Fun With Presentations

Mainly been working on my presentation and MA paper. Not too much else to report on down here.

The presentations my classmates have been giving have been abysmal at best. Our International Trade prof. finally blew a gasket on Friday when one of the supposed "top" third years spent fifty minutes describing six pages of worthless linear algebra while ignoring the main results of the paper completely. Can we say "can't see the forrest for the trees?" Either because he didn't understand the main results, or he just wasn't interested in them, I can't say. I've given up on understanding thick Indian accents at this point; especially when they come from people who make no effort to learn proper (or at least comprehensible) grammar and pronunciation beyond what Samuel L. Jackson can teach them (*insert favorite Jackson quote here*).
This kind of mathematical indulgence is surprisingly common though. We have many very well versed mathematicians who have no idea what the models they're learning mean, or how to translate them into English. So they hide behind it. It is after all what got them through quals. Because being able to write, speak, develop, and present ideas sure doesn't seem to stick with them. Hm... scary thought.
But our diligent (and irritated) trade professor in a huff of frustration tried to set us on the right path:
"Everyone who graduates these programs has the math background. If you don't learn how to package and present your ideas you won't get hired."
Considering when I tried to get this particular student to take a free English conversation course with a few of his fellow students (sponsored by the university), and he defended his inability to speak English as part of his "unique character" and then went on to convince the other two students to also NOT attend in order to retain their ... uhm... unique Indian dialect of English... I'm going to guess that this one's gonna go unheeded too until he starts looking for a job.

The MA paper has slowed to a crawl while I'm working on this presentation.
Mostly, I'm bored, and looking forward to seeing la Ardilla on Thanksgiving :)