale, my counterpart as a German-Russian comparatist (a gift for me) but renown,
respected, and deeply knowledgeable. He taught German 495, a course in
comparative literature focused on Realism. He started with the trends leading
up to that period, highly influenced by French writers, and proceeded a bit
past that period so that we had a well-rounded understanding of where all that
fit together; that gave me the grounds for carrying on that discussion of Der
Sturm und Drang vs Expressionismus with the Austrian students decades later.
In the first class session, Dr. Demetz brought in homework for
reading by a French author. The conversation about that was revealing and ended
up propelling me into a closer academic relationship with Dr. Demetz. The
conversation went something like this:
German grad student: “Ah, Dr.
Demetz, this reading is in French.”
Dr. Demetz: “Yes, it is the
original; the author was French.”
German grad student: “Dr. Demetz, this
is a German course.”
Dr. Demetz: “Oh? You cannot read
French? Well, there must be some dictionaries in the library.”
End of conversation. The students quietly departed the
classroom, stunned. I approached Dr. Demetz and explained that he must of
course know that, particularly with French, dictionaries would not be all that
helpful,because the infinitive forms (dictionary forms) differed so much from
the conjugated forms of verbs. He agreed, but he was surprised that students of
comparative literature would not know both English and French, given the influence
of those literatures on other literatures. I offered to translate the
assignment into English and make it available to my classmates though the department
office. I could type almost as fast as I could read; it would not be a burden—and
I did not need a dictionary. He thanked me, and it was done.
Then, after the next class, he asked me to stay for a few
minutes. “These are the readings I want to assign next week,” he said. “Would
you mind providing translations?” I guess he liked the first translation! I did
not mind. It was good practice in developing translation skills. It kept me
connected with French at a time I was not doing anything at all with French,
and it really did not take much time (but certainly some time beyond what I
would have been putting into the course).
This became habitual. He had French readings nearly every week,
and he gave them to me in advance with the expectation that of course I would
do them. And, of course, I did. It benefitted my understanding of the course
material, too. I like to think that benefit is the reason I got an A+ in the
course. (Well, maybe the + was for all the extra translating effort, but I don’t
think so. He was a pretty straightforward, academically demanding professor, for
whose instruction I remain grateful to this day).
At the end of that semester, I had completed all the
required M.A. coursework and was scheduled to take my written comprehensive
examinations the following week. They were oriented toward Russian-German comparisons.
I don’t think anyone at the department considered asking Dr. Demetz to contribute
to the exam, but he was quite interested in the questions (after the fact) and
said he thought they were good ones. Then, he proceeded to discuss them with
me, along with the planned topic of my thesis (a Gorky-Hauptmann comparison), for which he had several helpful suggestions. So, I got feedback not only from the department but also from the #1 expert
in that sub-field. How often does that happen?
But I get ahead of myself. There were two very important
aspects of German at Penn State that contributed both to my German acquisition
and to the shape of my future life. One was professional. The other was
personal.
The professional one involved tutoring. As a member of the honors committee of the Student Council at Penn State, I had become involved in a new tutoring center that Penn State had set up. I had been tutoring various languages there when the director approached me that the local junior high school was in need of a tutor/teacher’s aide for German once a week for a couple hours. Would I be interested? Of course! That was not my first foray into a classroom, but it was my first work in teaching a foreign language in a formal setting, and I liked it. I have liked it for the five decades since that I have been involved in L2 pedagogy.
The personal one involved the opportunity to apply for a dorm room in Deutsches Haus (German House), an exclusive area in the language dorm (each floor was a separate language), where only the pertinent language was permitted, and one therefore learned rather quickly. Since I had neither money nor time to consider a study abroad component, DH was the next best thing. DH comprised the entire third floor. My roommate at DH came from Koeln (Cologne), and we got along famously. Early on, she invited me to a party with her American friends, among whom was my future husband. Well, you get the picture!
For more precerpts from My 20th Language, click HERE.
For more posts about language learning, click HERE.
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