Things you should do (partly descriptive) and things you should not do (mostly prescriptive) as a Postgraduate student of Translation and Intercultural Studies

We, the seekers of generally pure and sometimes impure knowledge, start our first few steps toward a PhD with awe and honor. We dream about the day when our dream comes true and our friends and family and the speaking pets start calling us the doctor.

The idea of being a doctor and not being able to prescribe medicine for your grandparents or some of your non-academic friends or neighbors and their astonishment of your failure always awaits you.

Becoming a doctor and carrying such a heavy, glorious title with you, is neither an easy task, nor a straightforward path. It is a path partly covered with “three-cornered stones”, cigarette ends, and unfortunately the unpleasant “stuff” of dogs (in case you live in Tarragona: check my friend's photos here). It is also a path of “labor love” to adopt Hafez’s expression.

It is also a path oiled with olive oil, seasoned with the Mediterranean seafood and humidity, and marked with the crossroads of Catalan-Castellan in a politically correct way.

The following is a quick guide for those who are called these days “the perplexed”. However, it can be a guide for those who are not perplexed, or who pretend not to be perplexed, or for those who pretend they are mature enough and will not be perplexed at all. But let me tell you something, ladies and gentlemen, because I have taken this road four years ago, and you have just started. This gives me some authority on the matter. So listen carefully.

We first start with the general things you should do:

- If you do not have rich parents or partners, or if you do not have scholarship, do not do it.

- If you are in a relationship that is problematic, break up quickly.

- Stay an “eligible bachelor” honorably, until you have the PhD.

- If you are in a “healthy” relationship, avoid propagating species, in other words, do not get pregnant or do not make others pregnant!

- Postpone your romantic affairs of any sort.

- Delete your Facebook profile or anything like that.

- Go jogging or be active physically at least twice a week.

- Drink water as much as you can.

- Eat well, mostly healthy food.

- Postpone your balding process as early as possible by taking Zinc capsules every day.

- Spend some time with people under 6 and over 60.

- Stop smoking.

- Throw parties and invite your non-academic friends. This reminds you that life is not just the academic world.

- Take a shower every day all throughout.

- Buy some good, expensive perfumes and please use them.

- Remember to forget the whole “thing” sometimes and just relax!

We will now turn to the academic things:

- Read Andrew Chesterman’s Everything I wish I had Known about the Philosophy of science, at least twice a year.

- Read Daniel Gile’s “Research issues in Translation Studies” available online.

- Read at least one good book on research methods. Make sure you have a copy of The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research by Rugg and Peter (2010).

- Make sure to watch Dogville by Lars Von Trier (2003). Keep reading good screenplays.

- Read critically. Even the most celebrated authors make mistakes.

- Buy a high quality, voluminous notebook and record everything you see, read, hear, smell and feel during your research period. This will be your research diary.

- Get a good supervisor who is passionate, mentally sound (very important), helpful, open and critical. Have a beer with your supervisor.

- If you have problems with your supervisor, try to change them.

- Start writing early. If there is one lesson in the fast food industry we should learn, it is the concept of “speed”.

- Do not hide from your supervisor. In the absence of academic production, report on your non-academic productions.

- Think globally, write locally. In other words, make the unfamiliar, familiar.

- Write clear and to the point. The readers are not as intelligent as you assume.

More could be said, but that is enough for the wise. I will not guarantee your success, but I can tell you that you do not usually hear these things from others. These are all some form of personal discovery. It is now your time to get into the field and try them for yourself. But remember to tell your stories to other like-minded people. One of the worst things in the world of academia is the fact that as soon as we get our hands on the PhD degree certificates, we often stop writing and communicating our very personal path to the PhD (but see The Interpreter and Translator Trainer special issue on training for doctoral research in 2009). My sincere thanks to Andrew Chesterman for his brave initiation

References

Chesterman, Andrew. 2009. “Everything I wish I had known about the philosophy of science”. In  Translation Research Projects 2. Tarragona: Intercultural Studies Group, URV.

Gile, Danile. 2011. Research issues in Translation Studies. Available fromhttp://www.est-translationstudies.org/resources/research_issues_index.html

Petre, Marian and Gordon Rugg. 2010. The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research. Open University Press.

The Interpreter and Translator Trainer. 2009. Special issue on training for doctoral research. 3 (1). St. Jerome publishing.