Well, the past 5 months have been pretty stressful with a karate tournament, Japanese language tests, work and work related meetings. But the overarching, anxiety producing nugget is my future, or lack of a future plan. Not knowing what I want to pursue as a career has me caught me in a bit of a whirlwind. I know that whatever it is that I do, I want it to use Japanese. Over the past few weeks, since the completion of my language test, which I had been using as a procrastination tactic, I have begun thinking of things that I might like to get involved in and ways of making that happen.
Japanese History or Culture
This would involve going back to grad school for at least 2 years, possibly 6. This is an ideal situation if I can find a nice place to study and someone to pay for it it all. At the moment, the East- West Scholarship in association with the University of Hawaii seem like the best choice. Somethings I need to flush out before I apply (next November for the Fall 2012 year): GRE scores, letters of recommendation (fairly easy to get), a specific subject and area of Japanese history which I want to study or can contribute to. I am thinking about Buddhism's relationship in war in ancient Japan and the role that sohei played in these battles.
Pros:Seems like an ideal job doing and teaching what I like. Cons:It's extremely expensive and will take a long time to get there.
Japanese Language Teaching
This would also involve going to graduate school to receive a MA in Foreign Language Education or something along those lines. The added kicker would be the amount of supplementary Japanese courses I would have to take before even getting to the MA program. Pro:I would force myself to become fluent in Japanese. Con:I don't know how I would like teaching Japanese. Probably about as much as I like teaching English...
Translation
This would also be a really fun job, I think. I find that while studying Japanese, one of my favorite parts is translating the garbled mess that is a Japanese sentence into beautiful English. This would mean that I would have to stay in Japan, possibly on the JET program, to perfect my Japanese while I work to get myself out of debt from LMU. I would have to increase my Japanese level a lot to get into this business and Japan would be the likely place of my employment. There is not much call for translating Japanese into English in the states. Pros:Work from home. Good money. Forced to perfect my Japanese. Get to stay in Japan. Cons:Could take many, many years to get up to an acceptable level of Japanese
If anyone has any comments or ideas, please let me know.
Now for the anger.
Salvation Army discards donations because they promote 'witchcraft, vampires, and werewolves'
Apparently the Salvation Army does not want to give children Harry Potter and Twilight toys because they promote witches, vampires and werewolves and they go against Jesus and Christianity. WHAT?! Now, I can understand the desire not to give children toys from Twilight (it is just terrible - seriously terrible), but Harry Potter is a wonderful story about good overcoming evil and love triumphing over hate. Do they not understand the hypocritical nature of these actions? Jesus, if he existed, was an undead cannibal, zombie who used magic all the time before disappearing into the ether to once again return to earth to destroy/save the world. That sounds right up the same alley as witch, vampire, Bond villan and werewolf if you ask me.
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