Mods or Modules or Courses or Classes or

Courses are referred to as “modules” at NUS. Most students call them “mods” in conversation. And, as is the case for the start of any semester, mods have been the focal point of many conversations over the past couple of weeks. I encountered a fair amount of trouble when I was first applying for acceptance to the university; NUS is known (well, at least in the Rice study abroad office) for being difficult to get into classes due to limited spots. In November, I submitted my top eight choices for courses… and got into one. After looking around for more course options and talking to professors at Rice to ensure they would transfer, I found five others that would work. I got into two of those, putting me at the minimum three modules required for acceptance. They weren’t the courses I wanted, but I was told there is quite a bit of mod movement during the add/drop period.

Courses are generally in two- to three-hour blocks and meet just once or twice a week, as opposed to twice or thrice like at most American universities. Thus far, I have found that the longer blocks help me engage material more. It’s also good in that there seems like there are fewer conflicts because the courses meet less often. That is, you could fit 7-8 mods into your schedule (some NUS students unfortunately do) whereas you’d be hard-pressed to coordinate that many courses if they met thrice a week. This system does, however, make it easy to forget about a course for a few days since there can be 5-7 days in between lectures. The classes are blocked “on the hour” but usually let out about 30 minutes before the nominal end time such that students can make it to the next class. So, for example, my 10-12 Networks lecture ends by ~11:35, giving me plenty of time to make it to my 12-2 Microelectronics lecture.

EL3211 Language in Contact

This module introduces students to the phenomenon of language contact. We will explore sociolinguistic conditions of language contact, and how these conditions lead to contact-induced linguistic change. The study of contact languages is a study of how new forms of language emerge from contact ecologies. The main focus of the module is on the linguistic properties of contact languages, such as Chinese Pidgin English and Singapore Colloquial English, and on the theoretical issues of language emergence.

This is a third-year course in Linguistics. Of all my mods, I am most excited about this one. Part of the reason I chose to study in Asia/Singapore is that I wanted a different perspective from the Western-centric style in which Rice and other universities in the U.S. and Europe teach Linguistics. My Rice professors admit that, up until very recently, the Linguistics community was primarily Western-born, speaking mostly Indo-European languages.

The professor for the course asked us to call her by her first name: Mie.  She’s an older Japanese woman, cute and personable. She cares about her students but expects a lot from them. I wasn’t quite sure what to think of her or the course when she played loud heavy metal music on the first day as we were walking in. Evidently, that’s the usual for her. We start off every lecture with a dose of heavy death metal. During our short break (she gives us about 10 minutes to rest as the lecture is two and a half hours long), she goes on YouTube and puts on pranks for us to watch – something a little like this.

Something interesting about the Linguistics courses at NUS – they are listed and instructed under the “English Language” department. This was surprising in that Linguistics deals with cross-linguistic principles. It doesn’t make much sense to have the study of all languages (Linguistics) be a subset of the study of one language (English). Haven’t figured out why that is.

LAC1201 Chinese Mandarin

This is a beginners’ module consisting of three main components: conversation, grammar and Chinese characters learning. Vocabulary items, sentence patterns and short texts will be taught. Students will acquire basic communicative skills to deal with simple daily situations after reading this module. Approximately 180 Chinese characters and 150 phrases will be introduced.

This will be my first exposure to Mandarin. I don’t think the course will transfer back for any meaningful credit at Rice, but I’ve been looking forward to learning Chinese for a while.

I have a few frustrations related to this course, but I’m optimistic that it’ll get better. The first two lectures were spent repeating the sounds of initials and finals over and over and over and over and over. The professor had us repeat every initial-final combination in all four tones multiple times. Of course, it’s important to learn pronunciation. But I think our time would be better spent on words and cultural context. I would rather practice pronunciation on my own by listening to the audio that comes with our textbook.

This is the first language I’ve tried to learn after becoming familiar with Linguistic principles. I am disappointed in how little linguistics will help me in this course. I asked a question that was mildly linguistic after lecture, but the professor wasn’t familiar with the idea. He said he was trained as a journalist and wouldn’t be able to answer my linguistics-based questions.  In any case, it wouldn’t make sense to teach from a Linguistics perspective because most students aren’t familiar with the vocabulary. Two different people I’ve reached out to in the department have implied (and one explicitly stated) that they believe Linguistics is largely unhelpful in their pedagogical approach to Mandarin.

It’s not that Linguistics isn’t helpful in my learning at all – it’s just not to the extent that I expected it to be. My phonetics and phonology training helps to be familiar with the sound patterns in Mandarin. Having the linguistic vocabulary is also advantageous when searching a question on the Internet.

EE4210 Network Protocols and Applications

This advanced networking module aims to equip students with the basics and theories of Internet-related technologies, which are necessary for computer/network engineers. The topics that will be covered include Internet architecture, Internet applications and their protocols (HTTP, FTP, DNS, Email, P2P, BitTorrent, etc.), wireless and mobile networks, mobility management, multimedia networking, and network security.

EE3431C Microelectronics Materials and Devices

Electronic devices are the basic building blocks of all electronic gadgets used in our daily life. A solid understanding of the fundamental device concepts is essential for the electrical engineer to keep up with the fast evolution of new device technology. This module emphasizes on the properties of electronic materials and the operation principles of key electronic devices including p-n diode, bipolar junction transistor (BJT), MOS capacitor and (MOSCAP). Additional issues related to dielectric materials and non- semiconductor materials will be introduced. Contacts between metal and semiconductor will also be covered.