Mired in Verbs

-
My "German for Reading Knowledge" course began yesterday and I've already spent many hours cramming German verbs and grammatical structures into my brain. It'll be a challenging course of studies, I reckon, but I am pretty confident that my ability to read German will increase exponentially over these next few weeks.

I haven't any idea as to how often I'll be able to update this blog. I'm going to go to California this weekend to play at a feis, so I need to be very diligent with my German so that I can lose two days of studying in order to travel/play. I hadn't planned on attending this feis but the organizer is down a musician and can't find anyone else to play. So, I'm going to sacrifice myself by going to LA for a weekend. It's a rough life, I know.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Too bad you didn't take Dr. Ray's Reading German class at Fordham -- it was one of the best classes I ever took, any where!
Tuesday, June 19, 2007 10:59:00 AM
Karen said…
Am I losing my mind? Did I not read a long post from you written in Peru? Surely I didn't dream it.

Please tell me I didn't leave a sarcastic comment on the blog of some other Jesuit scholastic. And if I did, then quick, tell me who is in Peru!
Tuesday, June 19, 2007 11:39:00 AM
Karen said…
p.s. I'm in L.A. Where are you going to be????
Tuesday, June 19, 2007 12:48:00 PM
Ryan G. Duns, SJ said…
Hi Karen!

You posted to a post I wrote last year - June of '06.

I'm playing (I think) in Irvine. There's an Irish festival/dancing competition that week.


To the above poster: I don't know that Dr. Ray teaches it any more -- there was a different professor running the course last year. I heard they hired someone else to teach it for this fall?
Tuesday, June 19, 2007 2:17:00 PM
Anonymous said…
Can you recommend a good book for learning German grammar?
Wednesday, June 20, 2007 10:16:00 AM
Ryan G. Duns, SJ said…
I really can only suggest April Wilson's "Learning German Quickly" as it is the only text I have used.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007 10:55:00 AM
Anonymous said…
thanks for the book rec, I'll see if I can find it. I've been trying to learn German, but it's difficult when mired in things that must be done.
Thursday, June 21, 2007 9:37:00 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Let me be passive-aggressive for a moment

-
I have read with much interest the dismay expressed by several bloggers over the election of our new general. I must admit: I don't understand it because, by all accounts, he is a wonderful man of prayer and service and will be an excellent leader for the Society. One of my Jesuit heros - a man who offers the model of the type of Jesuit I aspire to become - has said that this is the best possible choice for General. For those who worry about the Society's concern for justice: Christian belief is not merely concerned, as one might at first suspect from all the talk of belief or faith, with the eternal, which as the "entirely Other" would remain completely outside the human world and time; on the contrary, it is much more concerned with God in history, with God as man. By thus seeming to bridge the gulf between eternal and temporal, between visible and invisible, by making us meet God as a man, the eternal as the temporal, as one of us, it understands itself as revela...
Read more

Ignatian Meditation for Dummies

-
Well, I'm back from the abyss! After a week's preparation and a weekend's frenetic activity, the "Associates' Weekend" has come to a close. I was privileged to plan and prepare dinner, dessert, and brunch for 18 guests this weekend in addition to having to cook this week's Sunday dinner. I had to do an extra load of laundry as my clothes had begun to smell of pancakes, grilled steak, and bacon! On a more edifying note, it was my honor to have been asked to present a little presentation on "Ignatian Meditation" to the Associates (guys discerning a vocation with the Society of Jesus). I've decided to offer to you what I gave to them. Two prefatory notes: 1. This is meant as an Introduction. It'll probably not be helpful to those with a great deal of experience. 2. Ignatian meditation is counter-intuitive to many of us. Mommies and Daddies should actually have the easiest time, I reckon, with this sort of prayer. Why? Because they have watch...
Read more

Literal or Literalist? Yes, Catholics DO take the Bible Literally!

-
Over the last few weeks, I've begun to notice a common refrain from my Hebrew Scripture and New Testament students. Very often, they will say things like, "Yeah, Mr. Duns, Catholics don't take the Bible literally ." So, then, how do we take it? You see, the trouble is that the students are not making a very important distinction (If they did this already, I'd be out of a job!). The distinction is between a literal and a literal ist reading of Scripture. Allow me to put on my teacher hat and help to bring out the importance of this distinction. Catholics associate a literal ist approach to the Bible with fundamentalists. On this view, if the Bible says that the world was created in six days then it was created in 144 hours. If the Bible says that humans were present at the very beginning of Creation, then the entire fossil record that shows no presence of human life for millions of years must be false. One might summarize the literalist position by saying:...
Read more