Just a spoonful of sugar

School bells are ringing again for me - quite literally this time as I stood outside the brand new Learning Resource Center (LRC) at American River College and listened to the carillon bells being played so beautifully. It was a rainy day and since I had never taken a class in the LRC I arrived early enough to comfortably find a parking space, find the building, and find the classroom. It turned out that all three were relatively easy to find so I found myself as the first student to arrive for German 401 - Elementary German.

The computers were locked with software preventing my playing around with them but it was more interesting to converse with Frau Doktor Susannah Martin while she did all the little things that teachers do at the last minute to get ready for class. She had written a list of things that she wanted each student to write on a 3 x 5 card so she could get to know us. Beside that list she had written "Write largely and clearly". I chuckled and she asked why. I pointed to her directions and said that I didn't think "largely" fit there. She first erased the "ly" but then said she couldn't do that because she needed an adverb and large was an adjective. Then she said to no one in particular "...it is largely understood..." and then said that largely must be an adjective also because it modified "understood". I was about to correct her again when I realized the last thing I needed to do was pick a fight with my teacher on the first day of class. She asked if I had anything more to say. When I didn't, she erased "large and", feeling, correctly, that "clearly" was sufficient.

So how is Frau Doktor Susannah Martin? If you can imagine Julie Andrews' Mary Poppins without the magic touch but with my daughter Jessica's sense of humor, you'll come pretty close. Frau Martin's command of the German language is impeccable. She began immediately after all the preliminary paperwork and roll call was complete. "Stehen Sie auf." "Lesen Sie." "Hoeren Sie auf!" "Setzen Sie sich!" "Schreiben Sie!" She mimicked the commands she was giving - stand up, read, listen, sit down, and write. Those of us with a little German vocabulary caught on quickly and those brand new to the language weren't far behind - not with Drill Sergeant Martin continuing to bark orders.

Next came the alphabet. She wandered around the room listening for any deviations from the way a good German would say the alphabet and if you weren't speaking loudly enough she singled you out for a solo. But only a short one. She told us that 99% of German verbs are regular in the present tense and gave a brief lesson in tense for those who didn't know what it meant. One got the sense that she was listening to every student and gauging her teaching speed to fit the class. You also got the impression that this was one teacher you didn't want to
cross swords with (or umbrellas to use the Mary Poppins analogy). Numbers from 1 to 99 and introducing yourself were also thrown into the mix tonight. I think the pace and the content of the class will be sufficient to keep me interested and working hard.