Introduction to RMST 202

 A. A bit About myself

Hey everyone! My name is Andrew and I am a second year statistics student intending to minor in data science. Fun fact about me is that I do not have a last name. I was brought up halfway across the world in Jakarta and it is very different from Vancouver such as it only has two seasons and it's more of an urban landscape than Vancouver. I commute from Marpole and its pretty good unless it is snowing (like today)! I'm taking RMST 202 for my arts requirement and I also found it very interesting to learn about how to "read" as we go through this course. Additionally, I'm very curious as well to how these romance languages came about and how they evolved to what they are today. 


B. Expectations

For my expectations for this course, I am hoping to achieve an (A-) and I do realize this takes a lot of effort and readings. The first lecture of this course was very different from all the courses I have taken so far as it was very engaging, specifically, how the instructor asks questions frequently to the students. It makes the class very participative and captivating. In addition, I do like how this course is graded as instead of exams and tons of assessments, we write blogs regarding the books we read on that particular week. There is definitely more freedom in this course than the any course I have taken so far as we are following a contract and we can choose the grades we get. It puts less pressure for us to worry if the answer is correct and instead focuses on the students creativity and imagination. Finally, I hope that this course could develop how I digest information from novels and books alike.


C. About the Video

I found it interesting when Dr Beasley Murray mentioned that when the roman empire fell, it came with numerous individuals travelling to different places in Europe and mingling with local cultures. That resulted in latin interacting with and changed in different parts of the world and diversifying and producing hybridity. That, ultimately, was what gave rise to all these romance languages. Personally, I had no idea that romance languages had been derivated from latin and it was very cool to see that these romance languages originated from when roman empire fell. In addition, even if languages are different but fundamentally, how we communicate is ubiquitous. 

Comments

  1. Daniel OrizagaJanuary 12, 2024 at 8:34 AM

    Andrew, I think one of the most interesting things you will discover in this course is that there are many paths to Romance Studies. One of them, perhaps the simplest and most exciting, is simply to get carried away by reading books and discussions. Welcome!

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