I want to stay in academia so bad
Recently, I was devastatingly hospitalised due to a silly illness: Tonsillitis. Because my tonsils are so inflamed, it brings down my parotid gland altogether with them so they can be happily inflamed together. Two tonsils and two parotid glands, one in each sides, conjoined by bacterial infection, and one in inflammation. Inspiring story by these quadrouple. Love wins. I lost.
That being said, I had so much times in my hands during my 3-days-2-nights stay in the hospital. I finished my slow current-read at that time when I did not even like the book so much. I wrote an outline for an essay, albeit it is still unpublished. I reviewed primary level science for my job that I was exempted for at that time. Those are the kinds of ways that pictures me being jobless. Naturally, my screen time also jumps several floors higher. That being said, I spent so much time lurking on Twitter and TikTok as my two main source of entertainment and media consumption. Fortunately, these opportunity switched my ‘geek’ mode on. Ever so suddenly, my timeline is flooded with Linguist and PhD(s) from all over the world. And, oh boy, can they stop talking about research?
After the hospitalisation drama finished, I am still stuck with the algorithm full of PhD(s) and Linguists talking about their research. I suddenly develop a habit of waking up to a certain dispute and/or discussion over something backed up with research and articles, and, god, they are interesting as fuck. I woke up and I read something. Putting on my make up? Found an article. Doom scrolling over dinner? Found a YouTube video essay.
This is so good, I thought to myself. Never I imagined myself being so glued into non-fiction reads and media consumption like this. I wanted to stay in academia so bad. That aside, I feel like sharing the things I have been consuming these past few days. So, here you go, the things that I consumed the first thing in the morning for a past few days: “Imagery of Dragon in Folktales Around The World”, “American Linguistic War: Chomsky, I hate you”, “Powetry poterwy poetri poeter potry: Interview with Ania WalWicz”, and “How the hell did you read that already: Project-based living, literally”.
Imagery of Dragon in Folktales Around The World
Do you guys realise that for centuries, there are different parts of the world that definitely did not come from the same ancient civilisation, that even linguists categorise their proto-languages differently, that physiologically-architecturally-historically does not look alike one another, but conjoined in mythical creature that sometimes breaths fire, has scale, and looks like a snake that catch flight? Dragons. Dragons are everywhere.
For a girl that chew ancient Greek and Nordic mythology, gets told of ancient Chinese folktale of dragons by her aunts, and religiously watch anime where depictions of dragons are messy and everywhere: Dragon is my thing. The modern day fantasy and blockbuster high-engrossing film has the tendencies to depict dragons in a certain way. Picture Smaug of Lord of The Rings (as a Tolkien fan, I have never picture Smaug that way…), the Wyrms in The Witcher, and the cutesies of How To Train Your Dragon.
Truthfully, I came across the article about dragons in folktales quite a while ago. But, I was not committed in reading every bits of it. A few days ago, however, the surge took over and I was dissecting it into bits.
… dragons are the end point of a conceptual development which began with rainbows, hence rainbow → dragon
That was the introduction that got me hooked instantly. The article divide its sources of depiction of dragons into six discrete regions: Europe, Near East (including Egypt), India, Far East, Mesoamerica, and North America. It also lists 26 — yes, twenty six — dragon characteristics such as: controller of rain, guardian of spring, has horns, has scales, has feathers, fiery breath, causes tornadoes, causes floods, does it hate menstruating women, can it impregnate women, does it guard treasure and many others. Read it yourself.
It also explains several different plausible theories on how these separate regions agrees or disagrees on the characteristics of the dragons and how does it connect with the nature surrounding them and the human perception of material experience. It is indeed a great article to geek about dragons. Fun stuff. However, I am not fully inclined by the hypothesis of the paper that a dragon comes from an agreement of a group of people that perceived rainbow and tried to come up with an explanation and they collectively choose dragon. I think that was a very white take of it.
“Oh, the region has a centuries-old folktale about a mythical creature that looks like a flying snake and impregnate women: It must be a Dragon!”
White humaniora scholars stop trying to comprehend cultures that does not belong to you through your lenses challenge: Failed miserably. Honestly, every social-humaniora field needs to start calling out white scholars that way. I have seen many critical approach towards many things but we do have lots of works on unraveling years of white lenses in our own fields. Even mine, the language. Oh, how devastatingly, depressingly, and sadly colonised are we?
But, it was a great attempt. It was published in 2000, anyway, I don’t exactly expect critical approach to be used 20 years ago. All in all, I am happy whenever someone takes folktales seriously. A lot of people seem to forget that folktales used to be the way a community transfers its knowledge, wisdom, and history. It needs to be taken quite seriously, to be frank.
So, for fun and giggles read more The Origin of Dragons by Robert Blust.
American Linguistic War: Chomsky, I hate you
If you look me up on Twitter alongside the name “Chomsky” you’d see that I have been tweeting about that guy since 2021. The tea does not stop there: My view towards the guy evolves over the years. In 2021, I tweeted that the guy is actually pretty fucking scary because he is smart. Last month, I tweeted that if anyone ever mention the name Chomsky again in front of my face whether it is in linguistic OR philosophy context, I will act dumb.
