What I Learn In Class

A list of random things I remember from going to class this semester.

1. facebook –> fessebook –> (as JW so eloquently puts it) arsebook, or why puns from language differences are funny

2. Of the 3 Dead White Men, Marx thinks we should all fish, Weber thinks we forget that we work to buy fish, Durkheim thinks that it should go like this: person A attaches the bait to the line, person B throws the line, person C reels in the line…

3. “Sociology chooses you!” – why biography matters

4. According to a certain prof, via a certain tutor: you can’t be a sociologist without being Durkheimian.

5. Individuals create society who create individuals.

6. I’ve been associating so much with (fairly) liberal soci profs, tutors and students, that I’ve forgotten what the rest of the population looks like.

7. Discrimination is not a zero-sum game. Therefore experience of discrimination is not based on “gender + race + sexual orientation + age + …” but more resembles “gender x race x sexual orientation x age x …”

8. Japanese society is just really…errr…complex.

9. The middle class doesn’t exist. It is merely a TOOL of false consciousness to prevent the working class from reaching class consciousness.

10. Ça craint! – that sucks – zut! – swear word used by older people – mince! is to merde! what sheesh! is to shit! – all of which expresses what I think of studying grammar.

11. social class ≠ social status

12. watching videos can be more educational than class discussions

13. ANOMIE is just confusing, along with homo duplex and ego

14. métro, boulot, dodo (slang for: metro, work, sleep) describes what I’m doing here very well, except that I’d change it to: bus, school, watch anime.

Random Fun Stuff

Typealyzer analyses the personality type of a blog. Apparently, I’m an

INTP – The Thinkers

The logical and analytical type. They are especially attuned to difficult creative and intellectual challenges and always look for something more complex to dig into. They are great at finding subtle connections between things and imagine far-reaching implications.    

They enjoy working with complex things using a lot of concepts and imaginative models of reality. Since they are not very good at seeing and understanding the needs of other people, they might come across as arrogant, impatient and insensitive to people that need some time to understand what they are talking about. 

Which is accurate when I write I guess, since I’m an INFP who uses her “T” a lot.

The clique blog comes up as

ISFP – The Artists

The gentle and compassionate type. They are especially attuned their inner values and what other people need. They are not friends of many words and tend to take the worries of the world on their shoulders. They tend to follow the path of least resistance and have to look out not to be taken advantage of.    

They often prefer working quietly, behind the scene as a part of a team. They tend to value their friends and family above what they do for a living. 

So does sheshe. Now I’m not sure if it’s because she posts the most on the clique blog or whether it only analyses the last post.

Xian’s blog is 

ISTP – The Mechanics

The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment and are highly skilled at seeing and fixing what needs to be fixed. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.    

The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters. 

Bekah’s a

ESFP – The Performers

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead – they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.    

The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation – qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions. 

And Renny’s an artist too.

Oh the Irony!

My brother was reading manga when I went to ka-chiow him, so I asked him what he was reading. It was a shoujo manga. I have nothing against a guy reading shoujo manga and as a feminist, obviously, dislike stereotyping people into gender roles.

The thing is, even as he reads mostly shoujo manga, I tend to prefer shounen manga. Not that we limit ourselves. I can’t say for my brother, but I know I enjoy reading most genres as long as the plot, characters, setting etc are interesting.

Still, I’m pretty sure I’ve read more male-targeted manga, and he’s read more female-targeted manga, by proportion.

Coming back to gender roles, I was telling Renny in class that the fact that my family “switched” the traditional family roles (pa as homemaker, ma as breadwinner, sort of) wasn’t a sign of true egalitarianism, but the uniqueness of our situation merely reinforced traditional gender roles, and in turn patriarchal society. (Does that sound Durkheimian?)

Applying that to my brother and I’s manga reading habits, that we seem to prefer manga not specifically targeted at ourselves is both an example of how screwed up our socialisation process went gender roles don’t particularly bother us, and how such categories as “shoujo, shounen, josei, seinen etc” continue to reinforce patriarchy.

Which is why, right now, I’m looking for those gems which don’t have a specific demographic in mind.

Who’s in YOUR Top 5?

Fun facts about social circles, [via Lifehacker]:

Average number of friends per person is 150:

They usually consist of an inner circle of five “core” people and an additional layer of 10, he says. That makes 15 people – some will probably be family members – who are your central group and then outside that, there’s another 35 in the next circle and another 100 on the outside. And that’s one person’s social world.

The Economist has an article on Facebook users:

the number of people on an individual’s friend list with whom he (or she) frequently interacts is remarkably small and stable. The more “active” or intimate the interaction, the smaller and more stable the group.

Thus an average man—one with 120 friends—generally responds to the postings of only seven of those friends by leaving comments on the posting individual’s photos, status messages or “wall”. An average woman is slightly more sociable, responding to ten.

And yes, it’s all very sociological/anthropological.

Anomie

“:social instability resulting from a breakdown of standards and values; also: personal unrest, alienation, and uncertainty that comes from a lack of purpose or ideal” – Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

Okay, that was probably excessive. I just wanted to share a video my french lecturer played in class, which I was reminded of by Wai Teng’s lecture, when he mentioned people who wanted to have families but couldn’t find it as a social phenomenon.

