2008 Woodie Awards
Spanish Professor Gears Up For More Excruciating Student Dialogues
Not news
Elias Altman
Issue date: 1/30/07 Section: B Side
- Page 1 of 1
Karen Peal, a Spanish professor, recently told The Cynic that she was "almost ready" to sit through yet another round of "boring and poorly performed" student dialogues.
The dialogues require students to pair up, write and perform a two-page double-spaced conversation in Spanish.
After spending the weekend re-reading Don Quixote by Cervantes, Peal said she felt "somewhat OK" about watching the "tortuous" performances.
"The only thing worse than the horrible grammatical constructions and the butchering of the accent," Peal confessed, "is the low sinking feeling of regret that I get in my stomach."
Although Peal says she "wants to jab a pen into her leg" during most of these classes, she admitted that all of her colleagues share a good laugh about the students' ineptitude afterward.
In one such meeting, fellow professor Jason Garland recounted how one student had used the Spanish word for circumcising instead of circumscribing.
"Thinking of that dumb bastard saying that Columbus circumcised el mundo," Garland said in between giggles, "is enough to keep me going for another few years."
The dialogues require students to pair up, write and perform a two-page double-spaced conversation in Spanish.
After spending the weekend re-reading Don Quixote by Cervantes, Peal said she felt "somewhat OK" about watching the "tortuous" performances.
"The only thing worse than the horrible grammatical constructions and the butchering of the accent," Peal confessed, "is the low sinking feeling of regret that I get in my stomach."
Although Peal says she "wants to jab a pen into her leg" during most of these classes, she admitted that all of her colleagues share a good laugh about the students' ineptitude afterward.
In one such meeting, fellow professor Jason Garland recounted how one student had used the Spanish word for circumcising instead of circumscribing.
"Thinking of that dumb bastard saying that Columbus circumcised el mundo," Garland said in between giggles, "is enough to keep me going for another few years."
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