What I have learned
When we started our semester with this course, I didn’t know exactly what the British Empire was except for that the Brits were and still are very proud of it. Surely, names like Ghandi, Churchill or their prestigious Navy are known to pretty much anyone who has general knowledge. I’m not really proud of my lack of knowledge — it seems like even my English advanced class, or as we say in German Leistungskurs in school, didn’t necessarily cover the British Empire in a sufficient manner. I feel like most of us in that class didn’t really grasp what it was about and didn’t really reflect on the things Britain had to do to maintain such a huge Empire, which was kind of ignorant of me when I think about it in hindsight…
This knowledge was little compared to what I’ve learned about the British Empire and its history throughout this course — especially, with this type of assignment, which to be honest, seemed a little bit tedious at first glance.
1. It has given me a completely fresh approach on how to do research for a subject like the Empire; it went far deeper than just reading the material on our reader. We had to filter out what’s important so that we could actually do some proper research online and find a topic to write about. I think I never went through so many different online newspapers and videos, documentaries and caricatures to find topics that spark my interest and made me do some further research.
2. By doing this kind of extensive research you start to reflect on the events of the past and what has caused them — which is inevitable since you, as a writer, want to produce something that isn’t completely daft. Nonetheless, compared to other courses in which we have dealt with history, it went far deeper because we actually had to think about what we put out there and not just recite some facts read in the evening before your seminar.
3. Reading other blog posts and the commentary has caused me to think twice about things which never crossed my mind for a mere second — it really does give you more perspective on things and — as lame as it sounds — somewhat broadens your horizon and makes you to form an opinion.
4. Last but not least, writing this blog has honed my skills, sparked my curiosity and helped me to find my joy in writing - it’s so different from academic writing. It was inspiring to read the other posts and see how creative they were, it just motivated you to write about something interesting.
I’m pretty sure that I would’ve never learned so much about the Empire if it wasn’t for this type of assignment :)
