Macquarie University Intern Jackson Curran - Spring 2022

Jackson Curran

Jackson and ???

    I’m a third year Japanese Studies student at Macquarie University in Ryde,North Sydney. The focus of my degree is Japanese language studies, but I have studied (briefly) Japanese literature as well, and am undertaking a minor in Linguistics alongside my Japanese Studies major. 

    I decided to study both Japanese and Linguistics as I’m fascinated by the unparalleled meaning-making potential of language and the effect that languages have on the way we organise ourselves socially and culturally.

    Since Japanese is so unique to English, I felt that it would be a great choice for challenging and enriching my understanding of language and meaning, as well as a challenge to learn in its own right. And of course, I’m motivated to be able to participate in the Japanese-speaking world as well!

 

Macquarie University Library

Winnie the Wombat, our school mascot.

    I currently work as a teaching assistant at a local primary school and aim to complete a Master's Degree in Primary Teaching next year so as to work as a classroom teacher. Alongside learning about languages, teaching is my other great passion, fostered by my mother (who also works as a Primary School teacher) and my time volunteering for a reading program at my current place of work. 

    I have visited Japan twice (although I never made it quite so far north as Hokkaido!) and plan to return in another couple of years. I first decided to visit Japan with my sister and brother-in-law, as they’d been once before, and made me jealous with all the stories of delicious food, beautiful parks, bustling cities, and public transport that runs on time. After that first time, I still had a huge list of places I wanted to see and things I wanted to do. Even after my second trip, there is still plenty of Japan I want to see. At the top of the bucket list is snow. Lots and lots of snow.

My sister and I at Yoyogi Park.

Macquarie University in relation to Sydney (to the right)
and the City of Blue Mountains (to the left).

A view of The Three Sisters
 on one of my walks.

    

    I currently live in the City of Blue Mountains in the Blue Mountains National Park to the west of Sydney and enjoy going for bushwalks around my house - especially in winter. There are some beautiful vistas and amazing plantlife to find in the National Park, and I love the relaxed and grounded feeling I get from connecting myself to the natural world around me.