What is popularity made of anyway? How does a person get to be popular with lots of people and have a few close friends, too? Hey, Jerry, there's that new girl in our math class. Oh Yes, my name is Carolyn Ames. She's a swell kid. Why do you know her? Not very well. I wish I did I don't know what it is, but there's something about her you like Well, she always looks nice to start with yeah, especially when you compare with some of the weird characters in this place Yeah, so I hear I'm talking had her out night before last say Bob said he had her on Friday, too Yeah, you know Hi Jerry. Oh, say Jerry. Could you let me have that math paper you promised me last night? I just gotta get it copied before class. Hi Betty You can rest your tray here Jenny for a minute. Thanks. Hey Wally, how's the play coming along? Oh Okay, Jenny Here Jenny. Thanks, Jerry.  I'll give it back before class Well, I really must be dashing to see you all later Nothing like being mis-popularity. Yeah Yeah Okay, Ellie Now there's the girl that it really gets my vote Okay You want some? No thanks. So won't you come and sit with us? Oh, I'd love to but you're almost finished. So what? We'll be there till the bell rings Don't you care? I see you're out Richard, Karen, Amy said he's leading our class today. Oh, yes growing things. I looked in on your rehearsal yesterday We're all in on it one way or another. I'm on the costume committee and Jerry and I are stay chance two among a dozen or so How about you Wally? Where do you fit in all this? Oh, I'm a one-man team that does a job with no glory attached I Gather the props together and boy. What a headache You sound like you need a helper. Could I lend a hand? Would you I mean would you really sure? I'd like it. I don't know anything about props, but I could learn I need some help too, Karen. Hey Leo, I saw her first See we ought to get together and talk over those props a little could you meet me backstage at 315? Oh, that'd be fine Wally I think maybe I'll take Carol into the dance Saturday night We'll better go ahead and ask her if we could work out a double date not Saturday soon enough I was wondering if you'd like to go to the strand to see a movie Saturday night And then go over to team town maybe or if you'd rather go with the gang on a skating park In Weenie roast we'd have to leave earlier for that though But we get home at a decent time All the skating sounds like loads of sun Wally has used a lot of common sense in putting the invitation this way It shows he has thought about what Carolyn might like and he has implied his price range So she will have some idea of what he could afford when she makes her choice Carolyn likes it better this way too It's doing the girl no favor to leave it entirely up to her. It puts her on a spot All right, Wally. On Saturday at 5am. Bye Well that phone call didn't go on for hours A pretty adult attitude toward telephone conversations Carolyn keeps a date calendar Not a bad idea She'll never have the embarrassment of forgetting a date Or of being already an hour too late Hmm, that's a good note to write yourself any night But especially when you're getting ready for a date Two can do a manic here, Wally I might even know what to wear it with to matter fact When we moved those dug-up transportation to the dam You sure you knew the phone was here at my house?  No Well, don't you ever want to? I might like this I do I never know what he's planned He just said, will you decide, Allie? I should think you'd write out of ideas Well, I'm getting to that point Hello Oh, hello, Jerry Doctor coming along all right That's good Hey, Carolyn, how about a date? Well, I don't know, Jerry When did you have in mind? Well What are you doing tonight? I'm awfully sorry, but I have a date for tonight, Jerry Tomorrow? No, I'm sorry Well, call me early next week, Jerry Okay, Carolyn Thanks a lot, just the same Goodbye Can you imagine that, Allie? He wanted a date for tonight Sounds like you're asking her so late Went over like a lead balloon, brother Maybe so Well, let's see what else we can do about tonight Doesn't look too promising, Jerry After all, it's no compliment to any girl To call her so late She thinks she's a very last resort And sometimes a girl likes a chance To get ready for a date Hey, wait a minute I didn't mean to scare you out entirely Oh, anybody I'd want to take tonight Would have a date by this time Gee, where does that leave Ellie and me? I was counting on our double date And your dance car for transportation to the dance Hello, Jerry I thought I saw you here I've been shopping Got a cute pair of shoes, bright red Is that good? Well, I got them for you Why don't you ask me to the dance tonight? I'd like to take you, Jenny, but I've decided not to go to the dance tonight Oh? I'm going to stay home to get some sleep for a change Oh, I see Sorry, Jenny I seem to be losing my grip Well, I'll see you All right, Jenny That was a close one Hm? Why? Well, you know, Jerry We just couldn't take Jenny She doesn't fit in with the crowd Yeah, I'm beginning to see what you mean And about the car I'll drive you to the dance Catch a movie or something And then wander back in time to take you and Ellie home Well So I've got a call, Ellie Not very pleasant, is it, Jenny? You see? And you've had it happen before And unless you get wise It'll happen again often Unless you get wise, you'll find it harder and harder To keep your friends Well, yourself Gee, look at y'all Already in right on time, too That's a good deal Thanks Mother, are you busy? I'd like to meet my father Dad This is Wally Johnson Well, hello, Wally What do you do, Mr. Ames? Here I am, darling And I suppose this is Wally That's right, Mrs. Ames How do you do? Well, it's nice meeting you Oh, excuse me a second I forgot my scarf I'll be right back Don't let me interrupt your eating, Mr. Ames Thanks, Wally I was just looking into the world of events Before we go to dinner I took him into taking me out tonight I understand you're having a little trouble With the props or the play Oh, not too many now Much as I hate to admit it, though Carolyn has hunted down a lot of things That we couldn't find any place Carolyn, I made some brownies today Maybe you and Wally would like them When you get back There's some milk in the icebox, too, isn't there? How does that sound? Gee, that sounds good We'll take you up on it, Mrs. Ames Thanks That is a good idea Nothing is more casual and more fun Than raiding the icebox after a date And it doesn't cost anybody a lot of money, either Folks know when we'll be home Well, I'm a mother Wally used his head And Carolyn's family can relax Because she has told them they can count on her being home At some definite time She's thought about what she and Wally Are going to do on the date Whether tomorrow's school day And how many late dates she's had recently Do you have your key, dear? The family knows Carolyn will stick to her word All right Have fun, you two I'll take good care of her, Mrs. Ames Bye Bye Goodbye Goodbye I hope you know you have swell parents Nice boy, I like him Yes, I do, too Carolyn and Wally are on their way to a good time this evening And to lots of good times With each other and with their crowd at school Because they're friendly They're interested in other people And they're considerate of the other fellow Because they know what it takes to be popular


Okay. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to SOAS and welcome to the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, which is the department that I am from. I would like to also introduce my colleague, Naresh Sharma. You want to say hello, Naresh quickly? Hi there, yes. I'm Naresh Sharma and I'm senior lecturer in Hindi and Urdu and I'm here on behalf of the South Asia section. And yeah, apologies again to everyone. There were some technical problems with logging on this morning, I believe. And yeah, good to see you. Thank you. So, my name is Danahile and I am going to be introducing to you two programs that are based in the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics. And that's MA Southeast Asian and Pacific Asian Studies program. And I will also briefly introduce MA South Asian Studies and then my colleague Naresh Sharma can obviously give you more specific information. And I'm also going to be introducing two versions of these programs. And that's a version with an intensive language. So MA Southeast Asian Studies and intensive language and MA South Asian Studies and intensive language. This may be actually quite useful for me to know how many of you are interested in the Southeast Asia part and who is interested in the South Asia part. So if you can use the chat function and just simply note which program you are interested in, then that may actually be helpful so that we know how many people are here for each program. But I will talk slightly more generally first of all. So, these two programs I am talking about, they are what we call area studies programs. So there are programs that focus on a study of a specific region. And you combine this study with a disciplinary focus. All area studies programs at SOAS are also linked to the study of language. So you have to study a language. Because the whole sort of foundation of SOAS is based on the belief that obviously nothing can match the engagement with a particular region than that done through the language of that region. This is obviously very important, especially in recent times when SOAS and other universities are trying to decolonize its curriculum. We have been doing that for years. We have been really going into the region taking regional sources and these regional sources then inform what we do.  And I have listed some of the disciplines that are available at SOAS. In these cases, you know, the combinations are really possible. There may be some sort of specific exceptions, but you can combine or focus these area studies programs on anthropology, art and archaeology, media and cinema studies, economics, politics, development studies, history law, study of religion. So essentially if you look at the list of all the departments around SOAS, in most cases all these disciplines represented by each department can be combined with the area studies program. The basic structure of our area studies programs is that you do 60 credits of a dissertation. So that's the sort of ultimate goal of your MA program, you write 10,000-word dissertation. But before you start writing it, you are attending thought modules and you have to pass 120 credits of thought modules. What normally happens is in term one and in term two, you obviously focus on your, on attending the thought modules, passing all assessments, exams, etc. And then once you finish, you then start really writing up your dissertation. So really in term three and then during the summer and the submission date for the dissertations is always early September. If you are interested in the version with an intensive language, then you will need to take 315 credits in total. The dissertation remains the same, so again 60 credits and then you would have to do 255 credits of thought modules. So these credits would be actually done abroad, because the intensive language version of these programs obviously incorporates a period of study abroad, summer abroad. It's a program which has to be done over two years and in the summer between the two years you go abroad and you have a very intensive immersion in the study of the language in different countries. So that that is the basic structure and then obviously when you apply on when you join these programs you will then have to actually specify which of these modules available you are going to take and how you are going to put together the credits. What we have done in recent years is we are gradually introducing what we call a guided curriculum. Which means that all of our programs undergraduate and postgraduate are slightly more structured. And so you usually start with some core