To do: Wednesday 23rd April

• Catch up with all the notes I’ve scribbled down “to write up on the blog later”
  • Stuff on desk and also post-it bookmark
  • NB: perfectionism, felt I had to type up the earlier ones before I could add more! doh!
• Add the special characters for romaji in the MnN1 anki deck
• Buy more shower gel, shampoo, conditioner, heat protector spray and pink box
• Pick up suits from cleaners
• Cargo trousers ….. maybe …….
• Call electrician to get shower fitted
• Amend Google calendar to reduce study time to one hour blocks and add in “non-productive” time (Now Habit)
• Call electrical suppliers to get converter for lounge lampshade (grrr)
• Load TY cds into media center done
• Finish moving cds from old flight cases into new soft cases
• Ebay some books (schedule sales to start at the weekend)
• Buy more A4 sized Jiffy envelopes for eBaying!
• Order some books with car savings
  • “guilt” book (check)
  • reading list for tefl course
  • check Amazon wish list for anything else

To do: Monday 14th April

• Type up “thoughts” notes from last week
• Add to downshifter:
  • “thoughts” notes from last week
  • “Chinese School” daily schedule
  • personal daily tasks/routine
  • work lessons learned
• Work – see it as a challenge, “what can I achieve all things considered? what transferrable skills can I learn?”
• Reading list
  • The Now Habit
  • Meditation books
• Ebay
• Budget done
• VISA transfer (move from penalty savings to Halifax) done
• Car service/MOT (schedule) done
• Shower and lights – fitting (schedule)
• Languages
  • Keep going with Anki
    • Add Chinese (HSK? Colloquial … when notes done?) done
    • Add more from Minna No Nihongo
    • When JP notes are done add from JFBP
    • Ultimately add from Pimsleur too
  • Pimsleur notes from both Mandarin and Japanese – type up and check
  • Press on with Pimsleur study II
  • Chinese and Japanese podcasts and supporting material!
  • Download notes from JapanesePod101.com before subscription renews!
• Catch up with correspondence on FB
• Stay positive! done

SOAS MA Social Anthropology

The SOAS MA in Social Anthropolgy is a course I’ve looked at a couple of times before. It claims to be a suitable conversion course in a subject I think would capture my imagination while still allowing enough variety in applicatoins to stop me getting bored.

Recently I had started thinking the MA in Pacific Asian Studies may be a better bet, since it would allow me to focus on both Chinese and Japanese studies, but I realised today that the Social Anthropology syllabus also includes these two as options.

Unlike the MA in Anthropological Research Methods the Social Anthropology course doesn’t qualify for ESRC funding, but there are some bursaries and scholarships that may apply. Questions that remain are:

• Am I likely to win a bursary/scholarship when my first degree is not in a related (or even social sciences) subject?
• Would the course be adequate preparation for a research degree at SOAS (since the research degrees page specifically mentions the research MA, not the others)
• Would taking both the Chinese and Japanese course options be an acceptable combination?