[j3321]

On a poll for favorite subjects among NT's English pretty much dominated. But does anyone feel like even though you enjoy English the actual classes are horrible? I'm taking a class right now at school and I HATE it.

 

[Vaka]

I never really liked English classes until high school when there was a bit more focus on literature than on grammar and the such.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

I love English classes, but of course, teaching style, course material and student abilities affect whether one enjoys the class or not.

Why do you hate your class?

 

[dagnytaggart]

I hated English because I had to read a bunch of crap that didn't interest me and was too long. Fortunately, it's a BS'able class.

Plus, I sucked at essays. Always got B's on them for structural issues.

That said, I'm not an NT. Not sure if any of you found the same issues.

 

[L'Empereur]

It was one of my favorite classes actually, mostly because of the teachers.

 

[Van]

Maybe I just had terrible teachers, but I hated being asked for my subjective interpretation of something, only to have it marked wrong. If you wanted to pass the essays, you would basically parrot everything the teacher told you to say. I also hated that the supplied 'correct' answers often could not be proven correct.

 

[sarek]

My first language is of course not English but Dutch, so for me the equivalent would be my Dutch classes back in school. Which I found bored me to tears. At some point I began to wonder why I should learn Dutch if I already spoke that language.

Now, English. That is an entirely different matter. I have always been an avid anglophile. I feel that its richness of history, tradition and literature far surpasses that of my own country.
But of course, that is a completely personal opinion which holds no objective value whatsoever.

 

[skycloud86]

I enjoyed English lessons very much, probably because it was my strongest subject at school.

 

[Zic]

A with sarek, English is not my mother tongue, and its equivalent would be Croatian.
It's boring as hell. Shitloads of boring literature (I'd say 70%) and a tiny amount of grammar make me sad.
English, however, is a wholly different thing. I really like it, its literature is of course great, its history is interesting and of course the language itself sounds and feels great. In fact, I'm planning on getting a degree in it.

 

[Slkmcphee]

I taught English for 3 years but I never really enjoyed it as much as history. English was my minor.

Trust me, teaching English is by far worse than learning it. Imagine having to read (and grade) 120 essays on the same subject, the majority of which are complete BS and poor grammar. Often I spent more time grading the essays than my students did writing them. I enjoyed teaching literature, but the poor vocabulary and attention span of most students made anything decent a complete slog. I had an angry parent call me one time demanding to know why I was teaching her child Greek when I was an English teacher. I had to explain to her that I was teaching the scamp The Iliad, a cornerstone of Western literature. I had to ask her if she had seen Troy with Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom. Of course, she had.

I died a little inside as an English teacher.

Sometimes I get cold sweats thinking about teaching again. I would have enjoyed teaching history more, but they give all the history assignments to the football coaches. :angry:

 

[nevermore]

I think I was blessed to have been born into a linguistic tradition also known for its high quality literature. Sort of like what the Germans are to classical music. (Of course, serious lit-buffs would say the Russians have us beat there.) English classes were always a joy to me because the teachers actually selected high-quality work to be studied in the course (I was the English award winner in high school...I think it is no coincidence that the teacher who marked my essays was also an NT). I love literature very much.

In regards to the actual language, I love the richness and beauty of languages and am too lazy to learn many others, so I've just developed a very strong command of the English language...the only other language I know is French. I love the breadth of the vocabulary of English, but I don't find it the most beautiful or delicious of world languages. Maybe just because I was born into it. Grammar is simple yet complex...sort of weird...like it's not very complicated but extremely subtle and all based on syntax...very easy to grasp but very difficult to master.

 

[PyrLove]

I have a strong affinity for English classes. I particularly enjoy them when the instructor pulls in material from other disciplines -- history, sociology, psychology, science. politics, econ -- to enrich the understanding of the literature. I think the best part of lit classes is that the exact same material can be read repeatedly, at different levels, to gain new insight.

I hated grammar and structure classes in high school. Once I was introduced to etymology (through a history professor) I fell in love with all of it. Being able to track the development of a word, a concept, from inception in an ancient language to the modern use is.... um.... well... *deep breath* okay, so not that exciting to most people but a nerdy turn-on for me.

 

[nevermore]

I have a strong affinity for English classes. I particularly enjoy them when the instructor pulls in material from other disciplines -- history, sociology, psychology, science. politics, econ -- to enrich the understanding of the literature. I think the best part of lit classes is that the exact same material can be read repeatedly, at different levels, to gain new insight.

I hated grammar and structure classes in high school. Once I was introduced to etymology (through a history professor) I fell in love with all of it. Being able to track the development of a word, a concept, from inception in an ancient language to the modern use is.... um.... well... *deep breath* okay, so not that exciting to most people but a nerdy turn-on for me.

