classes begin
I taught my first class at a German university today, a seminar on how to evaluate digital libraries. About 20 students turned up, even though the class was not in the official course list (which was printed in July, well before I had accepted a position). Most of them came because they were curious about the new professor. Only one or two came from technical areas. Several had linguistic or foreign language backgrounds, including one student just returned from Paris.
They laughed at appropriate places in my stories, and listened earnestly when I lectured about anthropological methods. It is hard not to like students who are so beautifully cooperative and I did like them a lot. I was surprised, however, when I discovered that only two of them were taking the class for credit. That is far more common in Germany than in the US, but it meant some rethinking about student presentations for future classes.
After class I introduced the speaker at the Colloquium series, and then had to sneek out early to go to the reception the Berlin Senate held for new faculty. It was on Alte Jakub Strasse. I started down the street, thought I was going the wrong way, turned back, went further in the wrong diretction, and finally took a cab. The reception was in a modern art museum that had been a storehouse for glass in the East German era. Some of the recent sketches were quite interesting, but by the time I looked at them I had had enough wine that perhaps anything would have seemed interesting. All of the food and drink was served at standing tables, which made it easy for people to circulate. I talked with my friend and colleague Peter, a mathmatician from the Free University, a new vicepresident, and a new faculty member in the law school. All in all a pleasant evening, if perhaps one that was hard on my feet.
They laughed at appropriate places in my stories, and listened earnestly when I lectured about anthropological methods. It is hard not to like students who are so beautifully cooperative and I did like them a lot. I was surprised, however, when I discovered that only two of them were taking the class for credit. That is far more common in Germany than in the US, but it meant some rethinking about student presentations for future classes.
After class I introduced the speaker at the Colloquium series, and then had to sneek out early to go to the reception the Berlin Senate held for new faculty. It was on Alte Jakub Strasse. I started down the street, thought I was going the wrong way, turned back, went further in the wrong diretction, and finally took a cab. The reception was in a modern art museum that had been a storehouse for glass in the East German era. Some of the recent sketches were quite interesting, but by the time I looked at them I had had enough wine that perhaps anything would have seemed interesting. All of the food and drink was served at standing tables, which made it easy for people to circulate. I talked with my friend and colleague Peter, a mathmatician from the Free University, a new vicepresident, and a new faculty member in the law school. All in all a pleasant evening, if perhaps one that was hard on my feet.
posted by Michael Seadle at 11:09 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home