compulsory modules, and only then you have the sort of you know options to choose your modules that interest you. If you are going to apply for these programs, you will be asked to create a personal statement, and that really is a very important piece of information you provide us, because in your personal statement you will introduce to us what are your interests what is the focus of your study you intend to do it so us. And that leads me to the point which you can see at the bottom of the screen, you will really need to identify one of the sort of disciplines. You will need to identify the thought modules as your major, the design, the designation of a major module is slightly sort of Floyd but essentially what it means that you should be done doing your dissertation research linked to that particular major module. There is a certain stone because obviously many of our students who come, they have certain intention certain plans, and then they start attending thought modules, maybe their interest shift slightly or the more general research they were proposing later obviously slightly and change so they can modify it so it doesn't mean that if you actually you know designate something at the beginning as your main major module that you cannot expand it or somehow modify it. But broadly speaking, you know if you are coming through area studies program in South and Southeast Asian studies then you probably already know that you want to focus more on the art and archaeology or on politics and development study so that's the sort of decision you have to probably take already when you are applying to source. So here I have sort of listed the sort of basic structure of a Southeast and Pacific Asian studies but the structure is very similar for the South Asian studies option. So you have the dissertation, and then you have this sort of component so you take a language. So you have the dates of language in year one. And then you make up the rest with the sort of specialized disciplinary modules and from next year so that's presumably when you would be joining us. We have introduced a new core module that is going to be taught to all area studies programs taught in our department. This is called remapping area studies in Asia Africa and the Middle East. I think I have some information on it. Just jump slightly so, so this is this module and, and this is essentially a sort of theoretical introduction to the study of Asia Africa and the Middle East, the area studies approach. So it's sort of module which considers issues of what it means to do, you know, to study a particular region. How does the region relate to the global, how does the region relate to the Western. How has the area studies evolved and changed as a result of the sort of globalizing developments all over the world, etc. So, so it simply forces you to somehow engage with the region in a slightly theoretical, philosophical way you are sort of made to consider the sort of global issues, general issues that you will then really face when you study a specific particular region. If you don't study the region in complete isolation. Of course, you will need to consider the sort of the globe as well. So I go just back to the presentation so this is a sample of a of the year one year program and my Southeast and Pacific Asian studies. And sample structure I have here, as you can see this is sample structure of version with the intensive language so a two year full time study. So as you can see you sort of really divide all the credits between two years. Here you have the compulsory core module I just introduced remarking area studies. Then you have the language options, and then you have the other options from the sort of disciplinary themes. So obviously go for your summer abroad.  So this is the sort of basic structure. This information is online so please you know if you are interested, then look at it in more detail. The disciplinary options the modules that you can actually select to make up the sort of 60 credits and etc. So our online section for these programs, you have actually list of the various modules that are linked to Southeast Asia taught around source and in the various discipline departments. And just to say that obviously, you know we are constantly sort of updating updating our syllabus, which means that, you know, new modules are being created in around source. Obviously always try to make sure that the list of options is updated amended certain modules obviously cease to exist. So, you know, the list of options is something you would have to have a look at before you know taking a decision. I should probably at this stage also say that you can study all of these programs either full time or you can obviously study them part time. The one year MA Southeast Asia South Eastern Pacific Asian Studies program and MA South Asian Studies programs, you can study them over two years if you want. We also allow you to study them over three years. This is obviously a particularly beneficial to those of you who want to study while working. And the question I often get asked is, you know how how is it divided you know is the division between the three years done arbitrarily you use sort of told what to do. It's entirely up to you. So if, for example, you know that one year you are more busy you can just take fewer modules, fewer credits, you can then make it up next year so what we obviously are concerned with is that at the end of the study you obviously have completed all the credits necessary. Another question I get often asked is about, you know the timetabling for these programs and whether it is possible to, for example, commit to just one day of study or one day of coming to us. And this is something which obviously I cannot really guarantee I cannot give you any precise answer. It really depends on how the modules you select are actually timetabled. Normally we publish a timetable or at least a draft timetable for the following year around, let's say early May, late April early May. If you were to apply from September 2022. And if these issues of how many times a week you would have to come to us are significant significant for your decision, then please get back in touch with us email me or my colleagues. And once we have the draft timetable, we can, you know, see how the modules you would have wanted to study how how the timetable would work for you or not. So for that, please, I cannot really give you a more specific advice now. Okay. So I have already mentioned that the our area studies programs are based the require that you take a language as one of your options. We have a huge expertise. So as is really the main university in the UK which offers the largest and selection of modules on in languages of Asia Africa and the Middle East. We have additional expertise. There are many other languages that we actually don't teach but we obviously have experts so we research them or they can be actually incorporated into your dissertation if you need it to. So our colleagues wrote textbooks and and linguistic studies so we really have a very long history of engaging with languages. And some of the languages that we currently offer. So for Southeast Asia we offer Indonesia and Vietnamese Burmese and Thai, but for next year we will only run Indonesia and Vietnamese for South Asia. We have Hindi Sanskrit or Bengali. I can definitely confirm that we will teach Hindi and Sanskrit. But the moment cannot confirm if we will teach Bengali or do. Prakrit is usually offered every year because we have external funding and language program in Prakrit is sponsored by donors. I obviously ask my colleague, Nareesh Sharma to tell you a little bit more. If you opted for the MA Southeast and Pacific Asian Studies program, then for the Pacific Asian Studies part, you would be able to study Chinese Japanese or Korean. So if you were to take the intensive language version with MA South Asian Studies, then that can also be combined with Persian, Turkish, and Swahili. So we really have a wide choice. Obviously, we often get students who are not complete beginners in these languages. So it is possible to start from a level to, for example, language module, but we would normally do is we would sort of test you and determine if you can actually join the upper level of a language class. So it is possible to join with an existing knowledge of a language. So some abroad, so the period of study abroad, we cooperate obviously with regional universities and I have listed some of the places where our students go. So, as you can see, you have for Hindi, we usually send our students to Jaipur or Indonesia and Bandung or Georgia Karta, Pune is Sanskrit, Lucknow, Urdu, Vietnamese, we can send our students either to Ho Chi Minh City or to Hanoi depending on their preferences. So speaking, it would be also possible to somehow divide your period of study abroad between two places that would have to be obviously discussed and agreed on an individual basis. In the last two years, our study abroad programs have been disrupted by COVID. So some of our students were not able to go. Some period of study abroad happened actually through distance learning online. We are very hopeful that our students will be able to go abroad this summer and that the following academic year will not be disrupted. What else do I need to tell you? I think I have said all the main sort of formal aspects. Yes, I wanted to also slightly introduce, you know, so us. We, as I said, we are an institution that specializes in the study of Asia Africa and the Middle East. We have a very long history of engaging with these regions, and we have also enormous resources to support the study of these regions. We have a beautiful, incredibly richly stocked library, which is one of the national research libraries of Great Britain. We cooperate with libraries in the region, so we obviously collect resources. We work very closely with the British Library, which basically those of you who know London, you know that we are relatively close to each other. So the cooperation is very, very useful. We also obviously are very close to the British Museum. We have many other sort of institutions that are linked to the region such as the Royal Asiatic Society and similar institutions. For these institutions, you know, we work with, we organize a series of seminars, talks, various corporations and exchanges.  