SCARED!!!

[Jane]

I'm starting my first year this September and slighty scared at the prospect of "finding" an academic mother. Is it not slighty daunting? I thought ritual humiliation stopped when you finished High School(!)

Also,I'm wanting to pick up Spanish from scratch, I've studied it a bit (informally) and do Italian and French. What's the course like?

Does anybody know when or what the reading lists are for French and Spanish (beginners)?

[Thalia]

Don't worry about finding academic parents - there are always loads of third years just waiting to pounce on the new freshers - myself included

And there's no ritual humiliation unless you have a mean parent - the worst that'll probably happen is you'll get too drunk and embarrass yourself without your parents' help

Personally i wouldn't reccommend doing three languages as even one can be a lot of work compared to other subjects, but then if you do really enjoy languages then you'll probably find the work worth it.

Don't worry about reading lists - you don't need them until the first class and even then you don't have go out out and buy stuff straight away.

[hr]

[s]A Question
A voice said, Look me in the stars
And tell me truly, men of earth,
If all the soul-and-body scars
Were not too much to pay for birth.
---Robert Frost[/s]

[pinkymoo]

Hiiiiiiiii there, do not be scared....really!!! Finding parents is easy, all you have to do is be confident.....meeting parents is an easy thing, just introduce yourself..seriously, dont worry..im in first year now...i know!!

i do do french, and the texts this year were la maison tellier by guy de maupasesant, and le cid by corneille, and extension du doamine de la lutte by michel houellebecq.....but they may have changed...

I do three languages, and they arent realllly confusing, so go for it!!!!

See you next year,

hurricane
xxx

[Wee Nic the Dobber!!!!!]

hiya i loooooooooooooooooooooove being in st andrews and i got academic parents for raisin weekend then lost contact but it SERIOUSLY doesnt matter uni is great DO NOT WORRY


XXXX

[Si]

This time last year I had exactly the same worry as you about academic parents. Yet by the end of September I had 2 mums and a dad. And I didn't have to do a thing about finding them either, they came to me.

Seriously, don't worry about it. Come Raisin Sunday you will have at least a mum and a dad, if not more.

[Bread Roll]

I found Spanish for beginners to be rather fun, but its hard work although if you have French and Italian behind you you should find it a bit more straightforward than those who've never learnt (learned/learnt?) a language. And as mentionned above, don't worry about reading lists until you get here, they don't expect you to have read the books before you arrive generally (you know, not that I even read them afterwards...) and Blackwells will have a huge stack of first year french books just sitting there waiting to be snapped up by hoards of eager students.

As for the academic parents thing, don't worry about that either. If it gets to November and you still don't have any then the Union usually holds an orphanage bop thing so you can find yourself some before raisin weekend. And its not obligatory, so if you don't want them, you don't have to have 'em.

[hr]

Eyeliner on boys.