Tuesday 8 May 2007

Headlines

Arts students 'less keen on work': Thanks for that. Apparently we're less "pro-active". I grant you that at the moment I don't know what exactly I want to do after uni. But what is supposed to be surprising about "The UK Graduate Careers Survey [...] found a much more confident, work-focused, approach from students on work-related courses." Apart from the argument that all degrees are 'work-related', people on supposedly more work-related courses are blatantly going to be more work-focused. I mean, one of my friends studies Optometry. Except for the private vs. NHS decision, her focus is pretty much sorted - she's gonna be an optician. That's the reason why you study the course. And yes of course arts students expect to end up in low-paid jobs. We spend 3 years drinking cofee and reading news headlines about how unmotivated we are. What were you expecting?

Germans stay home for eco-holiday: Not much to say - good on the Germans, sounds cool that many people there are becoming more aware of the environment and the impact of holidays. What made me laugh about the article was this description... "Giggling by the sea - and lying topless in the sun - are Martina and her three environmentally friendly colleague [...] "I think it's better for the climate to stay here in Germany," Martina told me, once she'd put her bikini back on." Did you even need to ask whether the writer of that article was a man or a woman? Thought not.

Nurse sexually assaulted at work: Obviously nothing fun about the assault - bit horribly, really. I only wanted to question the news that detectives are looking simply for a "white man with a London accent." That, er, won't be difficult then.

Of course, one could consider the linguistic side of the article, in that the headline uses the unmarked term 'nurse' to refer to a woman, knowing full well that you will assume the nurse/woman link without thinking. But perhaps that's a consideration I should keep confined to my language seminars! Sadly I can no longer read the news and stuff without thinking of the theories from my course. D'oh.

Well, I better be off to do some work. Wouldn't want to not be hard-working and confident now, would I?

* * * * *

Listening to: Hot Fuss - The Killers
Drinking: The special selection Cafédirect coffee. Bliss.
Reading: An email from my dad, aww.

2 comments:

Cat said...

Yay! Default assumptions! at last someone who gives a crap about about I'm interested in! lol. David doesn't care much for endless talks on how children aquire language or the importance of the words we use!!! I do that too! I read stuff and think about the words, in all ways possible (linguistically and connotations etc) and and and... yeah... and I can't do stuff without thinking what I'm saying now. And it makes me feel guilty when I say stuff I shouldn't like, gay...! miss you. love you loads darling! You down for james'?

Jen said...

In reply to Cat:
You weren't thinking about what you were saying at Darren's thing when you were pissed! Haha. Dave was like "So... what did she actually say?" And I had no idea, haha. Bless. Love you really.
Hello, Lucy!
I love it when they come up with really obvious stuff about students that some government panel 'researched' and stuff for months. When they could have just asked a student "What do you think about university fees?" and the student would have said "Well frankly I think they're too expensive and they're a bit off-putting and that's why NOBODY GOES TO UNIVERSITY ANY MORE, DICKWAD." Harhar... I'll shut up now.