I’m very excited. This coming Tuesday I start a Chinese language class at the USDA Grad School in Washington. The USDA Grad School is a resource in DC for working professionals looking to expand their skills during the evening hours. Especially popular seem to be the school’s language classes.
I did study Chinese at University. In fact I was on an intensive language track my freshman and sophomore year. Those two years I took two hours of Chinese four days a week. Unfortunately, I never really found an opportunity to make immediate practical use of the skill, so I quickly forgot much of what I had learned. I hope it comes back quickly.
I’m taking Introductory Chinese II. I probably could have aimed a bit higher based on my past work, but I wanted to test the waters before diving back in to the academic world.
This class is part of my slow-moving objective of getting my master’s degree. I still don’t know what I want to study, or more acurately what I want to study most. My problem has always been that I want to learn EVERYTHING, but that’s not very practical. Some days I think I might want an MBA to advance my career, but some days that just feels like a lame reason to get a degree that isnt exactly the most exciting in the world (apologies to all of the MBAs out therefeel free to try to convince me otherwise). Economics has an extremely strong appeal, as do some of the public policy programs GW offer.
The one thing I do know is that I don’t want to go to school full time. I’ve become addicted to a big paycheck.
(If I remember my Chinese well, the title of this entry is asking, “Do you speak Chinese?” Either that or I am insulting your father.)
I think you need to decide on some sort of direction which might make the distinction between economics and public policy… Both really do give you the chance to study just about anything in reality.
Hey, thanks for that. I agree that both really do give you a chance to study a broad range of specific things. The same could probably be said for an MBA as well. It is coming up with that “direction” you talk about that’s been the challenge for me. Economics certainly feels much more relevant than Public Policy for where it is I’m looking to go.