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15:39 / 17.09.07

I'm currently taking a course in Linguistic Anthropology and I have a sort of love/hate relationship with it. The instructor's bright, the material's organized, the readings are interesting. However, not enough of the other students are both doing the work and getting the concepts for the class to really gel.

An example: One of our readings was a section from a book called Language Myths. Now, this is the lightest of our three texts, and is written in a pretty casual manner. Each chapter lists a myth and then explains what's wrong with it. We'd read one on whether any given language was 'better' than another. The myth is that some, like French, are sometimes thought to be better because of the types of things it's possible to comfortably discuss using them. The refutation is that all languages serve the needs of the communities that use them, and that discussing literary theory, for example, isn't 'better' than discussing fine variations in color - it's just different.

Ok, so nothing too difficult there. This is a class that doesn't meet any core requirements, so it would pretty much only be taken by anthropology majors, who presumably already know that we no longer talk about societies being 'primitive' and so forth, so the concepts in this chapter should've been easy to handle.

But! The first person the instructor asked to give a summary said that the myth was that 'French is the best language.' Huh? Did he read the same book? So she asked the rest of the class whether we got something different from it, and nobody said anything! Then we had to sit there while she explained this kind of painfully easy material to everyone. GAH. I am thinking of asking if anybody wants to join a study group. Maybe people are just too shy to speak up, and they'll be more comfortable if we get to know each other socially, in smaller groups outside of class.

The other classes, happily, all seem to be going pretty well. Good, active groups, everybody doing their homework.

What's happening at your school? What classes are you teaching or taking? Where are you in your academic career?

18:09 / 17.09.07

I teach a class a semester at a small public college - honors program, so classes top out at 15.

This semester, though, for the first time, I've only got 9 students. It's odd - it's actually much harder to get a decent lecture going with only 9 listeners, since so much depends on getting decent questions. Took me by surprise - I'm running off the same class notes as last time, but keep having to go in new directions or find new things to *do* (it's a writing class, so *doing* is important, moreso than listening) to keep things rolling.

18:49 / 17.09.07

I was absolutely, chronically awful at talking in classes. I just became a stumbling idiot, and I don't think I ever said the points I intended to. Except maybe once, in my final year, while ostensibly giving a talk on the findings of an ostensibly group project in which I had done all the work, and was basically having one of those informal chats with lectures you dream of, where you're telling them something they'd never found, and being a little bit, ish, equal.

I've been out of school for a year, and will be for another one yet, but because I'm on a trainee position for librianship preparing me for an MSc, I'm still in a September-to-September year, and completely unsure as to how I am meant to live without thinking of summer as being huge, and quantifiably different from all around it.

semioticrobotic

19:52 / 17.09.07

School is going better than I'd expected, though I don't really know what my expectations were at the beginning of the month -- just that they've now been exceeded.

For the first time I'm teaching a full-time load, which at my institution is four course sections. I'm teaching four sections of the same course (and introductory level course in speech communication for non-majors), which is more difficult than I initially presumed. However the toughest hurdle has been keeping all my students -- nearly 100, which for me is scary as hell -- on the same rhythm. Classes taught on different days of the week have different hourly durations and, well, I now teach every darned day, so we're all over the place some weeks.

Nevertheless, some of my students are among the brightest and most personable I've ever encountered, which of course makes the whole experience worthwhile. When I say that my expectations have been exceeded, then, I suppose I'm referring to previous experience in this environment: I've always had at least a few back-row sleepers and consistent no-shows (well, it is a required introductory course for non-majors), but this semester I just . . . don't. Can't believe it.

21:53 / 17.09.07

I'm a PhD student, and tutoring at my uni again this semester - a first year subject called 'Reason and Passion', which is basically a crash course in the history of Western philosophy from the Greeks to the end of the 19th Century, and the application of philosophy to art. Last semester I did a similar thing but for the 20th Century. Last semester I had a group of 16, and it was extremely difficult to get them to talk. This semester I have about 12 students enrolled in my group, but only 5 or 6 of them turn up consistently (it's 9am, and Creative Arts students seemingly can't get up that early), and we have the most interesting discussions. I tend to think it's because only the people who are committed bother to show up.

