So my U.S. History professor found out I'm American... I tried so hard to blend in. But as I have said multiple times before, I stick out like a sore thumb, so it was only a matter of time before I was outed. At UNSW each class consists of lectures and tutorials. The lectures are huge and the professors write out an entire lecture and then essentially just read it out to us and you scramble to write down notes and its awful. I have finally had to switch from hand writing my notes to typing them.
Tutorials, on the other hand, consist of about 20 people from your huge lecture and are basically really intellectual discussions. I have never felt more stupid than in my U.S. History tutorial. The kids in my class, Arthur, Johannes, Adelaide, Oscar, etc. are history geniuses and whip out all these random people and facts and dates and sound really impressive... Sorry I was laying out on the beach instead of reading about Andrew Jackson in my spare time... History is my least favorite subject. I was an all star in high school at not paying attention whatsoever and then just cramming for exams and doing really well and then forgetting everything right after. My professor unfortunately thinks I am an expert. He called on me in the first tutorial to answer a discussion question (which I had no idea how to answer) and heard my American accent and got super excited. Now after every question, he says, "let's hear what the American has to say about this!" Well Ian, my response is always going to be, "Although I am American, I don't remember anything from high school, so sorry. I hate history and have no idea how to contribute to this intellectual conversation, so please stop calling on me" I just am going to keep smiling and chat with him after class about life in America, which makes him sooo happy. Gotta love someone who loves Americans. Hopefully that will keep me afloat in that class...
My History of Sexuality tutorial I can at least keep up with. It is fairly similar to my other Women's Studies classes (my minor) I have taken back at SMU. I have to give a sexual knowledge presentation next week so that should be interesting... But you basically get 100% as long as you have prepared and then present it. Sounds great to me.
My Psych and Law tutorial is pretty fun so far as well. We learned about deception last week and basically just played two truths and a lie the entire time and learned how to discover if people are lying or not. Thank god I didn't have to go first for the presentation in this class though... the poor girl who got switched with me and had to go... Didn't go so well to be honest. Glad I have like 6 more weeks to prepare for that.
My Indigenous Australian tutorial is a lot of fun too. We played the name game for the entire first tutorial. And last tutorial we talked about the Indigenous peoples and learned about their culture. The kids in my class are all really lively, so the discussion was great.
Students in Australia don't take those crap classes that you are forced to take in America (gen ed's). They only take classes for their major-they are at uni to start their career, so every person in every one of your classes is super into it. Every student in my U.S. History class is a U.S. History major-History is their passion and they really do read about it for fun in their spare time. I am taking this for a gen ed and hate history, which is why it is very apparent I am not on their level. Having people so interested in the subject makes the discussions great. It honestly makes the tutorials go by so fast and seem really interesting. You are learning so much without it even really feeling like school. It is such a difference from America where no one really seems to care in the gen ed classes since they are just trying to fulfill a requirement. I kinda like it... I'm not sure if I will ever truly get in school mode though. It seems like I am on an incredible vacation that is occasionally interrupted by classes and work!
No comments:
Post a Comment