~ MY DREAM JOB- WHAT AND WHY? ~

Hello everyone again. Now it is time to say about my dream job. I used to have many “dream jobs” since I was a kid but now, I decide to choose only one. I want to be a translator, and my special fields will be “Science” and “Literature”. There are three reasons for me to choose this as my future career.

Firstly, that is my love for reading science news and literature. And just read in Vietnamese is not enough. I want to expand my knowledge and also wish to share them for my friends or pen pals. It would be great if I could translate them to Vietnamese and vice versa and publish them on newspaper or books for people. There are many great things outside but language is the barrier. I want to break that barrier, not only for my own interests, but also for people’s benefits. I can both make profit and pratice my English vocabulary everyday. It is considered a success when you can earn money by doing the things you like. I also love reading and writing. Translating can help me satisfy my hobby and do productive activity. Whenever I read something in English, from newspaper, website articles, poems, Japanese light novels,… I have to translate the texts in my head. And being a translator can help me to write or type them down for latter time. I want to become a translator because it is suitable and neccessary for my passion in reading science articles and literature.

Secondly, I have good writing and reading skills. It is not to point of perfect, but I love to read and read fast. I tend to write down or arrange and remember what happened in those texts or stories that I have read. I was in Literature specialized class and I think that I could write well. And more importantly, I love writing and reading, regardless of the languages. I used to be in a manga translating group and I realized that translation can help me better both languages. The idioms, slangs, … which represent the culture, the tradition, cannot be read and translated literally. In order to fully depict the original author’s ideas, if I were a translator, I would need to research to understand the implications. And by doing that, I can expand my knowledge about both cultures and the art of choosing suitable words in writing. I always enjoy reading foreign books in their own languages or at least, the languages from their regions or the best translated versions. Because the author’s ideas would be represented and understood perfectly. I choose translator as my ideal future job because I want to do the tasks of reading and writing, and mainly because I am good at them and practice everyday.

Finally, I wish to become a translator also because from this starting point, I am able to do many other jobs. I can become a journalist, with my favorite fields are international news ( specially scientific ones) and football ( which is my loved sport). I can be a tourist guide (interpreter), or a clerk at a tourist office. I can also work as a “pure” translator, translating articles, books, novels,… I may do anything that related to the language and translating/ interpreting aspects. that means I am a freelancer. I believe this is neccessary because of the high number of unemployment nowadays. And not just that, there are countless people, who choose to study at universities and graduate each year. I think the most important part to find and secure a job for yourself is being flexible and competitive. You have to train yourself to be well adaptive to the situations and the reqirements of the employers. And I think I should accept to be a freelancer or get an open mind about jobs. If not, I may have to wait a very long time to get my “desired” career. Being a translator can enable me to go that way.

In conclusion, translator is my future wish job. And by doing this work, I can not only satisfy my hobbies and abilities, but also earn profit from them.

 

~MY CONCERNS~

 

My concerns, at least for now, mainly surround my personal growth and global warming. About my personal growth, there are “How to lengthen my inspiration?” and “How to stay strong and not be absorbed into people’s feelings?”. And about global warming, not only I want to make sure that people acknowledge that it is happening, but I also want to try my best to contribute in helping rein this dangerous trend.

Firstly, that is the question “How to lengthen my inspiration?”.  It is very easy for me to be attracted by many diverse things, ranging from sports, animals, stars, psychology,… to anime/ manga, warships, rockets, robots,… And I am able to jump straight from sudden interested to obsessed and bored in a nick of time. Countless times, I even have lost interest before I actually do anything. Or I may sway from this to that then complaint about not having enough time or what to do first. I do make a list but the things I can grow attraction or curiousity in are increasing uncontrollably days by days. The longer the list becomes, the harder for me to keep track and easier to forget. After that, I will end up in 2 situations. The first one is I feel so empty and complain that I do not have anything to do. The second one is that I am tired because there are so many things to do, which I should do first and whether I forgot something in my “to-do list”. Both consequences are the same: I do not do anything productive. This is my main concern because I understand human’s time on Earth is limited, especially the youth, while we are young and strong and idealistic. I do not intend to waste time by just sitting there doing nothing, and yet, all I have done is just playing around. Therefore, I consider this is my weakness and want to overcome it. Also, I realize that, my inspiration is similar to a flame. The more vigorously it burns, the faster it died out. Maintaining it longer is crucial if i want to be successful, or at lest not wasting my time and my mind into nothing.

