I STINK!

So, in order to maintain my interpreting certification I'm required to earn CEU's (one hour of work equals .1 CEU; Yeah, it takes forever to get 8). If you take certain types of classes they can count toward Professional CEU's rather than the General ones. Professional CEU's are much more difficult to find workshops to satisfy. This semester I had the grand idea to take ASL Linguistics again. This is a class I had to take during the Interpreting Training Program several years ago. The teacher is SO precise in her language use. I knew it would be a good refresher and hopefully help me in better understanding the nuances in the language. It's working I'm seeing more and remembering some of the aspects of the language I'd forgotten. The first time I took the class I ended up with a B, and have NEVER in my life been so happy about, or worked so hard for a B. All the tests are essay tests, like the kind that you fill the allotted space and continue on the back, if you want any chance of full credit. She also counts off for spelling, grammatical, and punctuation mistakes. Trying to write 100 miles an hour with none of those mistakes is difficult for a tired, only half working, brain to do.

Today I got my first test from this year back. I suck. I got a dang 81% on it. Their were two questions that I lost a lot of points on, and I know why, I just flat out ran out of time. The darn class is only an hour and a half. I couldn't write any faster and had to leave information out of a couple of my answers just to make it to the end of the test. One other question she just didn't like the answer I came up with; although, I've used similar answers out in the real world and they've worked fine. There is always room for improvement though.

~**~Note to self: You stink and need to find another profession. ~**~

I think I might keep retaking the class every 2-3 years till I learn and remember enough to earn an A. I was telling Stephen about it, and explaining exactly why my grade was so low, he agrees I might need to find another profession. On a positive note, back in 1999 I got a 71% on my first test, so I'm up 10 percentage points! That means the next time I retake the class I should get a 90%....uh....maybe.

Next hurdle....a research paper, not just any research paper, a linguistics paper containing an in depth analysis of one aspect of ASL. I've got my topic approved, now I better get my butt in gear before I blow that one too. My teacher is not only a master of ASL, but of English too. That means all the mistakes that show up in my blog posts CANNOT show up in that paper.

My long term hope is that this class, in combination with some other activities, will help me prepare for the new certification test they just set up. Yippee!

Well, it's been two hours...Lincoln is summoning me.