Mid-Summer 2012 in Bullet Points

Photo Credit: Sony Computer Entertainment

Someone told me that it is pertinent to list brief bullet points in presenting ideas in conference presentations instead of plaguing the audience with miniature texts crowded onto PowerPoint pages. So here it is, a list of bullets that sum up the middle point of my summer 2012 in PPT presentation narration style.

 

* Summer 2012 had been kind to me in that I was able to visit my parents, friends, and relatives in Taiwan and spent time chilling in rural Miaoli for 2 months. Hanging around with family tops! There is no other thing I would rather do if I were not to pursue to doctorate in the United States and thereby could only manage to be around my parents for a small chunk of a given year.  So the point here is that family fuels me, feeds into my ambition, and bring me up anytime when I’m down. More love to my family!

 

* In late May I attended and presented at CALL Research Conference in Providence University in Taichung. My first visit to the campus was by myself in the dog days of Taiwan. My presentation went well and I was fortunate to have met a friend of mine who plans to defend his dissertation in late June in Texas U of Austin in the conference.  Through conversing with the guy and another America-born professor currently teaching in Kyushu Japan, I was made aware of the importance of searching a career destination that suits me, as a person who seemed to have been travelling places since my early 20s. Expectations are on my shoulders via a confluence of family, my endeared girlfriend, my brother, and most importantly myself. Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, U.S., Canada are all places where I could imagine myself getting rooted in through a job offer. However, mirroring back on my immediate attachment with my parents in Taiwan, I fringe at the uncertainty of  being unable to meet, connect to or serve their feelings when needed. Another crossroad of my life which demands utmost attention and care in decision-making. The takeaway here is that no matter where I end up working and living at, I will attempt to lead a quality spiritual and materialistic life style and pace that I aspire to and in the meantime make the people around me proud and happy.

 

* Self-guided tour during early July in the western part of Japan proved utterly practicable and added a great tinge of adventure like no other packaged tours could provide. After years of casual exposure to Japanese TV programs, magazines, and gaming, my Japanese skills proved useful in my self-guided tour in Kyoto and Osaka, and impressed my girlfriend’s family indeed. In addition, I am confident to say that I would pass the Japanese Language Proficiency Test level 3 (intermediate) when the test results unveil in September. I have my eyes aiming at passing level 1 test next year and thus I came back to the US with two Japanese language books in my luggage. Learning a new language is fun especially when you don’t really know that you are exerting tangible effort to memorize and yet you know you are steadily progressing.

 

* A bit comment researchwise, the learning curve of digital game-based language learning may differ from that coming from classroom-based language learning especially in the beginning because DGBL is not tested on high-stakes testing, but the fact that game-based language  is not tested does not deter gamers from continuous playing and learning about game-related terms. Motivation for DGBL is slow, steady, and long-lasting, just what you need in actually picking up any language form and its functionalities (e.g., business English, travel English). All in all, what I want to say here is that I am so happy that my Japanese skills had made great leaps through these past few years according to my Japanese acquaintances and my overflowing confidence in self-projected conquering of the Japanese proficiency test, and I don’t even know it…

 

By the way I have never skipped an entry since the commencement of my blog back in spring 2010. June 2012 is first time for everything. I will keep posting. Yeah there will be more to come…and thanks for reading my gibberish.