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icynebulae · 5 months ago

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SOPs for Master's Programs, An Offering to the Void!!

Finding examples of successful Statements of Purpose for applying to Graduate school is quite difficult! This post, using my successful SOP for grad school, is a simple attempt to offer assistance in the writing and editing of an SOP.

This info can apply to Bachelor level SOP’s too - it’s just a different context!

Details are below the cut. Note: long!

There is additional highlighting and interlinear notes in the google drive doc, and the ability to jump across headings, found here!!

Although it should be obvious, it does bear stating - please do not plagiarize my writing in part or wholesale.

Rather, use this as a guide on how answering the prompt might get structured in the actual SOP, and how much word count real estate is dedicated to each part of the SOP prompt.

For privacy, I’ve put filler for names and locations. Otherwise, the grammar, diction, and overall structure remains the same from the copy I submitted in my application, and thus should still be useful.

(Also, there are some faq specifics breaking down the process of write/edit/write at the very end. Useful for SOPs and in general perhaps, ymmv).

Hope this is both interesting, and helpful!

The prompt at the time from my School, for the SOP:

Statement of purpose: Approximately 1,000 words explaining your reasons for choosing to undertake graduate work in English, your intellectual training, areas of interest, and why you have chosen to apply to School of Interest.

The Statement Of Purpose:

Undertaking graduate studies in English is the natural next step as I grow as a human in my social and academic communities, as I advance my teaching skills, and as I pursue a career that includes writing, language usage, and research. While the intricacies of the English language have always fascinated me, it was through my Bachelors degree that I gained foundational knowledge about the socio-cultural and linguistic history of it. Because of these experiences, I'm even more invested in studying language and literature; these are also part of why I see graduate work in English as the enticing and obvious next step in my studies. Additionally, my work as a tutor at the Mysterious Tutoring Center in A Nearby City has reconfirmed my aptitude for teaching, especially with reading, writing, and language instruction. I’m driven to matriculate from School of Choice’s MA either directly into an editing or analytics career, or to a PhD program focused on one of my areas of interest.

My intellectual studies and training primarily occurred during my Bachelor's degree, which I earned cum laude in Year. I majored in English and Medieval Studies, and minored in Linguistics and Creative Writing. I delighted in gaining a broad knowledge of the English language, chronologically and across these interconnected disciplines. I have a solid foundation in English and British literature, and am familiar with how stylistic periods like Romanticism are demarcated (and, in fact, fueled) by historical events. I had the opportunity to study Old English in my last academic year, part of which focused on reading, and speaking, the text of Beowulf. Simultaneously, I studied Old Norse (or Old Icelandic) across two trimesters, in an advanced reading and discussion course, utilizing E.V. Gordon’s An Introduction to Old Norse, 2nd Edition. Both of these language and literature studies offered key development in the precision and relevancy of my analysis and translation.

Another essential part of my Bachelor’s was “The Special Creative Writing Workshop.” During this year-long creative writing program, I studied fiction intensively, and produced a Special Inquiry Essay – the workshop’s cumulative thesis – investigating the relationship between first-person omniscience, and how the points-of-view of different types of narrators can support that omniscience. With several years hindsight, the essay needs a narrower focus on the texts I synthesized, such as Jorge Luis Borges’ “Borges and I,” and Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief. Dissecting how creative writing techniques facilitate the story and thus thematic elements is an area of fascination for me. I easily envision myself using these creative writing lenses in conjunction with rhetorical and cultural analysis frameworks during the Master’s.

In a natural extension of my undergraduate studies, the Medieval era is of interest, particularly in the Scandinavian countries and in Britain. While understanding that the English language and literature are intimately entwined with knowing the associated cultural and linguistic history, there are other areas that I’d like to explore in depth during my Master’s of English. The intersection of gender and literature, studied cross-culturally, is very important to me. This is an area of study that my academic experience has lacked so far, and so I’m excited by the opportunity to investigate these areas with professors at School of Interest. Critical theory is an area of study that’s increasingly essential; I hope to investigate it in the context of political theory, in order to better understand how literature and rhetorical arguments are used tactically in the political sphere. Lastly, I’m interested in Twentieth Century literature from a global perspective, synthesizing how cultures understand and tell stories of human bodies and gender identity. I’m looking forward to narrowing my focus among these interests as I proceed with the Masters, especially for the Optional M.A. Essay. The structure of this essay is an essential opportunity to further my writing and research experience in preparation for pursuing a PhD in English.

A final area of interest is in teaching. My tutoring work among all ages at the Mysterious Tutoring Center has helped refine my career goals. Working with younger students and getting to see the real impact on their literacy is deeply fulfilling. That said, tutoring work I’ve done with older students in prep for the SAT, for teaching essay revision and writing styles, have all demonstrated my further aptitude for teaching older students. Earning the Master’s of English at School of Interest gives me the prerequisite skills and qualifications to pursue teaching at collegiate levels.

School of Interest is the right school to advance my academic and intellectual training for several reasons. That the school is known for fostering a diverse, accepting, and supportive academic community is critical. I believe that having supportive peers and faculty is a key part of supporting peoples’ growth as critical thinkers and ethical community members. Of even more importance, many of the professors and faculty have fields and specializations that align with my areas of interest. This assures me that School of Interest faculty will best support me toward pursuing an editing career, or toward further education in a PhD program. The overlap also assures me that my areas of interest will be a support to current faculty and fellow students; I’m excited to join the ongoing conversations, and learn even more in a collaborative environment.

Overall, my decision to pursue the M.A. in English at School of Interest is driven by genuine passion for the language and literature, a commitment to rigorous growth and study, and a desire to contribute meaningfully to the academic community. I look forward to advancing my rhetorical skills, in conjunction with my teaching, in order to better serve students. School of Interest is the ideal choice in all respects for studying the English language and literature, and the socio-cultural history thereof; I can’t wait to begin.

Word count in my successful application: 952

Word count in this modded copy: 963

Presumed FAQ / SOP Writing / General Writing Advice:

How does this SOP reflect me as a writer/person?

I’m a rather literal person at times, and I am often terrible at telling jokes/perceiving jokes. I do like being poetic sometimes, but not at the expense of being clear and direct (...unless a point cannot be expressed except via poetry…), especially in contexts that want some clear answers to specific questions (an SOP as a case in point). My writing reflects that: In the SOP, I don’t use any metaphors/similes to describe/contextualize my writing, experience, or goals. Once I state a fact of my skills/experience, it’s rarely repeated. My goals, though, do get repeated/reinforced a little.

I see the MA as about developing rhetorical and analytical skills, learning about genres, styles, historical context, etc. Synthesizing analytical frameworks with works of writing, and being able to understand why and how these writings are structured, and what they communicate. These are in fact some of my academic goals. All of this requires clear writing, the ability to interconnect ideas, etc. My SOP is, in itself, an example of my ability to complete those things, and my aspiration for those goals, how I balance writing about complicated things (...writing sample of course is primary proof of the latter, tho). My writing also reflects how I like things -- organized, flowing from one thing to the next, with a little bit of interweaving of topics/ideas.

I also love to understand the intersection of culture, linguistics, and history, with a given work of writing. My Bachelor’s degree reflects this, and it’s also demonstrated in the interests I have for the Master’s.

