My Timid Classmates

It is almost incomprehensible that I, of all people, would accuse anyone of being shy or timid. If anything, I should be guilty of the crime, being one who seldom speaks up, and even then only in a small voice. However this is the situation in a particular engineering subject. It turns out that our lecturer enjoys asking questions frequently, which I think is a good idea as the interaction keeps us awake and lets her find out our progress. Unfortunately, our class doesn't like to answer questions, regardless of the difficulty. As a result there were a lot of awkward pauses during the lecture, which did no one any good. Lately I just couldn't stand it anymore, so I began to respond to the questions.

The only reason I can think of for people to keep their mouths shut is they do not know what to say, or are afraid their answers are wrong. Or maybe some people treat lectures as watching TV, and one should be as passive as possible while watching TV except for laughing at funny comments. The same thoughts may have crossed my mind before I speak up, but I try hard to ignore them. I am a student learning a new topic, and I certain don't admit to be the smartest student at that. Who cares if I give a wrong answer? I find myself happier knowing I have contributed and get it wrong, than if I had stayed quiet and congratulate myself silently for getting the right answer.

OK, back to my classmates and my rant of the day. I don't think they are any dumber than I am. One doesn't survive three years of Melbourne Uni with sheer luck. Thus my conclusion is that they are just very lazy, something along the lines of, "let someone else answer it. I'm not even gonna waste my breath..." Oh, it is also no coincidence that over half the class are Asians, and those who do speak up are usually not one of them. Except me, of course.