Recently I've been wanting to devote some time to the little bits of casual ways that the people around us can make us feel icky (microaggressions, anyone?).
For the record, I really do mean casual. Not big issues, or blatant displays that make my blood boil. These are more tiny things, things that we might not usually notice but are all the more dangerous because of this. It's these casual things, the comments and actions that demean us but are considered too small to get angry about, that reinforce how society knocks people down on a daily basis.
If anybody has examples of this that they would like to share, feel free to comment or, if you think your example deserves its own post, send me a message. Again, I'm looking for the types of things that would usually get you an exasperated look and a "Oh my god you're such a feminist" (or whatever label) from your friend/family member/goldfish who's tired of hearing you complain about the ways society oppresses women. Side note: if your goldfish is talking to you, you either need more friends or to ask it for three wishes.
So! Our first example! Aren't you excited to hear the comment that inspired the idea for this? I know I am! The most excited!
Last week NPR's program Fresh Air featured an interview with Nate Silver, a statistical analyst who writes a blog for the New York Times. It was a respectable interview that covered statistics in sports, politics, economics...everything (you can listen to the program here). I wasn't actually paying much attention (we all know ladies hate things like sports and politics, amirite????) when suddenly Silver, who had been talking about how much data we've generated in the past two years, said, "most of it [the data] is unimportant, like youtube videos of people's cats or texts between teenage girls". Ahh, what a beautiful sentiment. It warms the cockles of my little, cold feminist heart.
Now, my teenage years were not so long ago, and so I do understand it when people think that teenagers have trivial concerns. I'm not going to address whether this conception of teenagers is right or wrong (But really, we all went through that phase, we just didn't all have unlimited texting plans when we did, and besides, are we really going to waste energy deciding what is important enough for other people to care about? And are we really going to knock already insecure teens down because their problems aren't "important enough"?) but I want you all to notice the fact that Silver specified "girls". He could have just as easily said "texts between teenagers," as it means pretty much the same thing. Could have. But he didn't. In order to emphasize his point that the data in question was trivial, he added in the word "girls" for good measure. He probably didn't even think about it! Just like most people wouldn't question the comment itself. If I wasn't in such a grouchy mood I probably wouldn't have noticed it, either.
For a moment though, think about this: what would it have sounded like if Silver had said "texts between teenage boys"? That sounds weird, right? For me, at least, the phrase doesn't generate an image in my head, whereas thinking of texting teenage girls generates an image of airheaded teens giggling over gossip on their cell phones at the mall. It feels more comfortable. Do teenage boys text any less? By the way, not to undermine myself, but apparently studies have shown that teenage girls text more than teenage boys. That's not really what I'm talking about. More than that, I'm concerned that this goes deeper than who texts more. I'm afraid the real issue is that we're dealing with the instinctive feeling that teenage girls (and girls, or women, in general) are just sillier and more trivial than boys.
And are they, really? Think about the teenage boys you've known. I'm sure some of them are very responsible (just as some teenage girls are very responsible) but aren't some of them quite silly as well? Aren't we all super silly all the time? But I digress. Basically, going along with the belief that teenage girls don't deserve to be taken seriously not only undermines all women, but also affects the way that we teach the teenage girls around us. If we don't believe that teenage girls should be taken seriously, we are going to treat them that way, and that is the message that they will receive. Some of them might even believe that message and internalize it. "Little" comments like Mr. Sliver's really do matter.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Looper
Sometimes I watch movies or TV and can't stop my brain from the broken record of "Ladies! What about the ladies? What are they doing with ladies?!" I do get tired of this. Frequently. But somebody needs to be thinking it until one day we stop having to (I'll let other people do the same thing with other problems, like racism, which is super important, but...my broken record drowns out most other noises a lot of the time. And other people talk about those things better than I ever could). In the meantime, I'm just gonna have to be That Girl. The one who's all "yeah, I guess that was pretty good, but what about the ladies?!" What a bummer. It's okay, my friends are mostly bummers in the same way. My mom is too. We can all be bummers together.
By the way, I'll warn you if serious spoilers come up, but this whole post is going to be mildly spoilery, so consider yourself warned.
Anyway, when I saw Looper, my brain wasn't really doing that. There were some blips, but the movie is so damn engrossing that I never really got the chance. It wasn't until I was walking out of the theater that something started stirring in the back of my brain. Something was wrong...terribly wrong. What was it? Before I really get to it, though, I should just say that I really did like Looper. It was smart and did lots of unexpected things and I had a fun time. That's a conversation for a different day, though.
Over coffee afterward my friend said something along the lines of "hey, do you wanna know when my feminist self got angry?" (okay she said something pretty different, but I can't remember what and it was basically that). Before I answered I ran a few moments through my head and realized what bugged me so much about the movie. Her moment wasn't the same as mine. Hers was when Main Female, Sara (Emily Blunt) is all "I'm a strong tough woman with a gun! But I need a man to save me! Save me, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, save me!" It's totally something to get grumpy about. But from thinking about this, I identified a more over-arching problem in the movie.
This paragraph is pretty spoiler-rific. Tread with caution, if you care.
