Well, "fancy free" is pretty much a lie...
But! I am thinking (again) about getting a post-graduate degree. More than thinking, actually: I've applied to grad school for next year, and in the coming weeks, I will hopefully hear back from those schools, which will most likely determine what I'll be doing next year.
I've applied to two programs at three different schools: Translation and Germanic Studies. I have a really hard time narrowing down my choices--last time I applied to grad school, I applied to two different courses of study as well, Comparative Literature and Journalism. Both were ultimately too competitive (or something--I did not end up pursuing those options, to say the least) and I have crossed law school off my list. I really didn't want to be a lawyer anyway. I need a career that's more...artsy-fartsy, shall we say?
Since this is the last year my GRE scores are valid (the last thing I want to do is take another standardized test put out by the Princeton Review), I figured it was now or never! I shall update with admissions results when they become available.
Showing posts with label American. Show all posts
Showing posts with label American. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Aux Armes?
I did a lesson on American vs. French stereotypes before the holidays, and one of the things that constantly came up was:
Thank goodness someone with more sense also wrote an opinion piece I found on Gawker: "The Unbearable Invisibility of White Masculinity," by David Leonard, I found much more to the point. In it, Mr. Leonard argues that portraying a mass killer as a victim just because he is or was white (he cites the Wampole article as well) is inexcusable, and a privilege that apparently comes with being white. One of the underlying reasons, he argues, that people are so shocked over the Newtown killings, and the movie theater shooting in Aurora, CO, over the summer, is partly due to the fact that they occurred in mostly white, suburban neighborhoods that are supposed to be safe--as opposed to the south side of Chicago, which is mostly black and obviously unsafe. People expect to be murdered out there.
Obviously, I'm just expressing my own opinions and frustrations now, since those pieces are way too tough for my students, too. I found a much simpler article from US News & World Report complete with gun pictures (I honestly had no idea what an AK-47 or an M16 looked like before I read the article); that should start them off--from there, I'll drop a few gun stats and ask some probing questions. That will fill an hour, and maybe even give the kids some food for thought.
AMERICANS LOVE GUNS AND ALL AMERICANS OWN AT LEAST ONE.
In the aftermath of yet another gun tragedy (this time in Newtown, CT), and a renewed interest in debating gun control back home, I decided, since the stereotype is becoming all too real and evermore difficult for me to defend as...well, a stereotype and NOT TRUE, that I would like to do a lesson on gun control with my students.
It totally plays into the subjects they expect us to prepares students for, too: gun control could fit (with or without a little maneuvering) into "Myth and Hero," or "Spaces and Exchanges," or even "Places and Forms of Power." The topics are so vague, it's not much of a stretch at all.
It doesn't really matter if the kids like it or not, anyway, but I'm betting they will. It's a hot topic right now, and it would do them some good to catch up on current events. And it's definitely more interesting for me than listening to them recount their weekends, or tell me what they ate for Christmas dinner--the lessons of the past week--why prepare for an empty crowd, after all?
In my research, I've come up with some interesting things. At first, like most Americans, I was just horrified at the school shooting, and wanted to know what happened exactly. New gun regulations was one of the first things to come up, then comparison statistics of gun violence in other countries, including the firearms ban implemented in the UK after a similar school massacre occurred in Dunblane, Scotland. But you know what? The United States has a hella bunch of guns out in circulation: 300 million at one count, which is enough for every man, woman and child in the country to have their very own.
Later, I started reading reactions to the news, like the "I am Adam Lanza's Mother" article and other calls to arms (sorry) for better mental health resources in the United States such as "Can You Call a 9-year-old a Psychopath?" from the New York Times. Although reading about the woman with an uncontrollable, possibly autistic teenager, and a clearly psychotic nine-year-old shoved off to a case-study sleep-away camp were fascinating, I unfortunately found them way too tough for my students. There would be so much explaining to do on a cultural level, not to mention the length, the advanced vocabulary...it gives me a headache to think about, honestly.
But are those really side issues to the gun control debate, or do they reach the heart of the matter? What comes first, limiting gun use, or limiting people who feel the need to use guns to harm others? What comes first, the psychopath or the NRA membership? Are video games to blame? There are no easy answers. And the questions lead to even more divisive topics.
