Sabah Srishty Rahman
Meet beloved DEH alumna, Sirajum Munira Joti, the current supervisor of ULAB’s English Zone and former peer tutor, who recently returned to ULAB after launching her teaching career at Teach for Bangladesh, and is simultaneously pursuing her second master’s degree at BRAC, having obtained her first master’s degree from ULAB. Read about her journey from before getting admitted into ULAB to how she has been able to take her passion for language and linguistics and use it to grasp amazing opportunities in her field so she can work towards her dream of being a teacher.
Before I came to ULAB, I was very much of an introvert. I used to be really shy and I was only focused on studies. I never really thought that I would need any extracurricular activities or anything outside of school. Joining ULAB was very uncertain for me, and even studying English was uncertain. There was always the societal expectation that if you’re a good student of a science background, you’re supposed to become a doctor. So from my childhood, I was a so-called “good student” in society’s eyes I was led to believe that I would be a doctor one day. So during my year of admission tests, I only took preparation for the medical exams and no other universities. Unfortunately, that year was a mess for me. I got a chance at a private medical college, I got the mark for that. However, I could not get into any private medical college. I was shattered.
I was in a dilemma as I didn’t know what I should do instead because I had put all this work into medical and it wasn’t going to happen. To be honest, I didn’t want to go to any private medical university because I had seen both public and private medical students in my family and learned that the difference in assets between the two were very different. My father gave me two options. To get into any private medical college or to get into any engineering program, for example, CSE. But I was going through the available universities and looking at the offered courses and surprisingly, DEH’s brochure caught my eye and made me interested to know more about it. The courses, the faculty, everything. So I made a very brave decision to go against the two options I was given and I told my father that I wanted to get admitted into ULAB. My father was supportive and did not raise questions about why I was not listening to him or taking his advice.
I never wanted to study English, and I didn’t know anything about ULAB. The funny story is that, since I lived in Dhanmondi anyway, I would see ULAB on the way to my city college while I traveled those roads, but it never occurred to me that it was a university. In my mind, a university was meant to be in a big, open space. To think a university could be inside a single building like that never crossed my mind. To my surprise, this was the university I got admitted into.
How I chose between literature and linguistics is also an interesting story. The credit goes to Mahmud sir, whom many of you may not know. I was lucky enough to attend Mahmud sir’s Semantics and Pragmatics course. To be honest, doing this course was what awakened my interest in language and linguistics. Finding out that by learning such simple concepts I could conduct language analysis and study language in different ways, on different platforms, and in different mediums. There is just so much to study about language. It is such a strong weapon. In my first semester, I was quite scared of Mahmud sir, but during my midterm examinations, I was feeling nervous thinking “Have I done well?”, “I don’t know what marks I’m going to get”, but I ended up getting really good marks. sir appreciated my exam paper and ended up using it as a sample to show other students how their answers could have been written. I remember that I had written my answers so simply just by learning the concepts and using my friends’ names for the examples, and even so, sir had praised my work so much. For this I’m very grateful to sir, as after doing his course I realized my passion for language analysis and decided to stay on the path of language and linguistics rather than literature.
I started my work life at the root level, after coming to ULAB, with volunteering. As I said earlier, before coming to ULAB, I was such an introverted person. I used to feel so shy like I was in a shell, but after coming to ULAB I realized there were so many opportunities I could grab to develop myself and improve. I remember the first job I ever had was volunteering, as students tend to start. When I was in my first semester, Rubaiyat apu was one of the TAs, and watching all of them work spoke to me and got me wondering about how they could be in leading positions and managing so many things even while being students. I got inspired by them. I decided that one day I would also become a TA like them.
