thesis: whine whine.

Well, when the going gets slow, the slow get going.

Man, transcribing things takes for*ever*. How do I keep underestimating that?

12 more hours. This is fun, in a very roundabout kind of way. I'm glad I could take a vacation day today.

thesis: interview transcription

The coolest thing about this whole transcription business is that I have tapes of myself speaking French in the interviews I did in 1998, and tapes of myself speaking French in 2004. In 1998, my accent was good, but my voice was *high*, much higher than it is in English. In 2004, my voice had dropped a bit, suggesting I was more comfortable with the language. But! And this is great! My accent markedly improved in the few weeks I was there. In the first couple 2004 interviews, I sound tentative, and I trip and stutter over words here and there. Later on, after I've calmed down a bit, the interviews I give are much more fluid, and I sound less like I have a stick up my ass.

I've always thought that that process was internal, since people don't react to me any differently (except by being slightly more likely to assume I'm foreign in the first few days after I arrive). But no! When I start to feel more comfortable living in a language, it *actually shows*. Also, the little notes I made to myself in English on the dictaphone in between interviews get more and more accented, which, quite frankly, I find kind of cute.

This is an endurance event, this writing!