023. Reflection (Vol.1)

It's been almost a year since I entered graduate school. I've learnt a lot of new knowledge here.

First of all, I've learnt that academic subjects originate from Europe and it started from philosophy. Philosophy can be roughly divided into ontology and epistemology. Ontology deals with the question like "What really exists in this world?" On the other hand, epistemology tackles with the question like "How can human beings perceive things?" These two areas are fundamental foundations of every academic subjeat. I want to learn them more so that I can ameliorate my meta-cognitive ability.

Secondly, I learnt linguistics. It was a little different from what I expected. Linguistics, more specifically, syntax is more
like mathmatics that I'm not really good at. It's because syntax, in which Norm Chomsky contributes a lot, focuses mainly on the structure of languages (≒grammar) and requires mathmatical tools such as tree diagrams. The structure is divided into surface structure and deep structure. In syntax, we need to postulate the deep structure because it can display the movement in the language, which you wouldn't know unless you have learnt syntax before. It is quite an interesting subject because you'd never notice the potential possibility about how the language are constructed unless you've learnt it. It appears to be non-pragmatic to learn the structure of languages, however, it gives you a perspective that how native speakers costruct their language without even noticing the hidden mechanism.

Third, I've read a lot of various books in Japanese. I'm interested in philosophy, congnitive science, sociology, economics, and so on. I've been trying to gain new knowledge as much as possible. Although, there were a lot of technical terms I still wanted to remember, I enjoyed learing new knowledge from books because they can expand my perspective and sharpen my intelligence.

Job hunting season in Japan officially started today. I'm really nervous and I'm still deciding what kind of job I want to do and what's my top priority in my future job. I want to be an English teacher, but the salary seems to be very low. I have conflicted goals so I have to organise and make up my mind.

I tend to be alone at home these days, but I'm not alone. I'm not alone. That's at least what I have to keep telling me that otherwise my mind goes crazy. I've got good friends not only in Japan but also overseas, mainly in the UK. I need to remind that to myself.

Sometimes I want to cry without any particular reasons, but I'm going to hang in there. It's about time to become more mature and responsible for my life.

C'est la vie.

Thanks for reading my self-examination.

#読書
#英語
#反省
#哲学
#Philosophy
#English
#Reflection
#Linguistics