I truly do not know how to keep this one simple and interesting but, picture this: Two groups of 40-something years old men, intruding each others’ lecture to say, “Everything you are saying is wrong, Sir.” Then, they would go home and write pages-long — scratch that — book-long argument on how the other is stupid.
Grown men beefing. About how we use language. Tea, and it’s boiling. I love when people fight.
Warning, this is about to get VERY linguistics. I am trying my best to make the terms as simple as possible.
In 1957, Noam Chomsky published one of his first influential work that basically criticised a branch of linguists that adhere to the works of Leonard Bloomfield — Bloomfieldian linguist — as cataloguers. Burn. The point he was trying to say is that linguistic should concern itself more with syntax and meaning-making instead of the smaller units of language such as phonetics and phonology: Language roots, morphology of language and words,naturalisation of words — all Bloomfieldian stuffs.
Chomsky argued that the ability to to perform a grammatical structure in every language known to human is innate to human mind. Familiar? Yeah, it was Descartes and Plato that popularised innatism. The idea of innatism stems from the theory that knowledge is innate to human mind.
Picture this: Numerous ancient civilisation that was located very far away from each other that diffusion of culture was naturally impossible all had the conceptions of God. By that evidence, Descartes argued that the idea of a higher being is innate to human mind. Innatist-linguists like Chomsky believe that language is one of these innate knowledge.
Chomsky argued that human mind has the ability to acquire its mother tongue simply because it is equipped with “language acquisition device”. Hence, it can always understand the mechanism of language when exposed to enough “data”; just the way babies are learning their mother tongue. The condition where data is insufficient is then called “the poverty of stimulus” which explained on how beginner language learners — babies — made errors when they tried to utilise the knowledge: Insufficient exposure to data.
As an applied linguist, these are bollocks to me. But, the dispute was certainly interesting. The dispute got me down on a rabbit hole of numerous publication in a linguistic school that even my undergraduate thesis is proving against. It also got me revising branches of philosophy because it is indeed very philosophy-coded.
I was reading a book but to the insane dispute, you can start with the Wikipedia article: Linguistics Wars.
Powetry poterwy poetri poeter potry: Interview with Ania WalWicz
Val Kent asked Ania WalWicz, “Did they [European school in Melbourne] try to make you assimilate?”
“Oh, they certainly could not,” answered she in short and concise words which got me thinking, why would we have the need to have assimilate at all? Why even… why do we even want to be painted in similar colour? Bound in similar glue? Printed in similar ink? Packed in similar box? Where the is fun and fizziness of colours? Have we lost the sense of the utmost arrogant that we always have to strive for beauty?
A few years back, I stumbled upon Ania WalWicz poem titled “Wogs” in one of my literature classes in Monash University. My first thought was that Ania WalWicz is a genius. I remember that the discussion about Wogs revolved around it being avant-garde and ground-breakingly peculiar. It was missing words, spaces, and punctuation. It was missing the structural stanzas. It was missing grammar and syntax! It was something that would piss a generative linguist off.
I certainly didn’t think like that because the poem was talking about how she is perceived differently for being Polish in Melbourne, racism, discrimination, and all that horrible things a first generation migrant can experience. Why would you write normally when you are literally complaining about how people consider you not normal. Fuck them, amen to their words and here’s a fucked up poetry. She is such a genius. Love it. Chef’s kiss.
Oh, yes, because people want to teach things[poetry] in a very prescriptive manner … but there has to be some kind of freedom, imaginative freedom, emotional freedom … and encouragement; and permission to imagine things and come out with a more unconscious response. – Ania WalWicz
Poetry does, in fact, scare me. As a fellow teacher, I think poetry is horrendous because nobody wants to master poetry and the ones that want to master it scales up three times above me. But, what I am saying is: Teaching poetry is not always about the tedious interpretation but rather the liberation of thinking. I think people wants to teach poetry in some prescriptive ways because the need to interpret things in a certain manner needs to be passed down by formal education as one of the running social institutions. But, what if we give these children a freedom of thinking? A liberation in perceiving? A permission to feel?
I think children should be allowed to think for themselves, on god.
I know how crazy these little devils can be when given freedom. But, I want to be the safe space. If school has to be rigid and restrictive, I want to be the person that unties the knot. If education wants to prescribe way of thinking, I am here to open the cage. I am fully aware on how utopic this sounds, but if it is not me, who will do it for these poor little kids being told what to think?
I think in terms of my own life poetry has dealt with the constrictions of my own upbringing and allowed me great freedom of expression, a wonderful situation to be in. — Ania WalWicz
As a teacher myself, moreover Language teacher that actually teaches poetry, reading the interview with Ania WalWicz about her works in poetry and her life as a teacher brings me to a moment of reflection. I am a Gen Z teacher, of course I want to be politically correct with my students. Of course liberation is in my checklist. But, there are obviously many constraints. The curriculum, the core values, the ethics and code, the company’s policy, or whatnot. The deadline, the academic calendar, the exam week, you know I can go on. To put it short: Liberation is not on their checklist. The profession is known for its conservative approach in everything, anyway.
