the problem with expat lecturers

i just came off a vexing 2-hour writing class. my teacher spent most of the lesson trying to impress upon us what it means to dissociate our prior assumptions from the way we interpret our readings. to close read with objectivity was made so much more difficult by the vague way my teacher chooses to adopt.

it could be argued that he does so for pedogogical reasons, but as a budding teacher myself, i felt he could have been more direct with us. his vagueness could be interpreted by misinformed members of my class as incompetence, with him not knowing exactly what he wants. but at this stage, i choose to think otherwise.

but i felt that he could have better controlled our discussion, which went off tangent on many occasions. instead he let us go on and on about what we thought to be cause, effect or consequence in the extract. why couldn't be come to the point at some stage? i left friday's early morning class feeling totally exhausted and unproductive.

or it could be just plainly because i am asian and very economical. then again, perhaps he should consider his asian audience amongst his students. we have people from china and india whose first language is not english per se, so maybe being more direct would be more effective.

and there's my literature class teacher. he considers himself to have 'completed' first first unit of plath's poetry after only spending slightly over 5 minutes on one of her poems. in an essay, i was taught to raise up 2 examples of a same point to illustrate that the characteristic can pass as a uniquely plath's style. i don't exactly expect to be spoon fed, but perhaps a slightly more comprehensive discussion could be effected?

and it's only week one.