Whiter than Rice

Friday, April 08, 2005

G. Y. Kim

Background information for this post: I'm sure all of you know that in Korean and and Mandarin last names go first, but in order for it to be Westernized, we make it go last. Hence nobody calles me Chiu Tony, but Tony Chiu.

Ok, we have a Public Health Prof by the name of Kim Chuan-Chun (Kim being her first name), and well... I'd say she's an honourary recipient of the Daily Show's Congressional Medal of Douchebaggery.

Why is she in line for this award? To channel the Simpson's comic book guy (THAT show deserves some ranting): WORST. PROJECT. ASSIGNED. EVER.

Apparently we have to get into randomly assigned groups of FOURTEEN and present public health related information about FOUR DISEASES in TEN MINUTES. (The written report is probably not as anal-retentive about length) It is IMPOSSIBLE to accomplish what she wants in TEN MINUTES.

"Ok... this disease occurs in Africa. Here's a picture of an African kid drinking from a river where there's a pig farm upstream dumping all their feces in the river. Oh, look it's 10 minutes!"

The greatest part of this entire presentation is that it is IMPLIED that it has to be presented in ENGLISH. Out of everybody I've talked to in the year above us, if you don't do it in English, she bitches you out in front of the class. On the surface, this seems like no problem for me, but that's where you'd be wrong.

The biggest problem with English presentations to a prof you despise: You might say something reflexively that you'll regret.

I don't think I need to provide a hypothetical example.