₦airaland Forum

Predstan:
Bro is this a Masters or a freshman course. Four courses in a semester?

Freshman course bro. You can pick as much classes as you want.

Olalekank:
...we all keep claiming home training

This home training thing is why many of us do not have our own stand but instead have to base all our idealogies on what we hear from church and parents and can't think on our own.

Regarding what the girl did in class, I agree she went overboard but she's been taught to think for herself, and not just follow blindly. Just like following our religious leaders anyhow without asking questions.

We need to train the kids and give them home training, but give them the ability to ask questions and not just gulp anything they're told

You spoke well bro

Hadampson:
Dem no born am wella make she try it for naija. Most oyibo no get manners at all

I dey think how i go take train my children sef

People here get manners bro. Just say for here, if you do anyhow, dem go tell you as e be, them no go hide mouth. I think it’s 50-50 sha. Unlike in Nigeria where once you’re advanced in age, you automatically become infallible, I think our Nigerian society ties old age to common sense which sadly, is not the case.

On the first day of the philosophy class, he informed us that this class was not going to be an easy one. He told us that for this course, his teaching method had to be entirely different from other instructors. He pointed out that over the course of our journey into the world of having an education, when we walk into a classroom, we are given knowledge by the instructors or teachers and told to memorize it, but in this class, there would be no such process. That he was only here to guide us to knowledge and not hand it to us like a cookie. I was like "what's wrong this man"?

On the first day of class, we were close to 24 persons, on the second day, two or three persons had run away already and this would be the case for the duration of the semester.

================================================================================

**At this point, I should add that the educational system here is very different. Before each semester starts, you have to manually register for the courses you want to take, you have to go to the school, fill out a form, pick the courses you want and then register for them. Some classes fill up faster than others because the instructor might be a good one, or the class might be in high demand.
As the semester goes on, if you decide you don't want the class again or you don't like the teacher or the class is too hard for you, you have to go and fill out a couple of forms again and DROP the classes, if you do not complete this process and you stop coming to class, when the semester ends, the school would charge money you for the class and still give you a FAIL grade..

================================================================================


Back to MR Hammond and his philosophy class. One on occassion, when we walked into class, he asked us to define what philosophy was. Me, bubbling with excitement at having done this course in university in Nigeria, shot my hand up and waited to be called on to answer the question. He glanced in my direction and nodded, giving me the go ahead to answer the question. I stood up and gave the same definiton I was taught during my 100 Level in naija. I told the class that philosophy was coined from two words (bla bla bla). After my definition, he pointed out that I had defined what the word "philosophy" was but I failed to define what philosophy is. Thus began my journey into questioning all I had been taught.

Over the course of the class, we read different works by different popular authors, Plato's Theatetus, Descartes' - discourse on method and works of that nature. Before each class, he would tell us to read a chapter or two of a certain book and when we come to class, we would have an all open discussion about the text we just read. One thing he never did was just spout off definitions straight up, he did what he said he would do, which was guide us to the knowledge so we could find it ourselves.

On one occassion, he asked us an interesting question What does it mean to be human? . He then procceeded to point out the similarities between human beings and robots today. He highlighted the fact that for humans, we had what we called a soul and for robots., they had an operating system which makes them run and function they way they do. That day in class, we talked about how Artificial intelligence (AI) was catching up with humanity faster than we cared to admit and left us to ponder that question What does it mean to be human?

We kept up with the conversation and the class got a little bit heated up when we threw in animals to the conversation. Someone brought up a point that animals don't have a soul and the only reason we feel attached to pets is because of habit. One hispanic girl took it personal, pointing out that animals have a soul. She pointed out numerous instances when her dog displayed emotion (crying when she hurt herself etc etc) and that her dog did have a soul, some asked her if she could say the same about cows and other lower farm animals being butchered everyday; the girl vex o. She said if any of us feels dogs don't have a soul, we, along with the instructor had to be "stupid or something", after she said it, she packed her books and walked out the class leaving everybody dumb founded.