I realized that all three female characters in the movie (that's right there are only three, no, nobody ever expected this movie to pass the Bechdel Test) are only identified in terms of motherhood, or their relationship with their children. Oh, my favorite trope of all time. One woman is a hooker but you know she's relatable because she's only doing it to make money for her kid. And the other is a Tough Woman With a Gun but then she saves everyone with the power of her motherhood. I am not joking, that really, truly happens. The last one we actually get ZERO details about except that she helps the Bruce Willis character get over a drug addiction and also wants kids but can't have them now because of Bad Stuff. She is supposed to be the love of Bruce Willis' life and his motivation for everything he does in this movie and that is all we know about her. My friend pointed out that the kid detail actually could be taken out with little emotional impact on the movie. But let's just leave it in because if a woman doesn't have children she must want them or else she can't be the nurturing lady you've always been looking for to save you from yourself, etc.
I'm sorry, I forgot, there's also a waitress who gets a couple lines of dialogue. Her name is Beatrice and she is basically just a humanoid plot device. We don't know if she has a baby or not, but I bet she wants one real bad.
I've been down this road before. The way that women must always want children is basically my favorite thing to moan about. But a new thought hit me this time that was so glaringly simple I was shocked I'd never had it before. Actually, I have had it before, as have many others, but I'd never really, truly thought about it.
I'm so used to thinking of women in movies in TV as tropes, as in "why can't we craft female characters that don't fall into these tropes?" This is somewhat true. We like to see characters in terms of tropes, going all the way back to commedia dell'arte (okay, probably even before that). So if we sometimes slip into those tropes, it's not The Worst Thing. Men get abused by tropes, too (see: stupid sitcom dad who can't do anything). The problem is that often that's all women get in a movie. There are the Token Trope Lady(ies) and then...nothing else. That's all. Men get their central figures, which may or may not be character types we recognize and then they also get...Everybody Else.
EVERYBODY ELSE!
In Looper there are a bunch of ensemble characters, some of whom have names, some of whom do not. They run around, waving guns and shouting. Some of them are loopers like the Joseph Gordon-Levitt character (I'm sorry I'm not calling him by name...his name is Joe, so you might understand why I don't bother. Besides, with Joes running around I figure I'll just use actor names.) Any of these other loopers, or the other men with guns, could have been a woman. Here's a shocking thought: they wouldn't even have to be a super sexy badass woman. They could have just been a pleasant looking, well-dressed woman with a gun, the same way that Joe is a pleasant looking well-dressed man with a gun. It would have been easy. Hire some actress, give her a pantsuit or whatever and a gun. Done. You don't even have to change the script. Crazy, right? And don't even try to tell me that women wouldn't run around with guns. Have you seen that Sarah Palin reality TV show? She effing loves guns and lots of people think she's a totally normal woman (we won't address the issue of whether or not she's actually a normal woman).
So here's the thing I finally realized, the thing that others have been pointing out for so long that never quite stuck: women are half of everybody. Sure, maybe we show up in some places more than others, but we still show up. Don't tell me that in the not-so-distant future there are zero ladies with guns. Especially not in the dog-eat-dog world that the future seems to be in Looper. It almost looks like you've got to have one.
So why not just throw a few women in there? I can't say, I don't work in the movies. Maybe there's one guy whose job is to stand in the corner and say things like "Ladies hate guns! They could never be hit-men...women! That is so unrealistic!" Maybe. I just like to think it's sheer laziness.
By the way, I'll warn you if serious spoilers come up, but this whole post is going to be mildly spoilery, so consider yourself warned.
Anyway, when I saw Looper, my brain wasn't really doing that. There were some blips, but the movie is so damn engrossing that I never really got the chance. It wasn't until I was walking out of the theater that something started stirring in the back of my brain. Something was wrong...terribly wrong. What was it? Before I really get to it, though, I should just say that I really did like Looper. It was smart and did lots of unexpected things and I had a fun time. That's a conversation for a different day, though.
Over coffee afterward my friend said something along the lines of "hey, do you wanna know when my feminist self got angry?" (okay she said something pretty different, but I can't remember what and it was basically that). Before I answered I ran a few moments through my head and realized what bugged me so much about the movie. Her moment wasn't the same as mine. Hers was when Main Female, Sara (Emily Blunt) is all "I'm a strong tough woman with a gun! But I need a man to save me! Save me, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, save me!" It's totally something to get grumpy about. But from thinking about this, I identified a more over-arching problem in the movie.
This paragraph is pretty spoiler-rific. Tread with caution, if you care.
I realized that all three female characters in the movie (that's right there are only three, no, nobody ever expected this movie to pass the Bechdel Test) are only identified in terms of motherhood, or their relationship with their children. Oh, my favorite trope of all time. One woman is a hooker but you know she's relatable because she's only doing it to make money for her kid. And the other is a Tough Woman With a Gun but then she saves everyone with the power of her motherhood. I am not joking, that really, truly happens. The last one we actually get ZERO details about except that she helps the Bruce Willis character get over a drug addiction and also wants kids but can't have them now because of Bad Stuff. She is supposed to be the love of Bruce Willis' life and his motivation for everything he does in this movie and that is all we know about her. My friend pointed out that the kid detail actually could be taken out with little emotional impact on the movie. But let's just leave it in because if a woman doesn't have children she must want them or else she can't be the nurturing lady you've always been looking for to save you from yourself, etc.
