大学院生の生活
I've just finished my first week in grad school, and I'm loving it so far! (Yes, I've been here for almost a month, but classes only started this week.) I forgot how much I missed being in an academic enviornment. Sure, IUC was fantastic, but academics beyond Japanese are fun too.
My department is an interesting mix. There are 11 of us who are new this year; 1 Japanese, 1 Canadian, 2 Americans (including me), and 7 Chinese students. I can't say that being in a co-ed college is weird since all the graduate students are girls! The undergrads are a different story though; this week was the "week of welcome", so there was a rock band and a beer garden on the quad all week. (Which is of course in front of our building. Makes doing work difficult.) Anyway, I'm really impressed with our group, though some of the Chinese students are not very confident with their English yet. My advisor actually gave a pep talk to our TA for EASIA 101 from China; she had a hard time with the readings we are going to be leading discussions on, and she had lots of notes in Chinese. My advisor essentially gave the "you're only going to learn this stuff if you stick to English all time" lecture. (He's allowed; he's from Sweden and went through the same "learning to use English academically" when he was in grad school.) Funnilly enough, none of the professors in my department are actually Canadian, though a few have picked up citizenship.
I'm only in three classes this semester, and I had two of the three this week. HIST604 is the only one outside the department, essentially a Historiography course, looking at different methods of approaching history. I've already read a few of the books we'll have this semester (thanks JSEM), but it should be a fun class, and will be nice to meet some people outside my department. (Also important: for my thesis I'll need to have one professor outside my department for the defense. Potential prof for my committee, y/y?) Besides the usual giant term paper at the end, we'll also be writing a book review (like you see in History journals), since if we all stick to the PhD route, we'll be doing a lot of them eventually.
JAPAN 598 is the graduate student version of Clasical Japanese. While there is an undergrad version of the class twice a week, I can't take that for credit. Instead, the prof is having me and the other premodernist grad student meet with her once a week for a few hours to do the work. We already ran through three weeks of the undergrad version of the class in one meeting, mainly basic grammar stuff and how to conjugate verbs. I did a bit of Classical at IUC, and while I didn't think I got it at the time, apparently I got enough that the grammar isn't that hard for me so far. (Now I understand what the heck they were explaining to me in Japanese back then now that I've had an English explanation.) We're already starting to read and translate texts, starting with Houjoki. Since the class is only being run for two of us, we get to request stuff to translate, so I'll get to do work on The Pillow Book in a few weeks.
The last class, EASIA 598, is the seminar for all grad students in the department. My advisor is teaching it, and we'll be going through different methodologies in the field, as well as learning to write grant proposals (a very important skill.) My advisor is very intimidating, but I think taking the trip to Banff with him and just hanging around the last few weeks has made him less intimidating to me. I feel fine making snarky comments to him and the like, but I know I better keep up with my work, or I'll be screwed.
Finally, I sat it on the lecture for the course I'm TAing, EASIA 101. We're currently at 147 students, though about 30 didn't show up the first day, so we should have a bunch dropping. (Especially the ones who didn't show up and missed the assignment that's worth 5% of their total grade.) I think I'll enjoy sitting in on this class since Haverford's EAST 101 ended up being horrible; it'll be nice to see what a good version looks like. Throughout the lecture, my advisor was like "use your TAs. If you're having trouble with writing, time management, etc., use them! Oh, and if the website is broken, send it to Jillian. And if your TA can't answer a question, send it to Jillian." Oh yeah, being Head TA is going to be fun. o.o We had our prep meeting for the first discussion session, so my first real TA work will start next Thursday. I'm hoping it goes well.
Besides classes, I'm starting to find my footing on campus. I've made some friends in my department and in my residence. There have been a lot of events thrown by our res, including Sundae night and a BBQ, so that's helped in meeting people. I've also made a buddy to go to the gym with (which is humongous and awesome.) I don't think I'll be able to keep up with my gym schedule I had before, but I'd like to try to go at least three times a week. Considering I only have class and TA three days a week, I don't have a real excuse not to.