It's been quite an experience, because the smaller class does mean I have to have enough reserve material just in case they haven't done the readings (mind you, the reader is ENORMOUS and intimidating), but at the same time I think people are far more comfortable expressing their ideas, and we have an excellent class dynamic. It's my first experience of such a small class size at uni (from either side), and I am all there for it! It's brilliant! I think I tend to teach better in a more informal environment, too.

This looks like it'll be an interesting thread, and I look forward to hearing/discussing more!

22:00 / 17.09.07

Grant: I know what you mean. Small classes can be great if you've got a lot of firecrackers, but they can also have a rather odd pace. What sort of writing class is it?

_pin: Thanks for the anecdote. It helps temper my frustration to hear what it's like for other people. Assuming I get accepted to one of the schools I want to transfer to, I'll have a year off, and yeah, the idea of it not being broken up into the chunks I'm used to is strange. I have a few friends who are librarians, but their degree is different - an MLIS I think? One's an information architect and one's an archivist. Do you have an area of particular interest?

Bryan: Congratulations! Some terms are like that, a bit magical, all good classes. Hope things continue to go well.

nixwilliams: What sort of stuff made it into your reader? I'm always curious to see what people choose to put in when there are so many choices. I agree about classes at odd hours drawing more committed students - I've never had a bad class on a Friday night. The people who give up every Friday evening for three months in a row are always quite diligent.

16:04 / 18.09.07

What sort of writing class is it?

First year composition - intro to academic writing. Alas, doesn't lend itself to the kind of enthusiastic discussion that "Reason and Passion" would. Well, except among the kind of students who get excited over commas and introductory clauses (who, by nature of being that kind of student, have already comped out of the class).

All Acting Regiment

16:50 / 18.09.07

Consider this a strangulated cry from beneath a pile of 18th century novels, some of which are actually rather super (it's all worth it, as Tristram Shandy turns up at the end). Also expect more hilarious (?) drunk posts.

20:01 / 18.09.07

I just enrolled today. Due to laziness and fear, i screwed up my third year and ditched the whole thing. After half a year of phone work, i decided university was a good thing after all.

So, I'm going into the third year of a BA Philosophy degree. i'm actually very nervous about the whole thing. Hoping i can do it properly this time and really looking forward to re-engaging with some of the lecturers - there're some really interesting staff on the team and i hope to learn a lot from them now i'm not quite so stoned/lazy/unsociable.

A friend of mine, who did pretty much the same thing as me a year earlier, was going to be joining me in retaking the year but decided against it at last minute. I'm a bit sad that i won't get to do the whole 'team' thing with him, and i was looking forward to having someone to spur me on when some of the deadlines come abou, but it may work out better this way - with less familiar social territory, i will be more able to challenge myself and take on the kind of work i want to. Still, all the people in my year will know one-another and i am not sure how that dynamic will work for me. I don't know if the combination of being unknown and being a few years older (24 to their average 20-21) will make for difficult social contact. But m'eh, i'm in it for the work this time around.

Still... fucking nervous. I hope i can remember how to spell Nietzsche...

Essential Dazzler

20:20 / 18.09.07

I'm going back for my third year at Uni on Saturday, which would be my final year, if I hadn't failed Every Single module in my first year.

Laziness, more than inability, has been a major problem my entire academic career. Unfortunately I was competent enough to score coast through Secondary School and get the grades for College. Then coast through College and get the grades for Uni.

It's a shame that it took until I was paying for Education that I couldn't just get by on a bluff.

This year, I've completed and passed everything, with fairly high grades for the bit's I really worked my guts out on.

More than anything I am so fucking proud of myself that I failed and actually had the werewithal to look at myself, decide what was worth doing, and actually learn my lesson, finally.

Related to an earlier post: I recently bought a copy of Tristram Shandy, so I could place it atop a pile of comics and intend the hell out of reading it, in a bid to appear smart.