Inside SOAS we also have regional centers. So we have a Center for Southeast Asian Studies and we actually have South Asia Institute. So these sort of centers are really focusing on sort of, you know, facilitating exchanges on the particular region. So we organize talks, we have seminars, series, our students are obviously asked and encouraged to attend. Usually weekly seminars. Obviously this is just the regional centers which are sort of linked to the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, but each disciplinary department has also its own disciplinary center and they also have a range of seminars. So on a typical day when you are at SOAS in the late afternoon, you would have enormous number of opportunities to network, go to lectures, workshops, etc. So we obviously always encourage our students to get involved as much as possible. Another issue that perhaps you are interested in, it's the career destinations of our graduates, postgraduate students. We have a really very, very varied profile of students who come to us and their careers. So it's very difficult for me to give you a very typical example. Some students who come to us, they already come with different experiences. Some come straight from finishing their first degree. Others have traveled or lived in the region, maybe they worked for a charity or some NGO. They are involved in some projects and after spending a period of time in the region, they want to somehow gain more formal education in that region. So certainly we have students who want to teach, we have many students who go to the foreign office and civil service in general. We have journalism or publishing editors. We have students who set up their own publishing house, for example, just to give you an example. Of course the NGO sector is a very popular destination for our graduates. Those who do art archaeology or religious studies very often work in the area broadly linked to the sort of heritage and various museums and similar institutions. But also we have students who simply go to somewhere which is not obviously linked to the modules they talk but they actually go and work in businesses. They may be accountants or they may be regional experts for a particular business. We obviously have many students who then continue and join various graduate training schemes. And also there is a group of students who obviously are keen to explore the knowledge of the region further and then they would go further to do further studies and ultimately to enroll in MPL and PhD programs. So it really is sort of a varied range of careers. I think it is very important to realize that the skills our students learn are really the sort of typical transferable skills that you gain from being at doing a master's programme. And the fact that they specialize in something which is more niche, more unique, more unusual is usually a very useful qualification for them. It opens up more doors because potential employers are actually quite impressed by the fact that you did something slightly different that you engaged with a region which is not so sort of mainstream and so broadly studied. I always give an example of one of my students who was very much interested in Vietnam and my expertise is in Vietnamese studies and he actually was interested in the cultural studies of Vietnam so taking modules in Vietnamese cinema or Vietnamese literature. And then he actually went to work for a very famous global business company and he used to tell me how the very long interviewing process for the job actually involved a lot of talking about Vietnamese literature or culture that he was able to actually use this knowledge to impress his interview, the interviewing panel and actually show that you know he possessed a very unique skill set. So, I think I will stop and what I will do is I will ask my colleague Noreshama to perhaps you know at what I might have forgotten and talk a little bit about South Asian studies, and I will check the chat in the meantime, and see if I can answer any questions. So, thank you. Thank you, Dana. And welcome again everyone. Yes, as Dana mentioned, if there are any questions, please do add them in the chat. And yes, thanks. Thanks for the talk, Dana. I think Dana has actually covered everything in, you know, there isn't really anything for me to add. The idea of the structure of the degree and the types of modules that we cover, the languages that are taught, the locations where the summer abroad might take place, and also a little bit about the dissertation, Dana has mentioned, and then, you know, ultimately career studies of students that take our MA programs. So, if anything, I can just mention something again about the languages because that's my expertise I teach Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi. So, if you are taking the one year degree, you might take one of those languages if you're taking the South Asian studies degree, or alternatively we have Bengali students also take Arabic or Persian or even Swahili. And then if you take the two year option, again, students would normally take Hindi, Urdu or Sanskrit with the summer abroad taking place at one of the locations in India with our partner institution over there. And yeah, so there isn't really anything for me to add because your talk, Dana, was pretty comprehensive. And so if there are any specific questions, then please do let us know. And also do just add in the chat if you're specifically interested in South Asia studies or Southeast Asia and the Pacific region, that would be good for us to know. And also, yeah, any questions, please let us know. Yes, please, if you have questions, I hope that you can actually speak to us that you have access to activate your mic and just ask or obviously you can put the question in the chat. So please. Any questions, anything we have not covered. I may can have a question because I do have students ask me because they're interested about the South Asian study and intensive language. So they, they're interested to study Hindi and Sanskrit, so whether they can choose like both language in this program. Okay. Yeah. Dana, maybe you could just confirm the structure, whether two languages are allowed. Yes, they are allowed, but obviously, you know, we have to be sort of satisfied that you can cope with, because what on the intensive language you obviously have to have one of your languages as your main language. It's not really the main one but you can then add in the second year another language module. And yes, we do get students who are real linguists who really are very passionate about the study of languages that's the only thing they want to do. So, yes, formally it's allowed, but obviously this has to be sort of approved or discussed on a one to one basis and by judging the specific sort of knowledge you have. Okay, so one day submit the application on their personal statement they need to mention which language they want to study as a main language in the program. So they need to decide when they submit application right. Yes, because you yes you need to sort of in on your application you have to designate the language which is going to be the intensive language you are coming to study. And then you can obviously use some of your open credits to take another language. But usually we don't recommend that a student starts to languages at the same time from scratch. Yeah, so as Dana mentioned you might start one in your first year and then take one in your second year. Or if you already have knowledge of say for example Hindi, you might go into Hindi at level two and start a Sanskrit at level one so you're not at the beginners level of both at the same time. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And, and the other questions, perhaps there's one thing which I forgot to ask and that's when when you need to apply or what is the deadline, etc. I think officially we say that the deadline is the 30th of June of each academic year, but we consider applications even throughout the summer. So, if some late application comes in we certainly consider the application. Another question which I get asked is if you have to have some. If your first degree had has to be sort of linked to the area you are proposing to study which obviously it doesn't have to, you can come to us and select these programs with essentially any background. There's also the entrance requirements. We obviously require that you have a first degree. Ideally to one, but we look at applications that are to tool. Essentially we really consider every application because we from our experience we have such a variety of applicants, people who are maybe mature students people who have very unique. Existences, having lived in the region, etc. So, we look at all applicants, and we, you know, make our decision on each specific application. So, even if you are not sure whether you know you have good enough credentials. I would encourage you to, you know, either apply or to get in touch with us and ask and check. Okay, so nobody is volunteering and nobody's saying in the chat, which of the programs you are interested in. I suspect that, you know, there will be more of you interested in salvation studies. Yes, please. Thanks. You know, so not for a linguist linguistic student, but anyone who's interested in South Asia, and would like to pick up one of the language modules. Is it kind of mandatory to travel to India Pune, wherever you listed, or they could still be in London and study. That's my question. You mean for the for the summer abroad if you wanted to do that. Well, presumably, yes, I mean at the moment our program is, you know, the summer abroad is the summer abroad period so what are you thinking you would not want to go to India or Is it kind of mandatory or like is an optional I think the MAs South Asian and intensive language version it is compulsory to go to the period of study abroad. I don't know of course you know we this year as I said we had to deal with many special circumstances so you know we consider some mitigating circumstances if somebody really did not want to do go, but we would then have to make some alternative programs. I guess it would have to be some distance learning or online learning so that would have to be very serious reasons. You know, when that we would obviously somehow consider that otherwise, the study abroad is compulsory within that program, not on the MAs South Asian studies on the one year one. And you know what's your interest in particular then in terms of the language study that you're keen to. Yeah, thanks. I was, I'm kind of planning to enroll for history of architecture, but then I saw one of the modules was also like I could pick up one language, which could be relevant. And this is for a one year degree. So if it's just the one year MA that you're taking the study abroad is not part of that. It's only if you're taking the two year intensive program, which has the summer abroad. So if you're taking a one year degree, then you take one language module and there's no requirement to go abroad. Okay, thank you. And also some students actually take their one year MA part time over two years. And so they might take language level one in the first year of their degree, and then language level two in the second year, as long as they get permission from their learners, if it's allowed within the structure. You know, that that can happen as well. Yep. Yeah, any other questions. I'm Hussein I see, do you have your mic on did you have a question. I'm not sure. Or maybe you're not connected to the audio. Yes. So your sound is not coming through put your question in the chat. If you have a question we can try and answer that. And anyone else have any questions, please do, you know, raise your hand or put your mic on and please ask us, or put something in the chat with, you know, try our best to help to answer. In any case, you know, I want to encourage you to simply get in touch with us in the future, because you know you've got some basic information from us today but you may have think of more specific, you know, questions later. Our email addresses are online, you know, on the website. We really very much encourage you to get in touch with us because then we can obviously answer any specific queries from you. I've just added my email address in the chat as well so if there are any questions about South Asian languages or the South Asia programs then please let me know if I can answer your question directly I will do if I don't know the answer I'll find out and get back to you or put you in in touch with someone who can help if there's a specific question about a particular module. Then, yeah, you know, I can always direct you to the right person. Yeah, that's a very good point because sometimes students obviously see the type of a module. It sounds interesting but then they actually want to know more. So we can certainly help you, you know, dig deeper beyond the website and find out more information about particular modules. I guess today's session is recorded so you can find us this session on YouTube as well after several days we'll upload to YouTube. Thanks everyone in case we need to finish the session like soon because we have other sessions coming up. And I'm happy to meet everyone today and thanks for Dan and Narish for your answer and questions. Thank you. Okay, well, thank you all for coming, listening to us and allowing us to introduce our programs to you. So I hope to see you at source at some time in the future. Thank you. Thanks everyone. Bye. Bye. Thank you. Bye-bye.