Grad Res is throwing another event tonight with a bunch of us going to the local bar down the street, including a few of my friends. Gonna enjoy that tonight, then it's back to work tomorrow with readings and studying. See ya!
My department is an interesting mix. There are 11 of us who are new this year; 1 Japanese, 1 Canadian, 2 Americans (including me), and 7 Chinese students. I can't say that being in a co-ed college is weird since all the graduate students are girls! The undergrads are a different story though; this week was the "week of welcome", so there was a rock band and a beer garden on the quad all week. (Which is of course in front of our building. Makes doing work difficult.) Anyway, I'm really impressed with our group, though some of the Chinese students are not very confident with their English yet. My advisor actually gave a pep talk to our TA for EASIA 101 from China; she had a hard time with the readings we are going to be leading discussions on, and she had lots of notes in Chinese. My advisor essentially gave the "you're only going to learn this stuff if you stick to English all time" lecture. (He's allowed; he's from Sweden and went through the same "learning to use English academically" when he was in grad school.) Funnilly enough, none of the professors in my department are actually Canadian, though a few have picked up citizenship.
I'm only in three classes this semester, and I had two of the three this week. HIST604 is the only one outside the department, essentially a Historiography course, looking at different methods of approaching history. I've already read a few of the books we'll have this semester (thanks JSEM), but it should be a fun class, and will be nice to meet some people outside my department. (Also important: for my thesis I'll need to have one professor outside my department for the defense. Potential prof for my committee, y/y?) Besides the usual giant term paper at the end, we'll also be writing a book review (like you see in History journals), since if we all stick to the PhD route, we'll be doing a lot of them eventually.
JAPAN 598 is the graduate student version of Clasical Japanese. While there is an undergrad version of the class twice a week, I can't take that for credit. Instead, the prof is having me and the other premodernist grad student meet with her once a week for a few hours to do the work. We already ran through three weeks of the undergrad version of the class in one meeting, mainly basic grammar stuff and how to conjugate verbs. I did a bit of Classical at IUC, and while I didn't think I got it at the time, apparently I got enough that the grammar isn't that hard for me so far. (Now I understand what the heck they were explaining to me in Japanese back then now that I've had an English explanation.) We're already starting to read and translate texts, starting with Houjoki. Since the class is only being run for two of us, we get to request stuff to translate, so I'll get to do work on The Pillow Book in a few weeks.
The last class, EASIA 598, is the seminar for all grad students in the department. My advisor is teaching it, and we'll be going through different methodologies in the field, as well as learning to write grant proposals (a very important skill.) My advisor is very intimidating, but I think taking the trip to Banff with him and just hanging around the last few weeks has made him less intimidating to me. I feel fine making snarky comments to him and the like, but I know I better keep up with my work, or I'll be screwed.
Finally, I sat it on the lecture for the course I'm TAing, EASIA 101. We're currently at 147 students, though about 30 didn't show up the first day, so we should have a bunch dropping. (Especially the ones who didn't show up and missed the assignment that's worth 5% of their total grade.) I think I'll enjoy sitting in on this class since Haverford's EAST 101 ended up being horrible; it'll be nice to see what a good version looks like. Throughout the lecture, my advisor was like "use your TAs. If you're having trouble with writing, time management, etc., use them! Oh, and if the website is broken, send it to Jillian. And if your TA can't answer a question, send it to Jillian." Oh yeah, being Head TA is going to be fun. o.o We had our prep meeting for the first discussion session, so my first real TA work will start next Thursday. I'm hoping it goes well.
Besides classes, I'm starting to find my footing on campus. I've made some friends in my department and in my residence. There have been a lot of events thrown by our res, including Sundae night and a BBQ, so that's helped in meeting people. I've also made a buddy to go to the gym with (which is humongous and awesome.) I don't think I'll be able to keep up with my gym schedule I had before, but I'd like to try to go at least three times a week. Considering I only have class and TA three days a week, I don't have a real excuse not to.
Grad Res is throwing another event tonight with a bunch of us going to the local bar down the street, including a few of my friends. Gonna enjoy that tonight, then it's back to work tomorrow with readings and studying. See ya!