What kind of writer am I?

It's a bit meta to write about what kind of writer you think you are, but I'm going to try it anyways. In my spare time I play in a punk/emo band, for which I write all of the lyrics. When I reflect on how I prepare for this I first do this mentally, meaning I take enough time in my head to come up with the right words, structure and phrasing.

This method I also apply when I write on a more professional level, like for example papers, job applications, personal statements etc. I always try to come up with an idea and writing approach in my head, followed by writing everything at once. I don't know whether this is the right approach, but I feel like this has always been the right approach for me. The only downside  of this all is that I tend to procrastinate.

Proofreading however, I don't take for granted. I try to reread my written texts with great care and usually find some mistakes I didn't notice when initially writing it. When another persons corrects my texts they usually find mistaked I even couldn't find when proofreading it myself.

What did I learn from my class on November 14?

The class I attended on November 14 for Academic English discussed how to write a proper research paper. This could come in quite handy, since all of us have a research paper to write by the end of the semester, so paying close attention might turn out to be very useful. 

I learned quite a lot during this class. I was already aware that each research paper always starts off with an abstract. I already had a (vague) idea of what writing such an abstract meant, but analysing this in class definitely will help me while writing mine in the near future. 

Writing papers or essays always frightened me a bit, because I've always been very insecure about what I write on paper, so this universitarian essay will most certainly be a challenge that I look forward to. 

I also read quite a number of examples on how to write and in which way we should write our research paper. This made me less insecure about the whole idea of writing this rather unknow thing. I mean it's not that I haven't had any experience with writing a paper or a bachelor thesis in my professional bachelor education, but this is definitely something new, so I think it's only logical that this makes me a bit nervous. 

I included a humouristic Spongebob Squarepants image that can really hit the nail on the head when writing papers. 

My favourite tv show dealing with diversity in the workplace

The American version of The Office must be one of my all time favourite television shows. In this episode they dealt with diversity in the workplace. The regional manager, Michael Scott, tries to do good for his employees but most of the time offends people more without even knowing he did so. This little video extract is the perfect example of that. This video is taken from the second episode, but even back then this show already knew how to deal with serious matters in a humouristic way. I don't think this episode is offensive in any way. I do believe that laughter sometimes is the best medicine for serious issues. Enjoy!

Feedback Practice Presentation Video

Here is my feedback for Yara Van Leemput's practice presentation video.

Overall I think she did a great job. As an English teacher myself I enjoyed her English accent, even though the occasional Flemish sounds were there from time to time.

I also believe she picked an interesting topic to write her research paper about. It's safe to say she already knows quite a lot about her theme, but as a listener she comes across as genuinely interested in the topic and looks forward to learn more about it.

If I had to give her something to improve on I would say I would have loved to see her use her body language a bit more, eg. hand gestures. It felt like she was holding back a bit, so I'm really looking forward to see her present in front of a classroom, where she isn't seated and can use her body language a bit more!

But again, she did a wonderful job!

A call for LGBTQ tolerance in Belgium!

Recent studies have shown that a quarter of the LGBTQ community in Belgium has tried to commit suicide at least once in their life. These numbers are shocking. The fact that these numbers are true anno 2016 is truly appalling. Nowadays our government introduced the people to many anti-discrimination  laws, gay marriage has become legal, gay partners can adopt a child, yet still a quarter tried to kill him/herself. This means that there's still something wrong with our attitude towards this community.Violence towards them and simply the fact that they are still misunderstood by a (too) large group is one of the reason why they feel this way.

It's mainly the transgender community though that suffers from this the most; at least 80% tried to commit suicide. 75% of this group has had to deal with violence at least once in their life, but also social support from family or friends is way less than with the gay community. In the article they address the fact that talking about this can be a huge mental and psychological support, for example the 'holebifoon'.

If you want to read more about this topic or watch a little extract from the Belgian newschannel about this go to http://m.deredactie.be/#!/snippet/5812e16ec9976f06001c29dd

This one is for the Elliots!

Rami Malek is an American actor with an Egyptian background. Lately he has become famous because of his very succesful role in the drama series Mr. Robot. In this little video he discusses the lack of diverse roles in Hollywood for actors with a different background, but how the film industry bases itself on stereotypes rather than the quality of an actor. He hopes with his leading role that changes are happening in Hollywood these days.

This next clip is  Rami Malek's accepting speech for winning an Emmy Award for his outstanding performance on Mr. Robot. In the previous clip he said the he hopes Hollywood is changing and growing to a more diversity-friendly environment. Winning this award is a huge step and he dedicates the award to all the Elliots (his main character on the show, a isolated and alienated character trying to find himself in this world) by saying: "I play a young man, who is like so many of us profoundly alienated and the unfortunate thing is how many of us would want to hang out with a guy like Elliot? But I want to honour the Elliots, because there's a little bit of Elliot in all of us."

Finally buying Playboy Magazine for its articles

For the first time ever a muslim woman wearing a hijab will appear in Playboy Magzine. To me personally this seems a valid reason to finally start buying one of these magazines. Not for the female nudity (Playboy stopped with nude photography a while ago), but rather for its welcoming of diversity in the worldwide famous magazine.

Noor Tagouri is a 22 year old  American muslim journalist. She believes this type of rebellion is crucial in times like these and I must agree with her. It's nice to see someone finally stepping up the fight against ridiculous stereotypes in hopes to live in a more tolerant society. However, many muslims have spoken about disagreeing with Tagouri's decision, because the hijab is a form of desexualisation of women, so appearing in a magazine which prime goal was sexualizing the female body in the first place is a bit ironic. I do understand this opinion, but I don't think it's a bad thing that the islamic religion finally has an oppurtunity to appear in the news in a more positive way.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/28/muslim-woman-in-hijab-to-appear-in-playboy/