I'm sorry, I forgot, there's also a waitress who gets a couple lines of dialogue. Her name is Beatrice and she is basically just a humanoid plot device. We don't know if she has a baby or not, but I bet she wants one real bad.
I've been down this road before. The way that women must always want children is basically my favorite thing to moan about. But a new thought hit me this time that was so glaringly simple I was shocked I'd never had it before. Actually, I have had it before, as have many others, but I'd never really, truly thought about it.
I'm so used to thinking of women in movies in TV as tropes, as in "why can't we craft female characters that don't fall into these tropes?" This is somewhat true. We like to see characters in terms of tropes, going all the way back to commedia dell'arte (okay, probably even before that). So if we sometimes slip into those tropes, it's not The Worst Thing. Men get abused by tropes, too (see: stupid sitcom dad who can't do anything). The problem is that often that's all women get in a movie. There are the Token Trope Lady(ies) and then...nothing else. That's all. Men get their central figures, which may or may not be character types we recognize and then they also get...Everybody Else.
EVERYBODY ELSE!
In Looper there are a bunch of ensemble characters, some of whom have names, some of whom do not. They run around, waving guns and shouting. Some of them are loopers like the Joseph Gordon-Levitt character (I'm sorry I'm not calling him by name...his name is Joe, so you might understand why I don't bother. Besides, with Joes running around I figure I'll just use actor names.) Any of these other loopers, or the other men with guns, could have been a woman. Here's a shocking thought: they wouldn't even have to be a super sexy badass woman. They could have just been a pleasant looking, well-dressed woman with a gun, the same way that Joe is a pleasant looking well-dressed man with a gun. It would have been easy. Hire some actress, give her a pantsuit or whatever and a gun. Done. You don't even have to change the script. Crazy, right? And don't even try to tell me that women wouldn't run around with guns. Have you seen that Sarah Palin reality TV show? She effing loves guns and lots of people think she's a totally normal woman (we won't address the issue of whether or not she's actually a normal woman).
So here's the thing I finally realized, the thing that others have been pointing out for so long that never quite stuck: women are half of everybody. Sure, maybe we show up in some places more than others, but we still show up. Don't tell me that in the not-so-distant future there are zero ladies with guns. Especially not in the dog-eat-dog world that the future seems to be in Looper. It almost looks like you've got to have one.
So why not just throw a few women in there? I can't say, I don't work in the movies. Maybe there's one guy whose job is to stand in the corner and say things like "Ladies hate guns! They could never be hit-men...women! That is so unrealistic!" Maybe. I just like to think it's sheer laziness.
Monday, August 13, 2012
At Last
Well I haven't done anything here in quite some time, have I?
I think part of the reason for this is that the last semester that I spent in Vietnam seemed so darn normal that I couldn't think of anything to really say, but it's also unjustifiable because I did do quite a bit of traveling outside of Vietnam, and that was definitely worth commenting on. Worst. Travel blogger. Ever.
My last post reported from Cambodia, and I'm sad to say that after that I went to many many other countries that I did not write about. I went on to Singapore and Malaysia after that. A few weeks later I would go to Thailand and then Hong Kong. Before I left South East Asia I would also go to Laos and then finally return to Cambodia, fly to Seoul for the longest but most pleasant layover I've ever had, and then finally reach Hawaii where my brother was living at the time. I then visited friends in California before reaching New York at last. Whew. And I wrote about none of this?! The scandal!
Perhaps the top question I get from people, after they say "what was it like?" with a slight look of embarrassment because everybody knows that is the worst question ever, is "what was your favorite place?" This question, while at least a little bit more specific, is only slightly better. I don't think I could ever choose! I do have some memories that I cherish more than others, but a favorite place? No no no.
To appease others and to make up for my blogging gap, I will now list my top five memories from outside of Vietnam.
1. The weekend market in Bangkok. Okay, just my entire weekend in Bangkok. Most people I talk to are not fans of Bangkok at all. Words I often hear are crowded, dirty, smelly. All of these things are probably true. But spend a few weeks in HCMC and then go to Bangkok, and I think you'll feel pretty differently. Heck, I was just happy to be on public transportation that wasn't a craaaazy bus ride. I'm not a huge bus fan to begin, so I was psyched when I found out that Bangkok has a subway and a sky rail. Yes!!!! It also helped that my friend Jun and I had consciously decided that for our sanity we needed to have more of an "expat" experience than a tourist one. Yes, we still had delicious street food (oh man...duck) but we treated ourselves to expat-y (as in, more western style) cafes and massages at a fancy fancy spa. And a jazz club. Oh yes. But the highlight was definitely a surprise lurking in the depths of the weekend market. This market is known for having everything. There's a section for anything you could think of, including pets. But one area has a really cool cross section of local Thai designers who are turning out some awesome stuff. I bought two t-shirts, both of which are quite strange but totally awesome. One features a giant red eyed cow drinking from a lake, the other primary colored origami dinosaurs. Jun bought a ring that looked like a ring pop. Some cool stuff is coming out of Bangkok, that's for sure.
