For the first half of the semester, I didn’t write peer responses as frequently as I should have. I think that my comments themselves were fine, but I only wrote five and they weren’t spread out well. My first comment was on January 22nd, and then the next four were all written on January 29th, only a week later.
After midterms, I have done a much better job of writing often and spreading them out, posting one on March 21, twice on March 22, four times on April 14, and twice on April 21. Even when I didn’t write, I have consistently checked fellow students’ blogs to see what ideas they were considering and what I might be interested in engaging with.
I think my responses have been effective in the sense of being thoughtful and offering a new perspective on others’ work (rather than just saying “I agree”). Here is one example:
“One of the most interesting things you brought up was the disproportionate impact of the events and how it relates to communication. I agree completely that emotion is used as a method of communication (and often misunderstood) but I’m curious to hear your thoughts on how the level of impact also relates to language and how language relates to hegemony. I think that language and power are inextricably linked, and this movie does a fantastic job of showing that. Because of the power of America (and previously Britain), there are more English speakers. A greater effort is made to understand and speak English: for instance Amelia must learn to speak English; the bus conductor speaks English; the Americans don’t learn Arabic to help them out in their situation. In fact, they don’t need to. The Americans have access to their language when they are in crisis. And they get the closest thing to a happy ending in the movie, while characters whose communication isn’t privileged face greater suffering.” (original)
I tried to encourage discussion in a lot of my comments as well. For instance, I asked questions:
“I didn’t get to go to this lecture, so it was interesting to read about it here. The fact that Argentina had such a strong connection to Jewish migration under Pinochet, and then such a strong Nazi connection under Perón is intriguing; I’d like to explore those dynamics further. In terms of the sex work issue, I’m curious about native Argentinians’ position. It seems like Yarfitz primarily discussed different Jewish immigrant factions and their opinions, but there had to be some drive from native Argentinian’s that impacted the government’s decision to regulate working conditions rather than eliminating prostitution. As a follow up, because I was very curious, prostitution is legal in Argentina today. It is also legal in every Latin American country this source mentioned. I’m curious as to whether this is more connected to machismo or to the feminist debate cited in your post. Thoughts? (original, source)”
I suggested connections I saw between peoples’ portfolios:
“Thank you for posting about this! Machismo and femicide are things we have touched on briefly in this class, but I don’t think we’ve had an adequate sense of the very real impact that they have today. I’m glad you helped bring some more humane awareness by sharing the hashtags so people can stay informed in real time. I also appreciated hearing about the economic power that the protesting women hold! A lot of the media I see portrays Latin American women as passive and/or powerless victims, which is clearly not true. They CAN force positive changes – and they have. I think you might be interested in connecting this to Nirmal’s post on ‘Un Violador en Tu Camino‘ as well, which shows the international influence Latin American women activists have. Hopefully these high-profile protests not only bring attention to the issues Latin American women face, but also celebrate their strength and garner more international support! (original)”
And I even asked people to reply:
“This is an interesting post, particularly in the context of the opioid crisis. While I definitely agree that the drug trafficking issue is unfortunately unavoidable in a talk about US/Latin American relations, most illegal opiates actually arrive in the US via the Middle East and Asia. The US is struggling with opium more than any other drug at the moment. I sometimes wonder why we’re still so laser-focused on Latin America when we think about drug trafficking. That said, it is true that cartel leaders like Pablo Escobar had a lot of exposure and Hollywood certainly capitalized on it. I’m not sure whether that’s the only reason, or whether immigration goals or other factors play in, but I’m very curious to hear others’ thoughts, so if anyone sees this and wants to reply, please do so! (original, source).”
I got very few responses though. Knowing that discussion was something I would’ve preferred, I did try to reply to comments that people left on my website asking questions or offering something particularly insightful. I really enjoyed reading others’ comments because they allowed me to revisit my earlier thinking through fresh eyes. I found that the COVID-19 story comments were especially helpful because of the nature of the developing story.
Overall I think the lack of discussion was a class-wide issue and I wish the comments had been more helpful with that. I think if I were to retake this course, I would like to set a precedent for conversation in the comments section earlier on. As it was, I still found them helpful for revisiting and rethinking my own posts and for holding myself accountable in reading others’ blogs to stay abreast of what everyone in the course was thinking.
For a full list of comments, please see this file.
