(Un)Real Humour with No Pictures

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There will be no photos for this entry (although I certainly wish I had) but a humorously terrifying recount. Alright, terrifying is exaggeration but appalling would be the mildest adjective I would select.

This happened last Tuesday for a Postgrad Seminar called "Strategies of Analysis", i.e. Critical and Cultural Theory, something I'm familiar with. First year PhD students are required to attend this class alongside MPhil students. So I was asked to lead the seminar considering my familiarity with some of these topics.

The topic for that seminar was "Postcolonialism and Orientalism in Performance". Well and good, given that MPhil students, from various parts of Ireland and the international community now enrolled in Trinity's School of Drama, Film and Music, have little or no exposure to Critical Theory, the class went pretty slow (yes, I was bored but that wasn't meant to be an arrogant statement in case you were wondering). The issue at hand became "Language" and the use of Language inscribes the colonial subject into the Colonial discourse. To put it simply, as long as we speak the language of the coloniser, i.e. English, we will always be 'colonised' because language embeds cultural codes and shapes, distinguishes, moulds 'reality'.

In any case, unlike Singaporean students, caucasian students love a hearty discussion and would speak even when not spoken to or speak even when nothing important needs to be said. So an American student decides to interject with a comment. Her comment will forever be embedded in my mind and be eternally the impression I will hold not only of her but representative of her ... race / nationality / ethnicity / identity.

She calmly said in all earnestness and sincerit, "I'm so thankful to be speaking English and to have grown up knowing English. I can't imagine how people live without English. How do they wake up every morning not knowing how to speak English? How do they live their lives?" (I must apologise for not getting the phrases in verbatim but this is certainly close to the exact words she used).

Of course, those who have been taught by Mr Tan would now be giggling. Those who have been taught by Mr Tan would know that Mr Tan is a firm believer that there are STUPID questions, STUPID comments, and STUPID people. And here we have a real live example of STUPIDITY, IGNORANCE and IDIOCY, of American student who REALLY SHOULDN'T be doing an MPhil! How the £@$@$&%%£&^% hell did she manage to enter Trinity - a college of this repute? And attempt an MPhil!!!??!??? I think my TA3s can do an MPhil too, now! And they would NEVER pass such an insensitive and unthinking remark!

And those who have been taught by Mr Tan can now imagine Mr Tan's metamorphosing expression.

I turned to my friend and fellow PhD pursuer, Aoife, and we exchanged glances of utter disbelief. I couldn't in all my existence believe that that girl just blabbered that. In those 5 seconds of utter complete silence, I was in shock. And I was one of two Asians in the class.

So Mr Tan patiently turned to the poor ignorant girl to tell her, "Well, there are MANY people in the world who do not speak English, whose societies function perfectly well and are equally advanced in comparison to English-speaking countries, and many other societies whose peoples are effectively bilingual. This is unlike SOME countries who still believe in monolingualism or in the fact that English is the only functional language, or that the world should adopt it as their own."

5 more seconds of silence. Aoife then decides to take the discussion elsewhere on a different tangent.

I always thought that Singaporean students were really narrow-minded, ignorant, and merely book-smart. In fact, I still think they are. But at least I know they would never pass such an unthinking, uncritical, ignorant, and utterly ridiculous statement. They'd probably know that Mr Tan would never tolerate such an idiotic comment. I kept wondering for the subsequent few hours, which bloody crevice did this girl crawl out from on the American continent!?

So to my dear student and friend, no the general level of intelligence here isn't much higher; in fact, most college students here drink too much and 'play' too much. But that's just my view. There are, undeniably, the exceptional and exceptionally good ones - like all societies.

And that event affirms, re-affirms, and seals my opinion of many Americans.

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Comments

[xiaoqi]

And that event affirms, re-affirms, and seals my opinion of many Americans. same here. :)