piotrjurgablogcas-blog

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Final post - conclusion of the three years

It has really been a long time since I first started doing this blog, especially given how I've started doing it in preib, not ib1 as per requirements. During this time I have indulged in a variety of activities, from organising philosophical events for children and elderly, through going for MUN educational excursions and helping organise them, to learning a completely new language and reanalysig philosophical works. And while some of those activities I might have attempted without CAS, competing it certainly became quite incentivising. I shall not pretend that I agree with every notion of CAS, such as enforced participation in charity, but overall I do believe it has been a rather fruitful 3 years. Even if one was to disregard some of the most obvious benefits, such as learning a new language, or certain rewards on the MUN, there was a lot of benefits that were unfortunately non quantifiable.

One of these was for example me gaining a completely new insight into a philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche earlier this year, and while he was already my favourite philosopher, I have come to obtain a completely new level of admiration for him after the rereading, one I likely would have never indulged in, if jot for the need to find something to write about on my CAS blog.

Not only that, the MUN excursions that I have participated in largely due to the incentive provided by CAS, have also provided me with innumerable benefits. The new and deeper understanding of the international law and organs, the first hand experience in the heavily moderated, official debates, as well as the new appreciation for the concept of cooperation, which, as I have noticed, is an absolute neccesity in the world where the professions become more and more specialised. And while I have also gained some new, first hand conclusions on the topic of human incompetence and malociousness in regard to my CAS project last year, I believe I should leave it at that.

My understanding of the culture I believed I knew quite well, particularly in regard to history derived cultural norms, have also undergone tremonegous development, as I started researching etymology and nuances of Japanese language. It has helped me to gain a new level of live towards it, seeing as it was also partly the topic of my extended essay.

These certainly aren't the only conclusions and lessons over these past 3 years, but they are the ones that have had to most profound and supreme impact on me as a parson and aspiring scholar. Overall I would say that these past 3 years in regards to CAS, while not without difficulties, have certainly proven fruitful.

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Service

I have heard, that despite nervousness, the presentation to the German boss went well, which I am happy to hear, given the mutual efforts.

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Service

As said in the previous post,  I have explained to my mother how to pronounce particular words and sentences in english. Furthermore, I have also indulged in a short lecture on the origins of homonyms in English, stemming form the Norman and Viking influences.

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Activity

Having recently recovered, I still do not believe it is a good idea for me to train, given that I can hardly effort to take any more time off form school, given the hard situations with uploads etc. 

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Creativity

In an effort to improve my Japanese I have decided to wathc anime (a recration I often indulge in) wtithoout lyrics, and try to understand the situation for context. I have chosen the series Eiyuu Ginga Densetsu to serve that purpose.

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Service

I continue the work on the translation, perfecting it.The quizzes were also quite hard to translate appropriately.

Są tu dwa podobne pudełka. Proszę , przyjrzyj się – w jednym pudełku są leki, w drugim cukierki. Czy na pewno zawsze można je odróżnić? Właśnie, pamiętajcie: - Leki to nie cukierki - Leki bierzemy tylko wtedy, gdy podaje je rodzic lub opiekun - nigdy nie zażywaj leków, które nie są twoje - absolutnie nie bierz żadnych leków ani cukierków od obcych osób

into 

Here are the two similar boxes. Please, look closely - one of the packs is medicine, the other is candy. Are you certain you can tell them apart?" The conclusions that the children are to draw from that game are: -Medicines are nor candy -Medicines are to be administered only by a parent of a guardian - Do not use medicines that are not yours -Do not, under any circumstances, accept any medicine or candy form strangers

Given the nature of the translation, to be used in a company, I do not feel that I have a prerogative to publish full translation. next time I will probably explain how to pronounce some of the more complicated words to my dear mother. 

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Activity

I am sick, again, and thus not performing any training. 

