Well, tomorrow's another class presentation.
Class presentation? I totally thought I graduated high school three years ago!
Yeah, university is no place to be doing this. Elementary sure. Secondary, definitely. But university? Come on! We've grown out of it already. All we want to do is come in, jot some notes, and get out. Possibly catch a nap while we're at it. In fact, most of the people I know don't even want to do that first part; they just want to stay in and sleep, then self-teach from the textbook come exam time.
What is up with people with accents? Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against immigrants or ESL or non-native English speakers. But why does every single group that presents have to have at least one guy/girl who can't roll his R's or L's? It just makes paying attention that much more difficult when I can't understand a goddamn thing you're saying. The interesting thing is, these are the same people who are absolute geniuses, for whatever reasons. Especially really good writers... The theory goes that ESL courses are heavily focused on grammar and structure, not so much conversation and even less on accent reduction.
Anyway, to provoke participation you see, our prof randomly assigns students the day beforehand to listen closely to the presentations and ask questions afterwards. Silly, I know. But it gets people listening, nay forces them to listen. And gets them to think, process, respond, and all that. The holistic learning process!
So I'd like to wrap up my post with those two points:
1) Forced learning sucks.
2) Every English course must incorporate mandatory accent reduction training.
Good night.
lol so true.
ReplyDeleteWell, you're right about courses focused on grammar and structure. I can tell you how is it in Polish schools: most of the kids learn English since they are 6 years old. Vocabulary is in the first place, but after some time, grammar becomes the most important thing. But after years of studying, after graduating from school, most of people, If asked by someone or street or whatever, can't even say a word, afraid that they would do some grammar mistake. That what school makes them thing - instead of saying incorrect, but understandably, don't say anything, or you'll be punished. So, with problems like this, who cares about accent?
ReplyDeleteYou might just thank your prof for this method when your final exams are near. ^^
ReplyDeleteYou might just be thanking your prof for this method when the final exams are near. :]
ReplyDeleteHave you ever though that to them, you have the accent? ;P
ReplyDeleteGod I hated presentations in school, it especially didn't help that I was terribly shy and nervous
ReplyDeleteHaha, accents are something that really don't go away though if they aren't tackled early enough and I feel you, I've been doing waaay too many presentations for college. It feels like high school again.
ReplyDeleteinteresting article
ReplyDeleteDamn immigrants.
ReplyDeletethe good thing about presentation classes is that they dont last long and u can go home earlier..nice blog!!
ReplyDeletelearning sucks anyway no matter which one
ReplyDeleteWhy would one need accent reduction? As long as you are able to understand the person, surely reducing the accent to nothing is removing their lilt? Irish and Scottish English is renowned for sounding brilliant.
ReplyDeleteIn college, I usually had 5 presentations per semester. I hated everyone of them.
ReplyDeleteman I hate those but being a philosophy major means I dont have to present to much
ReplyDeleteGood night!
ReplyDeleteAbout the accents: Im from holland I really hate the dutch accent... I speak perfect american-english (if i say so myself) but some accents are just incomprehensable...
oh man good luck LOL
ReplyDeletefeel you. i study english and well, i love it. but its not my motherlanguage
ReplyDeleteSounds like your professor thinks you're all a bunch of kids.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. But what are you going to do? Can't revolt against the teacher, that would be breaking the rules!
ReplyDeleteHaha, I know a bit about how you feel. I'm at a pretty asian-heavy university: I'm half-Japanese myself, but don't speak the language and the asians here are all Korean or Chinese anyways. Some of my neighbours have really thick accents and are nearly impossible to understand, and some seem to hardly speak English at all...makes me wonder how exactly they're learning anything if they can't understand the language stuff is taught in.
ReplyDeleteAgree with you on the accent thing!
ReplyDeletenice blog. lol'd hard on the homework post :)
ReplyDeletei'm a student too
followed :)
good post, i agree. also followed
ReplyDeleteI totally agree
ReplyDeletethat's ridiculous i feel sorry for you =/
ReplyDeleteThanks for the follow, in and supporting.
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with you, I think the presentations are a valid part of my graduate education. In my Advanced Clinical Chemistry course, we studied about 100 different papers, and each one was a 20 minute presentation by one of 18 students. I know I learned more when I presented the papers and listened to my fellow students present them than if I had just heard about them in a lecture.
have to agree haha
ReplyDeleteSoma Shank Tank
I hate class presentations. Hope you get through it okay! :)
ReplyDeleteI freaking hate presentations
ReplyDeleteAnd motivaional speeches
ah.. here our english has some chinese words in it at the end. like the canadian 'eh'. la ba wei wa lol much more fun to speak with it than without.