2. Chinese New Year in Hong Kong. Yes, the fact that it was the new year meant that I missed out on a ton of othe rHong Kong attractions because lots of things were closed. But there were fireworks! And a parade! I love parades! And I also just loved Hong Kong. even if I was chilly and damp the whole time. Mountains and the ocean right next to each other? Yes please!
3. Elephants in Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai seems to be one of the places to go if you're looking for elephants. Just a warning if you ever go there, please be careful about which elephant "sanctuary" you visit. Many of them are not legitimate or treat their elephants poorly. Often places that have extensive elephant shows where they force the animals to do tricks, or places that let you ride on the elephants are also places that abuse their animals. Please look into any organization carefully before financially supporting it. I went with the Elephant Nature Park. Most of the elephants there are rescues, the only ones that aren't are the ones that were born there. If you spend a day there you can help feed the elephants, bathe them, and pet their trunks, but you cannot ride them, which I think is a good thing (elephants are often injured by being forced to carry too many tourists in a day). I just enjoyed spending time around them and hearing stories about them.
4. Food in Laos. I don't really know that much about Lao cuisine, but basically I find it to be delicious and I really can't tell you why. All I know is that I'd never had it before and that I want more of it always. I feel like it is the forgotten cuisine of SEA because the country is hard to get to and does not have a very large population, so the food doesn't get spread as much to other countries. Laap might be the most well-known dish and involves ground meat, mint, lime, chilies...and...other things, but it's only the beginning. If I'm ever back in Laos, you can be sure that I'm taking a cooking class.
5. I really don't know what to say for this last one. I looked up at my list and realized that none of the items on it reflected all of the hiking and other outdoorsy activities I did, even if there were so many amazing experiences to be had in that realm . I also haven't listed any beaches. Oh man. I would rethink this whole list but then where would I be?!?!? The problem really is that I can't pinpoint one hike, one cave, one beach, and single it out as "better than the rest". Although I will say that the beaches north of Sihanoukville, Cambodia, were beautiful, I also never got to visit a Thai beach, so there's that. I could say that kayaking in Laos was great, but what about all of the other places to kayak? What about kayaking in Halong Bay in Vietnam? And how can I really pick one Buddha in a cave over another Buddha in a cave? Yeah.
So basically when it comes to comparing the natural beauty of one place over another, I will fail every time. This is true no matter which countries we are comparing. I feel just as incapable of comparing natural beauty among South East Asian countries as I am saying that the towering hills of Laos are more beautiful than the Perito Moreno glacier in Argentina. Or one of the Greek islands. Or even the Catskills in the Fall. Everything's different, and it's all incredible.
I think part of the reason for this is that the last semester that I spent in Vietnam seemed so darn normal that I couldn't think of anything to really say, but it's also unjustifiable because I did do quite a bit of traveling outside of Vietnam, and that was definitely worth commenting on. Worst. Travel blogger. Ever.
My last post reported from Cambodia, and I'm sad to say that after that I went to many many other countries that I did not write about. I went on to Singapore and Malaysia after that. A few weeks later I would go to Thailand and then Hong Kong. Before I left South East Asia I would also go to Laos and then finally return to Cambodia, fly to Seoul for the longest but most pleasant layover I've ever had, and then finally reach Hawaii where my brother was living at the time. I then visited friends in California before reaching New York at last. Whew. And I wrote about none of this?! The scandal!
Perhaps the top question I get from people, after they say "what was it like?" with a slight look of embarrassment because everybody knows that is the worst question ever, is "what was your favorite place?" This question, while at least a little bit more specific, is only slightly better. I don't think I could ever choose! I do have some memories that I cherish more than others, but a favorite place? No no no.
To appease others and to make up for my blogging gap, I will now list my top five memories from outside of Vietnam.
1. The weekend market in Bangkok. Okay, just my entire weekend in Bangkok. Most people I talk to are not fans of Bangkok at all. Words I often hear are crowded, dirty, smelly. All of these things are probably true. But spend a few weeks in HCMC and then go to Bangkok, and I think you'll feel pretty differently. Heck, I was just happy to be on public transportation that wasn't a craaaazy bus ride. I'm not a huge bus fan to begin, so I was psyched when I found out that Bangkok has a subway and a sky rail. Yes!!!! It also helped that my friend Jun and I had consciously decided that for our sanity we needed to have more of an "expat" experience than a tourist one. Yes, we still had delicious street food (oh man...duck) but we treated ourselves to expat-y (as in, more western style) cafes and massages at a fancy fancy spa. And a jazz club. Oh yes. But the highlight was definitely a surprise lurking in the depths of the weekend market. This market is known for having everything. There's a section for anything you could think of, including pets. But one area has a really cool cross section of local Thai designers who are turning out some awesome stuff. I bought two t-shirts, both of which are quite strange but totally awesome. One features a giant red eyed cow drinking from a lake, the other primary colored origami dinosaurs. Jun bought a ring that looked like a ring pop. Some cool stuff is coming out of Bangkok, that's for sure.
2. Chinese New Year in Hong Kong. Yes, the fact that it was the new year meant that I missed out on a ton of othe rHong Kong attractions because lots of things were closed. But there were fireworks! And a parade! I love parades! And I also just loved Hong Kong. even if I was chilly and damp the whole time. Mountains and the ocean right next to each other? Yes please!
