Phonetics.

For my phonetics class, we have a homework assignment to make reference recordings of ourselves reading words. I felt like an idiot coming into the HLRC and recording myself, for the same reason that I don't read out loud in Russian even though I know it'd be good for me. Or pray out loud when I say personal prayers.

This is something that is assigned, though. So I have to do it. Really, I'd make the recordings at home if I had a microphone. It's a weird sensation to be surrounded by people who can hear and understand what you are saying but cannot participate. I don't know how to explain it. But then I felt a little better when another girl in my class came in a couple of minutes later and started doing the exact same thing. She's less abashed than I was--it seems to me that she is speaking louder.The poor girl that has been here longer than either of us is probably annoyed.