An Anthropologist's Fieldnotes (PhD Vlog #17) 

Hi! Glad you enjoyed the video. I talked a little bit about my to day-to-day collection of data in episode 13.5 of the vlog after not very long in my fieldsite, although it's a little longwinded I think. In terms of handwritten notes, I basically had three different kinds. Most of my research was based at a school, but I did also spend time in homes, in the village, in town, etc. My main notebook (the larger black ones in this video) was with me all day at the school everyday. Also at school I had an ordinary exercise book with me. The exercise book was where I copied down the schoolwork that the kids were doing, or often I would just give that book to the kids to draw or write in about whatever. When I went other places I just carried a pocket notebook with me so I didn't have to take as much stuff. During the day I wrote notes about lesson content and where I went/what I did. Most conversations I had with people every day beyond the simplest of smalltalk, I wrote notes about. Generally I would just paraphrase in English what we talked about, what information I learned, etc. If there were any phrases I thought were significant enough to need to quote verbatim later on, then I would write out quotes (usually in Thai). Also in my notes though is information about the environment and context. I may remember a conversation generally for a long time, but it's really easy to forget things like: order of events, people present besides the main speaker, location and orientation of everybody in the space, any novel features about the space, how other people are reacting to what's going on, etc. Also plenty of notes about nonverbal interactions I was a part of or observed, be it playing games or kids fighting or whatever. I have lots of notes about personalities of different people and who was friends with who. As I wrote my notes by hand throughout the day, I also typed some things into my phone (I just used the Notes app on my iPhone). In my phone I kept a list throughout the day of topics or key pieces of information that were highlights I would elaborate on in my journal. If I was ever anywhere without any notebook, then I would just take my regular notes this way using my phone and retype them into my journal later. Most evenings before bed I would type up the key insights/information from that day's notes into my journal using my computer. In my journal I sometimes elaborated more information from memory that I didn't have time to jot down during the day when something happened and I just jotted a quick reminder for myself. In addition to summarising what I collected that day, I also wrote at length about my personal experience and feelings about everything going on, and I reflected on the content of my notes as they related to my research project. I did preliminary analysis, brainstormed research questions and wrote out fieldwork stories in fuller form, all in my journal. I kept it all in one document (backed up both online and on an external drive) so that I could easily search it for stuff down the track. I used my phone a lot during fieldwork, but I didn't really use any special apps. I used the Rode Recorder app when I wanted to make audio recordings and found it simple enough to use. Most of my recordings were photo and video though, so I just used the standard Camera app. I used the StudyBlue app to make flashcards to help with learning new vocabulary, and the Google Translate app was invaluable (I didn't always have internet, but you can download language packs so you can still use the app offline). Facebook was actually really important for my research because part of the students' lives were on there. I took a lot of screenshots from social media and archived them along with other photos and videos from each day. A lot of my photos and video were taken by the kids themselves (around 8 years old). I had a pretty sturdy case for my phone, so I just gave it to them to document stuff. Not sure about Android, but I found it really handy that on iPhones you can set it so that anybody can activate the camera and take photos/video without needing to unlock the phone.

I'm sorry this reply is a month late but, I literally just saw that you replied. How are things going now? You didn't get lost in Thailand did you?

All going well. I am planning on making more vlogs at some point, I just haven't had much time to do so lately. I finished up my fieldwork in Thailand and have now returned to Australia to start writing up my thesis. I've been spending time at home with my parents and siblings before moving back to where my university is located. My partner came over with me from Thailand so a lot of my spare time lately has been spent showing her around and introducing her to people. Sometime over the next few weeks I'm going to move back to Canberra and get back into a normal schedule. So then more of my time will be freed up for making videos. I need to sum up the fieldwork experience overall, cover the exit from the field, talk about starting to plan and write the thesis. Plenty of video content for me to get around to eventually. Shame I didn't vlog about it all as it happened, but I just ran out of time haha

@@ProfTeak Wow. That's a lot to do. Do you have a due date for your thesis? I didn't know you were already back.

Oh, and in addition to those topics, I was also planning on making vlogs about how various bits of my equipment and supplies worked out in practice during fieldwork. That's all on top of the actual thesis writing I have to do! My thesis needs to be submitted in February 2020 at the latest, so basically I want to be finishing it around the end of next year (about 80,000-100,000 words long). Altogether I spent about 18 months in Thailand.

4:49 R/P/S difference of touch

Good catch mentioning significance of touch in things like kids’ games! I ended up with so much data on this but very little of it made its way into my PhD thesis.

@@ProfTeak loved the video. Sharing in my ethnomusicology course

Hey! Sorry it took me ages to reply to you. I had a look over at your channel and see you've made a start. Keep it up! Any particular questions you had for me? I've kind of dropped off making these since finishing fieldwork due to other commitments in my spare time.