Learning is stuck without constant reflection

1545 pm

22.05.2020

Learning process is to constantly observe and reflect.

1. My observations and my learning points:

· Observe myself being more connected to friends who are right around me and far away from me. Never think that we have nothing to talk before really talking to them. Just pick the phone or talk as long as we do spend time for one another, we could make the conversation engaging. I talked with my good friends without feeling intangibly distant. I connected people in similar need to help out each other like preparing for TOEIC or job application.

· Pressure of reality gives a sense of responsibility and seriousness. I wrote 2 cover letters this week to apply for internship in Bangkok. Comparing to the one in the Personal Development Course, it is much more detailed and persuasive. I have the context as the real company I want to work for and the need to go to work drove me to make the most coherent product, or I will be jobless.

· Cooking is the art of making but also the art of observation and collective effort. There was a day, I felt sleepless and let my roommate cook. Though we decided that I am responsible for cleaning. Later I realized it was a wrong deed. There should not be any detailed division in the first place. Living together is to share joy and sadness, share from the smallest item to the big tools in house. My roomate hardly scolded me, I knew it was a stupid act, I tried to adjust my time accordingly. I won’t ever ruin this beautiful relationship.

My laziness to post relevant pictures. Let's look at flowers instead!

· Learning is effective if incorporated with both practice and theories. I am taking two courses of Business Intelligence run by YJ Siterhood Union (YSU) and Conventry University in Future Learn. The former is practice oriented and the latter is theory oriented. It was a good decision to study something new and relevant. Why it was relevant is one internship in Hanoi I targeted requires the knowledge of SQL Query. Also, YSU is led by a dedicated senior who is excellent at Data and Community Projects. Why not take the chance to study with explanatory instructions which are not easy to find on Google. And the second course itself is hard to understand if I don’t take the first course.

· Empathy is powerful. The gossips usually come out from those who have no sense of empathy for the subject. I am glad that I am used to stepping myself into other shoes in communication. I find it easier to understand even strangers. I talked to a young learner in the Future Creation Course regarding his concern of time constraint to focus on building a portfolio. He requested to delay his submission in the first three weeks to prioritize his schooling and handle extra-curriculum activities. What I learnt from him is his honesty to share his problems, his autonomy to ask for help. He also shared group discussions in class are interesting among people of different ages and backgrounds. Sometimes he is stuck to process what to call the teammates as. In Vietnamese we have various subjects to call others depending on our age, jobs, social relation and gender. So it is a funny dilemma. I found his concern understandable when I had to multi-task. We worked it out eventually.

· People around me are resourceful and incredible. My roommate owns English as her second language for her early immersion in the language. She is empathetic to talk with people. Another Cambodian senior is a smart girl who is good at data analysis. She is involved in some research projects that she assists to work with quantitative and qualitative data, write up reports and data synthesis. I am not sure if I should focus on learning doing the analytical calculations again which I was bad in my previous school. Probably when the timing is right, I would have a reason to learn it. They are good at storytelling, cooking and house caring as well. That’s what makes life emotionally abundant.

· Conscious associative thinking is a weapon of learning. I got 29.5 out of 30 score for the final exam of Case Studies: People and Community Course. As reading the questions, I was quite disappointed with its little practicality. We are supposed to describe the process of the appreciative inquiry research in an imaginary community that is harmfully influenced by the Covid-19 pandemic. I don’t like the idea of picking a random community and “describing” the research approach. Students could check the readings and reinvent the description by their own words, which is not difficult. I decided to choose the community in my hometown and linked my experience of organizing Lens on Mekong workshops in Vietnam. The project taught me how to talk with the people in the community and analyze their community problems amidst climate change crisis. I am thankful to the experience that allows me to project what the theories of Appreciative Inquiry Approach are like in reality. Though our summer course (Community-Based Learning Initiative) won’t be in a physical community, I will try to apply them to my own high school community. It was a fun time writing the final exam essay!

· Humanity heals us in hardships. I have a professor who never hesitates to answer my questions. He is occupied with the wrapped-up school work but still responds to my emails fast. As soon as he completed his grading work, he contacted me again to answer my inquiry. I am respectfully treated like a colleague rather than a student. It is the gift at School of Global Studies, the best educational community I have ever been at. My Cambodian roommate and senior solve me out all of the life nightmares related to people, family and relationships. We go shopping together, prepare food, go walking, sleep and have fun together. We talk out things whenever there are emotional messes among us. The sweetest house I have in this strange time.

2. What questions do I have?

· What if I fail to find summer job?

· What specific skill should I build in this summer? (2.5 – 3 months)

· How does my summer plan look like?

#weeklyreflection

#associativethinking

#conscienceandemotion