new idea, regarding my FUTURE(!!)

[baronofbrass]

because

a) My ideal career is one where I can travel a lot, make a lot of dough, and use a foreign language, and

b) I like torturing myself with schoolwork just this much:

Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration

+

Certificate of International Studies in Business, Chinese Language Track

+

BA in Chinese

+

Tsinghua University Business

Comments

[voichesapete]

I really admire the fact that you're -- if only temporary (?) -- confident in a direction you plan to head into for school, as well as thereafter. Perhaps a little envious, even. I agree with all the points listed in point A, though (those are the same ideals I'm looking for in a job as well, ha ha).

[baronofbrass]

I don't know if "confident" is the right word, yet.

I have some good ideas of tracks to follow, but I always second-guess myself. I have this vision in my head of what I want, it's just not clear to me what's the best way to get there.

I've got this thirst for some indication that I'm on the right track, that I've chosen the right field of study, the right language, the right country to travel to, etc., but I know that I won't know until years later, when I look back on my choices (if then). And so, whenever I'm close to committing to something, I get cold feet, and think "Is this really where I should be going?"

I guess what it boils down to, is that it's just hard for me to choose something and commit to it.

[captainhightop]

such ambition! will you graduate early?

[baronofbrass]

i kind of hope not. i probably won't be able to, if i'm getting a double major, anyway. but i'm worried i have too many credits already from last year...

[captainhightop]

yeah, i read that the UW is adopting a new system to push kids out as quickly as possible. ah, money management.

[smntstatus]

So are you just taking a break from Japanese, or do you plan on continuing it at some point?

[baronofbrass]

I really don't know. I love the language, even though I think there's no way a language could possibly be more difficult, and I love the country. I just think knowledge of Chinese will present me with better career opportunities, as it seems that China will have a brighter economic future.

I want to take Japanese too, but I don't know if it's even realistic to think that I can take both languages at the same time.

And then sometimes, I wonder why the fuck I even bother with Asian languages at all...

[smntstatus]

I would keep going with Japanese if I were you, for several reasons. First of all, you love it, and you love the country. For me these things aren't taken lightly. Secondly, Japanese actually will help you understand written Chinese much more. Fluent Japanese speakers can get the gist of what a newspaper in Chinese is trying to say, but they just can't say it aloud. But that doesn't hold true the other way around. Finally, and possibly the most trivial, to understand one culture, it's history, and it's people, you really have to know something about the other country as well. Both countries have drastically shaped each other's histories, so it'd be a disservice not to study them both.

On the other hand, yeah, Japanese is just so damn frusterating to learn sometimes.

[baronofbrass]

Well, I don't think the limited mutual intelligibility of written Chinese and Japanese is really a very good reason to pick a particular language (from what I understand, comprehension is only about 30% either way