9 Things You Should Work On In Your 20s If You Want To Be Successful If you ask some old folks what they wish they had done differently or better with their lives, a number of them would say they wish they'd learnt earlier on in life what to do with their 20s. They would have done it and been in a better place now. The truth is that your 20s are a crucial part of your life because the choices we make at this stage of our lives holds the foundation for our career, health and relationships. To make the right choices however requires being well informed so that you make the right decisions, the right investment and also take the right path to becoming successful. In this video I'll share with you 9 things you should work on in your 20s if you want to be successful. If you're new here, consider subscribing so you won't miss other interesting videos like this. 1. Learn To Be Proactive About Your Living Successful people understand that to achieve any goal in life, one has to be proactive. Nothing in life happens just like that, everything is a consequence of an action. For instance, if you want to become the world's most popular artist, then you have to set goals and strategic plans to achieve this. Take these goals one step at a time until you've achieved your overall goal. Without setting those goals and putting plans in place, you may never achieve your dream. Even if you turn out to be the best musician with the best voice and the best lyrics ever, without being proactive about how you intend to succeed in that field, you won't be successful. Brian Rogers' loop said, Do what today others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't. Also, according to George Bernard Shaw, the people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them. 2. Be willing to learn and grow It's easy to assume you are open to new ideas and knowledge when in the actual sense you feel contented with what you have. Choose to become a lifelong learner by constantly reading and learning to develop skills you probably wouldn't be taught at school. Don't stop learning. Don't stop reading and exploring the world. For instance, you could learn effective communication skills, networking skills and the like. Keep learning and making daily research about your field, and if it means going to get a formal education to achieve this, why not? Eric Schmidt, former CEO and now Executive Chairman of Google, spent many years of his life studying, from an undergraduate degree to a PhD in computer engineering, and according to him, part of his inspiration came from his campus life. 3.  The people who you surround yourself with will go a long way to determine how much you are willing to push yourself to succeed. You cannot hang around people who constantly fill you with negative energy, and make you feel bad about yourself and your capabilities, and expect to bring out the best in you. No way. Ben Casnocha, a tech entrepreneur and author who worked closely with Ryde Hoffman, founder and chairman of LinkedIn, for several years says that the greatest lesson Hoffman taught him was that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time around. You really are the company you keep. So, start right by choosing your friends wisely. 4. Be willing to work Most self-made multi-millionaires when asked will tell you that their success came from lots of hard work. You see, working hard is the only thing that can help you attain the level of mastery in your field that will automatically put you in a place to succeed. Success is a product of hard work, consistency and learning from your failures and mistakes. So, if you truly want to be successful, you must be ready to work hard. 5. Take risks Helen Keller once said, life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. The truth is that if there is no risk, there is no reward. Iveta Cheneva also said, only those who play win. Only those who risk win. History favours risk takers. Forgets the timid, everything else is commentary. Learning to take risks and taking them is one of the best decisions you can make, especially now in that you are in your 20s with no family responsibilities and all that stuff. 6. Create multiple income sources Creating multiple sources of income is a good way to develop the attitude that puts you, not your employer, in charge of your income. As a matter of fact, almost nobody got wealthy by simply working for someone. Little wonder, millionaires today are said to have at least seven streams of income, which they pretty much started acquiring in their 20s. 7. Start saving money It's very tempting to lavish money, especially when you do not work too hard to earn it. It's easy to put off the idea because you are still young and all that you want to do is to spend as much money on the things that matter to you. But do you know that millionaires are frugal people? They are people who spend less, try to earn more by increasing their income streams and eventually save a lot of money. Again, your 20s are the best times to develop good money habits, like learning how to save, because you are without so many responsibilities. So, it's easier to save than when you get older, with so many things to do. You can save for retirement or emergency funds. 8. Start investing Not only should you save towards retirement, but your financial freedom. To achieve this, you have to save for the sake of investment. Dave Ramsey, an American radio show host, author and businessman, said, financial peace isn't the acquisition of stuff. It's learning to live on less than you make, so you can give money back and have money to invest. You can't win until you do this. If need be, get a financial advisor who can guide you on the best ways to invest or could take time to do intensive research if you cannot afford a financial expert. 9.  You can't achieve anything in life if your body or health is in bad shape or condition, which is why it is important to live a healthy lifestyle. A Buddhist saying says, To keep the body in good health is a duty. Otherwise, we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear. To be successful, you have to be intentional about your life and the choices you make. Following these tips here will help you maximise your 20s and put you up for success. Thank you very much for watching our videos. If you like this video, watch more videos on our channel and subscribe. We love you.


What are you doing I'm singing karaoke. I'm singing karaoke, and what is your name? Shauna bear Shauna bear what Lee shaman Shauna bear Lee shaman, and what are you going to sing for us tonight? Shauna bear Lee shaman I Can't help falling in love with you. How old are you? Ten and a half who picked the song out? Cheyenne Hi Cheyenne. They're shy bear There's Poo bear. Hi guys a little bit of open mic night tonight So let's get this on the roll. How's that sound? so How's it sound good? Okay, so whenever you're ready you tell me and I'll start this Okay, you ready all right seem real comfortable you are awesome. Okay awesome job Now tell me something Is that the first time you ever karaoke did second or you did a practice? Yeah, that's when I decided to videotape you So tell me something How do you know every word to that song because when I was younger before I went to bed? my dad Shea berry used to play it for me. He did Yeah, that's how you know the words. Yeah, how did you know when to hit it right on the No, I count like every beat you do Well, that's very good. And thank you for your entertainment. We appreciate it All right. Thanks for choosing the song Cheyenne. Thank you. Poo bear Thank you And she bear I'm gone. Thanks ladies


Welcome to my effortlessly chic, pre-for lookbook for 2021. With all my favorite outfit ideas I should be wearing. It's definitely been a strange summer and not just for the obvious. I think it's fair to say that the weather has been all over the place of late. Some addresses in April, raincoats in May, jumpers in June, and a combination of all three recently. There's times like these that those transitional pieces can really come in handy. So that's what I'm gonna be delving into today, starting those transitional outfit ideas that you can reach for whatever the weather. Also, today's video has very kindly been sponsored by Neiwai, a beautiful company specializing in the most comfortable lingerie and lounge wear that I've tried in a long while. So I'm very excited to share all the pieces I chose from their new collection a little bit later in this video. At the end of this video I would be really grateful if you could not only follow the link to have a look at Neiwai's collection for yourself, but also to subscribe to this channel if you're not already. Along with liking videos you enjoy, that is honestly one of the best ways you can support independent creators on YouTube. Okay, let's dive straight in with my 2021 pre-fall look book. The first outfit idea is something I've been styling in every which way recently, depending on the weather. The key for me with this look is starting with a good and comfortable base, i.e. one of my favorite pairs of trousers paired with a simple tee. And then you can play with it from there if it's hot or cold or torrential rain, for example. So as you can see, I've layered my Parisian-style blazer over the top, but I think it would work just as well with a boxy coat if you needed it, or even a big chunky knit if it's feeling super arctic out there. Equally, if you wanted that smartness, but it's a little bit too hot, you could just pair it with a simple camisole top underneath. That way you're giving yourself lots of breathability. It's just a very simple and light layer underneath your blazer. For prefall, I've switched out a lot of my sandals for ballet flats and boots instead. Here I'm integrating my super soft camel version and then keeping it everyday chic with my oversized tote. The bigger the better as it happens for the autumn, winter, 2021 trends, as we will see, as we move further into the season. What I really love most about prefall collections is their timeless appeal. They're often the perfect crossover piece that will work in all the seasons, which seamlessly brings me to my next outfit idea. Mutable dress created by one of my favorite Parisian brands, Sandro Paris. After much lusting over their new collection, I decided on this dress because I thought it would be the most versatile in my own wardrobe. Slightly chint style florals are another big trend for this autumn, winter. So looking ahead, I knew it would tick that box. Split here and short sleeves means it will work nicely for the heat. But equally, it could be layered with a pair of tights, a cardigan, a pair of ankle boots for when it's cold. And then of course, just on an aesthetic level, I just love the shape, the feel, the whole vibe of the dress. That shoulder detail is just so beautiful and really original, and it kind of reminds me of those very old school Parisian t-dresses that I often talk about. I'm literally covering all bases in this outfit idea, and I'm feeling effortlessly chic while I do it. But hopefully you all love this one as much as me, but do let me know in the comments section below. And one big factor to making your outfits look and feel effortless is about comfort. If you're not truly comfortable, it's really hard to look it. And that really starts from the ground up. What you're wearing underneath will always make a huge difference to your overall look. Which brings me to today's sponsor, Ney Y, a fashion brand that has perfected what it is that makes women feel truly comfortable with their second skin lingerie and loungewear. So firstly, I chose a couple of pieces from their barely zero range. A collection of lingerie made from their deliciously sounding fabric cloud fit, which is very apt as well because it does feel very soft and cloud-like when you wear it. The wonderful thing about these bras is there's no size limitation. Your size is the size. So it will quite literally mold and hold to your very own body shape. Now not only does that feel incredibly comfortable, but it also means you can have that lovely smooth, clean line underneath your clothes. On top of all of that, there's nothing wasteful about name-wise packaging either. Everything arrived in these lovely minimal packages, which are made from 100% recycled materials. On top of the barely zero collection, I was also really keen to try out the original and best-selling wireless triangle bra. It's been made from this beautiful blend of subpoena cotton, tansel and modal, which just makes it really, really soft. And again, a bit like the barely zero collection, I think because it's so comfortable, it's going to end up being one of those everyday sets for me. Now, not only do you know I have a beautiful collection of really comfortable lingerie, they've got loungewear, daywear, but they also have a fantastic range of active wear as well. So I very gladly chose a couple pieces from that collection too. So I went for the sculpt full-length leggings in this lovely blue shades that they call Monument, and then the matching sports bra as well. And then to finish off, I went for the yoga pants because I just thought they were such an interesting shape. It's very original, nice, a slit detail down the side of the leg there, so you've got a bit of breathability. And that really nice, frill detail across the back, making them feel a little bit different. They would work alone, obviously, but as a set, I do think it's really pretty. So that's some really beautiful, high quality and comfortable pieces from Neiwai that I feel very lucky to have in my wardrobe. Don't forget at the end of this video to follow the link in the description box below to discover their full range for yourself.  Now, when I think about my perfect pre-fall combination, it would look something like this, similar but different to outfit number one. A great fitting pair of trousers, slightly loose, small, low-slung rather than high, paired with a simple but contrasting fitted top.  It's a lot to do with contrast, both in shape, fit, and fabric content. Transitional weather has the tendency to throw a real spanner in the works. You could be wearing a very pretty dress and you head out to town and suddenly you have a torrential, waning downpour. So thinking about all eventualities with the weather will definitely stand you in good stead. Though as you can see, going for something slightly looser on my bottom half does make me naturally want to go for something a bit tighter fitting on the top, giving me more definition and it helps to elongate my shape. Sorry, a little chocolate interlude, but my lovely friend Karen, who I've mentioned to you before, she runs the brand by committee. She just stopped by and bought this amazing chocolate cake for the boys, which as you can see, in two minutes flat they've already tucked into and may have just had a tiny bit and it's absolutely delicious. So yes, as you can imagine, that went down a storm with the boys. Okay, where was I? Back to looking effortlessly chic this pre-fall and you can never really go wrong with beige, white, or creed knitwear. There's just something about it that instantly makes me feel more stylish and polished and you don't even have to go with a full tonal look either, just a jumper or a cardigan in that shade seems to be enough to really elevate an outfit. So thinking about mixing my high and low pieces, I've gone for a bit of everything with this next outfit and it's definitely ticking all my wearable boxes. I'm really enjoying styling these deep camel travels with just about anything, but I particularly like them with lighter tones. And of course that doesn't mean they just have to be saved for warm weather. The cotton on these is definitely heavy enough that they will work well for autumn too. And styling them with a fluffy knit, I think not only looks really lovely together, but it makes those trousers work even harder for me. Now though there's something really gorgeous about chunky knits styled with sandals or flip-flops even in that very LA laid-back kind of vibe, I decided to channel a bit of practicality, probably much needed, with my lovely suede ankle boots instead. The color fits pre-fall perfectly and to say they're comfy would be the understatement of the year. Now before I show you this next lookbook outfit idea, I will say I know this one isn't going to be for everyone. However, I put it together so naturally that it felt like me straight away. And that's often the trick when it comes to styling a great outfit. It doesn't have to be on trend. It certainly doesn't have to be expensive, but when it really feels great, chances are it looks it too. So this is my wildcard mishmash. A host of pieces I've collected along the way that really suit my personal style. Thinking of that transitional period and giving myself options, I've layered a black vest underneath that coffee sweater. Loosely tucking that just at the front of those pleated linen trousers. I've given them a turn up just to add to that relaxed vibe and then I've added one of my other favorite pairs of ankle boots with these very distressed ones I got from All Saints. These are so old and I bought them second hand as well. So even older, but I love them. They're brilliantly battered in that lovely lived in fashion. And though I know this look isn't going to be for everyone, I personally really love that. Bo-ho essence that they add to an outfit. It's easy, it's versatile and oh, so very comfortable. A very me kind of look. While summer might be my favorite season, there is something quite exciting about getting to integrate all my lovely blazers again. They're just easy fixes when you're not sure what to wear or what the weather's going to do. Here, as you can see, I'm making good use of this military style blazer that I got from another favorite Parisian brand, the Koopals. Now this one is old, so it's sadly not in stock. However, I would advise at the end of this video, having a look at their collection in full because they always do the best blazers. They're always very original, beautifully made, kind of blazers for life really. Now it's pretty structured and I went true to size, so there's none of that usual slouch that I like a lot. However, saying that, it is a statement blazer and I absolutely love it. It's one of those pieces that I think I will have forever. So to contrast with that polish, I've gone nice and chilled on my bottom half with my girlfriend jeans that I actually got from Sazam. I bought those a while ago too and although Sazam don't have a huge amount of stock of any one piece that they bring out, but they come in and out of stock throughout the year. So it's worth keeping an eye on their website or keeping an eye on my channel for the next time that they're released. They're continuing that super chilled everyday feel I've gone with my golden goose trainers on my feet. They were a great buy actually. I did think twice whether I should really spend 300 pounds on a pair of distressed looking trainers, but proof is in the pudding really. I've worn them so much since I got them a couple of years ago that they were definitely worth the pennies for me. I couldn't do a pretty full lookbook and not include at least one tonal look. What I love about tonal looks is that everyone can do it and it has the same effect with us all. Whatever your natural style, your shape, your budget, a tonal outfit will always have that magic effect. Here I've come with my white jeans I bought at the start of summer, my oversized linen shirt, taupe pointed flats and a sprinkle of deep navy with my jumper over my shoulders. If you don't want a big knot at the front or it's too bulky, I'll either tuck those sleeves into each other to hold it together or use a bubble instead.  My numero set in two-tone camel is the finishing touch here and I actually really like that mixture of textures together from the fluffy alpaca with my jumper to the linen, leather and denim. It adds interest and detail really subtly which is something I try hard to achieve particularly when I want my outfits to feel effortless. I've really enjoyed styling these pre-fall outfit ideas for this lookbook so I'm really hoping that you found it helpful and it's given you lots of outfit ideas as well. If you did want to support this channel I would be very grateful for a thumbs up and if you're not already subscribed that would be lovely too. Do make sure that you tap all notifications on the drop down menu and it's annoying I know but that you've got notifications turned on for YouTube as a whole otherwise you won't get them. That way you will never miss a video. Don't forget to click the link in the description box below and have a look at the beautiful collection from Neiwai and if you do decide to purchase something I have that 20% off discount code for you there as well. Thank you as always for all your likes, your comments, just lovely general chit chat going on. I'm always really grateful. I've got more fashion outfit ideas and styling tips coming up next week so hopefully you will join me then. Have a great week everyone, take care.