A point of contrast is James McGirk’s successful MFA SOP, one of the few I found to guide myself. Found here: http://jamesmcgirk.com/mfa-personal-statement/. He writes in a direct style as well, but it’s much more a narrative than mine (which is very fitting for his MFA fiction program). He provides essential details of his intellectual training, his inspiration, what he’s lacking, and his goals for the program, all at the same time as telling a bit of his life story and work history, and the story of how all of those things came about for him. It’s both incredibly succinct, and incredibly detailed; his word count lands at 503 words. Specific word choice tells a story: “dragged” in his second sentence gives the impression of reluctance; McGirk, the kid carted around at his parents behest. Different choice of verbs in this context – traveled, lived, explored – could get across the same facts, but with less emotional context, and less development of the story of his experience. Choosing a verb like “dragged” over others is what makes a piece of writing have your voice and not others. For McGirk, this experience was of being dragged (negative experience); for a different kid and different context, it could have been “explored” or even “adventured” (positive experiences). McGirk telling a story of himself in his SOP is thematically relevant for his application; his SOP is demonstrating his storytelling skills in itself, proof for the storytelling work he’ll have to do in the MFA, even as it communicates the factual details that the SOP needs to have.

Key things that we both ultimately have in common? Clear demonstration of the training we currently have, an understanding of what we currently lack, and statement of what we want to accomplish through the program.

Back to my SOP - How the heck did I start writing?

As the corresponding highlighting indicates (between prompt and essay), I first broke the prompt into the Big Ideas that I needed to answer.

Then, for each of those ideas, I brainstormed facts/examples/details and made a little list and collection of sentence fragments. Then, those turned into full sentences and paragraphs – the very first draft. It was rough, jagged edges, no pretty transitions.

Expect your first draft to go over word count. That’s normal! It’s also normal to be under-count!! Both of these states have happened to me, and will no doubt continue to happen. First drafts are mainly about getting complete sentences written, and then put in the barest of bare minimum structure of some organized thought. And that’s the writing done! (for now.)

But… the word count??

Word count is just about the last thing to worry about when it comes to writing SOPs (or anything that requires a word count, really). Word count generally gets fixed by editing, not by writing… unless you’re really short of words. In theory, content editing and line edit will do the brunt of the work to getting the correct word count. Editing to reduce word count is also part of what makes your writing more precise. Editing to get rid of passive voice, for example. Passive voice generally uses more words to communicate information; changing to active voice can make your grammar less complex, and also reduce that word count. But again, worrying specifically about this is the last thing we do! First, we need to figure out if we’ve even answered the prompt yet!

So what, that’s it for writing? What’s next then?

Yup, first bit of writing is done! Now, it’s development editing (which secretly include writing, but writing with a specific goal)!

Think of editing like this:

A beautiful triangle, but upside down, so the widest part of the triangle is at the top. And the narrowest part of the triangle is at the bottom, and is the “last” thing you do for the piece of writing.

The different stages tend to overlap a little as you go along. You might notice a paragraph level issue as you think about the structure of the whole essay/statement, for example. But overall, this triangle represents a gradient of editing, where as you resolve big picture things, your editing focus narrows to more specific and more detailed changes in the essay/statement. This editing process also reflects what essays themselves do – take a big idea/question, and get specific about part of it. Then going into detail, and arriving at pointed conclusions — and finished works.

Development Edit??

This one’s pretty much on the tin. We look over the writing, and see if we really do have the key big ideas, the key parts of the SOP prompt written down. Ask yourself questions, try to think about things from different angles/ POV’s.

Is there context missing? Do we really state why, specifically, we want This One School? What are the benefits of This One School, that might not be found elsewhere? And not just its location or its cost! Does the structure of the program match your goals? Does the length of the program, or any perks it has?

Structural Edit??

Getting into this phase, we think we have the SOP prompt mostly answered. We’ve got the key info. Now we’re making the essay organized.

In mine, for example, my first paragraph acts almost as a thesis, demonstrating what the subsequent paragraphs of the SOP will discuss, and also what order that discussion will happen. In my first paragraph, the order mostly goes pink (why a Master’s), orange (academic training), green (interests), blue (why school). That pattern mostly continues through the rest of the SOP. My second paragraph and part of the third are all orange. End of the second and all of the third paragraph are green. A bit of red and blue get interwoven, since it’s logical that my orange academic training and my green interests are what drive me to want a Master’s, and drive me to a specific school. Paragraphs six and seven are almost entirely blue - why specific school. For me, this makes a strong conclusion to the SOP – showing that I have clear goals and drive to graduate from the program, and that I know why this school is right for me, and I for it.

The red (why a Master’s) is the only thing of the prompt that I don’t dedicate a paragraph to. Info for that is woven throughout, and is partly answered in the blue text itself as well.

Why this order for everything?

Academic training is, for me, a foundation for all the rest, and so after the “introduction/thesis” of the first paragraph, I liked to have academic training be the very next topic. This info contextualizes all the rest for readers. This goes naturally into my interests… and then my interests drive what school I choose, and how my goals will be met a Specific School.

It’s entirely valid to use a different structure, though!

Fronting the blue, about why school, makes a lot of sense too. Putting that info in the second paragraph sets up the why a Master’s and why this program in the same paragraph. Stating the importance of those things, your goals for the program. Then, it would transition to why qualified… next paragraphs about training (orange). The green (interests) might be the interwoven thing, in this case. It would be touched on in the why program. It would be touched on in training as well… did your training inspire current interests? Or are your interests something new or beyond what the training was?

Whatever you start in the first paragraph, keep that pattern/organization.

Content Edit??

This is getting back into writing, but on a more detailed level than the first draft and the broad development edit view. This is looking at each paragraph on its own. And also thinking about the bridge (or transition) from one paragraph and to the next. Are the ideas expressed clearly? Are there details missing? Are there too many details that are distracting from the “topic” of each paragraph? During this, you might be adding sentences that are interweaving info (that had been missing) into appropriate spots in the statement.

In content (and in line) edits, we also think about the tone and voice. Is the style – academic versus casual – consistent across the topics/paragraphs?

During this, we touch on word count a little. Are there parts that are irrelevant or tangential? Can we make this part shorter, express the same idea with less?

Line Edit??

At this stage we’re getting narrow – thinking about each sentence. Is a sentence really long – unnecessarily so, or is the length because of expressing a complex idea? Are there sentences in the passive voice, which could be written instead in the active, and thus be shorter?

Is there any unnecessary repetition - perhaps of adverbs or adjectives? Are there more precise alternatives, or could we delete for clarity and/or word count?

This might also touch on style and word choice. Is that higher diction word choice really the one you need? Or is the “simpler” version better, just for clarity’s sake. For example, using “shows” versus the various “demonstrates,” “proves,” “exhibits,” “displays,” “presents,” and etc.

Final Proof??

Self explanatory, I think? Find a friend to help, perhaps. If not, then change the font or size of the text. Change to a different word processor. Read aloud as slowly as possible, to read every word. Find ways to “see” the writing with fresh or different eyes, and look for those sneaky minor errors. Spelling. Punctuation. Verb conjugation – are you consistently using past and present tense at the right times? Point of View - do you only use a first person pronon once in the whole statement? Would consistency be better with only using third person? Do you accidentally use slang, or more casual writing?