21:06 / 18.09.07

Even though I already have a degree in Contemporary Arts I started the first year of an HND in Jewellery and Silversmithing on Monday. It's a course which specialises in high end jewellery technology like laser welding, which I currently don't know how to do. I also hope to learn how to make things like Mokume Gane. I'm scared about it because, well, three other jobs so when is time for breathing? but I am also very excited. I have a drawing class and a class in Art History each week and our first project is apparently making teeny metal puppets. Which just rocks.

Gourami, is there an age difference between your classmates and you? Most people on my course are 19 or so, and I am 34. I have already found that I am far more keen than they are because they are also interested in clubbing and getting up late and quite frankly I'm only there to work, and work hard. Maybe that's what's happening in your class too.

05:08 / 20.09.07

Olulabelle: Mokume Gane looks cool as heck, please show us your efforts. If I had a metal book I'd want the endpapers to be made of that. Or a thin strip pasted into my books could be my bookplate. My classmates generally are much younger, but the linguistics class is an exception. They mostly look like they're in their mid-twenties at least, and a handful are in their forties.

Pac State: I hear you. Overall I find that people who are making up for earlier shortfalls are more motivated. This is a bit of a cliche, but I have found it to be pretty consistently true.

trampetunia: Dude! 24 is not hugely different from 21. I'm 36 and find my classmates very sociable and friendly, although I rarely am quite up to matching their youthful exuberance, and expect something more thrilling than a dive bar if I'm going to be awake, dressed, and out of bed at 2am.

Allmacto: Don't be strangulated - take deep breaths. Not so many drinks, perhaps. At least take more breaths than drinks.

07:50 / 20.09.07

Dude! 24 is not hugely different from 21

Yeah, i know. It's more just an excuse for my social awkwardness/snobbishness. I made about 2 friends in the year i was actually in, so i'm not sure what groupings a year with strangers will yield. Work has made me better at that sort thing though, so who knows?

In a fit of tea-fuelled giddyexcitement, i have asked about the possibility of studying some of the course texts (Merleau-Ponty, Whoop!) in the original french. It's over 4 years since i did any kind of proper french studies, but i'm keen to avoid losing what ability i have left in the language. It's either a monumentally naive idea, or a monumentally awesome one. If it works, it means i get DOUBLE LEARNING!, which can be made only of win.

14:22 / 20.09.07

Oh sweet, that's a great idea. What are you reading? I've never read his work but he was quoted briefly (in translation) in something I read last night while I was working on a paper for this Ling. Anthro. class:

"The organism cannot properly be compared to a keyboard on which the external stimuli would play and which in their proper form would be delineated for the simple reason that the organism contributes to the constitution of that form..."

This was part of a very interesting bit on the importance of 'enaction' or the interplay between thought and physical experience. The basic idea is that it's not so much that there's a world out there and our senses reproduce it, and our minds make sense of it - it's more like there a soup of forces, chemicals, substances, and so forth, and we pick out of it the bits that match up with our senses and worldview, and either don't notice or don't understand the reast, so they're not really part of our sense of the world.

I know this one dude in class will bring up 'What the bleep do we know' if he hears this and that day will be a very unpleasant day for everyone.

All Acting Regiment

15:06 / 20.09.07

Oh, that's just a weird monster called The Fucking Annoying Monster. There's usually three of them in every academic year, be it school, college, university, post-grad, and it's a gamble as to whether you get none or one or two or three in your seminar.

semioticrobotic

15:31 / 21.09.07

Would also love to know what you're reading by M.M-P., .trampetunia. His work, more than that of anyone else, has profoundly influenced my work with human communication and video gaming. Though I'd never be able to read it in the original French...

All Acting Regiment

15:48 / 21.09.07

Wasn't too painful. Decent people in me classes. The only problem is having to read Samuel Richardson's Pamela. Makes one very, very glad of Stern and Austen.

17:28 / 27.09.07

So school is settling into a pattern now. My favorite class is probably Japanese. I had to miss class today due to illness and found I really regretted it.

How are things coming along with the rest of you?

All Acting Regiment

17:44 / 27.09.07

Good. Getting back to the nice Union food in a big way.

All Acting Regiment

17:45 / 27.09.07

Priorities, see.

