A new chapter - Portsmouth

At first, I thought being an adult was hard, but then I'm kind of dealing with that bit. Then I thought, being a teacher would be scary, turns out I was quite good and well scary at times, and then I thought being a researcher would be interesting.. let's see where that is going,

 Since you stumbled upon my blog, you were wondering,

a) Oh, what's this here?

b) Maybe I could know more about life and experiences as a researcher! (yay)

c) What could be the confessions of a researcher!? It was their choice to take up that task of investigating things for no reason!

If you came for any of those reasons, or even others... welcome to my Blog. My name is Oshin Danish (pronounce that as Ocean... you're welcome ;) and I am a researcher! Well trying to be one for now. I am currently enrolled in the MRes TESOL program (Dept of Humanities and Social Sciences) at the University of Portsmouth. It’s a compact, cute little city located by the sea, with its university quarter, which is like a mini-city on its own. I have been here for a month so far and it has been well…thanks. 

Now getting back to the main topic, MRes TESOL… this is my second master's, which I’m hoping to turn into a Ph.D. in the future. I decided to enroll in the MRes program when I was a point in life where I know I wanted to make a place for myself in research, but maybe not ready to take on PhD as a commitment, simply because I doubted and was sure I wasn’t good enough to work on my own- PhD candidates do receive supervision, but it isn’t as much as MRes students do, its just that. And I believe I did the right thing. 

Today was our first class as research students, and it might be too early to say this but I’m glad I chose this. Though having previously gone to uni for my first MA, today felt like a fresh start. (2nd time!) The lecture hall had several students, all from various backgrounds, from those interested in forensics to literature, culture and society, gender and equality and then there was I, with TESOL, who wanted to work on using and promoting the use of authentic materials for vocabulary development and reading support. So now you know my topic of research too! Now, the lecture was a course introduction, which was done by Dr. Brigitte Leuch, the course leader. It was a summary of the upcoming teaching term, where we are to attend seminars, events, and lectures which will help us develop our research, meet our supervisor who will, as the term states, supervise our work and support us in shaping our research topic into a final thesis. 

After the lecture, I got the opportunity to meet my super supervisor Jennifer Sizer, whom I had been eagerly waiting to meet ever since I had received an acceptance at Portsmouth. She and I discussed the technicalities and details related to my topic of interest but also discussed future career aspirations.

Thought this is the first week, and there’s a long way to go, I am extremely excited to work with Jennifer and on my topic.