CP blues...

I’m starting to write this halfway through the first case discussion in marketing class where class participation counts for the final grade. I don’t think I’m going to be any good at CP. The pressure to say something is just too much. Everyone’s hand is in the air – some even before the complete question is framed. Some hands are almost never down. The pace is very very rapid. People jump in with words, hardly taking the time to frame a coherent sentence.

Genuine questions or doubts or requests for the professor to repeat a concept are suppressed when classmates are so impatient to speak themselves that they don’t want to listen to another. Everyone wants to talk before all the good points are taken. Some people have questions much beyond the concept being covered and people from other backgrounds are left behind. It is also very depressing if in such controlled conditions, you aren’t able to come up with the answers that your classmate can.

But then, I am different. I need some time to absorb a subject and to really get into a conversation. I like to listen when someone is talking. I take some time to process that information and respond. But, there is no time here.

I must say that the professor managed this chaos admirably. I would go crazy in his place.

I am reminded of this dialogue from the sitcom FRIENDS – the episode where Chandler is up for an interview where Phoebe says

Phoebe: Yes, when I first met you, you were like, "Blah, blah, blah." I was like, shhh!

That is it. shhhh!