Por el primer parte de la clase, no tenía buen sistema para escribir los comentarios. Sólo visité las páginas de mis compañeros dos veces, y sólo escribí cinco comentarios durante esas dos visitas. El contenido no era un problema, pero no tenía consistencia.
El cuarto pasado, mejoré mi sistema. Visitaba las páginas de otros alumnos cada semana para leer sus pensamientos en varios temas, y escribí nueve comentarios en total––un comentario el 21 de marzo, dos el 22, cuatro el 14 de abril, y dos más el 20.
Pienso que mis comentarios ofrecen una perspectiva diferente, son relevantes, a veces son profundos. Hago búsquedas y conecciones para cada uno. Un ejemplo (traducido):
“Una de las cosas más interesantes en tu respuesta a la película es tu opinión sobre la comunicación y el impacto de los eventos. Estoy de acuerdo que la emoción es un método de comunicación (o de confusión) pero quiero saber tus pensamientos en la privilegia de varios idiomas y cómo este relaciona a la tragedia. Personalmente, creo que la lengua y el poder interrelacionan, y que la película muestra esta conección en una manera maravillosa. Por cause del poder de los EEUU (e Inglaterra en el pasado), hay más personas que hablan inglés o hacen un esfuerzo a entenderlo. Amelia aprenda inglés; el conductor del autobús habla inglés; los estadounidenses no deben aprender árabe a pesar de que estén en Marruecos. Y es gracias al inglés que la mujer estadounidense sobreviva su accidente. Los angloparlantes son los únicos que cada personaje entiende y son los únicos que sobreviven.” (original)”
Además, intenté inspirar una conversación con comentarios como:
“El hecho de que Argentina tenía tanta conección con los judios en bajo Pinochet y después con los Nazis bajo Perón es muy interesante; me gustaría investigar más el cambio. Con la pregunta de la prostitución, estoy curiosa sobre las opiniones de Argentinos nativos. Parece que la lectura enfocó en varios facciones de los inmigrantes judíos y sus opiniones, pero debe haber habrido una presión por la parte de los Argentinos para cambiar las leyes así. Hoy en día, la prostitución es legal en Argentina y cada país latinoamericano incluido en el artículo que leí. En tu opinion, ¿es más por el machismo o más por la posición feminista que discutiste? (original, source)”
Ofrecí vínculos entre las páginas de algunos alumnos:
“¡Gracias por empezar esta conversación! Hemos discutido un poquito sobre el machismo y el feminismo en la clase pero no en tanta detalle o con el impacto personal. Aprecio mucho aprender sobre el poder económico que tienen esas mujeres. Veo tantas mensajes en las noticias que describen las mujeres latinoamericanas como víctimas sin poder––y obviamente no es verdad. Un ejemplo muy bueno es la canción ‘Un Violador en Tu Camino‘ y la conección que ha creado entre feministas alrededor del mundo. Nirmal hizo un comentario sobre la canción en su página; quizás te gustaría conectarlo al tuyo. (original)”
Y pide respuestas directamente:
“Es muy interesante leer este. Estoy de acuerdo que, desafortunadamente, los estadounidenses nunca van a ver latinoamérica fuera del contexto de la guerra contra las drogas. Sin embargo, la mayoría de los opiáceos ilegales vienen de asia o el medio oriente y esa clase de drogas es el problema más grande de los EEUU ahora. Pero los EEUU sólo piensan en América Latina cuando discuten las drogas. ¿Por qué? No sé si Hollywood, inmigración, o algo más tiene el papel más grande, pero si alguien vea mi comentario contesta con su opinión por favor. (original, source).”
Casi nunca recibí respuestas, pero ni un estudiante recibió muchas. No creo que la falta de discusión activa fue mi culpa, pero me gustaría haber tenido más conversaciones. Sabiendo que prefiero conversación, decidí responder a los comentarios en mi página. Fue un gusto leer los comentarios porque me ayudaron a revisitar mis pensamientos anteriores con ojos nuevos. La discusión de COVID-19 fue especialmente interesante leer. En total, los comentarios me ayudaron a leer los pensamientos de mis compañeros y desafiar los míos.
I have had a similar experience to you as I have not spread my comments out as well as I should have. I have begun to realize this as I find these posts helpful in confirming what I know and gaining new perspectives from other people’s posts. The blog posts have also felt a little like a review on certain subjects which I believe will help out come the final.