3. Elephants in Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai seems to be one of the places to go if you're looking for elephants. Just a warning if you ever go there, please be careful about which elephant "sanctuary" you visit. Many of them are not legitimate or treat their elephants poorly. Often places that have extensive elephant shows where they force the animals to do tricks, or places that let you ride on the elephants are also places that abuse their animals. Please look into any organization carefully before financially supporting it. I went with the Elephant Nature Park. Most of the elephants there are rescues, the only ones that aren't are the ones that were born there. If you spend a day there you can help feed the elephants, bathe them, and pet their trunks, but you cannot ride them, which I think is a good thing (elephants are often injured by being forced to carry too many tourists in a day). I just enjoyed spending time around them and hearing stories about them.
4. Food in Laos. I don't really know that much about Lao cuisine, but basically I find it to be delicious and I really can't tell you why. All I know is that I'd never had it before and that I want more of it always. I feel like it is the forgotten cuisine of SEA because the country is hard to get to and does not have a very large population, so the food doesn't get spread as much to other countries. Laap might be the most well-known dish and involves ground meat, mint, lime, chilies...and...other things, but it's only the beginning. If I'm ever back in Laos, you can be sure that I'm taking a cooking class.
5. I really don't know what to say for this last one. I looked up at my list and realized that none of the items on it reflected all of the hiking and other outdoorsy activities I did, even if there were so many amazing experiences to be had in that realm . I also haven't listed any beaches. Oh man. I would rethink this whole list but then where would I be?!?!? The problem really is that I can't pinpoint one hike, one cave, one beach, and single it out as "better than the rest". Although I will say that the beaches north of Sihanoukville, Cambodia, were beautiful, I also never got to visit a Thai beach, so there's that. I could say that kayaking in Laos was great, but what about all of the other places to kayak? What about kayaking in Halong Bay in Vietnam? And how can I really pick one Buddha in a cave over another Buddha in a cave? Yeah.
So basically when it comes to comparing the natural beauty of one place over another, I will fail every time. This is true no matter which countries we are comparing. I feel just as incapable of comparing natural beauty among South East Asian countries as I am saying that the towering hills of Laos are more beautiful than the Perito Moreno glacier in Argentina. Or one of the Greek islands. Or even the Catskills in the Fall. Everything's different, and it's all incredible.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Angkor Wat
Sometimes you're in Cambodia and you're walking around the streets of Phnom Penh, wondering why nobody has ever said anything like "It's a PHNOM-ena!" like, phenomena, except...you know, Phnom, anyway, so you're doing that and suddenly you kind of stop, except you don't actually stop walking because why would you do that, but you stop mentally and figuratively and you think to yourself "In my entire life, did I ever think that I would ever find myself in Cambodia?" and the answer is obviously no, you didn't ever think that you would find yourself in Cambodia, and even if you did you could have never imagined what it would be like, anyway.
The point is, is that even though I had always kind of known that I would manage to make my way over to Asia at some point in my life, and even to Southeast Asia, I never ever ever thought of Cambodia as a place to go. I don't know why this seems important to me. I'll also be going to Malaysia soon and eventually Laos and some other countries, and the same goes for all of them. I couldn't even pick these places out on a map when I first arrived in Vietnam, and I certainly never thought I'd visit them. Of course I knew I'd visit Thailand and some point, and maybe a few other places, but Cambodia! Who knew?
It's very strange, because they actually use US currency here. They have their own currency, but mostly only use it as if it were change, basically. Like if something costs $1.75 and you give the people $2, you will get Cambodia riel back as change. But even outside of tourist places, many prices are in USD. Very strange. Good thing I randomly had some?
The biggest problem I've had so far is not being able to use Vietnamese. This isn't really a huge problem, as even if people don't speak English, I'm quite used to getting by on hand gestures, as I did when I first got to Vietnam. But it is so nice to be able to even use a few words of Vietnamese, even if it's only "thank you" or to get a waiter's attention. Not being able to do that is a little frustrating, and sometimes my friends find themselves accidentally using Vietnamese words, even though nobody would be able to understand.
In a few hours I will be heading out to Siem Reap, which is near Angkor Wat. I am so excited to see it!!! Also, some of the people I am traveling with are running a half marathon through Angkor Wat this weekend, which should be pretty cool. Running a marathon through one of the wonders of the world? Yes please!
The point is, is that even though I had always kind of known that I would manage to make my way over to Asia at some point in my life, and even to Southeast Asia, I never ever ever thought of Cambodia as a place to go. I don't know why this seems important to me. I'll also be going to Malaysia soon and eventually Laos and some other countries, and the same goes for all of them. I couldn't even pick these places out on a map when I first arrived in Vietnam, and I certainly never thought I'd visit them. Of course I knew I'd visit Thailand and some point, and maybe a few other places, but Cambodia! Who knew?
It's very strange, because they actually use US currency here. They have their own currency, but mostly only use it as if it were change, basically. Like if something costs $1.75 and you give the people $2, you will get Cambodia riel back as change. But even outside of tourist places, many prices are in USD. Very strange. Good thing I randomly had some?
