General English101: The Stereotypes Towards English Literature Department Student.
picture by: https://www.coffeyville.edu/academics/majors-transfer-programs/english-literature/
How does it feel when you become English Department students? If you're an English-Addict, I bet you will feel excited to start your study as soon as possible. Otherwise, if you feel forced in entering this major, then good luck with your adaptation to its interdisciplinary courses. English Literature is not as terrible as you think, buddy! No need to feel insecure about it as long as we can learn continuously. Apart from all the excitement and insecurity, no need to wonder if there are always a few random people out there who expect a lot of things from English students, and yeah, it's called a "Stereotype".
So, what is a Stereotype? According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a stereotype is a standardized mental picture that is held in common by members of a group and that represents an oversimplified opinion, prejudiced attitude, or uncritical judgment. In short, we can also specify that stereotyping something is happen when there are people who generalize any kind of behavior or things that most other people do in a certain community. Moreover, consists of bad and good, a stereotype itself has a few kinds such as stereotypes in gender, race, cultures, sexuality, and a group of a community, and it depends on how the prejudice itself.
In this case, we can say that we are a member of a group who is studying the same subjects every day related to English stuff, isn't it? Hence, various stereotypes might be heard or asked to us as English Department students. What are they? Let's take a look at the phenomenon below :
1. Similar to another informal English course.
A: "in X department, I studied a lot of things, what do you study in English Literature?".
B: "mm.. well, I'm studying a lot of things too, it's all about English stuff".
A: "aha, it's just learning how to speak and grammar just like in English Camp in Pare, right? It's just a piece of cake and fun tho!".
B: "...." 😕
Let's break this stereotype, guys! Actually, it's not a bad stereotype but it sounds like certain people are easily underestimated our major by saying it's just a piece of cake, which is usually annoying us. In fact, we have been learning a lot of things in both the Literature and Linguistics scopes, despite learning four elements (grammar, writing, reading, and speaking). However, let's pray together hoping that it's REALLY such a piece of cake for us😆.
2. Expected to have English skills like a native.
A: "Hey dude! could you do my English exam, I guess it's easy for you".
B: "well, let me take a look... sorry, I also still confused with this part of grammar, it's tricky".
A: "huft... it's weird, why you don't know about this while you're studying English".
Alright dude, listen... We are neither a native speaker nor your dictionary, we just a human who still in the learning progress. I think it's better when A denied helping B rather than it continues until the result comes out... and VOILA!! look at your score, so please do your English tasks or exams by yourself. No need to ask us to do that,😄.
3. Expert Translator or Interpreter.
This phenomenon often happens in our surroundings, for instance, when a friend asks us to translate Javanese or Indonesian words into English, which words don't have an English translation like Njelungup (Javanese), or Kerokan (Indonesian). In another case, there are also some friends that asked us to translate their works but they don't allow us to use a translator machine on google, we could imagine how desperate we are, not your personal translator, dear friend... 😕.
Well, guys... If one day you got those questions from someone, don't forget to answer patiently! 😀
Despite its stereotypes, being an English Department student is way too fun! Always remember our fun activities when discussing a few literary works and think about them critically, or learning about how language is constructed in Linguistics.
Keep fighting and SASING-BOOM!!
REFERENCES
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stereotype
https://examples.yourdictionary.com/stereotype-examples.html
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