Jen from the Brooklyn Brainery asked me to write up a description for the latest class I’m offering on the Brontë sisters. I’ve loved Charlotte and Anne Brontë’s writing since I was a teenager (though I have a harder time liking Emily’s Wuthering Heights), so I’m super excited to be able to offer this class.
It’s on three consecutive Wednesdays, 3/21, 3/28, and 4/4. Each class will focus loosely on a different sister, and I’ll tie the whole subject together with a lot of references to and readings from their works. It should be an awesome time, so y’all come!
Here’s the synopsis I wrote:
Some literature just shouldn’t be taught in schools. Not because it’s too racy or too incomprehensible, but because a two-week reading and a list of comprehension questions just go nowhere towards describing the historical and literary context needed to really understand and appreciate the real power of a great novel.
This is definitely the case with the Bronte sisters. If you’re anything like me, you might have read Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights in school and not gotten a lot out of them. You may never even have heard of Agnes Grey, Villette, or The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Yet each of these novels has something fascinating to say about the time and place in which they were written, and the people who wrote or influenced them — as any lucky person who rereads these books in adulthood will find.
Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte themselves are in many ways more interesting than the works of literature they produced. The more you know about their lives, the more questions you long to ask.
How could meek, sheltered clergyman’s daughters from the far north of England produce intense, morally ambivalent characters like Heathcliff and Mr. Rochester? The sisters each have a great deal to say on the rights and desires of women, but what do their writings on that subject mean, and can they really be considered feminists? If the sisters were intensely religious, as their writings show, then where does the thread of religious skepticism running through their books come from?
This class attempts both to answer those questions and to show what we can learn about our past and ourselves from reading old books.We’ll touch on historiography, 19th century literary history, the Luddite and Chartist revolts, Victorian morals and manners, the role of single women in society, and much more. There’s no need to have read any of the sisters’ novels beforehand, but I certainly hope you’ll want to pick them up afterwards.
Y’all come! You can sign up for the class here, or if you can’t make it, you’ll be able to find the class notes on this site after each class.
Thank you all so much for coming out to learn about the history and evolution of English. I had a great time answering all your questions, and I certainly hope you enjoyed the class too!
It’s taken me quite a while to put this resources page together, because there’s just so much incredibly awesome stuff to share. You’ll also find my presentation files in PDF format. I’ll add the sound files I used in the presentation to this page as soon as possible. Happy reading!
Presentations
Part 1, Origins-1500 (PDF)
Part 2, 1500-present (PDF)
Links
Sounds Familiar? from the British Library — This is a fantastic resource that gives a number of maps of English accents and dialects, and some interviews with native speakers.
The Great Vowel Shift, from Harvard — Now with sound files for comparison.
The History of English Phonemes, from Furman University — This site gives you examples of the same word pronounced in all four eras (Old, Middle, Early Modern, and Modern).
Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary, from Yale — Some enterprising person scanned in the pages and put them online.
History of the English Language, from Dan Short — Super useful timeline here.
American Accent Undergoing Great Vowel Shift, from NPR — It might be happening again!
English Spelling Reform — Some have tried, and all have failed. Here’s why.
If you want to learn more…
The Lexicographer’s Dilemma: The Evolution of ‘Proper’ English, from Shakespeare to South Park, by Jack Lynch
Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold Story of English, by John McWhorter
Awesome Videos!
A tour of British accents (including the “Geordie” I kept mentioning):
Shakespeare in the original pronunciation!
The history of English in 10 minutes (super funny!):
There are few industries as self-education friendly as the computer industry. The rapid pace of change and emergence of new technologies means that computer science degrees are not necessarily as important as a portfolio of current skills — leaving the door open for talented non-degreed people who want to work in the field and are willing to teach themselves what they need to know. Even if you already have a computer science degree or have been working in the field for a number of years, you still need to update your skills as often as possible.
Fortunately, there are a lot of great books and online resources you can use to teach yourself not only basic computer science principles (things like object orientation, information theory, etc), but individual programming languages and even advanced things like machine learning and natural language processing. Once you get the basic concepts down (which can be either quite easy or an absolute slog, depending on how abstract your thinking generally is), you’re pretty much ready to learn anything.
Here are a few links to help you get started. Enjoy!
Computer Science 101
Introduction to Computer Science and Programming from MIT — This class uses Python, which is currently a super popular language.
CS 101 from Stanford University — Online class starts February 2012.
Information Theory from Stanford University — Online class starts March 2012.
Programming Languages and Methodologies
Building Programming Experience from MIT — Intro to basic programming principles.
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs from MIT – Builds on the previous course. One of the basic comp sci classes for MIT students.
Design and Analysis of Algorithms from Stanford University — Online class starts January 2012.
Java Programming from Orange Coast College — Java is one of the most basic and well-known languages. Learning Java gives you a pretty good overview of what to expect in more modern languages.
Introduction to C++ from MIT — C++ is one of the oldest and most basic (pun not intended) of the currently-used programming languages. Most everyone learns it in school.
Practical Programming in C from MIT – C is a precursor to C++, and the progenitor of newer languages like Objective C, which is used for iOS programming. Sometimes people learn C instead of C++ in school.
Webpage Authoring from Gavilan College — This class covers HTML.