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Creativity

Given how I have written about the phrase “Shoganai” a little while back, today I would like to expalin it with regards to culture-specific tropes. One must understand that Japanese culture, while it did give birth to anime, manga, doujinshi etc. is in essence a very strict one. It is heavily base on the idea of responsibility towards society, and working in some regards as an organism. The terms “Shoganai” originated in the Edo period, when that situation was even heavier. Thus, the term “shoganai”, rather then just a general feeling of helplessness, expresses ambiguity towards the situation stemming form the social situations that the individual has no influence over. For example, today it is often used in regards to  senpai-kōhai relationships, stemming form cultural obligations, and Emperor Showa, may his soul rest in peace, referred to the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki “Shikataganai”, to express how it was a result of political situation beyond control.

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Service - Translation

I have started translating the presentation, though most of the difficulties stems form translating particular specific sentences connected to pharmacology, such as:

Oprócz tego dowiedzą się: Co to są leki? Kto może dzieciom podawać leki? Gdzie i jak przechowuje się leki? Czym należy popijać leki? Co to są interakcje i działania niepożądane?

into 

Furthermore, they would be informed/taught/explained: What are medicines? Who can administer medicines to children? Where and how are medicines to be stored/kept? What are (?)interactions(?) and side effects?

The slashes are a result of certain uncertainty as to what is meant by a particular passage

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Activity

As per usual, there is not much I can write here, despite mental fatigue taking a greater, and greater toll on me 

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Creativity

I have indulged in an attempt to create a piece of Haiku, a piece of traditional Japanese poetry in structure 5-7-5

IB torments me 

I wish someone would save me 

From the fate of IA

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Learning outcomes

Given how it is an IB requirement, I would like to to compile the learning outcomes of this 20-something months.

LO1 - Given the veriuos activities I have indulged in during this time, I have come to the conclusion that my skills are rather specific, and while extremely developed in some areas, compared to general populous, like history, politology, or philosophy, I am practically tactlessness in terms of more natural of sciences. Nonetheless, I consider the outcome to be positive for my growth, particularly in regards to learning a new language.

LO2 - Regarding the challenges, aside form various difficulties with CAS project, specified in posts on the trip to Budapest, learning the new language, that has been mentioned above was probably the most challenging, given how different Japanese is from Polish and English.

LO3 - The planning and undertaking is explained in details in all of the post form the past 3 years I believe (including pre-IB)

LO4 - Similarly than the case of LO3

LO5 - .I believe that I have learned about and appreciated the collaborative work during this 3 years, particularly in regards to  all my MUN adventures in IB1. While MUN themselves are rather competitive than cooperative in spirit, I have come to have great appreciation and gratitude for all the preparations we have done together, ones I am certain I would not be able to do by myself, and will likely forever preserve them in my memory. It particularly enlightened to my how crucial cooperation is in increasingly specialized world.

LO6 - Similarly to the LO5, I believe that my engagement in the MUN projects have increased my involvement in the issues of global significance, particularly political and economic ones. And while that might have taken different course form the one my school desired, given how my views, as a libertarian conservative, differ greatly form the ones presented by the majority i my school, I still believe it to be a gain, particularly new views I have gained on some of the issues I believed I was certain about, just like in the case of rereading of some of the philosophical works of Nietzsche, which caused me to admire him all the more.

LO7 - I believe I have demonstrated the importance of ethics to me during there three years. And while, again, my morality might differ greatly from the one of general public, particularly form the ones of my IB colleagues, I believe it to be a gain

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Service

Given how my mother’s company will soon have a visiting form a higher-up form Germany, I have been asked to translate a presentation of a certain project, I will do so when it is finished. 

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Activity

Given how I would like to rest after skiing, there was no training done this week

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Creativity

Heaving returned from vacation, I have started learning Japanese properly once again, though the placards were actually quite helpful, for example I remembered the phrase “Mondaji nai”, commomly use, meaning “no problem”, or “Shikata ga nai”/”Shouga nai”, meaning, “Well, it can’t be helped”, though the latter has some significant cultural implications,  which can hardly be explained to someone completely unfamiliar with Japanese culture. Maybe I will try doing so in other post.  

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Activity

Given my passion for skiing, this week was probably the most intensive training I have had since last year. Also, given how skiing on the predetermined tracks is rather boring I have mainly indulged in doing wild skiing. There is the map of the place in Austria we have been skiing it, and some of the pictures of my family.