Apparently my hair loves England. I swear, it's grown about two inches in the past three weeks. It's ridiculous.
I had a meeting with my advisor on Friday, which was quite successful, I think. The 2000 words of dissertation I had written were basically a lot of beginnings, so most of the criticism he had for the work was along the lines of, 'This needs greater specificity, but obviously you're going to do that later because you haven't finished this section yet,' so as it stands I think I'm in fairly good shape. I indicated that hopefully I'll finish the first main section in a month or so, which he seemed more than happy with. It'll also give me something to present at the MA conference, so hooray. This does mean, however, that I really need to finish reading Carlyle, and he is very hard to pull apart. One of the things I like about the Victorian era was how blended political thought was with poetry and science and everything else, but it also makes for very difficult reading at times, especially with authors like him. But anyway, at least on the other hand I've already read through Hard Times, which is hardly a slog, so I'm halfway done in that sense.
I also got left to my own devices this week at the language program, which was a little dicey as the guy running the program basically dumped a huge pile of worksheets in front of me and said, 'Look through these and do some of them! It'll be great!' and I had to teach myself what was going on with them at the same time as I was foisting them on the students, which was really awkward. Worksheets, while useful for the basics, are better as homework it seems, but even then it can be hard to explain (and me to actually figure out!) what precisely the directions are to them. Eventually one of the Polish guys, whose English was a bit better than the others', suggested we just read articles and discuss them while going over vocabulary and such, which worked a lot better for all involved once I was actually able to track down some articles to work with. So for next time, which will be in a couple of weeks, I'll be finding some readings to do instead of worksheets.
Lastly, Erin and I might try to do a quick day trip on Tuesday out to East Riddlesdale Hall, which is an estate in Keighley. It looks pretty and easy to go through, and there's a ruined abbey nearby that looks absolutely gorgeous, so if I can figure out travel to it, we can put our National Trust subscriptions to good use. We shall see!
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
On teaching English
So apparently, I sound authoritative enough to be a teacher!
At least, this is according a random man who was a colleague of the guy who runs the English classes, which I'm now helping to teach. Indeed, I made it over there this past weekend--it's a bit of a trek; I have to walk to the center of town to take the bus that will then take me off in another direction for 15 minutes to actually get there, so all in all it's about a 45 minute commute. Still, it wasn't hard to find from there, and it ended up being rather fun. It's a pretty disorganized set up, all told, since it's free and people can show or not show whenever, but we ended up sitting around small tables with reading assignments and worksheets.
Most of the people coming in have been living in the UK for a year or more, so they know enough English to communicate the basics, but there's a lot of vocabulary missing, and/or the nuances of the differences between similar words aren't there. I mostly followed the lead of the one teacher who's actually gotten qualified to teach English at first, and as she was not a native speaker herself, her approach was definitely one I'll want to imitate. So as we went through some reading she would lead with questions and I would supplement with definitions of words and troubleshoot.
Eventually, however, I ended up working one-on-one with one woman who was clearly several steps behind the rest of the group. It was difficult, but difficult in a fun way, as a lot of her questions were ones that I wasn't always prepared to answer--for example, how does one define 'shame' or 'embarrassment'? I couldn't use synonyms, since those wouldn't be understood either, so I had to go for examples, and sometimes without cultural context, examples became hard too. It was a creative challenge to come up with situational examples that were universal and clear, and I don't think I always succeeded. I definitely had to go back a couple times and say, 'Wait, that was a terrible explanation, let me try again.' Luckily we were both patient with each other!
Anyway, we managed to get through half a worksheet over an hour or so, and it seemed like the woman was retaining some of it by the end, so overall I'd call it a success. In any case, I'll be going back next week, and hopefully I'll be able to do better. It's really satisfying to be able to hone my own skills of articulation (and piece apart the English language myself) while helping other people--I think teaching is actually getting more and more appealing as a general career on the whole. It's kind of really exciting. And given the comment from Random Man at the end of the session, I fit the general profile pretty well!
At least, this is according a random man who was a colleague of the guy who runs the English classes, which I'm now helping to teach. Indeed, I made it over there this past weekend--it's a bit of a trek; I have to walk to the center of town to take the bus that will then take me off in another direction for 15 minutes to actually get there, so all in all it's about a 45 minute commute. Still, it wasn't hard to find from there, and it ended up being rather fun. It's a pretty disorganized set up, all told, since it's free and people can show or not show whenever, but we ended up sitting around small tables with reading assignments and worksheets.
