These past few days have been busy with the beginning of your correspondent's Master's in International Publishing coursework. It's refreshing to be on the other side of the academic food chain again, although I'm sad to report that all of that time selling textbooks doesn't make me any more likely to buy new books from the campus bookstore. Sorry!
It's been wonderful to meet my classmates and appreciate the diversity of my particular cohort. Within only 75 students, we have representatives from 24 countries, including Chile, Lithuania, India, Iran, and more. It's been amazing. Even our getting-to-know-each-other, casual conversations sometimes break into learning something new about something we didn't know was unknown. The specific kind of cold in Poland, "white nights" in Sweden, primary schools in the Netherlands . . . All these little undercurrents inform and shape a culture, but don't become apparent unless you stumble over them in conversation. It's why you can't learn about Russia just by reading Dostoevsky. A trip to his dingy basement apartment in St. Petersburg reveals more about the parts of his life he's not saying out loud.
Firmly at the center of the "unknown unknowns" category is the pleasure of being surrounded by such a great group. I have something to learn from everyone. Best of all, everyone wants to talk about publishing! Sentence structure has never been so fun . . .
Or, maybe it has.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment