Arrogance
How odd... The first thing that has happened to me as the Victorian branch convenor for the NLC can be seen as an inverse relationship between diplomacy and compassion for the campuses I am working with and patience for my fellow students at university.
This all came out the last week when I was doing campus visits. I attended a philosophy tutorial that week, arrived half an hour late, and then got really frustrated by one of my colleagues who simply did not understand the concept of time travel. The tutor's job is obviously to not get frustrated, and simply explain everything as many times as she has to. I, on the other hand, felt that it was a bloody waste of my time to attend tutes where people just don't understand. I was sitting there simmering in rage, thinking: "Grr.... what an idiot", and finally, being unable to stand it a moment longer, got up from my seat and gave the poor girl a two minute "Look, THIS IS HOW IT WORKS" speech... and "GET IT??!" The entire class went silent and the tutor, after half a minute of dumbstruck silence, says "ok, now lets move on to the next topic...."
A similar thing happened in a linguistics tutorial, but instead of dumbstruck silence, this guy gets up and asks "Are you married?"
Hehe... If this keeps up, I'm going to be the most hated person in the arts department.
At the same time, I've started to feel that there is nothing I wouldn't do for Victorian international students. It's accompanied by this feeling that I don't know enough and that I should listen and listen and pounce on any opportunity available to show them that I care and that I'm here for them. How odd.
Maybe it's the clanlike upbringing of a Thai person that I've received. Once in the family, there is nothing that takes priority over the family. I guess I've found a clan here in Australia.
Now that I'm feeling sentimental, I guess I'd really like to thank the people that have been helping me out - namely the new team - Nicholas, Lingling, Kelvin and Tenzing.
Kelvin is the sweetest person in the world - I told him, during one of my drunken episodes that I might be a hard-headed and serious person on the outside, but really, I'm this completely soft and fragile person and I really need a hug every day. So last night, I was sitting on this crowded tram, going to see a movie with a bunch of Victorians and I shout to Kelvin, sitting far from me "Kelvin - where's my daily hug?" and he got up immediately, ploughing through the masses in the tram to give me a hug! Thanks darling!
This all came out the last week when I was doing campus visits. I attended a philosophy tutorial that week, arrived half an hour late, and then got really frustrated by one of my colleagues who simply did not understand the concept of time travel. The tutor's job is obviously to not get frustrated, and simply explain everything as many times as she has to. I, on the other hand, felt that it was a bloody waste of my time to attend tutes where people just don't understand. I was sitting there simmering in rage, thinking: "Grr.... what an idiot", and finally, being unable to stand it a moment longer, got up from my seat and gave the poor girl a two minute "Look, THIS IS HOW IT WORKS" speech... and "GET IT??!" The entire class went silent and the tutor, after half a minute of dumbstruck silence, says "ok, now lets move on to the next topic...."
A similar thing happened in a linguistics tutorial, but instead of dumbstruck silence, this guy gets up and asks "Are you married?"
Hehe... If this keeps up, I'm going to be the most hated person in the arts department.
At the same time, I've started to feel that there is nothing I wouldn't do for Victorian international students. It's accompanied by this feeling that I don't know enough and that I should listen and listen and pounce on any opportunity available to show them that I care and that I'm here for them. How odd.
Maybe it's the clanlike upbringing of a Thai person that I've received. Once in the family, there is nothing that takes priority over the family. I guess I've found a clan here in Australia.
Now that I'm feeling sentimental, I guess I'd really like to thank the people that have been helping me out - namely the new team - Nicholas, Lingling, Kelvin and Tenzing.
Kelvin is the sweetest person in the world - I told him, during one of my drunken episodes that I might be a hard-headed and serious person on the outside, but really, I'm this completely soft and fragile person and I really need a hug every day. So last night, I was sitting on this crowded tram, going to see a movie with a bunch of Victorians and I shout to Kelvin, sitting far from me "Kelvin - where's my daily hug?" and he got up immediately, ploughing through the masses in the tram to give me a hug! Thanks darling!