Something New

I was inspired this morning to share my thoughts on my daily Bible reading. So I began my little ministry.

New World

I started the language component of my ENG101 course on the wrong footing by missing the first class. Woe unto me. AP now takes the class and he is everyone's nightmare. (Not really, but we'll talk about him at length some other time.) Today was the second class, and the discussion was on our assignment due at the end of the semester, before the exam. According to the hand-outs we were given; "Assignments should focus on the language used by a clearly definable social group or specific practice/activity, and include a 'field-work' component". Now, AP's idea of a good report must involve a group of people that are of immediate interest to us AND push us out of our comfort zones.

Our group started by listing interests and the list is something like this:

• Wild-life
• Writing
• Clubbing
• Drug/alcohol abuse
• Campus culture
• Internet
• Criminology
• Oriental dance

Tomorrow we meet to discuss what we're going to focus on and how we push ourselves out of our comfort-zones in that respect.

AP is dedicated to making new people of his students. It's endearing and in a way frustrating. He is trying, unlike most of our lecturers, to give us the real university experience; something different from what we were doing in school. He wants us to get 'out there' and learn something real, so we leave with a BA and a heap of experiences which drastically change who we are from who we were. He cares for us. All this is well, but his projects leave us stranded. The two most conservative kids in class were asked today to prepare a presentation for next Monday on the Khajuraho sculptures. One is a shy boy from a rural village in Ratnapura who as the lecturer points out seems "keen on remaining a virgin all his life" and the other is a Muslim girl who doesn't know what baduwa means. Both probably believe god dropped them in their mothers' arms at birth. The boy might actually enjoy preparing for his presentation, but the girl no doubt is going to be in a lot of trouble.

A nineteen year old girl wearing a hijab sits hunched in front of a computer with a stunned and scared expression on her face. Her mother enters the room. The girl is startled and attempts to close the window. The mother has already seen what she is looking at. Kama sutra diagrams.

Mother: [red in the face and shaking] Allah forgive us! What on earth are you looking at you terrible child!?

Girl: [almost in tears] Ma, it's for a University presentation. I have to prepare it for Monday.

Mother: [now angry] Do you think I'm a bloody fool!? Is THIS what they teach you at that University? You think I'm completely uneducated to think anyone at a University would ask you to learn about things like THIS!?!

Girl: Ma… it's the truth!

Mother: [slaps the girl] Don't you ever say things like that again. Shameless girl! How dare you! Wait til your father finds out about this! [grabbing her head] Oh… the shame! MY daughter! Allaaaah…! What have I done to deserve this!? Is this what you are doing saying you're at university!? Allah! What a shame you are! Oh…

Ok… I'm not exactly a playwright, just experimenting there, but you get the drift.

So this class is fun, and it's interesting, and it's getting us 'out there'. We will probably learn more here than we will in ALL the other classes we attend throughout our undergraduate career. But some of us will probably have serious injuries from it; either a failed grade or a social black-mark. I'm serious.

PSY101: An Introduction to and the History of Psychology

First thing Monday morning after a weekend which you don't want to come out of, is Psychology 101. This is by far the most unusual class I've attended. It is boring to the lower levels of suffocation and at the same time highly interesting. The course is designed to give an introduction to Psychology and look into the History of Psychology. We have been doing this for the past few weeks under the guidance of Prof. D. Mallikaarachchi and his assistant Wathsula who teaches the English medium class in Sinhala. Our professor is a renowned one who has lectured not only at the University of Peradeniya and the BMICH but also in London. He has probably travelled around the world and been exposed to many different varieties of the English language because he speaks in a variety of different accents. Of every five words he speaks, one is tinted with Australian, one with British, two with the typical Sinhala and one with his very own unique version of the verbal execution (no pun intended – seriously!) of the language.

Yesterday we were discussing "the Darwin" and how his work On the Origin of Species "shut-herd" the Christian concept of The Creation. The "padamantal" ideas presented in this book were introduced during the course of this lecture. It was pointed out (with no offence to the Christians in the class) that animals were not considered psychological beings in the past due to the idea given in the book of Genesis that they were created simply "for consumption by humans". Whether it is of offence to anyone in the class or not though, the concept of God is false.

Maybe it's just a first impression, but so far, it seems that our class is going to have to become worshippers of the Analytical School of thinking. The "other" school (the Behavioral) is not really a school because behavior is only PART of out psychology. After all, "we are all actors; women are acting all the time". Ha ha ha! Further reading includes articles published by Prof D Mallikaarachchi in the Sunday papers. There are also published critiques of these articles, but they are negligible.

Our class last Tuesday was cancelled because the Professor had to be in Colombo on Wednesday. Our class today was cancelled because the Professor had to see ABA at the Sigiri in Katugastota.

 

Introducing ELA

The word 'ela' here has nothing to do with the word commonly used by the younger generation to express something close to "awesome", it's actually an acronym for English Literary Association. I was informed that I, along with the other 60-something students in my class am a member of this group by default. Apparently every student who reads English as part of their curriculum for a BA is automatically a member of the ELA. Now, I don't know who the ELA is, or what the ELA does, but I must pay Rs.50 to the class representative (how often I wonder?), ASAP. Apparently they "really need" the money. For what?

I admit, I didn't want to make a scene so I just kept my mouth shut and listened to this cute little senior give us this info when she strategically caught us right after a lecture on Bernard Shaw. Her words were punctuated every few seconds by an "okay?" which although written here might mean "did you understand darlings?" (when looking at the person who was saying it) actually seemed to mean "fuck you, just pay the goddamned money" (okay, I'm possibly disillusioned).

This girl is not my favorite senior (she's so fragile), so I chose one closer to that to pose my questions to. Apparently the English Literary Association of the University of Peradeniya:

1. Organizes Book Launches
2. Has Alumni Nights
3. Hosts Peduru Parties

I see 30% of this having any connection with English Literature. I see 0% of this being beneficial to the students who are compulsory subscribers. Maybe I'm just ill-informed about the whole thing, but hey, all the 'representative' kept saying (very emphatically) was "just pay the fifty bucks"!

I'm not grudging them the dough, but it seems that leaving the crucial question unanswered is a popular thing here. What are we paying for?

Fresh Starts

I spent my entire mid-semester break last week trying to come up with a way of effectively fudging a research paper and getting a good grade. I failed. Not the grade, but the fudging part. I went back to school on Monday thinking I was gonna start over, work hard and put my 100% in after this. The fact that I had to hand in two papers which I hadn't produced completely thwarted my resolve. But today has proved that God is good after all. Prof. Para actually voluntarily gave us extra time to do our research paper since he is more interested in quality than ? (I don't know the word that goes there… suggestions?). Amazing. So I spoke to him and now I've got two fresh weeks to hand the paper in. It's going to be brilliant and ground-breaking. Really.

note: I'd like to apologize for and explain the misleading title: it refers to the five years (beginning on Monday 14^th June 2008) I have been blessed (doomed) to spend acquiring a BA from the University of Peradeniya. I have chronicled (in fits and starts) the first two months of this experience of "University Life" at Scribbled Ramblings. That's dedicated to the Bleeding Pencil which only produces in pain and intense inspiration. This is for the normal ball-point pen, to prove my professor who called me "self-indulgent" in my writing wrong, and to stick to the resolution I made in my post last night.

Below are some of my previous posts on BleedingPencil which connect here:

Returning the RagDoll

First Steps

Initiation... Right.