Hi…

Welcome to my first blog post for ENGL 470!

My name is Jenny Lee and I am a 3rd year student at UBC Vancouver. From the introductory posts that I have read so far, it seems like a little more than half of the class is majoring in English literature. I am with those of you who are not pursuing an English major – my field of study is probably as far from English as majors can go: Biology. Yes, I know, it seems crazy that a biology student working towards med school is taking an English course. That being said, why am I taking this course?

My answer is that I am working towards an English literature minor. To be honest, I do not like writing, and I am not very good at it. However, I do love reading, and I like to decipher/understand/make connections to literature, as well as listen to what other people think about a certain piece of writing. The satisfaction that I receive from understanding a piece of literature outweighs my dislike for writing. I have chosen to take ENGL 470 in particular, because I feel a need to understand and connect to the country that I live in and am a part of. My birth country is South Korea, and I came to Canada in 2005. Despite having lived in Canada longer than in Korea, I identify myself more Korean than Canadian. This, I feel, puts my Canadian citizenship to shame. Other than the multiculturalism and the politeness (thank you! sorry!), I’m not sure what it means to be Canadian. I hope to find out a little more about being a Canadian through this course.

I have read from the course syllabus that we will be looking into and comparing Canadian (both European and native) literature and stories. In doing so, we will learn about the history and traditions of Canada, while paying attention to the points of view that the pieces of writing are written in. The voices of the stories will be important, as the peoples, whether it be the Europeans or the Indigenous, that are not represented in the literature are excluded from having their say, and we may only be reading a fraction of what really happened.

My impression of the course is that it will somewhat resemble studying The Joy Luck Club, which is a novel that is made up of stories told by 4 different families. While the novel differs from our course studies in that it explores what it means to be American, or Chinese-American, rather than Canadian, it is similar in that it focuses on the hardships the families had while adjusting to racism, and the search for identity. I am expecting that by the last day of ENGL 470, I will know more about Canadian history than what I know now: little bits and pieces about the Métis, the importance that the Hudson Bay had, and something about the Canadian Pacific Railway. I want to grasp a sense of my Canadian identity, and to be able to say I’m Canadian without feeling hesitant or out of place.

Thank you for reading my over-the-word-limit introduction! Please (pretty please with a cherry on top!) feel free to leave comments 🙂

I’ll end off with a video of BTS (I’m a huge fan, they are a K-pop boy group).

 

Works Cited

Biology Program. UBC, www.biology.ubc.ca/.

“BTS(방탄소년단) _ FIRE (불타오르네).” YouTube, uploaded by 1theK, 1 May 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALj5MKjy2BU.

“Canada National Anthem”, www.cic.gc.ca/english/celebrate/pdf/National_Anthem_e.pdf

Paterson, Erika. “Course Syllabus.” UBCBlogs, WordPress, blogs.ubc.ca/courseblogsis_ubc_engl_470a_99c_2014wc_44216-sis_ubc_engl_470a_99c_2014wc_44216_2517104_1/course-requirements. Accessed 11 September 2016.

“The Joy Luck Club: A Novel.” Amazon, 21 September, 2006, www.amazon.ca/Joy-Luck-Club-Novel/dp/0143038095.