Learning Reflection (I)

It is the third week of the whole postgraduate life. In these days, I have encountered a lot of learning difficulties which almost bring me down. Because of these difficulties, I started to question and doubt myself, should I choose other pathways? Maybe I should go to America; maybe I am too unintelligent to study the master degree, etc. Fortunately, I have kind and warm-hearted classmates and lecturers who have helped me a lot.

Here are the problems:

Comparing

We always compare with others, no matter parents compare their children with others or individuals compare with others, particularly in Taiwan. We compare the trivia of everyday life, such as grades, ranking of schools, work, salary and so on. Therefore, even though I engage in the different educational system, I could not get rid of comparison.

Especially when my classmates reflected points from the readings and had their opinions, and I started thinking why did they understand the reading but I did not fully understand? Why did they always have ideas and thoughts but I did not have?

I know I need to stop comparing and complaining because it does not make things better, just like Helen said “Don’t compare with others.” That’s why we have a slang as same as what Shakespeare says “comparisons are odious.” It is difficult, but it is not impossible, and I will keep practicing.

Time management
As a postgraduate student, we are expected to read a lot of journals and articles. Hence, finishing readings before the class requires good time management. I have four days to finish readings and prepare for presentations.

The challenge here is I need to spend more time on the readings. It could take me about 5-6 hours to finish one reading (sometimes more than ten hours, it depends on the content). Within 6 hours, I need to study at least 4 times: firstly, scanning the content; secondly, circling words which I do not know; thirdly, looking up the words I circled; finally, highlighting sentences and taking notes.

Even if I study in the library, I could not concentrate every moment, but it is still better than staying in the room. Moreover, a lot of people may say, “you don’t have to know every word” and I tried. It did not work because I am afraid of missing keywords. I know it is weird because it is not how I read Mandarin articles, but I cannot help with it when I read English articles. Maybe I will try to circle some words instead of all of them.



Thanks to my friend who told me that I am not the only one and an English friend told me, he sometimes does not fully understand the reading either. I feel better now.