Forums > Social Chat > Incomprehensible Lectures - good thing or bad thing?

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nearly_all_goneSILVER Member
Pooh-Bah
1,626 posts
Location: Southampton, United Kingdom


Posted:
English is a subject very colse to my heart. I am english. I enjoy reading. In english, I feel these two things allow me to shine.

But when my lecturer is french, and keeps slipping into her mother tongue, it's quite hard. She seems incapable of forming a cogent sentence in English. This could be sweet, you think. Almost endearing. But when the entire second year English group (400 students) are forced to take her course, which involves reading 2 novels a week (this week - Robinson Crusoe and Great Expectations! Hooray! [/sarcasm]), only to participate in a lecture that involves group work:-
"Discuss the lecture so far"
"It's [censored], isn't it?"
"yeah"
The 2 hours seem to drag somewhat.

Grr it sucks. I just want to read some books, write a couple of essays, take a decent amount of notes so that when I come to doing either, I'm not totally stuck. But the good ol' Uni of Sussex (motto - "Be Still and Know". Basically "Sit down and shut up".) seems to have other ideas...

Any of you other delightful studenty types wanna vent some steam?

What a wonderful miracle if only we could look through each other's eyes for an instant.
Thoreau


UCOFSILVER Member
15,417 posts
Location: South Wales


Posted:
i have one lecture on a thursday.

I got up an hour early today too.

I get up to uni and go into the lecture, knowing that there is a differnet lecturer coming in today to speak...so it should have been better than usual.

No. Instead it is a market talk by the British Computing Society who wanted people to pay up and join.

My housemate and I left after 10 mins.

and that was with almost half of the other students.

What a waste of time.

Im now here for 3 hours until my study skills tuition...

rolleyes

nearly_all_goneSILVER Member
Pooh-Bah
1,626 posts
Location: Southampton, United Kingdom


Posted:
Tell me about the 3 hour gap... Well, today, sidestepping the evil French lecturer above, I actually have a 5 hour gap... but the hill my road's on means staying here for 5 hours is actually the better option than going home.

And they say student life's easy. Pah!

What a wonderful miracle if only we could look through each other's eyes for an instant.
Thoreau


UCOFSILVER Member
15,417 posts
Location: South Wales


Posted:
Well it is really...

I only have one thing on a tuesday, a wednesday and a thursday biggrin

I was home beofre my seminar was supposed to have finshed yesterday as we ended 20 mins early...

Monday is my worst day. I do 10 until 6...and only 3 hours of lectures.

babajagaBRONZE Member
old hand
863 posts
Location: Berlin, Germany


Posted:
All my English teachers were Germans we had to read a lot of novels but I have to admit most of what I learned was because of reading by myself, watching movies and speaking with native English speakers and now here a lot of writing.
Sorry it is a bit away from topic English is not my first language.
I had good luck with my German teachers.

What is psychology?- Looking for a black cat in a dark room. What is psychoanalysis? Psychoanalysis is looking for a black cat in a dark room -- in which there is no cat -- but finding one anyway.


nearly_all_goneSILVER Member
Pooh-Bah
1,626 posts
Location: Southampton, United Kingdom


Posted:
It's really good when you get a foreign language teacher who's teaching their mother ongue... but it doesn't really work when, at uni level, you're learning english from someone who doesn't really speak it..

UCoF, I'm allowed to complain today. Thursday's the only day I have anything this week, which is gooood... but I'm in uni 9.00 - 7.30. Which is baaaad.

What a wonderful miracle if only we could look through each other's eyes for an instant.
Thoreau


spritieSILVER Member
Pooh-Bah
2,014 posts
Location: Galveston, TX, USA


Posted:
For that matter, being in any class where the native language of the lecturer is not the same as the native language of the university can be problematic. It's not always the case, but I have found that at larger uni's in the states, teachers assistants teach the class more often than the real prof. Often, their english is not the best, so learning anything is somewhat problematic. I agree with you that your English teacher should have english as their first language.

However, are you saying that you don't like class discussion on a book? I always found those were the more interesting of my english lectures. I liked hearing others opinions of what we had read - nobody was ever right or wrong that way, they just saw stuff differently.

nearly_all_goneSILVER Member
Pooh-Bah
1,626 posts
Location: Southampton, United Kingdom


Posted:
Well... last year we had seminars for our lectures, so you went to the lecture, went away for a couple of days, then came back and had a group discussion, lead by the lecturer or someone else knowledgable.

But this year they sort of want us to do it in the enormous lecture theatre, with all 400 of us in there, arranging ourselves into little groups of 3 or so... it's horrible! And the place is always packed, so you're never with people you know, so you're kind of shouting to all these strangers about nothing in particular... it's just rubbish. And it's not what I pay like £1000 a year to have!

I miss proper seminars. They were good. They were basically arguments but without the swearing. smile

What a wonderful miracle if only we could look through each other's eyes for an instant.
Thoreau


babajagaBRONZE Member
old hand
863 posts
Location: Berlin, Germany


Posted:
I can imagine, a German class with somebody who doesn''t really speak it!! I couldn't take that serious and would have the feeling of wasting my timeubbloco.

Ok my part of complaining, to get into an English class at my uni they do a gap text online test so I got into a kind of beginner class there nobody can speak English I just wanted to improve some grammar and get more vocabulary I think about dropping that but if I want to study somewhere else I have to take it hmm..

What is psychology?- Looking for a black cat in a dark room. What is psychoanalysis? Psychoanalysis is looking for a black cat in a dark room -- in which there is no cat -- but finding one anyway.


MoohaahaaBRONZE Member
enthusiast
382 posts
Location: In Ger Land, India


Posted:
I have a lecture this year on Conflict and Intervention. The lecturer is from Bosnia (I think) and she is definately well qualified to teach this subject. But it is a really hard subject, with a load of ideas to take in, and no real load of historical academic data, as we are studying 'new wars' such as Rwanda or Bosnia- Herzagovina.

This coupled with the fact that she can have problems expressing what she means, is making it really hard.

But, new units last often seemed really hard, introducing loads of concepts at once, but generally after the teething problems, they get easier.

Or you hardly ever turn up and forget to hand in essays and the like, but that only happened in one unit last year, so this year should be fine. Maybe

Some things you have to see to believe, but
Some things you have to believe in to see.


spritieSILVER Member
Pooh-Bah
2,014 posts
Location: Galveston, TX, USA


Posted:
400 peeps in that type of class does not seem pleasant to me either. The lecturer should take class size into account when deciding a proper format for teaching it. Of course, class size was one of the main reasons I chose the college I did. I wanted small classes so I would actually be taught by a prof (and not a TA) as well as having the prof actually know my name. As a result, I never had a class with more than 30 people.

nearly_all_goneSILVER Member
Pooh-Bah
1,626 posts
Location: Southampton, United Kingdom


Posted:
That sounds better Spritie... I just came here because it had good clubs. Me=stupid.

What a wonderful miracle if only we could look through each other's eyes for an instant.
Thoreau


spritieSILVER Member
Pooh-Bah
2,014 posts
Location: Galveston, TX, USA


Posted:
aww. spank don't go around calling yourself stupid.

You're at Uni, which in itself says you aren't stupid. smile

UCOFSILVER Member
15,417 posts
Location: South Wales


Posted:
Unless you are at the University of Luton of course..

wink

nearly_all_goneSILVER Member
Pooh-Bah
1,626 posts
Location: Southampton, United Kingdom


Posted:
Hey, I'll have you know the University of Luton is cleaning up its image! It has the best radio suite of any media facility in the country! And there were only 4 broken bottle gougings last week! And only 2 of the bottles were full of sick!

