Independent Work Module

It's again time to think about the independent part of my studying. 2 credits means approximately 3,5-4 hours of independent work or studying each week. So how am I going to get there? Here's the plan:

Reading/Writing:

I hope I'm not crazy but I'm kind of thinking that I would complete all of the tasks asked in this Reading/Writing part. Since I'm studying for my Master's I need to do lots of independent reading at home anyway (and without this English course I couldn't even get any credits from that reading). First, I'm going to read this introductory book by the author Jack Sidnell: "Conversation Analysis, An Introduction". I'm sorry I'll be palling you with these texts from my area. It's just that I've done my 45 credits of world literature already (I just loved it) and now I really need to focus on this big task. So I'll be doing a book review. Hopefully it'll be worth it.

 If I have the time I might also write some sort of essay or two about the academic articles I've read. Right now, I have in front of me a collection of articles from Markku Haakana, Minna Laakso and Jan Lindström. It's called "Talk in Interaction, Comparative Dimensions" and I'm hoping I'll be able to finish the whole book. That depends on the time I have for studying. (You see, It's really hard sometimes to get these books from the library and when you finally get them you have to finish them quick before someone else wants to borrow them.) In the end, I'll end up doing either just one of the tasks or both of them and as you know I'll also be writing this language/literary blog where I'll be reflecting my learning.

Listening/Speaking/Writing:

I'll probably be watching lots of "odd films" during this autumn. Some funny TV-series also do. That's just my way of relaxing after long days at work and at the Uni. or after reading articles. The most important thing: if it has nothing to do with conversation analysis, the better. I think it's not such a big thing to write a couple of reviews after watching TV, right? P.S. No worries, I'm not using the subtitles, and if so, they will be in English.;)

About the communicating part I really hope my work counts. I can tell you it's sometimes hard to convince someone to buy a great wine with your mothertongue but it's much harder to do it in English (or even in Swedish for God's sake!) And I did serve many English speaking customers this weekend, just like I told you I would. Saturday might have even been this year's record! I also have many English speaking friends just one Facebook click away. And I do send them 'letters' all the time.

The last assignment was the Idiosyncratic dictionary. Well, I guess I just need to start keeping one. Let's get started with the first word: excruciatingly. I still have no idea where I could possibly use that word. Maybe I'll figure it out during the course.

Now, when the independent work plan is done I can finally get to this week's achievements. I can happily tell you that I've been doing a lot of stuff using the English language and I don't mean only in the classroom or costumer service. I've been reading a book called Sequence Organization by Emanuel Schegloff, 2007. It's funny that all of a sudden I start to read so much in English. (Last year in Lisbon I read books ONLY in Portuguese.) It is slower than reading in Finnish instead. It's also harder since all new key words need to be translated in my head to Finnish, even though I most of the time don't even know what the translation could be. I notice that when I get tired It's really hard for me to concentrate but I think things will be a lot easier when I get used to studying in English. (It took some time to learn to study in Portuguese as well.) The best thing about this week was that we've been watching soooo much "How I met your mother" with my fiancé. I mean a lot! We must be already watching season six or seven. Tomorrow we are going to watch the movie "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".