 Hello friends, my name is Arpata Karwa and welcome back to my channel. I'm going to start today's video by asking you a very simple question. Are you someone who is looking forward to join a B-Owner's English course or a MA English course? Are you someone who is already a B-Owner's English or MA English student? If yes, then this question is for you. What made you choose English literature as your career? Most of the students I interact with on a daily basis choose to pursue a career in English literature because English is most studied language of the world. In fact, 20% of the world population speaks English. And wouldn't we all love to belong to that talent pool that is demanded in every sector of the economy of every country? Any person who can speak fluent English or has the ability to write creatively in English is in high demand. All these reasons encourage us to build a career in English. But in this video, I'm going to burst a lot of myths of students who are really fascinated by English language and want to become fluent speakers. And I'm looking forward to achieve this goal by enrolling in B-Owner's English or MA English course. So in this video, I'm going to talk about three things. Firstly, I'll talk about who should not take up a B-Owner's English or MA English course. Then I'm going to talk about who should actually take a course in the field of English literature. And finally, I'll talk about the real content that is taught in a degree program of English literature be it BA English or MA English. So the objective of this video is to actually burst a lot of myths that students who are not familiar with the curriculum of English literature degree program have in their brain so that they are able to make an informed career choice. I do not want you guys to make the same mistake that mostly people do and they end up regretting the same in the future. Generally, people make the mistake that they start the course with 13 myths in their mind and once they have completed a year or a year and a half in this course they finally realize that the course does not meet their expectation. And as a result, many students drop out before completing the course or they even continue with it without any passion or interest. In either case, they face huge challenges in life and they end up creating a lot of issues for themselves. So let us first understand who should not go for this course. If you are somebody who wants to improve your English language skills you should definitely not enrol in BA Honours English Literature or MA English Literature program. Surprising, right? Friends, you need to understand that there is a huge difference between English language and English literature. Language is related to grammar. It is related to how we speak and all of that. Whereas literature is related to the text written in that language. So all the books, novels and poetry that are written is a part of English literature. English language is not a part of this course. So if you are thinking that you will be taught grammar, pronunciation, big vocabulary words or spoken English in BA Honours English or MA English then it's time to wake up. After spending two or three years in a degree course related to English literature you will not see yourself speaking fluent English. I would not say that your spoken communication will not be better. Definitely, it will become better since you have been reading so many texts in English, you would be writing on a daily basis but all of this would be an indirect benefit that you will derive from the course. So anyone who is eager to become a fluent English speaker should not enter this course with the aim that this course will make them fluent in English. Now let us move on to the second topic that we will cover in this video wherein I am going to talk about those who should go for this course. Now instead of just telling you all about it, I will ask you a bunch of questions and if you answer these questions positively that means you are an ideal candidate to opt for this course. Okay, right? Let's begin. So the first question. Do you love reading novels, poetry, short stories, fiction and non-fiction books? If your answer is yes, then this is the course for you. A person who loves books, who enjoys reading should definitely think of joining an English literature program. Friends, I remember that I used to be so eager to attend English periods, English classes throughout my school days. I used to enjoy it a lot when my teacher would read and explain poetry like Daffodils by William Wordsworth or plays like Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare and those passages, those lines written by these famous writers were instantly imprinted on my heart. Can you believe that as a kid, I used to memorize those lines? I used to go back and read those lines again and again, feel fascinated. I would often wonder how someone could think so deeply about such simple things like a flower like Daffodil. So if you have that kind of love for literature, then this course is just the right thing for you. Another important question that you must ask yourself is if you love reading stories and analyzing these stories from different different angles. This is very very important friends. A lot of us read stories, but we don't bother to interpret the meaning in a degree program related to English literature. You will have situations where every day you will need to reinterpret these stories, these novels, these texts in different different forms. So it is very important that you have this love for interpretation. I'll give you a very simple example. Harry Potter is a very very famous book that all of us have read in our lifetime. Now most people would simply read the book and they would find the story very appealing. But students of literature would look at Harry Potter's life very very minutely. So when they look at this car on the Harry's head, they would interpret it as a badge of honor, as an emblem of having survived a great battle. Similarly, if a literature student will look at the four houses of Hogwarts, each of them having an emblem of an animal, he would