Shaun Lewis: the Man, the Myth, the Legend

Well, it’s Thursday.

I just got back from my photography class and I have to say that I’ve had a productive day. I developed 2 rolls of film (albeit poorly) and finished 2 prints, which means that I’ve completed one assignment. This is actually the first assignment I’ve completed. Really, I should be finished with most of them, but I just haven’t been able to get good enough prints. Perhaps it’s because I’m picky?

Of course not.

Even though I was productive in photography class, I was not so in Russian—mainly because I didn’t go today. I decided that I wasn’t going to go after the class had been in session for about 15 minutes, but that happens, I guess. Besides, I am starting to wonder if the teacher knows Russian all that well. I mean, I have no doubt that she can speak it because she grew up in Russia, but I grew up in the United States and I don’t speak English all that good. Growing up in a country certainly does not give one the right to teach the language.

I guess I wouldn’t be so reticent to accept her creditentials if she would not forget stuff all the time. The other day we were talking about the accusative case and some people wanted to know why for certain direct objects, we used different endings. Her response was to stare at the student dumbfounded. I was reminded of a deer frozen in headlights. I poked my head out of the wonderful picture I was drawing and said, “It’s because one is an animate object (e.g., a person) and the other is not (e.g., a book).”
My teacher said, “Yeah, he is right.”

That’s right I’m right.

Maybe she really does know Russian well, but she is just a poor teacher. Although, I must say, she can certainly still kick my butt when it comes to pronunciation. Really, the question is: who can’t?