I work night shift at my UPS job. My shift typically starts from 10:00 pm to like 3:30 am. i get home by 4 am and sleep till like 9-10 am and then prepare for school. Sometimes, my drive to school is longer than normal and I end up going late for this philosophy class which starts at 11:00 am. This happened throughout the whole semester and towards the end of the semester, someone told me they actually relished me being in class because I always had something to say about each topic brought up in class. The class started with 24 people, but in the end, we were only around 15 or so because the others had dropped it. This class taught me to believe that which I can ascertain by myself to be true, it taught me to question everything and I believe this is what being educated entails.

At the end of my first semester, I was adviced by two of my instructors to join the honor society called Phi Theta Kappa - an honor society for those whose CGPAs were in the range of 3.5/4.0 to 4.0/4.0. I finished this semester with As in all my courses and a 4/4 CGPA

My first semester at Prairie State College was indeed an eye opener for me. I took a total of 4 classes English 101, Biology 100, Philosophy 101 and Psychology 102. These were all introductory courses and coming from a science background, the terms were somewhat familiar to me. I had been out of school for roughly two + years and my brain was somewhat rusty but I caught on fast.

One interesting and wonderful feature the school uses is the online learning webpage called D2L (Desire to Learn)
https://prairiestate.desire2learn.com/d2l/login. Here, in addition to the learning you do in class, all your notes, PowerPoint slides, assignments, class instructions, grades and anything needed for the class are posted by the instructor and as students, you could access the website anywhere even a mobile device.
The two online classes I took were also via this webiste
For the English class, we were basically tested on different aspects of essay writing, our writing prowess and other introductory aspects to writing in general. We were, over the course of the semester given different essays to write about different stuff.
The biology class was also an introductory class into biology for those who were fresh out of high school or those like myself who had been out of the game for a long time.
The psychology class addressed the major aspects of human development, most especially, the theories about development in children (sigmund Freud and the rest).

The class I found most interesting was the Philosophy class. The instructor was a quiet white guy called Mr Hammond.

I left off my previous update at where I was desperate to get promoted at my UPS job and where I was trying to keep up with school work, so that's where I would start off.

First of all, I would like to apologize for the long absence. I won't start giving excuses for this absence, just know that life (school and work) came at me faster than I expected and I didnt plan my time accordingly. At some point during this long sabbatical leave, 24 hours wasn't enough for me sef.

Good thing is, I have handled that phase and I'm here now. You think I was gone forever? Think again

Good morning guys. Today, I start my series of updates.

I haven't run away. I just have a lot going on right now.

I WILL be back. One love

NumeroUno7:
Welcome back... I have been refreshing this page for updates since over 1 week... Hope to see photos of how Christmas was celebrated in Chicago

Thanks bro. How was your Christmas celebration bro?

Merry Christmas guys. The school semester is over and I now have some breathing space, so I’ll be dropping some updates

Lemme read through the thread, gimme one second


**as a headsup, the fastest way to reach me (for now) is by sending me a message on my Instagram page. For this who tried to reach me via email, I’m sorry I couldn’t reply; I’ll try to set up my franknetter email on my phone, it’s currenly accessible on my laptop only. No vex abeg

Your boy needs to sleep, it's 1:11 am in the morning and I was trying to finish up an essay which we are supposed to submit this morning and its supposed to be 5 pages long; I ran out of steam and decided to come here and say hi. I have to go now. See you later guys

Recently, a close friend of mine contacted me that she needed my help, that she was moving to her new apartment so she needed me to help her drive the truck that would be carrying her furniture. Mind you, I have not driven such truck before but I asked her when, she told me a date, I checked my calendar and figured I would be free that day, so I accepted. The day came but I woke up late and saw lots of missed calls from her. I quickly showered, dressed up and started driving to her place, she lives in Chicago southside which is 45 minutes from my house. I got there and met up with her and we proceeded to the place where we would hire the truck, the company is called UHaul. After hiring the truck, we checked the distance and discovered that it would be 1hr 15 minutes drive because the major road we would have followed was closed down due to a major accident, I mad! Since I had promised to help, I couldn't back out anymore. When we got to the place, we loaded the furniture onto the truck and decided to eat something before we start heading back to her place. Right next door, was this place called Mary's Burgers. SO we walked in and sat down.
It was only when we had sat down I discovered that the place is a gay bar. Only same sex couples were seated on all the tables. I tapped her and mentioned this to her and she saw it too. We also noticed the stares from the other persons seated at the place. We had barely sat down when a waiter (or waitress) approached us, handed us a menu and asked us what we were going to eat. I noticed the waiter had a deep masculine voice but feminine features (wide hips, breasts etc); it turns out the person is a tranny.

