Reintroducing Myself – Jumani, Your Language Enthusiast

Hello, world! It’s Jumani—your friendly neighborhood English lecturer (and occasional tea enthusiast). Some of you might know me as Jujuqtpie, a nickname I’ve carried for years. At home, I’ve always been called Juju, and the ‘qtpie’ bit was a fun touch to my email handle (because, why not?). Though people sometimes mispronounce it, I’ve always found it playful and endearing!

I’ve been teaching for years, primarily focusing on making English less of a chore and more of a fun, easy language to learn. My students range from engineering undergrads to Master’s students tackling language policy. And you know what? I love every bit of it!

Beyond teaching, I’m deeply into lifelong learning, believing that we all have the tools to help ourselves improve. I’m a strong believer in blending technology with language learning, having worked on projects like Kindy Talk, a module for early childhood educators. I’m also passionate about intercultural communication and impoliteness studies (yes, there’s such a thing!).

This blog is my space to share thoughts on language, life, and maybe a few odd rants (like how I once accidentally threw an ice chip at a smoker—long story). But more than anything, it’s a place for me to connect with like-minded people who love learning and growing.

So if you’re here to discover some language hacks, pick up tips, or just enjoy a bit of lighthearted banter, welcome back to my little corner of the internet!

Reviving my blog, breathing new life

I recently joined a course called GENACITY 2.0. I would be part of their second cohort. It is really exciting to have the opportunity to learn from these VERY HEAVY practitioners such as Dr Tazli, Prof Abd Karim Alias, Don and Chuah Kee Man.

Being a lecturer at UMPSA for how many donkey years, I figured I have to keep up with the times, embrace technology, particularly AI! I am all for us using AI, it really helps with productivity, shortens my thinking time and produces wonderful writing. But that's for us; we have gone through our Bachelor, Master and PhD. Even without AI, we can survive; even if the work produced wouldn't be as fast but there would be output produced by our God-given human brain. However for students, for me to say, go ahead, use AI to your heart's content, they would have to know BOTH the long way and the short cuts. How can we let them out into the world by just AI-ing everything? What is a language class if the language is generated by AI? They have to have the knowledge in their human brain so that they can fall back on their own brain coz believe me, technology has the tendency to fail at the most inopportuned times. 

Here's a FACT: Technology has failed me at several significant life events! First example, my VIVA VOCE! On the day I was to present on my PhD, the university had a major blackout. I presented in near  darkness with natural light coming in from the windows. My supervisor said, "Only you. This could happen to only you". In a way, it was a blessing in disguise. The room was hot and stuffy and the whole process finished in half an hour. Of course, credit also should be given to easy readability of my thesis, which is a proud achievement. Remember, no chatGPT yet at that time! So it's all me! Of course I wouldn't want to read through that "masterpiece" coz somehow, the eyes could catch mistakes better post submission.

Second example: I was in the middle of presenting my poster for an online Teaching and Learning Innovation Competition and suddenly I realised I was talking by myself, to myself as I was disconnected. It really killed my mojo. Even when I was reconnected, I was a bit more flustered than before.

There are other instances but these two instances are the most memorable for me. 

Blogging again...but do people still read blogs?

I cannot even remember the last time I blogged. The last baby I blogged about turns 17 today! Here is an interesting fact. FACT: I totally forgot what happened giving birth to Hana (<-- my birthday girl!). I remember how, more or less what time each child came into this world except for Hana. This was because there were too many false alarms when it was her turn that when the actual deed happened, I had no recollection!

But guess what? I documented every detail in this blog. Isn't that amazing? Here's the link if you are curious. But mostly it is for my own record: http://jujusthoughtsgalore.blogspot.com/2007/12/on-roll-again.html

Reading back my old posts, I can't believe I was so verbose. I wonder if my blogger friends are still blogging and whatever happened in their lives now. Have they abandoned ship? Or still going strong, blogging through time and space?

Perhaps this won't be my last post. Maybe this is my new beginning. Maybe...who knows.