Most of the people coming in have been living in the UK for a year or more, so they know enough English to communicate the basics, but there's a lot of vocabulary missing, and/or the nuances of the differences between similar words aren't there. I mostly followed the lead of the one teacher who's actually gotten qualified to teach English at first, and as she was not a native speaker herself, her approach was definitely one I'll want to imitate. So as we went through some reading she would lead with questions and I would supplement with definitions of words and troubleshoot.
Eventually, however, I ended up working one-on-one with one woman who was clearly several steps behind the rest of the group. It was difficult, but difficult in a fun way, as a lot of her questions were ones that I wasn't always prepared to answer--for example, how does one define 'shame' or 'embarrassment'? I couldn't use synonyms, since those wouldn't be understood either, so I had to go for examples, and sometimes without cultural context, examples became hard too. It was a creative challenge to come up with situational examples that were universal and clear, and I don't think I always succeeded. I definitely had to go back a couple times and say, 'Wait, that was a terrible explanation, let me try again.' Luckily we were both patient with each other!
Anyway, we managed to get through half a worksheet over an hour or so, and it seemed like the woman was retaining some of it by the end, so overall I'd call it a success. In any case, I'll be going back next week, and hopefully I'll be able to do better. It's really satisfying to be able to hone my own skills of articulation (and piece apart the English language myself) while helping other people--I think teaching is actually getting more and more appealing as a general career on the whole. It's kind of really exciting. And given the comment from Random Man at the end of the session, I fit the general profile pretty well!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
I really like dramatic titling.
I have officially declared my dissertation title! It shall be called:
'Demons of Industry: Machines as Monster and Metaphor in the Victorian Gothic'
Exciting, yes? Hopefully the content will be as exciting as the title. We shall see. I'm going to try to get another 2000 words done before Venice happens, because then I'll be a little less than a third of the way through, and that would be extremely excellent.
The last of my unassessed work has been turned in, so I'm feeling a little burned out at the moment--writing an essay a week for three weeks in a row is tiring, so I'm glad it's over. On the flip side though, I'm reading War of the Worlds for Imperial Masculinities this week, and it is lots of fun! I think I'm going to write my final essay for that course on it and Sherlock Holmes, as a sort of compare/contrast piece about detection and imperialism. It will be fun times, hopefully. I also read Byron for Monday's seminar, and while I definitely enjoyed it he is very dense, and I am bad at reading Romantic poetry, so it was a bit of a struggle. He was at least significantly more accessible than Blake, for which I am thankful.
On the application front, I have one more scholarship form to fill out, and then I am done. It will be glorious. It will probably be another few weeks before I start getting any responses back, so I'm just keeping my fingers crossed.
And now, I'm off to a piano lesson. The Ballade is getting better! I'm amazed. Yay for having technical skills actually start to catch up with my interpretive skills. Took me long enough.
'Demons of Industry: Machines as Monster and Metaphor in the Victorian Gothic'
Exciting, yes? Hopefully the content will be as exciting as the title. We shall see. I'm going to try to get another 2000 words done before Venice happens, because then I'll be a little less than a third of the way through, and that would be extremely excellent.
The last of my unassessed work has been turned in, so I'm feeling a little burned out at the moment--writing an essay a week for three weeks in a row is tiring, so I'm glad it's over. On the flip side though, I'm reading War of the Worlds for Imperial Masculinities this week, and it is lots of fun! I think I'm going to write my final essay for that course on it and Sherlock Holmes, as a sort of compare/contrast piece about detection and imperialism. It will be fun times, hopefully. I also read Byron for Monday's seminar, and while I definitely enjoyed it he is very dense, and I am bad at reading Romantic poetry, so it was a bit of a struggle. He was at least significantly more accessible than Blake, for which I am thankful.
On the application front, I have one more scholarship form to fill out, and then I am done. It will be glorious. It will probably be another few weeks before I start getting any responses back, so I'm just keeping my fingers crossed.
And now, I'm off to a piano lesson. The Ballade is getting better! I'm amazed. Yay for having technical skills actually start to catch up with my interpretive skills. Took me long enough.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Procrastiduction! The neologism of my life.
Argh, procrastiductiveness has struck again. In other words, I have done my laundry, cleaned my room, done the dishes, and organized my shelves. I have not, however, made much progress on the actual writing of dissertation stuff. Rar. It'll get done...just not right now. So clearly, I'm going to write a blog post now, instead of doing anything about it.
