Declan's blog

I have always had problems with grammar in my writing, and I have never faced the problem until this term. I thought I needed to tackle this issue because there are many more writing assignments for Arts student than for Science students, and me being a new Psychology Student this year means that the exams will have more essay questions that require not only presenting the answers but expressing them in a coherent and effective manner.

Yesterday was the last grammar session, and I am taking the writing with style class that begins next week. The grammar class was only once a week for two and a half hour, which is almost equivalent to the amount of lecture time for a typical university course. As a result of having only one session a week, there were a lot of materials covered within a short amount of time, and to not have delay in the set schedule, new materials were often introduced before one could absorb the materials given. But it turned out to be a class that I always looked forward to attending, and a significant part of my motivation was because I liked the instructor (and his style of teaching).

The instructor was a fast-talking quick thinker. I find that individuals who are masters of language often possess these characteristics, and there is something about having these characteristics that attracts me. He often would illustrate examples by saying them out loud, sometimes a string of examples which could become confusing. Not that he was insensitive to the needs of the students, because the majority of the students could probably follow his pace since they were native English speaker. He'd reference our facial expressions to to get a sense of our understanding of his teaching and would spend more time on a topic or write things down if we did not get the topic. He threw in jokes and gave his opinions on the philosophical debate of a rule or style of writing that would make us engaged and interested. For the students who often kept quiet - I was too, not that I could help it - he would also refer to them more to get an impression of whether a material was understood.

Yes, I have a crush on him! I liked that he was being considerate of his students and instructive at the same time. He was also an opioninated, well-rounded person but stil retained a kind of child-like innocence. When I spoke to him after class regarding my questions, my stuttering would get in the way of my trying to get my questions through, and he would detect that but still manage to follow the logic of my thought, and he would reassure that I could ask him questions whenever I needed to. Sometimes he'd ask me to give an example in class because I guess I was being too quiet. I am not suggesting that he paid an extra attention on me, as there were many other students who were more interactive with him during class, but I think it was his being considerate to his students and the energy that he brought to his audience that made me attracted to him. But since he is not teaching the style class, there's little doubt that I am going to see him less often and will keep my crush to myself (well, and you).