I started with volunteer work at a conference which was my first extracurricular activity of all, then I went on to become a peer tutor at the English Zone, a peer mentor at the student affairs office, the vice president of two clubs, and I even became a TA eventually. I tried to take as many opportunities outside of my studies as I could grab onto. But somehow the most memorable experiences were working at all of the conferences. The conferences required the most work, and our batch, 171, was popular for its volunteering students. There were seven or eight of us, my friends and I, who would volunteer at every single conference. The most hectic part of the conferences was the night before when we would all be finishing up our last-minute duties, deciding the dress codes, and deciding what dresses to wear that would match said dress codes. We’d head out in the early morning and by the time we got back it was already late, then we’d have to do the same thing the next day. Then being at the events provided even more problems, of course. I wear sarees so imagine that when we were in a rush during the conferences, there wouldn’t be time to wait for the elevators so we would have to run up and down four or five flights of stairs while I was in a saree. The best part was the satisfaction of a job well done after a successful event, which was so so precious and memorable to me despite the hard parts.
As I said before, I was a peer tutor at English Zone. This had always been the monetary job to do at ULAB. I started as a peer tutor at English Zone, then I worked at Teach for Bangladesh, and now of course I’ve come back here. I realized that all of these are interconnected. In my batch, I seemed to be the one who was teaching everyone among my friends. Before every exam, I’d find myself sitting in a circle with all of them, on the ground or wherever, teaching and explaining all of my notes to them. Taking this one hour before every test just to teach and then working at the English Zone helped me realize that I actually really love teaching! so English Zone gave me my first actual designated teaching position. In the future, if there is any vacancy and if my mind is set on it I would also love to join the department as a full-time teacher at DEH. Nothing in the world would be more honorable to me. ULAB is my home.
My undergraduate thesis paper was actually about the importance of writing centers and academic writing on a tertiary level. Most universities in Bangladesh don’t have any such thing as a writing center or writing lab, which makes it a very new concept to many people. My time at English Zone helped me realize the utter significance of a writing center in tertiary education. This influenced me to come back as well, as I knew that teaching was my passion and that I would always want to work as a teacher for university students, and within my own Zone too. I was inspired to return and make the changes that I always wanted to see in the English Zone while I was a student. I am currently pursuing my master’s at BRAC, but I want to always continue my work at English Zone simultaneously.
I found that I’m a very empathetic type of teacher. Teaching isn’t just about imparting knowledge to your students, it’s also about feeling for them and understanding them. While working at English Zone this is the most significant thing I learned. It was a comfortable, warm place for learning, where no one would feel judged and we would encourage students in as friendly a way as possible since we were their peers. I wanted them to know that we were all going through these same phases and that we would get over them together so they didn’t have to be scared.
After starting at Teach for Bangladesh, the empathetic method of teaching I learned as a peer tutor became one of my most practiced skills. At Teach for Bangladesh, we teach at a school for underprivileged children, so students face many different struggles. There it is hard to put students in a box and define their needs. You might find that a student in class 6 has the grade competency of not even someone in class 3 or 4, but if you think along the lines of, “This student is in class 6! They should be able to do this!” then you’re playing a losing game. In these cases especially, as a teacher, you must listen to their problems carefully and understand the challenges they are facing. You have to put yourself in their shoes and use your empathy to support them and help them overcome their struggles.
I believe the future of DEH is very bright. I was a member of the 2017 batch, so I’ve been observing that things have gotten more and more organized, and student engagement has improved a lot. While at Teach for Bangladesh, I encountered a lot of students from different departments and universities, mostly public although there were a few private students, who were working there as teachers. Unfortunately, I noticed that while there would be ten or fifteen volunteers from other universities, from ULAB there would be barely one or two. Despite the small number, they still made an impact and many of our alumni are making names for themselves in their careers now which promotes our university. Even among other universities, ULAB’s DEH has a different kind of renown. People see that our students and our faculty are doing great things, they hear about the national-scale events we organize. In this way, our reputation is growing bigger and brighter. I want people to suggest students enroll in ULAB’s DEH, the way they talk about other prestigious private universities. My dream workplace has always been ULAB so I want others to appreciate it alongside me.
