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comment by galen
galen  ·  2142 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: June 13, 2018

New plan:

- Withdraw from my university in the US

- Finish my bachelor here in Germany (3-4 semesters)

- Master's here in English (or European Literatures)

- Doctorate here in English

- English professor somewhere in the German-speaking world, with focus on theatre from a literary/historical perspective

I haven't 100% processed this? But I withdrew my remaining credit balance from the American uni, and I've worked out finances for the next 2 years at least.

I think I'm pretty excited, guys.

----

New favorite idiom: das Leben ist kein Ponyhof (pronounced in Baden "s Läbe isch kei Ponyhof")

Life isn't a pony farm :)





thenewgreen  ·  2141 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Lif isn’t a pony farm
I’m not sure what this sentiment means, but I love it. I resolve to use this phrase today in normal conversation.
galen  ·  2141 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    I’m not sure what this sentiment means, but I love it.

Roughly correlates with "life isn't a cakewalk." :)

user-inactivated  ·  2142 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    I haven't 100% processed this? But I withdrew my remaining credit balance from the American uni, and I've worked out finances for the next 2 years at least.

Sounds like you got this. Hope it all works out for you.

What made you decide to pursue a long-ass academic career in Germany?

    das Leben ist kein Ponyhof

"Das Leben ist kein Wunschkonzert". I like that phrase a lot.

galen  ·  2142 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    What made you decide to pursue a long-ass academic career in Germany?

Academia is fun here :)

user-inactivated  ·  2142 days ago  ·  link  ·  

"Fun" is not a description I would give to academia the way I've seen it. What excites you about it?

galen  ·  2141 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Hard to explain.

Discussing texts, historical currents, writing styles--really picking them apart, and working together to produce a better understanding--with people who also really care: that's fun for me. Spending two hours picking apart Heiner Müllers Hamletmaschine, a text of about 10 pages, then going home to write about it is super exciting. Doing the thing because it's interesting, not because it's classically "productive" :)

lil  ·  2141 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Call me crazy, but I just found a pdf of Hamletmaschine and printed it. If I need help understanding it, I'll let you know.

galen  ·  2140 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Oh man lil, there's so much there. Wonderful text. Let me know when you finish :)

user-inactivated  ·  2141 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I can get behind that. Can't you get that kind of attitude in the US? Is that why you don't want to move?

galen  ·  2141 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Academia in the US is dying-- especially the humanities. Not to mention, as a language professor in the US, you have to spend about 40% of your time teaching beginning language classes to people who are only there to fulfil a requirement. Here, those classes are in Gymnasium (high school, sort of). That means professors teach the actual intellectual parts.

Also America is generally suffocating :P

user-inactivated  ·  2141 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Interesting. I've never met anyone my generation with joy for academic work. Thank you for sharing.

galen  ·  2141 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yeah, I hadn't either. That's why I want to stay here :)