22:35 / 27.09.07

Apologies for lack of replies - i've been attending lectures and going to work and all the other sorting-life-out shit that goes in-between.

The main text we will be studying is The Phenomenology of Perception. So far, we have had an introductory lecture ('born, died, liked x..') so i haven't had much to get my head around yet. In the first year, we studied a little of his work; concepts such a a footballer's 'body' encompassing the whole field of play etc.

As a zen disciple, i find what little i know of his work very intriguing - he seems to be the first philosoper in the western canon to treat the body/instincts/not-mind as intelligent in its own sense. I'm really looking forward to learning more.

In rereading some of the other course texts, i am remembering how difficult philosophical writing can be. This may pose quite a challenge if i try to engage with the text in French, but a challenge may be in order...

I have also had some very fruitful chats with my tutor about potential dissertation subjects. At the moment, my desires are focussing on a study of the implicit rules to which we are bound and to which we bind ourselves using language, thought and society at large. I want to bring in a little of Nietzche's critique of the will to judgement, along with some stuff i've learnt (but will hopefully learn more) of Deleuze&Guatarri and Foucault.

I'm really psyched this time around. I still have the excitement in me and i think the fact that i'm not taking Kant this time round will help me steam that excitement along.

I feel like i'm a pretty different person to who was starting the third year two years ago. I had two hours to kill yesterday, so i went to the library, picked up an Irigaray book i was interested in and just sat there and read it for two hours. Weird as it sounds, i've never done that before.

semioticrobotic

23:43 / 27.09.07

Your life sounds great right now, .trampetunia. I miss the days when I could duck into the library, grab a cup of tea, and dive into a book from the philosophy shelves with total disregard for everything and everyone around me. Savor every moment you have!

This week was a bit of a disappointment, I'm afraid. I'm finally into the rhythm of the semester, which is great, but my students hit a milestone this week and didn't respond well. Every semester, there comes a time when introductory lectures cease, explanations conclude, and students need to begin giving back -- doing assignments, contributing to discussions, reading material and coming to class prepared, etc. -- and my students were not ready to give back this week. I felt pretty downtrodden every day.

These feelings were countered, somewhat, by the news that an article I submitted for review will be published in a journal I thoroughly respect. This will be my first published piece and my first "real" contribution to the discipline. That news really brightened things up a bit.

semioticrobotic

23:51 / 27.09.07

Oh! And good luck with the Phenomenology! Not an easy read, for sure, but so rewarding and so compelling. "The world is not what I think, but what I live through."

All Acting Regiment

01:20 / 28.09.07

Apologize for this in advance. I really really like the star and garter and ocnsider it quite improtant for my education, and also club Keys Money Lipsticjk and Clique. Oh dear oh dear. Back to sachool back to fucking school indeed. Oh dear. I've jsut made eggy bread anyone want some.

15:39 / 28.09.07

I want to ruffle your hair, 'lecto. How's the hangover?

I would have some of that bread, but it looks a bit soggy now.

I had a splendid teacher's pet moment today!

We had the first Wittgenstein lecture today and the lecturer came to the obligatory 'about the author' part of the intro. He asked if anyone knew anything about Wittgenstein's life, rather than his philosophy. After a few moments' pause to allow anyone to speak, i started with 'He was born into Austria's richest family...' and just rolled and rolled. Managed to get quite a nice summary of his life, including interesting points (though in iffy chronological order) and relations to his ethical stance on philosophy and life. I happen to have read a bit about the guy and i think it showed.

The lecturer said 'excellent, i think that pretty much sums it up'. He then asked me to expound Wittgenstein's view on philosophy as 'an attempt to stop thinking'.

After the lecture, i went to the loo and, coming out, nodded to the lecturer as he waiting for his lift.

He stopped me and said 'Thankyou very much for your talk on Wittgenstein. It was a really good addition to the lecture. It helped a lot. You're brilliant and will probably WIN.' (i only paraphrase the last sentence.)

It felt good.

FULL

OF

WIN

18:55 / 28.09.07

Hooray for win! I wonder if teachers remember how good praise feels to students.