Not gonna go into what I think ’cause the concepts are difficult to understand, but the film itself is pretty interesting, and sad. Suffice to say, the universality of its message is fascinating.

Random Thoughts

Tracking change is difficult. More so when all I have are scraps of evidence. Memories change, reinterpreted by the self. Gradual change only consciously noticed when something happens to point it out.

But if I had to hazard a guess, the last 3 or 4 years was a time of emotional and psychological development, the last year especially intellectual. And I feel quite sure that development isn’t complete yet, it’ll be slower perhaps, but it’ll still be there.

And knowing that everyone goes through these changes in the same approximate period doesn’t help. I am one of many, a generation of adolescents and post-adolescents, focused on the self.

——————————————–

Thoughts of random chance. Is there any, really? Your biography influences personality, influences life choices. Do we choose our majors, interests, careers, or do they choose us?

How much of me was created by society, or in reaction to it? Would I still be this introspective if I had been born in a different society, or even in a different family? If alternate realities exist, would we have our own personalities, or would it be vastly different, or would we even be here?

Questions without answers.

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I’m supposed to write about the importance of history for french tutorial later. How do I do that when I’m still muddling about trying to figure out the abstract?

Guilty Pleasures

Whenever I mention I (still) read fanfiction and unpublished original fiction, the usual response I get is “oh, it’s all crap”. I admit, a lot of it is pure fluff, is full of mistakes, and have weak, unorigininal plots.

But it’s when you find the rare, unpolished gem after sifting through hundreds of stories that you remember all authors start somewhere. Some of these fanfics are worthy of publication themselves and are what an author’s manuscript would look like before the brutal editing process.

And fanfics and some original fics fulfill a need. When I’ve got a ton of dry, detailed, painful readings to do, the last thing I want is a gritty, processing-power-draining novel, much as I normally enjoy them. One-shots, or short stories, are particularly easy to read because of the relative length.

Personally, the more important bit is that it is much, much easier to find non-mainstream stories. Publishers like novels which sell. Especially here, in Singapore, the small publishers which cater to niche audiences are almost impossible to find. Which means that even in PageOne or Kinokuniya, most of the books they stock cater to the mass market.

Tracking the evolution of my reading turned up a lot of little things I’ve noticed about my reading habits. Of course, I enjoy most the books which challenge my pre-set ideas, or strike a chord with my own experiences. And considering I dislike mainstream, stuff like chick-lit doesn’t sit well with me, even if I admit I sometimes like fluff and character-driven stories.

Which brings me back to my original point, the larger proportion of slash, femslash, alternative lifestyles (as some would call it), a general lack of censorship in terms of graphic sex and violence (which is sometimes gratuituous and off-putting, but that’s what ratings are for, to warn you off if you’re squeamish), different proportion of male to female characters, are all different reasons for and against fanfics.

The last, I have to admit, is one of my stronger reasons. When your adolescent reading (not very far out of it now, am I?) consists of mostly plot-heavy fantasy, strong female characters are rare. Especially strong female protagonists not a prop or prize for the hero.

I suppose the only real problem I have with fanfiction is that they rarely feature ethnic minorities, which is more an issue of social inequalities (darn, got lecture later sia) and language barriers more than anything else.

Spellcheck

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid.
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the
rghit pclae.
The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm.
Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Amzanig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas toghuht slpeling was ipmorantt! Tahts so cool!

Randomly surfing sites uncovers a trove of information that I’ll probably never use, but is still fun for the moment.

Hanoi

The temperature’s been steadily decreasing, but the streets are still busy as ever. The people here are both annoying and friendly, depending on whether they are trying to sell you something, food or service, with features that could pass for Singaporeans, and a longuage which sounds like Cantonese if you don’t pay attention.

The food, so like kopitiams before they were created, tastes like basic chinese food. Simple rice with meat and vegetables. Or Pho, rice noodles in soup. Or banh bao, da baos of a different shape. One night, we had fried beef noodles, it looked like hokkien mee, tasted like a mix of hokkien mee and hor fun topped with lots of slices of beef.

Strange conical hats lining the streets, carrying baskets reminiscient of trhe samsui women we’ve all heard about but never really see now. Pasar Malams on weekends, Pasar Pagis on weekdays. So familiar and yet so alien. Motorcycles and scooters everywhere, on the streets at all hours, peppered by cars, cyclos and the odd bicycle, crossing the road at busy intersections is scary.

The old quarter is what chinatown should be. Tiny streets, people at all corners hawking goods, among the vehicles parked along the roads, in front of shops of all types. And this is what a city should be - alive with activity. Although I could do without the smell of cigarettes and pollution, the few people still spitting on the streets, and the scary crossing of the roads, it’s still more alive than the sterility we’re used to.

Displacement

Clutching a handful of notes, a look of hope on her face, she approaches the counter with small, tentative steps. An exchange of words, handing the notes over hesitantly, and then, the wait, the return to a pattern she doesn’t quite like, but continues with for a purpose.

Images of a family, surviving on one person’s wages, maybe having a better life. And she’s all alone, away from her parents, from her husband, from her children. Slogging day in, day out, and you’d refuse them the few hours of respite, of speaking in their native tongue, of having a sense of belonging, of mutual commiseration, just because it “causes unrest”, just because it is a “social hazard”?