ReplyDeleteI used to love presentations! Cause they gave me a chance to show off for the teacher, rake in the grades, present a kick-ass powerpoint (tech-savvy and all that) and generally dazzle them with my presentation style as I eased from jest to fact...
ReplyDeletePersonally, I have always been extremely bashful, but presentations just did it for me, I guess I loved the power and attention!
agreed and following
ReplyDeleteGood luck man!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your accent comment. My first language was Spanish. However I have perfected my English through effort and hardwork. I work at a call center and old American ladies say I sound just like their grandsons sometimes.
ReplyDeleteHaha, I have those moments of despair about my course too dude. Nothing new!
ReplyDeletei can say my ls and r's properly D:
ReplyDeletei dont usually have a problem with these, easy for me
4-minute Italian presentations don't sound so bad anymore.
ReplyDeleteyeah forced learning does suck, but it's the only way some people would ever learn anything.
ReplyDeleteStudent presentations were always a nice nap time for me!
ReplyDeleteforeign accents are pretty tough to get conceal if not addressed early enough, but still possible if the person works hard at it. i think for most people though, it's not too big of a deal.
ReplyDeleteagree on both points
ReplyDeleteYou'd assume people in college wouldn't have to be forced.
ReplyDeletegood night!
ReplyDeletePresentations are just stupid. And yes forced learning sucks.
ReplyDeleteThe worst is when the professor catches on to your internet surfing during presentations and says to close all laptops.
ReplyDeleteforced learning sucks but you have to admint that sometimes its necesary.
ReplyDeletePublic speaking is my biggest fear... good luick!
ReplyDeleteYou might just thank your prof for this method when your final exams are near. ^^
ReplyDeletehating them too in college :p
ReplyDeletei totally agree with your last two points
ReplyDeleteI agree, I thought that I would be done with doing those kind of presentations after high school, but it almost feels like college is a continuation of high school.
ReplyDeleteI've had to do presentations for tooooo long. They get really obnoxious after a while. Like alright, we know how to present already.
ReplyDeletelol spot on!
ReplyDeletebah i hated presentations!
ReplyDeletehere here
ReplyDeleteThis is very true actually.
ReplyDeleteI hate presentations, especially when you have to teach the class for a day. Those ones suck the worst
ReplyDeleteGroup presentations are silly, the last one I had to do was in my last french class, which was pretty much like we were learning in elementary school anyways. But I actually had to give REAL presentations on my own every other week to my adviser and a portion of the astronomy department on my research. That's totally different and actually helpful.
ReplyDeleteForced learning really is the worst, especially when learning another language...
ReplyDeleteUniversity-level presentations are a waste of time for everyone.
ReplyDeleteit's bad enough that you have to present, but you gotta listen too? that sucks :P
ReplyDeletehad to do presentationsa lot too, as KB said, they really get obonoxious after time
ReplyDeleteI can't disagree.
ReplyDeleteI've worked with ESL students before and to be honest the accent really isn't something they can help, especially if they didn't grow up with the language. They do tend to have really amazing, analytical English skills though!
ReplyDeleteI think it will be interesting for me to compare my experiences at university to yours. Followed!
ReplyDeleteI've been considering signing up for a ESL course, I'll have to keep that in mind.
ReplyDeleteNew follower/supporter.
Check me back at limitfears.blogspot.com
+
wordslol.blogspot.com if you'd like :D
Speaking of accents...try taking a physics class with a professor from Puerto Rico..holy shit.
ReplyDeleteI just had to hear a presentation with a terrible accent. I can't ever understand what that person is saying.. I feel ya.
ReplyDeletelove public speaking :p i'm good in it
ReplyDeleteYeah it sucks, oh and to Anthoposeptic, DAMN MAN does dudes dont speak English and they speak a Bastardization of the Spanish language i mean WTF chose a goddamn tongue for crying out loud
ReplyDeleteI also always thought and hoped not to have to do another presentation, at least not in university... that worked very well till last year for a seminar. and you can imagine how fucking nervous I was after almost five years of no presentation exercise whatsoever..
ReplyDelete