Bismillahirrahmanirrahim Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen Thumma Salatu wa Salamu Alaa Ashrafil Anbiyaa wal Mursaleen Habibi Ilaha Al-Alamina bil Qasim al-Mustafa Muhammad Dear viewers, Asalaamu Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh Alhamdulillah, by the grace of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala we have started this series of the interpretation, commentaries of the Holy Quran starting with the first chapter of the Holy Quran and insha'Allah will continue to the last chapter, insha'Allah we are still with introduction to this series we asked in the previous episode that why do we need to go back to the Holy Quran for every problem that we have, for every challenge that we face why do we need to go back to the Holy Quran there is a beautiful hadith by Rasulullah Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi which states what will this Quran do to us if we take it as a guide this is the important part, if we take it as a guide not only leaving the Quran on the shelves respecting the Quran, making sure that the Quran doesn't fall on the ground make sure no kids touch it and we come to it once a year during the month of Ramadan making sure that we read it cover to cover understanding it or not understanding it but we make sure we read it this is not the purpose of the Holy Quran the purpose of the Holy Quran it's much, much, much greater than only reading within the holy month of Ramadan cover to cover and then we leaving it until the next month of Ramadan Rasulullah says man jaalahu amamah qadahu ilal jannah whoever places Quran in front of him takes him as a guide a two guide will be always in the front walks and goes to the, goes and we go behind him because and we probably have when we go to someone's house and based on respect and formality they tell us okay you go in we tell them you know the way you lead, you go and we follow that should be our perspective when we get to the Holy Quran every minute of our life every day of our lives every month, every year, every second we have to leave the Quran to the front of us we tell the Quran you lead you take us and we will follow not we say to the Holy Quran with our action verbally we don't unfortunately communicate with the Holy Quran this way we don't say to the Holy Quran okay Holy Quran you stay on the shelf insha'Allah next Ramadan I'll see you no we don't say it but in our action some of us, not all of us unfortunately some of us we leave the Quran on the shelf until the next Ramadan Rasulullah says whoever places the Holy Quran in front of him what will happen what will be the result what will be the conclusion where this Quran will take us it will guide us it will take us it will lead us to the heaven don't we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala all the time who Allah we want to insha'Allah end up in heaven everything that we do from the wajibad and obligatory act we do it so insha'Allah we will end up in heaven and all the sins that are there that we don't commit and we get away from it it's for us to again end up in heaven and not end up in hellfire if you place Quran in front of you to lead you to take you as we said in the previous episode it has solution for every problem and challenge that we face within our lives and Rasulullah continues this will guide him this act of him putting Quran behind his back will guide him to hellfire this is the guide Quran is the guide which will guide us to the right path to the best path the most convenient and easiest path to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala definitely mean you are completely aware that we mean Quran and Ahlul bayt alaykum wassalam one of the meanings that I was reading within the commentaries of it's that if you remember within the first episode we mentioned that we should not get to Quran having something in our mind basically we put our Quran behind us as a backing our point of view backing our perspective backing our agenda backing our ideology no Quran should be in the front of us for example I remember one day I was surfing the face Facebook I was going and going and I saw a post from a sister that she brought a verse of the Holy Quran that talks about the Hajab she's not wearing Hajab herself I'm not saying right or wrong right now we're just trying to analyze this Hadith and bring it to the life bring it to the life of our talk she said well this verse from my understanding was revealed about the wives of the Prophet and it's about those people those women who lived 1400 years ago it's not about us this day and age in the 21st century so she has an ideology that Hajab it's not wajib and it's about people who lived during the life of the Holy Prophet so she has this ideology she has this concept she has this belief and she comes and she puts Quran behind her back and she wants to prove her point that Quran does not say anything about Hajab it says anything it's about the people who lived during the life of the Holy Prophet this verse this Hadith says when man jaalahu khalfahu saqahu ilan naar don't come to the Quran trying to find verses that will prove your point of view that will prove your ideology that will prove your argument not having complete understanding of the Holy Quran and the Hadith of Ahle al Bayt we see unfortunately many people argue and have a very strong argument to themselves and they say ok well this verse of Quran said so and so this Hadith said so and so well have you read the complete Quran do you understand the complete Quran first of all they don't speak Arabic they don't understand Arabic they cannot read Arabic so they read the translation which some of the translation if let's say some of them not most of them they have not done justice not that the translators were bad no Arabic language and the word of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in Arabic format still people have a hard time understanding it that's why we need the Qalaam and the words of Ahle Bayt a.s right now I read the Quran one or two or three or five or ten or hundred verses of the Holy Quran in English which I'm not sure if I have understood it completely then I bring those verses of Quran to prove my point to someone if this is Halal or Halam Quran said so and so and if you remember our first action plan from the previous episode was that we should not interpret the Holy Quran the verses of Quran based on our understanding we should refer to those scholars who have interpreted the Holy Quran based on the narrations of Ahle Bayt a.s so an action plan the second action plan will be our action plan for this episode will be insha'Allah that everything that we want to say we make sure we find in Quran solution for this issues that we have and we won't go anywhere else we will leave Quran in front of us we will place the Quran in front of us as a guide we ask Allah SWT and the Quran the words of Ahle Bayt a.s you lead us take us anywhere you want me to be or Quran again with understanding of the Holy Quran by the understanding of the narrations of Ahle Bayt a.s this is very important it is very very critical that we place Quran in front of us and we follow the Holy Quran we follow the verses of Quran that requires what? that requires for us to understand the Holy Quran to understand its meanings to understand its interpretation and commentaries of the Holy Quran that is why this endeavor it's coming to you dear viewers brothers and sisters we are trying to because again as we have said in the promo and within the first episode that many youth argue that we don't have access to an English interpretation of the Holy Quran how can we leave Quran in front of us we place Quran in front of us for it to lead us where we don't find the Quran you have a point insha'Allah you will follow us within every of these lectures that insha'Allah will bring the words of Ahle Bayt a.s that explains the Quran so we have more understanding and we see that within the Hadith of Ahle Bayt a.s where Imam al-Baqir a.s says if I told you something if I stated in a statement if I stated in a statement so ask me from the Book of Allah ask me where did I find this and I will tell you this is the verse that I am referring to the words of Ahle Bayt a.s was all based on the Quran action of Ahle Bayt a.s it was all based on the Holy Quran they were the spoken Quran every movement every gesture everything that they uttered it has based in the Quran because Imam said if I said anything to you ask me from the Book of Allah ask me where I got this from the Book of Allah and I will bring the Book of Allah as a reference so it is very very important Rasulullah also states that this Quran it is like a feast a dinner table it is a meal within the Arabic grammar it is the meal that they prepare for the newlywed couple the morning after newlywed couple they get married and they are together the next day within the eastern culture they prepare a good meal for them a good breakfast which has everything in it that one can imagine so Rasulullah says this Quran this is the feast that Allah has brought for you so learn learn it as much as you can learn from this Quran as much as you can take from this Holy Quran don't pick and choose just take as much as you can for example you've been fasting all day and you've been invited to someone's house and they have twenty to thirty different kinds of foods fruits, desserts all whatever you can imagine it's there you just come there and you just take a piece of bread and you just okay this is enough for me Rasulullah says take from the Quran as much as you can another Hadith we are trying we are bringing narrations that emphasizes the importance of reading Quran and paying attention to Quran and understanding from Quran and applying the teachings of the Holy Quran Imam S.A.W. narrates this is in Tafsir Al-Aiyashi Volume 1 Page 5 where Imam says Imam says take care of the Quran learn from the Quran be with the Quran understand the Quran try to ponder on the verses of the Holy Quran and look at the verses of Quran every verse that you see that brings the stories of a nation that they did something and they were rescued apply those if you find a story that has a lesson about a group of people that they did something that they were destroyed don't do it basically what we do for our kids if somebody did something wrong and felt into trap of something and they face a challenge we tell our kids well if you do this this is the challenge that you will face for example very very tangible if we have our kids eating a lot of candies and sugar and we see somebody has diabetes we tell them see this one maybe he didn't eat that much candies or he didn't eat that much sugar but he has this illness in him we say see he ate a lot of candies a lot of sugar and he has diabetes if you eat a lot of sugar and a lot of candies you will get diabetes so Imam saying for lack of better term see the Quran see the verses of Quran that talks about those people who did something and were successful and were victorious and they were they attained and achieved their goal do what they did and if you saw a group of people within the holy Quran their story has been mentioned they are going completely against the will of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and they were destroyed do not apply those verses those actions that they did another hadith that Imam says that Allah didn't give a thing that He would need for his nation until the Day of Resurrection that He sent down in His Book what a beautiful hadith what an amazing hadith where Imam says Allah has not left anything within the holy Quran until the Day of Judgment anything that we are in need of it any problem that we face any challenge that we face any difficulties that we go through until the Day of Resurrection Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has brought its solution within the holy Quran and Allah Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has not left anything that His Ummah this nation it's in need of it until the Day of Resurrection the Day of Judgment except that He brought it within the holy Quran and He brought us He placed for us guidance which will teach us and guide us to the path of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala where He wants us to be for our own benefits let me open the parenthesis here before I go to the next hadith we have to really keep this in mind by us following the path of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala which is the Rasul Allah the path of Rasul Allah the Quran we are not doing them a favor some people when they do something for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala they look at the sky and they say oh Allah did you see this I did this for you we must do everything for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala no doubt seeking nearness to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala no doubt but we should not have the mindset and the mentality that we are favoring Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that we are favoring Rasul Allah that we are favoring Ahlul Bayt we are not by us following the right path we are favoring ourselves we are doing something good for ourselves this hadith of Ahlul Bayt that they try to push us toward and there are tremendous amount of narrations I found but for the short period of time that I have I brought only couple of them how much we see within the narrations of Ahlul Bayt a.s. that they emphasize on Quran go back to the Quran read the Quran understand the Quran memorize Quran try to bring it into your lives and so on and so forth so we are not favoring them so the action plan of this episode will be we will place Quran in front of us to lead us and we make sure we follow Quran by our action not only by reading Quran and putting on a shelf no we will dedicate insha'Allah every day at least bare minimum where Imam says at least read 50 verses of the Holy Quran we read it in Arabic and also a page or two an English translation trying to as much as possible insha'Allah to understand the Holy Quran we conclude this episode by asking Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to hasten the opinions of our beloved Imam Mahdi a.s. ta'ala in the name of Allah the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful Allahumma kulli waliika al-Hujjat ibn al-Hasan salawatu ka alaihi wa ala aba'ih fi hazeh sa'ata wa fi kulli sa'ah waliyaan wa hafidah wa qa'idan wa nasirah wa dalilan wa aina hatta atuskinuhu ardaka tawa'a wa tumatta'ahu fiha tawila barahmatika ya arhaman rahmeen


