Posts Tagged ‘next step’

Today, I took the plunge and made a final decision on graduate school. I will attend the London School of Economics for the MPA International Development program and pursue a dual degree with Sciences Po Paris the following year.

It seems silly to make a decision before I have all the admissions results. Yet, I know what I want. All along, I have been after an European perspective for my graduate study. I applied to U.S. schools only to have options in case my mind changed. So far, the mind is where it was, and I don’t think it’s going anywhere regarding this matter.

I was really mulling over the EPP program at Sciences Po for its cheaper price tag. But after a serious pro/con list, there was no doubt that the Dual Degree MPA is the best program. The ultimate decision force came in the email from a girl who’s a current student at the Sciences Po EPP program. I contacted her a few weeks ago after finding her in one of the groups on Facebook. She had asked my background and where else I’ve applied in order to provide objective guidance.

Her reply today indicated that I should choose other programs over EPP for several reasons: the program is pretty new, and not very organized. While Sciences Po is known for international diversity, the program itself has yet encompass that element. Furthermore, the course content for this program is supposedly very PhD driven, and lack coherence between the partner institutions.

Those are the reasons why EPP at ScPo isn’t for me. Now, let’s talk about why MPA from LSE/ScPo IS for me.

• the MPA Intl Deverlopment stream fits my background. The coursework that I would take during the first year at LSE would provide econ-based policy courses that are transferable between private & public sectors, thus opening lots of doors.
• the LSE reputation is hard to compete among the schools I’ve applied to. LSE covers Europe, Asia and the U.S. Sciences Po covers France, Europe and former French colonies. With this dual degree, I’d have most of the world covered.
• 2nd year MPA at Sciences Po offers an interesting capstone project where students act as consultants to real firms instead of a dissertation, which is far more appealing to me. Sciences Po also plans several study-trips that allow students to have a practical experience.

There are also several personal reasons for why LSE/ScPo MPA is better: I have better contacts in London for a steady part-time job; I know London well as a city and it will ease my transition after Peace Corps; living in Paris for a year is something I’ve wanted to do, etc.

Personal insights weigh a great deal and thanks to social media, I was able to make an important decision. I’m excited for this next step! Courses will be challenging but I think I am ready for this stimulus of my mind after two years of intellectual vacation.

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Happy New Year to all! 2009 was a fulfilling year for me where I spent the entire calendar year in Cameroon with the Peace Corps. 2010 is the year that I will depart. When I received my invitation to the Peace Corps that read August 2008 – August 2010, the year 2010 felt really far away, but within a blink of an eye, here we are!

2009 was also the year that I began to really delve into the fascinating world of social media, and I must admit, I’ve been hooked! So much so that lately I have been thinking about a career in journalism.

As a kid, I loved to read and write, but once moving to the US and having to read and write in English, the tasks became less nature and I lost my confidence in my abilities. But since 2008, I have thoroughly enjoyed keeping a blog in sharing my experience in the Peace Corps with the world. In 2010, I hope to continue use this blog as a tool to discover my next step in the world whiles share bits of random musing with you.

It is an exciting time to be a 20-something; bountiful of opportunities and easy information exchange from one end of the world to the other. What an awful shame if one does not take this opportunity to discover the possibilities and create an one-of-a kind adventure?! Don’t just dream it, live it.

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This past Friday night, I had yet another typical night-in au village. Not sure where the inspiration came from, but on this evening, I decided to finally take the small step forward and to explore becoming a translator.

After all, the title of this blog is Asian Polyglot, which implies that I know many languages, so it should make sense for me to utilize such skills. I had been following language/translation blogs for a little while, but there was always one thing holding me back – I can’t write in Chinese and French the way I write in English. And the better my writing becomes in English, the bigger this gap grows and the more intimidated I became.

However, after reading more carefully in relevant articles, I learned that professional/serious translators only translate documents into their mother tongue, or in my case, the language that I am most comfortable with. The reason is that no matter how fluent you become in another language, there are still certain syntax that is difficult to grasp. I have many French friends who speak English very fluently, but when they write to me, while I understand perfectly what they are trying to convey, the writing is still very… Frenchy.

Of course the exception to the rule is if you moved to another country and became more fluent in a language other than your mother tongue.

Another attractive element to being a serious translator is that they often only translate documents in their specialties, because to do a good job capturing the text, one need to understand it. This makes perfect sense. The other day, a Cameroonian girl who is working in fisheries asked me to translate the summary of her thesis. I read it, and said, “no way”. I barely understand those terms in English, much less French. However, I’d be happy to take on the task of translating documents in the subject of finance, economics, and other business related topics.

Once this idea was in my head, I searched for ways that I can actually carry it out. One of my favorite language blogs suggested that one should offer to translate for free or at inexpensive rate to gain experience. It just so happened that recently I discovered a charming French blog that’s really trendy and cute; however, its English translation was Google Translate and well, we all know machine translation is a disaster.

I wrote and offered to translate her blog and naturally she gladly accepted the proposition. However, she already has someone translating her new entries, so I would only need to do the archives. Nevertheless, that is over 2 years worth of writing! I am really excited about this! I love her blog. It’s all about fashion, interior design, Paris, etc. It’s the side of me that I’ve neglected since being in Cameroon, and reading her blog reminds me of how life used to be. A healthy dose of nostalgia never hurts anyone.

So, there is my practice for French-English translation. Just earlier today, I learned that Wokai, a microfinance group working in China that I’ve been following for years needs translation volunteers for Chinese-English work. PERFECT. Naturally, I signed up. We shall see how that works out!

I am excited about this new adventure. I most likely will not do this as a full-time job since I still intend on getting a graduate degree in economics and international public policy, and go on saving the world, etc. etc. blah blah blah. But hey, this would make a perfectly fun side-job. This resembles my piano-teaching job that lasted 5 years between high school and university! Stay tuned!

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Lately, I’ve been pondering what my next step will be beyond two years of Peace Corps service here in Cameroon, despite the fact I still have at least 15 months left. What can I say, I am slightly obsessive compulsive when it comes to my future. I am known to come up with an outrageous idea about my life, with complete evidence as to why this idea is a great one, only to top it a few weeks later with an even crazier one. I refer to this as the process of elimination. Survival of the fittest (ideas).

A pattern I’ve discovered through the search of the next step is that most requires you to pick a location. Want a job? What continent/country to target? Grad school? same. I don’t want to pick! I joined the Peace Corps partly for this level of exciting randomness. I like the idea of being sent anywhere in the world. My Peace Corps recruiter called to tell me that I am qualified to go anywhere, and asked where I would like to go. This would be the dream to most applicants who have a specific place in mind that they would like to embark life upon. However, I replied to the recruiter, “that is your job. I don’t wnat to pick.” He solicited more information and narrowed the option to West Africa, and few months later, I opened an envelope that told me I will spend two years in Cameroon. I honestly had to search the country on Wikipedia to know for certain its location, but that’s precisely the reason I enjoy “not-picking”.

My question then is, what jobs are out there where I have no say in where I work, and the location will change rather frequently? Thus far I have only found the International Manager program at HSBC. Surely there are more. I am still searching.

I have not ruled out the possibility for a PhD program, but that also requires picking a country. The only elimination I have done is the USA, simply because that’s where I did undergraduate studies. I believe doing research and studies in a different country will provide a broader perspective. Perhaps I will apply to a school on every continent and see where I get in. Just a thought!

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