Current modus operandi? Don't ask...

Right, boys and girls, it's getting serious now.

It might only be February but it's now officially fewer than 7 months until the dissertation hand-in. I thought I was a bit ahead of the game, having a project to work on which already has a substantial amount of work done on it, bibliographical references and even some test items.

No, Mr Moneybags, I'm not entirely sure
where to go from here either...
Image from thestudentroom.co.uk

Mais non, chérie. Firstly, I am increasingly aware of the massive difference between undergraduate and postgraduate expectations.


Student says: "I want to look at this bit of my language because nobody else has already". Supervisor says, "Go ahead, undergrad, you may pass go and pick up 200 credits. But hold up, postgrad. What's the theoretical question you're trying to ask? How does this truly add to the literature on bilingualism/language acquisition? Essentially, why should you bother with this?" 


Good question, oh supervisor mine...can I get back to you after a good banging-of-head-against-wall and a couple of late nights of reading? Good-oh.


Secondly, you want to go into a school and have a chat to the kids. Excellent. But you want to go into a foreign-language school. Alright, your choice is narrowed down somewhat but it's a still a go-er. But the school says no.


Oh dear. Get back to me in a couple of weeks and I may be OK (and booking flights to Germany to find my German monolinguals, but that's not the end of the world either).


Thirdly, that whole ethics approval thing? Yes, well, obviously you have to rewrite the bits about the school, add in the bits about possible having to schlep overseas, have another look at vast bits of your theoretical background and study design - oh, and the deadline's Sunday. Bon courage, intrepid Masters' student.

This would probably have been a
better way to phrase it.
Image from the Mr Men Wiki

I may well be dramatising the whole thing slightly, being prone as I am to a smidge of overexaggeration and the viewpoint that hyperbole is the best thing, like, ever. But the fact that I find myself already in week 5 of term 2, with two other 5,000 word assignments looming scares me somewhat. Of which the side-effects include tiredness, irritability and a certain inability to be eloquent in front of important people. I managed to stand up for bits of my proposal well enough, but when reflecting upon the way in which I had been working to date, the only phrase which came to mind was "arse-about-face". Which I said. And which luckily made my supervisor laugh rather than cringe.

Mah boys at Granada TV. The interior wasn't
as old-school as the exterior.

On the plus side, the results from the first term are so far encouraging - a 78 average gives me a pleasant cushion within the range for a distinction, though Psycholinguistics is still to come back. I can also confirm that we will definitely be on University Challenge at least once come July, as we were officially accepted by the good people at Granada TV and we will be filming our first round match on Sunday 26th February! May it be the first of many (because when you're already up to your eyeballs, why not go that bit further and submerge yourself completely?)


There are so many metaphors going on in my head that I can't possibly choose one to end on. But this merry-go-round/rollercoaster/Monopoly board of a Master's isn't letting me off just yet...wish me luck.