Symposium Speaker

While it was true that the symposium was probably aimed at an audience differing from our group, I think I'd be safe in saying that even if I was a journalist or even a film maker of foreign origin, I don't believe I would have taken much from the speaker's contribution (which I perceived to be the main part) to the presentation. The video's that she showed would have been perfectly insightful as stand alone pieces, he collage demonstrating how much of a barrier culture can be, while the train ride showed an individual's personal experience with language divide and preconceived notions. Both of these implied problems, but did not attempt to define them, possibly leaving it up to the audience.

Nouzeilles's part confuses me to a high degree. Perhaps, she was trying to define the problems illustrated by the videos for us, or perhaps she wasn't sure herself what she was trying to do. I sure wasn't. She tended to favor using the word "exile" which confused me. Maybe the definition isn't explicitly different from immigrant, but it impacts me differently. If I synopsized my understand of what she said, it was basically that exile is hard and unpleasant. I'm afraid I must react with a very unenlightened "Duh."

I suppose I could be wrong. There is the chance that's she's a frightfully intelligent human being that purposely used a word that is literally correct while different in interpretation to illustrate the very culture barrier that she was focusing on the whole time. On top of this, she bungled around with the technology and had to have an individual come up to click on the icons to play her clips, for the sole purpose of satirizing the stereotype that people who have funny accents have a lesser grasp on technology. If this beautifully conceived plan was he modus operandi all along, well, the whole presentation just went over my head.

Either way...I lost.