5 Things You Get English Literature (Students) Wrong

Fight against stereotypes about things you get English Literature wrong!

I am stepping on the fourth semester of being an English Language and Literature (ELL) student at the State University of Malang. I have been receiving a huge amount of statements related to my study. Here here, I am clarifying things that most people think about English Literature (students)!

So, I went to the bitch

I once became a tutor in an English club. When I asked them to tell their holidays, they laughed when a person was saying:

“I went to the beach”

They were really interested in bad words (that is the point here). And then my friends and I ended up explaining the words and other common mispronouncing words like a seat, sit, shit, sheet too. Check the difference!

I mean, when I introduce myself as an English Literature student, (young) people immediately get interested in how to pronounce bad words correctly. LIKE WHY? If you that kind of person, pleaseee tell me why in the comment below 🙁

We are not a walking-dictionary

“Please translate this one”

I reallyyyyyyyyy often get that kind of sentence from my friends, family, even friends of my friend. I am pleased when I can help people in the field I love the most. BUT THEN, things get annoyed me when they say:

“You are an English Literature student, how can you not know the meaning of this word?”

Hold on! If you want to know a word, why don’t you open your smartphone and open an online dictionary? It is well-explained. Plus, it provides examples to make your understanding better 🙂 YEP! You are very welcome.

Be a Literature student, so you have time to do a make-up

I once overheard Biology or maybe Natural Sciences student said,

“If only I were a student in the Faculty of Letters, I would have time to keep myself pretty with make-up”

Like… hello? What is the correlation? I know you had been going through many many kinds of research.. YET you can’t describe literature students as you “see” us from the surface. Or pick some students’ behaviour out from my faculty randomly just to confirm your hasty generalisations 😠

Yeah, it’s been stereotyped that Literature students are the ones who have no intention in studies. Use sandals or t-shirt to attend classes. Write an essay on the phone. Have a crowd in the canteen (a.k.a skip classes together) NOT ALL students can be labelled! I undoubtedly say there IS a student in your major who acts like what you think about Literature students.

English Literature Major ≠ Courses you take in English Centre

I often got a judgement,

Why did you enrol to English Literature? You can master English by joining an English course

Wait! NOO! Things You Get English Literature Wrong is that this major is different from an English course.

ELL is beyond what you have learnt in your English centre. We build our knowledge about  Literature and Linguistics such as Syntax, Sociolinguistics, English History, Literary Criticism. Also be familiar with Richard Aldington, Edgar Allan Poe. You won’t analyse a poem in the centre, right?  Definitely. So just ask if you don’t know, don’t judge.

I want to close this sensitive post by presenting THE MOST FAQ 

English Literature? What will you do after graduating then???!