Night before the big test

Instead of studying for my Spanish final I decided to kinda lounge around and do nothing. Well decided might be too strong a word to describe my thought process, I actually just procrastinated until I had no choice but to blow it off. I had made sure I my night would be free long in advance; I ignored the phone calls and resisted the temptation to go out and cause mischief. But I just couldn’t bring myself to study, I even worked on my resume to kill time instead.

My justification is long and doesn’t make any sense. It’s been about 7 years since I’ve actually studied for an exam. I tried to think of one I took after I graduated, but haven’t been able to come up with anything. No I didn’t even cram for the driver’s exam when I moved to Washington and somehow got 20 out of 25, the minimum required to get a license.

I’m actually fairly confident in my ability to pass this exam. The class has been worthwhile, I learned something new every day, I met some interesting folks, but I never really felt challenged to the point where it hooked my attention. So I blew off some homework and some classes and now I’ve blown off studying for this final.

But I’ve convinced myself that’s ok since the point of going to class was to learn Spanish not to pass an exam. And my Spanish is getting fairly decent, I’ve gotten to the point where “Bob Esponja” is quite hilarious and the fat Japanese guy cooking on canal 9 is quite captivating. The telenovelas are an entirely different story. I still have no idea what’s going on most of the time, although they can be captivating for other reasons. Reading the paper or literature isn’t too hard, just time consuming.

I get the idea of the subjunctive; I just am not fast at identifying and absorbing it. The imperative is fairly straight forward and I can almost always recognize it. Compound tenses are just annoying. The Preterite vs. Imperfect can still be somewhat confusing, but I’ve got a good feeling for it. Vocabulary is an issue, but I’m convinced that will just come with time and practice, not studying.

Languages are quite fascinating. As much as we found ourselves grateful by our ability to communicate with one another we also have to realize that language boxes in our innate creativity. Sometimes you find yourself faced with an idea that you know just can’t be explained in words. The only people who can understand the pearl of wisdom that you’re trying to get across are those that know and believe it already.

But not being understood is nothing new, in fact I find it’s far more appealing than being quite so straightforward. Maybe it’s the air of mystery, maybe it’s the accompanying sense of superiority, maybe it’s the way things come in threes. Whatever the explanation I think I’ve come to the conclusion that all knowledge intrinsically comes from faith in something. Who’s that guy with the bit about the apriori knowledge? Now if I could just remember how to conjugate those damn stem-changing verbs in the imperfect.