A Very Evil Unicorn

A Slytherin INTJ on her way to a PhD. Medieval Languages and Anthropology of Religion. studyblr, gradblr, langblr (And occasional idiocies.)

[a-moments-words]

母国語を 忘れた人は だれですか The person who has forgotten their mother tongue- who are they?

[averyevilunicorn]

My grandfather. Which makes all his nonversations with his identical twin really sad.

[averyevilunicorn]

after several years in england, preparing for the first journey to that other place (cambridge, what else?)... i should really maybe get a phone that is for more than just phone calls, because my sense of disorientation could use more than just hastily sketched maps of the ‘it seem that this is the way i can get to the faculty of english but i bet that the reality will surprise me yet again’ sort

but anyway. hooray for a conference where i don’t actually have to speak, some sightseeing and hopefully having enough time to finish writing that scarily awful chapter of what is very loosely called ‘my thesis’

back on sunday, if i don’t get lost.

(ha.)

[oupacademic]

One of history’s many biases.

[averyevilunicorn]

Preparing a 5-min presentation for general audience (my scholarship’s research council’s colloquium) is genuinely more stressful and impossible than the 50-min talk for our medieval seminar last year… The advice from organisers was ‘use really as much images as possible’, so I’m trying to comply, but it’s kind of hard to illustrate a lexicological analysis… unless Venn’s diagrams count, of course.

[averyevilunicorn]

I'm moving out tomorrow. I've sort of managed to pack all I needed but I'm really not sure how to move it to the expected place - both my old and new room are inside the (enormous) college, so no car help is available, unfortunately.

To make it more interesting, we're all moving on the same day - and it's the same day the college is having an open day. Not problematic at all.

But hey, around 2pm tomorrow and after seven years, I'll have my own shower again.

Hopefully, it will lead to an increase in my productivity, especially the writing productivity. I mean, I've written the damn thing million times in my head, but I really need to write it down in a way my new supervisor can read without being a Legilimens.

[averyevilunicorn]

writing emails is hell, but writing to a new supervisor is a special kind of hell

[averyevilunicorn]

The last academic year: a special edition

I’ve been feeling kind of down about how little I’ve done in my first year (courtesy of my assessors, who pretty much spelled it out for me), so I’ve tried to assess all that has happened. So...

happy arrival to the university to start my Phd in October

the announcement that my supervisor is leaving and that my department is closing

a relatively normal first term, with a preliminary semantic essay written, the text corpus assembled as well (ignoring the fact that it then changed)

my mother in a hospital in critical condition, with me being unable to go back to my country

intense pain and tendency to having constant vertigo since january

my mother getting better and my college starting to ask what the hell is happening in my department

accepted in a research group not that related to my doctorate, but the one i really wanted to get in

my first one-hour seminar talk, nearly losing consciousness in the middle and needing to take a break, but deciding to be tough and finish it

finishing the second term with 'i taught at high school about medieval history' being the most significant progress, though i've also written a first version of the paper for my transfer of status

an even stronger tendency to having constant vertigo during march and april, technical house arrest and 'if you ever faint, go directly to hospital'

a shitload of medical tests, diagnose of a slight B12 deficiency and suggestion to also visit a neurologist

my mild lactose intolerance has been transformed into a not so mild lactose intolerance

my department still can't decide what will happen with my studies

a bit of a needed health break in may, with a lot of research group workshops, one graduate conference and really exciting training with museum education officers

vertigo returns with a vengeance, inability to break repetitive motions for hours, inability to tolerate loud noises, one breakdown in my supervisor's office

submitting my transfer of status paper, attending teaching in higher ed training and then one cataleptic episode lasting 10 minutes and scaring the people around, all in one day

one out-of-hours GP visit and a ban on driving and cycling

my department still can't decide what will happen with my studies

one hospital assessment with other shitloads of tests, a long interview and 'i have a good news for you, i don't think there's anything wrong with your brain. i think you just might be autistic.'

all in all the third term was a strange one, and i've rewarded myself with visiting a nice conference in my favourite country and short holidays in Scotland, which went well except for airport breakdowns, but they're kind of the norm for me

my abstract got accepted for my first regular, not graduate-only conference (happy and scared - see, doc, sometimes i am actually able to identify my emotions immediately)

one assessment of my entire life at university's counseling services, 'had any one suggested anything about your behaviour when you were younger?' - 'well, my family always made fun of my speech patterns and my movements, my kindergarten teachers complained i prefer playing with objects rather than children, lack motivation for interaction with others and seem to not understand or willfully ignore instructions for group activities, i started school only at 7 since teachers previously didn't think i would be able to cope, and throughout the whole school experience there were loads of accidents involving wrong smells, wrong music and my overall 'oversensitivity' to pretty much anything, and... shall i continue?'

passing the transfer of status interview, in the same day (i'm starting to see where i'm possibly making a mistake) while being told i did good work, but i should be able to do more in one year (yeah, i wish)

with the help of the counselor, a 'fast-track' application for a referral to a specialist for a possibility of Asperger's syndrome

waiting to hear back

my mother's reaction: 'So I've tried to read what it is they're trying to diagnose you with... and it actually makes sense! every single weird thing you did i could never understand suddenly makes sense!'

one, for the lack of better term, epileptic episode caused by the sudden and unexpected use of a frigging stroboscope, several and shorter cataleptic ones (i don't think i'm ever getting that driving license)

the common practice of interacting with people while covering my ears almost all the time

explaining things to friends: 'you didn't want to speak with me, i don't know why' 'well i was holding my hand in a really odd position, staring past you without blinking and absolutely unable to move for several minutes even though you talked to me, maybe it was more than just not wanting to speak with you, i speak with you all the time' - 'well, it looked like you don't want to speak with me, it was kind of rude'

i have a new supervisor and it's actually someone i know and like, yay, and i do not need to move to a different university

waiting to hear back

So, yeah, this way it seems a bit better, since there were many times when I just wasn’t able to do anything. But the silent judgment was still kind of grating... Let’s just hope the next academic year is a bit more productive. And I should probably really get better at scheduling things.

And to talk about future a bit (motivation!), September plans include:

another meeting with my counselor, to discuss how to make the new academic year a bit less wild

updating my GP about my summer adventures, particularly the ‘it kind of looked like epileptic seizure’ episode

the great room change-over day, which i am really not looking forward (but i'm getting a nicer and more comfortable room, so i'm trying to think positively)

the final preparations for the gallery talk which i will be giving in autumn, stemming from our research group, and all other things associated with the exhibition

meeting with my new supervisor, to consult my plans for the new academic year

writing the paper for the conference

revising the syllabus for the high school history classes

reading, reading, reading (Patristics and Old Irish primary text mainly, the never-ending secondary literature reading list on medieval magic secondly)

really starting to write my thesis in a thesis format, not as a series of loosely connected essays on interesting topics

[averyevilunicorn]

With the new academic year approaching, I’ve been talking with some friends who are just starting their bachelor’s degrees. I usually tell them that it’ill be okay, they probably won’t be as bad on their first day as I was...

I mean, years ago, I’ve started my university experience by losing consciousness during a library’s tour, followed by throwing up in presence of my new classmates.... yet here I am, doing a PhD. Though I do admit I avoided that particular library (a creation of devil, to be honest, if you don’t like people too far in your personal space) like a plague during my undergrad. Funnily enough, it was my department’s library, which meant I’ve become resourceful and interdisciplinary...

[averyevilunicorn]

... since a big part of this academic year sucked, I made a little trip to a friend in Scotland to think about something else for once.

And it was great.

[linguisten]

our Sunday Morning Coffee Greeting™ — wishing you success

[averyevilunicorn]

today’s motto

[philosophyprofessorquotes]

The problem with inviting professors to dinner parties is that they’re used to talking for a minimum of 50 minutes at a time.

Philosophy of Language professor (via linguisten)

[icantdrawbutdontcare]

You’re supposed to stop before you are at your wits’ end. You need to know your limits.

[Green, black and red text that reads: Doing your best does not mean working yourself to a mental breakdown]

[averyevilunicorn]

This should be the motto of the Trinity term.