Thank you so much, Harris, for tying all of the different threads together in this talk. That's a huge job that you did. Thank you so much for that. And so I thought I would throw open, again, the conversation to our panel speakers up here for any thoughts or responses. Go ahead. You go. I was going to start with one question for you, because it's to do with the gender. One of the problems we find when we talk to people in the clinic who are of different gender orientations is the language that we use, and the fact that they're often particularly sensitive about the language, although it's never meant to be anything difficult, and what advice you might have about how we approach that and how we change the way the discourse that we use to try and address the issue. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of very generic advice that's good for, you know, all walks of life that I think is good, which is asking people their pronoun preference and their name preference, not everybody's given name is the name they go by, and that sometimes has something to do with their gender identity. And then the, I guess, it can be irritating, regardless of one's gender identity or sexuality to see, you know, Google's 57 categories choose one every time you want to know what kind of a patient you have. So it, you know, judiciously applying it. But I think very much in the face-to-face context, the, you know, asking people what they, how they identify what name they'd like to go and what their pronoun uses is a really, really good place to start. Fertility patients in general really hate the ways that women's bodies are always failing. And that's all the words to do with failure, sterility and all those kinds of things, which I know that many fertility physicians have talked about themselves and the language use has changed a lot over the years, but that can be something that's just really, can really make you feel down. I've also seen a lot of, a lot of anxiety with male patients around these things to do with masculinity that I talked about, including, you know, real concerns about what it does mean for how people think about them more broadly and how they should think about themselves, which I think don't get enough attention. I mean, they shouldn't be getting any attention, but the issues should be being taken seriously, I think. Okay. I'm sure you do. Thank you so much for that amazing talk. So the thing that struck me most was the way that you wove the biblical narrative in and out of the conversation. And the thing that it reminded me is that there are stories embedded in science, whether they're explicit or implicit. So we heard, you know, a few times reference to science fiction as a kind of over-the-top set of stories that can distort public understandings and public engagement. But I think what your talk sort of brought to the surface was that there are the explicit stories that are, you know, know that they are stories and are presented, but there are all kinds of other stories embedded in how we talk about science. And for me, one of the things that's interesting for us to think about is what if we sort of made those stories more explicit, right? And so it also troubles the binary between what's fiction and what's facts. So I teach a class that I actually miss teaching. My students are maybe they're happy, but I'm meeting with them on Saturday, so I'm that kind of mean professor. They're not. We're going to reschedule. So the class is called Black to the Future, Science, Fiction, and Society. And what we're trying to do is think about the facts that are embedded in science fiction. What kinds of things do they tell us about social reality? But what are the narratives that are embedded in science that we can also bring to the fore? And I think what your presentation helped me sort of think about is that, you know, there are not only the bad stories that we might point to as distorting what people think about science, but let's pay attention to all of the storytelling that happens, even when a presentation or when a headline or, you know, some kind of scientific fact is being presented. There's a story in there that we're being enrolled in. And let's bring those out also and not sort of think of them as separate from science. No, I love that. One of the things that I always, it's striking to me in listening to scientists speak is how frequently people revert to metaphors to kind of articulate certain ideas and those metaphors are really embedded in pre-existing ideas about what a computer means and so what hard-wiring means and all of these things. And so I love that point. Anyone else? I'd like, are both Diana and Allison offered timelines in their talk this morning. And I'm interested in hearing you reflect on this idea that the technologies are moving quickly or not quickly, that the public is shifting in its tolerance over time or resisting. I'm sure there's too many factors to consider, but I'd love to just hear you talk about how the progress is tolerated or enabled. Yeah. So I think that there are some very well-known patterns that happen. There's one common thing people say that I do take some exception to, and that's the idea that ethics is constantly paying catch up to science and technology. I feel as if Plato might have a thing or two to say about that and as if the ethical issues and so on have been around for a long time and continue to develop and continue to be deployed and that it's much more of a back and forth. The technology is new and the application or the response in that context is often new and the specific policy for the new technology is often new. But I think it's misleading to cast the science as the new and then this kind of following role. I think there's enormous social innovation, for example, enormous social innovation to even thinking about making a family, however problematic it might be with 3, 4, 5 biological partners involved in what it is to produce a child. And I think that social imagination is moving back and forth with the technical in mutually very inventive ways that have long histories and are new and inventive. There's a common process that things go through where people are really concerned about them for a while and so they have this window of opportunity for something akin to public discourse and then really often they go through what I call the inuring function where people become, I also refer to it as the end of the beginning. And that early phase is over, we've decided how we're going to handle the things that are most troubling to the society in question about them and it becomes routine, it becomes science as practice and we have a relatively good level of trust in the way that it's happening and things do come up and trouble that and disturb it but there is this sort of window of opportunity at the beginning when people are often quite open to having discussion and I'm really pleased to say that a lot of my scientific colleagues love that period too because it does normalize things, it does decide what the regulatory arenas will be, it does give a sort of robustness and it does put some of the de-risking onto other bodies, onto other people, it gets some of the thinking around well what are we going to do and say about embryos and things and just give me the rules, because we've all got to get on with our work and we want to get on with our work in a really robust way. So I think that there is a definite pattern and it's much harder, I mean it's already much harder to open up any question about stem cell research because we do IPS and use pluripotent stem cells now, by and large we're not using human embryos specifically for that, it's not entirely true but and because we've decided how we're going to deal with, we've made a particular kind of committee specifically for dealing with getting this thing that we're not going to say if it is a subject of research or not, that's the embryo, but we're going to use this concept of acceptably derived to bring those materials into the lab through the right ethical overview, that settles that question, it means that if you like laundered or it's okay by the time it gets to the lab, we've done due diligence, we've done that work, they made it a separate committee in many places because unlike other subjects of research, animals and humans, which have their own histories and their own trajectories and nobody questions whether they're subjects of research, it was precisely the subject hood of embryos that was at stake, but you know I think so that kind of thing happens and then science can go on with a kind of materialization if you like of a lot of debate, concern and commitment of expertise from many people to make it happen, to make practice happen. I think if I can sort of pick up on that timeline because I would probably agree with you that in social sciences, as new things develop in the science and the clinical field, my experience is that ethicists, anthropologists, everyone else do come on board very quickly and get involved with the debate and the discussion, but I think society is much slower than that and I think there are a lot of people out there, politicians, rules and regulations, the vast majority of people who actually don't really perhaps understand the science are not scared by the headlines of the sci-fi, it takes a lot longer for them to change, the church doesn't change quickly because that's delivered by a doctrine that's ancient, so actually taking society along is more than taking academic social sciences along with the science as well. Sort of riffing off that, I like what you said about we continually change our views as we you know as we enter new situations and I think that certainly that's part of the act of science, new data comes in and you might change how you think about that new data and I think one question that I would sort of have for everyone is how do we reconcile that with this very American notion in which people who are flip-floppers and wishy-washy are devalued, right, it's bad to change your mind, you get new data you shouldn't change your mind, right and it's very strange, right, we value somehow, you know I think on this panel we've talked a lot about how you enter a new situation, things could be different, we have to look at things from different view points and of course science is all about new data, how do we incorporate that into this very American way of viewing the world and opinions? I think it's really hard, I think science is really hard as a scientist, I'm always frustrated by what I don't know and recognizing that there's so much that I don't know, some things I might have a suspicion about or I might know well or think something is going, you know, is a certain way and then some new piece of data will come along that will entirely change how we think about something so as an example there is an an ion channel in humans that is a really good target for male contraception but that ion channel, that ion channel is turned on by progesterone but not in mice so all the studies done in mice that ion channel is important but it doesn't work the same way, so much of reproductive biology is done in another species but it may not be applicable to humans and that makes it really difficult to have strong opinions and try to fight with people who are fighting back at you and say well you know why aren't you getting doing more progress, why aren't you doing it sooner, why don't we have this product now and all it's really a very frustrating science that science is frustrating but it's wonderful I mean it's also incredibly exciting I wonder if it's a combination of maybe people need to think more deeply about what they mean by science right so scientific process as opposed to the information or ideas that people are that science has brought us and so kind of that people I think want to believe that well science is something we should trust and it gives us these things that have improved our lives or whatever and we should trust science right like climate science and things like that but if they don't understand how science works which is all about asking questions and trying to get better data a revision of something that people thought was like this is the truth doesn't mean that science is all just kind of hogwash it means that the scientific process is working because we're trying to understand things better and it seems like that's the tricky thing to say believe this science like we've done tests right we should trust us but it should maybe be shifted to you should trust the the process and there's certain you know levels of confidence for certain different types of results I'm positive about this until I learn something new yeah I mean I think so much of what we've been talking about and certainly Jacob's question speaks directly to pedagogy and through K through 12 education and so if we think about what does it mean to be a student so much of the performance of being a student is not about that iteration it's not about creative thinking it's not about changing your mind it's about knowing what's going to come on the test so it's not about you know the the creative process of thinking and inquiry and curiosity and so if the point is and I see the students over there like um yeah no test that's my my take home tell your teachers I said that but certainly if everything that they're doing and I have a ninth and 11th graders so everything that they're doing is about a performance on the test the test is