grad school, ahoy mateys!

Too bad it's not International Talk Like A Pirate Day today. But that will undoubtedly be a fun day, if I manage to spend it with *grad school colleagues*, whoo hoo!

This story got started when the ballet shoe shop I worked in closed down, forcing me to contemplate on my life, its meaning, and the coveted but germ-covered green pieces of paper that would no longer be flowing my way at all (even in their usual insufficiency).

Yes, indeedy, it was time to get a life.

It was often suggested to me, since I'm fluent in the French language, that I should be doing something with French besides scolding my misbehaving child. Innovative thought!

Here's the rest of the story, in a nutshell:
1) Spoke to a schoolteacher about teacher certification. She recommended a local program in a small school.

2) I looked into, and applied to, said local program.

3) Director of said program responded that I am lacking sufficient credit hours in French in my college transcript, which is the only thing that counts despite my having lived in France for 9 years. Alrighty then.

4) I went hunting for places I could earn credit hours in French without falling asleep. The only local class I could find available at my level was in this tiny place somewhere a bit to the south of chez moi. Heard of it? ;)

5) Myself and spousal unit decided if I'm going to bother to go to down there at all, I should do all of my studies there. He said, in fact, that I shoulda gone there in the first place. Spousal unit carries heavy influence, seein' that he's also the main finance unit n' stuff. Plus he's a cool kinda spousal unit.

6) I wholeheartedly agreed with cool spousal/financial unit, and cheerily set about hunting for graduate degree programs. Yay, I'm getting a life!

At the moment, it's too late to apply to the specific programs that interest me. Not only is the deadline past, but I need time to speak with advisors and all that. So I'm going to just apply as non-degree, start with a course or two to get my feet wet, and apply that course to whatever program accepts me.

Here's where I need your input, O ye linguists, teachers of foreign languages and ESL teachers. Or just plain O ye smart, reasonable people with something to say about it. French Linguistics Masters program, or Masters of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages?

I have to say that I love linguistics, and looked into a strictly linguistics program, but all they have is a PhD program that takes 84 credit hours of work and probably more funding than even the coolest of spousal units might have on hand in the tuition budget.

I'm open to other options as well, but given that I have a B.A. in International Communication, I'm not prepared to start over with Geology or the like, as fun as that sounds. If I had unlimited funds and time, I would just collect degrees...but those germ-covered green pieces of paper are ever calling me back to reality. Stupid little things they are.

So talk to me! Suggest! Naysay! Strongly urge! Posit questions! Pontificate! I'm all ears.