NZ Thoughts 6.0 — The Finale

Many weeks (I say many, because I don’t remember the exact amount of weeks) and five blog posts later, here I am. Writing a reflection on CSII: New Zealand…how do you start these kind of things?

Remembering my first blog post, I was going on and on about how clueless I was on the subject. I am not as clueless anymore so that’s an achievement. Has NZ gained any appeal in my eyes? Not really, if I have to be honest. I have learned interesting things in this course such as the adorable (and at times uncompresensible, to me at least,) New Zealand accent and how their expressions might become controversial when being used in other English speaking countries. Or that prime minister John Key is the funniest little weirdo in politics ever! Using absurd antics to his advantage. One thing’s for sure: he doesn’t take himself too seriously and that, admittedly, is very refreshing to see.

But those things, among others, were not enough to really ignite real interest in the country (although I wouldn’t mind a trip to that town called Bulls! That would be incredi-bull!). In the end, it’s just another country with the same problems as any other first world country. Also, it’s still very far away and I’m still a very bad traveler.

The course itself was fine. Despite the fact that it started way too early in the morning, our talkative lecturer always showed lots of enthusiasm towards telling the class about his home country. Cultural Studies classes always seem more like lectures than classes — someone talks, the rest listens. But Geoffrey Miller did include the students in his classes by asking for their opinions, letting them contribute whenever they wanted. He mixed it up with videos, whether they were for educational or entertainment purposes (Flight of the Conchords is the best!).

So…that’s it.

Mai

P.S. Matt Heath.