The biggest problem I've had so far is not being able to use Vietnamese. This isn't really a huge problem, as even if people don't speak English, I'm quite used to getting by on hand gestures, as I did when I first got to Vietnam. But it is so nice to be able to even use a few words of Vietnamese, even if it's only "thank you" or to get a waiter's attention. Not being able to do that is a little frustrating, and sometimes my friends find themselves accidentally using Vietnamese words, even though nobody would be able to understand.
In a few hours I will be heading out to Siem Reap, which is near Angkor Wat. I am so excited to see it!!! Also, some of the people I am traveling with are running a half marathon through Angkor Wat this weekend, which should be pretty cool. Running a marathon through one of the wonders of the world? Yes please!
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Grade Expectations
Warning: This blog entry is essentially just me being neurotic about boring grade-type teacher stuff. Imagine if Woody Allen was a teacher. Read at your own risk. But I guess you've already put up with the bad pun and overused pun in the entry's title, so you're clearly willing to deal with a lot.
There are lots of other things I could probably write about, but this is what it's gonna be: grading. I was not prepared for the emotional roller coaster that grade giving has turned into! I knew that many teachers become invested in their students and worry a lot about their students' success, but I actually experienced a whole mess of emotions while grading my midterms (and now am experiencing the same feelings for the finals). I was not prepared for how intense these emotions could be! I mean, part of this is probably do to the fact that I do most of my grading pretty late at night (because apparently I can only grade when sleep deprived) and so a lack of sleep makes everything a little wackier. However, when I got to the point where I was actually talking out loud to students that weren't there? That's when I knew I should take a break and continue the next day.
But really though! Besides being happy for my students when they did well, or very upset when they didn't (what this sounds like when I'm in talking out loud mode is something like "Good job! Let's all cheer for student X!!!" or alternatively "What the hell were you thinking? REALLY you thought that was the answer? Did you really think that???") other anxieties come into play. For example, I spend a lot of time worrying about what I could have done differently in the class. Maybe so many of them are getting this question wrong because I didn't teach that concept properly! Maybe if I had written the test differently or prepared them better, we wouldn't be having this problem. But at the end of the day, I know that some students will do well, and by necessity many will do poorly. We have to maintain the bell curve, don't we?
Another worry comes in when I think about the fact that I'm not familiar with the grading standards in this country or even at this university. I am, for example, thrown off by the fact that I can only give pluses. So, my only options are A, B+, B, C+, C, D+, D and F. What about A-, that beautiful grade that says "You did a really good job, but you weren't perfect, and I'm a hardass, sorry!" There is none of that here! I gave out many B+'s on the midterms, and I know that some students were very upset by this. One of the deans (one of my bosses) told me that grade inflation at this university is rampant, and that I should consider giving my students very low grades to shock them into studying harder. Don't know if I have that in me, as I feel terrible even when I give out a B, let alone a C+ or a C (but sometimes you just gotta give somebody a terrible grade, I mean, come on). I just gave my freshmen the grades for their finals, and nobody had hysterics, even though I did give some poor grades. Oh well.
There are lots of other things I could probably write about, but this is what it's gonna be: grading. I was not prepared for the emotional roller coaster that grade giving has turned into! I knew that many teachers become invested in their students and worry a lot about their students' success, but I actually experienced a whole mess of emotions while grading my midterms (and now am experiencing the same feelings for the finals). I was not prepared for how intense these emotions could be! I mean, part of this is probably do to the fact that I do most of my grading pretty late at night (because apparently I can only grade when sleep deprived) and so a lack of sleep makes everything a little wackier. However, when I got to the point where I was actually talking out loud to students that weren't there? That's when I knew I should take a break and continue the next day.
But really though! Besides being happy for my students when they did well, or very upset when they didn't (what this sounds like when I'm in talking out loud mode is something like "Good job! Let's all cheer for student X!!!" or alternatively "What the hell were you thinking? REALLY you thought that was the answer? Did you really think that???") other anxieties come into play. For example, I spend a lot of time worrying about what I could have done differently in the class. Maybe so many of them are getting this question wrong because I didn't teach that concept properly! Maybe if I had written the test differently or prepared them better, we wouldn't be having this problem. But at the end of the day, I know that some students will do well, and by necessity many will do poorly. We have to maintain the bell curve, don't we?
Another worry comes in when I think about the fact that I'm not familiar with the grading standards in this country or even at this university. I am, for example, thrown off by the fact that I can only give pluses. So, my only options are A, B+, B, C+, C, D+, D and F. What about A-, that beautiful grade that says "You did a really good job, but you weren't perfect, and I'm a hardass, sorry!" There is none of that here! I gave out many B+'s on the midterms, and I know that some students were very upset by this. One of the deans (one of my bosses) told me that grade inflation at this university is rampant, and that I should consider giving my students very low grades to shock them into studying harder. Don't know if I have that in me, as I feel terrible even when I give out a B, let alone a C+ or a C (but sometimes you just gotta give somebody a terrible grade, I mean, come on). I just gave my freshmen the grades for their finals, and nobody had hysterics, even though I did give some poor grades. Oh well.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
This is Halloween
So for the past week I've been doing almost nothing but Halloween themed classes with my students. Most Vietnamese people seem to be absolutely fascinated by Halloween...one teacher told me that it seems "magical" to them, a time when there are demons and monsters and ghosts everywhere and crazy things happen all night.
