Everything is in Place
Spinning Raincatcher | Issue 1, April 2023
Dear fellow Raincatchers,
1. Teaching/ Research thoughts
20 - 24 March 2023 | Seminars on Typology and Grammar of Sinitic Languages
Hosting two seminars in a week was definitely my first time. These two seminars were delivered by renowned scholars, Dr Szeto Pui-yiu and Prof Giorgio Francesco Arcodia (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice), in the field of Language Typology, which I (almost) have no knowledge about. But as an academician who is interested in all things about language, I don’t at all see myself as unrelated to the topics — I speak Cantonese/ Yue (Southern Chinese) and Mandarin/ Putonghua (Northern Chinese), the two most spoken Sinitic varieties in China (correct me if I’m wrong). Dr Szeto shared his research on how his research team determined the variation across Sinitic languages, and Prof Arcodia reviewed whether tense is grammaticalised or lexicalised in Sinitic languages.
As the first face-to-face seminars (with online participants) since the face mask ban was lifted, guests from our College, and local and overseas universities could enjoy the talks with refreshments (we bought them coffees and bagels). I know that wasn’t the most important part, but I do hope participants can see our seminars as casual scholarly gatherings. We’re going to take a break until the end of April, when we have three more seminars in two weeks! Stay tuned.
(Big shoutout to Melody, Jennifer, Sylvia and Hailey, for making the seminars happen!)
27 - 31 March 2023 | A Quick Quarter-end Stock-taking
I learnt a lot from Dr Benjamin Hardy, who encourages us to measure against the past, but not the future. This means we appreciate what we’ve achieved and how much we’ve improved over a period of time. So at the end of March and the beginning of April, it’s great to pat our back and celebrate our achievements in the first three months of 2023! In the first quarter at work, I:
Commenced a new project on corpus-based writing instruction
“Employed” four assistants for four projects
Published two co-authored journal articles
Got one conference proceeding and one book chapter accepted
Started co-writing three papers with colleagues
Hosted three linguistics and interdisciplinary research seminars
Started two new research interest groups, one on AI and edtechs in teaching and learning
Submitted a couple of conference proposals, and of course
Published weekly digests and a Notion hub reporting scholarly events happening around my department, etc.
Grateful all these happened with a little help and limitless love from my friend-colleagues, and all you Raincatchers!
2. What I’m reading these two weeks
It's Time To Stop Wearing Teacher Exhaustion as a Badge of Honor
https://www.weareteachers.com/stop-wearing-teacher-overtime-as-badge/
I'm not the only one who wants to write about this, and indeed, there have been many out there. I identify deeply with this quote: “Your overtime is not a badge of honor but a systemic problem that leads to burnout.” Seriously, I love the career I'm building, but it's not all: to associate my value with the number of hours I'm working every week is unfair not only to me, but to colleagues who dedicate much of their time with their loved ones and interests, and who can achieve a lot by working fewer hours. Again, work-life balance is a little far-fetched, but we have to remind ourselves, that the priority is always us — our physical and mental wellbeing.
3. What I’m Using
Glasp | https://glasp.co/home
This Google Chrome plugin highlights texts on most websites and turning them into notes for future creations. As you turn on the plugin and highlight texts, the plugin allows you to pick an annotation colour or directly tweet the quote. It keeps the collected quotes on the Glasp platform, which records all your highlights from the web and even your Kindle notes! The best part of the platform is it includes an AI summary function, helping you capture the essence of your web highlights! I haven't benefitted much from the Community feature yet, but the idea is I can get inspired by what others have highlighted and kept.
The only catch is Glasp doesn't have a plugin for mobile browsers. You need another app for similar purposes. If you are writing blogs or simply curating content, Glasp is a must-add plugin!
(Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with or sponsored by Glasp, but will be happy if I am.)
That’s all I have for this newsletter — I’m heading out spending some time with my family, before going to a music festival in the evening. Enjoy your Sunday too!