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The 2019 Aims and Objectives Progress Topic


Tomsima

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9 hours ago, Tomsima said:

Goal 2: 30 mins Chinese cursive practice every day. As in, be able to write confidently and fluently using 草書, both with a hard-nibbed pen for note taking, and with a brush, for 書法 purposes.

 

Admirable. I've given up on pen and paper since I started using my handphone for writing practice. Obviously, there's an element of cheating as compared to pen and paper, but it's way too convenient for me to give it up :D

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12 hours ago, agewisdom said:

it's way too convenient for me to give it up

 

I think I would be the same to be honest, but I have pen and paper exams to take, as well as the requirements for note taking whilst doing interpreting, and with being pretty into my 書法, it makes using a keyboard for writing characters impractical (im pleased to say...)

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3 hours ago, Alex_Hart said:

Goal 1: Finish my thesis! (before March)

Goal 2: Pass my defense! (April)

Goal 3: Pass HSK 6! (after April)

 

Good luck on the thesis. Sounds taxing to defend your thesis. How many people are there to discuss (or rather... grill you) on your thesis? Sounds a bit terrifying...

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2019 is 48 hours old and my technology has rebelled. The SD card in my tablet stopped working. Yes really,  like I put in a long list and it said oh no ...POP. So all on hold til new one that has been ordered arrives.

 

Meanwhile work from my textbook and some character writing.

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12 hours ago, agewisdom said:

Good luck on the thesis. Sounds taxing to defend your thesis. How many people are there to discuss (or rather... grill you) on your thesis? Sounds a bit terrifying...

Committees for MA students here are generally 3 professors, but they might ask a fourth professor from a different university if they have special knowledge on the topic, or if nobody on the committee has studied your topic. Fortunately, it is nowhere near as difficult as a PhD defense. Your paper has already been "cleared" by your adviser and maybe the department so the defense is just an opportunity to clarify some points. The professors will generally tell you what your paper is lacking and you have a month or two to edit it.

 

9 hours ago, Lu said:

 - Exercise twice as much (from once a week to twice a week). I actually, honestly really like rowing and should do more of it because it is all kinds of good for me.

 

This is my goal, too. I was swimming ~2-3km three times a week, but that has dropped considerably since the cold weather and rain arrived. Have to stop making excuses and just get there!

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1 hour ago, Shelley said:

Is a dissertation the same as defending your thesis?

Not quite, but the difference between the two depends on where you are in the world. In the United States, a thesis refers to a paper you'd write when graduating from a BA or MA program while a dissertation is written by doctoral students as the culmination of their research. A thesis is basically proof of your knowledge in the subject while a dissertation is a piece of original research/knowledge. I looked it up online thinking it might be different in England, and it seems like Europeans use them in the opposite way; in England, a dissertation is what you write for a BA/MA while a thesis is for your PhD. A defense is when you present your paper to a panel of professors who will question you on it. Both a thesis and a dissertation might be defended , but not many MA students will need to defend their thesis in the United States. This is usually reserved for honors students or for PhDs. 

 

In China, it's all called 论文 and you add on words to differentiate what kind of 论文. You might write:

课程论文 at the end of a class which is generally 4,000-10,000 characters for an MA student (depending on the subject) and determines your grade. This is basically just a 文章, an essay.

学位论文 / 毕业论文 which earns you a "degree."

硕士学位论文 is for MA students and is equivalent to an American thesis. MA programs might be 1 year ("international business"), 2 years (for most majors including linguistics, etc) or 3 years (history, some science majors). In my program, it requires somewhere between 40,000 and 60,000 characters. At least in ZheDa, all students must defend this.

博士学位论文 is for PhD students and generally takes several years to complete and requires a defense in most unis around the world.

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5 hours ago, imron said:

We're all just disappointed it won't be in Chinese

My written Chinese is pitiful. Barely good enough to write emails. But mainly, Dutch people can't read it and then I won't be able to achieve my goal of starting a 中国文学热 around here.

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