Learning Experience 4: Reflection on Literature and Civilization II

Learning Experience 4: Reflection on Literature and Civilization II

I have been blogging about what I have learned this semester outside of the classroom setting; I wrote about what I learned at church, in the court, and at the movie theater. Thus I will devote the final blog about my learning experience to what I have learned in our class Literature and Civilization 2. I enrolled in this class because I like literature, enjoy studying the English language, and because I was at the honors convocation that day, cheering when Professor Williams was honored with “Honors Professor of the year” award. Besides learning more about the technical knowledge about humor, I learn much more about life thanks to the people in this class, especially from our professor.

In this class, I study about the theories of humor, its characteristics, its functions, and humor around the world. I have got the chance to hear presentations about humor in Germany, India, Italy, Czech Republic, etc. I also have the chance to integrate a bit of my culture into the classroom by delivering a presentation about Vietnamese humor with Kelsey. The class’s discussion base creates an open-minded, diverse atmosphere for students to learn from each other. The interaction between students in the class, with our professor, and with my conversation partner about humor and cultures have broadened my horizon and significantly increased my knowledge and cultural sensitivity towards other cultures.

However, the content itself was not all that I learned. A few classes ago, one special moment happened during class that had me contemplating ever since. That day, we were discussing about Nora Ephron’s story: “A few Words about Breasts” and as usual we got to hear from our professor’s perspective as well. As we were recalling our adolescent time, our professor talked briefly about his timeline. I can’t recall specifically how we got to that moment, but I can vividly remember how I felt when Dr. Williams shared that he was diagnosed with cancer 2 years ago. The man standing in front of us, so relaxed and open-minded, have been through such a battle. In soft voice, he told us that he had never realized his responsibilities as an adult until when he had his first daughter at the age of 32. When he was struck with news, he gained a new perspective about life and changed his set of priorities.

That moment had me contemplating for days afterwards. To me, those who feel comfortable exposing their vulnerability side are the brave ones, because they know how to accept the truth and learn how to embrace it. The very first moment I stepped into this classroom, I have always had the feeling that I could learn so much from our professor. Even though I always wondered what can make a man so calm and collected, so knowledgeable yet so humble, I was still bewildered for a brief minute when I learned what he had been through. After that day, I kept thinking about my priorities in life and what the purposes of my living are. At the age of 19, I am an ambitious and dreamy girl who wants to get a high GPA, a decent job, and has a good life with a good husband. Sometimes, I complain when things don’t go my way without realizing how lucky I am. I acknowledge that I am broken in many ways and I am trying to improve myself. However, sometimes I lost track of myself. Especially recently when the semester is coming to an end, I was so busy with mountains of homework that I lost the broader sight about why I am here. Thanks to Dr. Williams’ stories, I was reminded that all of the material things in life don’t matter that much because we can’t really bring them with us when we die; what matters more is the way we see and live life. After class that day, I knew that I wanted to get back on track and keep sight of the higher purpose of what I am doing.

One of my favorite sayings is “I can’t hear what you say because who you are speak so loudly.” Our professor doesn’t talk much about himself, but he has been an inspiration to me in many ways. Without having to lecture his students how to live and behave, his actions themselves motivated me to lead a more humble and patient life. I believe this is what education is about. Education doesn’t mean dictating and punishing people; it means inspiring and motivating them to become better and more responsible citizens. This blog may be the most awkward blog ever because it is so personal and I honestly don’t know if it is considered weird in American culture. But I think it is always a nice thing to tell the people who have made a good impact in our lives that we are thankful for them and appreciate what they are doing.