[lunacylover]

Traditional costumes of Sorbs (also known as Wends, Lusatians, Lusatian Sorbs or Lusatian Serbs) - Western Slavic minority in the territory of Germany. They live predominantly in the historical region of Lusatia - in the modern states of Brandenburg and Saxony. They speak Sorbian languages (Wendish, Lusatian) - closely related to Polish and Czech, divided into two main groups: Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian. Collection of archival photographs from vintage postcards.

[averyevilunicorn]

“Please just don’t jump out of a window in the meantime.”

... and here I thought that I can do a meeting with my supervisor while looking like I’m managing well enough for now.

But hey, after three years of knowing him I’ve finally explained some of my problems (not easy for me, but I decided I could try being more open). He was actually quite nice.

On the other hand, I have only four things to do (rewrite a conclusion, edit footnotes, edit grammar and do a preparatory teaching course tomorrow) and then I have a (kind of ordered) weekend off.

I can do this...

[heyhosers]

reblog and add your favorite misconceptions that people with no linguistic knowledge try and talk about

(and by favorite i mean least favorite)

-English is the slowest spoken language -Hopi have 50 words for snow -Chinese is the hardest language -I don’t have an accent -If we all learned sign language, we could communicate no matter what

@allthingslinguistic @linguisten

[rewordfully]

- linguistics is not a branch of science - linguist = polyglot - Shakespeare wrote in Old English - “untranslatable” - all languages come from Latin - Hebrew is the oldest language on the planet - Celtic languages are really just one language and that’s Irish - Romani people speak Romanian

[linguisten]

-Machine translation a la Star Trek Universal Translator is just around the corner

[averyevilunicorn]

- so, is there any difference between Irish and English at all?

- wait, you mean that Celtic languages are still spoken today? wait, in this country?

- why does Irish need this weird spelling? it would be better if it was just normal (=English)

- so, what do the Celtic scholars do? dance around the fire?

- you study Irish? well, if you stay healthy, you will one day study a dead language!

[averyevilunicorn]

working on the medieval portrayal of demonic female apparitions while simultaneously keeping an eye on British and Irish politics makes for an interesting experience 

[fancifulfibres]

I have some questions for all the international Potterheads out there. Just out of interest. Please reply or reblog with your answer. 

1. Did you begin by reading a translated edition or the English version?

2. If you started with a translation, at what point (if at all) did you start reading the books in English and how did it affect your experience of the books?

3. What elements of the writing do you feel were lost (or added) through the translation process?

[averyevilunicorn]

All right, this won’t be short.

I’ve got the first HP book for my eleventh birthday (twice, actually), and it was obviously a translation, since English isn’t mine first (or second, for that matter) language. And I must say that part of the allure was the translation, since in our case the translator took the time to play with the words. There were some controversies: in Czech language, Latin names like Remus or Sirius are declined in a way that’s different from the general majority of the nouns, a legacy of a huge importance of Latin in the past. In this case, translator thought that keeping it in this way would confuse children who generally don’t have to use Latin nowadays. I was one of those weird children who loved Latin and disagreed, so that was one part of the translation I really didn’t like (and that would never come up in the English original).

When I started to read HP, the first four books were already translated and I didn’t really have an option of reading the original. With the book 5 and 6, it was a strange case of limbo, since I’ve actually had some access to the internet at the time, which meant having access to the parts of original while we waited for the translations. That was kind of strange and at that point, I started to dislike some decisions of the translator (particularly with names). And I would say that as with the each new book there was a higher pressure on a speedy translation, the quality went down a bit. But I would still argue that overall it’s a really good translation.

The seventh book was released just few days before my seventeenth birthday and I decided that this time I really must read the original. My English was also much better at that point, and while it was (I guess) only a second full-length book I’ve read in English, it was really easy to read. But the after-effect was that the translation then felt really weird... and it’s the only one I can’t really read in Czech anymore.

Overall, I’m glad I’ve started with the translations, as they have definitively enhanced our vocabulary in a way an English book wouldn’t be able to. And it sort of felt nice to read the first six books in English years later, since they had a slightly different feel... and it was like reading HP for the first time yet again :-)

And even later on, I also tried to read it yet again in Irish, but that was a bit of let down: so many things were left in the English form and it just felt wrong. (The Irish Hobbit is a way better...).

Erm, yeah, I really like talking about translations.