Hi Everyone!

Doing the class blog at the very end of the year was definitely a good call, I had some doubts at first, partially due to the towering load of rough drafts currently staring me down, but hey, gotta love uni right! Reflecting on the closing statements you all posted on the topics last discussed was great! The questions raised by the contextual understanding of the course shine a new light on many of my other courses, and its pretty evident to me that this extends to many of you as well as I noticed a lot of recurring themes in your posts from our other course’s conversations.

I particularly enjoyed reading reflection by Amy this week, as she asked: what does it mean to be a global citizen? What better a question for the final blog post of the year, for it truly is question that we have all shared in contemplation over the last two semesters, yet answering it seems more challenging than it was before. To you Amy, I say, it is almost harder to answer now that we have taken a bite of the vastness that is academics than ever before, but if we have the courage to try, make mistakes, and learn, I’m sure one day we can all find our own answer to that very question.

Andrea pointed out, and I would have to agree, that ASTU has definitely been an eye opening experience in the realm of academics and writing in particular. For international students who are not fluent in English it is a daunting task to face the strict demands of the professors here at UBC, English isn’t my first language either and I can attest, it doesn’t make sense, haha, it will always remain a rather weird language, but oh well, that might just be me. The transition from high school to University was much easier thanks to ASTU as it pointed out very clearly what is expected in an academic writing format, which was very unclear when looking at the instruction professors gave in their particular classes for particular essays.

These blog posts have made it much easier to communicate thought between all of us I feel, its hard to keep up with everyone in our classes, with our busy lives, but these blog posts really allowed me at least to get a glimpse of you guys were thinking about the things that came up in our classes, and I must say, it was a pleasure. As Devon stated in her post, it has become clear that uni isn’t as much as a free for all as it appears beforehand. The “Hunger Games”, as she puts it, aren’t all that bad, I guess the odds were ever in our favor haha, the UBC community is definitely welcoming and I believe it is in part thanks to ASTU that we have been able to explore many components of this community.

Finally, I would like to thank all of you for blogging and supporting each-other in this format, it was very eye-opening and in one word delightful to do this, even though we have all had some tendencies to curse at our laptops 10 min before blog due dates, as I myself plead guilty, I think its safe to say we all enjoyed this. Its saddens me to say this will be my last post in this setting, so id like to wish you all the best in you future endeavours and academic writing!

Cheers!
-Ramon

Hey!

The subject of forgetting was definitely one of my favorite ones so far, and I think your post captured why quite wonderfully! Your personal contribution in exemplifying the struggle Marji has in adapting to new surroundings is very relatable, as an immigrant, I know exactly what its like and I feel like you worded a lot of the struggles we can often face quite nicely. The excerpts you used were awesome too as the graphic contribution to your post drew a very nice picture (pun intended 🙂 ) of how often we are challenged by community members, family in particular, before a change of sorts, to not forget the past.

Your concluding paragraph actually interested me the most and id love to hear more from you on the manner, as society changing you into a version of yourself you are not is definitely a prominent struggle in modernity I think. Globalisation, Immigration, Cosmopolitanism, all factors that contribute to this conversation, yet, personal testimony is what, arguably, truly adds value to this matter as it contextualizes the arguments and produce a solid foundation on which such concepts can be based!

A collaborative work between several of our classmates, as their are plenty of people not raised in Canada, would possibly provide a great way for us to explore those theories through the perspective of testimony and I would be happy to take part in such an investigation!

Love the post!

-Ramon

Hi everyone, and so it comes to an end, the final blog posts of the term are in! We were all really fortunate to be able to visit the Rare Books and Special Collections department at the IBLC last Thursday. The reflections on our visit through the blogposts provided many different takes on the information that was presented to us and they were certainly a pleasure to read!

Some of you touched on the interesting order in which the fonds were organized, which in contrast to the supposed ease and access to information of most modern day information was an interest look into academic organization! The reflection of something like that brings a certain view to the table, one that takes away perspective not only directly form the sources presented, but also just their general circumstance, which, arguably, is crucial to understanding the thoughts and processes of any fond.

The many paragraphs that touched on fan mail, be it from adults, high ranking people in politics or the writing community, or even children, were absolutely wonderful to read, as not only the genuine context of the actual sources, but also the presentation and reflection on the matter by our bloggers this week were absolutely delightful to read. As I touched on earlier, looking into the creative possesses of Kogawa was wonderful, as Lauren’s blog talked about wonderfully, however; it is also quite interesting to see, through the fan mail especially of the children and adults that were not just praising her work as a form of courtesy, how her work inspired people and in turn created new creative possesses or sparked conversation far beyond the workings of her own writing.

As Joey touched on in his blog it was also really fun to be skimming though material much older than ourselves, I myself found it absolutely wonderful to try and decipher the flamboyant hand writing of people as they wrote page after page in beautiful cursive, something I strongly feel should be reintroduced into our modern society as it simply is a form of art through the medium of communication.

Thanks for reading!

Ramon Melser

Reading this post was great! The analysis of the criticism that could be found in the fond on Obasan was really fascinating to read, but Andrea outlined really nicely how that criticism is part of the writing process and contributes only to the value of Obasan as creates context in which the novel can be placed in order to understand and reflect on a contextualization as such only adds value to the narrative as it portrays a more complete analysis then a simple praising of the work as I found a lot in my visit to the fond through reading fan mail and simple letters of praise.

I think it would be really interesting to see how criticism situates an author’s work into different communities after it is published as a direct result of it. I would almost like to question whether letters of simple praise decrease value as they do not usually, arguably, add to the dynamic circumstance of the document?!

Awesme post, really sparked some questions for me!

-Ramon

Hey Robert,

this post really spoke to me as I myself have been situated in many different communities of education systems throughout my academic career and have really enjoyed observing different interpretive communities throughout contrast in classroom setting, but also within that very classroom setting.

You comment on how Shazhad states the value of individual interpretation by the student very interestingly with your personal examples and I personally din them very relatable. It brings up a couple questions for me: did you ever experience conflict between teacher and student as a result of interpretive factors? I certainly have and it would be interesting to compare and contrast ways in which that sort of thing takes place.

Stating that the classroom is instrumental in forming how we think is definitely debatable and I would like to hear from you on what other factors you think might affect the process of education outside of the classroom?! The debate on where students gain most of their knowledge is often situated around either home and school, and I would definitely like to hear your perspective on which one you have found to be more prominent in your personal experience and why?!

Great post!

-Ramon