Oh my, I just realized that I haven't posted anything for over two months. But it's alright, I guess. I've had this peak-and-valley writing experience throughout the six years I've had this blog. Yep, six freakin' years! I started this blog in August 2004 after my personal website for two years went defunct - it's much easier letting professional deal with web maintenance than me tweaking the shit out the HTML codes.
Anyway, the new semester had started for about two weeks now. I'm feeling more and more comfortable at the university as I get to know most of my colleagues and the ways to navigate through the stifling bureaucratic maze. I'm teaching three courses this semester: Malaysian Studies for international students (my usual course), Introduction to Political Science (a huge 300-student mandatory course, which I'm co-teaching with a senior lecturer), and Research Methodology (a year-long required course for Masters students, which I'm co-teaching with two other junior lecturers).
I still haven't had the opportunity to teach the large Intro to Political Science course yet but it's the one I'm a bit worried about. No, it's not the class size and I have no problem at all talking in-front of a big audience. It's just that the course has to be taught in Malay, and I'm not sure how good a teacher I'll be if I teach in Malay. Don't get me wrong, I'm a native Malay speaker but my academic training has been all in English. It means that all the jargon, concepts and theories I know are in English. The thought of having to translate all that to Malay, or worse, forgetting what those terms mean in Malay in-front of 300 pairs of staring eyes, does give me a bit of a chill.
But at the same time I'm curious to find out what it's like to teach in Malay. Or at least know if I can teach as effectively as I do in English. By the way, the other two courses are taught in English. My Malaysian Studies course is not as big as last semester. It only has about 80 students so far, as opposed to 138 last semester. The Research Methodology course is a seminar/lecture type of class, which has about 20 Masters students, a mix of locals and foreigners (Middle East and Europe). It's somewhat interesting because I'm teaching this course with an Anthropologist and a Development specialist, which means that each one of us comes with a somewhat different research background. We've divided the course based on our respective strengths and preferences, so everything seems to be smooth sailing for now.
So yeah, it's a hectic semester for me and I'm bit worried that I will not be able to get any writing done especially my still unfinished research proposal. I guess I only have myself to blame for taking my procrastination habit a bit too far - and the recent World Cup also has to assume part of the responsibility. Anyway, I'm looking to have a great semester at the university.
p/s: I've been told by the admin people that I come highly regarded within the faculty. Kak Amnah, the head of human resource, said that she had been congratulated by a few senior Chinese lecturers for hiring me since it's not often that Malay lecturers to get this kind of recognition. Yes, there's somewhat a racial divide within the department and it's nice to be able to transcend that, at least on an individual level. I guess this is something to be proud of.
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