This term in English I have learned a lot of new skills, vocabulary, and new things to pay attention to more in life. English is both the subject I am best at, and one that is among my top 3 favourites, so I hope that this learning of things I find interesting or useful will continue so that my liking for it doesn’t die. It saddens me greatly that the rigid unit-based structure and the idea that learning is for the exams has clipped my curiosity in Science, for example.
It is good to learn more about English grammar in the Grammar sessions we have most Friday afternoons. I’ve only full-on studied Japanese grammar, and it is interesting to see both the differences and similarities (such as Japanese being much more relaxed with what constitutes a valid sentence). A good trinket I have taken away is the how and where to use a semicolon (this –> ; ). It was also good to learn about the types of clauses.
We also went through a frolic through history, learning about the Germanic, Nordic, French, Latin, and Shakesperean roots that English has. It was fascinating to note that the time period and context in which those root languages entered Britain shaped where different parts of our lexicon are “from”. For example, domestic words such as “hound” and “night” are obviously Germanic, whereas legal terms, specific names for meat (“veal”), cooking (“boil”), nobility (“baron”), etc. are influenced by French.
When it comes to writing, a major takeaway was a deeper understanding of different narrative perspectives and their effects on the meaning / mood of the piece. For example, I learned about the different “levels” of third person narratives, with the narrator being either rooted in just one character’s brain, being like a non-effective character in a scene (i.e. knowing what all the characters do) or an omnipotent one (knowing what multiple characters are thinking AND their actions).
But I think the skills I enjoyed learning most were in the Poetry unit, wherein I learned more of the names of techniques poets
1 thing work on: