Andy's Philosophy of Language experience

Greeting oh fellow students and sufferers,


This is to tell you a wee bit about my experiences with a Philosophy of Language evening class I’m taking.

It’s a 10 week course on Tuesday evenings 6.30-8.30 at the Edinburgh Uni Office of Lifelong Learning. Back in December I saw a programme and the Philosophy of Language course sounded interesting, and the time fitted my busy lifestyle! So, I got some more info from the internet, and thought Yup, let’s do it…I plan to study Linguistics and then course should be relevant and challenging! I paid my £50, and took the course book out the library…MISTAKE…it is a well heavy academic tone and I’ve managed about 5 pages of the intro!

I decided the book might make more sense after the first class, and cheerily trundled along. We started fine, with background to language but then quickly got into heavy issues about Analytic philosophy; Plato wrote on the conventions of naming objects, but then you knew that, right?

I came away blinking in a confused rabbit like way, but determined to keep at it. I emailed the lecturer, and he sent me the powerpoint notes and some links to some sites. I read a bit, but still found the whole philosophy business to be a bit, well philosophical! Is there an answer? What does answer mean anyway?

So, the next Tuesday I persuaded Sara (you know, the Mexican lass!) to join me, and we puzzled through Frege’s theories on sense & reference. Again, fascinating but so difficult to get my head around, and I reckon Sara felt the same.

I decided part of the problem is the depth of the material…it’s just too deep! I went to the college library and took out a basic introduction to Philosophy, which provides good background to the whole subject, and a book that is about Philosophy & Language…it’s still not exactly straightforward, but through perseveration we shall overcome!

Plan is to do some revision on Tuesday afternoon, then meet with Sara to go over it with her…

Sláinte and enjoyer yer haggis!

New year blog 2

Nothing much has changed this week
I still feel the exact same way as i did
in my last blog

New Year, New Term

This is going to be a more reflective blog this time around, looking at what I have done and what I am now going to do to go forward.

SPANISH

I find this subject to be the biggest challenge of all. However I am able to read and understand what is being said. Speaking is an ongoing process but with learning a new language It shows me the amount of study I have to do to keep all the information fresh.
Overall I want to be able to hold a simple conversation in Spanish which I know I will be able to do by the end of this course and with the work we are doing this is not an unrealistic task.

COMMUNICATION

This is very good for self confidence and learning how to put my thoughts and ideas onto paper. The essay skills, especially the critical reading and writing exercises are good and I am able to transfer these skills to other subjects.

LITERATURE

Poetry was my first introduction into literature and at first I thought it was a load of rubbish, but after a couple of weeks I started to get into it. Learning how to dissect a piece of writing, analyse, criticise and formulate answers makes the understanding of how poetry and other styles of writing work more enjoyable. I am looking forward to the short story section because I am better equiped to deal with the work that will be set out.

HISTORY

History has shaped our lifes and I find this the most interesting subject. I have handed in all essays and I am getting good feed back on all of them. I have an essay to hand in on 22nd Jan so I will set aside an hour a night to compleat this task.

COMPUTING

This is an ongoing subject but it enables me to be more confident in using them.

MATHS

Nearly at the end of this subject and I am surprised at how well I have done. I am able to problem solve now!!!!!!!!!!!

INVESTIGATING EUROPE

Compleated this subject and it has taught me so much. I was able to use the skills I have learnt in; Communication, Literature and History into practice along with self investigation, time management, goal setting and individual learning.

Uni or bust

University has become a step closer now as I have now sent off my UCAS form.I am proud of what I have achieved in such a short time.
Anyway back to the course. Everything is going well and I am managing all the work that has been set. I have had very positive feed back from my tutors. This goes to show that hard work and perseverance does pay off.
Christmas break is now hear and I must be sad because I am starting to look forward to coming back already.

On my way

Where to start.... it's been a busy couple of weeks for the whole class, but the Christmas break is nearly here so, not that much left to do.

Investigating Europe is done and dusted, just my presentation to do and I'm not to worried about that.

English Lit. is more interesting, Madaline is still as daft as a brush.

Maths is a work in progress. It's as hard now as it was when I was at school but I'm getting there, slowly but surely and with some more study I should be on to out come 4 this Friday.

Communication is going well. Passed my 2 assessments and I'm now working on an essay about the for and against reasons for capital punishment, under the catchy title of "Life or Death".
I will use my next history essay for the second part of the written work in communication.

History is still by far and away the most enjoyable subject, mainly due to Evan. I have an essay to hand in next Friday and I will make sure that I use the lesson I learnt in the last one: plan it, make time for it and do not get bogged down in a different topic.

Spanish can still cause nights of tongue twisting and spitting, but I have past my 2 oral assessments, so it must be sinking in. This is the subject that is most difficult for me and I really have to use my partner more, not for oral although she is Spanish therefore I should have no excuse.

Study skills is where the action is at the moment though. Diaca has been doing great work to help with our personal statements for UCAS. She has berated, harassed and cajoled us along the way in an almost motherly sort of way, more or less like Alecia, must be a Spanish thing.
Without their help though I don't think many of us would have done the UCAS form or be able to say "Tiene una mesa libre para dos, por favor".
All that is left now is for Diaca to write a glowing report and for a University to say "OK then" and of course, I have to pass the rest of coursework.

Jordi will be meeting with us next week and we might be able to get some feed back from him concerning the reports our tutors have given us.

Oh it's all so EXCITING.

Go on my son.

well that was a week an a half.
Handed in my European project,Joe was pleased with it, just need to tweek it a little bit and I'll be happy with it.
I have written out my application for Uni, but that needs to be tweeked.
Finnished of my assesment for English Lit and looking forward to the next topic.
got word from scott that have passed the 2 Written assignments. VVV happy 'bout that.
handed in my history essay, not to happy with it,could have put more detail into it, but ran out of time. Lesson learnt, be more aware of the time and what I have to do. I'll see what sort of feed back I get from Even.
Spanish oral. I done a lot better than I thought I would, but verbs let me down. I will have to spend 1 hour a night with verbs and using them in written sentaces.
This week is the first week I've felt pressureised in handing in my work. Maybe it was my time management or the amount of work was a real strain, but I done it and I'm still having a ball.
I'm starting to see the results of my wrk and I must addmit, I'm proud of myself, but as always there are areas I must work harder in and I have taken on board some of the tips offered in Diacas class .

Hi everyone!

It has been long time when i didn't look into the blog, brr.... but let's start again....
Recently i think that i discover more my way of learning which is very much visul. Making colourfull maps all over my walls at home make my memory works much better. So this technique almost forced me to sit down and write important things and at the same time to revise this.
In terms of my plan how to learn more effectively and reach my targets i made a brief plan:

• this week i started doing my communication assesment and i will find an hour every day to finished it by coming Thursday;
• on Thursday i am going to write a pice of writting (150 words) writting in Spanish about ''mi amiga'';