Perhaps this is partly true, but I felt like my students all expected more from my Halloween classes, and were maybe a little disappointed. I was kept from showing movies or even video clips in class by technology issues, but I did manage to show one smaller class The Nightmare Before Christmas, which I think was a little bit more in line with what they were expecting than what I did in my other classes, which was hand out some candy, talk about the customs on Halloween, teach a spooky song, and then have students tell ghost stories. Besides, it's hard to get a spooky feeling going in a class of sixty students during the day time. The Halloween thing worked much better in my night classes, which can have anywhere from ten to maybe fifteen or so students. The one real problem though is that no matter how scary I managed to make the atmosphere, it really is impossible to impart what Halloween feels like in a cold place such as New England or regular old England. The roots of Halloween are found in celebrating at a time of year when the earth seemed to be dying, when the last harvest had already been brought in and it was time to worry about the winter ahead. People took this chance to honor their dead relatives and think about their precarious place in our world. I think this idea lends a lot to the modern feel of Halloween, even if we don't think much about it anymore, and I especially believe that cold weather helps remind us, even somewhere far back in our brains, that at one time the holiday meant a bit more. I also feel like it's a little easier to believe a ghost is going to jump out at you when the trees are losing their leaves and a cold, dark, night has descended. A little less easy to be frightened, perhaps, when there are palm trees outside your window and geckoes chilling on your wall. Just saying.
On Saturday night, however, some of the American teachers held a Halloween party, and for the first few hours many of our Vietnamese friends came. Many people actually dressed up (as best we could, it's very hard to find certain things here, although there was one store in the city that sold a few of those rubber Halloween masks) and I made a few jack-o-lanterns. The jack-o-lanterns were very small, as it's pretty difficult to find big gourds of any kind here, but I think they got the point across, and let some of our students and friends see what such a thing would look like. I dressed up as Pikachu, by the way, who is very popular here. It was not something I'm terribly proud of, but went over quite well.
Something interesting that came out of all the Halloween discussions was that I got a lot of information about how Vietnamese people think about ghosts. I have already been told by many students that our university is haunted by the ghosts of students who have committed suicide (other students adamantly deny this) and I also knew that many Vietnamese people believe that the dead freely walk among us, but that many will not admit to believing this. In some of my classes, almost every student said they believed in ghosts, but in others, only a couple did. Additionally, a few students told me that Can Tho (as well as the rest of Vietnam) used to have more ghosts from the war with America, but that because time has passed and cities have grown, many of these ghosts have gone away. I have also been informed that ghosts like warm places, so if a factory gives off a lot of heat, ghosts will go there at night to try to warm themselves up. Keep away from factories, you guys! They also supposedly hang out under trees, and the reason why lightening strikes trees is because it is attracted to the ghosts. Another thing that most of the stories my students told me had in common was that the ghosts all had very long hair that covered their faces and wore white clothing. The long hair thing was sufficiently creepy for me, even without the rest of the story being told! Most of them just involved people seeing such ghosts and being frightened, and nothing much else happening. For an expat's story of his encounter with a Vietnamese ghost, you can go here.
Anyway, that just about does it for Halloween in Vietnam! Somebody broke into my house yesterday (on Halloween...trick or treat? Trick?) and basically stole every electronic item I own, so blogging might be difficult for a while. I'm on a friend's computer now. I've moved to a house that is supposedly more secure and hopefully this won't happen again, especially since I really don't have anything else left to steal. Good times.
Perhaps this is partly true, but I felt like my students all expected more from my Halloween classes, and were maybe a little disappointed. I was kept from showing movies or even video clips in class by technology issues, but I did manage to show one smaller class The Nightmare Before Christmas, which I think was a little bit more in line with what they were expecting than what I did in my other classes, which was hand out some candy, talk about the customs on Halloween, teach a spooky song, and then have students tell ghost stories. Besides, it's hard to get a spooky feeling going in a class of sixty students during the day time. The Halloween thing worked much better in my night classes, which can have anywhere from ten to maybe fifteen or so students. The one real problem though is that no matter how scary I managed to make the atmosphere, it really is impossible to impart what Halloween feels like in a cold place such as New England or regular old England. The roots of Halloween are found in celebrating at a time of year when the earth seemed to be dying, when the last harvest had already been brought in and it was time to worry about the winter ahead. People took this chance to honor their dead relatives and think about their precarious place in our world. I think this idea lends a lot to the modern feel of Halloween, even if we don't think much about it anymore, and I especially believe that cold weather helps remind us, even somewhere far back in our brains, that at one time the holiday meant a bit more. I also feel like it's a little easier to believe a ghost is going to jump out at you when the trees are losing their leaves and a cold, dark, night has descended. A little less easy to be frightened, perhaps, when there are palm trees outside your window and geckoes chilling on your wall. Just saying.
On Saturday night, however, some of the American teachers held a Halloween party, and for the first few hours many of our Vietnamese friends came. Many people actually dressed up (as best we could, it's very hard to find certain things here, although there was one store in the city that sold a few of those rubber Halloween masks) and I made a few jack-o-lanterns. The jack-o-lanterns were very small, as it's pretty difficult to find big gourds of any kind here, but I think they got the point across, and let some of our students and friends see what such a thing would look like. I dressed up as Pikachu, by the way, who is very popular here. It was not something I'm terribly proud of, but went over quite well.
