Third year as a PhD student – done!
February 7, 2026The first year of the doctoral degree program was memorable because it was exciting just to get started. The highlight of the second year was the PLL5 conference in Madrid, where I felt I had found my community. Now it is time to look back at my third year, 2025, as a doctoral researcher. At the start of 2025, I had just finished my 6-month grant and had to go back to teaching full-time and trying to fit my PhD into the little cracks of time I had in between. I had gotten a book chapter proposal accepted in late…
How to write a conference abstract
Conferences are an important, and a fun, part of being a phd student. You get to showcase your research and make important connections. As an introvert, I enjoy conferences as you can often skip the small talk and get to…
PHD Year Two – Done!
The first year of my PhD was full of refining my research plan, rewriting most of it, and conducting interviews for my empirical article known as Article 2. I also started a systematic review known as Article 1. During the…
Getting started with academic writing
Scientific writing can be a scary thing for a new PhD student, at least that was the case for me. I wrote my research plan for a couple of years and once I was accepted into the program, I mostly…
Reflections on choosing which language to study and the effect on motivation
I was listening to a webinar on English learning in Japan, and it was mentioned that many Japanese students might lack the motivation to study English or see themselves as English users in the future. It got me thinking about…
