Semester update! I did one last semester so thought I’d stick with the theme. These are some of the cool things I’ve been learning about in my classes...

East Asia IR has been really eye opening so far. I’m so surprised how few people in our class are engaged with what’s going on around them. It’s really hard for our teacher when she’s so passionate and knowledgeable but she references something and nobody gets it! We’ve done some cool topics so far that I didn’t expect like how much of an impact China is having on the economies of countries around it, including North Korea. And also I’ve learnt about how much Japan is doing in South East Asia to help develop countries through aid programs and investment.

Labour issues has been the most interesting class for me but also the one where I’ve engaged the most. Our teacher comes from an economics background so I am constantly giving counter-arguments when he makes sweeping statements due to the black/white nature he presents things in. I’ve spoken heaps to dad about it because it’s genuinely frustrating when these students are being taught things as fact when there’s actually a whole lot of grey area! It’s fine if they’re taught to analyse and critique but since they’re not, I think teachers need to be a lot more self-aware because throwing out generalisations is not educating these students effectively!

Politics of Indians in Malaysia has been super interesting and despite missing a whole lot of class this sem I have engaged a lot with the content and learnt so much about the past struggles that Malaysia, and all the people here at the time, went through to get independence and political stability. I think it’s really cool that there’s only been a few leaders of Malaysia and that each one can be credited with so much! The rest of semester covers a bit more about the future of seperate political parties which I’m keen to get into!