Pride & Prejudice is 200 years old today (Penguin has a nice post on their cover art throughout the past age, for those visually inclined). Last year, Sense & Sensiblity celebrated the same milestone, something we commemorated in our "Jane Austen: fiction, history, fans" course. The other novels will follow suit, ending with the post-humously published Northanger Abbey and Persuasion in 2018.
I think it is amazing that novels which were written 200 years ago still resonate, and are still relevant and exciting today. People are still drawn to these novels and discover new subjects, angles, and layers in them. These are not just romantic novels for teenage girls, these are novels that paint a detailed, honest, sometimes ironic, often humerous, picture of the lives women in Austen's time. I have read them many times, am writing my dissertation about them, and will probably continue to read and love them for the rest of my life.
If you've never read any of her novels, but always wanted to, this is the perfect opportunity. Start with Pride & Prejudice, the most popular, accessable, and least 'layered' of them all. 200 years of enthusiastic readers cannot have been wrong.
Monday 28 January 2013
Sunday 20 January 2013
Alpha vs beta
In the Netherlands, there exists a differentiation between 'alpha' and 'beta' people. This difference starts in secondary school, when you have to choose between an 'alpha' or 'beta' profile, the first including mostly languages and/or creative subjects, the second being the science subjects. It is almost impossible to combine the two, especially since most schools now offer 4 'streams' you can choose from: nature & mechanics, nature & health, economics & society and economics & culture (the last one is a combination of things I still fail to understand). Once you're in a stream, your somewhat fixed, and it's almost impossible to take courses from any of the other streams (as classes are planned on the same time, e.g., 'chemistry is 3rd period, so we can plan arts history then as well, as nobody will want to take both'). But also further in life, people can ask you whether you are a typical alpha or beta person (or 'gamma', if you're into psychology) and then judge you as creative or logical or social or anti-social accordingly. You are put into the 'alpha' or 'beta' box and stay there.
I know this system does not exist in most other countries. I know, because I've tried to explain it to so many foreigners, who have looked at me blankly as I struggled to make it clear. It isn't clear. It's not really a 'system' either, it's just a way of labelling people, putting them into boxes to make things easier.
Of course, there are some people who do not fit in either of these boxes. I was at a talk by someone who studied Dutch, history and geography, and there was another person who studied economics and English. All of these things are not easily 'married' in the Dutch educational system, but do still belong to the 'alpha' box. It becomes even more difficult when you try to live in both boxes.
In secondary school, I took the 'nature & health' profile, but I added German and Spanish on to that, because I really enjoyed science but I also really enjoyed languages. I studied Biology, which went pretty well, but when it turned out (during my research MSc) that this was not the way I wanted to spend my life, I studied English Language & Culture after that. I enjoy science, reading about science, and discovering things, but I also love languages, reading, writing, and creating. Strangely enough, I do not enjoy the 'scientific' side of languages: linguistics. It is a weird combination.
Now it seems that weird combination has landed me a job. As there are so very few people who combine an interest in science with an interest in language, there are also very few people who can write scientific school books. And I've been doing an internship at a publisher for school books. And they mentioned they needed people who had affiliation with both 'beta' subjects and language, and whether I knew someone. I mentioned that I knew myself. Somehow, this led to me getting a temporal position at the 'beta' department for secondary education.
The interesting thing is, the third person I met in this department studied chemistry and arts. That is crossing the alpha/beta division even more than my biology and English. So now I'm starting to wonder what we're trying to achieve with this alpha/beta divide. Clearly, there are many people who do not fit in these standardised boxes. So making the world easier to grasp by trying to put secondary school pupils in one of four streams may be throwing a way a lot of good things, as people are not encouraged to stimulate other parts of their interests. They may enjoy biology and chemistry, but also history and geography, and now they have to choose. This may cause frustration, but also lead to poorer results because they have to take the 'full package' of what comes with the stream, regardless of whether they also like for example maths. If you choose a 'beta' stream, you have to take the whole thing. I was able to compliment my science profile with languages, and after 9 years of university have finally managed to find a place where I can use both. But how many people have to suppress or ignore part of what they love to do because they do not 'fit' in the system?
If we are the only (that I know of) country actually using this weird system, maybe it's time to look critically, and dispose of it. There are no 'alpha' or 'beta' people. There are just people, with loves and interests, and they should be able to study and learn everything they want.
I know this system does not exist in most other countries. I know, because I've tried to explain it to so many foreigners, who have looked at me blankly as I struggled to make it clear. It isn't clear. It's not really a 'system' either, it's just a way of labelling people, putting them into boxes to make things easier.
Of course, there are some people who do not fit in either of these boxes. I was at a talk by someone who studied Dutch, history and geography, and there was another person who studied economics and English. All of these things are not easily 'married' in the Dutch educational system, but do still belong to the 'alpha' box. It becomes even more difficult when you try to live in both boxes.
In secondary school, I took the 'nature & health' profile, but I added German and Spanish on to that, because I really enjoyed science but I also really enjoyed languages. I studied Biology, which went pretty well, but when it turned out (during my research MSc) that this was not the way I wanted to spend my life, I studied English Language & Culture after that. I enjoy science, reading about science, and discovering things, but I also love languages, reading, writing, and creating. Strangely enough, I do not enjoy the 'scientific' side of languages: linguistics. It is a weird combination.
Now it seems that weird combination has landed me a job. As there are so very few people who combine an interest in science with an interest in language, there are also very few people who can write scientific school books. And I've been doing an internship at a publisher for school books. And they mentioned they needed people who had affiliation with both 'beta' subjects and language, and whether I knew someone. I mentioned that I knew myself. Somehow, this led to me getting a temporal position at the 'beta' department for secondary education.