Editing for word count – how do I do it?

Ideally, the brunt of managing the word count is done during content and line edits. But if at the end, we’ve still got too many words…

Process-wise, this is just rereading, over and over, checking what can be changed and what cannot.

First, double check - can any transitions or conjunctions be shorter? Have we cut non-essential adverbs? Do we need to reduce adjectives, any poetic or descriptive language? Do we have repeating words or phrases that are all expressing the same idea already? Can we use abbreviations for the school name or other organizations?

If we’ve already done all of that, then we need to cycle back up to content editing, and if desperate, development editing. This is backtracking and thinking about our Big Ideas… can we make the examples of them shorter? Or reduce how much space is dedicated to a given topic? Are we sure this info isn’t already stated elsewhere in the application?

Development and structure, then, what are things I left out of the SOP?

I didn’t feel the need to state the actual name of the school where I earned my Bachelor’s. That info is listed in the resume required by the application, and in the secondary form of the application where you fill in prior education history. I didn’t need to use word count to state that fact, already found elsewhere. Also, the name of the school is more-or-less less important than what I learned there. Also also, just saying “Bachelor’s” is more succinct than the full school name.

I only wrote out the full name of the Master’s program school once or twice, and used abbreviations for all other references.

I didn’t talk about some of my other recent job history… In the interim since earning my Bachelor’s, I’ve mostly worked in restaurants. While that’s been great for my Spanish speaking skills, and my interpersonal skills, details about restaurant are less-than-relevant for Master’s level academic work. So, if your current work history isn’t directly related to your program of choice, or demonstrating a key skill for it, I’d say don’t include that work history. Also, it’s prob already in your resume, so.

A sidenote: The tutoring work that I’ve done I only use in the SOP as proof of teaching capability (I was trying to be a Graduate Teaching Assistant…didn’t get chosen for that, alas), and also as part of what led me to desire Master’s level work in order to be qualified to teach older students/college level students. If I had a lower max word count (like, 750), I probably would have cut this information.

I didn’t talk about the writing sample I submitted for the application. The writing sample I used was an essay from one of the English classes focused on the Medieval time period, which I edited and expanded to fit the application’s page count requirements (15-20 pg sample). My thought is that the writing sample should speak for itself. Meanwhile, the SOP is about things the writing sample can’t say/demonstrate.

I didn’t talk about how I had to withdraw from one of the terms of my Bachelor’s for a legit medical reason (.... it was back surgery 🙃). I did have this info in early drafts of my SOP, but ended up cutting it for a couple reasons. For one, this info is in a note on my official transcript already. And ultimately, the withdrawal didn’t dramatically affect my GPA, or what my Bachelor’s accomplished. It just made my graduation term bumped out to a Fall term (a weird time, but eh). Also, trying to include this information in a logical way was making my second paragraph too dense, and the medical info was distracting readers from the more interesting/important info – my intellectual training. I also couldn’t make it fit nicely in the first paragraph, and it definitely wasn’t topical to anything in the third paragraph and beyond.

I didn’t talk about the Honor and Professional Organizations that I’m part of… both from during Bachelor’s and now. Those are mentioned in resume. And often, there's the extra form to fill in, on the online application. And SOP didn’t have a direct question about these… and they don’t directly contribute to my training – that is mostly in classes.

So the content of the SOP… what do I include and exclude?

Well, first priority is to answer the school’s SOP prompt. I cannot overstate that. That is a number one basic thing that the application reviewers will look for. Word count allowing, then you think about secondary things.

Secondary things… what are things that I can include, can state/demonstrate relevantly in the SOP, that cannot be found anywhere else in the application (not in resume, writing sample, other Q’s, and other form questions). Similarly, use different annecdotes to prove skills/experiences throughout the application.

And on the flip – to an extent, exclude things from the SOP that can already be found elsewhere. A little info might overlap, because in the SOP I need to contextualize the info somehow. But overall as little overlap as possible. And in editing the SOP, look for things that don’t answer the prompt, and cut them. What these things are… it's gonna vary based on the SOP prompt, what your program is, and word count.

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cabfarewell · 4 months ago

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Ok now that I’ve calmed down, I realize that most people do not know what Anthropology actually is, let alone methodological principles regarding data collection.

So. DAVID IS A LINGUIST: THE ESSAY

David is said, textually, to be an NSA analyst. His skill set and training is not explicitly mentioned, and obviously Ebon’s word isn’t be all end all, but I like applying the lens.

In order to be a crypologic linguist, you need pretty specific training, even more so when you’re studying a non-english language in the US. His undergraduate degree(s) are relatively flexible, could be any number of things, from Anthropology to Computer Science to Farsi and/or Pashto.

My personal guess would be compsci + anth/linguistics (if his uni offered the more specific degree) double major, possibly a minor. Doesn’t really matter that much. The anth option is more likely, it’s the parent field of linguistics, and it’s way easier to find a school offering a bachelors in anthropology than in linguistics.

After that, though, you need at least a masters degree, if not a doctorate, and the linguistics field can get pretty competitive, so I would be inclined towards a doctorate, probably gained in record time because David is a goddamn genius.

His masters would likely be linguistics, and his doctorate could either be linguistics or, more likely, cryptologic linguistics. All told, that’s AT LEAST 6-8 years of schooling.

That’s 6-8 years of anthropological training. In order to even get into a masters program, he’d probably have to have done independent research and published it, and definitely would need at least a handful of publications for a doctorate.

He’s been trained to observe as an anthropologist.

Anthropology is a field filled with misanthropes and outsiders, and neurodivergence is, anecdotally, pretty common. This all combines in the research ethos to prop up an illusion of outsider observation. An anthropologist’s job is often to simply be in a space observing how the people familiar with it engage with it. (This may sound very familiar to autistic people and fans of David Lieberman (the Venn diagram of which is a circle))

We are taught to disassociate our preconceived notions from our observations, to try to get as close to the emotional and logical truth as is possible between people. This is a somewhat Sisyphean task, given that our lived experiences will always color our observations, but the goal isn’t total truth. It’s to step outside ourselves to see a bigger picture.

And David, he’s struggling to step back in. He spent a year alone, observing, thinking, being the outsider gazing in through a window, being the anthropological catalogue of the government’s sins. He stopped being a person, and started being a researcher, a forever fly-on-the-wall.

The thing about David is, he’s an analyst. We get some scenes where he himself props up this image, pretending (whether to himself or others) that he is the cameras, he is the computer, he is the recording.

Because he stopped thinking of himself as a person after he was shot. David died, and all he has left is observation. He cannot touch, he cannot move, he is a ghost, staring through time and space and grief to catalogue the losses.

And then there’s the specificity of cryptologic linguistics.

He’s a code cracker, a solver of puzzles, takes the words people say and turns them into the ones they don’t.

He takes what people say, and ruthlessly picks it apart into what they mean.

I just… he’s a linguist….

EBONMOSSBACHRACH PLAYED DAVID AS A LINGUIST IM GOING TO SHOOT MYSELF

#I ❤️ David Lieberman

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human-hetalia-imagines · 4 years ago

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☆ Rules & Information ☆

This is a blog dedicated to doing imagines surrounding my original human au. Here’s a description for each character's place in the au and rules for requests — I’ll be adding more characters as I get more comfortable writing for them.

*I did change the names of some characters so that they would reflect the countries they come from

*Also: this shit long, so strap in and get ready

☆Rules for Imagines☆

I’ll do imagines, or a bullet point list of up to 6 characters at one time, or a written scenario for up to 3 characters

I’ll also do nyos and genderbends of each character (ngl, I simp after nyo!America), their placement in the au won't change.

I include South Italy and Prussia in the axis, and Canada in the Allies

I’ll write fluff, smut, angst, and everything in between

I absolutely won’t write: incest, explicit sexual assault or excessive gore

The only time I will do romantic/sexual imagines for the characters who canonically have the physical appearance of people under 18 is if you explicitly state that you want them aged up, or if the reader is also underage. If you request adult x minor, I will discard your ask & invert your rib cage.

☆Rules for Matchups☆

Before submitting, check if they’re open or not, they won’t always be due to not wanting my page cluttered with them

When requesting, include personality, interests, dislikes, any pets you have, fun facts about yourself, and possibly clothing style

Don’t bother to include physical features as those will not be taken into account when pairing you up with someone

Include whether you want the matchup to be romantic, platonic, or one of each

☆Character Au Placements☆

North America

America | Alfred Jones, age 19

A young man that's cheerful and strong, with a strong sense of justice. He often can't read situations and has a habit of ruining the mood, whatever mood that may be. While he’s usually labeled as “incompetent”, he’s attending college (or university, depending where you’re from) to obtain a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering. He plays as the pitcher on his college’s baseball team, able to throw a devastating fastball. He lives in a two bedroom apartment with his twin brother, Matthew. He had a crush on Amelia Earhart when he was younger, and it’s something that Matthew teases him about on a weekly basis.

Canada | Matthew Williams, age 19

On the surface, he's an easygoing, softhearted and gentle young man, around his twin brother and close friends, however, he can be quite sassy, nearly bordering on rude on occasion. He's in his first year of college for a degree in statistics. For the college, he plays as the Center on the hockey team, where he lets out steam on his opponents. He has a pure white rag-doll cat named Kumajirou that follows him around his and Alfred's apartment. He curses regularly in french.

United Kingdom

England | Arthur Kirkland, age 23

He's either a quick-witted, sarcastic and stubborn man, or the paragon of a perfect gentleman. He enjoys reading, writing (although he doesn’t show anyone his stories), and embroidering. He’s gotten so skillful at it, that he has a well-traversed Etsy shop. He’s currently in his last year of getting his Postsecondary Education degree and a minor in linguistics. When he was a teenager, he was a delinquent, going to loud concerts, fighting, dyeing his hair wild colors, and smoking. While he says he’s over it, he still keeps various CDs of OK Go and The Rolling Stones, as well as band t-shirts. It’s something that his 3 older brothers refuse to let go of.

Baltic

Estonia | Eduard von Bock, Age 19

He's a graduated honors student who has avoided many problems with wit. Usually in front of people he acts calm, logical, and businessman-like, but in private he’s actually pretty chill, albeit a bit quiet. He’s awesome with technology, and works part-time at his college as an IT advisor while he studies to get his Quality Control & Safety Technologies degree.

Latvia | Raivis Galante, age 15

He’s a boy who has been through quite a bit, making him an introvert, easily intimidated, and kind of a crybaby. He’s in his first year of high school, but due to him having an anxiety disorder, he does it digitally. The only problem is that he strives to have friends who are close to him and care for him unconditionally. He secretly likes to read cutesy romance novels from the young adult section.

Lithuania | Toris Laurinaitis, age 19

He's a patient, shy, and gentle person who has the ability to become pretty serious when he needs to be. He works as a librarian assistant while he decides between a degree in social work or education. He, unfortunately, usually over-thinks his decisions too much, causing him to have anxiety attacks. When he’s not working, he’s typically just dragged around by his close friend, Feliks, but he has a good time nonetheless.

Nordic

Denmark | Mathias Køhler, age, 19

He’s a genuine sweetheart who often accidentally always yells. While he is kind, he’s also a bit thick-headed, although he always has the best of intentions. He considers himself to be very close to his friends, especially to Lukas, although the other man’s opinion on the matter is about the opposite. He attends college for a master’s degree in, surprisingly enough, Business Administration. When he isn’t studying, he enjoys clinging to his friends and drinking. He has the habit of playing online video games with Alfred and Gilbert for way too long at a given time. He also gets oddly competitive over his degree with Tino.

Finland | Tino Väinämöinen, Aged 20

He's a gentle, cheery young man with a tendency to like the more simplistic things in life. He seems very mature, yet can be childlike. He loves relaxing in saunas, especially with his close friends. He has a small Maltese pup named Hanatamago who attends dog shows. When he’s not attending dog shows, he does online college for a masters in Medical Assisting.

Iceland | Emil Steilsson, age 17

He’s a mysterious boy with a cool exterior and a hot interior, being a bit easy to provoke with teasing. His older half-brother often insists that he was ‘born in his emo phase’. He taught his pet puffin (geniously named Mr. Puffin) a lot of profanity in Icelandic, Norwegian, and English. He attends high school, which he is absolutely over. On a side note, even though Lukas is his half-brother, he often refuses to have any connection to him whatsoever in public.

Norway | Lukas Bondevik , age 18

He is, like his half-brother, very introverted. However, he is considerably more cold to strangers, but to his close friends, he can (sometimes) be very sweet. He just recently finished highschool, but intends on going straight into college for an Applied Data Science degree. He practices Modern Paganism, or Wicca, as his religion.

Sweden | Berwald Oxenstierna, Aged 21

He’s a guy with an intimidating air who doesn’t talk much. On the inside he’s playful, but it doesn’t show at all and he just seems intimidating. He works as a carpenter after he went to a trade high school, a job that he greatly enjoys. Other than that, he likes decorative arts and being a part of debates on his free time. While he can create furniture out of wood scraps without any blueprints, he can’t put together IKEA furniture to save his life.

Eastern Europe

Belarus | Natalia Arlovskaya, age 19

While she can be extremely possessive over her older brother and sister, she means well. She openly looks up to both of them, as they are the only two people in her life that have remained constants. She lives with both of them in a house and works part-time at her sister’s flower shop. She’s also a part-time online student with a pursuit of a criminology degree.

Russia | Ivan Braginski, age 21

He has the simplicity of a country bumpkin, an easy-going personality, and the cruelty of a child, all mixed together. Coupled with his personality traits and the fact that he’s well over 6 feet tall, he constantly (and accidentally) gives off an intimidating air. He attends college for a Avionics Technology bachelor's degree. Deep down, he’s incredibly passionate about ballet, more specifically Russian ballet, his favorite being Don Quixote, with Sleeping Beauty as a close second.

Ukraine | Katyusha Braginskaya, age 24

Ivan and Natalia’s older sister who always recklessly gets dragged into their messes. She's an absolute sweetheart who strives to make the people around her happy, even at her own expense. She can be very emotional. She owns a flower shop where she let’s her younger siblings work part-time while they go to school.

Central Europe

Germany | Ludwig Beilschmidt, age 20

He's a young man with an overly serious personality and a pessimistic nature. He's very by-the-book and has a pet peeve for a lack of cleanliness. He attends college for mechanical engineering and dorms with Feliciano and Kiku. His older brother, Gilbert, regularly breaks in and hangs out with them. His hobbies are reading, making sweets and taking walks with his dogs (that live with Gilbert). He’s in a garage band with the three aforementioned guys. He does, however, want to be a soldier like the other members in his family. Unfortunately, due to an injury to his leg that he sustained as a kid, he can’t.

Hungary | Elizabeta Héderváry, age 26

She’s a sweet, reliable woman with a bit of a boyish streak. For a career, she works doing maintenance on a farm that belongs to a close friend, Basch (Switzerland). In her free time, she likes riding horses, going hiking and practicing instruments, one of which is the tekerőlant. She has a young child, Julian (Kugelmugel), from a previous relationship with her ex fiance, Roderich (Austria). Thankfully, things are civil between the two.

Liechtenstein | Lili Zwingli, age 15

She’s the darling, adoptive younger sister of Basch (Switzerland). She has a big heart and helps out on her brother’s farm wherever she can, and because she spends so much time on the farm, she’s gotten decently close to Elizabeta. She enjoys feeding, brushing, and cuddling her two angora rabbits on her free time, as well as knitting. Sometimes she’ll submit her bunnies to be participants in rabbit shows (Cocoa has 1 and Cinna-bun has 3).

Poland | Feliks Łukasiewicz, age 19

He has a fierce anxiety towards strangers, and upon a first meeting, he'll act very shy. Once he gets used to someone, he'll act goofy and a bit childish, clinging onto his closest friends. He attends college for a degree in fashion design and marketing. He is also very opinionated. He often drags his friends to Francis’ patisserie for cute aesthetic pictures.

Prussia | Gilbert Beilschmidt, age 24

He comes off as rude, loud and self-centered, but he’s actually incredibly sweet and loyal almost to a fault. He’s catholic and takes his religion seriously to the point of keeping a cross necklace with him nearly all the time. While he wanted to join the army like the rest of his family, his albinism keeps him from being able to. Because of this, many members of the family see him as the Family Disappointment™, causing a strain between him and them. Unrelated, but when Ludwig lived with him, he caught Gilbert trying to play all three parts of Suite en trio, Op. 59: I. Serenade by himself with all three instruments at 2 in the morning.

Switzerland | Basch Zwingli, age 25

He’s an intimidating man with a soft heart. He owns a farm that has been in his family for generations, and it’s a job that he’s greatly proud of and fiercely protective over. He has technically adopted Lili as a daughter, but they both view each other as siblings. Regardless, Francis has still referred to him as a DILF before. He doesn’t understand what it means, and Elizabeta has assured him that he doesn't want to. On a more pure note, he enjoys attending rabbit shows whenever there’s any in the area, and has encouraged Lili to participate in them with hers.

Africa

Seychelles | Veronique Bonnefoy, age 17

She’s a southern country girl with a big heart. She's a bit sloppy and has the tendency to laze around when the weather gets warmer. She often laments over her being lonely to her friends, especially to Alfred and Matthew. She enjoys cooking, singing, and dancing. She takes after her brother figure (technically adoptive father), Francis, being a bit of a romantic herself. She’s in her senior year of high school, and is excited to be done with it. Once she ate pizza rolls in front of Francis and he almost cried.

Asia

China | Yao Wang, age 19

He’s a (mostly) easy-going person, if not a bit of a hermit. He works as a waiter currently, but attends several courses in hopes of getting his food-handlers permit to, one day, open his own authentic Chinese food restaurant. He lives with his 5 other siblings, all of which jokingly refer to him as “grandpa” due to how often he complains about back pain and makes acupuncture appointments every 2 weeks. When his 6th sibling, Kiku, moved out for college, he was pretty salty. In his free time, he mostly plays Mahjong the practices the Érhù. He’s unabashedly likes and collects cute things such as small charms and plushies.

Japan | Kiku Honda, age 19

While, at first glance, he seems quiet and serious, he can actually be quite goofy and irresponsible with his money, buying anime memorabilia and American comic books. It’s something that one of his roommates, Ludwig, lectures him about quite a bit. His other roommate, Feliciano, sees nothing wrong with it. He attends college for a degree in animation. He enjoys messing with machines and drawing.

South Korea | Im Yong Soo, age 16

He’s a hyperactive young man with strong aspirations when it comes to schooling. He shows the upmost respect to strangers and his elders alike, but when he’s around friends and immediate family he tends to be more loud and silly. He’s currently knee deep in the K-pop wave sweeping the world and practices idol dances on tiktok.

Taiwan | Mei Xiao, age 18

She is a strong-willed, fashionable young woman, but she's also said to have become more of a nervous type in recent times, unable to stop worrying. She has the tendency to be a bit smart-mouthed with a somewhat quick temper. Other than that, she has a sweet and cheerful disposition. She lives with all of her siblings (China, Japan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Korea, and Thailand) and works as a hostess as a restaurant while she takes a break from schooling.

Mediterranean

France | Francis Bonnefoy, age 24

He's someone who does things at his own pace and has an abundance of affectionate expressions for friends, family, and strangers alike. He owns his own patisserie which has become increasingly popular as a spot for dates and hipsters to eat cute, artfully made sweets and drink aesthetically pleasing coffees and teas. He loves culture and the arts, as well as paintings and clothing.

North Italy | Feliciano Vargas, age 20

He's a cheerful guy who can be a little bit of a crybaby. While he relies on his friends a lot, he deeply cares for them. He's attending college for a fine arts degree where he shares a dorm room with Ludwig and Kiku. He enjoys painting, singing and designing clothes. Also, while only a few people know this, he can play both acoustic and electric guitar. He’s in a garage band with Ludwig, Kiku, and Gilbert

South Italy | Lovino Vargas, age 22

He constantly starts arguments and fights, however he’s also a bit of a coward. He has the ability to be hardworking, but often doesn’t out of laziness. While he’ll never admit it, he’s quite the hopeless romantic, striving to find someone who will love him despite his flaws. He’s in college to obtain a bachelor's in agricultural studies with a minor in history, but absolutely refused to share a dorm with his younger brother, who he often teases about choosing to get a ‘useless art degree.’ He enjoys gardening, dancing, and playing the acoustic guitar in his free time. He also likes sketching, but due to feeling insecure, he never shows people his work, or even tells them that he does it.

Spain | Antonio Fernandez Carriedo, age 24

While he can be oblivious and even insensitive, he’s a generally friendly person with a cheerful deposition. He works as a bartender in a decently popular bar in the downtown of his city that’s within walking distance of his house. When he’s not working, he enjoys playing the flamenco guitar and practicing dancing. Since he’s very sociable, before work, he typically stops by Francis’ pastry shop to talk to him as he closes up.

Also, did you know that, in canon, Feliciano can play electric guitar and Ludwig can play the drums?? What I’m saying is: punk garage band w/ Kiku on vocals. Thank you for coming to my TEDtalk.

#hetalia imagines #aph imagines #aph america #aph canada #aph china #aph england #aph france #aph russia #aph germany #aph japan #aph italy #aph romano #aph nordics #aph baltics #aph taiwan #human au #rules

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remuswriting · 3 years ago

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Only one of my friends remembers that I literally already have a college degree and I’m getting my bachelors now. Like I have an associates in Mass Communication (basically Media Studies) and I’m going to hopefully be graduating December 2022 with my bachelors in Creative Writing as well as my minor in Applied Linguistics.

I was going to get my bachelors in Media Studies when I transferred, but I absolutely hate the professors here and cannot be in the same building as them.

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imanes · 4 years ago

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Hey Imane! Quick question, but I assume these must be quite boring for you so of course feel free to ignore if you're done with the topic in general. What did you do for your bachelor's and master's? How much did you enjoy each one of them, and how useful did you find them in the sense of how well do you feel they prepared you for the job market in general, and then specifically for the future jobs that you ended up doing?

hi babe! no worries quick and boring questions are my faves lmao. officially i graduated with a bachelor’s degree in applied communications with a major in public relations and a minor in journalism, and with a master’s degree in public relations with a specialisation in european politics and affairs. i’d say it gave me opportunities to be as prepared as possible but because it was such a hands-on programme, what you focused on depended largely on yourself and your capacity to multitask/use different tools. i enjoyed my bachelor’s programme because it offered a very broad selection of classes (all of them mandatory + one elective which i did in documentary film making) so i have a relatively good knowledge basis in sociology, social psychology & psychoanalysis, economy and so on. like for every possible major that one could go to for university (besides hard sciences) we had at least one class focusing on it and giving us an overview of the field. i also had lots of theoretical comms-related classes (photography, film making, graphic design, etc) so all in all i appreciated how thorough the programme was. my fave classes might have been contemporary history and international politics bc they were given by a communist professor teehee. for my master’s the load was lighter in terms of theory bc projects were more important but i really liked these classes, especially on my second year.

did it prepare me well? i’d say i prepared myself well lmao every year i’d focus on a different medium to master to be all-rounded and present myself as a candidate with added value due to my wide variety of hard skills. my biggest obstacle was that i didn’t believe in myself and that made me waste a bit of time after i graduated, but i’ve definitely hit my stride. i liked that i chose to go into a more politically charged specialisation because i believe my profs did a good job at letting us develop our critical thinking skills and i’m in contact with some of them (now retired) which is quite nice. it prepared me relatively well but that’s because i went into college wanting to make the most of it and making sure i was putting time into really learning stuff and not just coasting. after graduation i learned more about myself than i ever did in college and i’m grateful for each experience. i’m a lot more confident now and i can see that everything i learned was valuable, even the most boring/odd classes (linguistics...).

now was it all fun? lmao hell no i pulled so many all-nighters working in studios for projects and the workload was insane. i wasn’t well mentally and i often hit rock-bottom when i was in uni. but looking back on it i’m happy with where it led me. as far as being prepared for the job market is concerned, your academic background sure helps, but where i work my school name has no weight so i have to present well and work on my diplomatic skills, which isn’t something my college prepared me for. but life is about learning on the spot :-) also my classmates and i ended up doing a really wide variety of jobs so it truly shows that while it is versatile, your post-college experience is mostly what you make of it and what you choose to focus on. i’d hate to work as an account manager in a PR agency and i hated every single minute of my marketing coordinator stint last year but a lot of my friends work in these fields and love it so my personal experience isn’t the full spectrum of what could happen once you enter the job searching market with a degree like mine

anyways i feel like i’ve lost myself in 2000000 tangents also i took 20 minutes to write all of this (that’s on me though) so i’m gonna stop there and continue playing animal crossing lmao muchos besos

#Anonymous

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deviaete · 5 years ago

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sub small font apologist hath arrived ! it’s me , valentina peach , local twenty1 year old law / political science student n animal crossing fiend ! writin out of the aest / hellzone , living laughing n loving my way thru life , what else is there 2 say ? i luv my cats n will send pics on demand --- - but otherwise , let’s get on with it n get to the good shit !

elton clare , the twenty - three year old amateur detective , is one of few boarding the legendary orient express . i heard the demi - male was hired because they’re sprightly & disquisitive , and quite good at multilingualism , but problems can arise because they are ornery & portentous . settled in cabin 3000 , looking at him reminds me of the crackling , comforting roar of an open fire and the warmth it radiates onto your back ( seeps into your bones , alights them from the marrow out ) , a collection of beautiful clothes you don’t take care of ; holes in your sweaters and cigarette burns in fine linen suits and the whole damn thing soaked in the scents of nicotine and cheap scotch , scribbles in the margins of your favourite books and the lazy curls that obfuscate your vision when you pore over them . the first boom of thunder and subsequent twist of lightning of a thunderstorm , a shattered crystal goblet on the floor / something unhinged behind painfully bright eyes , something not quite right in the insidious jerk of a toothy grin . oh , and timothee chalamet . welcome aboard .

layer one , basics .

full name : elton alexander clare iii . we don’t talk about the iii part .

nicknames : none that he’d note .

age : twenty - three .

date of birth : february sixteenth , 9:15 pm .

place of birth : london , england .

star sign : aquarius sun , gemini moon , virgo rising .

gender : demi male , he/him pronouns .

sexuality : pansexual .

languages spoken : a whole lot .

speciality : multilingualism . ( duh . )

education : eton college , completed . bachelor of arts at nyu , completed .

layer two , biographicals .

and it’s a charming tale , truly ; american diplomat moves to england , falls head over heels in love with an english socialite , marriage is a swiftly - accepted proposition and less than a year later , there’s a pastel blue nursery set up in the center of a stately residence in the countryside ( wedding gift from benevolent parents , gushing over their daughter’s ultimate ladder climb ) ! elton clare ii and marilyn worthington are a neurotic , magazine - cover kind of happy , generically gorgeous and svelte and lovely in their crisp - edged glory . marilyn grows up in a world of privilege , elton determines his own fate with smarts ; the child is doomed to be a creature of fortune and disaster / marilyn wishes it were a girl . ‘ a beautiful little fool . ’

unfortunately , it’s not a girl . elton alexander clare iii is born kicking , screaming , pink - cheeked and brutally aware of the sheer injustice of being born . parents adore him , naturally ; piercing hues just like his mother’s , father’s mop of dark hair , all mettle and moxie even when he’s minutes old . god knows it’s only the beginning ! bright - eyed baby grows into an uncomfortably quiet toddler , develops into an overly - inquisitive child . can’t learn fast enough : digs his tiny little fingers into everything he can , sucks up anything he can learn with a wide smile and a furrowed brow . reads earlier than his peers , pieces sentences together fast and furious . it’s obvious that he’s linguistically - inclined , right from the beginning . spends hours in the family library as a child , delving deep into the worlds of carroll and verne and shakespeare and orwell .

childhood is , overall , picturesque : it’s holidays to paris and the south of france , trips to barcelona and vienna and prague . it’s orange trees and sandy beaches , friendly dogs and fawning old ladies who can’t help themselves but adore the kind little boy who holds open the doors for them ! schoolteachers dribble nonsense about how talented he is in just about everything ( only cares for english , history , languages and art , but that’s neither here nor there ) . takes to languages like a duck to water : french is tucked neat under his belt by eight , spanish and italian following shortly after . the term polyglot is thrown around by his sixteenth year , when mandarin , russian , arabic and portuguese join the crew .