Maybe we could start an etymology fan club?:tongue:

 

[j3321]

I guess I just always have really stupid teachers. I feel like I just have to "parrot" the interpretations in the lectures in my essays and it just totally stifles my creativity.

 

[Proteus]

English classes were a mixed bag for me. Reading is one of my favorite things to do, but like most anything else I like to do it on my own terms. Many of the books we had to read completely disinterested me while some others were surprisingly interesting. So many assignments I had to do in the courses I found tedious or asinine, but every once in a while there would be a writing prompt that really got me going creatively. Once, in 6th or 7th grade, we had to write a "scary Halloween story". Mine wasn't that scary, but was chock full of as much graphic gore as I could muster. Probably would have gotten me suspended nowadays.

I think the biggest detriment in the English classes I had to take were bad teachers. In both middle/high school and college I had teachers who didn't like me for whatever reason, were incompetent, or (this was especially prevalent in the college courses I had to take) only wanted you to turn in assignments that conformed directly to their interpretations of whatever we had read, ("This is what I think of this book and its central themes [and I'm the teacher so I'm right], and you're wrong if you write about anything else, no matter how sound your reasoning may be") or churn out papers that just fit some predetermined format.

 

[PyrLove]

Quality teachers make for a quality class, but this is true regardless of the subject.

I was not fond of several of the required books. In those situations, I found it helpful to keep a reading journal detailing exactly why I hated what I was reading. When it came time to write the essays, the journal provided detail and support to my chosen thesis.

 

[JoniF]

English was my favorite class because most of the work was analyzing passages, which was something that everyone groaned over—but not me! :crazy:

 

[lirulin]

I had, for the most part, good teachers who knew damn well that it is not just about subjective interpretation and that you have to fucking back up your claims. Sadly some teachers - and, accordingly, tons of students - think it is. The concept of proof and argument in the humanities style is not something that a lot of people seem to understand (or teach) and it is kinda sad. That said, if you can genuinely and thoroughly back up your interpretation, teachers with at least a modicum of sense won't penalise you - however, sometimes you have to work harder to write a good essay than if you agree with the teacher. If you present it as just a subjective interpretation, they have much more room to penalise. People can see studying literature as too subjective, often, and leave out the focus on evidence that belongs to it. (True of some people who write criticism professionally too, unfortunately.) I find also some teachers would discuss interpretations without discussing why they came to them, or at least have a strong focus that way -- which is interesting in terms of learning about the literature, but of much less use in learning about literary criticism, which is what one is supposed to produce. I learnt how to write essays by reading books and books of literary criticism - it wasn't taught enough in class. First INTJ I met was my favourite English teacher - though I did not know mbti at the time. She was freaking awesome. I do hate some of the books I have studied, though. Margaret Atwood can go hang herself, as can Robertson Davies. Yeesh.

 

[PyrLove]

Margaret Atwood can go hang herself, as can Robertson Davies. Yeesh.

John Steinbeck and Thomas Hardy. And this: Amazon.com: Insect Dreams:The Half Life of Gregor Samsa eBook: Marc Estrin: Kindle Store

 

[nevermore]

I had, for the most part, good teachers who knew damn well that it is not just about subjective interpretation and that you have to fucking back up your claims. Sadly some teachers - and, accordingly, tons of students - think it is. The concept of proof and argument in the humanities style is not something that a lot of people seem to understand (or teach) and it is kinda sad. That said, if you can genuinely and thoroughly back up your interpretation, teachers with at least a modicum of sense won't penalise you - however, sometimes you have to work harder to write a good essay than if you agree with the teacher. If you present it as just a subjective interpretation, they have much more room to penalise. People can see studying literature as too subjective, often, and leave out the focus on evidence that belongs to it. (True of some people who write criticism professionally too, unfortunately.) I find also some teachers would discuss interpretations without discussing why they came to them, or at least have a strong focus that way -- which is interesting in terms of learning about the literature, but of much less use in learning about literary criticism, which is what one is supposed to produce. I learnt how to write essays by reading books and books of literary criticism - it wasn't taught enough in class. First INTJ I met was my favourite English teacher - though I did not know mbti at the time. She was freaking awesome. I do hate some of the books I have studied, though. Margaret Atwood can go hang herself, as can Robertson Davies. Yeesh.

Yeah. I had an INTP English teacher in Grade 11 and an INTJ English teacher in Grade 12, and was at the top of the class both times. I was a stellar English student with my earlier (NF) teachers as well, but I'm sure part of the reason I did so well with both of them was, indeed, their respect for ideas that were actually backed up by valid arguments. Luckily, I was never forced to read either Robertson Davies or Margaret Atwood...

You're Canadian too, I take it?:wink: