Workin' 8 - 5; Monday Thru Friday

[cloudiwolf]

So, I've been listening to a LOT of tech news and podcasts lately, and I feel like I've found my passion for technology again. Too bad the last great tech-anything I did was build my current Windows PC that's gathering dust at home (and sitting with three years worth of upgrades...). I feel like I've been chasing the wrong dream these last four

Comments

Re: もう一度思い出したい！日本語の楽しさを

[cloudiwolf]

You've pretty much hit the nail on the head with your post, Caitlin. That's exactly how I'm feeling with Japanese. I'm sick of the shitty classes, the shitty teachers, just the entire language all together. My experience here in Japan, as far as being in a foreign country for leisure, as been great. As far as improving my Japanese and studying, it's been a total waste of money and time. I just learned that I really hate this language a lot more than I originally thought. Hm. I guess it wasn't a waste of money if it made me realize that I might not want to do only Japanese as a career.

But yeah. I want to finish this Japanese degree so that I can move on to something that will matter. You know, something that won't make me hate myself by the end of the day because, honestly, Japanese does not instill the most self-confidence in a person and eats at one's self-esteem.

Your experience with the vet is the same that I had when I listened to my tech radio after so many years. These men enjoy what they do! Holy shit! That's possible? It's possible to go to work everyday and not hate what you do? Amazing! I had such a passion for technology and just computers in general back before college, but then I painted this illusion of being a Japanese academic writer-- fuck it. I don't want it now that I know what studying this damn language is all about.

Certainty. That's something I want. Certainy and confidence in myself and my own abilities. I'm tired of studying something that I can never even remotely master.

Re: もう一度思い出したい！日本語の楽しさを

[ladyomnipotent]

My parents always assure me that education is never a waste of money, so even if both of us were to graduate college and never earn a penny for our Japanese skills, we'd have learned and experienced irreplacable things. A big one, for example, is being able to go to Japan and sort of understand what the heck is going on in that country! Also, the people we met (I would not have met David and you would not have met Tal) the good and bad times with learning a language and studying, the insight into another culture...etc. Anyway. I was gonna say that my feelings were not helped much when I talked to Forrest-sensei last semester and he basically told me that getting a stable job with Japanese is kind of a crapshoot. I'm really not into the whole freelance thing. That's one reason why I chose not to pursue writing as a career, because often you have to start with freelance stuff and it will probably take a while before you can become like, a columnist for a magazine or someone who can live off of selling novels. Besides that, I've realized that translating crap I don't care about makes me exhausted. I'd be cool with manga and stuff but obviously I will not be able to land a job in that right away, or ever.

I guess nothing is ever certain, but some things are more certain than others. And I'm not greedy, all I want is to be able to live a comfortable life supported by a job I at least sometimes enjoy. I think we should be willing to take as many different paths as needed in order to achieve happiness in our futures!