Part-time opinion writer for the New York Times and French professor at Princeton Christy Wampole wrote a piece commenting about the fact that overwhelmingly the mass shooters of America are young, white men, and opined that they feel disenfranchised, like their lives are unimportant, maybe even meaningless. They have no place in society, because women (and minorities) are taking away the "hero" status of the young man. Whereas his grandfather brought home the bacon to the wifey after a glorious stint in Normandy or the Pacific, the contemporary American young man cannot even be guaranteed that he will have a higher salary than his wife. In effect, he has nothing. Sitting alone in his basement playing World of Warcraft he is even outsmarted by his computer, because his sparring partner in Chechnya recently found himself a girlfriend--one who won't talk back, or want to do something dumb like go to college.
This premise, not of a need to redefine masculinity in our culture--which is what I was hoping for--but of blaming women and minorities for usurping power from white men, was even weirder and scarier to me than the idea of allowing teachers to carry concealed weapons in schools to protect students from future school shootings. Although sometimes in France it feels like the world has not changed since 1950, that's not a good feeling--unless benevolent sexism comes out in my favor. My guess is either Ms. Wampole has taken too literally her francophilia, or her Texas roots are showing (she mentions in the article she grew up near Fort Worth).
Part-time opinion writer for the New York Times and French professor at Princeton Christy Wampole wrote a piece commenting about the fact that overwhelmingly the mass shooters of America are young, white men, and opined that they feel disenfranchised, like their lives are unimportant, maybe even meaningless. They have no place in society, because women (and minorities) are taking away the "hero" status of the young man. Whereas his grandfather brought home the bacon to the wifey after a glorious stint in Normandy or the Pacific, the contemporary American young man cannot even be guaranteed that he will have a higher salary than his wife. In effect, he has nothing. Sitting alone in his basement playing World of Warcraft he is even outsmarted by his computer, because his sparring partner in Chechnya recently found himself a girlfriend--one who won't talk back, or want to do something dumb like go to college.
This premise, not of a need to redefine masculinity in our culture--which is what I was hoping for--but of blaming women and minorities for usurping power from white men, was even weirder and scarier to me than the idea of allowing teachers to carry concealed weapons in schools to protect students from future school shootings. Although sometimes in France it feels like the world has not changed since 1950, that's not a good feeling--unless benevolent sexism comes out in my favor. My guess is either Ms. Wampole has taken too literally her francophilia, or her Texas roots are showing (she mentions in the article she grew up near Fort Worth).
Thank goodness someone with more sense also wrote an opinion piece I found on Gawker: "The Unbearable Invisibility of White Masculinity," by David Leonard, I found much more to the point. In it, Mr. Leonard argues that portraying a mass killer as a victim just because he is or was white (he cites the Wampole article as well) is inexcusable, and a privilege that apparently comes with being white. One of the underlying reasons, he argues, that people are so shocked over the Newtown killings, and the movie theater shooting in Aurora, CO, over the summer, is partly due to the fact that they occurred in mostly white, suburban neighborhoods that are supposed to be safe--as opposed to the south side of Chicago, which is mostly black and obviously unsafe. People expect to be murdered out there.
Obviously, I'm just expressing my own opinions and frustrations now, since those pieces are way too tough for my students, too. I found a much simpler article from US News & World Report complete with gun pictures (I honestly had no idea what an AK-47 or an M16 looked like before I read the article); that should start them off--from there, I'll drop a few gun stats and ask some probing questions. That will fill an hour, and maybe even give the kids some food for thought.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Thanksgiving in France
This is coming a little late, but I've been busy!
I got a new job...a post on that will come...and my students have (finally) actually been showing up! Which means I have to actually do lesson plans--it's not all fun and games in the South of France! Also, I've had to clean my studio and go to the laundromat and...and...
MAKE THANKSGIVING DINNER!
Yes, I decided to celebrate it this year with my gals--fellow teaching assistants and Europeans all--who had never eaten Thanksgiving dinner before. I made all the fixin's to be as authentic as possible: turkey (just cutlets), stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, squash, sweet potatoes and black beans, and pumpkin pie! The only thing I couldn't get was cranberry sauce. So, I bought red currant preserves and warmed them up...good enough for me, though I'm sure purists are gnashing their teeth.
I've noticed myself become slowly more patriotic the longer I live abroad. I would like to examine why, but that probably also deserves its own blog post. It might be homesickness, or re-forging an identity after forging an anti-identity as an "ex-pat" wannabe. I haven't lived abroad that long, but I feel as if I'm more accepting of my "American" moniker than I was when I was a student, for example. It might be in part that the American image abroad is improving, or that I'm becoming more mature and thus more accepting of my roots, culture, etc. I don't particularly identify with what is "typically American" but in a way, I don't have a choice when I'm seen as "the American."