My ex goes to Luton uni, because it's about 2 miles from her house. My ex sucks. biggrin

And Spritie - I'm on HoP, which is another reason I'm not stupid smile

What a wonderful miracle if only we could look through each other's eyes for an instant.
Thoreau


meepSILVER Member
....
344 posts
Location: Midlands - nr cov, United Kingdom


Posted:
Heh, we have a welsh lecturer, LOVELY guy, and very very funny. Except he talks in a monotone, so you can miss the funny bits cos you're asleep already.

Didn't help that his subject is cognitive psychology (possibly the driest psychology going!)

As for timetables.. On a tuesday i have 1-2 6-9 and on a weds i have 10-12, 6-9. Friday is 11-1, 2-4 which is ivable.

I have time to get home on wednesdays, but not really on tuesdays (1.5 hours trip each way). Still, i gues it's condusive to spending time in the library studying!

ubbrollsmile Lynne

"But what would you do with a brain if you had one?"

Dorothy Gale


nearly_all_goneSILVER Member
Pooh-Bah
1,626 posts
Location: Southampton, United Kingdom


Posted:
6-9 = eek That's so harsh!

Hey, you do cognitive psychology? I do Philosophy of mind. Believe it or not the crossovers are massive! Well, so I'm told. I think that's probably what I should be doing with my time at uni, going to the library...

unfortunatley, due to several anomylous readings, results are inconclusive... wink

What a wonderful miracle if only we could look through each other's eyes for an instant.
Thoreau


meepSILVER Member
....
344 posts
Location: Midlands - nr cov, United Kingdom


Posted:
nonono, i do *not* do cog psych biggrin But i did last year smile

Doesn't suprise me that there are cross overs... for ex, Autism and Asperger's centre around "theory of mind" smile

ubbrollsmile

"But what would you do with a brain if you had one?"

Dorothy Gale


nearly_all_goneSILVER Member
Pooh-Bah
1,626 posts
Location: Southampton, United Kingdom


Posted:
Aaaaaah... I see. smile

I'd say more but I've just done 2 hours of phi of mind... I just want to remove my mind from my brain and let it float away, out the window...

What a wonderful miracle if only we could look through each other's eyes for an instant.
Thoreau


babajagaBRONZE Member
old hand
863 posts
Location: Berlin, Germany


Posted:
o.. I do cog psych smile

What is psychology?- Looking for a black cat in a dark room. What is psychoanalysis? Psychoanalysis is looking for a black cat in a dark room -- in which there is no cat -- but finding one anyway.


NYCNYC
9,232 posts
Location: NYC, NY, USA


Posted:
The only thing worse that sitting in a horrible class would be teaching one. wink

Well, shall we go?
Yes, let's go.
[They do not move.]


nearly_all_goneSILVER Member
Pooh-Bah
1,626 posts
Location: Southampton, United Kingdom


Posted:
ah, but at least you get paid for teaching one!

Sitting in the class carries a price tag of £1000 a year...

What a wonderful miracle if only we could look through each other's eyes for an instant.
Thoreau


NYCNYC
9,232 posts
Location: NYC, NY, USA


Posted:
Yikes, that's horrible. I'm lucky I never had to go to school or pay for my education. wink



Today is my 4865th day in a classroom. 27 years of school... plus summer schools. Heck, I'm in one right now. ubbloco

Well, shall we go?
Yes, let's go.
[They do not move.]


PyroWillGOLD Member
HoP's Barman. Trapped aged 6 months
4,437 posts
Location: Staines, United Kingdom


Posted:
try going to uni in hull..........nuff said

quote britains town survery...."Hull, with its smell of death, is a prime of example of England gone wrong"

An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind

Give a man a fish and he'll eat 4 a day hit a man with a brick and you can have all his fish and his wife

"Will's to pretty for prison" - Simian


nearly_all_goneSILVER Member
Pooh-Bah
1,626 posts
Location: Southampton, United Kingdom


Posted:
That's hysterical ubblol

What a wonderful miracle if only we could look through each other's eyes for an instant.
Thoreau



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