I have always enjoyed learning new languages and the influence of language on culture and design, so the research of Victoria Odeniyi was particularly in my area of interest.

There is a fascinating relationship between construction of your native language and one’s perspective of design as well as methods of learning foreign languages and taking in learnings in a foreign language. The most basic example of this is probably writing direction which dictates how one might interpret forwards and backwards and the direction in which a piece of design/art/information is approached innately.

Victoria Odeniyi’s research made me realise that really any foreign student at UAL has to get acquainted with three different types of English – ‘standard’ written/conversational, colloquial and formal, all of which have their own vocabulary. There is so much subtlety in the choice of words that you can only grasp after living in a country for a longer period of time.

I am fluent in Mandarin and have spent quite a lot of time in China, first as a student and then teaching design in Chinese. Hence I have always had a soft spot for the Asian / Chinese cohort.
In my experience Chinese students within an international cohort tend to be more inhibited during face-to-face teaching and less likely to volunteer showing their work or ask questions in large groups. 

With all the teaching being online now I wonder if this will turn out to benefit or hinder these students.
On the one hand it is harder to engage with individual students but on the other hand having ways of anonymously sharing their views or ask questions could be beneficial.
From this I believe that it will certainly be important to find ways to engage with smaller groups of students without them feeling ‘singled out’ so that everyone gets heard. Recording lectures might also have a positive impact on this.

With regards to the different ‘levels’ of English, it is not always necessary to understand exactly what a colloquial term means as long as there is a way to grasp the mood, i.e. if it is meant positively or negatively. I think that teaching online will hinder understanding though as it’s not always possible to see the facial expressions of the person making the comment.

The other point that stood out for me and in the discussion after the lecture was the importance and significance of a pause or silence. While speaking to a large group pausing makes me feel a bit uncomfortable, so I tend to press on. I think this has intensified after teaching has been moved online as there is so little visual feedback from the students’ faces. Are the students contemplative? Do they look confused? In addition any activities seem to take longer online, so I suppose I am trying to speed up the content delivery. We always ‘pause’ for questions but probably never long enough, having just rushed through an intense bit of design thinking methods.

I have also seen tutors circle a topic and repeating themselves rather than pause and take stock of where one is.

I will consider breaking my delivery into even smaller chunks and try to challenge myself to endure the discomfort of pauses in the future.