Ah, Catalan…

Two posts in one day? WHAAAAA???

But i just got back from class at UAB (the school outside of Barcelona that we can take classes at) and after much stress and a lot of questions to my advisor, Teresa, I arrived in General Sociology to discover… that it was taught in Catalan.

Not wanting to waste my time, I took notes.  Double column notes: first, of what was happening in the class.  2nd, my reactions to class.

Els problems de la sociologia

Subtitle: Why am I still sitting here?

La dificultat de fer “experiments”

Really bad sign when the whole powerpoint is in Catalan.  That would be difficult to change.

La “familiaritat” amb l’objecte d’estudi

Stupid backwards accents and misplaced normal ones.

Algo sobre “Weber”

I do not know why I just wrote Weber down.

I am the only blond in the room.  Out of 80

I guess it’s a good sign that I’m so lost in this class compared to others.  Maybe I DO understand Spanish.

“La imaginació sociològica és la capacitat d’abastar des de les transformacions més impersonals i més remotes fins a les dimensions més intimes de l’ésser humà i de saber venure les relacions que hi ha entre munes i les altres”  (Mills 1987)

Hey, I recognize the name Mills.

Should I have just left at the beginning?

Okay, no.  She just made a joke at the expense of a guy going to the bathroom.  Shut. It. Down.

At the requisite pausa of the three hour long class, I told her I didn’t understand Catalan and asked if any other section was taught in Castellano.  No, she said, but you could take your test in English if you wanted.  Thanks, but no thanks.

So now I’m again classless, and looking into this class at UAB about the EU. One of the few classes taught in Castellano, because it’s filled with other international students (Erasmus kids)