Secondly, as I mentioned in my other posts, I often get stuck in feelings, regardless of those emotions coming from people or from the things I read or heard. For example, if I read a tragic story, even a sumary can leave me troubled, sad and anxious. Or if I hear a story about in justice, for instance, I can flare up in rage almost immediately. The reason why this becomes my concern is I need to remain calm . I need to keep myself from being absorbed by emotions. My health is not good, even since I was a very little kid, there was a story that when my goldfish died, I cried and fell ill for over a week. There was a time, I watched an anime called “Black Bullet”. Its genre was tragic, sci-fi,… and it wrenched my heart to the point I felt like physical pain. It is very common for the bus drivers to see me read novels and weeped. Also, recently, I started to read “Gunslinger Girl” and it left me in axious and furious because I have been wondering that “Are there really so many trgic children abuse outside?”. I cannot find the answer instantly and  became restless, and overwhelm with sadness. It does affect greatly in my normal life. If I am doing something minor, like taking a nap, playing games, or studying,… it is just feeble and does not need to think about. However, when i am facing with something important and difficult, like an exam, a job interview, or when I am sick, it can surely knock me out. Extreme feelings can cause me physical pain. That is why I need to control my mind carefully. If I slip too deep into something that can provoke my intense emotions, or I am not able to keep myself from being absorbed into other people’s emotions, I will do severe harm to myself. I want to be stronger, both mentally and physically.

Lastly, that is global warming. Personally, I believe that global warming poses as an immense threat for human’s survival. And yet, people seem to neglect to take action to prevent the worsen situation or reduce the harmful impacts of global warming. I heard my friend, who is studying in the U.S., said that there were many people denied that global warming happened. On “Climate science and policy watch”, we can see many articles that present information about the fact that there still are people who deny the climate change. This is my main concern because if people continue being ignorant like this, human race’s doomsdays is not far. As I notice the change in my place, I realize that the temperature is increasing a bit years after years. When i was in kindergarten, the months from October to December was cold and the sky was grey. However, now, we hardly feel the cold. The weather becomes unpredictable, and there seem to be a decline in rain each year. More devastating disasters occur all over the world. And I don not understand, why there are people who blindly refuse to open their eyes and see?! I know that the rising temperature on Earth used to be a normal and natural phenomena, and the cycles of life-supporting systems on Earth are able to keep things remain survivable. And when human’s industrial activity appeared, things have gone worse. I am not an extremist who thinks humans should go back to the Stone Age’s life, but I strongly want everyone to admit that global warming is real, and we need to act. There are many minor things we can do like using bicycles or public transportation, reducing the use of electric devices, supporting green and environmental friendly products,… We need to do something right now or it would be late.

In the end, those three mentioned above are my main concerns. I need to care for my personal growth to be a more useful andreliable person for this life.

MY WEAKNESSES- HOW TO OVERCOME THEM?

Usually, it is much easier for peopl to see their weaknesses than to overcome them. And I think that I need to figure out a way to deal with my weaknesses and reduce their effects that impact on my strengths.

Firstly, that is about my dreamy and idealistic mind. I will have to look at everything as themselves and try to be more practical. I have to understand and accept that life is and will never be perfect. I have to know my limits and welcome it rather than trying to reach the impossibility. And whenever I think of making or doing something, it should base on real world, base on the need of me and people. It should not be something that so abstract or too unreal that it does nothing help our life. And instead of wasting my time lying and letting my mind drift into those dreams, I need to wake up and do something productive. The dreams, if they are so far away, cannot help but only bring frustation, depression and giving up in living in the real world. I need to make use of my strength, which is my creativeness. Living in the utopia does not mean that I can bring an utopia into real world. Therefore, the most important thing I need to do now is “wake up and be more energetic”. Let try and do something but not sitting there and waste time dreaming. Only by doing that can help me realize the practical side of the living world, instead of my dream world.

