Nederlands
Table, chair and stool of "small" britannia, this topic has two explanation. The first layer of explanation is related to the author's name and occupation. When I was young, I went to America with my parents. Foreigners called me "Joy" according to my Chinese name (" yueyue "), which sounds like "table and chair". Now my husband, the minibus, is nicknamed the bench. Together, of course, we are "tables and chairs". And we are both academics in the UK: the minibus is a lecturer in international relations, while I went from masters to PhD at the London school of economics (LSE) and continue to work as a research fellow in the sociology department. Classes, classes, research, interviews, meetings, student counseling -- whatever the topic, a table, a few chairs, the discussion can begin!
Doing academic work is like dealing with different tables, chairs and benches in different Spaces such as classrooms, meeting rooms and offices every day. So in the geography book, the United Kingdom (the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) is an island country with an area of 240,000 square kilometers and a population of about 60 million; My experience and understanding of the country was through an academic community dominated by the 20 Russell group universities. In other words, what I came into direct contact with was the "little" Britain built by the desks and benches on the campus -- the second explanation of the topic.
When I came to the UK to study for my master's degree at the beginning of 2005, I just wanted to study in the UK quickly, but I didn't expect to stay in the school all the time. In addition, I moved several times in the past six years, but I still couldn't bear to move out of bloomsbury, which is a dense area of universities in London. Why? Because British universities are interesting. To make a less apt comparison, if doing academic work in America, especially in the liberal arts, comes across as sharp, productive and industrious, British universities are more of a mash-up of sharp and discursive. Moreover, British universities generally have relatively loose academic background requirements for applicants of postgraduate courses, and do not insist on "professional counterpart". Therefore, students often have different undergraduate experience in the courses above graduate school. When discussing every problem in class, the perspectives are naturally rich and the entry points are also varied.
In addition to the campus overflow color, more harvest is found outside the campus environment. Bloomsbury, for example, was historically the centre of London's creative arts and is still the hub of many universities, including several accommodation areas for students and faculty. But in many of these apartments, the rule is that you can rent the same room for a maximum of three years (or as little as one) before you have to move. For students, there is nothing more frustrating than moving. There are many reasons for this, but one student community leader says it helps to keep bloomsbury alive because "people move, ideas move". In such an environment where historical precipitation and real dynamics intersect, curiosity, discussion, debate, "learning" is not a career, but more like a way of life.
This reminds me of Hemingway's autobiographical novel, a moveable feast, based on his experiences living in Paris in his twenties. For Hemingway, those days were the highlight of his life, as he often chatted and discussed with writers such as Fitzgerald and Joyce in coffee shops. I think most people in the UK, especially those who have studied or travelled in London, feel the same way.
The office's new visiting student from Canada says she's been brainstorming more in a month than in a year at the university of Ottawa. Well, in fact, the "little" Britain made up of chairs and tables is not a movable feast. (zhang yueyue)
