Academic frustration

Last night was class #2. I didn't feel as overwhelmed as I did during the first one, but several frustrations emerged; 1) I'm tired, so I'm not at full thinking power, and it's difficult for me to make valid contributions. This is frustrating. 2) The language of academia is cryptic, convoluted and exclusionary. It's very difficult to suss out what the professor or the text is talking about when they're using terminology that hasn't been fully explained, in a context that hasn't been explained at all.

I'm used to working within systems that are somewhat closed. But academia has a quality that really rubs me wrong, at least so far. My perception is we're supposed to stumble around in the dark until we eventually fall over the correct terminology. Can somene direct me to a glossary?

Check this:

http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0304/features/clouding-print.html