Secondly, that is I am very easy to be affected by other people. I have known that being like this is not good, like before exams, people’s saying can make me more and more anxious, or my energy can be drained only by staying near pessimistic people ( and it made me nearly become one),… I think I should draw a clear line between being sensitive and being absorbed into people’s emotions. I need to always remind myself that emotion is contagious. And if I feel stressed or unwell, I should avoid the source that makes me experience negative feelings. And I need to practice to be immune and strong to people’s words, emotions, opposite ideas,… I have to strengthen my mind and accept that detachment sometimes is better to live a positive life and have healthy relationships. Everyone has to be responsible for their own lives. Sometimes, I make myself worried for the unnecessary things and thus, weight myself down. I have to grow up stronger, both mentally and physically.

Thirdly, that is my stubborness. Although determination really helps me a lot, stubborness is not good. I have experienced some times that I was too obsessed with my goals and tried to go to any lengths to achieve. The line between right and wrong is not that clear. Even I, when calmer down, was scared of myself. If I do not learn to control my stubborness, I afraid that I may do something immoral. I need to stay on my balance point and try to remain calm. Whenever I want to do something, I will have to carefully consider about it again and again. If I really need it, then I will move to the planning step. If not, I will stop. I have to understand which is my long term need, which is just temporary or my sudden interest. Then I have to force my head stay calm and collected on the road. And I have to remind myself that “trying many ways is good but remember to stay away from the bad path”. In the end, the most important thing that I need to always keep in my mind is to stay calm.

Lastly, that is about my my vas but trivial knowledge. As I stated in “My weaknesses- What are they?”, I understand thatknowing too much is not always a good thing. Therefore, instead of noting down everything I like, learning everything I feel interested in, I should limit them. And I need to make sure that which are my long-term interests, which are just for relaxing. Then I will have the base to decide how much time I should spend for each of them. I do not need to waste so much time on some trivial or unrelated things. And maybe, I will list out the information I have known or where to access them. After that, I will rearrange the knowledge by the fields, types,… for easier to remember or look up latter.

In the end, I think I will try all this and add more ways to increase the success of reducing the effects from my weaknesses. Only by start doing then I will realize which one is more suitable or find a new one.

 

MY WEAKNESSES- WHAT ARE THEY?

As I spend time reflecting on myself, I realized that some of my strengths also are my weaknesses.

The first one is my dreamy and idealistic altitude. I tend to imagine unrealistic things and just waste my time to daydreaming but not actually do something. I have many ideas, and yet I rarely start to make them become useful or beneficial. I always dream of finding the perfect solutions for any problems, I aim to make the impossible become achievable, … And because of this altitude, not only I can rarely do any constructive things, I also get myself into trouble in relationships or in the way I view myself and my ability. My strength, which is my creativeness, cannot help me while I am so impractical and utopian. And even though I understand that dreams cannot come true by themseles, I find it hard for me to start doing or making something, just because my ideas, if not bizzare, then there are so many. I want to do so many things and I cannot choose what to do. That means, I may either forget or just not do anything at all.

Secondly, I am easily affected by other people. Although I am very stubborn about my belief or my idea, I can be dragged into people’s feelings effortlesly. For example, if I am very happy and someone, who is feeling unwell, sad,… appear near me or tell me about what happenned to them, I will feel uneasy and begin panicking. I will lost my previous cheerful altitude. That means, I do not possess a cool and clear head when being asked for advice or solutions in those situations. Not only that, I will become anxious and restless under pressure and stressful time. I cannot concentrate on anything, become easy to be provoked, get angry at everything,… or even collapse. And sometimes, I am totally unrelated to the cause of my stress. That means, I am the one who burden myself. And because of this weakness, I can become a hot-headed and irritated person despite the fact that I am calm and do not prefer troublesome or noisy things. When I am anxious or stressed, I cannnot unleash all my strengths or keep concnetrating on my work. In the end, it is very fortunate of me if the result is not a failed one.

