Category: Sigur Center 2020-21 Summer Fellows

Hi everyone!

As the end of my summer language studies approaches, here’s an update on how we celebrated.

 

Sylvia Ngo, PhD in Anthropology 2025
Sigur Center 2021 Asian Language Fellow
Beloit College, Wisconsin, USA

Hello everyone, welcome to my blog again.

Time had flown so fast, the study abroad journey has already reached its ending soon. Within these six weeks, I have learned so much from the professors and my classmates. Since it is an online program, I think the hardest thing when getting started on the program is time management. It is already hard to not be able to submerge ourselves into the “authentic” experience that we all wish for; on top of that, we are all overwhelmed with our personal life and keeping up with the classpath; thus, time management is the key to success in this program. There is a time that I want to give up sometimes or just simply don’t have that motivation to sit down at my table and start studying.  In this blog, I want to show you a few tips that I used to motivate and stay focused on online learning.

1. Must-Have Items

The most critical materials I have with me are my Planner and my Notebook. The Planner helped keep me on track with all the deadlines, and Notebook keeps all of the learning material together for preview and review purposes.

Then, how do I use them?

It is scientific proof that color-coding helped us work more proficiently. Therefore, I applied this method when using my Planner and Notebook to see things more manageable and remember the materials faster. For the most part, when using my Planner, I will first write down the due date for the work that needs to be done, and whenever I finish with that task, I will highlight green so I know that it is done. In addition to that, I always write down the due date earlier than it is actually due to avoid my procrastination self. With important tasks like project due dates, or testing dates, I will use a red pen to not miss them.

2. Take Note Method

Since this is an online learning environment, it is limited to what I can do to enjoy my language learning experience; thus, I try to find joy when taking notes and viewing my notes as art. By doing that, I pushed myself to take beautiful notes and have more motivation to read and study.

(I tried to draw the lesion theme at the beginning of each note, this helped me have a deeper connection with the lesion and the material.)

Next, through my past study experience, I realized that I have always been stuck with one way of taking notes on vocabulary, which is simply writing them down in the order of [character – pinyin – translation], by copying the vocab down into my notebook and does not give the page any extra space, this had also limited my ability to connect the vocab to a bigger picture. With the pace of the TISLP, I learned that previewing is also the primary key to success in class. One of the most efficient routines that I learn work with me is before the class start, I will preview the content, copying down all the vocabs and grammar point, and make sure I give my note plenty of space so I can go back and fill them in later. During lecture time, I will try not to use my notebook but take notes on blank paper. Then after class, I can go back to my note and filling the empty space with the material on the paper. Doing this keeps me more focused during class time and helped me review the materials so much better. Again, I always tried my best to applied color coding when taking my note and keep the notes as neat as possible.

3. Learning Environment

Traditionally, we always lean toward finding a quiet, familiar place to maximize our focus and study there. However, when learning a language, the emotional connection to the content is really important because we want to apply what we learn in real life, not just in tests and homework. Thus, changing the learning environment, study methods, and ways of practice is also necessary for learning a foreign language. Some strategies I applied to “learn and play” are daily text with my language partner, watching documentary films, listening to podcast, read Chinese comic books, etc.

In conclusion, even though this whole “study abroad” experience so far does not feel like a traditional study abroad experience, I did not let that get into my head. I had taken this learning opportunity seriously and try to get the most out of it. These intensive learning classes had provided me a chance to learn about the Chinese language and Taiwan culture and learn about many aspects that I didn’t know about myself.

Lyn Doan, M.A. Chinese Language and Culture 2021

Sigur Center 2021 Asian Language Fellow

National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan

The summer of 2020 did not go according to plan for me. I had planned to be in Pakistan and take advantage of the various archival sources present in the country. This time would also have given me the opportunity to interview bureaucrats from Pakistan’s formative years to understand how the state and society worked to conduct the Census of 1951 in the country. Unfortunately, a series of lockdowns, quarantines, and shelter at home orders halted most progress I could make research wise. This is an unfortunate situation that many researchers found themselves in from the start of the year. Even though I was able to get intermittent access to certain archives, it was not nearly enough to cover all the material that I wished to. In this blog, I will instead be talking about a few of the major archives in Pakistan, and how other researchers might be able to take advantage of the material within them.
The first of these are the National Archives in Islamabad. The National Archives of Pakistan are supposed to be the largest repository of official documentation in Pakistan and carry records from the Pakistan movement up to the 1980s (for now). The archives host a large collection of Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s private and official papers, and more from the leaders of the Pakistan movement. In addition, records from various ministries are available, though it is a tough task to convince the archivists to share this information with you. Though citizens of the country are entitled to these documents by law, the slow functioning nature of the archives means it is a long, and thankless task to get a hold of these documents. The easiest acquisition from the archives are definitely the vast newspaper and periodical records they keep, going back to the late 19th century in some cases.
The Punjab Archives nestled in Lahore’s Civil Secretariat provide a similar experience for researchers. The Punjab Archives are more digitally and organizationally advanced than the National Archives, and work is already under way in digitizing records from the Sikh period of the region’s history. Records date back to the 18th century, and include many official documents from the Sikh Empire, the British Raj, and in some cases the Pakistani government. It is harder to get post-independence documents here because a reorganization of the department has left many of these records unsorted, and unclaimed in various store-rooms. The library of the archives can be a useful tool for researchers, providing them with official documentation from various provincial and state level ministries from the colonial and post-colonial period.
By far the most organized archives in Pakistan happen to be in the National Documentation Center (NDC), also in Islamabad. Given their level of organization and digitization, gaining access to these archives is a touch harder than it is for other archives in the country. A registration, and security clearance is mandatory before any documents can be requested or viewed at the NDC. This repository stores documents from the Cabinet department, and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), and as of writing, documents have been digitized from 1947-1967, with the rest in the process. The Cabinet and PMO files give the clearest and most detailed view of policy discussion and making in the higher echelons of the Pakistani government, and many of these have proved immensely useful in my research thus far.
Pakistan is a tough place for researchers, and even more so for foreign researchers. There is little official guidance with regards to repositories of information, and it is only through your own networks that you get access to these various records. If there are any scholars who wish to work on Pakistan, I would gladly assist them on their venture and provide as much guidance as I can in this process. Pandemic or not, we are all in this together!