adolescence brings with it a quiet rebellion , started in boarding school . always questions authority , never quite knows when to stop running that mouth ! eton does wonders to break a polite child into something a little more detached ; his time is punctuated , notably , by student - led rebellions ( and tell me , you savage antinuous , why are yo always at the forefront ? ) , periods of experimentation ( hues are unflinching when they rake over your best friend’s frame ) / and yet you are praised something unholy by teachers . it’s a wonder what old money and the reputation of your name will do ! you could get away with murder if the fancy so took you .

eton comes , as it always does , to a gradual end , and university looms . eighteen and weary of your homeland’s lush wonders , you apply for columbia , stanford , harvard , nyu . a double major in english and foreign literature ; minor in international relations ( father begs you , and you oblige only so that he funds your apartment ) . nyu accepts with open arms , and you run . your apartment is small and overcrowded with books , records , half - drunk bottles of wine and the remnants of a dying bouquet , forever the gift of a lover left bereft . you love it with your entire being / a place that finally feels like home , no need for svelte wrapping on your life here : you always felt so contained by expectation , but this is so different . you tumble home at 2 in the morning , scarf loose and hands raw and heart pounding and no one gives a shit .

always entertained a love of mystery : you solved household dilemmas with methodical precision , moved onto neighbour’s problems . built yourself quite the reputation as the sleuth to be remembered , and that reputation appears to precede you when a letter comes in the mail . contains a ticket for the orient express ( be still , my beating heart ) and an invitation . you accept before you’ve even finished reading it all .

packed up your things , flown back to france and the mystery begins the minute you step on the train . no one knows how it will end , but you know this much : you cannot wait for it to begin .

#* ╰ 𝘪. 𝗵𝗮𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘆 ‚ 𝗯𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗱𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 . . . ↝ ooc .#orienthq.intro

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wannabeteacherstuff · 5 years ago

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Hello, world!

Before I launch into the whole blogging thing, I guess I should explain why I’m here. I am 23 years old, situated in the southern half of the United States, about graduate with my Associate of Arts in May 2020, and I am applying for the TaLK August 2020 intake.

I realized very soon into my journey of starting the application that there’s not a lot of straightforward, good information regarding how to go about the supplemental items needed. The CRC, letters of recommendation, the essay, lesson plan, etc., are all bits and pieces that are vital to the entire application but there is very little out there to give detail into what we need to do as applicants.

So, why not make a blog of the journey from submission of my application through... wherever this takes me. I am still planning on completing my bachelor's degree, I would love to focus on linguistics related to second language acquisition and minor in education. My end goal is to become a teacher of the English language as a foreign language in Asia and settle down there.

I hope this is informative for anyone starting their own journey into applying for this program, at least the first few bits as I cannot give any good advice for background checks related to anywhere except the US!

#talk korea #talk august intake #blog #personal

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adventurewithben · 5 years ago

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I'd love to know more of what you do and how you got into it! Just graduated with my bachelor's in linguistics and stuck on where to go next

Ok!

What I do now as create and test training sets for machine learning models. Assistant technologies like Alexa, Siri, Google, etc need to be trained on large amounts of data to ensure that they execute the right action. So if the action is “turn on the TV” you have to be able to think of all the ways that people could possibly ask that. “Turn on TV”, “Put the TV on”, “TV on now”, etc etc. So I gather all that data, train it, write language-specific grammar rules (i.e. coverage for plurals/participles) if necessary, and test it against the other actions to make sure everything works properly. I had applied to this job via Linguist List, which is a great job board for linguists but very often only focuses on academic positions. Comb through and see what’s available there.

Me and my coworkers generally have MAs (a few only have bachelors but the most recent hires have all been MA). This job is not a research job, you won’t be doing theoretical linguistics work here unless you want to go into natural language processing. If you do want to go into NLP you’re better off pursuing a degree in computer science focusing on machine learning, with a minor focus in linguistics. My job is more of a minor technical development/maintenance job, so some of the work is tedious but ultimately rewarding when you see people using your work on their devices. This job also does not pay a huge amount, and you’d likely have to move to the SF Bay Area, the most expensive part of the country (even higher than NYC).

So all that said, I would not recommend a graduate degree in Linguistics unless you plan on 1) going straight for a PhD and doing research at a university or 2) doing either an MA or PhD and getting a solid background in coding languages (Python, Javascript, R). The job market is super competitive, even if you went with option 1, most professors make peanuts even at good universities, so if you wanna make money and have job security as a linguist you need a different marketable skill, like coding, statistics, or management.

Or you can get lucky like @dedalvs and make languages for a living :P

#language #linguistics #linguist #conlangs #tech #google #languages

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therussianmajor · 6 years ago

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~Update On What I Am Doing With My Life Academically~

I just needed to write it out so my head could see it in something besides my color-coded excel spreadsheet version of my life plan. Sorry for the word-vomit.

Sooooo my life-plan, in terms of academia, has slightly changed. I am going to take a 5th year for my bachelor’s degree (I am currently finishing my 3rd year) in order to add a third major and study two more languages formally.

I have basically always wanted to to get a PhD in Linguistics, focusing on historical linguistics. However, my previous interest was specifically Slavic historical linguistics, and while that is definitely still an area of interest for me, my overall interest has shifted more broadly to Indo-European Studies. My goal-school used to be Harvard’s PhD program in Slavic Linguistics, but now it is UCLA’s PhD program in Proto-Indo-European Studies and Linguistics.

However, to even be considered for admission I need proficiency in Latin, and during the degree I will have to develop proficiency in Ancient Greek. For this reason, I am adding 4 semesters each of Latin and Ancient Greek to my plan (this is the main reason in extending my degree by a year — it also doesn’t hurt that my tuition [but sadly not fees] will be completely paid for under my current scholarship for a fifth year #HellYah).

I am also adding a third major: linguistics! It is currently my minor, but now I will have enough time to take the few extra classes I need to make it a major.

After I graduate, I still plan on applying for the Fulbright and Marshall Scholarships. It will just happen one year later now. Additionally, even if I am not accepted by the Marshall Scholarship, I plan on completing a 1-year MSt in linguistics at a British uni (hopefully Oxford, but UEdinburgh and UCL also have great programs).

After that, I will hopefully be accepted into a PhD program in Linguistics or Proto-Indo-European Studies, focusing on historical linguistics.

So yah. That’s pretty much what I want to do with my life as of now.

#langblr #lingblr #linguistics #historical linguistics #indo-european studies #slavic linguistics #academia #phd programs #grad school #latin #greek #russian

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lyrsui · 5 years ago

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Now that I have been hired to work a full-time job at a nice office, I am thinking a lot about the process of returning to school. I really wanna finish undergrad with a degree in Linguistics (ambitiously I also wanna dual major in Caribbean Studies). To do this, I would have to complete my credits part time, paying out of pocket, and though it might take 2-3 years, it would just be a good thing. This is mostly my mother's goal for me and like, that's cute and whatever and I do share some of her anxiety that it could become a career barrier when I'm like, thirty. So I have some fears.

