Reflection

When I first read that I am going to be in a seminar on Wednesday mornings from 8–10 that is in addition to the unpopular time called “From Empire to Europe”, I was not very happy. I was sure that it would be another boring seminar on British history that would make me learn by heart more useless facts. But here is why I, contrary to my expectations, really enjoyed this class:

1. Although the British Empire existed until the 20th century and in parts in the Commonwealth still today, thus not so ancient history, I did not know much more about it than that Britain had many colonies.
2. At first, the idea of writing blog posts seemed like another unreasonable demand to me, but when I began doing so, I really was surprised. Finding a topic and forming an opinion to it, was not quite easy. It involves a lot of research and personal commitment and thus creates a complex and deep learning experiences that is much more helpful than only reading texts. Although I admit that it is a lot of work, it offered the possibility to deal with topics I really was interested in.
3. I never would have thought that the British Empire had so many implications on today’s situation of many countries.
4. It was very interesting reading the other’s blog post and hearing about their opinions. In addition to the thought-provoking content, there were some really creative ideas how to write these posts. I like well structured and analytical academic writing and have my difficulties with “open exercises”, but I was impressed of what you can do with such a task.
5. The course made me deal with Brexit, something that I would not have done in that detail on my own. It is a very complex topic and for us as English studying students and European citizens absoultely necessary to know about the motivations and interests behind the decision to leave the EU.

To conclude, I can say that I was pleasantly surprised by the seminar, I feel that I learned a lot by reading the “homework texts”, the other’s blog posts and by doing my own research, in particular, I feel that it is knowledge that I will not forget tomorrow like it is often the case in other seminars!