On the other hand, I am taking initiative in other aspects of academia--I'm going to try to submit an abstract for an arts conference the Classics department is holding in a few months, because it will be small scale and the theme is "Transitions", which is totally what my dissertation is about. It looks like an appealing way of easing my way into the conference experience, and I know that Erin's attending, so I won't be alone. I've also volunteered to help organize and advertise an exclusively MA students' conference that a girl in my Imperial Masculinities seminar is coordinating, and I may present some material there as well. So that should be fun, and it will motivate me to work on really honing my research and presentation skills. Plus, I'll have some more things to put on my resume.
Other than that, things are still going well--the weather's being quite agreeable, actually, which is bizarre. Today was practically temperate. I can feel myself already becoming spoiled with less-than-frigid winters. I haven't had to wear my winter coat these past couple of days. It's sort of awesome.
Also, I bought a second pillow, and now I sleep a lot better. I had no idea this was an issue, but clearly I am bad at paying attention to what my body thinks of things. So hooray, I suppose.
Okay, I should really actually work now. For real. Yes.
ETA: I just heard back from the coordinator at the church that hosts English classes for immigrants and others in Leeds, and it looks like I'm on board for volunteer teaching on Saturdays! This shall be very interesting, considering I have no language teaching experience. But I have high hopes.
On the other hand, I am taking initiative in other aspects of academia--I'm going to try to submit an abstract for an arts conference the Classics department is holding in a few months, because it will be small scale and the theme is "Transitions", which is totally what my dissertation is about. It looks like an appealing way of easing my way into the conference experience, and I know that Erin's attending, so I won't be alone. I've also volunteered to help organize and advertise an exclusively MA students' conference that a girl in my Imperial Masculinities seminar is coordinating, and I may present some material there as well. So that should be fun, and it will motivate me to work on really honing my research and presentation skills. Plus, I'll have some more things to put on my resume.
Other than that, things are still going well--the weather's being quite agreeable, actually, which is bizarre. Today was practically temperate. I can feel myself already becoming spoiled with less-than-frigid winters. I haven't had to wear my winter coat these past couple of days. It's sort of awesome.
Also, I bought a second pillow, and now I sleep a lot better. I had no idea this was an issue, but clearly I am bad at paying attention to what my body thinks of things. So hooray, I suppose.
Okay, I should really actually work now. For real. Yes.
ETA: I just heard back from the coordinator at the church that hosts English classes for immigrants and others in Leeds, and it looks like I'm on board for volunteer teaching on Saturdays! This shall be very interesting, considering I have no language teaching experience. But I have high hopes.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Applications, woo
Two PhD applications have now been sent off--three more to go! I'm sorting out a bibliography for one, and then hopefully the rest will be done and in the mail by the end of the week. So, fingers are now crossed.
It is now the season of essays. I just handed in my Sherlock Holmes essay yesterday, which was about the imperial impulse behind Doyle's portrayal of detection, and was pretty fun. I also have 2,000 words due for my dissertation next week, which is faintly terrifying, but will happen, come hell or high water. And then my other paper is due the week after that, which is on...I don't know yet, and should probably decide. Possibly Coleridge, even though I'm really bad at Coleridge. Maybe the slave trade? We'll see.
I had a lovely dinner with the flat the other day. Everyone's freaking out about work, but it was nice to take a break with food and silly picture-taking. I made curry.
And on a final and very random note, I had an awesome dream about Alice from Alice in Wonderland teaming up with Sherlock Holmes to investigate the haunted house of Dorian Gray. My mind is in a very literary place! Also, the visuals were amazing. Also, I'm pretty sure it was a musical. Huh.
It is now the season of essays. I just handed in my Sherlock Holmes essay yesterday, which was about the imperial impulse behind Doyle's portrayal of detection, and was pretty fun. I also have 2,000 words due for my dissertation next week, which is faintly terrifying, but will happen, come hell or high water. And then my other paper is due the week after that, which is on...I don't know yet, and should probably decide. Possibly Coleridge, even though I'm really bad at Coleridge. Maybe the slave trade? We'll see.
I had a lovely dinner with the flat the other day. Everyone's freaking out about work, but it was nice to take a break with food and silly picture-taking. I made curry.
And on a final and very random note, I had an awesome dream about Alice from Alice in Wonderland teaming up with Sherlock Holmes to investigate the haunted house of Dorian Gray. My mind is in a very literary place! Also, the visuals were amazing. Also, I'm pretty sure it was a musical. Huh.
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