tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5722735165669239585.post781139489795121859..comments2023-05-24T23:33:57.516+10:00Comments on My Unwelcome Stranger: The SFQ BoxDenis Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12786035137418348609noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5722735165669239585.post-62775985898374961992011-07-31T10:55:42.427+10:002011-07-31T10:55:42.427+10:00There were so many times I wished I had Damodar’s ...There were so many times I wished I had Damodar’s and Devahuti’s knowledge, or Alan Treloar’s ability to speak 20+ languages flawlessly, including all the major modern ones of Europe, Sanskrit, Latin and Greek, Mandarin, Arabic, Old Icelandic, Hebrew Ancient and Modern, Persian and Russian (How does he do it?) But the truth is each person’s knowledge, even that of truly great thinkers, is just a tiny speck compared with the whole. I feel as if I know practically nothing. There are many who would envy your knowledge, or Michael’s! C’est la vie!Denis Wrighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786035137418348609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5722735165669239585.post-14370815283062514972011-07-27T19:31:45.463+10:002011-07-27T19:31:45.463+10:00I wish I had your knowledge. Such a thorough under...I wish I had your knowledge. Such a thorough understanding that you can talk about it quite simply, picking out the wheat from the chaff. That's hard, when the chaff matters too! I'd LOVE to have been able to study those year long units. Undergraduate years are so special in that you can get a broad sweep of information; later, when you have to try and specialise,you're sort of limited...but privileged by the deeper knowledge (or attempt at it!)Juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03796734273732243982noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5722735165669239585.post-65343519561691841612011-07-26T09:06:11.725+10:002011-07-26T09:06:11.725+10:00Interestingly, I got the job at UNE to teach South...Interestingly, I got the job at UNE to teach South and Southeast Asian history, which was really my specialty area. For the first couple of years, I had a year-long unit devoted entirely to South/Southeast Asian cultural history. No China-Korea-Japan at all! <br /><br />Yet I had taught the latter as well at UQ for 5 years before coming to Armidale. I loved teaching both, equally. The only thing I refused to do, in both cases, was to go into the era of European domination of Asia. This was about REAL Asian cultural history.<br /><br />It's true we don't teach enough about South and Southeast Asian history, so people don't understand the huge cultures to our north and west. We're locked in some painfully untrue vision that Europe bought culture to them!<br /><br />What would people say if I showed them the written proof from Greek sources that Indian astronomers of the third century BCE said the earth was a sphere - a 'globe in space'?<br /><br />It took the western scientists more than a thousand years later to work that out, though of course having a European Church that would execute them for saying it didn't help....Denis Wrighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786035137418348609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5722735165669239585.post-4025291668812108802011-07-25T15:06:36.903+10:002011-07-25T15:06:36.903+10:00Oh yes ,the SFQ is such a good idea. Now I'm t...Oh yes ,the SFQ is such a good idea. Now I'm thinking what SFQs I want/need to ask, even of myself. Sneaky beginning , though, you! <br /><br />Incidentally, perhaps History of Asian Civilisations is becoming even more esoteric these days (though China -East Asia - studies are 'normal'). The penny hasn't dropped that South Asia is important. Hello, Australia?????Juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03796734273732243982noreply@blogger.com