I ordered a chocolate shake along with fish and chips, while my friend ordered a beef sandwich. The food was good and the chocolate shake was the best I've had since I entered this country. I had to locate the toilet (they call it bathroom here) to relieve myself. I discovered they have three toilets: one for male, one for females and one for people they call pansexuals (or gender neutrals) that is, people who choose that they dont have a gender

When time to pay the bill reached, the bill was presented to us in a koi-koi shoe

Like I said earlier, I thought my promotion would be a seamless process but I was in for a rude awakening. After I passed the supervisor test, I approached the manager again and informed her that I had passed the test, I keenly watched her reaction and I saw she was surprised when I gave her the information. There was one more hurdle to cross, I had to pass another oral test which would be administered by the manager herself. She gave me one sheet of paper containing some information to study, she told me to memorize it and return to her for the final test when I've memorized the whole thing by heart.

It took me a week to study and memorize the whole thing (as a result of school work). When I was certain I had crammed the thing, I approached her and told her I was ready to take the next test and that was when I received the shocker. She told me she would not be promoting me because people came and told her that ever since I had passed the supervisor test, I started "carrying shoulder up" that I don't work as hard as I used to and that my workload has dropped drastically. That she would not promote me until after peak season (January). I was dumbfounded and couldnt speak. I felt hurt that someone would go to this length to make sure I dont get promoted, I could fee my anger rising but I calmly asked her where she got this information from and she gave me two names: one guy and one lady. The most hurtful part of this all is that the guy who went and told her this garbage is the same person who would be acting all nice and friendly to me. This incident showed me that people are not who they seem to be. After this happened, I started keeping to myself more. I was so angry that I almost quit but I held myself, I decided not to make a decision in anger. I waited till I was calm, I weighed my options and decided to let the anger go, wait till January and see what happens.

FrankNetter:
So, as I stated earlier, the reason I put my resignation at my CNA job was that I heard UPS (united parcel services) has a cool program where they cover your tuition fees in exchange for you working for them, the program is called "earn & learn". I filled out the application, online, the hiring process was identical to the one I went through at Amazon. I got the job.

The UPS facility I work at is called CACH which stands for Chicago Area Consolidation Hub. Its HUGE, for comparison, it's much bigger than MMA1 & MMA2 put together. Any UPS package that comes to Illinois or any state around, must come here first. The packages arrive in trailers, we unload, sort and load them according to their various destinations. In a day, we process more than 3million packages. If you have some data to spare, check out this short video on vimeo https://vimeo.com/194397590

The job is hard. Harder than anything I've done in my life.
At my first week at the job, we underwent training. I got hired on a Monday along with 15 other persons (12 guys and 3 ladies). Prior to that, we were adviced to come to work with work boots with high backs and non-slip soles. I quickly looked for a second-hand timberland boots on ebay and got a pair for around $20. My first day on the job, we were ushered into a classroom of sorts and "welcomed" to the UPS family by some persons high up in management. Our trainers were two ladies, one black and one hispanic. The first two days consisted of us watching videos of the do's and dont's of the facility. How to stack boxes in the trailer, how to avoid hurting yourself when working etc etc.

The third day, we were split into groups: Loaders, Unloaders and Small sorts. *Loaders load the trailers, unloaders unload trailers and small sorts handle the small packages which could be crushed by the bigger packges if not handled correctly. I was picked to be a loader by a process which I don't know.

I wasn't joking when I made that statement and even now, having worked 4+ months here, my stance hasn't changed. UPS is no joke at all and now we've entered "mber months, the workload is starting to increase. The almost 100% increase is as a result of the holidays and discounts which has led to more people shopping and with an increase in shopping, there would definitely be an increase in shipping; we call it peak season. One of the compensations for the strenuous work is the fact that you can ascend the economic ladder and get promoted to a higher paying role. During my training, I was told that after your first 40 days at work, you can apply to become a part time supervisor which would would give you a 100% wage increase, part-time package handlers (like me) are paid $10.35/hour and part time supervisors are paid $19.35/hour; so right from the onset, becoming a supervisor has been my goal. Being a part-time supervisor, you would not typically be loading trailers, your job description would be directing the package handlers on what to do. This mindset is what got me through my initial days at this job, each day, I dreaded going to work cos it was (and still is) physically tasking for me but I persevered. Slowly, my days kept adding up and I had passed the 40 day mark. I approached the manager handling my area and informed her of my decision to become a part-time supervisor, she inquired about my attendance of which I told her I haven’t missed one single day of work since I started. Initially I thought becoming a supervisor would be a straight-forward process but it appears I was wrong.
After I approached the manager, I noticed she was reluctant to give me the information I was seeking so I took matters into my own hands. I asked around and was told I had to go to a certain department and inform them of my decision to become a supervisor, then they would give me the information I needed so I did exactly that. When I contacted the department, I was given a username and password to a website, these login details enabled me take a test consisting of 100 questions and the duration of the test was 1 hour. The test consisted of mostly maths and brain-racking logic questions; the exam was kinda tough. Some minutes after I had taken the test, I was sent an email congratulating me on passing, I was ecstatic, anticipating the wonderful increase in wages and eager to start receiving my bigger paycheck but as the saying goes, Man proposes, god disposes.

cyberhike:
obi is back!!!

Make I run baff come siddon wait for first hand updates

Guy calm down

Hey guys, I finally got approved and got a phone pass that enables me carry my phone inside the work place. Sadly, I can’t post the pictures on here

I haven’t abandoned this thread. School is on my neck like crazy. There’s always one assignment or essay or quiz coming up and it’s hitting me back to back; I’m trying to catch. Abeg bear with your boy. Biko.


Happy new month guys

So the courses I’m taking are Psychology, Philosophy, English and Biology. The biology is divided into class and lab.

Last week, when we went to the lab for some experiments. We were handed thermometers to do some random readings. Having been schooled all my life in naija, I’m used to seeing mercury thermometers. But these thermometers we were given had kerosene in it.

I quietly walked to the instructor and she confirmed it was indeed kerosene, then I asked why they were using kerosene instead of mercury. She told me recent scientific studies have shown that mercury has an adverse effect on neurological (brain) functions in kids and teenagers, so they switched to using kerosene cos it pretty much has the same properties as mercury and has no adverse effects.

Guess which country still uses mercury thermometers? When will Nigeria catch up with the rest of the world?

Everything you need, from paints to toilets are located here.

For yankee here, there are few open air markets. You know in naija if you want to buy household items, building materials like wood, nails, toilets, paint you drive down to the market & sadly most times, all the items you need would not be in the same market. So you have to juggle different markets. Well, for yankee here, they have specific stores for stuff like that. The two most popular are called “home-depot” and “menards”.

I recently went to one of them to get heavy-duty gloves for my work, so I took a few photos.

Observing this thread with my special 3D glasses

Originalsly:
Ha!.....I'm surprised you even have energy to post anything. ... guess you find a way to get get around UPS energy draining work! Insightful update.... can see no time to chill. We see or hear about so many being successful....but the road to that success we never hear about in the details you be outlining.
"The height of great men reached and kept...
...was not attained by sudden flight
... but they as their companions slept
....were toiling upwards through the night.

Keep on toiling bro.....I going back to sleep!

Thanks man, how body?

I recently went to one Burger King (at Matteson) to get some food and I ran into an old time manager who I worked with a few times. When I used to work at Burger King (at Chicago heights), she wasn’t traditionally working there too but she got transferred there a few times when we were short on managers. So they would call her to work a particular shift for that day.

When I walked into the store she was excited to see me, I was shocked and surprised. This lady is older than I am, so I was wondering what the ruckus was about. She then asked me if I’ve got some time to spare that she needs to talk to me. I only came to get a chocolate milkshake but I told her I got a few minutes. Long story short, she told me she was being transferred to “my store” (at Chicago heights) to work permanently as the general manager and that she would like me to come work for her as a shift manager .

I was excited at first but I didn’t give her an answer. I told her we would speak on the phone. She gave me her number.

After a few days, I called her and after the regular formalities, I asked her what the pay rate would be, she said $11.50/hour when I start, then $12/hour after 30 days. I tried to bargain with her to increase it, citing my reliability and work ethic. She refused to succumb. I then told her to give a few more days to think about it. But I never called her back.

I don’t think it’s a good deal cos when I used to work there,the managers at suffer a lot. If someone doesn’t show up to work, you have to help out fill in the space, if food or money gets missing, na you dem go hold, if a customer wants to be rude, na you dem go insult.

The major thing that made me reject the offer was the pay. I could waltz into any nursing home or hospital to work as a CNA (I’m still a Certified nursing assistant, remember?) and start getting paid $13/hour for much less work but to pay someone $11.50/hour for the workload at Burger King is unfair. Maybe that’s the reason they are short on managers

School


I would just go right ahead and itemize the differences between my education so far here in the USA vs my education in Nigeria. I would do this under two headings: Similarities and differences.

SIMILARITIES

1) Matric Number: Where you have the matriculation number for nigerian students, you have the student id number over here for US schools which is basically the same thing.

DIFFFERENCES

1) Admission process: Whereas the admission process in Nigeria is lengthy and stressful, getting admission into school here is quite easy. Where
there are multiple exams like JAMB and post utme exams in Nigeria, Over here, you just have to take a placement test which consists of English and Mathematics, your scores would determine which 100 level courses you would be required to take for your program.

2) Student - Lecturer ratio: This is one of the things that have shocked me the most. Back then in my 100 level, during our lectures, we were more than 2,000 students to 1 lecturer in one large never-ending hall, over here, its way different. When I got into class for the first time, I was surprised at how small the class is. I was seated in the class with like 14 other persons, I almost had to ask where the rest of the students are.

3) Flexibility: The school system here is really flexible to fit your schedule. You pick the classes you want, you choose the time you want your classes and you have the option of opting for physical or online classes. I chose to take two physical classes and two online classes. I also chose to take my classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays only. In nigerian schools, you must physically attend your lectures in the morning (kindly point out any schools where it happens otherwise).


4) Attitude: This was another shocker for me. The lecturers over here actually WANT you to PASS! like I still can't wrap my head around it. Everybody is so helpful and polite, from the janitors to the lab instructors, everybody! My younger sister is in her penultimate semester studying pre-pharmacy and her CGPA is 4.0/4.0. My point is: if you want to study hard and pass, the lecturers are willing to help. Unlike in most Nigerian universities where the lecturer would tell you getting "A" in their course is a sin.

5) Open-mindedness: My philosophy class is super interesting. The instructor made it in such a way that no question is seen as a taboo, we have heated conversations on different topics, slavery, trump etc etc. one time someone asked if God normally has _sex, heaven did not fall. On the other hand, my philosophy and logic class in my 100L in Nigeria was taught by a reverend father who made sure to throw in his biblical teachings intermittently, looking back at it now, I think that was a tactic to get us to think a certain way.

I'll post more as time goes on.

**
you guys should bear with me about the lack of posts, I'm trying to adapt to the coursework and my job. I will post more frequently.

Khingtee01:
Happy new month to you
Come continue your thread abeg

I Dey come. School hold me small

Happy new month guys.

Abeg, I want to try out the IT and Graphics design sector. Please point me in the right direction. Over the next few weeks, I’d have some spare time on my hands and I wouldn’t like it to got to waste. Abeg help a brother

P/s: I have both course-era and Udemy accounts

Originalsly:
Ah ah?.....I can't believe how this Frank guy has changed for the worse!.....after all these yearsss of being told work hard he now happily and proudly decides to ehmmm..... implement pacing himself.... and working smart!....nice terms for becoming lazy! You fall my hand.......hands.....both of them!

To my people back home chomping at the bit to come.....come prepared to work hard...show these lazy Akatas you are not afraid of hard work............we'll see how long you'll last.

@Frank...you write a whole lot in this piece...a whole lot for people to learn....if they want to. Many with degrees. ...do not make more than regular UPS guys (not suggesting waste of time getting degrees!)....a whole lot of them make six figures....$30/hr... $45/hr when on overtime. ..and they be like always on O/T for hoursss. Mr Frank...if you think loading trailers is that hard...what about the guys who deliver?...have to unload and many times take the stuff up flights of stairs??...I see them everyday....me? I respect those guys....don't envy them a minute! You doing great on this thread!...lots of insigt! Following...closely!

The one thing....UPS makes you physically fit!

Exactly bro. I met this black dude at my work place, I noticed he had tribal marks so I knew he was African, it was after we spoke a few times he told me he’s from Sierra Leone.

See, I don’t mean to join the “I know a friend who has money” bandwagon, but this guy makes good money just loading trailers. He’s worked here since he got out of high school at age 17+. He’s like 35 now. This. Guy. Makes. Money.

He’s paid $39.50/hr Jesus Christ. He’s entitled to 12hrs a day (with overtime if he asks for it) he has two degrees all paid for by UPS. It was after he told me how much he makes a week that I understood why he’s always happy and cheerful at work.

My point is; there’s money to be made in America in whatever field you desire. All you gotta do is be willing to show up to work and do your part.

Work

Some days ago, I got a feel on the difference between working smart and working hard. You see, UPS (my current job) has two types of employees: part time and full time employees.

Unfortunate persons like myself who are part time employees are generally dispensable, our pay is peanuts ($10.35/hr) and one could tell we’re just being employed to fill up the space.

The full time employees are persons who have worked with UPS for more than 14years, some people have been here for more than 20years. UPS rewards them handsomely for their “sacrifice” and loyalty. They get full benefits (full heath insurance coverage, paid holidays off work etc) and some are paid as much as $35/hr. Yes, thirty five dollars an hour just to stack boxes.

Like I stated before, the place I work is called “outbound” because we’re in charge of loading the trailers going out. Some trailers are to be loaded faster than normal (for reasons which I don’t know, maybe faster shipping?). So you are assigned trailers depending on how fast the packages are flowing, some days when you come to work, you could be assigned 4 slow flowing trailers, other days, you could be assigned 1 fast flowing trailer; if the flow is too fast, someone would be assigned to help you out.

So, I had started work one day and was assigned 2 average flowing trailers to load. I struggled to keep up with the flow of the trailers and managed for the first few hours. The supervisor, on seeing that I was somewhat idle (because I keeping up with the flow) told me to go help out some other people who weren’t keeping up real good.

This kept happening on different occasions and it began to piss me off cos I saw no reason why I would be “punished” with more work for doing my job. I saw no reason why me being paid $10.35/hr is being told to go help someone being paid $30/hr.

I had no one to pour my grievances to, so I just observed, I took note of the others. It was then I noticed the full time workers had perfected the art of “pacing themselves”. The art of not hurrying with loading the trailers (something we new-comers haven’t really mastered) thereby creating a situation where the trailer you’re loading has enough boxes and packages scattered all over the place, so that they won’t tell you to go and help other people.
I just smiled and started implementing it.
The “punishments” gradually stopped and I’m beginning to actually understand how this place works. Initially, I was working hard, now I’m working smart

First day in class

rinzaugustine:
Be careful of the CRCP as trump has made an executive order forbidding green card holders from assessing any benefit meant for citizens.If you do they will not naturalize you when the time comes.Please research well on what I just stated before making your move

Can you post a link to your source?

Thanks