not asking you to think iteratively or creatively right it's there's a one answer you get the wrong answer your test score goes down you get a lower SAT score you have a less likely chance to go in XYZ and so I think we have to think about and so the the greater point here so that's a critique we can all probably probably get on board with I think the greater point is that when we're talking about public engagement in science right to have this conversation to be able to change our mind the seeds of being able to do that start in preschool start in kindergarten this is not something that you round up a bunch of adults and sit down and try to do at this stage I mean it's great that we're doing it but if we're serious about it we have to begin the planning reconceptualizing education to have citizens who can have that conversation in the first place right and so the the larger question also means that for those of us who are in our little corners of you know their little professions for me this is the way that I think about it I need I have my own area of expertise but I have a stake in these larger issues because if I want to have you know the conversations that you know I think are really productive then I have to care about kindergarten education I can't just care about sociology and being a good sociologist right and so to me it's a question of thinking about moving beyond our individual professional identities and having a stake as citizens about how to craft a world and institutions that can make us do our profession with greater effectiveness I don't think we can just be good at what we do anymore we have to have this broader view right great thank you so let's oh a problem that I have with bioethics is that often the process is so much about debate and point counterpoint I'd so much like to have deep listening as central to the process where we listen to each other not with the intent of making the other wrong in our argument but with really deeply listening understanding and appreciating people's back stories people's deep histories people's ancestral histories that impinge and create or inform at least our points of view our standpoints and I okay we'll stop there yeah so I'd like to maybe introduce some some audience questions and we have one question that I think kind of ties back to something that was brought up earlier as regard to science fiction one audience member asked do you think science fiction helps or hinders public perception of reproductive technology because they're powerful stories right and there's lots to yeah do you think it helps or hinders or combination of both overall I would probably say hinders they're great fun and I will read science fiction books quite happily and I'm sure it sells a lot of business for people if they are read on the basis gosh this is interesting this is fun but it's not real then that's okay but unfortunately it's quite difficult for people who don't understand the level of the science that is at the time to understand that it's not real and some you know some of the best science fiction ones are the ones that are maybe nearly real and they're the ones that are most almost most believable and the ones we like best because we know it's just not you know fantasy land we're never going to get rid of science fiction but it really is important for people to make that distinction from the science that we're actually doing because it is it is very difficult to try and make new developments if there are frankenstein headlines on top they are just not helpful for anybody and the consequence of things potentially being banned because people are scared because they've been scared by bad headlines because they've been scared by science fiction because they're being scared by people for lots of reasons saying this is not good is that new science new clinical treatments won't happen and ultimately that's bad for us all because we have to make progress we've always made progress i think there could there could be a counter i mean i in terms of reproductive science science fiction has for some reason been almost unanimously very negative but science fiction can be this interesting place where people test out new ideas about the world without putting them into practice yet and say what would this look like what would this look like and it's sort of a way to do the thought experiment and a lot of ways science fiction actually ends up it ends up inspiring scientists to do new things the most famous example of this is that the the modern communications satellite array was first invented by Arthur C Clark in a science fiction novel so he imagined it came up with it and then he like he actually literally invented it he holds the patent on on communication satellites so i think that there is an opportunity to not just envision something good about the world and then say great this is my vision statement of what i think is going to improve our lives and do something about that it seems though you know because of a lot of the sort of deeply personal issues we talked about during this science fiction and reproductive technology has not gone that way and it's instead been mostly about the negative side effects that might happen as opposed to say you know new opportunities for people to have children and they couldn't before i routinely run talk to researchers who are inspired by science fiction who's either for going into that field or for the particular things that they work on right so we think about science fiction as a reaction to particular scientific fields but as the inspiration and the impetus i think i find that a lot especially with respect to a star track comes up over and over again in my conversations and certainly it was one of my formative sort of representation but i i also think really agree that it's this realm of what if thinking through alternatives so we started the first question with why is it so hard for people to change their minds but i think science fiction is a realm where people can play around with different scenarios before they fully change their mind they kind of follow the rabbit hole and i like it as that this kind of playground for the imagination for us to think through different scenarios before we actually go in that direction so i think of it as a kind of methodology that we can use to tinker and to experiment for me i would i i really love science fiction and i you know i think perhaps the thing to do is to get people to actually read frankenstein like they did here and find out just how much interesting stuff is in there including the kinds of things you're concerned about and i understand that it's the headlining headlinization we might call it of of these terms that becomes particularly troubling that the real work is not being done but i really love science fiction the thing that i would very precisely the reasons others are talking about but the thing i i always want to insist it be combined with is knowing something of your histories you have to know what's gone wrong in the past there no nothing is innocent nothing is perfect nothing is certain and nothing is innocent that you need to know something about the histories but you also need to know the potentialities where are the fault lines in your culture and in your societies what are the things that are going to keep bubbling up and be concerns how do people what do they mean by inclusion what's a polity for them what is it to have voice and if you don't know something about the history as well as having the science fiction if you can't say something about what is possible as well as what might be possible and read those together it's it's i feel almost to the point that it's irresponsible great thank you we have a question from a high schooler it's a very happy question um and allison asks are we cheating natural selection in a sense by making reproduction much more achievable so evolutionarily if humans are successfully reproducing a generation or generations of healthy and law-loving offspring water natural resources be depleted much sooner due to reproductive technologies is there a line between the desire to raise a biological family and the sustainability of humankind technology can interfere and reproduce you know with biology and genetic engineering but it cannot replicate basic human necessities how do we not only create life but sustain it i think that's that's a big touch it i think we've got phd student coming up with it i mean the bottom line is that when you're interviewing introducing reproductive technologies we're changing reproductive history of individuals of populations we've been doing that for a long time we've been doing that with the pill we've been doing it with abortion we've been doing it more recently with the change in time that people decide they want to conceive agriculture and food lots of different reasons we've changed it by getting antibiotics to stop viruses so the whole families don't die of smallpox there are lots and lots of different ways and i don't think at the moment that i would see assisted conception as being any other any any any bigger step in terms of changing the patterns in society than all those other things have been and in fact probably significantly less because most of the big population changes in the world have come with social improvements clean water good food um and and those those things not not um not rvf right i have a question about the question um the two examples i've heard um where a genetic a flaw um affords some value our sickle cell in relation to malaria and cystic fibrosis in relation to the plague are there other examples are we looking for that is that an important question in genetic research the value of genetic flaw a very quick answer if there is if there are other things that are there does it mean that might be harmful does it mean we shouldn't be doing looking at it to developing for the sickle cell so you're looking ahead at the next stage does a potential problem at the next stage mean that we shouldn't be treating sickle cell now right i mean sort of the way that i think about those things is that they certainly could exist and there could be a lot of them but typically um those types of traits arose over hundreds of thousands of years of essentially no modern technology and so you know if if a trade is beneficial when people are not living in houses and don't have clothes and things like that you know it it may not be as event as as uh useful not useful it's maybe the wrong word but it may not be as beneficial anymore and you know it may only be detrimental and whatever beneficial effect it had would be covered by technology that we just take for granted and it's completely basic to our lives these days it's one possibility um we have another question from the audience um in my experience most of the work of having and raising babies and gender inequity happens after the baby is born how can robots having babies help with gender inequity you know that one's for me i will ask my students um the uh there's still a measurable promotion and wage gaps to do with taking any time off to have children and there's still a difference in the amount of the the impact on productivity for the person who carries the pregnancy even in a couple who co are committed to co-parenting one of the there's a couple of very striking figures from the world of academia um one is that uh when men take paternity leave uh they write extra papers and when women take maternity leave they take care of the baby another really really striking finding is that the most productive people um among the faculty are men with um are married men the least productive are married women and they're usually married to each other thank you um so we also have another really quick question that i do want to get to and then we're going to come switch gears and have everyone speak to the the topic of the plenary session um but there was a quick question about us versus uk regulation so strengths and weaknesses of both um and uh and this this questioner was asking if you if especially um professor tomson and and and dr murdoch could mention the differences um regarding ivf and egg donation in the us versus uk and what are the strengths and weaknesses just really quickly the the strength of the uk legislation is that there is legislation and one of the difficulties that you have the worst scenarios is when you have an open free for all and if you have a legislation that you don't like you can challenge it and you can go to court and you can you go go back to parlance and try to change it but when you have a free for all that opens lots of doors to exploitation that are perhaps not quite so good so there is regulation in the us and in a sense there's lab there's lab certification and all kinds of safety things and some fda things and drug testing and things like that there's also a really really extraordinarily interesting history of and current database from which demographic trends with reproductive technologies are collected and which becomes its own basis of data driven activism in the field itself it's also there's also quite a high degree of self regulation and patient advocacy regulation but it doesn't amount to a regulatory system and that's why people refer to it as the wild wild west there aren't hard and fast caps on how much you can pay for certain things and so on and it will surprise everyone English myself included when you come here how great the national health service themes thank you so i'd like to take this moment to just kind of switch gears we've had this wonderful discussion and now we're beginning the plenary session portion of our our evenings entertainment and i would like to ask each of the panelists and maybe each person can can speak on this what are the big um what lies ahead in the future what are the big questions the problems the possibilities and what kinds of that you see on the horizon for reproductive technologies and for yourself having participated in this conference what are the things that you