The interesting thing is, the third person I met in this department studied chemistry and arts. That is crossing the alpha/beta division even more than my biology and English. So now I'm starting to wonder what we're trying to achieve with this alpha/beta divide. Clearly, there are many people who do not fit in these standardised boxes. So making the world easier to grasp by trying to put secondary school pupils in one of four streams may be throwing a way a lot of good things, as people are not encouraged to stimulate other parts of their interests. They may enjoy biology and chemistry, but also history and geography, and now they have to choose. This may cause frustration, but also lead to poorer results because they have to take the 'full package' of what comes with the stream, regardless of whether they also like for example maths. If you choose a 'beta' stream, you have to take the whole thing. I was able to compliment my science profile with languages, and after 9 years of university have finally managed to find a place where I can use both. But how many people have to suppress or ignore part of what they love to do because they do not 'fit' in the system?
If we are the only (that I know of) country actually using this weird system, maybe it's time to look critically, and dispose of it. There are no 'alpha' or 'beta' people. There are just people, with loves and interests, and they should be able to study and learn everything they want.
Friday 18 January 2013
Tuinvogeltelling 2013
Aan al mijn Nederlandse lezers: dit weekend is weer de Tuinvogeltelling! In de krant stond dat er dit jaar een record gebroken kan worden, omdat door de kou veel vogels onze warme tuintjes bezoeken om voedsel te vinden. Na het record op de langste file kunnen jullie nu ook deel uitmaken van het record van de meeste getelde vogels!
Dus nestel je komend weekend een halfuurtje op een plekje met goed uitzicht op je tuin en turf alle vogels die je ziet (meer uitleg op: http://www.tuinvogeltelling.nl/). Draagt bij aan de wetenschap, een mogelijk record, en het geeft weer een halfuurtje rust en mindfulness :)
Dus nestel je komend weekend een halfuurtje op een plekje met goed uitzicht op je tuin en turf alle vogels die je ziet (meer uitleg op: http://www.tuinvogeltelling.nl/). Draagt bij aan de wetenschap, een mogelijk record, en het geeft weer een halfuurtje rust en mindfulness :)
Friday 4 January 2013
Making it our own
Right, it has been awfully quiet here for the past two weeks, and I think it will be for quite some time to come. During the past Christmas holidays, we've been really busy DIY'ing in our new home, which is finally starting to look somewhat more like a home and less like a place that lots of people lived in, painted weird colours, damaged, moved out of, builders changed bits and bobs on, dragged dirt around, left, and left sitting for 2 months. Just 2 more days to go, and then we have to go back to work/internship and we won't have that much time to do stuff anymore, so we've been going as hard as we could. Trying to make it our own.
I've moved around a couple of times now, and each time it was to a house (or room, when I was a student) I wanted to change absolutely everything about. I cannot imagine just moving into a house that is already 'done', especially if other people lived their first. Even if I love the colours on the wall and the curtains they left hanging and the floor, I would still try to change most of it. Because to me, it is like they are still living there. I really have to tear out the old wallpaper and paint and smell and feel of the previous inhabitants, and put in my own, before I can feel comfortable.
Now with this house, anyone would have done that. Firstly, it smells of disuse and dirt and just generally, musty un-used house. Secondly, it's slightly decrepit in places, with holes in the walls and bits falling out and stuff. Also, it is painted in all the colours of the rainbow. And I mean literally every colour. To make the fun complete, the previous owners also painted over things you're not supposed to paint over, like using wall paint for beautiful old wooden beams, spray painting a radiator shiny silver, and smearing the openings of the screws of the wall sockets shut. Yup, it's been fun.
Most of the second floor (that's third floor for Americans) has been done now, except for the floors which we will do last. Most of the first floor has been painted, and the bathroom was delivered today. On the ground floor, basically nothing has been done but plaster up some holes and tearing out all the tiles in the old bathroom (we don't need a bathroom on the ground floor, so it's going to go). Because on Monday, the 'real' builders will start, smashing down walls and building new walls, bricking up doorways and making other new doorways, and installing the bathroom. When they're done, we can do the last bits (haha, 'bits') and then hopefully we can move some time in February. If we haven't fallen to pieces by then. But at least the house will be well and truly ours by then!
I've moved around a couple of times now, and each time it was to a house (or room, when I was a student) I wanted to change absolutely everything about. I cannot imagine just moving into a house that is already 'done', especially if other people lived their first. Even if I love the colours on the wall and the curtains they left hanging and the floor, I would still try to change most of it. Because to me, it is like they are still living there. I really have to tear out the old wallpaper and paint and smell and feel of the previous inhabitants, and put in my own, before I can feel comfortable.
Now with this house, anyone would have done that. Firstly, it smells of disuse and dirt and just generally, musty un-used house. Secondly, it's slightly decrepit in places, with holes in the walls and bits falling out and stuff. Also, it is painted in all the colours of the rainbow. And I mean literally every colour. To make the fun complete, the previous owners also painted over things you're not supposed to paint over, like using wall paint for beautiful old wooden beams, spray painting a radiator shiny silver, and smearing the openings of the screws of the wall sockets shut. Yup, it's been fun.
Most of the second floor (that's third floor for Americans) has been done now, except for the floors which we will do last. Most of the first floor has been painted, and the bathroom was delivered today. On the ground floor, basically nothing has been done but plaster up some holes and tearing out all the tiles in the old bathroom (we don't need a bathroom on the ground floor, so it's going to go). Because on Monday, the 'real' builders will start, smashing down walls and building new walls, bricking up doorways and making other new doorways, and installing the bathroom. When they're done, we can do the last bits (haha, 'bits') and then hopefully we can move some time in February. If we haven't fallen to pieces by then. But at least the house will be well and truly ours by then!
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