Thirdly, as I mentioned above, I am a very stubborn person. Although I am not blindly willful, if I believe I am doing the right things or no one can prove that I am wrong, then I will continue on my way, no matter what other people say. I do consider myself often but everything will depend on my thoughts about the goals that I am aiming to. The problem is not that I am headstrong and keen on the wrong way, but the real problem is if I cannot achieve my objective, I will never stop. I can try countless time to get a seemingly small and meaningless thing. I will try again and again until I get what I want or I feel bored ( which is another problem…) And not just that, if I become too obsessed in that goal, I may even resort to “do whatever it needs to achieve”. I may think of shortcut, make many plans from plan A to Z ( which I rarely do), ask for help, … and there are also other crazy and silly things. I have not done any things “bad” up to now but I have to be very careful to control myself in future, when I will face many new “interesting” things.

Lastly, my vast knowledgement also is my weak spot. I jump from this one to another, which is randomly dependent on my “sudden” interest at said time. That leads to three main issues. The first one is many of them just my temporary relaxing means so my knowledge is not deep enough. I may either know many things but not specified information, or I may be too focused on some aspects but not the full picture. And if the situation requires, my already knowledge is not really helpful and plenty enough. The second issue is that my knowledge is so broad that it is very difficult for me to “connect the dots”. If I want to link them together to apply for a job, I will make my head become dizzy. There was a time I listed out the fields that I had or used to have interest in, even I got a bewilder moment. And I remember what I said while looking at that list, “What should I do with all of you now?”. It is not a matter to me even if they are not related to each other or outright opposite. I just want to know more and more. The third issue is that I easily mistake the information. Because I know too much, even if I spend time to learn by heart all of the informatiom ( given that I had ability to do so), I am able to mix up them. I may forget the authors, and some details, and worse, take the wrong sow by the ear.

Those mentioned above are my “main” weaknesses. There are more but trivial ones and they can be found in my personality description. :3

 

MY STRENGTHS- HOW TO DEVELOP THEM?

Possessing a strength that you feel satisfied and proud of is not enough. We have to know how to develop them to gain more benefits and keep those strengths not become your own weaknesses.

Firstly, that is about my creativeness. My creativeness is my natural skill. However, if I leave it there, it will gradually become dull. It is commonly believed that the older people are, the less creative they become. I can start sharpen my ingenuity right now by experimenting more on any subjects that I find interesting or any inspiration that suddenly comes up to my mind. Only when we encounter troubles and obstacles while doing something, our creativeness can be unleashed. And I will read more books to find out more scientific information for my “inventions”. When I want to make something, ideas is just the first step. After having an inspiration, I need to have solid scientific base and precise calculations for making my imaginations come true. And I should separate my dreams from my creativeness. If I just sit there thinking some unrealistic or irrational things, it cannot bring any chances to real world or help me gain benefits. It will become a waste of time.

Secondly, that is about my passion. Let imagine a fire, the wilder it burns, the faster it exhausts. My passion is the same. I can become crazily interested at first, but I also burn out quickly. And when I decide that I do not want to continue anymore or get distracted by new inspiration, I quit. That is the reason why I have many creative ideas and great passion but I rarely finish making anything. And to improve this strength, I need to do two things. First, I need to start right when I begin to get an inspiration. If I don’t, I will surely become bored. Second, I have to concentrate on the thing I am doing, and never let myself be interested in anything other than my subject at that time. Only by forcing myself into discipline then I can finally bring my dreams come true.

Thirdly, I need to be careful with my sensitiveness. My sensitiveness can make me engulfed in other people’s feelings, which leads to the fact that I cannot make right decisions or give logical advice. And due to my sensitiveness, I may become agitated. There is only one solution for this, that is I have to remain calm. I can practice breathing or even meditating to keep myself from being over excited or anxious.I can apply the emotion-reading tactic into conversations, presentations, or just simple usual talk. I can sense people’s attitudes so I am able to know when to prolong, broaden or change topics appropriately to be more successful. Anyway, I have to remind myself that the first thing I should keep firmly is my calmness.

