Its been quite sometimes I didnt visit this blog. After the short break, Ive started my new chapter this year with teaching, learning and researching. Pretty much of that stuff. Ive started my beginners 2 French class this week. I also continued teaching my Typography class in one of the college in Melbourne CBD.
I didnt have much experienced in teaching, apart from part-time tutoring I did few years back in Malaysia. My parent, they taught, both of them are teacher, mom was in primary school and dad was in polytechnique (skill-based). As far as I know I never thought that I would teach. One of the reasons is, I still see myself in the learning process therefore, I dont think I have enough to offer to anyone. I could share my knowledge, if I have some, but to teach is far away from me.
But I did, some how and to be honest, my reason is experience and some cash. I needed some pocket money to buy books and other ˜not so important things for me. Apart from that I need to save up, for future. It looks like I really need the money in this paragraph Im writing. I think the real reason why I looked up for some teaching job is because I want to get some experience teaching. Most of my post-grad friends teach. I heard some interesting issues and scenario that I find interesting. I helped them in their classes. And several problems, I even thought I could offer some assistance. I found myself enjoying the moment in class. These students are not that bad at all. Therere just like me, looking, searching, confused and sometimes found something that could generate the energy and motivation to move on.
Now, Im happy to say that I enjoyed teaching very much. I find teaching motivated me to continue learning and its rewarding. Im teaching Typography. Yes, its been a while I didnt look at my typography book. Sometimes I even thought Im losing my typo skills. So teaching these classes updated myself in Typography. I started to browse through these names such as Ellen Lipton, Emil Ruder, Adrian Frutiger, Michael Bierut and many more. Its like going back to time, fixing and filling the gap. I started to remember the questions in the very first Typography class I went while my teacher show me some images with type and some scenario with type.
Who choose these words? Why did they choose these particular words? Are these words still relevant today? What is this typeface? How would these words appear in lower and upper case? Can it be readable? What effect could this little words make? Would it change something? I’ve found it fascinating and it motivates me to continue…
Courtesy Image by Nurul Rahman. Collage of logos and typefaces from Malaysian printed material 60’s to present.