Something interesting that came out of all the Halloween discussions was that I got a lot of information about how Vietnamese people think about ghosts. I have already been told by many students that our university is haunted by the ghosts of students who have committed suicide (other students adamantly deny this) and I also knew that many Vietnamese people believe that the dead freely walk among us, but that many will not admit to believing this. In some of my classes, almost every student said they believed in ghosts, but in others, only a couple did. Additionally, a few students told me that Can Tho (as well as the rest of Vietnam) used to have more ghosts from the war with America, but that because time has passed and cities have grown, many of these ghosts have gone away. I have also been informed that ghosts like warm places, so if a factory gives off a lot of heat, ghosts will go there at night to try to warm themselves up. Keep away from factories, you guys! They also supposedly hang out under trees, and the reason why lightening strikes trees is because it is attracted to the ghosts. Another thing that most of the stories my students told me had in common was that the ghosts all had very long hair that covered their faces and wore white clothing. The long hair thing was sufficiently creepy for me, even without the rest of the story being told! Most of them just involved people seeing such ghosts and being frightened, and nothing much else happening. For an expat's story of his encounter with a Vietnamese ghost, you can go here.
Anyway, that just about does it for Halloween in Vietnam! Somebody broke into my house yesterday (on Halloween...trick or treat? Trick?) and basically stole every electronic item I own, so blogging might be difficult for a while. I'm on a friend's computer now. I've moved to a house that is supposedly more secure and hopefully this won't happen again, especially since I really don't have anything else left to steal. Good times.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Starry Night
This post is not about actual stars, I should say that right now (You can't really see the stars here most of the time, too much pollution of the light and normal fossil fuel varieties. And especially right now during the rainy season, this is doubly impossible). It is, in fact, about my class this morning, in which I attempted to explain a few centuries of Western art to my class.
I exaggerate a little. I had actually done most of the explaining the class before, along with a crash course in art criticism (What do you see in this painting? How does it make you feel?). It's impossible to get too technical, because honestly their English skills, for the most part, aren't up to it. Not their fault, really, more the fault of an overzealous administration whose expectations are waaaaay too high. And they seem to know that they're too high? And be okay with it anyway? But at the very least I tried to teach them some vocabulary with which to talk about art, and explain certain artistic periods in as simple language as possible. I utterly failed when it came to postmodernism, but you know, I don't think the world will implode because of it. I doubt any of my students will soon be facing a British monster who does not understand Vietnamese and will only spare their lives if they can define postmodernism. I actually have no idea what their background in art is like, because when I ask about it they just give me blank stares. It seems like some students are interested in it, and so already knew some stuff, and some aren't interested at all.
For today's class I set up a kind of "museum" in that I printed out a bunch of pictures of famous and semi-famous paintings that I thought might interest them, ranging all the way from the Mona Lisa to a self portrait by Frida Kahlo (They thought it was a painting of a man. Frida might actually be happy about that?). Because most places here print in black and white, I also later on projected the images of the paintings from a computer onto the wall so that they could see the painting in color. The students had to pick one and play art critic with it, talking about what was in the painting, why they chose it, how it made them feel, what they think it meant or was trying to do. Questions like that. Nothing too crazy. Some of my students came up with awesome stuff, and because I'm not really a student of art history (not European art, at least) there was no voice in the back of my head yelling "No! They've got it all wrong! Correct them! That's not what this painting is about at all!" After all, this was an exercise in using language related to art, not an actual art history lesson. When talking about Picasso's The Old Guitarist, one student said something along the lines of "When I see him, I feel very sad and lonely. I think he is poor and alone and has no friends, and the only thing he can use to express his soul is his guitar". Another student suggested that maybe American Gothic was about a couple who had lots of problems that they were powerless to solve and so they worried a lot (I have no idea what that painting is actually supposed to be about, I'll admit it). It's clear that they have many great ideas, they're just held back by language and by how shy they can be.
That having been said, my students are not as as cripplingly shy as I thought they would be. I can get them to speak. Well, I can get some of them to speak. And they start getting into something, the shy ones usually forget to be shy. But it is definitely something that gets in the way.
A side note, one of my students picked Starry Night, talking about the play of light and dark in the painting. Her reason for picking the painting was that it reminded her of a song she liked, called "Vincent". My brain exploded! "That song is about the Vincent who painted this painting!" I exclaimed perhaps a little too loudly. She just nodded politely at me. Later, after class, I asked her about it and she said that the song (it's by Don Mclean) isn't really known in Vietnam, but that she had heard it in a movie whose name I wrote down and have since misplaced. I was totally floored that she knew this song, especially since I had actually been considering basing a lesson around it for next week. It's slow enough that I think they can catch all the words, and we could have a discussion about the lives of artists, etc., but I've since nixed the idea because it isn't that much fun to sing along to. The students here love singing along to songs, and doing so would help with their pronunciation. So I'll just have to find something else! Hopefully something that has to do with art. Suggestions are welcome.
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