My first year in graduate school

[letnja_kisha]

So... it's finally over. All homeworks done, all papers written, not really all reading done. It's been interesting, not completely satisfying, but good overall.

The first thing I learned is that taking six classes, even at Berkeley (compared to MIT, where six classes for me would have been suicide) is not a great idea. It was way too much work, and one my grade suffered. Oh well, I got most of my requirements done and next year it will be easier.

The professors are really accomodating, and all you need is a will to learn. If you're willing to listen, they are more than happy to talk - and deadlines, grades, everything formal is not important to them. It's possible that I got lucky with my professors, but I think it's also generally true in graduate school.

I admit - I am still afraid of talking to most people in the department. It's a small place, everyone knows everyone, and although I should know better than turning at what others will think, I still do. I deal with it, and I got much better than in the beginning, though. But I am still not entirely comfortable in the department, and I feel like I am not using all of its resources because of my fears. Oh well, I'll work on it.

One thing I didn't expect at all is the amount of gossip! It's pretty crazy how much people talk about other people. Students about professors and other students, about research, teaching, personal life, everything! I don't even want to know what they said about me.

The master's program makes a lot of sense now, some things I didn't understand why we needed, I now think are a great experience. They make the second-year students organize a conference all on their own - from start to finish. At first, it seemed like a unnecessary distraction from studies, but now I see that we will need that experience once we are professors.

I didn't get any research done - I was so busy with studying. In fact, it felt I was back to undergrad, I had so much work. And it really doesn't matter that it's social sciences as opposed to engineering: in cs there were problem sets, here there is tons of reading.

The one thing I am really looking forward to next year is teaching Russian. I know I'll be scared at first, but I am sure I'll get the hang of it, and hopefully it'll even be fun!

Comments

[denis37.livejournal.com]

Will you be the main instructor in your Russian class, or will you teach
a recitation?

I once substituted for caperbush in her IAP Russian class, and it was indeed fun! Do some block letter writing on a blackboard for practice :) The unexpected challenge in the one class I taught was that it was very early in the course, so people didn't know the distinction between "ty" and "vy" yet, but since the students were from very different age groups, undergrads to over 50, I was very unsure of which pronoun to use to address them. On one hand, I wouldn't feel comfortable saying "ty" to a students who are older than my parents, even though I don't think they'd mind, however, I don't know if that audience would understand if I said "ty" to younger people and "vy"
to older ones. What would you do in this situation?

Also, don't forget to tell them that "bl" is one letter, not two :)

[letnja-kisha.livejournal.com]

Well, there are only TAs that teach Russian (thus there is no main lecturer, although there is a faculty supervisor), so I'll be teaching one section all by myself.

I asked my supervisor about ты and вы and she said that it's flexible, but better to do it like they do it in Russian - I address them with вы (everyone), and they address me that way too, but they say ты to each other - except if there is indeed an older student, in which case you tell them to address him/her as вы as well.

We'll see, it should be interesting :-)