Lastly, to improve the advanatge of having vast knowledge from many fields, I should focus on two tasks. First, I think I shoul go into details. Some of my interests are just temporary ones, so I only learn about them in a perfunctory way. That severely prevents me from stepping further into a conversation about those subjects. And I may let an impression of a boasting person, which I am really not. And going into details will also helps me find more suitable things for my future career or more intersting things to know about. Second task is I need to know how to connect the dots. All of the fields I feel attached to are random and trivial. It is like I take a bit of everything but none of them are related to others. It makes me become irresolute and indecisive when it comes to the time for choosing important choice like a future job,… I think that I should limit my interests to avoid confusing the things I know and need to reflect more to learn that which are my favorite and which are just for relaxation.

I only come up with these ideas when thinking about how to develop my strengths. Maybe that if i continues on, I will find out more about what I should do.

 

MY STRENGHT-WHAT ARE THEY?

Hello everyone, honestly, I find it very awkward to tell about myself, not even my strengths or weaknesses. Not only that, I also realize my strengths and weaknesses overlap each other. Therefore, it is really difficult for me to write, and I will make it short: I have 4 main strengths.

Firstly, that is my creativeness. I can make use of my creativity in many fields, from studying, to doing housework, or even making random things that I have inspiration of. I love to find a “short-cut” and the most suitable way to solve problems by using my flexible and creative mind. As in learning, I think of various ways to help myself remmeber the lessons better, and find interest in the subjects I am studying. And when I am helping my Mother with the housework, I try to figure out how to do quickly and effectively. And sometimes, my creativeness overlaps with my dreamy mind, which results in that I have many bizzare ideae. Since I was a kid, I have been asking myself countless “What if…?” questions. I wish to “invent” many things, ranging from ” a  machine that can help us save food’s taste” to “an instant- noodle vendor”. Although my ideas can be somewhat unrealistic and impractical, it is really fun when I am able to imagine many things like that.

Secondly, I can be very passionate, which leads to my patience and loyalty. I have a motto, which is “If I really want to do something, I can do it.” For example, I had an inspiration of making a house model from toothpicks. It is the truth that I am not skilled and have not made something like that before. My passion brought me from someone who was very bad at Math to the one who calculated precisely how many toothpicks that I needed. I ignored meals and had tried many times regardless of the difficulties and failures. My Mom scolded me and told me to stop but I waited until my family slept to continue. Because I wanted to make it so badly, I would never allow myself to give up. I also have great patience and loyalty, to the ones I care about, like my friends or my hobbies. Since I started to watch football, which was over 10 years ago, I only have 1 favorite player (Miroslav Klose) , 1 favorite club (Manchester United) and 1 favorite national team (German National Team). If that is my passion or what I want to do, I will go to any length to achieve.

Thirdly, that is about my sensitiveness. I have been an emotional child since I was born. I want to know, I want to understand what is the hidden meaning behind a smile, a facial expression, or a gesture. And I often get myself dragged into people’s feelings, which really helps me understand them better. I can easily accept people’s view points and can see things from both sides. My sensitiveness allows me to become open-minded. I believe that everything cannot be separated by just right or wrong and I tend to seek the reasons or meanings of things happen in life. I can read people and get a grasp of their feelings just by sending a short period of time with them. It proves to be very helpful when my friends need emotional support or when I need to guess people’s attitudes in a conversation.

Last but not least, I have many interests and thanks to that, I have varied knowledge. I can come up with many ideas and information when a conversation requires. Especially, when it comes to my favorite fields, I am able to dig up and absorb as much information as possible. I can spend a whole day reading or searching news about those subjects, which I take an interest in. And owing to that, I have many options to choose and change in studying, communicating and working. As in a conversation, I can use my knowledge to prolong or broaden the topic and do not disappoint people. Not only that, I also can keep myself occupied and not feel bored. I am able to get entertained and happy just by knowing more about what I love.

I feel reallly awkward when listing out my strengths like this but those mentioned above are my main traits in term of strengths.

~A DESPERATE DESIRE TO BE MYSELF~

To be one’s self, and unafraid whether right or wrong, is more admirable than the easy cowardice of surrender to conformity.

— IRVING WALLACE