Hey there my friends and family,
Do forgive the length of time since my last post on here - life just gets in the way I guess, and I do try my best to keep in touch in other ways.
Well, so still here in Belgium,but we've told the boss we want out. We'll be here till mid-March, maximum. Aurelie had an interview for a job in China (2 in fact) which meant her getting up at 2.30 AM to talk on skype.
Unfortunately, she didn't get it, but she has got an application out for a position in Bangladesh! However, there aren't a great deal of jobs out there for French teachers, at least not in the places we want to go. So, well we just decided that I might as well start applying - sent an application for a position in Indonesia last night, but have heard nothing back yet. There's plenty of jobs out there for me, and we can't wait to get somewhere hot! Things are also going well between us, we laugh a lot and have a lot of fun. Oooo, and I've just seen a job ad for Burma...
I've decided to suspend my MA for the time being. It is suspended until October, when I can continue if I wish. The current unit (Principles of Applied Linguistics) must, however be completed. If I don't complete the assignment (3,500 word essay) then I'd have to pay to do the unit again.
My reasons for this: It started off as uncertainty about the course itself, and I thought it'd be best to suspend it and give myself time to think about whether I want to continue. My main problems: the design and delivery of the course so far has been very poor. The subject of Applied Linguistics (huge - you can do a dedicated degree in the subject) has been crammed into 12 weeks. The materials supplied to us have been rubbish. The result of which means that I just felt I wasn't learning. Sure, I could write an essay, but what am I actually learning? What is the course actually giving me? I felt that my answer was: very little. I'm absolutely sure that there's so much about the field that the course doesn't even mention. And because of the structure of the course you can (and well, have to really) focus on one thing and disregard the rest. OK, fair enough, most of the learning at tertiary level and above is done by oneself - but I felt the course was just giving so little. It seems that as long as the students have to write a 3,500 word essay (MA level) and it's marked by someone with superior qualifications, then that's enough - it says little about the quality of the "teaching."
To qualify this, I was looking at the MA TESOL (distance learning) offered by the University of Manchester, an institution with a rather better reputation. And what do I see: interactive online tasks, e-lectures, and so on. There seems to be a great deal of difference in quality. And then, me mate Gareth, also on the same course, tells me they extend the deadline for the assignment by 2 weeks today. 3 days before it's due! How many of those people who were actually writing the essay must have been freaking out, only for them to do that. That is absolutely typical of the course so far and of the Uni of Portsmouth in general I'm afraid...it also plants the seed of doubt into my mind as to whether I should just write the damn essay?! Got time now after all...
That's without even getting into other thoughts about how I really want to spend my time, whether it's really necessary, whether I'd prefer to study something else....ahhh that's enough. I'm fed up of just working my ass off to get a qualification, just for my future career prospects, especially when I don't even feel the course is giving me anything. Guess we'll see how things are in a few months...can't see the essay happening, I must admit...
Recent Comments