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While considering using languages other than English/actually using languages other than English in sections where characters distinctively use different languages, I was admittedly a bit intimidated at the aspect of trying to figure out proper translations and pronunciations. While I don’t know the accuracy of Google Translate, I remember a professor I had last quarter talked about the experience she had collaborating with another writer for a book they wrote together and how they weren’t able to really click with one another until they started to write in English and Vietnamese and sometimes a mix of the two. This is Professor Hoang, one of the potential guest lecturers we’ll have this quarter. 

Although I won’t delve deeper into it as I don’t share information that I don’t have explicit information to share, I know that Professor Hoang has been affected by the recent response to the UCSD pro-Palestine encampment and the general situation of the protests across the nation. As much as I’d like for things to return to “normal” and for the current state of the university and the larger U.S. to pass, I know that there can’t be that simple of a transition. Although I don’t know a lot of the specifics of the genocide in Palestine, I know enough for me to take a personal stance on the matter. Something that’s been on my mind both for this class and assignments outside of it is whether or not to express my feelings or thoughts through my work. I know much of writing and art as a whole is done as a way to respond to the world at large, but I don’t think I’m mentally equipped just yet to try to tackle something like the Palestinian genocide through my work. It feels crazy to have parts of life continue throughout the rest of the quarter as if it isn’t happening, but I did want to take the time to address it in my personal journals. While I can’t shift all of my energy and my woes towards addressing the genocide, I am doing my best to stand for what I believe in.