Yesterday was my last first day of school (hypothetical grad school excluded) and the first time in a UCSB classroom in 15 months. The highlight of the day was German 1, where I learned such phrases as “My name is Jenny. What is yours?” and then promptly forgot them. I haven’t been in a very beginning language class since 7th grade, and it was such a rush! I can hardly believe I’m getting university credit to play call-and-response games with the teacher and line up in alphabetical order according to last names. My roommates are all biology or computer engineering majors, and while they are slaving away in 4-hour night labs and impossible organic chemistry exams, I’ll be learning to count to ten. Life is sweet as a linguistics nerd!

On a sadder note, my textbook for the class was $164 without tax, and it’s not even bound, just a pile of three-whole-punched pages! Although that’s a cheaper way to learn German than, say, buying a plane ticket to Germany, it’s definitely less fun, and almost kind of corrupt….

UCSB, it’s nice to see you again.

About The Author

Jenny

Jenny Marshall studied Language, Culture, and Society at the University of California Santa Barbara, and now teaches English in Spain. Here she writes about the intersection of language and culture, and lives a life translated by travel.