Introduction

Hello, My name is Tyler Wu. I am born and raised from the Philippines, and decided to move here to Vancouver for university. I am currently a 5th year student and I am on my last semester, so hopefully I am able to graduate after this semester. Im currently in the Interdisciplinary Studies Program, primarily focusing on Economics, and currently interested in entering the investment analyst field. My expectations for this class, is to perhaps improve my writing and simply just learn deeply more about the culture of romance. After watching the introductory lecture, I now understand that romance studies is not just simply learning another language like spanish or french, or reading old literary texts, but instead it shows us the importance on how language, history and culture are connected deeply. I was able to learn too that Romance languages come from Latin, but more importantly, they show how these languages continue to change the more people use them in their everyday life. Moreover, Language is seen as something living and social but it shapes how people also think, understand who they are, and how they express themselves as well. The video was able to help me as well see that studying language also allows me to study culture, family, politics, and social history. Overall, the video sets the foundation for the course that I am excited to learn more about and see how Romance studies can show me further on understanding people and societies. After watching the commentary video, it showed me a more reflective and critical approach, as it asks us the viewers to see how Romance studies came to exist first. It also was able to explain well that it is not a “natural” discipline, but something that has been created over time. A key insight I gained was the difference between traditional, elite knowledge, and everyday language. It argues further that Romance studies truly emerges when everyday speech, popular culture, and the voices of ordinary people challenge and reshape traditional academic ideas. This means that the field should not only focus on famous authors or formal language, but also on how people actually speak and live. The commentary encourages us students to question who decides what is worth studying and whose voices are included or excluded, in doing so, it shows that Romance studies is flexible and constantly changing. Together these two videos introduces the field in which I am about to study, and challenges us how to critically thinl and how it has been shaped and why it matters