Blank Thoughts

(Yes, sleep did make the humongous zits go down.)

I just read Kay's blog and apparently she's very offended by an undergrad from the ARTS faculty. And I am offended by her blog. Because I'm from the ARTS. I'm no good in the Sciences. I like Biology, but I can't do Physics nor Chemistry for nuts. And the education system made it in a way that students can only take up Biology with either Chemistry or Physics. I struggled at them when I was in secondary school, so why bother struggle some more in JC? I prefer to write, I prefer reading Geography. I like reading and Literature. My interests are in Arts not Sciences. And I believe in pursuing what I like to study. And not because I think studying something can make me go far in life. Because I for sure, wouldn't want to go work in something I do not like. So why bother make studying a more torturous ordeal? Because I know that graduates often than not work in very different fields in relation to their degrees. And I see my aunt, with a Geography honours degree, working in an Investment company, and earning big bucks. She said study what you are interested in, because work is another matter altogether anyway. What you need is Opportunity in work. Other people may beg to differ and they have their own rights to choosing what they want to do in University, may it be for their interests, or for their future. I don't deny that at one point of time, I regretted studying English and Sociology. Because I do not know where to go, what to apply for jobs when I had just graduated. I realised, in dismay, that my degree is too general. And no company is willing to take you in with just that and without any experience. But yah, I realised, you can climb your way up after you infiltrate into the company. (ok, that's another topic) But doing Arts, either by choice or not, doesn't mean that we're stupid.

I'm not agreeing with the silly girl who offended Kay and her friend by implying that Maths or Sciences people do not know how to communicate or know how to speak fluently or nicely or whatever. That's her own warped way of categorizing people in different faculties. And she spoke with much bluntness and ignorance too. We can't run away from stereotyping. Even in a lecture hall, a lecturer has subcategorized his own lecture-hall-full of students into faculties and said, "Science students are ok. They know their facts because they ask. Engineering students too. They are very technical. But Arts students, they're stupid. They just whacked around hoping to hit one right spot. There's a lot of smoke. They do not question, they do not respond in a lecture." or something to that extent saying that Art students are retards. Needless to say, it got most of us very ruffled up.

No one likes discrimination. And there isn't a need for throwing people into categories in a society. It's always the lack of understanding that spews out such remarks. The silly girl thinks Sciences or Maths students can't speak properly (yes, and that seems really stupid). And for that, it seems discerning.

But back to what Kay has got to say in her blog. Arts students being arty farty. I don't even know what's the real definition of being arty farty. And to admit being ok with Sciences or Maths, makes them less arty farty? Pretend to be arty farty? I don't deny that there are some phony ones. And I do think that my sister is weirdly arty farty. And I couldn't really stand it either. Because she thinks that her taste is high-class, while any who differs from her - well, they're just, plainly tasteless. She speaks with a phony accent too (which she speaks that way 24/7 - so she's prolly getting used to her own phony accent). She huffs at any one who dresses shabbily or has a weird coordination of colours/top and bottom/stripes and prints/whatever. She irritates the hell out of me but she manages to find her own bunch of (arty farty &/or tolerant) friends. So she lives her own. The arty farty, (more) colourful, better world.

I'm offended, Kay, because you're no different from the silly girl to make snide comments about anyone from a particular faculty. Do I think my English is ok? I think I'm ok, I did English for my degree. I somewhat know how the language English originates, I know Singlish is a proper language (though developing). But we do not learn how to speak properly, or with a phony accent, or vocabulary for that matter (there are some students who took up English as a specialised degree, who can't speak English fluently because they're foreigners). Not for any module in the Arts faculty - they don't teach you that. So it's everyone's misconception that Arts students are supposedly to be good in English. They are just the way they are even before they go into the University.

I get mildy irritated with people who think that Arts modules are airy fairy or easy. It might be so, as compared to other faculties modules. But we have theories, we have facts too. Some theories are scientific, some theories are mathematical too. And we represent our Sociological findings with evidences. What do other people know about that?

A few black sheep do not represent the whole herd. In Arts or in Science or in Maths. Or Engineering, for that matter. No one's stupid, it's just that they have their calling in different areas - different from you.