My goals? To take night classes, weekend classes, online classes when I can, and when I can't? I aim to explain my situation with the individual professors and be granted permission to have attendance not factored into my grade based on the agreement that I submit all assignments and show up in person for exams. I feel like that's a good plan?

I really wanted a minor in screenwriting to validate my whole college career thus far but it doesn't seem like it's gonna happen and you know what? That's okay.

I feel a lot more confident in this whole thing now at least. Right now my day job will be in event production, and a bachelor's will just mean I can continue in the non-profit sector as I wish, I could also teach English abroad at any point if I fancy a career change... And at one point I had settled theoretically on the idea of going to grad school to become a speech therapist (which a Ling degree is valid for!) As you can see, I aspire to accomplish SO MUCH in this limited and miserable lifetime.

Right now, I will wait until Fall 2020 to enact this plan, partly because then I'll have adjusted to my job + I'm applying to a mentorship program for Queer Artists and if accepted I won't be allowed to be a student between fall 2019 - fall 2020 and that's totally okay.

I also totally intend to continue with The Lit Exhibit each year so suffice to say that yeah, I'm going to always be a little busy and I'm super okay with it!!

Finally feeling like, OKAY my life is going in a DIRECTION that isn't just a one way fast track to imminent and painful disaster.

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bitch-a-la-mode · 7 years ago

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What's it like being an anthro major? I've been thinking about going to back to school for it.

YAY! Something I know about! So basically Anthropology is the study of humans (in Greek “anthropos” literally means “human” and logos means “study”; it’s the study of humans!) One of the first things to know about anthropology is that there are 4 subfields (3 depending on where you are). These fields can be dissected into smaller fields, but for now the main fields are as so:

Cultural/Social Anthropology- basically the study of different cultures and societies. This study gets confused a lot with sociology. But, from my experience as a sociology minor, they’re pretty different. While sociology focuses mainly on creating arguments from statistical analysis, cultural anthro focuses on small groups, studying them, and writing about them (sometimes making comparisons or arguments). There are also smaller fields within this field that focus on specific things (so like my professor has her PHD in cultural anthropology, and she specializes in medical anthropology. She basically studies how medicine is different in one place versus the other and how things like gender, race, and sexual orientation effect the kind of care you get at a doctors office.) basically you can study pretty much anything and call it “culture”. Your choice of fashion is culture, your hair is culture, how you eat a burger is culture, everything is culture. This field can probably give you the most to work with. A big thing to remember is that you have to be very open minded when studying a culture.

Linguistics- now linguistics has become very popular in media recently to the point where people (especially people who don’t know much about Anthropology) think that it’s a independent field of study (which it is not, it’s a subfield). Because of its media attention, some people are kinda confused as to what they do. Linguists study language as you might have guessed. Now I’m not the biggest fan of linguistics so I might be a little biased or give you slightly incorrect information. But from what I know and understand, linguists basically study how language changes based on the language being spoken and the society. For example, the way you talk to your friend is different to how you would talk to your boss. Another big thing is how language changes based on historical influence. So like the way you use a word now is different from how you would have used it 100 years ago. Linguistics love slang. They love learning how to use words differently (I had a professor who didn’t understand why people used the word “mood” and once we explained it, she thought it was the most interesting thing ever and talked about it for 3 classes straight). They have all these fancy names for things in language like “phonemes” and in my opinion it’s probably the hardest subfield to study. They like dissecting grammar rules and understanding them on such a deep level that unless you dedicate all your time to this study, you’ll probably never fully understand it.

Physical/ Biological Anthropology: now there have been many debates about this field. While Anthropology is a social science, bio anthro does a LOT with the physical sciences (mostly biology, hence the name). A lot of universities consider it as a new degree and depending on the school, you could either get a degree in science or the arts. But I digress. Basically this field studies humans on a physical level. They like studying our relatives, the gorillas, and the physical aspects of humans. Evolution is their best friend! While cultural and linguistics studies ideas, bio anthros study the physical aspects of humans. I know a lot of people who get degrees in this and go to med school because you learn so much about the body! I’m pretty sure you have to take at least two courses on osteology (the study of the skeletal system) or anatomy. Basically from the top of your head to the soles of your feet a physical anthropologist will know and study this. (They also study other animals. They LOVE Darwin’s finches in the Galapagos.) A big field within this field is forensic anthropology. Those people study remains that are beyond recognizable for people like the police.

Archeology- now depending on where you are, archeology May or May not be a subfield of Anthropology. In the U.S. it’s a subfield, but in Europe (and maybe Asia?) it’s an entirely different field (so in these places there are only 3 fields of anthropology). Anyways, this field focuses on ancient human civilizations. And when I say ancient, I mean ANCIENT. I’m talking like even before the ancient Egyptians. Like, mostly cavemen. Unlike physical anthropologists, archeologists focus of humans that are long gone. A lot of people think this one is the coolest because of Indiana Jones, but it is far from that. Unless you’re really lucky, you probably won’t be going on expeditions. If you do, however, the chances of you finding some ancient temple are so rare it’s not even funny. Most of the time these crazy bastards will literally go into the desert and start digging. They find practically garbage and are amazed by what they find. What they like to do is find remains of ancient civilizations and try to piece together how the societies were like. For example, they’ve found remains of what is assumed to be a woman and inside what would’ve been her digestive tract, they’ve found traces of a fetus. They discovered that in this ancient society, if there was a premature birth, the people would have a ceremony and eat the fetus remains. They also use quite a bit of science, but probably not as much as physical anthropologists.

Anthropology is a social science, which means that you’re gonna study humans in some type of way. Like psychology, sociology, and all the other ‘Ologies’, this area consists of a lot of reading and writing. Basically all you’ll ever do is read one book after another, and write research papers. But if that’s your thing it’s pretty easy and nice. Like a lot of liberal arts degrees, you can’t do much with a bachelors unless you have a lot of experience or good connections. To get an internship in legitimate anthropology is so difficult, many require master degrees! But the nice thing is that it’s a liberal arts degree, emphasis on liberal! Many anthropologists may not be going on insane expeditions, but quite a few work in academia. Some publish work, some don’t. I have a friend who works a marketing internship and uses what he’s learned to attract certain demographics. I, on one hand, would like to work in a museum. There’s a bunch of stuff you can do with Anthropology! It can apply to every day life. And again, you might not be studying some rare species in the Amazon, but humans are all around us! We literally surround ourselves with humans, and we study humans! We literally surround ourselves with our work! Anthropology is all about observing and learning and if that’s what you like to do then I say go for it! It’s very rewarding in my opinion and as someone who did a complete 180 with her degree (I went from biomedical engineering to cultural anthropology) it is very rewarding if you truly enjoy it! And the thing is that humans will always be here, so however or whatever you study about humans, there’s always a way to incorporate that into your work. And again, Anthropology is such a broad degree choice than you can get a wide range of jobs that you can incorporate your lessons into.

If anyone thinks I might have been wrong in some way please add onto this! If you think differently I’d love to hear what you have to say

@cheesethenachos

#cheesethenachos #linguistics #cultural anthropology #archaeology #physical anthropology

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