And boy, do they know I'm American! It's not like in Austria, where I think some of the teachers (granted, ones I didn't work with) either mixed me up with the TA from the last year or made up a history for me in their heads. One day in early December I was in the teachers' room and the snow started coming down hard. One of the math teachers was sitting next to me. He leaned over and asked, "Does it snow like this in Scotland?"
To which I said, "I wouldn't know. Never been."
I hope, in embracing my nationality in small ways like this, I'm not turning into an Ugly American. That, after all, would be counter productive to being a "cultural ambassador" or whatever the heck I am.
Monday, November 5, 2012
Generations: the History of America's Future
Last year, a friend of mine in Vienna suggested this book to me. We got to talking about certain stereotypes of our generation. Things like we're all a bunch of bratty mama's babies with helicopter parents, or that we don't know how to take care of ourselves.
That got my dander up, and my friend and I agreed that each of us has as specific role to play in the world, and in a funny way, we're nothing like our parents' generation, why is that? Certainly we've been influenced by them, but not necessarily because we were raised by them? What exactly is the rapport between generations, anyway?
Though a little dated (it was written in 1992), Generations: the History of America's Future by William Strauss and Neil Howe (who later expounded on the theory in The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy and Millenials Rising: The Next Great Generation), is a compelling read. Don't pick it up if you're a hard-core history student. There is a lot of pop-history and pop-sociology bandied about, with not so much peer-review to back it up. For the whole Wikipedia explanation, click here.Strauss and Howe go through the entire gamut of American history, from the Puritans to the 1980s. It was pretty revolutionary when it came out, I believe.
My generation is the "new" Civic generation on the continuum, people who were born roughly between 1983 and 2003, also known as Millenials. The generation above us is the Gen-X, or Reactive generation, and then the Baby Boomers, or Idealistic generation, and the old and very old would be the Adaptive ("Silent" generation) and the "old" Civic generation, or the "Greatest Generation" who were WWII veterans.
So, something my friend and I both felt was that our generation will do great things, it's just that we're stagnating now in the aftermath of the "Great Recession" and older generations just need to give us a chance! I also extrapolated from the generational profiles that older people (ahem, Baby Boomers) staying in jobs when they should be retiring are going to have to step down at some point and let us run the show. We have plenty of ideas, and we wouldn't be so spoiled if we could just get to work doing and building!
I don't have any claim to make in conclusion, just that I enjoyed the book, and how it affected my way of looking at history.
That got my dander up, and my friend and I agreed that each of us has as specific role to play in the world, and in a funny way, we're nothing like our parents' generation, why is that? Certainly we've been influenced by them, but not necessarily because we were raised by them? What exactly is the rapport between generations, anyway?
Though a little dated (it was written in 1992), Generations: the History of America's Future by William Strauss and Neil Howe (who later expounded on the theory in The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy and Millenials Rising: The Next Great Generation), is a compelling read. Don't pick it up if you're a hard-core history student. There is a lot of pop-history and pop-sociology bandied about, with not so much peer-review to back it up. For the whole Wikipedia explanation, click here.Strauss and Howe go through the entire gamut of American history, from the Puritans to the 1980s. It was pretty revolutionary when it came out, I believe.
My generation is the "new" Civic generation on the continuum, people who were born roughly between 1983 and 2003, also known as Millenials. The generation above us is the Gen-X, or Reactive generation, and then the Baby Boomers, or Idealistic generation, and the old and very old would be the Adaptive ("Silent" generation) and the "old" Civic generation, or the "Greatest Generation" who were WWII veterans.
So, something my friend and I both felt was that our generation will do great things, it's just that we're stagnating now in the aftermath of the "Great Recession" and older generations just need to give us a chance! I also extrapolated from the generational profiles that older people (ahem, Baby Boomers) staying in jobs when they should be retiring are going to have to step down at some point and let us run the show. We have plenty of ideas, and we wouldn't be so spoiled if we could just get to work doing and building!
I don't have any claim to make in conclusion, just that I enjoyed the book, and how it affected my way of looking at history.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Rainy Sunday
 |
| my patio with rain-slicked table top |
It's tough having to deal with rain when you get to the South of France and all you want to do is go out and play!
Tomorrow should be sunny, but it rained all day today and yesterday. I was caught in a torrential rainstorm yesterday going out and about to pick up groceries and a SIM card that will work in France. I got my goals accomplished just in time for the clouds to roll in and me in a t-shirt, no umbrella. I waited out the storm in a souvenir shop, until one o'clock when they kicked everybody out to close for lunch (mais, oui! This is France). Luckily for me, the storm had calmed to a sprinkle.
But--I forgot toilet paper while I was out yesterday, and I'm trying to decided if it's worth braving the weather.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)