How dare she not get my child straight As after learning with her for two weeks! Yeah, no, scratch that. Screw giving freedom to the kids, I don’t even have the freedom at hand.
So, to approach my teaching in liberation is actually pretty fucking scary. What do I know about teaching, anyway? I have only been teaching for a year, or so. What if I set these children into failures when given freedom?
In our society, we devalue intuitive thought. We devalue perception on an intuitive level because we really forefront the rational, correct, appropriate response; to literature, too. Adults become paralysed, absolutely paralysed when they come across unusual works of art or works of literature, not because they can’t respond to them, but because they want to respond in a correct or appropriate way. — Ania WalWicz
Intuitive thought: I thought everyone creeps into adulthood that way. I creep into my profession that way. Not saying that I have no professional capability of being a teacher but the scholars can keep yapping about teaching and a lot of it will still involve intuition anyway. But, I do think of it as a good thing. It’s a good thing that I creep into my profession that way.
Because then I will always ready for unusuality. No child is ever the same compared to their peers. So, bring it on, little devils. I am going to treat you with my intuition in hopes that you grow one. So that in five to ten years, you will come back and tell me you’ve made it with your intuition. Your thinking. Your feeling. Your hard work. I’ll smile the brightest, trust me.
Read the interview with Ania WalWicz: It all comes back to how powetry is taught.
How the hell did you read that already: Project-based living, literally
Before I start yapping about this one, I would like to preface this with a shout out to my cool friend that writes cool stuffs: Rakean (check out the Medium profile, please!). I have Medium pop-up notifications turned on in my phone and ever since I religiously use Medium, I always read that man’s writing the moment it is published because he writes fun stuff. Hence the tittle of this sub-chapter. It has been the second time that he told me, verbatim, “How the hell did you read that already?”
I am chronically online, my buddy.
But, I find that growth is generally outside of our comfort zone.
Banger sentence. It was on his latest medium publication.
Despite that being a banger, I feel like lately my growth have been stunted. Especially after graduating university, I feel like I have been trapped in a tedious and horrible routine on what normal people would call as a full-time job. I am aware how privileged I am to be able to say this out loud in an essay, but hear me out. I promise I am not a bitch.
How many years did we go to elementary school? Most people did it for six years and during that awfully long six years, we were taught on numerous foundation that we latter would use for junior and senior high school. We did junior high school for three years and another three for senior high school. During that 12 years, there are so many input that our brain are expected to put on together so that we can be a functional member of the society. For me, I added an extra four years to get a bachelor degree. So, basically, I spent the initial 16 years of my life putting inputs for my brain.
And that was just school.
I haven’t even started talking on how I was an athlete for a good decade of my life who then transitioned into a full-blown serious musician. My parents disagreed so I did literature and theatre. Aside from that, I was a part of countless organisations and participated in countless conception of something. I was growing insanely fast each and every day of my life.
After 16 years of pruning, now I am can do one thing for the rest of my life? I can excel in one job for the rest of my life? I am supposed to feel satisfied that I landed myself a job that I am preparing for in the last 16 years and settle with it? Insane!
I saw a chance and I jumped at it. And I think I’m quite good at that.
I truly miss the impulsivity that I used to have when I was in the university. Do you know that I landed the IISMA awardee tittle because of my impulsivity?
Hahaha… what if I submit an application hahaha… what if I take IELTS and fill out some essay questions… hahaha… wow… Australian visa lodged… hahaha hi, Monash… hahahah… I was the happiest person I have ever been in my life…
The thing is, when I was in the university, I had many safety nets. Even though my dad is a cool one and he still provides me home and safety, I feel like I am now on my own. Partially because of the ego and partially because people told me so. I am in an entirely different city as well. So, it is indeed has been a while since I jumped at something — I don’t have the safety nets. I miss the rush. I miss the sleepless nights because I am doing three projects. I miss the starring-at-my-calendar-to-choose-an-opening. I miss being busy and uncomfortable. I miss growing!
I am just a teacher now. It sickens me so much. I know I am so much more than that but I am no longer allowed the freedom to do so. Thinking about it makes me want to throw up. Help.
But, anyway, it was a good read. It makes me feel that I need to do something. Something that is not teaching and language. A project. A conception of something. A brainchild of mine that I can be proud of someday.
Read the article here.
I specifically chose Rakean’s publication to be the last one that I talk about because that one got me throwing up. I really miss doing this. I wake up and choose to read something because it sickens me that I have been stunted.
It got me looking for graduate school funding opportunities. It got me looking for scholarship because this sickens me.
I want to stay in academia so bad. I want to study and learn. I want to jump countless jumps. I want to look at myself in three to five years and find growth.
Cheers.