Allecto, here you go:

All Acting Regiment

19:45 / 28.09.07

Thankyou both. Good for you, tramp.

14:05 / 02.10.07

wish me luck

*fingers crossed*

There's a certain point that you hit in first-level language classes -- you've picked up enough that you get ambitious, there are all these things you want to say, but you still have only the most basic vocabulary and grasp of structure. You can kind of make yourself understood in a half-assed way, but you want to do more than that.

14:33 / 02.10.07

I realize it's a different writing system, but have read James Heisig's Learning the Kanji?

Would you, erm, like to? It seems like a good (learning) system...

15:21 / 02.10.07

Incidentally, I followed the Heiseg Learning the Kanji for about 3 months at the start of last year and learned about 600 characters. I got on really well with it - also with his book on the kana (amazingly enough, it's called Learning the Kana). I've only done the hiragana so far, but I like the system and his idiosyncratic writing style.

I stopped with the kanji because I was doing exams for work, and haven't properly picked it back up since then - keep meaning to, though.

15:55 / 02.10.07

Nice one, .trampetunia - you're doing the same course I did and doing it rather better by the sound of things (as far as Wittgenstein was concerned I was entirely composed of Fail.)

Keep it up and good luck; all - I'm completely relating to Semiotic's first comments about joyful study - something I was oblivious to at the time but am increasingly attracted to now I'm ass-deep in gainful employment.

16:03 / 02.10.07

Argh! A second-year student today insisted on pronouncing Foucault 'Foocal' even after he'd noticed that everyone else said it different.

The other stuff is good tho. Very interesting. I'm quite liking the different approached taken to phenomenology provided by Merleau-Ponty and Heidegger. Friction is fun.

Seeing as i'd never really done work before, i'm quite surprised to find out How much reading we actually have to do. But it's rewarding.

16:59 / 02.10.07

2nd year Zoology student here. All is going well this year, in what can only be described as the smelliest degree course in all the land. So many preserved brains and fishes do not allow for fresh smelling hands after labs. Also, I have a Climate Change and society module this year. The lecturer is like bizarro Eric Idle. Same voice, almost same appearance, just drained of all joy and charm. Kind of like Idle is nowadays I suppose.

17:17 / 02.10.07

So how do you pronounce Foucault? I wouldn't have the first idea so any attempt is better than mine.

Yesterday I had my first THS class, which is basically the new name for Art History. It was pretty fascinating and I loved learning about Sheffield Plate and comparing the Rococco and Neo-classical styles of silverware, but I am worried because my critical thinking muscle has not been flexed for some time. I used to be okay (not brilliant, but alright) at the kind of vigourous critical thinking needed for study, but I haven't done it for so long I don't know how to get back into it. I need a critical thinking class or something.

I've been having technical drawing lessons too, which I'm not great at. I do realise I won't be masterful at everything instantly, but because I'm good at art I thought I'd do okay in this. I'm really not though. I'm messy and not very accurate and the last time I had to colour inbetween the lines I was six.

It's very frustrating.

19:56 / 02.10.07

Re: Heiseg -- no, I hadn't heard of him, but I will check him out. We're using a book written by our instructor, and it's idiosyncratic but seems to be working well so far. I keep thinking that what she's asking us to do is a little insane, but surprisingly, we seem to rise to the occasion. "Now, please study these five new characters for thirty seconds with your partner, then prepare to write them on the board." 30 seconds? Who the hell studies anything for 30 seconds? But we do, and go figure, we learn them. We're not even on katakana yet, but I'm enjoying it all so much so far I think I might want to pursue it. (Today's exam, btw: nothing but net. Thing of beauty.)

Foucault rhymes with Pluto, I believe, but man, who cares. Maybe dude just hasn't heard the name spoken very often, or maybe that's the best approximation he can produce. Don't give the guy a complex.

Llamas, have you seen anything cool in class lately? A brain in a jar, with web access, perhaps?

Olulabelle, what do you need to think critically about? I'm trying to think of what you'd want to do with respect to silverware styles. Are you trying to hash out form vs. function or something? Or spheres of stylistic influence? Maybe an AF&D thread would get your gears cranking.

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