Developing Apps for iOS from Stanford — Build programs for iPad, iPod Touch, and iPhone!
Technological Entrepreneurship
Lean Launchpad from Stanford University — Online class starts February 2012.
Technology Entrepreneurship from Stanford University — Online class starts January 2012.
Everything Else
Media Programming from Georgia Tech — Covers principles of user interface (UI) design.
Machine Learning from Stanford University — Online class starts January 2012.
Game Theory from Stanford University — Online class starts February 2012.
Computer Security from Stanford University — Online class starts February 2012.
Stanford Engineering Everywhere — Lots of different classes, both computer and engineering-related.
Free Math, Physics, Science, and Comp Sci Textbooks — NYU has a ton of interesting material here.
A few weeks ago I applied for a software quality assurance job at the place where my husband also works. Initially the company seemed very enthusiastic about my candidacy. I had one very positive interview with a potential coworker, and found more bugs on the QA test than my husband did when they hired him.
The second interviewer, however, was incredibly nervous and seemingly couldn’t wait to get me off the phone. After he asked me a few puzzling questions which he didn’t clarify when I asked, and cut me off at the end of the call without waiting for me to finish my questions, I got the idea (confirmed later via email) that I wasn’t wanted. This is the email they sent:
Hi Charlotte,
Thank you for taking the time to apply for the open QA Engineer position. Both X and Y remarked at how smart, well-spoken and energetic you came across in the interviews. We’re going to pass on an offer however – I don’t think it’s a perfect fit for us. We’re looking for someone with a lot more manual testing experience and skill.
We wish you the best,
Z
I’m smart, well-spoken, and energetic. So…?
The problem, I think, is that I was honest with these people to a level which they couldn’t reciprocate. Rather than stuffing my resume with every QA-related keyword imaginable, I told them simply that while I love finding bugs in software, and I’m very good at it, I don’t have any formal QA experience. Rather than hiding my relationship with my husband, I was honest about being his wife.
Whether one or both of these things torpedoed my prospects (though you would think, since they knew my experience level and family status upfront, the company would have said “Thanks, but no thanks” rather than interviewing me at all), I learned a valuable lesson about the perceived value of experience.
The value of experience
I founded this blog on the principle that anyone can teach themselves anything. I firmly believe in that, and I’m living proof that a reasonably smart person without a college degree can learn (and teach others) just about anything there is to know, from medieval history to English language and literature to project management to web analytics.
Why, given that this is possible, would years of experience be the final arbiter in a job that essentially consists of clicking buttons and finding broken things in software? Three reasons suggest themselves:
1. People who have spent a lot of time and money to learn things in school are (somewhat understandably) chagrined when someone can get equal or better results more cheaply and on their own. This is the gatekeeper phenomenon.
2. Having some experience in the field (e.g., having a history of people willing to pay you for the thing you say you can do) takes a lot of responsibility off the shoulders of the gatekeeper. He believes there is a lower chance that he will be wrong in his perception of your skills or learning abilities if he can use your job history to second his judgment.
3. On a somewhat more sinister level, people are apt to use plausible-sounding things like lack of “experience” to arbitrarily disqualify people whose personal qualities or other attributes make them feel uncomfortable.
While I think numbers 1 and 3 are pretty smarmy, I can empathize with recruiters and hiring managers who are caught up in number 2. There’s a significant downside for everyone involved if their judgment is wrong — which is all the more reason that they should rely on tests of actual skill and recommendations from past employers (which a resume or a number of “years of experience” don’t come close to giving).
A caveat
Now, mind you, experience is incredibly valuable in some areas. I would not, for example, want to be a heart surgeon’s very first patient. Nor would I fancy being a trial lawyer’s very first defendant. I do understand the value of experience in highly specialized professions where the skill of the individual practitioner can literally mean the difference between life and death.
Then again, both aspiring lawyers and doctors have for centuries learned law and medicine without formal schooling. Some states (Vermont, for example) still allow lawyers to take the bar exam and practice as lawyers in the state without ever having gone to law school. It is only in the last hundred or so years that (mainly due to the machinations of unions and associations of people who have paid a lot of money for degrees and don’t want their job security threatened) knowledge has become concentrated solely in the university setting.
Don’t lose heart.
The company I interviewed with is just one place, and it’s really their loss. Hiring “smart people” to quickly learn to do things they’ve never done before is for the bold. Some people are just not in a place to do that.
Throughout my career, however, many companies — from tiny software firms to big corporations — have looked past my lack of a college degree and seen that brains and enthusiasm really do trump “experience” in most cases.
I’m excited!
This January I’ll be teaching another class at the Brooklyn Brainery. The Evolution of English will be a super-fun two-part romp through the past 1,000 years of the written and spoken English language, complete with a ton of multimedia, in-class spoken language examples, and potentially the biggest IPA chart ever carried along the streets of Brooklyn. (Be afraid!)
As usual I’ll be posting the presentations and notes right here for your perusal, and Greg and I hope to record the class this time and post screencasts using Screenr so that y’all can get the full experience. You’ll definitely have a better time if you come in-person, however!
Right now sign-ups for this session (Tuesdays, January 3rd and January 10th) look completely full, but the more of you who get on the waiting list, the more likely the Brainery folks are to ask me to teach the class again. Help a sister and sign up for the waiting list, won’t you? 