Outside of work though, my time at ULAB influenced my personal life too. I mentioned before that I used to be an introvert. By no means would I call myself an extrovert now, but I would say I’m an ambivert. Rather than becoming very outgoing and social, I learned how, when, where, and why to say something to someone. I learned exactly how much to mingle with people and how to express myself, things I might not have learned if I had not gotten the opportunities presented to me at ULAB. When I was at ULAB I worked hard to keep my grades high, of course, since I want to go into the field of academia, as a teacher. On the other hand, though, I was also putting my all into clubs, TAship, mentoring, tutoring, and volunteering, so in this way, I was forced to learn one of the most crucial life skills: time management. This skill has continued to benefit me in my work life as well as my home life. I’ve also learned problem-solving skills from having to think on my feet in my various extracurriculars and gained the ability to keep calm and collected and remain patient, instead of panicking. In addition, ULAB helped me build relationships I wouldn’t have otherwise. In my time at university, my juniors used to call me “Jo-Ma” or “Joti-Ma” because our relationships had gotten so close. I was able to give them a safe space, something I always wanted. All in all, ULAB taught me how to be there for others while still taking care of myself.
I want to thank every single person at DEH from the bottom of my heart for helping me get this far, but as I have already mentioned Mahmud sir, I will always be extremely grateful to him. I remember during my thesis, my supervisor was Noor sir, and the course instructor for my thesis was Mahmud sir, and I used to cross-check my paper with him before submitting it to Noor sir. I always felt that this person was someone I could go to for help whenever I needed it. Not counting that, even after I started my master’s at BRAC, I had to submit a proposal for my Research Methodology course and I discussed it with Mahmud sir because I wanted to do it on discourse analysis, his specialty, and he put together so many great ideas to help me. Aside from him, Shamsad sir! Whenever I spoke to him, he always kept time to give me advice and guide me, and I will be eternally grateful for this. Arifa ma’am, Nadia ma’am, Muntassir Mamun sir, Tanzia ma’am, every one of them has contributed to shaping me into the person I am today. Rubaiyat apu, my seniors, my juniors, Tithi apu, Leya apu, Bushra apu, everyone; they have always been there for me. I find it hard to choose just one person to express my gratitude for.
I would like to offer some advice to the current students at DEH who might be looking into the same career paths as me and let them know that no matter what semester you are in if you already know what direction you want to take your career in, start working towards it straight away. There are so many opportunities out there for you to explore and day by day I am seeing that more and more opportunities are opening up. Look for the chances that align with your aspirations, and grab them. Make an action plan, and set some smart goals for yourself within a period of time, especially if you are thinking of following in my footsteps. Make sure to balance your GPA and your extracurriculars. I’d also like to ask anyone who wants to become a teacher to not just become any teacher, but to be an empathetic teacher. Teaching can be so fun! You are not only sharing knowledge with your students, you are sharing experiences. You get to shape the perspectives of your students, so empathy matters. Try to be a good example for them.
Finally, a big thanks to MUSE for allowing me to share my experiences! While I was doing this interview, it gave me a chance to walk down memory lane and it really felt like I was reliving everything right in front of my eyes in flashbacks. I always love to talk about DEH, my experiences, my teaching career, and everything else, since they’re the things I’m the most passionate about! So, thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
To the readers of MUSE, I would like to say that, since I’m back at ULAB as the current supervisor of English Zone, and you have read about how I used my experience as a peer tutor to approach my ultimate goal of teaching at a university level, I also encourage you to explore these opportunities and if you want to know more about this, please drop by and talk to me at English Zone. If you are a student who wants to teach, please apply to English Zone whenever the recruitment window is open, no matter which department you are from, whether it’s DEH, CSE, BBA, or anything. In addition, if you want to develop your English language skills, feel free to drop by and talk to me, talk to the peer tutors. We’ll always be there to help you!