"Reading and writing English papers feels like trying to move in water. Every move is heavy and slow - and exhausting. I have to constantly look up words. Reading again and again sentences, or paragraphs. Being left with this muddling feeling even after finishing reading. I can tell I am not making sense while writing. Words just don't come to me. And in the end, I even lose my thoughts." How many of you felt like this before? Or, how many of you know someone who may be feeli

On December 18, 2017, I passed the PhD final defense. It was an intellectually challenging experience as well as an important milestone in my academic life. There may be many students who wonder about this event. So, let me reflect on it. At the University of Alberta and in my Faculty, a PhD final defense consists of two components: a public presentation and the actual defense of your dissertation. The first part meant to be an opportunity for you to what you studies to the p

This blog post is to share some of memos I wrote through my doctoral research on leisure and ikigai, using grounded theory (Corbin & Strauss, 2015). Doing this, I hope, would make my analysis process more transparent, and potentially inspire other researchers who are interested in grounded theory. I would appreciate any feedback, too! Shin ==== Copies of memos from here ==== Title: Fear of "nothing" among students Entry: June 20th, 2015 Thematic memo 6 I am writing this bec