pause and think about each animal and how that animal represents the innate nature of the students who are a part of that house. For example, a lion is the emblem for Gryffindor, an eagle for Ravenclaw, a badger for Hufflepuff and a serpent for Slytherin. Now Slytherin is the best known house as an evil house. Why? Because Lord Voldemort was a member of it. So it is no coincidence that Slytherin is connected and associated with serpent. Why serpent? Serpent is one of the earliest symbol of evil, dating back to Satan who disguised as a serpent and entered the Garden of Paradise. So a literature student would look at these my new things that the author might have thought before writing. J.K. Rowling didn't choose Snake as a symbol for Slytherin just for fun. She gave a lot of thought before choosing Slytherin as the symbol. This is what literature students do. They interpret text, they question things. So if you have love for such interpretations, then English literature is perfect for you. Or I would rather say that you are perfect for English literature. If you are not so fond of reading but still love interpreting movie stories, even then you can enroll and be a part of English literature course. Why? Because interpreting movies and interpreting story books are almost the same thing. We all go to movies and we love to discuss them with our friends. Next time you are discussing any movie with your friend, then question yourself. Do you enjoy looking at movies from different angles and like sharing your interpretations? For example, one of my very favorite movies is Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor's Ki Enka. That movie breaks so many gender stereotypes. We see that a Mangal Sutra which is worn generally by married women around their neck was worn as a hand bracelet by Arjun Kapoor. Here the gender role was reversed. He is seen as the homemaker and Kareena Kapoor is seen as the bread owner of the family. So when you notice these small things that the producer or the director is doing and it fascinates you a lot, then you can opt for English literature. And finally, the last and the most important thing that you must ask is whether you love teaching as a profession. Because the most promising career option after studying English literature is to become a professor. If you love teaching as a career, then you should definitely choose a profession like this. I've always loved teaching from a very young age. When I was in class 10, I used to take soft skill classes at a nearby institute. Then when I was in class 12, I taught spoken English to various job aspirants. I was having my own institute at the age of 16 and I was teaching people who are much older than me. But because I loved teaching them so much irrespective of my age, people loved learning from me. And that is how I discovered that I have a dual love for learning English literature and teaching. Friends, this is the reason why English literature is the best possible career option that I could have chosen. So in this particular lecture, as we move forward, I would want to talk about the third topic which is related to the syllabus of English literature. Let me tell you what it consists of so that you know what you will be studying in the two or three years course that you choose. This will help you make a very informed career choice. So basically as a part of English literature, you will be studying the history of English literature. Which means you will be studying the socio-political and cultural background of different periods in the history of UK, that is United Kingdom. And then you would be studying different writers who wrote during different periods and the kind of text that they were writing. Those texts would include poetry, fiction, non-fiction, drama and even short stories. So you will be studying all these different kinds of texts. Further, you will study the life of these authors. Friends, another important thing that you must note is that you won't just study the works of authors from Britain or from America. Whose native language is English. You would also be studying text or literature from across the world, including Indian literature and their translations. So you would be studying the text of writers like Prem Chandra or Kalidas who wrote in Hindi and Sanskrit. Similarly, you will be reading the works of French writers, German writers. And this is because English literature covers not just literature written in English, but also the literature written and translated in English. So if this fascinates you, if this excites you, then you should definitely enrol. And if not, then it's time to question yourself and see what all other career options you can opt for. On that note, I would like to take your leave. I have tried my level best to answer all your questions and I would be extremely glad to see people pursuing the career of their dreams. In case you have any other questions, feel free to put that in the comment section below. Apart from that, I would request you to click on the subscribe button because we are coming up with new informative videos for English Net aspirants every week and we are helping them in their preparation journey. If you are looking for MA entrance, PhD entrance, UGC net, PGT, TGT exam updates, then please follow us on Instagram and Facebook. We regularly post important information related to all these exams on our Instagram and Facebook page. Moreover, we also share quick revision videos on our Insta and Facebook page every Wednesday where we help you revise important topics in just 60 seconds. If you have any questions or doubts related to any of these exams, please don't hesitate to call on the number displayed above. Our office timings are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. You can shoot us a WhatsApp message to tell us what are your queries in the non-officers as well. And my team will get back to you super soon with all the answers. That's it from my side for this video lecture. We'll meet you very soon in the next video lecture. Till the time we meet next, happy learning, keep loving literature and stay tuned to arpitakarwa.com