Day 226: 11/12/2018
I have learned so much about PhD studies and life in one full day!
I got up early in the morning today because I had registered for an important event, the White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership Welcome Event at The Octagon Centre, University of Sheffield.
The White Rose Social Sciences Doctoral Training Partnership (WRDTP), accredited by the Economic and Social Research Council in 2016, is a collaboration across the social sciences at the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield, York, Bradford, Sheffield Hallam, Hull, and Manchester Metropolitan (source: https://wrdtp.ac.uk/who-we-are/).
It was the first time I attended such an event that is not directly related to my field of study. It was also the first time I felt that I have greatly benefitted from going outside my comfort zone to learn, exchange ideas, discuss new topics and link up with people outside my areas. Still, there were a tremendous areas of overlap. I felt like I have stretched my comfort zone so much, especially in terms of talking about my own research for the outsiders.
There were times throughout the day that I met new people and had to talk about my research proposal and current research areas of interest. It pushed me to critically think about my research and formulate the explanation that is simple enough for people from the different field to understand and at the same it should sound adequately sophisticated as a PhD project. Doing so has made me realize that my thoughts are not fully developed nor defined let alone being polished. That means, I need to come up with at least one better way to talk about my research that is simple enough, understandable for a more general audience with not much background in Applied Linguistics. To date, I have not been able to do that just yet.
My goals now are 1) to be able to talk about my research in two sentences; and 2) to be able to talk about my research in Thai. I am not sure which is more challenging now.
One important aspect I like about the event today was the breakdown session. It was when all PhD students under Social Sciences were grouped based upon their disciplinary. What was interesting was how the professors and researchers from all partner universities hosted the session with guiding questions using PowerPoint slide show and yet they were able to pick up ideas from the audience who were participants along the way, incorporated them into lines of thoughts and discussion that flew beautifully together. It was incredibly fascinating. I hope one day, with accumulated experience, I will be able to do it just like them.
Last but not least, I have to reflect upon my growing confidence in public speaking and social skills in meeting new people and creating connections. It was stressed several times from the professions, professionals and senior PhD students that it is important to talk to people, communicate right to the outsiders and connect with new people. During the PhD is the best time to equip myself with these critical life skills.
At the end of the day, I am glad my day was well spent and I am fueled up and feeling energized and motivated. The event just like this is unbelievably powerful for my PhD life.
11/12/2018 11.22 pm.
