The UK university system does have some rather impenetrable and inexplicable points - the university I went to in Dublin (near enough) didn't give firsts on principle. And it's kind of the same with the Sheffield MA - anything over 80 (not even sure it's out of a theoretical 100) and you should be deleriously happy.
And today I am - 83 for my latest J-E translation! It was a great source text, "Don't make children write poetry!" by a literary critic and novelist Maruya Saiichi. You can feel his immense frustration with schools and worship of poetry in every line. It was great fun to translate.
Pity not all the translation material in the world is like that, as I well know.
Monday 25 June 2007
Tuesday 12 June 2007
Uh-oh
Serious impediment to study... my other half has very sweetly got me Final Fantasy III for the DS. Wheeeeee!
Monday 4 June 2007
Something's got to give...
Why am I finally getting around to posting some haiku? I'm at home sick, went in feeling okay, but went downhill rapidly and by 12 was unable to type my own name. Various problems kept me from leaving until after 2:30, but I'm now home and feeling a little better. Wouldn't surprise me if it's stress...
MA work not going so well either. I got good marks on Japanese-English translation, but not so good on my transcription (although coming down from almost-perfect last time) and really disappointing marks on my first essay. Fair point that there were probably important sources I didn't use, but the content of the essay didn't crystallise for some time, and by the time it did I didn't have time to go into SOAS to get more books.
I know we're all grown up, but I would appreciate more assistance (even if people want to call it hand-holding) from the university... giving us a massive Handbook - which covers more than just our course - and then throwing assignments at us later isn't working for me, and I'd be surprised if it was for others.
Or maybe I'm just not taking criticism well, as has been noted since primary school. But hey, at least that's something unique about me.
MA work not going so well either. I got good marks on Japanese-English translation, but not so good on my transcription (although coming down from almost-perfect last time) and really disappointing marks on my first essay. Fair point that there were probably important sources I didn't use, but the content of the essay didn't crystallise for some time, and by the time it did I didn't have time to go into SOAS to get more books.
I know we're all grown up, but I would appreciate more assistance (even if people want to call it hand-holding) from the university... giving us a massive Handbook - which covers more than just our course - and then throwing assignments at us later isn't working for me, and I'd be surprised if it was for others.
Or maybe I'm just not taking criticism well, as has been noted since primary school. But hey, at least that's something unique about me.
Haiku!
green LEDs surge
and scatter prophecying
the end of the world
(after watching a broken LED signboard on a slow train back to Reading while muchos tired)
and scatter prophecying
the end of the world
(after watching a broken LED signboard on a slow train back to Reading while muchos tired)
Friday 1 June 2007
Future technical
After miserably failing to contribute much to the discussion on media and politics at the online course, had a look at next year's options... including patent translation. I think I need to seriously improve my Japanese...
Google Patents: http://www.google.com/patents
Google Patents: http://www.google.com/patents
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