2010年1月12日火曜日

Some of my drawings





Acknowledgement

Finally, my graduation thesis was over.
It was a long and hard work, though I'm not sure my paper is good enough for a M.A. student.
Anyway, I did my best.

Looking back on my school life,
I think of so many people who have supported me.

Particularly, my friends and my supervisor...
The friendship with them will last forever..
Though there is a possibility that we keep in touch less and less
as time goes by..
Sometimes because my friends or I am too busy..
or sometimes because of geography..

But the only thing I can say is that I always remember them
when I feel down, when I feel like giving up on something.
I will look up the sky and wonder what they are doing,
whether they are fine..
Recalling the time when we struggle with linguistics together will always cheer me up in the future.

I had broiled meat with my friend for lunch.



And my supervisor.
I haven't told her this but one of the reason to decide to go to grad school is her.
I wanted to be like her.
She is so much interested in languages.
She loves her students.

She taught me so many things..
such as how to learn a language.
She was the first person to tell me that my English is poor,
and she told me how to learn a language: she told me to "read a loud an English book (I chose "Cheese Burgers" by Bob Green).
I went to her office once a month so that she checked whether I memorized it correctly,
whether I can pronounce correctly, whether I can speak English correctly..
Thanks to her, I had gone up 200 scores on TOEIC test.

To me, she was something like a mother.
She also taught me what is like to be an adult.
What is like to be a pro.
She always gives me a guide in life.

When you start to work, you have to gain two kinds of knowledge: things to know as an adult and things to know as a pro.
If you are told, it sound like nothing special,
but how many people actually take action?

Here is my two actions which I'm going to do.

1. What I would like to do to gain knowledge as an adult
・Read newspaper.

My knowledge about politics and economics is .. less than an junior high student.
I want to learn about politics and economics
and want to be a person who know what to see in this era, in this economic crisis.

2. What I would like to do to gain knowledge as an pro
・Be trained as a translator

I'm going to work as a translator from next April.
So I'm going to a school for a translator.
I've already decided which school I'm going to.
There, I can study not only translating but also speaking.


Well, anyway, my school life is coming to an end.
Though I'm released from reading papers and writing the thesis,
I'm definitely, definitely going to miss my supervisor..

2010年1月4日月曜日

A Thinking Reed

I build a new blog in Japanese.

It is called "A reed's mumble," quoted from Pascal.


"Man is no more than a reed,

the weakest in nature.

But he is a thinking reed."




Think

It's the gift human being are bestowed with.

I don't say other animals don't think,

but one big difference between human and other animal is

whether you can think logically, abstractly, rationally...



So think.


Just Think.

Insomnia

Lately I can't sleep at night.

Maybe it's because of my thesis.

Well definitely it is.

It makes me so stressful..

I've been studying linguistics, but I had really enough.

No interest anymore.

NO money anymore.

Being a student really sucks.

Though that's me who chose to go to grad school.


What a boring blog.


Anyway, what I want to say is..

I can't sleep.


I know I should open the file of dissertation

and keep on writing,


but I'll chose escapism watching Ally McBeal



because it's in the middle of the night.

or is it very early morning?


well, whatever!

2010年1月3日日曜日

I Dreamed a dream

"I Dreamed a dream"

This is the song sung in a musical called "Le Miserable."
Lately it is known to all over the world because of Susan Boyle.
I heard that she is called "Subo."
How adorable! :D
Anyway, she has been voluntarily helping a church,
and all of the sudden she became famous as a singer on the British TV program called "Britain's Got Talent."
Maybe I don't need to explain about her because I bet now everybody knows her.
In addition, my knowledge about her is only from Youtube and I don't want to write about her without knowing if it is true.


"I Dreamed a dream"
In Japanese, it is translated in "the dream is broken."

I like the phrase,
"I had a dream my life would be so different from this hell I'm living."

Listening to her singing that phrase,
I thought of her: how did she feel when, at the interview, nobody believed a woman in their forties like her could sing ?
Still, she smiles and says, "It's just one side of me."

How big and open mind she has,
How kind she is,
How strong she is,
I thought watching her on Britain got talent.

Maybe there are a lot of people like her all over the world.
people living in the country side, doing chore, without their talent being discovered .
They don't appear in front of people just because they don't have a chance.

Singing "I had a dream my life would be so different from this hell I'm living," inside, she still believed to become a singer.
Not only her voice, but her strength, her warmth of heart touch people all over the world.

Her dream has never been "broken."

She visited Japan and sang "I dreamed to dream" on New Year's eve.
Her singing was soft and king and strong as if it reflects her mind

I cannot help but shed my tears.