The students do not understand why I keep telling them direct translation from English to Spanish will not work, and much of Cajun French is in fact directly translated from English. In current Spanish, I am told that if one listens to corridos, one can actually hear “dar atrás” or “dar p’atrás” meaning “give back.” … More Going la maison
Last night at the football game, where I was because of my exchange student, one of the important guests was a very trailblazing and high achieving alumna, the highlights of whose resumé were read. “Who cares,” chanted the crowd, “Who cares.” This alumna is a Black woman. The chants of “Who cares” turned to boos … More Southern hospitality
In Reeducation, one was not supposed to be able to handle the stress of adult life. To be able to do so was “denial” of how difficult it “must really be” and, more frighteningly, indicated an absence of “feeling”. If one lacked this “feeling” one might have a very severe problem and need very severe treatment. In … More More on Reeducation
It is the topic of this blog, really: I am trying to de-Reeducate myself which means mentor myself, and my education was good but Reeducation was, essentially, bad mentoring. There is this to talk about in my case but it is not all. And yet I am tired of talking. I think I just had … More More on mentoring
I am not Catholic. I am a Mexican, but I am not Hispanic, I am a skull on a Mayan stela, as we know. She who here performs the ancient text, however, was recently called, with appreciation, a “free Anglo-Saxon” because, not having been baptized, she does not fear pagan symbols or associate them, in … More Ways in which I am not Hispanic.
1. People keep saying one should not care about money and is vapid if one does, but I think they have what I would consider good academic salaries and benefits, and reasonable support for teaching and research. The amount of time and effort one spends figuring out how to function in the absence of these … More …and, a more condensed discussion of fatuous academic advice and bad academic situations; three things which really irritate me today.
As we know, I was told not to go to graduate school because it would lead to being a professor, which was bad because it was a research job and might be located in a snowy climate. I might have ceased and desisted more easily had I been given better information on the actual disadvantages … More …and again, against fatuous advice: a post for graduate students
That is one of the pieces of advice which it is only safe to take at an R1 and which I wish R1 faculty would stop dispensing at people who will lose their jobs for taking it. Real advice: Learn never to say no. You were once an adult, you were once allowed to say … More Bad advice #1: “Learn to say no.”
I keep thinking: if I just do this, if I just do that, if I just mollify them in this way or stand up to them in that way, if I just improve myself in this direction or that, and so on, they will stop obstructing me and mine and stop making it so hard … More One way you can tell I have an abusive work situation
Evidently I am still considering this question. Tonight at the football game, which was hard fought, I was noticing how much it resembled work at the university. You struggle and struggle to open a space for yourself in which to work. You are paid to get your ball across that line but they have people … More More on renunciation
